I was a bit surprised when I saw the dragon but I collected my thoughts and approached it. As I could no longer see it, I decided to thank Selune for bailing me out.

"Selune, thank you for helping me out!" She turned around and chuckled.

"Sorry, but I'm not Selune. She was a bit busy, so she couldn't appear in person." I was a bit unfortunate I didn't get to see her in all her glory, but she did send whoever this is...

"I'm one of Selune's angels. You can call me Phandrium." An angel? She didn't really have any wings, though if all of them had wings, they wouldn't be able to do much stuff in secret.

"Thank you, Phandrium, I guess you'll be leaving?"

"Yes, try not to speak to a third dragon in your lifetime." Third? Before I could ask, she dissipated into the air. What did she mean third?!

"Hey, Mercedes, a little help?" I turned to Ov, who was on the floor, speaking Celestial.

"Yeah, sure." I healed him with Cure wounds.

"Mind explaining how you summoned a god? That would probably just kill the giant in one hit." I sighed.

"I doubt I could do it again." He was about to speak as I cast Cure Wound on Elba, depleting my Mana supplies, oh goodie! When she regained her senses, her eyes widened.

"Dragon!" I slapped her to her senses, though I knew that wasn't necessary, I needed it.

"The Dragon's gone, Elba." She started breathing again.

"Right... Wait, how did you get rid of the dragon!"

"She summon a god. Though she not explain how..."

"I didn't do anything! I just asked her to help me out." I thought it would seem cool if they thought I had a god at my beck and call.

"Ha ha, very funny guys, care to explain how you actually did it?" At that moment, I realized that not everyone in Ikor(The name of their world) was accustomed to the idea of deities. Even though Ov saw it, I found it weird he would instantly believe in them.

"She's telling the truth, Elba."

"Sure. I don't believe in gods and goddesses. Sure maybe there are some immensely powerful wizards out there who claim to be gods, but that doesn't mean they are." I decided not to make this a religious debate.

"She's right Ov, I should stop joking around." He was about to say something, but I glared at him, silencing him.

"I just cast Minor Illusion to trick it into believing a god had appeared, and he went running for the hills." She chuckled and patted me on the back.

"Man, you almost got me there." Looks like she fell for that blatant lie. She isn't a mage, so it makes sense she didn't know that Minor Illusion can only be an auditory or visual illusion, not both at the same time...

"So, are you guys going to continue? I'm completely out of mana, so I think it's best if I head back..."

"We're only going to peek at the giant's cave things have gone swimmingly so far, so we should be fine." I chuckled.

"Let's not forget I saved you from the dragon. Well, I guess I'll tag along for the rest of the trip. It can't be much worse."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Let's get moving! Wait, where are the horses?" I looked around, trying to find the horse I took so long to get on. But it was gone.

"We can continue on foot." This is going to take a while.

We had already covered most of the distance to the mountain on horseback, so it only took us a few minutes to make it there.

The top of the mountain seemed to pierce through the clouds. We walked around the base 'till we found a... human-shaped cave?

"Uhmm, can giants transform?" I turned to Elb and Ov, who weren't nearly as surprised as me.

"Yeah, most large monsters can transform into humanoids. Like giants, dragon, c-."

"Wait! Are you telling me that dragon could've transformed into a human?" She nodded.

"Did they not teach you that at, like, Magic School?" I shook my head.

"I never attended a Magic Academy, just a normal one. If I did, then I wouldn't just know a handful of spells."

"Why didn't you?" I sighed.

"My parents were against the idea..." Ov muttered something, which I ignored.

"So, who's going in first? Ov walked in, having to hunch his pack to walk into the entrance, followed by Elba, then me.

'I wouldn't do that if I were you.'

"Thanks for the input Selune, but it's fine."

'Don't come crawling back to me when you fail.' I couldn't quite hear that last part.

The cave was giant but wasn't as dark as I expected it to be lit by something I couldn't see from down here. The cave floor was laced with patterns made of concrete... Why would a giant go through the trouble of making the floor interesting?

This doesn't sit right with me... The cave had multiple different paths. Good thing we're not splitting up...

"Let's split up!" Elba, what's wrong with you?

"Why?"

"We'll cover more ground, besides it's not like we're trying to fight them, so being in a big group would just slow us down."

"But we already know there's a cave here. Why don't we inform the Adventurers Guild already?"

"Because we don't know if their giants or another type of monster altogether." I sighed.

"I'm taking this path." I walked to the path, farthest to the right, after waving goodbye. The hallway was narrower, so I thought it would have way fewer giants if any.

The path was long, but I eventually made it to a room filled with... What is this blinding light!

The room was filled with shelves with all sorts of sparkling weapons and artifacts, rendering me almost blind. I walked around glancing at the dust-ridden items. Glimmering orbs, elemental weapons, glowing skulls, and staves of all sorts. I was tempted to grab a weapon but I knew that they were either cursed or rigged to explode.

That's when I came across a weapon that wasn't sparkling. It seemed to have many more sections with lots of different layers. It was made of a curved block of white steel with a large cutout, to hold it? The other end was a black bar of metal with a circle that I suspected something was supposed to come out of. Just what is this? (Search up Mercy's Blaster.

I was tempted to pick it up, it didn't seem to be sparkling, so it can't possibly be cursed, right? Why didn't I learn Detect Magic?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I grabbed unto the... weapon?

Everything went white around me. What the hell is happening? I brought my hand up to my face. I could still see my hand and the weapon, I let go of it, but I still couldn't see anything. I started hyperventilating, what is going on?

An oily black substance started oozing out of the weapon. The ooze started to take shape as I crawled backward on my hands and knees.

'Hello human, it seems you've picked up my weapon. Thank you.' It created a mind link similar to Selune, which creeped me out. Its voice was similar, as well. They were towering over me, getting bigger and bigger, or was I getting smaller?

"Leave me alone!" I tried to grab something, realizing I couldn't find anything at all.

'No need to be alarmed, I don't want to cause you any harm. I wish to grant power to strong humans, though I can see that you already get your magic from a goddess.' I stood up.

"My magic is my own. I didn't get it from Selune." It chuckled.

'Sure, if that's what she told you. You don't need to receive power from me if you don't want to, every relationship has to be mutual.' I held it's hand out, but I shook my head. It grinned.

'You'll come crawling back to me when you fail.' I regained my sight... and hearing. I heard giant footsteps coming near here. Maybe I shouldn't have shouted. I turned and started running but slammed into somebody. Elba and Ov?

"Mercedes! We need to go, the giants, they're here! Let's go that way!" The giant stepped near us.

We started running towards the entrance. They were a few steps behind me, so I knew we were going to make it. We had to!

I made it out of the cave, but I tripped on something and ate dirt. I turned to see if Elba and Ov were behind me. But they weren't. The lights of the cave seemed to have disappeared, replaced by pure darkness.

I hesitated, wondering if I should continue walking. I'll wait for a bit longer. It was quite eerily so 'till I heard something rolling in the light.

Elba and Ov... Their heads... I puked my guts out. Is this some kind of joke? I started casting Spare the Dying.

'You don't have time for that Mercedes! Run!'

"No, I have to save them!"

'If you won't, then I'll make you!' My feet started moving on their own.

"Stop this, Selune!" I tried to fight back, but I couldn't.

"Stop This!"

'Could you shut up! I'm trying to save your life!' I suddenly couldn't speak. This b-