A wall of pure white greeted us as we forced our way through the tunnel connecting the dungeon’s first room with the one Kiomi simply had called ‘Geyser Room’ herself. The room in question was anything but easy to traverse, especially now that the foxes living inside of it were all on their feet and spreading hot mist as they readied themselves to intercept the raid that would sooner or later make its way here - if they managed to do so in the first place.

I didn’t know much about Kiomi’s past, other than her having grown up in Abervale at her father’s side, that was, but that single piece of information was already enough to tell me just why she was so utterly unprepared to see the results of her own work.

Sure, Kiomi’s dungeon awaited delvers with several rather unexpected dangers and features that would usually only be seen in much older ones, but this much was not enough of an excuse for all four men to end up dying in a single encounter. Were they really this weak?

I shook my head, seeing no way to answer this single question on my own as I, honestly, had been much weaker than those men, who at least had a viable chance to become stronger simply by defeating monsters.

With me having had no magic capabilities on my own before Cilia gifted me with her blessing, my sole chance to make ends meet and assist my late mother in her recovery was to rely on holy magic instead, which required nothing but an unshakable faith and an influential god for it to work.

Sadly, there were stones or rather giant boulders lying in the path of even this rather lonely career choice. Not only was there a pitiful pay associated with the work at the temple, as money only led to earthly desires according to the scriptures but there were also politics and nepotism to be found even within the temple grounds. And when an unknown girl like me then walked up to the priests, practically begging for a better future or alms, the same girl simply was assigned a deity to serve and tasked with unpopular jobs to do rather than having any choice in either of the matters.

Still, I prevailed through all of that, gaining access to various spells of faith magic as well as gifting my mother a few more years in this world.

When she finally left me, I was thrown into a deep, black void, one that had taken me years to grow out of again. It didn’t help that the head priest had started to assign me to heal and support groups of would-be adventurers that were funded by friends who tried to make a name for themselves starting in their birth town of Abervale.

It was these groups that hammered in the fact that nothing was lying ahead for me in the future, nothing that I didn’t already have by that point. As a priestess assigned to a lost-to-time goddess, I would never have gained a higher standing, friends, fame, and all the things I had dreamed of as a naive kid.

Compared to me, the blue-eyes daughters and sons of farmers, peddlers, and bakers at least had a fighting chance of reaching their goals in life, especially since they could relatively easily receive God’s Breath simply by defeating common monsters, thus slowly growing stronger and ever stronger as they fought to make their names known.

My situation was especially hopeless since undead, the sole type of monster a priestess could hope to injure and defeat using faith magic alone, were a rather rare sight and certainly not seen in the forests surrounding Abervale.

It didn’t help either that I wasn’t allowed to intervene in the fighting itself using conventional weapons such as a sword, a spear, or even a mere stick, as doing so would only risk stealing away the growth potential of those who had hired my services from the temple. As such, priestesses and priests serving in Abervale had poor combat experience at best, as their sole task was taking care of wounds after the fight had been decided.

As for paladins training and serving in our small town of birth? There was a certain difference between becoming skilled and becoming strong, as the former of the two had a limit in growth one would sooner or later reach, while there were myths claiming that it was God’s Breath, the feeling of warmth one was rewarded with when defeating a monster, and especially strong ones, that had allowed minor gods to pop into existence out of mortal origins.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Something like that could happen, I strongly believed so, but it would never happen in Abervale, which saw a handful of goblins popping up every other week at best. As such, many left for greener pastures once they had reached a certain level of strength and skill, while others chose to stay at the Abervale Temple’s Barracks solely being bound by their feelings of duty and friendship and choosing to forever stunt their growth.

Then there were blue mages, who could perform the same job I had done all of these years, only much better in many aspects. They were not only born with their magic potential already decided instead of being required to work tediously for every single spell like I had done, but were also free of the strict rules that could be found everywhere in the temple, while also being able to actually injure most monsters at least to some extent, allowing them to gain valuable strength and further increase their capabilities. There were even those who willingly took the battle to their opponents using both expensive swords and thick armor to boost their growth rate even further. How could my past self ever hope to compare to that?!

For me to suddenly lose access to all of my faith-based magic in exchange for gaining the same, basically unlimited potential of growth, how could I ever find the words to thank Cilia for that? With how things were now, I could still easily heal and help my friends at the barracks, while also having gained a status that would allow me to go in and out of the temple - any temple - whenever I wished to do so!

Of course, my new path in life came with its very own set of rules and duties, all of which I would readily accept over and over again. Serving Cilia meant nothing but helping a disdained girl back on her feet, leading her to both a brighter future and a loving family while also getting the same benefits myself, with a bunch of extra rewards attached to the job, that was.

As for the raid group, I didn’t know what exactly to think of them anymore. Most of the paladins I have known for years, and all of them were good guys in one way or another, but they were in no way more than a fancy armored town guard with some basic magic capabilities at best. Only their commander, Aspen, had some semblance of real strength and skill, having both been trained since childhood as a renowned fighter’s son as well as having received the best possible education as the very same father of his was of noble blood.

Sadly, the man in question rarely used his strength, instead choosing to simply toss numbers at his foes, much like the head priest who tossed money at problems in a very similar manner. Somehow, neither of the two had ever faced an opponent capable of doing the same to a far better degree.

I couldn’t help but let out a big sigh of relief as we reached the side door leading into Kiomi’s hidden network of tunnels. When Alfred then led us in and closed the door behind us with a loud slam, all tension left my body at once, causing me to drop to my knees together with Kiomi who was still holding onto my hand, never having let go of it ever since I had grabbed it to drag her out of the mess that had happed over in the volcano room.

We were finally safe, more than three rooms now separated us from the group, and the strongest monsters had yet to make their appearances. It was only a matter of time before they would finally give up, leaving the matter for a better-prepared group to deal with. I just hoped it wouldn’t be one sent by the kings, as I was by no means prepared to protect Kiomi from those guys yet.

It took me several minutes to calm myself down again, and then I followed Alfred towards the core chamber, once again leading Kiomi by her hand. Only when we reached the soft nest of white furs, the vividly glowing dungeon core, and their already waiting protector, did Kiomi finally speak up with a weak, almost whispering voice.

“Will they hate me,” she asked.

I couldn’t help but hug her, thinking of anything to answer, but there simply was nothing I could reply. Even if Aspen knew the risks, and it was questionable he had made the right calculations after all that had gone down, he had still lost several of his men, earning Kiomi the ire of most if not all of the raid members.

“I can talk to the families,” Alfred offered after a moment of silence. “They are- were all from Abervale. It will probably take a while for them to forgive you, but they will hopefully understand that it was your monsters killing them, not you.”

Kiomi thought about his words for a moment, answering them with silence, before slowly shaking her head. “They aren’t dead.”

Both Alfred and I stared at Kiomi in disbelief, silently urging her to elaborate, but instead of explaining herself, the girl in question commanded the obsidian fox to follow her with as little as a wave of her hand, before making her way to a tunnel I didn’t know existed.

“I have to find them…”

After declaring as much, she disappeared into the tunnel, the three black and white tails of her protector being the last thing to be swallowed by the darkness. It took me a second or two to come to my senses, then I was already running after her, with Alfred right on my heels.

“Wait for me!”