"You went back to making the ring," Volzaminat complains.

He's pouting right now because Kyron and I chose to clean up instead of continue, and after Kyron and I pulled our pants back on, I got back to working on the ring. I'm not pouting, yet I lost the chance to obtain a magical resource! Upon seeing my trick for cleaning up using flames that only burn away what I want them to, Volzaminat decided to try that on himself out of curiosity.

"Why are you making another ring?" Volzaminat asks.

"Because I'm still figuring out what I want to do for the sword," I answer.

"What sword?"

"The sword that I'm going to make for Kyron before we go into the Dungeon," I answer. "To help him fight some of the monsters while we're in there, but not reduce his Experience gains too much."

"What kind of sword will it be?"

"That's what I'm thinking about right now."

"So what's this ring going to?"

"Blow up spirits who ask too many questions."

"How does that work?" Volzaminat's face is completely serious, and Kyron is trying not to laugh.

"I'm about to start the etching process," I tell him. "And from the moment I start until the moment I've finished putting in the etching fluid, I need absolute concentration as even a tiny mistake can completely ruin the ring."

Thankfully, Volzaminat returns to just watching, all the way up until I finish the ring. It's carved from a bluish-white ice crystal, and the crystal etching fluid is whitish-grey.

[[Blizzard Bomb] Ring] Grade: Master Uses: 0/100 Water Mana: 0.00/250 Air Mana: 0.00/250 This ring was crafted by an expert among expert spellsmiths. The spell [Blizzard Bomb] can be used at 35 Magic for 1 use, and it recovers 1 use for every 50 Water Mana absorbed and 50 Air Mana absorbed.

Perfect!

"Here," I toss Volzaminat the ring, and he catches it, then inspects it.

"This doesn't say anything about blowing up spirits who ask too many questions," he seems genuinely confused.

"It's a matching ring to the other," I tell him. "While one is being charged, the other can get some use. Or not, if you decide not to loan it out."

Volzaminat continues inspecting the ring, and I add a small bit more wood to the cooking fire, then stir the stew and taste its liquid. I ask Kyron for a few more ingredients from his ring, prepare them, add them to the pot, then stir it.

The spirit adds the ring to his necklace, and I pull out the chunk of mithril to separate off a portion of it, enough to make another sword. I also pull out other items from my ring and Kyron's, then get to work on making a new sword. In order to avoid making it too powerful, I use my more rushed method of spellsmithing, like I've been doing lately.

Crafting the sword still takes me a couple of hours, and when I finish it, I examine the work. A whitish-grey mithril blade with a frosty look to it when the light catches it, bluish-white runes in the fuller. The pommel is shaped like a short tornado at the bottom of the spiral grip, a bluish-white ice magic crystal set into it.

For the crosspiece, there's a snowflake pattern on either side of the center, another ice magic crystal set into that. The crest for the element of air is to either side of that, close to the end of the crosspiece, and a whitish-grey air crystal is set into each of those four.

[Frezamikat, the Ice Storm] Grade: Master This sword of blizzard mithril was crafted by an expert among expert spellsmiths. The durable metal of this sword will resist damage and keep its edge for a long time. All ice and air magics channeled through this sword will cost 15% less Mana and possess 30% more Magic. Those who can weather winter's fury are a sight to behold.

I honestly probably could have given it a spell or two for Kyron to use, but that will reduce the amount of Experience he gains further, even if he doesn't use the spell. He would use it, though. While this sword is slightly worse in terms of cost reduction and power increase than his other sword, it's also designed to harness two elements.

"The edge is sharp," Volzaminat is inspecting the sword from up-close. "Yet no grindstone was use, no whetstone, nothing you'd normally see someone use to sharpen a blade. I've seen spellsmiths repair and make weapons before, yet… how did you do that?"

"You probably only saw amateur spellsmiths," I tell him. "Any advanced spellsmith knows how to create sharpened edges directly during the forging process. It needs normal maintenance, though – I can't simply use my magic to sharpen it again. I had to use those staffs just to forge it, and now that the metal's cooled and strengthened, enchantment's set, trying to use magic to do it would be difficult. A strong enough mage could, but they'd end up ruining the enchantments and weakening the sword."

"Curious," he murmurs, and I hand the sword to Kyron, then make a sheathe for the blade, handing that over as well. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Serve dinner."

We eat dinner, and the spirit enjoys three bowls of it while muttering insults about my cooking the entire time. I'm kind of amused that he's still trying to fight the growing respect for me he has in favor of attempting to continue holding that grudge.

"Have you overheard or talked with adventurers about what's inside of the Dungeon?" Kyron asks as I start cleaning the dishes used.

"In what sense?" Volzaminat returns to sitting against the wall, watching us. "Are you wanting to know what's inside of it?"

"Yeah," Kyron answers. "Knowing this can help us better-prepare for entering, which will help improve how quickly we can do the Dungeon. It also means less will surprise us, and decrease the overall risk while we're in there."

"Hmm…" Volzaminat muses over his response. "How would it help you better-prepare when you're going in tomorrow?"

"It will let us know which spells we should focus on improving tonight," I snuggle back up again Kyron, grateful that magic makes cleaning dishes so much faster. "Before we go in. It would be silly to practice a spell like [Water Jet] if it's not going to be of much use. The monsters that we'll face, its terrain, the elements, and so on can all affect the strategy used inside. Whether we'll need a lot of small, individual-target spells or more area-based spells will be good to know, as it tells me what to focus on decreasing the cost for. Are monsters shelled or soft-skinned? Would bolt-type spells or piercing-type spells be more effective within the Dungeon? There are many things that go into preparing for a Dungeon run."

"We already know that it's fire-earth primarily, since you said there are three lava golems in it," Kyron says. "A Dungeon of this Tier wouldn't normally have more than three golems in it, and if it does, the Boss is one. The Boss is always of the primary element or elements of a Dungeon, except in certain cases. Knowing that can let us prepare some potions for it, too."

The Dungeon's entrance also tells us some information about it, such as its primary elements. This one also has a rune we never did figure out in our era. Anytime we see it, it's on both sides of the entrance and is below several more runes. That rune and those above it are always more runes than most entrances normally have, but that one's the only one that was never figured out.

Now I want to know if that was discovered, but we're not back at the camp, so we can't just ask.

Well, he says "us", but he means "Caleb", because he's absolutely terrible at alchemy.

"So that's why people were always curious about what's inside my Dungeons," the spirit mutters, and Kyron quickly puts a hand over my mouth.

That's confirmation that he does interact with people, more so than just this cave is. It sounds like it's not an uncommon for him to make himself known to people, and then they ask him about what's inside.

"Stop licking my hand!"

"Stop putting it over my mouth."

"You were about to say something rude, weren't you?" Volzaminat narrows his gaze at me.

"Only that an idiot doesn't ask people why they want to know a lot of stuff!"

The fire on his halo triples in volume and turns white for a few moments before returning to normal, white flames flowing around his bracelets and anklets for those few moments as well. He takes a few deep, aggravated breaths before speaking.

"This isn't because of the irritating brat," Volzaminat states. "But a condition I give to all mortals who ask me for information about one of my Dungeons."

"What is it?" I ask. "I don't mind sharing lava crystals from inside with you, you seem pretty nice."

"Of course I'm nice! I'm an ancient and powerful lava spirit!" Volzaminat huffs indignantly. "The condition is that you run the Dungeon naked. You can still wear a belt to hold a weapon, or a quiver for arrows, or jewelry, and I allow up to three packs to be taken for this. But you cannot wear clothes or boots. Obtain this information and refuse to follow, and I will encase you in lava, slowly cooking you alive."

"I imagine," Kyron says. "That you require them to leave all clothes out here? Though some people might make clothes from resources obtained within."

"Ha!" Volzaminat laughs. "As if I need to do that to know it's followed while within. What do you think I am, some half-formed spirit who's only a few centuries old?"

He bursts into his elemental motes, which quickly coalesce together. Within seconds, he's back in his fox form, but it's completely solid in appearance this time, no transparency at all. The necklace with the pair of crystal rings is hanging from his neck, and I'm glad to see that… he was able to double-loop it while making the transition, because it apparently was too long just on its own.

I suppose that's natural, though, considering the difference in size between a person's neck and a fox's.

"I can enter the Dungeon while in this form," Volzaminat boasts, his body wiggling a little in his pride before he struts over to us. "I can't gain Experience in there and monsters I kill don't drop loot, but I can still accompany a person inside. Whether or not you accept my request, I'll be traveling with you. I need to, to ensure you know where to find the two golems that aren't the Dungeon Boss. And consider yourselves honored, as you're the first mortals I've ever revealed this to!"

Which means he's snuck in with all other groups he's made this offer of information to, and very likely doesn't count toward the cap of people inside. Many stronger Dungeons can have semi-friendly monsters inside, so those who went through his Dungeons might not have suspected anything odd about him.

"Hey! Stop treating me like I'm some child's pet!" Volzaminat swats at my hand with a paw.

"If you didn't want me to pet you, why'd you rub against my leg?"

"I did no such thing!" He stomps back over to where he'd been sitting, returning to his foxkin form. "Don't make things up!"

He started rubbing my leg after I started petting him.

"Alright," Kyron says before I can say something. "So in exchange for us getting information about the Dungeon, you want us to run it completely naked?"

"My knowledge does not come free," he states. "And you mortals have an annoying tendency to hide your bodies, as if ashamed of them."

"It's how our society is," Kyron states. "And most people can't just resist the temperature too much, so it's especially needed when they go too low, which is also why most prefer to do things which cool them off when it's too hot."

"Excuses, excuses," the spirit states. "That is my rule."

"So you want us to get you some stuff from within the Dungeon," I say. "But also require us to do other stuff just to acquire information that will make it easier and faster for us to get that? I guess you aren't in much of a hurry for it. Here I was, thinking it might have been awhile since you got any of good quality, too. I guess some spirits do start losing interest in things as they get older."

Kyron opens his mouth to say something, and I stop him with a kiss.

"I guess that means just you and I will be eating my Dungeon cooking, too," I tell Kyron. "I mean, I'd have been willing to compromise on being bare-chested, but it seems Volzaminat is pretty firm on this."

"Your cooking isn't that good," Volzaminat says. "It's just been awhile since I last had human food, that's all it was. And it would be weird, seeing it flopping about. Always was with melee fighters in battle, and I've heard your style involves a lot of movement."

"Only if I start putting in more effort," I shrug. "Or am trying to prove a point or humble someone."

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"Ha! As if you could ever humble someone!"

"So are you saying you're fine with bare-chested?"

"Whatever," Volzaminat waves a hand dismissively. "The Dungeon's monsters are primarily fire-based at the start, with some earth-based monsters. As you travel further in, they start to have both aspects, and lava monsters begin showing up. Most monsters are boars, deer, and bears, with some birds and some golems. There are also fire elementals, earth elementals, and lightning elementals. Most runs also have one or two lightning elementals and one or two metal elementals. The terrain is a field at first, with a few streams, then a forest around a mountain. There are two lava golems inside of the mountain, in separate chambers, and a more powerful one at the mountain's peak, which can be reached through several paths. I don't know what's on the upper layer, as I can't fly in this form and no one else has ever gone up there."

"The upper layer?" Kyron and I ask at once. "What do you mean?"

"The upper layer," Volzaminat states. "It's a second layer to the Dungeon, though it's pretty high up. The few parties I've told about it never even attempted to reach it. Most doubted it existed, but I can sense something fairly powerful high up, so I'm assuming there's a second layer to the Dungeon. I've only sensed something like that in a handful of other Dungeons that I've gone in, and that half-brained icicle has mentioned sensing it in a few Dungeons, too. It seems as if no one ever believes they exist when told, and even those who claim to investigate claim they never found such a thing."

"Those Dungeons," I stand and approach the Dungeon's entrance. "All of the ones with it… do they have this rune on their entrance's frame?"

I point at the one that we never figured out in ancient times.

"Yes," Volzaminat answers.

Starting at Tier 2, a Dungeon can have "secret areas", typically with a special Boss and extra bonuses. At Tier 3, nearly all of them have at least one.

"A second layer to the Dungeon," I murmur, then look at Kyron. "Considering the spirit's attitude, most people probably think he's just being a jerk."

"What did you just say about me?"

"Not you, what they probably think of you," I tell him. "You do come off that way, so it's understandable they'd think you were trying to screw with them while giving them information. This is especially true for people who don't know spirits as well as we do."

Volzaminat is moody and agitated, and he has quite a temper, but he's not the type of spirit to intentionally put people in harm's way when he's trying to help them. Few spirits do, and those ones are easy to identify within a few minutes of conversation to anyone who's actually looked into spirits.

His casual mention of an upper layer to the Dungeon, and the way he responded to us asking about it, was enough to tell he's not trying to trick us. Had he been, he'd have tried making it sound like a good place to go to, lamenting the lack of goods from it because no one ever wants to believe him about it.

"If you let us feel how fluffy your tail is," I tell Volzaminat. "Not only will we see if we can find this 'upper layer' you believe exists in the Dungeon, but we'll even take you with us when we go up."

"I could just ride in your hood," he huffs. "My fox form is small enough for that."

"I can't be wearing my robe if I'm bare-chested, can I?"

"…you have to promise not to pet me again."

As if I'm going to pass up the opportunity to pet a creature as cute as his fox form. We'll see how long he grumbles after I give him a good scratch behind his ears. I know most canines enjoy that, and foxes are in the same family as dogs.

"So?" I ask. "Are we going to carry you up as we try to find this other layer? Or no?"

Reluctantly, Volzaminat comes over to us and lets us feel his foxkin form's tail. It's really quite fluffy, and quite possibly the softest, fluffiest thing I've ever touched before in my life.

"Don't you dare try taking some of my fur!" Volzaminat warns me.

"Wh-I didn't even start yet!"

"So you were going to try!"

"Well, yeah!" I answer. "It's not every day I can experiment with parts of a spirit and see what kind of magical items I can make with them!"

He quickly reverts back to his human spirit form.

"In the mudpots," Volzaminat says. "You'll face a few different types of monsters, including snakes, snails, and slugs, all attuned to the element of fire, sometimes the element of earth, and occasionally lava. There's a lightning-attuned snail Boss in one of the mudpot fields, and a metal-attuned one in another.

"At the rivers," he continues. "There are floating fish, which typically either just try to ram and bite you or use [Water Jet] to try to rip your skin off. Some will discharge electricity into the air around them. You'll also face magical salamanders in various areas, with water, fire, and earth being certain for encounters, while lightning and metal ones are less common but still sometimes show up.

"At the mountain," Volzaminat moves back to his preferred seat in here. "There are ruins of a shrine at the top, which is where the Dungeon Boss waits. You'll face various golems, salamanders, lesser giants, and lesser wyverns on your way up. The lesser wyverns will only be faced inside of the mountain if you go to a certain group of caves. Otherwise, the route up the mountain through the caves is filled with golems, salamanders, lesser giants, and spiders."

"This seems a rather diverse ecosystem for a Tier 2-3 Dungeon," Kyron says.

"That's Tier VII, right?" I ask, and he nods. "It's a Specialty Dungeon, isn't it?"

It's rare for a Dungeon that low in Tier to have that much variety, even if they are expansive. Most Dungeons stick to around five monsters and their variants until Tier IX or so, regardless of how large they are or how many different terrains they are. Er, Tier 3-1. Normally, we'd be facing the same five monsters over and over, just with elemental variants. Boars in the fields, boars in the forest, boars in the mudpot fields, boars at the river, boars on the mountain – stuff like that.

Just from what Volzaminat has said, there are at least fourteen different monsters for this Dungeon. Now that I'm thinking about it, all of the Dungeons like that had that unknown rune on their entrances. I should've remembered that sooner.

"No," Volzaminat answers. "All of the Dungeons with the upper layer have a bunch of monsters."

"Yeah, I just remembered that about the ones with that rune," I say. "I'm now curious about that upper layer."

"We going to explore it?" Kyron asks.

"Of course!" I answer. "The mage in me wants to find out what resources we could potentially find up there! If it's a hidden layer that people don't know about, there must be some special stuff up there!"

"Should've known," Kyron chuckles. "What kind of prep do you think we need for the run?"

"Since I don't know anything about the upper layer," I say. "I'm not sure what to prepare for there. The Dungeon has a variety of monsters that will necessitate piercing and force attacks, with water and air being the primary. We can get away with using air magics against the water-based monsters. You just focus on your weapon spells, and I'll work on my bolts and arrows, with some barriers and a little bit of bombs."

"Don't try to annoy them into fighting each other," Volzaminat tells me. "That doesn't work with Dungeon monsters."

This is starting to really annoy me, but I'm not exactly the kind of person who just starts threatening people over stuff like that. With the frauds, that was a different situation entirely. They were deceiving people and tricking them, and I was simply trying to humble them and dispel their lies. I didn't exactly threaten them, either, I simply challenged them to a fight.

Volzaminat is much too powerful for me to challenge, and I don't exactly have anything that could actually hurt him while he's not in a truly physical form, anyway. The only reason Kyron and I haven't left over the spirit's treatment of me is because we know he'd just flex his significantly more powerful magic to stop me – and possibly kill me.

I just want to have fun, use magic, make stuff, and research magic. Volzaminat is killing my mood more than a little, and it's going to make the Dungeon run a massive chore rather than a fun experience.

Something draws my notice and I look toward the entrance of the cave, and a moment later, a throne with a god appears. The throne was carved out of a single piece of grey stone, mountains carved into its sides. The mountains' caps have white, as if snowy, and one on each side has a design like a lava stream flowing down it. The cushions are snow-white, and the top of the throne is jagged, like mountaintops, with white peaks.

Seated upon it is Nizkovi, the God of Earth himself. His body is lean but muscles defined, his skin fair, his hair an earthy brown and his eyes the color of caramel. A splash of freckles cross his nose and cheeks, adding a slight cuteness factor to his face (or would, if he were clothed and hiding his sexy body). On his right wrist, he wears a bracelet made of plant fibers, a greyish-brown color from the fibers having been dried. A trio of white beads are set into the part of the bracelet opposite the knot.

Nizkovi's gaze is stern and fixed on Volzaminat. I snuggle up against Kyron, holding him in a hug from the side. He wraps his right arm around me as I rest my head against him.

"Dad!" Volzaminat exclaims after a few seconds, overcoming his shock at one of the gods showing up. "What brings me this ho-"

"Silence, Volzaminat," Nizkovi's voice is firm, and the spirit silences. "Caleb came here to apologize to you and has agreed to grab you some items to add to your collection. You are intent on insulting him and being rude to him, instead of giving him another chance. This is over a thousand-year-long grudge you have because of a mistake an eleven-year-old boy made."

"He called me-"

"You insulted him first," Nizkovi says without mercy. "Caleb did not agree to help you because of your threat, Volzaminat. He knew that should you have actually attempted to follow through on it, Ryzavin and I would have directly intervened and stopped you."

"You never interfere with a spirit's business!"

"We rarely interfere with a spirit's business," Nizkovi says. "You are the natural forces of the world, with some of you given intelligence. The spirits that form you were born of this volcano's fury in ancient times. Ryzavin and I saw potential in you, and that is why we granted you a portion of our essence, to give you more strength to more properly influence the world.

"What we do not allow," the god continues. "Is intentional and deliberate long-term damage caused by spirits. The reason Ryzavin showed up after Caleb pissed you off when he was eleven was not because of you. It was to ensure Caleb did not go around, continuing to cause natural disasters in the hope of getting a Class."

"But-"

"We couldn't care less about your feelings," Nizkovi harshly tells the spirit. "What we do care about is you harassing the greatest hero and mage this world has ever known because of a mistake he made when he was only eleven years old – and something he came here specifically to apologize for. He even brought you an item you like as a gift."

"It-"

"The reason Caleb agreed to help you and get you those three cores," Nizkovi states. "Is not because of your threat. He did it because he wanted to it up to you, for his mistake when he was eleven. Nothing more, and nothing less. It was his way of strengthening his apology. Your treatment of him is now making him want to help you even less. The only reason he hasn't turned back and left now is because he's scared that you will try to kill him if he does."

"I-"

"And that is exactly what you would do," Nizkovi glares at him. "Because of your temper. We do not mind you holding a grudge for a thousand years. What we do mind is your treatment of someone trying to apologize to you over a mistake they made as a child."

Volzaminat opens and closes his mouth several times as he attempts to think of a response, but finds nothing he can say under Nizkovi's stern gaze. Finally, the spirit figures out how to respond – and it's by bursting into motes of light and vanishing.

Nizkovi inhales deeply, then sighs before looking at me, his gaze softened.

"I know what you're thinking, Caleb," he says. "And finding stronger lava golem cores wouldn't have helped. Volzaminat is more resilient to changing than most spirits you've interacted with. Had you brought him stronger cores, he'd have pushed for runs in stronger Dungeons and still been as much of an ass to you as he has been."

"He was starting to be nice," I mutter. "But then he went back to insulting me."

The spirit did, too – he liked my food, even if he made small complaints about it, and he did seem to enjoy watching Kyron and me have sex, as uncomfortable as having an audience was. Normally, insults don't faze me because I know the people giving them are just idiots and cowards. I think this was affecting me because of the reason I was here, though – I really wanted to make things right with Volzaminat after my childhood mistake, and he just kept finding ways to insult me.

Nizkovi looks upward, toward the back of the cave. He's probably looking at wherever Volzaminat went – that's the direction of the volcano's main chute.

"I do apologize for that," Nizkovi looks at me again. "We don't know how a collection of spirits will turn out when we imbue them with our essence to turn them into a higher spirit. Volzaminat was starting to develop a small bit of respect for you over the cooking and your gifts, then realized that was a stupid thing to do because they were absolutely minor compared to what you did in the past. He's still angry about the comments you made back then, as well as the fact that Ryzavin stepped in to save you from his wrath after you dodged the initial burst of lava."

"All I wanted to do was apologize," I mutter.

"I know," Nizkovi states. "Come here."

I stand and approach the god, and he gestures for me to step to his left. Once I'm beside his throne, Nizkovi pulls me in for a hug with his left arm, giving my hair a light ruffle with his other hand. He gives me a kiss on the forehead, then releases me.

"You're an exceptional mage, Caleb," Nizkovi says. "We don't know how or why you were resurrected, but we're all quite happy for it. You deserve to live out the rest of your life as you are. We aren't going to interfere if your own actions put your life in danger, but we will when it's a natural force deciding to act up."

Just as they always have.

"This was caused by my-"

"It was caused by his inability to let go of a grudge developed against an ignorant child," Nizkovi tells me. "If it makes you feel any better, he's currently polishing the golem core you gave him as he decides on where to stick it."

"Probably also hoping I disappear."

"He does want you to leave and never return," Nizkovi confirms. "But I'm sure you'll be fine staying the night. The first time we intervened with his wrath, he sulked in his den for a month, and the people he was going to detonate his volcano over were still here for a few days before they left."

"So I'm not the first?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "This would be the third time we've stepped in to say something to him. We do normally let spirits let out their wrath, but there are times where they go bit more extreme than we would like, or against someone who isn't quite deserving of it."

"Like a young man," Kyron says as I return to him. "Who made a mistake as a child and who came to apologize for it."

"Or someone who killed one of the spirit's pets because it wandered too far from the den and started destroying the crops for a nearby settlement," Nizkovi nods. "As is what happened a few centuries ago. Volzaminat decided to erupt his volcano and smother the town with lava over that, and Ryzavin and I stepped in and redirected the flow and told him not to punish humans for protecting themselves against monsters."

There's probably a lot more to that incident and intervention than Nizkovi is mentioning, but I'm okay with not knowing… sort of.

"What about the first incident?" I ask. "If you don't mind me asking that."

"That was long before you were born," Nizkovi tells me. "About a thousand years before. A young mage much like you insulted him in response to his own actions, and Volzaminat decided to gather up many earth and fire spirits and lead them against the mage's homeland. That is the true origin of the Fire Plains. It was one of the few times we didn't intervene right away for something more large-scale, and it completely reshaped an immense stretch of land."

I knew spirits had some ability to affect the world, but for them to completely change terrain and turn it into something like the Fire Plains? That's actually within their power? We knew that they weren't always the Fire Plains, but it was thought that the gods altered the terrain into that.

Then again, it's rare for higher spirits to do more than a single calamity, like a volcanic eruption, so I guess it makes sense we wouldn't have known it was them. Especially if the gods made an effort to hide that information, which I'm guessing they did.

"Regarding the Dungeon," Nizkovi says. "Now that you know about the 'hidden layer' that some have, we can reveal some information to you. The 'hidden layer' in the Dungeons which have them is known as 'the Forbidden World', and it consists of a terrain and monsters that are metal and lightning, though with aspects of the Dungeon's main layer as well. To access it, you must first defeat the Dungeon Boss, then ascend higher from there. They are three Dungeon Tiers higher in difficulty than the main layer was, and cannot be left once entered until the Forbidden World Boss is defeated."

"You know about them?" I ask.

"We do," he nods. "But whatever being created the System and its Dungeons put in a rule that we cannot reveal them to people who do know already know of their existence. It was impossible for us to reveal this to you before."

"How many people have learned about it?" I ask.

"Among people?" Nizkovi asks. "Three. The mage who sealed away the demons their first run, the Golden Knight, and now you. Between the other two, only the Golden Knight knew more than just their existence, and he figured it out on his own."

"Alright," I say. "Thanks for the information, Nizkovi. And for the help with Volzaminat."

"You're welcome," he gives a small dip of his head. "Is there anything you'd like, Caleb?"

Now that Kyron has told me what he did… I know what the god is asking. Right now, I'm still uncertain about how that whole thing could work, since I am in a relationship. That's confusing me. Besides…

"The stuff with Volzaminat has upset me a lot," I tell him. "I just want to cuddle Kyron and sleep."

"Alright," Nizkovi says. "Enjoy your rest, Caleb, and may your dreams be wonderful."

The god vanishes, and I snuggle up against Kyron.

"Can we go to bed now?"