"So, what was the reward, Master?" Breena asked curiously as she looked at the floor where the throne used to sit.
"Ah, I got a wooden box. I haven't opened it yet since it was reeking of magic, but we'll check it out once we get out of here and have a minute to relax or something. I'm sick of this Dungeon, so we should leave it first," Lone said with his disgust of the place plain to see.
Everyone else could only nod at this besides Eolande. Since she had always had access to her Glade, she wasn't particularly bothered where she was. Swind was eager to leave so he could continue to prove the worth of his choice to change his ways to Lone and Sophie.
"Speaking of leaving, I'm sure you guys can see it, but that door over there says 'exit' on it. Clicker may be a complete bastard, but he shouldn't be tricking us with the way out, at the very least, since he could have killed us," Lone said bitterly. "Besides, I can't see any illusions on the door, although, he might be able to surpass my ability to detect all illusions," Lone said with little confidence.
"Clicker is known as a jokester and a lover of games, but he's always been known to be fair. If he said it was the exit and didn't explicitly tell you any rules regarding leaving, then we should be fine," Eolande said with a shrug before she flew over to the door. Swind and Breena quickly followed after her.
Just as Lone was about to move, he was stopped by a tug on his shirt. He turned around to see Sophie with a clearly depressed expression. "What's wrong, Soph?" Lone asked his lover with concern.
"I'm sorry for not being helpful... you... you might have died if it wasn't for Eolande saving you... I-I'm sorry," Sophie said in a low voice.
Lone looked at her in shock before he sighed and smiled. "I accept your apology and I don't blame you. C'Mon, let's leave this place," Lone said with a reassuring tone. 'She needs to work through this one on her own. I can't keep spoiling her if she's ever going to grow... ' Lone thought.
"Mmm," came the quiet reply from Sophie. 'I'll do better in the future... I won't let my emotions take control of me like that again... someone special to me could die if I'm not careful,' Sophie thought with resolve before she began walking along with Lone and Kyuubi to the exit.
Lone confidently pushed the door open and immediately a gust of fresh air smacked him in the face confusing his senses for a moment as his body began descending. Due to his confusion, he failed the use his skill, Sky Walk, to steady himself and so he fell face-first onto the grassy ground beneath him.
"What the fuck... Clicker... that bastard... guess it really was just an exit, huh?" Lone mumbled in anger as he looked at the vast open plain that lay before him. The sun was hanging lazily in the sky and there was a pleasant breeze. Lone noticed that after he and his companions had all left the exit, it sealed itself up and disappeared, almost as if there was no exit in the first place. They had just fallen out of a giant Oak tree which must have been very old.
"It's been a long time since I've been to the outside world," Eolande said as she happily floated about and began picking the occasional wildflower as she absorbed the atmosphere in its entirety, enjoying herself all the while.
"Heh... how long has it been since you entered Clicker's dungeon?" Lone asked with interest as he started fiddling with his glasses, apparently testing something and making sure they hadn't been damaged by his fall. 'Oh, right, I need to tell Soph,' he suddenly thought before he looked at the girl standing by his side.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
'By the way, Soph, earlier when I was by myself, I summoned Kyuubi to comfort myself a bit and she spoke to me via our telepathy,' Lone said telepathically.
A surprised look flashed across Sophie's face before she looked at the furry Fox in question. 'Really? What did Kyu say?' Sophie asked with some impatience in her tone. Clearly, Kyuubi talking was a very important event for Sophie.
'I asked her rhetorically when she'd go back to her Foxkin form and she replied, 'Not now, soon, Papa'. So I think we might get to see our daughter in her Humanoid form soon,' Lone answered while he accidentally focused completely on his mental conversation and ignored Eolande's response in its entirety.
'That's good... soon she'll be big enough for me to ride her in her Fox form... I wonder how old she actually is?' Sophie said.
Lone couldn't help but agree, however, he was disturbed by a small girl waving her hand in front of his face with an annoyed expression plastered across her small, beautiful face. "Done having your private conversation?" Eolande asked in annoyance.
"Ah, right, sorry, yeah. How long did you say it'd been since you entered the Dungeon?" Lone said with a slightly embarrassed expression. He then resumed fiddling with his mechanical glasses.
"... Ha-ah... As I said, I escaped to the Dungeon from the Allied Nations that were hunting me due to how unique my race is. Apparently, there aren't any Tylwyth Teg on Altros so I was a rare trophy for the Kings of those Nations," Eolande said as she faked the pose of a damsel in distress.
"Heh, that so? I remember reading about a group of Allied Nations in a few of the history books back in Milindo's capital," Lone said in a half-interested tone as he continued to mess about with his glasses.
"Right, well, each one was a superpower and they had at least one or more Cosmos-Ranked being under their thumbs. I didn't stand a chance against them in a fight, so I hopped into Clicker's Dungeon and hid in my Glade once there. Greyfus's Grandfather lied to any people that came in after me in order to protect me. They were driven crazy by my beauty, crazy enough to enter one of the most dangerous Dungeons in existence," Eolande said with a slight shiver.
"Why isn't it working?" Lone mumbled before he took his glasses off to inspect them. "Well, you are really beautiful, just as beautiful as Sophie, so it's understandable. Also, I remember Greyfus telling me to call in that favour of his Grandfather's if you refused to teach me," Lone mumbled as he focused on his steampunk-styled glasses, apparently perplexed as to why something wasn't working.
"Thank you," Eolande smiled sweetly at the compliment. "It was quite sickening honestly, their intense desire to own me. So anyway, I owed him a favour. That happened about three-thousand years ago. A mere fraction of my lifespan, but still, it was a long time ago so I doubt the Allied Nations have been destroyed yet. I'll be counting on you to protect me from them, Husband," Eolande finished with a wink as she blew a kiss towards Lone using illusion magic, which Sophie aptly cut down with her sword intent, eliciting a giggle from Eolande.
"Right, don't worry. I'll never get in a romantic relationship with you, but I'll protect you since I accepted you," Lone half-heartedly said to the being that was far more powerful than himself. "Ah! That's why it wasn't working! It needs retuning since the Dungeon counted as a separate dimension. I forgot I had to tune it in the Dungeon to contact Greyfus. How stupid of me," Lone murmured.
Everyone had a confused look on their faces since none of them except Lone had any knowledge in technology. "Master, what are you even doing?" Breena asked as her three red, violet-tipped tails swished about gently in the cool breeze.
"Ah, right, I was trying to figure out why my communication orb wasn't connecting to Gilbert's orb, but I figured out why. I'm gonna talk to him now. It's been about eight months since we entered the Dungeon, so he might be worried, hahaha," Lone said before he put his glasses back on and lightly touched the small green orb that was fitted into the right leg of the accessory.
Eolande and Swind wore confused expressions. "Who's 'Gilbert'?" Eolande asked. 'Lone actually has friends?' Eolande was experiencing a fairly large shock right now. Apparently, Lone had never told her, or Swind, about Gilbert and Grimsley.