"Was it okay to leave your luggage outside?", the little Devil asked. I stumbled and shook my head. "Yeah, yeah... there aren't that many candidates on the trails and animals avoid dungeons."

The girl shrugged and kept reading one of her books. I looked over her head, there was a picture of a mundane butterfly.

"Dungeons are dangerous, you should be paying attention," I said, just to say it. Mads waved her hand, not looking up. "This book is extremely boring and about things, I don't know shit about." After a few seconds, she followed up, "You are paying attention anyway."

I jumped forward and cut through a pretender stalking us from a small ledge on the left wall. A manaball smacked me on the ear. "You don't need to hit me when the fog isn't around," I said and tensed up waiting for the second manaball. It didn't come.

This would be a long day. I rolled my shoulders and focused. If I remembered right, this configuration would split in about one hundred meters. To get the better loot, we'd take a left, then after a.. the manaball came... hole trap, we would continue for fifty... I slashed out at another cat and got a warm manaball on my face...

I looked over at Mads, there was a fiery halo above her head and she was juggling a few small flames.

Right. The trap, then we would take a right. A hundred meters further, through one of the entrances, we will reach the trial room. If we did it fast enough, we should get weapons as rewards. How would I convince Mads to wait and strategize before entering?

"It smells funny again." Came her distracted voice. I focused ahead. The floor and walls were clear. I looked up, there was a bigger rakshimi, hanging upside down. I squatted and coiled the mana through myself, then pierced. A mana blade extended from my sabre cutting into the cats head.

"Kitty smacked a kitty, oh what fun...", the devil began to sing. Her entire singing talent went into her voice, I doubted she'd ever write a good song.

I run up to the t-section and peered over the corners. It seemed the way was clear. I heard something smack into the wall ahead of me. I looked over and Mads sat looking at the wall. She got up and looked over to me, so I pointed to the left. She nodded and put her nose back in the book.

Alright.. again. The trap, right and long corridor, then I convince Mads to cooperate and we get weapons. Of course, I could say I was tired, she'd wait and maybe listen with one ear to the instructions. I jumped over the illusory hole and slashed into the rakshimi on the other side.

I.

Jumped.

Over.

A.

Hole.

There was no blonde hair next to me. With dying hope, I looked back. Yep, nothing. Of course. I stretched and sat down to climb to the bottom.

The little Devil flew out of the hole and landed next to my head. "Oh, good. You are already coming down. I thought you got lost." She said and jumped back in.

Think positive. Your soul will grow so much around her. I nodded, hitting my head on the wall and climbed down.

At the bottom, Mads was raining manaballs on a bunch of cats. "You can stay back..." the girl paused to blast three cats back, "... it's good training."

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I jumped into the fray. I needed her rested for the gauntlet. My sabre swished, it's blade extending with mana.

"Above is a path to a trial room...", I cut off the head of the leftmost cat, "... I'd like to take it."

"If you insist." Mads smashed through the heads of a cat in the middle and the rightmost one. I jumped forward and with two, muscle enhanced pokes, dealt with the last two cats. The Devil flew over the corpses and stopped herself mid-way in the air.

She dropped and pointed at the wall, "It looks fucky." Without waiting for my reply, she poked the wall with a finger. Her hand went through and she followed it.

"Mads... up." I walked over and something hard collided with my left thigh. "I found a pair of boots. They're large." A pair of boots dropped on my head.

They were red and well reinforced. I sat down away from the corpses and put them on. They adjusted to my size and I took a few steps and jumps. They were good.

I looked up to check for Mads. She and the corpses were gone. Something smacked into a wall above, so I came back to the hole and made my way up. One of the cats dropped down, it's fur was smoking.

We got to the trial room without further issues. Mads sat down by the entrance and put away her book. "So?" She gestured at me.

"Like in the rest of the dungeon, illusions are the big issue." I began and the girl was already playing with fire. "With you, that should be covered. We can win either by killing every enemy in the room, or just the main rakshimi."

She formed a large, disfigured hand out of the fire and waved at me. "If we kill only the main one, we get the best rewards. Aside from that and what I'm aiming for, are weapons, you get a better one the faster you finish."

"What does the special cat look like?" Mads asked and got up. She changed her game, now collecting her mana in the form of a swirling spike.

"It has an extra eye on its forehead and longer teeth. It hides itself though. It's not really worth searching for it." I answered and waved my hand.

"Is it the only one that does it? Hiding in illusions?" The Devil asked while tilting her head.

"Yes...? Yes, the other ones need to build up their mists." The girl smiled brightly at my response. "Why's it not worth searching?"

"I need a better sabre and the only record for the main reward is that it's extremely specific. I'd rather go for the guaranteed reward." At this Mads tilted her head and made a confused face, but shrugged. "Let's go in then." She said and fell backwards into the door, rolling over her shoulder. She got stuck halfway through getting back up and fell over.

I followed after her and readied my sword. I crossed the doorway and counted about thirty cats coming in through holes in the walls of the arena looking room. I saw something red explode in the far off left corner and the cats run back into their holes.

"Mirage Is dead." I heard a sweet and exhausted voice. "I'm gonna nap, that was the rest of my Well."

----------------------------------------

I woke up inside a chest. I sat up and looked over its edge. Tom was playing with a decorated sabre with a wide tip. I still felt a little thin and knew I was going to have mana cramps. "Anything else you want from here?"

The kid looked over to me. "The sword will do. The specific reward also turns out to fit me. You are like a walking lucky charm!!" He ran up and pulled me out, giving me a tight hug. "Oh, there is also a second sabre." With those words, he switched his hold to carry me under my armpits and pointed me towards a simple sword, with a white handle and a nice, simple crossguard.

I looked back to the shiny, golden sword. It had rubies and stuff in its closed hand crossguard. I preferred the simple one. I waved my arms. Tom didn't get the hint, so I blasted out of his hands.

I put the sword in my bag and turned around. "Your dungeon, so you continue to lead." I waved at the excited kid.

He sheathed the gaudy sword through his belt, began to mumble and passed me. I reached out for the cats by the door we came through and followed after him.

It wasn't an exciting dungeon. It took us forty songs, fifteen bumps against a wall, and thirty pokes with a dagger in Tom's calf, to get out. I guess a dungeon with anti-children illusions, couldn't have too much in the way of challenging monsters.

Oh, and I had to drop the rations. Mana exhaustion was dumb.

I stretched and took in a large breath of fresh air. "So, what was the special reward?"

"Minor soul crystal. It holds the essence of the illusion cat!" Tom said excitedly and began stretching out his tent.

"You said the dungeon cats were called Pretender Rakshimi?" This was quite curious. The kid nodded his head crazily, he was almost jumping up.

"Yes, you also annoyed me enough, to drag me up to eighteen in soul!!" The kitten yelled out and sat crossed legged. He then pulled out a fist-sized, white and black, jagged crystal from some pocket under his gambeson... and collapsed.

I rolled him up in the furs and sat down to read.