As still as he could, Lee continued to play dead as his eyes zeroed in on the puddle of blood left behind from Emaz. There wasn’t much evidence left of the grievous wound he’d inflicted with Spear of Eternity, but it kept his focus as he tried to ignore the garish sounding chomps from whatever had come to clean up after him.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably only a minute, the sounds of feasted faltered. Around his ankle, he felt a strong limb grab hold. Ever so slowly, his body was dragged across the stone floor. Not far, only ten or so feet, but he knew… not from his wisdom or any sort of system related effect, but from instincts, that something he didn’t want to fuck with was right next to him.

The limb that dragged him across the floor traveled up his body, pressing along his sides until it reached his head. Then, it gave him a little smack. “Wake upz. Stoopid. I kno ur not dead.”

Knowing that he wasn’t going to get a miracle escape twice in five minutes, Lee twisted his neck as far as he could in an attempt to peer over his shoulder. His muscles strained from the hyperextension, but he got one of his eyes to register what was behind him.

It was a chest. More specifically, a monster chest with a barbed toothy tongue coming from within. A quick Identify made him close his eyes and sigh. Ahh… fuck…

Mimi - Mimic - Level: 572 Prime Morphlord (Legendary)

The mimic jostled her chest-lid a bit, then used its tongue to physically pull itself forward into his view. “I ober-reacted… I thought you waz dead. Shame sent me. Teh god.”

Hearing that bit of news caused his former sigh of defeat to turn into a sigh of relief. Slowly, Lee pushed himself up, then stood before the large, talking chest. “Shane, the God of Travel, sent you?”

The lid flipped and flopped as its tongue wriggled like a whip in what Lee assumed to be excitement. “Yez! Godly quezt! One sekond…”

Before his swirling eyes, the chest collapsed upon itself. The wood turned into a clay-ish colored material, before taking the form of a humanoid. Less than a second later, a tall familiar elven man stood in front of him. He wore the same clothes and armor, had the same white top-knot hairstyle, and had the same weirdly tipped spear—It was Jud.

Jud, or Mimi, did a little shiver as he looked uncomfortable. “This form is gross.” He clenched his eyes closed, then looked like he was going to barf, before opening them back up and giving Lee a sheepish look. “Hello again, Mr. Barnes.”

“Jud?” Lee asked, unsure of what the hell was even going on anymore.

“The same. I am glad you took my words to heart back in the Shadowgrove.” Jud replied before turning to peer past Lee toward the entrance.

Turning around to see what he was looking at, Lee caught the approach of a massive metallic form, Em. He was about to run towards her and tell her how glad he was to see her again, when the other two people following came into view. The first two people he’d ever met in this second life came into his sight, and he couldn’t help but smile. The situation was shit, everyone knew that, but reuniting with them was uplifting nonetheless.

Seeing all three of them together, Lee continued on his original plan of running forward. Em noticed immediately, her worried face transitioning into a feral grin of delight at his sight. She scuttled forward to meet him halfway, then held out her arms and kicked her leg-like fangs in anticipation. Without further ado, Lee jumped into her sturdy torso as she lowered down a more comfortable level.

Lee wasn’t going to lie and say that the timing of his Anesthiliosurge could have been better, as it faded away as soon as he face planted into Em’s sturdy metallic frame, embracing her in a hug. “Worst fear came true. Got captured.”

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Em snorted as her hand came and held the back of his head close as they embraced. “Good thing you have a stalwart paladin, no?”

Lee broke off from the hug and gave her the most sincere look he could manage as the emotions from the past hours finally caught up with him. “Thank you for coming for me. I mean it.”

Em cringed, then looked back towards Mimi. “Didn’t have much of a choice to be honest. Kinda got dragged along for the ride. I guess I know what it feels like now.”

Approaching from the side, Neia and Ruven came around and gave Lee the most ‘I’m so sick of this shit, but it's nice to see you.’ look imaginable. He quickly strolled forward and hugged them as well. “Not the most ideal of circumstances, but I’m not going to complain.”

Neia returned to hug with care, but Ruven gave him a strong and powerful embrace. Ruven spoke first. “First time meeting in months and this is what you spring upon us? A fucking dragon?”

Neia was silent, looking around the large cavern at the absolute fortune stacked within. Less than a quarter of it was damaged from the previous battle. “Share some of the loot, and we will call it even.”

That got some laughs. “Oh, you bet your ass I am taking everything I can store. Feel free to join. More than enough to go around.”

“Score! Even more rewards!” Jud/Mimi exclaimed. Turning around, Lee saw him siphoning up a wad of coins with his hand like a vacuum cleaner.

Putting that out of his mind for now, his mind wandered back to the prisoners he’d told to stay behind. Exiting out into the long corridor outside the room, Lee shouted back the way he came. “It’s safe now! Come on forward! Time for freedom!”

A minute later, the small group of fearful prisoners neared. Each were still pumped up on adrenaline and worse for wear, but Lee was sure that with a level 57-fucking-2 on their side, that they were good for a little bit.

As they entered the room, Lee caught the looks of pity and horror from his friends—and Jud/Mimi.

Neia spoke first, managing to overcome her shock the fastest. “What the fuck!?”

It took a solid five minutes for Lee to explain what had happened, their previous situation, and the battle that had just happened. During the conversation, Lee was busy storing as much loot as he could into his now massive Hidden Cache, filling it to the brim with coins, weapons, armor, and a singular painting which he found pleasing. He handed out small bags he’d used for enchanting in the past, passing them out to the escapees so that they could get a sizable chunk themselves.

After he finished explaining the past few hours, he asked a very important question. “Did you guys see Dendros? The Dragon?”

All of his friends shook their heads, but explained their own battles (Massacres) since they arrived in Felispar. It saddened him to know that Jeremy was dead, but after that absolutely vile betrayal, it was warranted. It still hurt a little bit—the betrayal part, that is.

“Well, he’s not here. He also left his horde. So, I doubt he left permanently.” Lee said, causing Em to shrug.

She didn’t look too concerned, and that in itself was concerning. “Out of our paygrade for now. Probably forever if I’m being honest. We should probably just… leave? Go somewhere else?”

Lee shook his head. “We can’t. The Dark Elves literally just got here. I didn’t waste my energy to get them the freedom they deserved just to leave a dragon on their lap the minute they arrive.”

Neia paused in filling up her own sack of valuables. “Thanks for that. The freedom…” She murmured.

Lee waved it off. “I made a promise. We’re even now. You know, for saving my life and not killing me on sight.”

With a giant exaggerated sniff, Em scuttled over. “I smell… secrets…”

He gave her a solid look. She was joking, like she always did, but it was about that time. If anyone had earned his trust on the matter, it was Em. “Yup. We’re talking about how they saved my life and spared me when I came to this universe, dimension, planet, whatever. I’m not just from this continent, Em. I’m not from here at all.”

To her credit, Em didn’t look to shocked. She raised an eyebrow as her red eyes scanned his head to toe with a suspicious gaze. “Alien?”

Lee opened his mouth to say no… but yeah, he actually kind of was. “Yeah.”

She gave a solid nod, armed crossed and eyes closed, deep in thought. “Explains a lot. Oh, well!” Instantly, she scuttled away towards a pile of glistening metal weapons and armor.

He watched her go as Ruven and Neia both stared at him like he was an idiot for explaining his past to Em. “Didn’t go as expected, but could have been worse.” He shrugged. “Dendros could have shown—”

An enormous roar, the falling of dust from the cavernous ceiling, and the shaking of the very mountain they stood in caused everyone to lower their stances and weather the sudden storm. After ten seconds of no further activity, Em smacked Lee upside the head.

Lee looked back at her furious face. She sneered. “You just had to speak it into existence…”