Done lost all my ducklings. Some guardian you are.

Scott was tired, both mentally and physically. When he first started adaptation, he was sure that he would not end up missing retirement. How wrong he had been. Scott almost felt his age, sans the crippling arthritis he once endured. That, perhaps, was the best thing that had come out of this whole ordeal. All the health problems he had developed, old injuries that had plagued him, the diseases, they were all gone from the moment the war veteran had entered the blue tutorial room. His body was as strong as it had been in his prime, and even Scott’s mind had felt refreshed, free of the fog that had been slowly creeping in as death inched closer.

After suddenly appearing there and feeling better than he had in decades, Scott had been eager to live the life of adventure. The team he had been provided was young, but they seemed smart enough. Scott had tried to take a leadership role, even if he had never been particularly good at leading others, simply because he was sure he would have the most experience with combat and it seemed like the sort of role a guardian was supposed to have. Quickly, though, his enthusiasm faded.

Firstly, he wanted to throttle whomever had designed that mine as the first floor for a fresh adventuring party. Scott hated spiders, and was a firm believer that they were not intended to be for low levels. Then, he discovered that their Mage was somehow more special than the rest of them, but only when she was actively dying. The rest of the time the girl faded into the background. She took ‘works well under pressure’ to an unhealthy degree. Scott was pretty sure every fight with her in his party was taking years off his lifespan.

But it was that last battle, with the Brood Queen, that had broken him in more ways than one.

Edge of Death (Legendary)(Passive) - You have seen your end, but through sheer luck combined with external intervention you pulled back from the brink.

You have gained the knowledge to survive overwhelming damage, but not without cost.

Triggering Edge of Death while still suffering the cost of a previous activation will cause your soul to shatter, resulting in true death.

[Human] - Evolutionary path altered.

[Guardian] - Evolutionary path altered.

[Jeweler] - Evolutionary path altered.

Right now, all of Scott’s stats were lowered to ten percent of their total. It was one hell of a debuff, and he had no idea how long it was going to last. More importantly, the battle had served to show him that he really was not needed. The party had done fine without him.

After coming to the second floor, and having a conversation Scott was sure was supposed to be uplifting with a mentor guardian, he found that even the System agreed the party didn’t need him. They had been separated.

Now he was just wandering this hedge maze looking for a door out, hopefully before a low-level creature found him easy prey. He wasn’t stupid enough to leave, not until his debuff was gone or he was forced to, but he could camp near an exit. Despite it all, the Guardian couldn’t help but worry about what kinds of trouble the ducklings would be facing without him.

***

The answer to Hex’s question came about half an hour later, when all of the sudden Cyn was once again subject to gravity. Rather than continue to traverse the labyrinth they had decided to make a bit of a camp just outside of the Trial of Agility, since both of them were now low on resources and wanted to rest. One moment she was floating, idly petting Spam while Hex cooked, and the next she was falling flat on her ass with a yelp of surprise. Luckily she was just far enough away from the Rogue to not land on top of him.

Hex looked back with one raised eyebrow before helping remove his rope from her and putting it away. Now that she was no longer at risk of floating away, Cyn eagerly took back out the treasure chest she had received as a reward from the Trial. The Rogue had already opened his, receiving a throwing dagger that he could retrieve with mana after it was thrown and a handful of miscellaneous supplies similar to the smaller puzzle boxes.

She found much the same in her chest. A handful of potions, some with the same ‘additional effects’ warning in the description that the previous mana potion had. Plenty of scrap that would probably never come in use. Dimensional credits. Finally, at the very bottom, she pulled out the real reward.

At first, she thought it was some kind of leather apron, except the ‘apron’ part was on both sides of the clothing. She didn’t want to call it a shirt, dress, or tunic, since while it would go over her head to rest on her shoulders and reach her knees, it did not have full sides. Just a dark brown back and front with what looked to be some side straps near her midsection to adjust the fit, and a large pocket directly over the chest. Spam started frantically warbling and wiggling while she was looking it over, sounding excited to Cyn. Being able to sort of ascertain its emotions was strange, but she assumed it had to do with the Familiar Bond.

Or she was just projecting onto the cute creature.

Tabard of Small Familiars (Rare) - When activated by a familiar, they will be able to stick to the fabric of this garment no matter the movements or position of the wearer.

When activated by the wearer, your familiar will be returned to the pouch. Distance limit is based on the strength of your familiar bond.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Attempting to use this item with large familiars may result in injury to the wearer or familiar.

Enchantments: [Self-Repair]

'Will you stop complaining about being dropped now?' - Bann Soom, creator of the first Tabard of Small Familiars

Self-Repair Enchantment (Rare) - Item will repair itself over time if damaged.

Ok, that did explain why Spam was so excited. After nearly falling into the abyss when Cyn spun upside down, she couldn’t blame the pink familiar. And honestly it wasn’t bad for her either. The enchantment in particular she was happy for, since that meant Cyn could have her cloak back and wouldn’t have the same problem of having to find solutions to destroyed clothing. Being made of leather also probably meant it would be a little more durable than cloth, at least based on her leather satchel and straps surviving the spider's acid attack where her cloth tunic had not.

She quickly removed the cloak wrapped around her chest and replaced it with the tabard, followed by putting on the cloak properly. Much more comfortable, even though the pale blue cloak was looking pretty battered by this point. With Spam looking up at her from the ground expectantly, Cyn attempted to activate the tabard’s ability. Like with most other items, it just required a little bit of mana to activate.

Instantaneously, Spam disappeared from the ground and the nearly ten pounds of frog was in the pocket attached to her chest. Cyn should have been more prepared to deal with the sudden shift in weight, since she had been carrying the rather dense creature around for a while, but instead she nearly lost her balance and came close to doing a faceplant. Clearly, it would take some getting used to.

After resting a while longer, and eating the meal Hex had made, they moved on. Cyn was admittedly feeling a bit weary, since the last time she had slept was before leaving Cogtopia, but decided that she could live with the mental fatigue for now. As they traveled further, Hex stopped detecting the small puzzle boxes and instead they began to come across small rooms in the maze, similar to the exit door room. Inside there were larger chests with new, but still simple, puzzles in order to open them. The other difference was that solving the puzzles wrong would result in damage. It would probably be an annoying amount for anyone not traveling with Cyn.

None of the puzzles posed a problem, especially since their mental stats were clearly having an effect. Prior to the system, Cyn would have had an awful time attempting to ‘solve’ a memory puzzle. While it was still a bit of a challenge, since it went up to a sequence of ten steps, it was actually possible for her now. Before, any pattern that exceeded four or five steps would have been nearly impossible for her without writing down the pattern. The improved memory was unexpected, but welcome.

It was while solving one of these puzzles that Hex and Cyn heard a distant chime ring out. It sounded similar to the sound that echoed through the labyrinth when they had finished the Trial of Agility, if a little louder. It startled Cyn out of the puzzle box she was solving, leading to an electric shock she didn’t even bother to heal.

“It looks like the others have finished a trial.” Hex spoke while she was still looking up at the sky, pondering the sound. Looking at him, the Rogue seemed to be in his menu.

“You think so?” It made sense, but two chimes was hardly enough of a sample size to know for sure.

“Know so, actually. We have a new objective.”

Cyn quickly opened her menu to see what he was talking about. While she had not gotten a notification of a new objective, a new one definitely had appeared.

Transitional dungeon floor 2: The Hungering Labyrinth -

Strangely thematic.

Bonus Objective: Trials completed 2/6

Neat. Except for not getting a notification. That was actually pretty fucking stupid. Notifications were basically the only reason she would be opening her menu, and the idea that she could miss out on objectives from sheer ignorance was annoying. At least for now she had Hex around, who opened his menu every time they stopped for even a moment to do who knows what. She couldn’t imagine what he could be doing, their menus were really limited. Theory crafting, maybe?

“Cool. At least we know someone out there is alive and hasn’t left yet. Wonder if there is like a big trial when they are all done, or if just finishing the objective is the reward.” Before closing her menu to return to the memory puzzle, Cyn also noticed her ‘reunite the party’ bonus objective had been updated to show two of five, clearly keeping track of her and Hex being together. Would it show if anyone else had found each other, separate from them?

“We’ll have to find another trial before I can even make a concrete theory on that. I’m just surprised anyone else bothered to do a trial, and hasn’t just left.”

Cyn finished her puzzle before replying carefully, having gotten the feeling over multiple conversations that Hex wasn’t fond of their party in general. “Maybe they didn’t have a choice and got locked into an arena. Or maybe whatever they found was more geared towards their class. Like I said earlier, I am pretty sure Dana would have made a mockery out of the Trial of Agility. Plus, it wouldn’t surprise me if no one else has found a door out yet. I have a feeling not everyone has a Spam to follow.” The familiar chirped in agreement, making Cyn grin and Pet it.

The look Hex leveled them with, even with his mask on, made it pretty clear he wasn’t convinced ‘following Spam’ was actually helping them. He just didn’t have any better ideas. They had tried having him jump up, with her on his shoulders, to see over the hedges but it wasn’t helpful. She was too short to get a good look, and the maze looked too uniform at a glance. “Maybe. Speaking of…Spam…is it toxic? Or at the very least, can you Purify its toxin? I tried using Inspect on it, but it only gives me question marks, and that I can lick it for more information. I would like more information.”

While Hex spoke the fat frog went from quietly warbling and looking around from the tabard pouch, its normal behavior, to silently staring very intently at the Rogue with all three eyes. Cyn observed this before replying, “Well, I don’t actually know. My Inspect doesn’t give much more than that, just that Spam is my familiar. If Spam’s alright with it I guess?” She had no doubt it could fundamentally understand them, and Spam had been pretty good about warning her about danger so far. So it should object to being licked if it was dangerous for the Rogue to do.

Hex was now staring back at the frog, brow furrowed. “I think it just used Inspect on me.” Could the familiar do that? Maybe, although she would be a little surprised if creatures had the same kind of skills they did. What would it even be looking for with Inspect?

Spam chirped a clear affirmative, at least to Cyn’s understanding, before crawling up out of the pouch and jumping onto the ground in front of the Rogue. Hex slowly picked it up, bringing Spam up to his face. “Heavier than it looks.”

She started to stifle a chuckle, before losing the fight and breaking out in full on laughter as the familiar responded to Hex by flicking out its long, black tongue and sticking it to the Rogue’s forehead. A brilliant show of dominance. Before she could get her laughter back under control, Hex pulled down his mask, his face looking only a little apprehensive now that it was more clear how intelligent the frog was, and licked Spam back.

Only to collapse to the ground a second later.