The Rhino Clan had rushed over when it looked like their boss would lose, yelling and ready to fight, but Samba released her as soon as she passed out and kicked her off to the side. Georgia's consciousness was slowly returning and she sucked in air off beside him.

Gi walked over to Samba, his Elite's eyes squinting against the daylight as he panted on his back. Assuming Gi could force them to comply, Samba's victory here had saved them an unnecessary fight and won them some new allies. More clan members meant higher Encampment levels which meant higher spawn rates.

"Good job," Gi said to the recovering Samba and his Elite smiled through his exhaustion.

Poe had flown over to where the Rhinos had gathered around Georgia. Many of them seemed angry at the loss though Gi wasn't sure if they were angry about the consequences of her losing or simply the outcome. Poe, for his part, had started yammering to the barely conscious Georgia.

"I'm so excited for us to go on a date! I've been thinking of ideas for like the last twenty minutes so it will definitely be great! When do you think we should go? Is now too soon? It's too soon, isn't it? Maybe we do it tonight? Is that too late? Do you have an early bedtime?"

Poe didn't stop talking, but Gi just tuned him out. Instead he turned to the concerned looking Subgenitor of their clan. "Do you intend to follow through with your promises?"

Georgia from her place on the ground yelled out, "We'll join your stupid clan."

Gi smiled. "Good talk." He turned to Tiria who'd come up behind him with both Kumo and the twins. Kumo looked a little disappointed that this attack hadn't devolved into violence, but Gi was glad the clan had some rest. They truly needed time to recover. "Tiria, let's get them settled in and set up around the former Illusor Clan crystal. I've still got my errand to run."

"As you wish, Progenitor," Tiria said, dropping into a bow with the Sign of the Mother. Gi's eyes fell back on Samba who'd sat up at this point with a big grin on his face. There was something to watching his Elite struggle for the clan. It wasn't something that the Father would care for, other than as a resource, but it felt too simple to lump it in with Danna's concept of family.

Whatever he was trying to figure out wouldn't come to him so he put it to the side and turned to fly away, but Georgia's voice stopped him.

"That's it?," she said, taking a labored breath as she rubbed at her throat. "Your guy beats me and you just fly off without another word?"

Gi glared down at her. "For you, I'm sure this was a big job from a Sky Clan. For me, it was a distraction from more important things."

Georgia's face screwed up like she'd just bitten into a lemon. "We were a ground clan once too."

"And now you are again. Do better for me than you did for yourselves."

The bitter expression on Georgia's face didn't go away and the Subgenitor glared at Gi angrily. Neither of them were able to argue though. He was right.

With that taken care of, Gi flew off towards the Library.

*****

Samba watched the Boss swim through the air up Igna. He kicked himself back up onto his feet and stepped over to Georgia. The rhino stared at the ground, thoughts churning around in her head after the Boss's comments.

Samba held out his hand. "Sorry about that," he said. "The boss has been on edge since the last attack on us."

Georgia took his hand and he pulled her to his feet. She looked back at her clan who all watched her. "He wasn't wrong though. We'd made it further than most, but... my decisions led us here."

Tiria walked up and patted her on he shoulder. "While an action might be a mistake, that doesn't mean that you are one too."

The Peach Clan Subgenitor looked teary eyed. "We have no regrets, Progenitor. We'd follow you into the den of the First One himself."

She pulled him into a hug and the rest of the clan moved in to hug as well. Georgia choked back tears as she spoke. "I'm sorry I lost today, but... it feels good to pass on the burden of leadership."

Samba scratched his head awkwardly as the group of Rhinos turned into a blubbering mess. Each of them kept apologizing and ensuring that everything was okay for everyone else. Each time they did, they'd pat each other on the back with a force that would deal serious damage to any non-Templar Underbridge member.

Poe was immune to the awkwardness though. He'd taken his enlarged form and flattened himself like a starfish to wrap several legs around their Subgenitor and Georgia. "Ahhhh, hugs are nice, right?"

Behind him, Kumo spoke up. "And that's my cue to leave."

She turned back towards the lake and performed a perfect dive into its shallow waters before kicking deeper beneath the surface. Wax and Wane followed suit shortly after, leaving Samba and Tiria to continue the chat with their newest members.

A few moments later, Georgia pulled herself out of the pile of mountainous Rhino bodies, peeling Poe off of her as she did. She considered the dragonfly that practically bounced in the air in front of her.

"You were the one that wanted to go on a date with me."

"Oh yeah!" Poe said. "Date time! Hype hype hype! Um, only if you want to though... like I mean... yeah."

Georgia tilted her head to the other side curiously. "But why though?"

It was Poe's turn to look confused. "What do you mean why? You're the most beautiful monster that I've ever seen. From the highest tip of Igna to the jungles of Myshk or the furthest point in the Barrens, I would fly through it all a thousand times just to glance at your glorious horn."

Samba wanted to face palm at Poe's cheesy line, but Georgia blushed a deep scarlet. "Well, I suppose we could... since you feel so strongly about it. We did agree to it after all and the Peach Clan are monsters of honor. Right, Babcock?"

The Subgenitor cleared his throat and shared an exasperated look with Samba. "Yes, Boss."

Poe let out a wild cheer and spun backflips in the air. Samba couldn't help himself; he laughed. It wasn't long until Tiria and all of their newest clan members joined in as well. It was hard to resist Poe's earnest good cheer.

*****

Gi touched down into the Bazaar. Like usual, the whole tier was bustling with monsters buying food or other items. He took a moment to take in that each of these different varieties of monsters represented a different clan. Some of them might be unambitious clans like Rocky's or broken ones like the Coastal Goblins had been. Still others were displaced like the Peach Clan or independent in some fashion like Elizabeth.

Every single species was a story. What story did his clan tell?

Watching Samba fight had unsettled him in a way that hadn't happened since he'd gotten the Heart of Crossroads. Perhaps, it was another aspect of his fate waiting for a moment to be realized. Then again, maybe it was the lingering anger that he had with Danna.

Either way, he tamped those feelings down. Feelings made you emotional and that rarely made you stronger. Gi flicked off [Concealing Light] and stepped into the Library and stopped.

Felix's lifeless body hung over the counter. Blood had pooled on the floor into a wide puddle that had even reached the door. That blood originated from almost perfect circles of gouged flesh that dotted the large snakes body.

Floating over the blood, Gi summoned two [Archbishop]s to his side and kept his Aether churning as he floated fully into the library. Every dark shadow around the rows of shelves seemed to hide a monster lurking just out of sight.

A tall green shape popped up from behind the counter, using Felix's body as cover. A giant bow made of teal light burst into being with a shining arrow pointed at its tip.

"Krayli?" Gi asked.

Unlike the last time he'd seen her ability, the light didn't quite shine like he'd expected it to. The bow itself was bright, but didn't release any light onto its surroundings. It was textured and curved in a way that light was not. Something had changed about her Skill, perhaps since she'd become a Classer?

She rose to her full height and released her Skill. "Gi," she said in acknowledgement.

He released his two summons as he wasn't concerned about Krayli even if she wished him harm. What he was more concerned about was the very monster that he'd intended to question lay dead in front of him. "What the hell happened here?"

Krayli raised an eyebrow before pointing to the dead Felix casually. "Noctua Dominus. We're in a library. What did you expect?"

Gi rubbed at his cheek in annoyance. He supposed that this was part of their general plan, but he'd been really hoping the librarian could answer his questions. "Why didn't you stick to the targets that we agreed on?"

Krayli snorted. "I killed them too, but I'm not about to wait on the rest. Any of them that I can take out, I will."

Ultimately, that was a good thing. Gi had no idea if they'd help whenever the time came to try and take on the Queen, but again, Gi needed answers. "Just... get out of here."

Krayli clearly didn't like being dismissed as she still hated him, but she'd already done what she'd come here for. Instead, she rolled her eyes and walked out of the library. Shadows seemed to cling to her as she took a step out the door, obscuring her features without necessarily hiding her in the bright light.

Gi turned back to Felix's corpse. "What a mess..."

First, he checked behind the counter, but wherever Felix kept his gold had been taken already, assumingly by Krayli. There weren't any other books or items behind the shelf so Gi started to explore the shelves themselves.

Realizing that it was going to be a bigger task than he thought, he brought his [Archbishop] domain to bear. They weren't exactly thinking entities, but Gi also didn't have to actively control them in combat either. He couldn't use them to scout or to really learn anything, but what he could do was to get them to find a symbol for him.

In this case, one of a few words: Stages, Aether, or the Dungeon.

His summons went to work, combing through each of the shelves and starting to create a pile of books for him. At first, Gi browsed the shelves himself, but as the books started to pile up from his summons, he realized that wouldn't be efficient with all the false positives he'd been getting.

Instead, he found a cozy chair stuffed with some kind of feathers in the back of the library and started going through all the books brought to him.

It was an odd assortment of books. Some were completely useless like "Stages of a Mainland Housewife." While others detailed things he already knew such as "Monstrous Stages Vol. 1." That last one had a lot of great information for the Child and Adolescent Stage including hidden achievements and tasks which there were a lot more of than he'd expected.

Something interesting that he found is that while the titles of the tasks were the same not all of them matched what he'd had to do. The Foundational Strength and Belief tasks seemed to be wildly different depending on the monster.

All the information that the book had on the prior stages only made it even more frustrating that he couldn't find the second volume even after having two of his summons look only for that.

As the day turned to night, he ultimately found two books that were useful. The first was a book on Aether. Gi didn't dig too deep into it, but it looked to have the same kind of information as the twins' tests and more. It should give him good information on what to expect from the Spiked Eagles.

The second was "The History of the Dungeon." The first part was a lot about the First One forging stronger monsters. The text was very flowery and religious so Gi skipped through it. He didn't have patience for religious texts at this point in his new life.

What it did have was a strange description of what appeared to be the only three times a monster could enter the Dungeon.

A Child sees past an Infant's light

so it is they must earn their might

An Adolescent sees past a Child's space

so it is they must earn their race

An Individual sees past a monster's slate

so it is they must earn their fate

He flipped it over to see the author. It read, "Felix of the Cobra Clan, Understudy." Gi tapped the book with one claw. From Richard's memories, he understood that an understudy was an actor not an author. So why did the snake call himself an understudy? Even if it was used in a similar mode, who did Felix study under? With the snake too dead to answer, Gi tucked the books into his [Expanded Pocket] and left the Library.

There was only one more place that he could hope to get answers without talking to the Sky Clans themselves.