Sometime after arriving at the house, Alex and Adriel made some food for everyone. The elf had stopped by the fishing dungeon and caught quite a haul for the party, but despite his best intentions, that only made them all upset.

"Why the hell would you even try that? Do you want to die?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. Even if it worked, do you think you could have survived if the monsters showed up? As far as I know, most dungeons don't scale with the number of people that are inside," Shane added.

"It's hard to explain. I've been to my fair share of dungeons, and every now and then, a few seemed to be more geared to the survival of those in the room. Usually, if you go with a very small number of people, the dangers of the place are close to none, and you can focus on getting the supplies," Adriel explained.

"How can you tell if a dungeon is like that?" Blue asked.

Adriel twisted his face in thought, "It's kind of hard to explain. It's not like there are signals or similarities between them. I mean, I suppose you could say that all those dungeons are about resources, but that is a very broad way to see it. It's more of a feeling. I only could tell because I'd seen those kinds of dungeons before. The best way I can describe it is that feeling of living in a city and knowing the places to avoid because the people there are annoying."

"Still, just because you had that hunch, you shouldn't have gone there. Next time talk to me about it. I can ask Yarnball if you are right or not. That will minimize the risk by a lot," Hera rubbed her eyes, but she smelled something weird. Looking to the side, she saw Alex giving Adriel the stink eye, which made the Empress realize that this wasn't about her actual smell, but the mana she was sensing from the assassin. During the dungeon, there was so much mana everywhere that her senses were flooded. Now that they were outside, she was able to notice the smaller details like that.

Alex noticed the stare, but she ignored it, thinking it was about the situation at hand, "Honestly, I don't know how you could've done that. asked you to be careful when going down there, and you still had the gall to look me in the eye and say that you would. Good to know you are such a good liar."

"Alex, c'mon, it's not like that…." Adriel walked towards her, but she stepped to the side, avoiding him.

"It doesn't matter," the assassin turned to the rest of the group, "You guys were talking about a potion? What's this about?"

"Right," Hera nodded and explained about the potion as well as what everyone agreed to do.

"Well. Honestly, I think Alex should be the one to take it," Bonnie looked at the assassin.

"And I think you should be the one to take it. Having you out of commission is a big problem, and it can be a big issue when we leave," Alex turned to the rest of the group and realized that everyone wanted to voice their opinion, "Ok, no. You guys said that the potion should go to Bonnie or to me. So we are the ones who are going to have that discussion. Come with me, and Hera, can you block the sounds coming from the room and not say anything else?"

Hera sighed. Despite her worry about the curse, she was leaning toward giving the potion to Bonnie. That way, the researcher wouldn't be so defenseless, but she understood why Alex was acting like that. The Empress was never much of a fan of that curse. She walked to the room with the two of them, and before she created the soundproof bubble from the outside, Hera looked into Alex's black eyes, "I know you told me not to say anything, but I have to make one thing clear. I'm fine with whatever you two decide. I just want the two of you to be ok."

Before she could hear an answer, the Empress left the room and cast the Soundproof Bubble. The entire party knew that once the spell was active, trying to leave it could mess with the effect, so they had no option but to stay there. Hera went back to the rest of the group and sat on the couch with a plate of grilled fish in front of her.

"While the two of them are having that conversation, let me ask. Now that we finished that dungeon, what do you guys think happened in this room?" Shane took a bite of a pear that Adriel brought from the greenhouse.

"Isn't it obvious? The dude created the slimes that killed everyone," Blue turned to the explorer.

"I don't know. From the way he spoke, I think the people of Abyssia could handle those slimes. I mean, he was sure we could beat it," Helena was inspecting her fish to make sure she removed all the bones, "I think the waste is the reason."

"I agree," Shane nodded, "Things that are labeled as waste were very overlooked in the old days, and I don't think this wouldn't be the case here. Especially since there was water everywhere."

"But that also doesn't make much sense. If they were aware that showers were important, they should be aware that waste could be dangerous," Hera tilted her head.

"Or maybe Jadas decided that slimes were the next step in evolution and made a machine to turn everyone into monsters," Blue joked, but everyone stopped to think. Despite it sounding like the plan of a movie villain, they all had to admit that Jadas would very much be the type of mad scientist that would do that kind of thing.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"What if it's like a smoothie?" Mylo said.

"A smoothie?" Helena turned to the fighter.

"Yeah. We have the slimes appearing and attacking, the waste in the water making people sick, Jadas being a dick and making things worse, and maybe something else. Put everything in a blender, and that's what happened. Not one thing but a mix that happened at the same time and messed everything up. If it was just one thing or another, they might be able to survive, but since it was a lot, it was too much," Mylo explained.

"That's actually a very good theory. I wish we could confirm it," Hera nodded.

"You have got to be kidding me," Blue scoffed at Hera, who stared at her with a confused expression, "You have Yarnball, woman! You just said that it could help Adriel find out more about the dungeon. Why wouldn't it be able to tell us if we got it right?"

"Oh… right…" Hera looked down, feeling embarrassed, "Sorry. It's just been a long day. I'm kind of tired."

"I can't blame you. We only did a single run, but I'm beat," Blue slumped back on her stone chair.

"Same," Mylo took a large sip of the watermelon juice in his glass.

"By the way, what did you all get in your grab bags? And who is going to use the socks?" Adriel asked.

"They won't fit me, even if they are cute," Mylo said.

"You would look adorable on them, but yeah, your thunder calves wouldn't fit," Shane teased, but Mylo didn't seem to mind. He was more upset about not being able to wear the socks. Noticing that, the explorer changed her tune, "It's a shame they don't come with an auto-fit feature. Anyway, if we are talking about actual use, it would be good to give it to someone who moves around a lot," she turned to look at Blue and Hera.

"Before deciding that, we should test it out to see what they actually do. I mean, what if the person wearing them has to run away from the chemicals that they trace behind them? Imagine if it's like a barrel of black powder in a cartoon. We should see what they do and the reactions we can trigger and then see who would be the best fit for it," Helena suggested and pulled the malachite from her pocket, "We also have to test this out. Sure the conversion rate is awful, but it doesn't say anything about the mana powder vanishing or expiring. Maybe we can just keep making more and more."

"Honestly, my launcher would be great for that. I can store the powder in the bullets and increase the power of the spells. After we are done with all this, I'm going to try to get another one of those or a way to make powder mana," Shane kept staring at the malachite.

"It's just a shame that I can't help you with that. I mean, I think I have more mana than you, don't I?" Hera asked.

"You do, but you don't have to rub it in," Shane playfully rolled her eyes.

"Ok, ok, but what about the other reward? What did you guys get?" Adriel pressed, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Everyone took a moment to check their grab bag. Helena and Hera got empty mana stones that could hold 250 thousand and 73 thousand mana, respectively. They were non-elemental stones which could prove to be very useful, and things like that always helped. Blue received a small pendant that could block one spell every 24 hours, and it could block a total of 5 spells before the effect would never activate again. There were some restrictions about the type of spell and how strong it could be, but it still sounded great, even for an item that would eventually break.

Shane got a bundle of what looked like metal rods, but they were called 'Cloud Essence,' and it was apparently a very light metal that could be used to make a number of things. Adriel found that very exciting and asked to take a look at it. The material wouldn't be that good for a weapon or some armor since it wasn't a particularly durable metal, but if he used it on his drones, the results could be amazing.

Lastly, Mylo got a piece of armor. It was an undershirt that he could wear like a second skin, and since it was a reward and not just a drop, it already came in the right size for him. This also meant that no one else could wear it since it would be way too big. The armor itself had two things going for it, one, it was the defensive scaling being about five times stronger than what Mylo was currently wearing, and since it was an undershirt, he would only add to his defenses, not change it. Two was a passive skill that could disrupt the mana of spells that targeted him. It wouldn't be like Blue's pendant, which would block the entire spell, but it could reduce the effectiveness or remove one of the minor effects. Basically, it was a very reduced version of what the magic cube monster did. A way to fight against spellcasters, and it would be always active. After a quick test, they also confirmed that healing spells also got affected by that, but his own magic would flow like it was supposed to.

After everyone checked their items and talked a bit about the options they had going forward as well as what to do next, Alex and Bonnie came out of the room.

"Ok, we came to an agreement. I'm the one taking the potion," Alex announced and pulled the cap on the vial, "I don't want to explain how we got there, but we did. And I figured everyone would want to be here for this," she continued before downing the entire vial. The assassin had no intention of dragging this out. She wanted to be done with it. The mixture was bitter-sweet and tasted like french fries and ice cream with a little bit of hot sauce and melted cheese in the mix. The taste was unique, but it wasn't good or bad.

Everyone waited a few moments for something to happen, but nothing did. Alex then opened her mouth and sneezed, letting out a cloud of green smoke from her nose.

"Is that it?!" Hera gasped, "Is the curse gone?"

Alex sneezed a few more times, more of the green smoke coming out of her mouth until she was finally able to answer, "Sorry, no. I got the benefit. Let me read it. It's a skill called fleeting wind. I can move better when I'm obscured, and I can create a trail of wind behind me that increases my speed. Also, any spells that I use will have a gust of wind following them, and I can follow that path to move quicker, whatever that means. Let's go outside. I want to try this."

"You can go. I'm still tired," Blue waved her off, followed by Shane and even Hera. Everyone was still exhausted.

In the end, they all walked outside and watched as Alex toyed with her new skill. Soon everyone would do the same, but for now, they still wanted to rest.