Vitus, his Azure guards, and my own friends were entering the room behind us as I kept my eyes on Rake’s ally.

The dark-haired man in black armor had a long, straight sword on his back. He watched me, but made no sign of moving. His expression looked… bored? It wasn’t the face of a man who was planning to rush to his death for a chance to kill us. At least I didn’t think it was.

I inspected him.

[Human, level 50 (Iron)]

“What’s this?” A man in a blue cloak asked. He was apparently uninjured, but looked dead tired. His eyes were hollow and his stringy blonde hair hung in sweaty clumps. Like Vitus and the other blue-cloaks, he had the unnatural good looks that I was quickly associating with noble birth in this place.

He was standing in front of Lyria and me, but his eyes were behind us on Ramzi and Zahra, who had just emerged from the tunnel.

“They’re with us,” I said carefully.

His eyes sharpened. “I could report this.” Tired or not, I recognized the tone of a rule follower.

“We just cleared the spawning room for you,” I said, risking a step closer to the man. He was a level 45 Wood. I didn’t know if he could tell I was Iron, but I had a couple inches of height and some size on him, which might help send the message.

His eyebrows drew together as he stared up at me.

Others were still exiting the tunnel full of corpses as we talked, grommets included.

“Sir!” he said, moving to salute Vitus. He lowered his voice, but I heard him clear enough. “What will we do with the slaves?”

“Our concern right now is getting the wounded to safety,” Vitus said. “After that, we’ll send to Thrask for a Silver to help clear out the dungeon heart here. This place has grown too far out of hand. I’m closing it.”

The man’s nostrils flared, but he gave a tight nod and stepped back.

I felt a little bad not telling him the dungeon heart was already gone. But I needed to keep some things quiet for as long as possible. If he suspected I killed the Eclipsed, he would probably piece together what happened when he eventually reached the dungeon heart chamber.

What would he think then? It would look like I had laser-beamed the dungeon guardian in half and blown the Eclipsed to scrap wood. I couldn’t help grinning slightly at the thought. The damn man was going to think I was a force of nature.

“Vitus,” a girl said, rushing up. She wore a robe that looked familiar. It was white with red trim, just like the one Minara had worn back in the Black Wood. Was this girl part of the Radiants, too? “We’re only managing to keep them stable. Many aren’t recovering from the poison like the first few. I think it’s going to get worse before long. We sent a runner to Thrask for healers, but he hasn’t returned. I don’t—” The woman looked like she was on the verge of panic.

“None of us are healers,” he said softly. “Keep doing your best to stabilize them. We’ll send another runner.”

I walked past the pair, leaving everyone by the small tunnel as I approached the many wounded and unconscious adventurers who were laid out on the dirt in rows.

If I wasn’t so certain we had the Iron who fought with Rake hopelessly outnumbered, I would have worried about ignoring him for the moment. I also was reasonably confident I could help these people. Ultimately, that was the whole point of everything I was doing, right?

Whether it was small scale or large, I wasn’t going to walk past a problem I could solve, especially one I believed I could solve quickly and easily.

I positioned myself to keep an eye on the dark-haired Iron waiting by the exit passage.

The girl with the Radiant robe followed after me, reaching a small hand to touch my arm. Her brown hair was plastered to her face with sweat beneath her hood. “Are you hurt, Sir? I’m deeply sorry, but we can only try to stabilize mortal wounds at the moment. We don’t have the mana to—”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I want to see if I can help. I can… heal a little bit.” I knelt beside a man who was completely stiff. I reached into him with my mana, trying to sense what was wrong.

Wounds looked like dark spots to my senses, but this was more like there was dirt throughout his entire body—countless little black specks. She mentioned poison to Vitus. Maybe this is how it appears to my mana senses?

I tried tapping his core, which was nearly full of mana. I let a slow trickle leak out, mostly wanting to avoid wasting his power if it wasn’t effective against the poison. To my relief, the fresh mana flowed out and made the dots begin to dissolve.

I wasn’t sure if my particular brand of healing was extra effective against poison, or if my ability was that much more powerful than these other healers. Both of them were Woods, after all.

But tapping the mana of victims and letting mana leak out was almost as simple as slipping a needle into a balloon. Once I had the hang of it, I was able to walk down the rows of victims, palms out as I reached into each victim and let what mana they had left leak out into their bodies. Each person’s core was slightly different, but I found it easy to adapt to the unique natures of their cores and repeat the procedure. Some had nearly exhausted themselves of mana before being poisoned and others had plenty to spare.

On the surface, I knew nothing was happening yet. I was simply walking slowly through rows of stiff, paralyzed adventurers, forehead creased with concentration. Maybe I even looked like I was praying over them.

The girl followed after me. “It’s okay,” she said. “We appreciate that you tried. This type of poison is particularly hard to clear from the system. We have found that the dark mana in dungeons can often cling to negative status effects, making them particularly resilient to—”

The first man I healed coughed and began to sit up, rubbing at his face in surprise.

The healer girl’s eyes widened. The male healer ahead of me had been kneeling and weaving green strings of power from his fingers. He stood suddenly, rushing over toward the coughing man.

I finished moving through the group, leaving only a handful of victims who had too little mana to work with. I considered summoning Caterpriest to help them, but knew I was already drawing a great deal of attention to my unusual abilities. If these two could stabilize thirty victims, I imagined they could easily keep a handful safe on their own.

More coughs and sounds erupted as the victims started sitting up, groaning, or calling for friends and family.

The still-standing adventurers who knew the victims rushed over, hugging and celebrating as the man and woman who had been stabilizing the victims stared toward me.

There were still shallow cuts, some crushing wounds, as if people had been trampled, and a few burns and other magical injuries. Once the poison was cleared, I healed anyone who still had mana to spare and injuries to fix.

Thankfully, my Devour Mana ability showed no outward signs of working. There was no glow. No thread of power from me to the victim. Everything happened inside the victim. It meant I could help these people a great deal without making it too obvious that I had so much power.

By the time I was done, I had to push my way through grateful adventurers who were trying to thank me for helping their friends and family. It did feel good to help so many, but I was distinctly aware of the risk this kind of thing posed. Attention was the enemy. The more of it I drew, the more easily my enemies could find and track me down.

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I even earned an accomplishment for my efforts.

[Common Accomplishment] Heal [30] different targets. [Reward - Common Healer’s Token] “I was wondering how long it would take you to get this one. You’re absolutely about to go on a healing rampage to try to get a higher level of this as soon as you can, aren’t you?”

I grinned to myself. Yeah, probably.

I slipped out of the crowd as best as I could, deflecting credit when I got cornered to the other two healers. I came up with the idea that they had likely been waiting to spend their remaining mana until they knew Vitus’ party returned safely. Nobody seemed too suspicious, and I was able to slip out of the spotlight pretty easily.

I thought about how perfect my healing abilities were for large-scale battlefield healing like this. By using the victim’s mana instead of my own, I was an almost inexhaustible healer, capable of helping huge numbers of victims without tiring. With a regular healer on hand to help anyone who fell victim with emptied mana cores, I could dramatically improve efficiency for large-scale medical operations like this.

I hoped it would be a long time before I had to think too hard about healing hundreds of men and women in battles, though. Then again, the accomplishments for something like that would probably be awesome.

I had just extracted myself from the crowd when the male healer stopped me.

“Why have you been telling people we did that?” the man asked. “I haven’t seen anything like what you just did.” He was in his thirties with handsome features. He wore plate mail and a tunic, like some kind of paladin-themed class.

“I’d love to talk shop,” I said, “but we’re in a pretty big hurry. I’m glad I could help.”

The girl appeared behind him. “Thank you. You may have very well saved a few lives. Some victims were able to cleanse the poison over time naturally, but in a few cases, they needed intervention. I don’t know if help would’ve come in time, and we couldn’t get them to eat or drink. The Radiant Order would be deeply interested to know more of the ability you used to do this so quickly and easily. I think even the Radiant Lady herself would like to speak with you.”

“No, thanks,” I said quickly. I had absolutely no intention of being interviewed about my powers. “I would actually consider it a favor if you let people believe you two did it.”

The man looked awed. “Why?”

“I’m… shy?” I said.

He looked bemused, as if unsure whether I was joking or not.

The girl tilted her head. “What’s your name, Sir?”

“Brynn,” Vitus said from behind me.

I turned, wondering how long he had been standing there. Hopefully not long enough to hear me claim I was shy after how I had challenged him earlier. His people had spread out to talk to others or check on victims. Some of them were still standing in a suspiciously protective circle around my escaped slave friends, as if making sure they didn’t slip away without notice.

“He’s full of surprises,” Vitus added.

The girl gave me a searching look. “I see. We all thank you, Brynn. If you ever need the services of The Radiant Lady, you can ask for me by name at our temple. And if you change your mind about interviewing with her, please let me know. I’m known as Radiant Oriveen.”

“Do you know a woman named Minara?” I asked.

“Radiant Minara? Yes,” Oriveen said. “She is out on assignment in a frontier town, but I’m afraid I can’t say more than that.”

“Riverwell?” I asked.

“Y-yes… how did you know?”

I shook my head. “Nevermind. Thank you for the offers. Like I said, we do really need to get going, though.”

I turned to Vitus, who was a level 50 Iron. “I’m glad we could help you with the little issue back there.”

Vitus looked like some sort of war god. The man was tall, heavily muscled, and clad in ornate armor that was caked with blood and gore. He had his plumed helmet under one arm and his face was like carved stone with golden hair shaved in a no-nonsense style—both tight and short. I doubted he was much older than me, but he already looked like a hardened battlefield general.

Unlike the Marcia girl, I suspected this man didn’t need to brag about his good breeding. It was written in every feature like a neon sign.

Vitus extended a big hand for me to shake. I took it and he gave me a tight squeeze, shaking once. “So you’re a healer?” He asked.

“Oh, no,” I said quickly. “I have a utility ability I tried to use. Didn’t work. That was the two healers.”

Vitus watched me a long moment, face unreadable. He gave a small nod. “I suspect we’ll meet again. May it be as friends.”

I had to admit I hoped it was. The past few days in this place had taught me I could stand my ground against nearly impossible odds. Still, I wasn’t exactly itching to seek them out. Not at the moment, at least. Vitus looked like more than a test for me.

“Yeah. May it be,” I agreed.

I turned and gestured for the others to join me. The grommets had spread out among the room, poking people and simply standing to watch them up close, apparently oblivious to how creepy and weird that was. Timbo had gathered a small group of interested adventurers, who had probably never seen or heard of a grommet hero

My escaped slave friends cautiously walked toward me, moving themselves between the ring of adventurers who were keeping an eye on them. They gave Vitus a searching look, but he only patted his hands down as if telling them to relax.

I decided not to think too hard about what I would have done if they tried to stop the slaves from leaving. I supposed I could have trusted Vitus to do the right thing in the end, but I didn’t know if I would’ve wanted to leave their fates to my trust of a man I just met.

We started to leave as a group with the grommets fanning into a line behind us like chattering, excited, hairy little children.

One last obstacle before we can finally leave this place.

We walked straight toward the dark-haired man, who leaned on the dirt wall beside the exit passage.

I tensed. His only hope of killing me here would be a surprise attack, and I was watching him too closely for surprise. If he tried anything, I’d use Abyssal Step and buy myself some distance. The whole room would descend on him in moments after that.

He casually stepped in front of the exit as we neared, blocking our path.

If Vitus was a war god, this man was some kind of dark prince. His hair was black and shoulder-length, but pushed away from his face to fall in curled tangles. His eyes were gray and piercing as he studied me. I guessed he was also around my age, and he had the lithe build of an agile fighter.

My party formed up beside me, making a semi-circle around the man in the black armor.

“Well?” I asked. “If you’re going to attack us, it would be bold. I’ll give you that much.”

“I’m Cassian,” he said, hand extended. “And you’re Brynn. You’re also still alive, which means Rake either failed to find you or failed to kill you. Both would be a surprise.”

I ignored the extended hand, which he let fall to his side.

“Rake ran away with his tail between his legs,” I said. “Keep that in mind if you were planning anything.”

“I’m not here to kill you,” Cassian said. “I was sent to collect you.”

“Over our dead bodies,” Lyria said, taking a step closer.

“Though we would prefer if our bodies stayed living,” Thorn added.

“Loyalty is good,” Cassian said. “You’ll need it for what’s coming. And no, I was sent here to collect you, but I wanted to see what you were made of before I decided if that’s what I’d do.”

I held his gaze, unflinching.

“I believe you can help me,” Cassian said. “In exchange, I’ll help you however I’m able.”

“We’re not in the habit of accepting help from people who consort with murderous rogues like Rake,” I said.

“Wise,” Cassian admitted. “You don’t have to trust me. Nothing I’ll ask of you will require much of it, and you’re welcome to take precautions to protect yourself from me. The situation is simple. I need your help, and you’re not yet strong enough. I can help you unlock potential you wouldn’t dare dream of. In exchange, I only ask that you hear my proposition when the time is right.”

“And if I refuse?” I asked. “You’ll have me killed? Is that how this would work?”

He shook his head. “The nature of this proposition cuts me off from my connections and resources. I would be the only one to stand in your way. When you’re ready to hear what I’m proposing, you will be strong enough to kill me. As I said, there’s not much trust required on your end. I’m the one taking the risk.”

“I don’t like it,” Lyria said.

“Think on it,” Cassian said, handing me a simple gray comm card with an iron border.

I eyed the card, thinking for the first time in days about the cards I hadn’t been able to use since leaving Thrask. I had to be in my personal space to use them, and the last time I was in my personal space was to claim my loot right before we rushed out of the dungeon.

I wanted to contact the others and see what they were doing. I would enjoy catching up and seeing what they had been up to. I supposed I was also going to have to let Bloody Steve know his whorehouse marathon meant he missed everything.

“Alright,” I said. “I’ll think on it.”

Cassian nodded and stepped aside. “Happy travels. Oh, and I should warn you… You mentioned Rake escaped. Did he happen to do so in a magical manner?”

“Yes…” I said slowly.

Cassian nodded. “I saw his Escape Stone. He liked to bring it out and fiddle with it at night. The type he had was very rare and powerful, meant to bring the user far from danger. If he broke it, it would have taken him beyond even Thrask. The next closest city is Coil, which is where I suspect he is now.”

I nodded. “Alright. Thanks for the tip.” My gratitude was tempered by the fact that I still didn’t really trust this man. Why would I?

“From what I saw of Rake,” Cassian added, “I don’t think he’ll come straight for you. If you bested him, he’ll try to make sure the odds are in his favor next time. The man only likes to fight when the situation is overwhelmingly in his favor. You’ll likely have some time before he finds you again, but do be prepared. When he does, he’ll almost certainly have several tricks up his sleeves.”

The grommets had grown bored and started to spread out again, so I had to snap my fingers to get their attention. “Come on,” I said to them. “We’re headed back to Thrask.”

We took our first steps past Cassian and toward the light at the top of the passage.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Cassian's “offer” or his warnings. Frankly, I was worried about taking any of it at face value, but I also recognized it might be worth exploring once I was safe and settled in Thrask. For now, it could stay on the back burner of my attention.

Right now, I mostly just wanted to get out of this damn dungeon and back to the city.