Most of a day had passed since they had entered the dungeon. What was supposed to have been a several hour long rest turned into them talking, whittling away their time and then taking turns sleeping once they finally relaxed and knew no danger was coming to pass. Mana and fatigue was recovered before the party decided to finally go out.

Claire watched Sera stretch after a warm-up of striking the kobold-sized training dummies. She knew they were going to be stuck in here for a day, but to actually do it was mentally exhausting. This was just the beginning of what Sera and Jera were planning to do as a future career? Definitely not her flavor of lifestyles.

“Alright, we ready? Explore the remaining rooms then leave, simple plan, right?” Jera sighed as if he didn’t believe his own words.

“Sure, sure, simple,” said Sera. “And no boss fight, no matter the possible riches. Even though I think we could do it, totally. Eh, we already struck it rich once so I can give it a pass. So, the white one.”

They were gathered near the door in the training room and each of them glanced at it. All day and night, every few hours or so, one of them would notice the door barely open and those freaky eyes peering at them. Jera shrugged. “To be honest I’m not sure.”

“Sure about what?” asked Claire.

“To kill the [Dungeon Master] or not,” replied Jera. “It’s… not a thing we’d ever thought we could or be in a position to do. Dungeons are a weird thing that sits between being a threat and menace and something that grants resources to kingdoms.”

“Yeah, which is why I voted to leave it alive,” said Sera. “It managed to somehow have something near a gem on its first floor. That’s pretty amazing for us, and eventually for Ardor. Who knows what it could do with a few more floors.”

Claire looked to Jera. “And killing it is better?”

Jera scratched his head and shot a weak glare at Sera. “Because if it could do this on the first floor, who knows what it will do later. Dungeons aren’t something that stay silent for long. If they get to powerful or grow too deep they can affect the world outside and around them. Some even gain the ability to remove the normal barriers and rules. It doesn’t affect us now, but in a couple years? The Riolu Empire has a bounty out on all dungeon cores by default, enough to set us up for a few years precisely because of this.”

Sera scoffed. “Dungeon calamities rarely ever happen.”

“So Sera wants the dungeon to grow richer while Jera wants to prevent something that might happen in the future? I don’t know, this seems above us. Why not, um, kill it if it fights us and leave it if it hides? I mean, the League has way stronger people for decisions like this, right?” asked Claire as she looked between the two.

Sera hugged her tightly. “Aww, when did you get so wise?”

Claire tried to shove her off and was only rescued because Jera was a kind soul. “Must be the all that wisdom she gets.”

“Jeez, are we going to go? I don’t want to be in this room any longer,” said Claire.

“Yeah, being in dirty and bloody clothes, let alone sleeping in the smell and feeling for nearly a day, as well as…” Both girls shot him glares. “Okay, yes, moving on. I’ll lead?”

Sera opened the door and pushed him out. “Yes, please do.”

He led them on after relighting his torch and they went back to the nest room. As soon as Jera opened the door the slight twang of a bow came from across the room and a bone arrow sunk into Jera’s leg.

Claire held him up from stumbling while Sera stepped forward with a flame forming in her off-hand. That white kobold laughed tauntingly and ducked back into the hallway on the opposite side before Sera could attack.

Jera grabbed the arrow and yanked it out with a slight grimace and grunt. “Didn’t hit anything bad, I can walk it off. We don’t need to waste mana here.”

“Was it waiting for us this whole time? Seriously, what the heck? Okay, I take what I said back about keeping it alive,” said Sera. “Nearly a day for one arrow.”

“Are we sure we don’t want to just leave?” asked Claire as she waved at the door leading to the entrance, and more importantly, bunny room.

“Honestly? This is the only chance to experience a dungeon that we’re going to get for a long time. Might as well, whether for the knowledge, experience, or rewards,” stated Jera with a smile. “It’s what I hope to do in a few years for the rest of my life.”

“However short it may be,” added Sera. “What? Delving has a pretty high death rate. Live hard, live fast, live rich or die young! Yeah!”

“Noooo, that’s awful, Sera.” Claire walked over to Sera to hug her but her cousin dodged around her and went off to the northern door.

“Shush, no time to talk about all these things we’ve already been, uh, talking about. Dungeon time!” Sera threw open the door and waved Jera forward. Even though he looked like he could talk about all those things some more, even he had an unusual fervor to him that Claire hadn’t seen before. Future careers, huh?

“But man, boring styled rooms and simple halls. First floors really don’t have much flair, do they?” Sera tapped the wall with her sword. “I’m not saying it’s not cool, but like, where are the cathedrals and ancient ruins with hidden monstrosities?”

“That’s exactly what we don’t want. Not even level ten yet,” shot back Jera. He carefully opened the next door so that he didn’t suddenly ambushed like he has half the time so far. “Clear.”

Sera and Claire entered after him and it was a bit boring. Same wood walls, same wood floors, some wood shelves and a wood table. There was a single book on the table, open with some small charcoal sticks off to the side.

“Aw, even the book is blank.” Sera rifled through the pages and tossed it in her pack afterward. “Oh well, free book.”

Claire frowned at the room, that ache of guilt in her stomach coming back as she took it in for what it was or would be. It felt wrong when they looked around rooms like these, without the creatures to fight inside. Like they were invading someone’s house.

Clearly her two allies didn’t feel the same at all. Was it her just being weird?

“Come on, Claire.”

Sera and Jera had already started heading back and Sera turned when she noticed Claire wasn’t following. Right, head in the zone. There were still monsters left to fight and that, at least, wasn’t something she felt any weird sense of guilt over.

Not yet, anyway.

“One way left.” Jera led them over to the last door and opened it normally before suddenly pausing.

An arrow struck the inside of the door.

He swung the door open in time to see a white tail disappear as the door on the far end closed. “Thought it might try that again. Why not when it worked once?”

“Because we learn from our mistakes?” replied Claire.

“That was… nevermind, let’s go. If it’s more kobolds we should have me and Claire in front while Sera hits them from the back with spells. If it’s not, we should probably do that anyway.” They crossed the hallway and Jera prepared to open the door. “Learn from our mistakes, right?”

Sera punched him in the arm. “You’re the one who told me to go get the archers!”

“So I did. Okay, on three. One, two,” They all tensed. Sera had her sword in hand as well as holding her spell hand off to the side, ready to shoot fire. Jera tightened his grip on his sword and Claire felt oddly out of sync since she didn’t have weapons or spells to ready. “Three.”

Jera pushed the door and it swung open to reveal bright daylight. Their eyes had grown used to the darkness and torchlight so it momentarily blinded them. Beams of daylight came through odd holes in the roof that fell on lush stalks of grass that came up to their thighs.

An arrow struck Sera in shoulder.

Up on top of a large hut of sticks, grass and tree branches stood the white kobold, bone bow in hand with a couple of arrows. “Kekeke, invaders trying to sneak in? Should get out while you have the chance.”

Another arrow was loosed but Jera was there. With a perfectly executed slash he cut down the arrow in mid-flight as Sera pulled the arrow out of her shoulder and sent an arrow of her own back at it. “[Minor Ignite]!”

“Scary, scary!” said the kobold as it dove off the hut into the grass. “Why must invaders always use fire? Where are the nice, not-fire spells at?”

“You okay?” asked Jera.

“Yeah, walk it off, right?”

They entered the room, Sera behind Claire and Jera, as they looked for the kobold. The grass rustled around them in a way that sent shivers down Claire’s spine. She could see the grass flutter here and there but how… There was no wind! “Monsters in the grass, on both sides!”

Jera turned immediately to two of them. “Got them, four fox cubs and—oh gods.”

Another arrow came out of the grass but missed them entirely. Claire and Sera looked around but Sera snapped. “What?”

A fox cub, a Rosefur Fox to be exact since they were native to the swamp, shot out of the grass at Claire. It was big, as was this mutation’s particular trait, easily coming up to her waist even as a cub. “[Lesser Smite]!”

Her fist caught the fox in the maw, her glowing hand shattering teeth and exploding the poor fox’s head into mush. Claire didn’t come out of it unscathed. Bloody, jagged lines covered her right hand where the teeth bit down.

“[Icy Blade]. Damn, they’re quick!” Jera as made his sword into the two-hander and tried to cut down one that ran past him, but another arrow made him deflect it instead of kill the cub.

“I can’t use fire or I’d send this whole place up,” complained Sera as she dodged a cub that lunged at her face.

“Good, don’t use fire! She wouldn’t like it,” called the white kobold. “Oh, there goes a dumb fox. Nevermind, too late.”

Sera managed to score a large gash against a cub that tried to take her leg and Claire tried to finish it off but was harassed by another. Jera was distracted from the cubs as he faced the large hut with his sword readied. “It’s a fox, but it’s big. Why does it have to be so big?”

“An adult?” asked Sera.

Teeth bit into Claire’s leg right after she glanced at Jera. The fox cub was strong and the fear to pull back and run would’ve made it worse. Luckily Sera had her back and stabbed her sword into the cub’s head.

“Oh, two down. Kekeke, time to get serious.”

Claire jumped when the large hut moved and fell to pieces as a massive red paw cleaved through it. Oh, it was a fox, but it was definitely too big. When it stood up and shook off the remains of the hut it was nearly twice as tall as Claire! The white kobold was riding on it’s back with the bow.

“Oh crap, [Minor Ignite], [Minor Ignite], [Minor Ignite]!” screamed Sera as she sent flaming arrow after flaming arrow at the hulking fox. Each one scarred the fur black and the huge fox growled but staggered.

“Not body shots, take its legs,” commanded Jera. He charged at it and put all his body weight into a wide slash. His sword, magically enhanced with cold sharpness, cleaved into the paw and tore out with a lot more resistance than he expected. Even his sword wasn’t long enough to dismember the paw completely, a fact he immediately regretted.

“Hey, stop that! [Healing Breath],” spoke the white kobold to everyone’s horror. White smoke, wispy and cloying, blew out of the kobold’s maw with a heavy breath and coated the huge fox. It flowed into the wounds and did exactly what nobody wanted, excepting the kobold: healed them. “Squash them, Matriarch. Squash!”

A paw slammed into Jera before he could dodge and sent him flying across the room. It wasn’t an extremely fast attack but as Claire watched him crash into the wall and roll to the floor she could feel the strength this thing had. “Jera! I thought we weren’t going to do the boss!?”

Sera cut down the fox she had hit earlier and screamed, “It’s not a boss! What the heck is this thing doing on—why is it getting bigger!? Oh damn, it’s the cubs.”

As the cub died the Matriarch’s red fur deepened slightly in color and it grew just a little bit bigger, but considering it towered over them already every inch felt noticeable. It stepped forward, one paw at a time, and nearly crossed the room with just those few steps.

Sera two-handed her sword, dodged a paw swipe that had an air rush following its wake, and yelled, “[Flaming Cleave]!”

Her sword ignited into red flames and it cleaved through the paw. She had aimed it at the thinnest point but still couldn’t dismember it. The Matriarch had simply grown too large for their ordinary one-handed swords. The red flames scorched hide and ignited the fur keeping it ablaze where the sword had struck but didn’t spread.

Claire kicked a cub that had bitten into her calf and then broke its legs with a several punches. Her breaths were ragged and her mind full of worry for Jera so she ignored the pains in her legs and ran over to her friend.

He was awake, holding his side and struggling to get up. Jera’s leg was bent at an odd angle and he coughed up blood as he used his sword to prop him upright. “Heal me, quickly.”

“[Minor Heal], [Minor Heal].” One heal was enough to right his leg and deal with some of his back, but she wasn’t wrong in using a second heal when she watched his chest pop out on his left like inflating a balloon. In a few seconds Jera looked back in fighting order if she ignored the torn armor and horrible amounts of blood.

“[Icy Blade],” said Jera as he ran a hand over his sword again. The ice redoubled and the icy extension of his blade doubled in length. He grimaced and cast the spell again so he soon had a sword that was as long as a spear in length. “That should do.”

She couldn’t feel it behind the rush of adrenaline but the physical impact of an arrow slamming into her shoulder sent Claire sprawling. Jera quickly helped her up and dodged a second arrow.

The kobold reached for another arrow and found none. It clacked its fangs and threw both the bow and empty quiver to the ground. “Useless bow. I didn’t even want your stupid bow skill.”

Sera rolled underneath the Matriarch and used [Flaming Cleave] to leave a long burning gash on its underbelly. The fox yelped, a deep and rumbling bark instead high pitched, and turned into a demon.

That was all Claire could say as she screamed and knew it wasn’t her alone as Jera yelled and Sera ran for her life. No, remember, this was supposed to be a weaker monster!

“[Healing Breath]. Come on, where is—there it is.” White smoke flowed over the Matriarch and healed it to full again. How could one skill be so powerful to heal that in one go? Even her [Minor Heal] couldn’t heal the fox’s wounds without three casts.

A bone knife sank into the fox cub’s chest, killing it and leaving no cub left alive. Jera dashed forward while the Matriarch was busy growing and yelled, “Kill that stupid kobold!”

His new icy sword cleaved through the front left paw as he ran by and sent the Matriarch stumbling to the side. Unluckily the healing smoke was still in the area and sealed up the dismembered limb.

“On it!” yelled Sera. The white kobold was knocked off of the Matriarch’s back when it stumbled and she ran after it. Claire couldn’t fight the Matriarch, such a monster would kill her with one blow, so she chased after Sera to help take down the kobold.

“Where did it go?” They saw where the kobold had fell but it was nowhere to be seen. “Claire!”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Those horrifying eyes peered out from beside her as she felt two claws sink into her stomach. Claire screamed as the pain slammed into her, the strength in her legs giving out.

The kobold jumped back as Sera’s sword swung where its arms were. “Careful, that almost hit me. Ah, the fiery girl, better protect your young one!”

Sera stepped in front of Claire and deflected the kobold’s claw swipes with her sword. The screech of nails against the iron blade hurt her ears but Sera refused to move. “Claire, heal!”

Right, she should heal. Her guts were definitely not supposed to squirm and feel like were eating them. That was a thing she could do. Claire drew upon her mana, the weird shadowy tingling rising up to her insides instead of her hands, as she said, “[Minor Heal].”

The relief was instant as all her injuries, except for the arrow wound in her back, were roughly healed.

Claire shot to her feet, unsure of how long she had been zoned out, to see the Matriarch fall to its knees. Jera was limping around it, dodging the wild swipes the Matriarch was putting out, and Sera had her left arm at her side as it was bleeding from four huge gashes by the elbow.

The kobold wasn’t unscathed though since it too had blood coating its beautiful scales from many cuts, most of them shallow. “Healing is cheating, dumb humans.”

“Like you can say that!” snapped Sera. “Claire, how many you have left?”

Claire went to Sera’s side. “One. Any potions?”

“Haha, no, only Jera has one. Damn things are two silvers at the cheapest!” Sera glanced to Jera but had to slash to prevent the kobold from taking advantage and cheaply striking her. “Jera has the big fox done.”

The kobold laughed, that annoying laugh, as it stepped back preparing to retreat. Except it stopped, grinned wide showing its fangs, and stepped forward. “Invaders, always invading, can’t you just wait until I finish a floor or two? So unfair.”

The floor shook as the Matriarch crashed into the ground and breathed its last. Claire saw Jera run around to flank the white kobold but stumbled as a cub jumped onto his back.

A cub?

“Ahh!” yelled Sera before she slashed out wide and cleaved a fox cub that had snuck up on her into two. Two long scratches on the back of her leg began to bleed. “Oh, oh no no no. Jera, reset!”

Reset?

The white kobold dove at Claire and tried to rake at her legs, but Claire met the claw with a fist. All she could think of was sharp as her knuckles cracked against the kobold’s claw, the nails digging through her skin and muscles with abnormal ease, but she felt good as she sent the kobold backward.

Ignoring the pain in her hand she spun and delivered a left straight to the kobold’s head while channelling that golden glow. “[Lesser Smite]!”

Light exploded but it was wrong. There wasn’t the usual feeling of gore or death following, just the scene of the kobold catching herself from falling to the ground. Its eyes were wide and stared at Claire in confusion.

Then it spoke in awe, “So that is what immunity is.”

“Yeah, okay, you have to die,” stated Sera coldly. “[Flaming Cleave].”

A red hot flaming sword, something that brutally wounded the Matriarch, swung for the kobold. It was out of position, unable to dodge or roll away, not that Sera would have left it the opportunity.

It brought it’s claw up in an uppercut to connect with the sword before white smoke enveloped it. “[Righteous Claw].”

Claire expected an explosion, a clash of elements like she often heard in tales, or something amazing. In the back of her mind she also expected the obvious, Sera’s flaming sword to cut through the kobold’s feeble attempt of survival.

It’s claw hit the sword and continued, and the sword’s blade fell to the ground. The red fire turned those white scales black and broken, but that was it. “A great skill! Kekeke, what was that about dying, human? Pretty sure I heard one of you call me stupid.”

All mirth left its face as it stepped forward and swiped again, that same white smoke trailing with the strike. Sera tried to block with her broken sword but the claw shredded the remains of the weapon as well as severing two of Sera’s fingers.

Claire was frozen and didn’t know what to do. Her smite didn’t work on this kobold and it was more powerful than her when it came to bare handed fighting. Now it had a skill that could cut through metal with ease? It stood at half their height but it felt like it lorded over them.

“I’m not stupid.”

It brought both claws up and at Sera but had to jump back to dodge a long blade of ice that sliced down where it would’ve been. Jera stepped up and brandished his sword. “Sera, fingers. Claire, heal her.”

That snapped them out of it. Sera picked up her fingers from the ground and Claire hurriedly cast [Minor Heal] while holding them in place. When the golden light dissipated Sera flexed them and smiled. “I owe you so much, Claire. Best cousin ever.”

The three spread out and surrounded the white kobold before it could escape to the door behind them. It grumbled while looking around, wary of any sudden moves. “Healing is very unfair. Where are my awful minions at?”

“I finished off the rest of the cubs. Nothing is here to help you,” said Jera. He made a move to swung but the kobold responded by bringing a claw up. They stopped when neither were willing to go through.

It grinned. “One punchy human that can’t hurt me, one caster human low on mana and with no sword, and one swordy human that with a sword I can maybe break. Then here I am with claws. My dumb minions always tell me my claws were bad and I should get a weapon.”

Jera coughed as a dagger dug into his ribs. One of the armored kobolds had snuck up behind him, it trying to sink their dagger into him again but they lost an arm to his sword for that attempt. It screeched and ran over to the white kobold. “You should! Master, heal? No arm hurts lot.”

““Jera!”” Claire and Sera ran over to him and he waved them off. Claire couldn’t cast any more heal spell so all they had was a potion between them. It didn’t occur to any of them that a reset would also bring back the kobolds.

“Snep, you took forever! Where are the others?” asked the white kobold.

“Others fighting two big hobs. Didn’t know how bad here was,” said this kobold, Snep. It was strange, putting a name to a creature that spoke like them.

“We’re running. We had it, but didn’t expect a reset. Damn, I forgot that could even happen,” cursed Jera as he held his sword at the ready.

“Followed by the goblins. Hah, knew that low luck was going to bite me eventually,” complained Sera as she brought a flame to her hand.

“Can’t we run? Oh, but then they’d get us from the back. Just why did it have to somehow have holy immunity? How does that even happen!?” cried Claire.

The kobolds stopped talking and turned to the party. “Master?”

“So tired, should’ve just let Vurg handle it.” The white one sighed then shuddered. “Again?”

What did it mean, again?

A shadow fell over them causing the three humans to stare up and behind them. Red fur and sharp fangs loomed over them, although not as tall as before. The Matriarch had respawned and it glared down at the party with annoyance.

“Goblins. I’ll haunt them,” said Sera.

“No time for jokes, dodge!” yelled Jera.

They scattered as a large paw swiped at them. Claire was clipped on the shoulder, barely even grazed by the claw, but it tore a chunk out of her and sent her tumbling into the grass.

Sera launched [Minor Ignite] after [Minor Ignite] at the dagger kobold but it managed to dodge each fire arrow even with a bleeding injury from a severed arm. What kind of mental fortitude did these dungeon creatures have to fight through such an injury?

Then again, Claire wondered the same about them since they had brushed death within this dungeon more times than she had in her entire life. Which had been a flat zero times.

Jera and the white kobold were fighting, his icy blade solid enough that her smoky claws didn’t shatter it, and it looked like Jera was on the winning side for skill and technique. At least until the Matriarch stepped up and forced him to run.

They were going to die here. Even if they somehow killed the kobolds and escaped the fox, there was a whole room of kobolds blocking their exit and apparently goblins beyond that.

Claire wasn’t one to give up, often she was one who didn’t quit even after everything had gotten worse. Likely a trait that she and Sera shared. Yet like the white kobold had said, she was tired.

“Claire, get up!” Sera finally managed to kill the dagger kobold by letting it stab her hand. It couldn’t do anything when she caught its only arm and roasted it with a spell to the face. “We need to help Jera.”

“Right,” muttered Claire. What exactly could her fists do against the giant fox and crazy kobold when she had no mana? Weapons? She plucked the iron dagger from the kobold’s corpse, it being the size of an eating knife to her, and followed Sera into battle.

Even now, with the fear and despair, the thrill of adventure was along for the ride.

As they reached the fight the Matriarch forced Jera to dodge right into the white kobold’s reach and it managed to claw out his hand, following the way of Sera from earlier, and lost a few fingers. Worse was that he dropped his sword which it then quickly grabbed before either he or Sera could reach it.

“And now no weapons for you humans,” it said with glee. “Strongest invaders yet, but I’m still the best. Keke—”

The door exploded off the wall and slammed into the Matriarch with such force that it sent the giant fox to the ground. It wasn’t enough to keep it down, but as a golden light in the form of a sword formed above it, everyone stared in awe.

“[Put To The Sword],” said a light, almost carefree male voice.

It descended on the Matriarch and skewered it. Golden light enveloped the giant fox and slowly it grew quiet.

“—ke?”

It was a moment where everyone held their breath, humans and kobold alike, as he stepped through the doorway. Garbed in a decorative purple robe that folded over itself several times from shoulder to knee with golden hems and simple brass adornments. He was tall as he stepped through, not too muscular from what Claire had expected, but that wasn't the most surprising thing of all.

Jera sighed, the despair heavy in his breath. "We're dead."

"Damn, no, why did one of them show up?" spat Sera. "Don't give up!"

His gaze swept across the room, calculating and bored, as he took them in the same way they were inspecting him.

"A minotaur?" asked Claire. Yes, this new arrival was not Human or Elven, not even a Being, but had a big nose, long floppy ears, black and grey coarse fur across his body and two small white horns jutting out from his temples. That, and the fact that his bovine head and short tail were far more obvious.

"Worse, a Cowkin," hissed Sera. "A stupid beast that thinks they're people when they're just smarter than average monsters pretending to be like people."

Wow, that made Claire flinch. She knew Sera had problems with Beastkin, but...

"Actually, I think he's a [Judgement Priest]. That sword skill is something they get pretty soon," commented Jera in a tone that fully spoke that he expected to witness said skill up close and probably personally. It was powerful enough to kill the giant fox in one stroke!

"Like a class makes them any better than a monstrous Creature."

Jera ran a hand down his face, his eyes never leaving the approaching cowkin. "That means he's like four times our level."

Sera choked.

A flash of white made Claire turn in time to see the kobold sprinting for the exit door. Something the new arrival didn't miss a beat on as he threw a hand forward, although it was only two large fingers and a thumb, and spoke loftily, "[Holy Bolt]."

Golden light gathered into his hand and then shot out as a beam, one that was quicker than any arrow, and struck the kobold in the back. Yet, when the light cleared the kobold stood at the door, arms covering its face, and eyes wide in terror. There was a moment of surprise between it and the cowkin before he smiled wryly and said, "That's interesting."

"Go away!" screamed the kobold as it escaped through the door leaving all the present invaders alone.

Jera picked up his sword which the kobold had dropped to run and readied it even though he knew it was certain death. Sera did the same, her palms heating up and turning red as she gathered her mana. Only, did they have to fight? Claire looked at the cowkin, at the way he looked back.

Before her allies could do anything Claire stepped up. "Um, hi?"

He chuckled and nodded to himself. "You're the [Acolyte] then? Yes, appropriate colors except yellow is a bit off. Gold, my girl, you need gold, not buttercup yellow!"

"You don't get to--" Jera slapped a hand over Sera's mouth and pulled her back.

"Ah, um, I'm not--money is a bit, well," Claire stared at his robes quality and than smoothed out hers, even though she was blood-soaked and torn.

He nodded as if receiving true wisdom. "Ah yes, monetary concerns of a foreign land. I thought this was going to be a boring side-quest but it's looking up already."

Jera cut in before Claire could respond. "Side-quest?"

"Ah hah ha, that's right. I'm Krol Dream, a wandering priest. Mm, well, off you humans go." He waved them away before heading toward the door the kobold left through. "Kobolds are dead, goblins too, so you should be safe."

Jera dragged a fussy Sera toward their escape, but Claire was rooted to the floor. Krol Dream? The colors were one thing, but the name was something any member of any faith would know! It took more willpower than she had to not fangirl in awe. "You're the [Chosen of Luminous]!?"

Krol stopped, turned, and then beamed. "My name has spread even to humans, has it?"

Jera and Sera were hanging around the doorway, but Claire waved them off when Sera waved at her to come. How could she leave when she had an actual hero of her patron god in front of her? No, she didn't want Sera to blow this for her, to meet someone akin to an idol or celebrity!

After all, Claire had no trouble with him being a Beastkin.

"Well, as an enemy," replied Claire with a wince. "But! But, I can't believe you're here. Really, how? Why?"

Krol rubbed her head and opened the exit door, a golden light forming in his hand to light the way. "For a couple reasons, but one being you, little girl. A human believer, one to take my dear God's name in faith as an [Acolyte], is unheard of."

"Haha, you're kidding," said Claire. Churches talked and taught about all the gods, Great or Minor, from all races. To say that it's unheard of was silly.

Krol thought on that as they walked through the hallway. "Maybe for others, but Luminous herself said it's been a very long time. Long enough that she sent me on a little quest to prevent this adorable human's death."

Claire missed a step. Right, they had been at death's door only to be saved by, from what she's hearing, divine intervention. Her cousin and friend must have already left her behind because Claire didn't see them following, but she felt safe even though Krol was a stranger she met moments ago. "Right, the certain impending death. So, um, you said a couple reasons? What are the others?"