A sigh could be heard coming from Kiomi as she stared at the door, only to then touch the wall right next to it. Once again she closed her eyes, only for the rock to give in, creating a bypass to the tunnel that was hidden behind the door.

“Why don’t you use the door,” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I have no key,” she answered with a shrug. “I only made these tunnels so I could reach the rooms easier.”

I couldn’t believe her words. How could she have access to such rare materials and still be unable to build a single proper door? When I then made my way into the tunnel to inspect it a little closer, I even found a rod of the same metal that could be used to bolt the door.

With a sigh, I turned to face the dungeon’s avatar. “We will have to fix this. All of this!”

Kiomi scratched her cheek in embarrassment, before answering with a silent nod. She had so much to learn.

With that taken care of, I turned my attention toward the pitch-black tunnel with its way-too-smooth walls. Marisa was quick to summon a small flame to light up the path, which I was rather thankful for. Sure, I had access to a large arsenal of fire magic now, but it would take me a while to get used to that fact, as I had originally used a sword and sharp winds to cut down my foes. Still, as a craftsman, having access to fire-attributed mana was a precious boon, so I couldn’t possibly complain about the change.

Before long, we were already making our way deeper into the mountain, having both closed and bolted the heavy door behind us. Our minute-long journey took us to a crossway where Kiomi wordlessly led us into a tunnel branching off from the main one. Soon, we were greeted by another door of mithril, as we approached the next room.

Once we had set foot into the room and passed by another two fox statues, I noticed a steep slope that was easily several hundred meters long, with pools of lava and large rocks to be seen spread out everywhere. Kiomi explained that the regular entrance of the room was on the upper end of the slope, forcing delvers to traverse the treacherous terrain while fighting off more of the lava monsters I had met before. The idea behind this room was that the foxes would summon big balls of molten rock they would toss down the slope, trying to hit the invaders from behind while other foxes tried to engage them in melee so they couldn’t simply run.

This room was pretty much perfect. The rocks were once again helping delvers, but it was likely Kiomi had to place them down to adhere to the rules for dungeons declared by the gods, so I couldn’t blame her for that.

We quickly made our way through the room without disturbing the nearby foxes that were floating about in the lava ponds, seemingly deep asleep and dreaming. I could only hope they would do what they had been tasked to once delvers reached their home.

The next two rooms she led us to were entirely empty. One of them was about a hundred and fifty meters in diameter and dome-shaped. Kiomi explained to us this room would feature crystals and volcanic glass in the future and would end up being the black fox’s home, maybe with a few other foxes added in to help it in its task. The second, neighboring one had about the same length as the slope room but was much wider and featured an entirely flat terrain.

“What room is this for,” I couldn’t help but ask.

“I am not entirely sure yet,” Kiomi answered with a shrug. “I need to move some of the lava foxes from the volcano room over to here, so it will probably be a river or lake of lava with bridges leading over it.”

“Why do you need to move them? The place looked fine for them.”

Kiomi sighed, before beginning to explain what had happened in her dungeon just today. She told me that she had fended off a whole exploration raid using just her first room, killing most of the men and women who had come to map out her rooms. At first, I was rather surprised about her rather unexpected victory, but the more she told me about the incident, the more I felt like facepalming over the utter stupidity of the whole situation. I, myself, had participated in several such raids, and while it wasn’t uncommon for someone to die, it certainly was unheard of to have dozens of delvers be routed just after a few fights.

“The leader of the raid then asked my obsidian fox for a duel and lost,” she ended her story.

“I hope he learned his lesson,” Marisa couldn’t help but add.

I looked at them questioningly. “He survived?”

“He had a blessing on him that revived him,” Kiomi explained like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Most of them had it, in fact.”

It took me a moment to swallow this tidbit of information. While I knew that chosen dungeons were a convenient way for deities to hand out temporary blessings, these were always rare and hidden behind long lists of tasks or only available after defeating powerful bosses, things Kiomi couldn’t possibly have access to yet. With only three rooms finished and her being limited to only one floor, there was no way Cilia would give out even mediocre blessings by this time! And a blessing that revives you? I had never heard of something like that even in stories!

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“Where did you get such a blessing,” I questioned her.

“Cilia gave it to me as a reward,” Kiomi answered almost immediately, leaving her with no time to make up a lie. “I made it so you get it when you leave an offering at the prayer room and dedicate an honest prayer to her.”

“So you just have to pray and get a second chance. Just like that?”

Only now did Kiomi notice my disbelief. She became a little restless while trying to come up with an answer, and once she had found one, she tried to play it down with an almost whispering voice.

“It makes them weaker and changes them,” she said.

“It changes them?”

“They become foxkin,” Marisa decided to add. “Every single one of them.”

“They become foxkin,” I asked, one word at a time.

“All of them were humans,” Marisa explained. “They came from a nearby town called Abervale.”

Kiomi agreed to her explanation with a nod, visibly happy she had Marisa’s backup. “You can ask them yourself,” she defended herself. “They are setting up a camp right in front of the dungeon’s entrance!”

I could only sigh hearing this explanation. If what she said really was true, that meant there were dozens of humans waiting outside of the dungeon, with many of them turned into foxkin just hours ago. It was an understatement to say I didn’t like the idea of this being possible, as it meant there could very well be traitors hiding in our midst, looking exactly like any other foxkin.

On the other hand, them being changed by a blessing meant that our heavenly mother had personally decided upon doing this, meaning she had some kind of reason as to why to forgive the humans for what they had done. And if she had done so, I could only swallow my grief and try to do the same, adhering to her will.

Still, how could I forget about them just watching as the Five Beast Tribes attacked us, burning down our settlements one by one and killing every single soul they could get their hands on? And all of that just because we were loved by our heavenly mother and had close ties to the elven tribes? They could have easily intervened!

Tears ran down my face as I remembered the atrocities I had seen happening in my very own town of birth, all the things that had happened to my friends and loved ones. And now I had to forgive it all?! Just like that?!

I couldn’t help but clench my fists as I tried to swallow down my feelings. Kiomi noticed them anyway. She stared at me in disbelief, before asking me what was wrong.

“Why did you forgive them,” I heard myself ask.

“Who?”

“The traitors! You even turned them into our kin! Why would our heavenly mother allow for this to happen?!”

My sudden outburst caught the two by surprise. They were staring at me, visibly shocked, and it was only after a few long moments that one of them, Marisa, hesitatingly answered.

“The war happened thousands of years ago,” she explained, her every single word sending shivers down my spine. “I can’t possibly know what Cilia wishes for other than what she has told me, but I believe she's simply trying to give her kin a second chance.”

“A- a second chance,” I heard myself stammer. “We- we lost?! But the elders- what about the queen?!”

“I am sorry,” were the only words that left her lips, every single one of them cutting deep into my flesh.

It took me a second to realize just what all of this meant. Without the elders and especially the queen as the sole six-tailed foxkin in existence at our side, there was no chance for us to even hope of fighting back the overwhelming numbers the Five Beast Tribes could toss at us. And with the holy city having fallen, who knew what happened to my sisters and brothers living in the much smaller towns and settlements that didn’t have the luxury of having strong defensive walls, towers, and powerful mages to man them all?

While Kiomi seemed to be almost as shocked as I was about what she had just heard, meaning she had no idea about her own tribe’s history, Marisa was visibly fighting over what to tell me and what not. She stayed silent for a few painfully long moments, before finally speaking out again. I wasn’t even prepared for her next words.

“The foxkin perished in the War of the Great Forest,” she said in a solemn voice.

“But- that- what about you?! You are still here!”

“We used to be human until Cilia decided to give us a second chance in life. In fact, it hasn’t even been a month since then.”

I turned my gaze towards Kiomi, who couldn’t help but shy away, before looking for the help of the black monster that had accompanied us. It was so obvious in hindsight that she didn’t know a thing about my kin, as she didn’t even know how to greet others properly.

“Why would our heavenly mother do this?!”

“You will have to ask that herself,” Marisa answered with a sigh. “Kiomi has built a prayer site you can use. She will surely be willing to meet you.”

“Meet me …”

I slowly nodded. She was right. Asking our heavenly mother directly was the best course of action. Only she would be able to explain to me just why she had chosen humans as her new kin. It was another question whether or not she was going to answer my prayer, as I was neither of royal birth nor a priestess, but I could only try.

Having found this little flame of determination and hope, I desperately clung to it, while steeling myself for the things to come. There was so much trouble lying ahead of me, I could almost feel it weighing down on me even now, but I would prevail. If Cilia had really given me a second chance in life, I wasn’t about to toss it away!