Spatial Sense alerted me to the presence of three individuals in the back of the small Alchemist’s shop when I arrived.

A sign hanging from the door declared the Alchemist had entered the labyrinth, though I doubted that was truly the case unless he allowed others to use his shop.

Regardless, the front door was closed and locked – not that such things mattered much to me. Without an active ward, simple physical barriers posed no challenge.

After teleporting past the door and activating my [Stealth] talisman, I headed past the small customer area and through the door leading to the workshop in the back.

While I couldn’t sense anyone else besides the three individuals present, their movements indicated the trio were actively fighting against something, making me very curious about what was going on.

Since I’d designed my [Stealth] talismans to work in conjunction with others from the same batch, the identity of the attacker was immediately made obvious when I looked into the room.

The three struggling elves froze in place as I cast three simultaneous Stasis spells. Having been wholly focused on their invisible attacker and their obvious Force spells, the trio barely put up a resistance to the ‘protective’ spell.

The attacker paused in confusion for a split second when her telekinetically-controlled blades bounced off the time-locked elves. She was already turning when I spoke.

“I thought you were just investigating,” I commented before canceling my [Stealth].

The back of the shop had no windows, and while it was possible for people to see through such barriers, I wasn’t overly worried.

Zavira’s [Stealth] similarly fell away, and I noted her face was red in anger, though I could tell that it was not directed at my interference.

“I’ve already learned what we need to know,” she said tightly. “There’s no reason to let them continue threatening us.”

I glanced at the three frozen elves. Zavira’s Force Restraints had already dissipated, though bloody reminders of their presence remained.

“Did you sharpen the edges of the restraints?” I asked curiously, noting the deep gashes and thick trails of blood.

Zavira’s expression shifted to a light smirk.

“I did. It was very effective at limiting the amount of physical resistance the elves could use.” Pointing at the elf in the back of the room, she added, “That one learned the hard way and lost a hand.”

The elf she pointed at was surrounded by a bloody pool. His detached hand lay at his feet. Based on his time-locked expression, I felt certain the elf would have lost consciousness by now had I not intervened.

“So, what did you learn?” I asked curiously. Zavira wasn’t one for displays of anger like this, so I figured there had to be a reason behind her sudden attack on the Alchemist and his associates.

“These… pointy-eared racist assholes,” she pointed angrily, “are the ones behind the whole bounty. This one,” Zavira motioned toward a familiar elf, “is the mastermind. He is more offended that a half-breed was allowed to manage the sale of his former buddy’s possessions than he is that you killed his friend.”

“Actually listening to him,” Zavira continued, “I’m not sure he even cares about the whole duel thing at all. Practically all I’ve heard has been him talking crap about how his cousin’s uncle’s brother – or whoever – was rejected from the Hephaistos Sect when someone with a mixed race got in. It’s like he can’t even conceptualize a world where a half-breed would be favored over an elf.”

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. With how everyone had focused on the loot, I’d thought the whole problem centered on me killing the disciple and taking his stuff.

Voicing my question, I asked, “What about all the people trying to get the loot, then?”

Zavira waved a hand in frustration. “Sure, they want the loot too, but it isn’t what’s really motivating them. I get the feeling that these guys would have tried to cause issues for me, regardless.”

I frowned at that. “So, we eliminate them and that issue goes away, but it doesn’t stop all the greedy bastards from harassing us.”

“Well, the bounty will be gone, so at least there’s that,” she said with a weary sigh. “Honestly, I’m halfway tempted to just walk around openly to see who attacks. Maybe we can shorten our time on the floor that way.”

Zavira looked at me with a cold glint in her eyes. “Actually, why don’t we do that?” she asked. “I can walk around the town while you shadow me in [Stealth], then when someone attacks, you can freeze them, and we can take them out. Eventually, people will stop attacking because they’ve either gotten the message or anyone stupid enough to keep trying has been eliminated.”

“That’s… an option,” I conceded hesitantly.

And it was, it just wasn’t one that I particularly liked. Then again, I didn’t like the constant threat of attack either. The safe zones were supposed to be a place to relax from the constant stress of being on guard. They weren’t supposed to be another battlefield.

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At least with the E3 talismans, we wouldn’t have to worry about either of us getting killed or seriously injured by most attacks.

“You froze them individually, right?” Zavira asked, pointing at the time-locked elves in the room.

I nodded. Maintaining Stasis was almost effortless as long as nothing interfered.

“Great,” she said. “Can you unfreeze the one without a hand first? I’ll take care of the easy one first.”

Since Zavira wasn’t normally a blood thirsty murderhobo, her sudden viciousness should have surprised me. But after spending weeks alone in the labyrinth and then dealing with a bunch of people hunting us, I couldn’t really blame her for lashing out.

Zavira quickly and easily defeated each of the three elves as I released them from Stasis one at a time. I could have contributed more by using Pause or attacking in some other way, but my assistance wasn’t necessary, and I figured Zavira could use the extra experience anyway.

She was still a bit behind, even with her extra weeks in the labyrinth.

“We should empty this place out,” Zavira said when the last one fell. “Can you grab everything in the front of the store while I take care of everything back here?”

Feeling a little unsettled by Zavira’s actions, even if they made sense in the grand scheme of things, I silently reactivated my [Stealth] talisman and moved to the front of the shop. I didn’t want anyone to see me moving around in the shop through the windows, after all.

I quickly collected everything of value in the front of the store. I also removed the bounty, which I hoped would serve as a discouragement to anyone hoping to cash in.

On second thought, I retrieved the bounty and marked “RESCINDED” through it in dark red lettering, then attached it to the front window next to the sign marking the Alchemist as being in the labyrinth.

Hopefully, that would make those unfamiliar with me and Zavira think that the bounty had been fulfilled by someone else. It probably wouldn’t help if anyone saw us and thought we might still have valuable loot, but at this point, who didn’t?

Regardless, I really didn’t want to spend the next couple of decades avoiding everyone except for Zavira whenever I didn’t have a [Disguise] active, and I certainly didn’t think she wanted that either.

= = =

I heard a few people mumbling complaints about ‘missing out’ over the next few days, but that was about it. We only delayed our re-entry into the labyrinth to assess the challengers’ reactions to the news that the bounty had been canceled and the Alchemist had left the town.

I heard more people complaining about the latter than the former, which I took as a good sign. It seemed the Alchemist had ‘left’ without filling several orders, and several of the challengers were unhappy about it.

I found myself struggling to care.

I’d barely talked Zavira out of parading herself around the town as bait for greedy challengers. Only by agreeing to reconsider the option if the problem persisted did I manage to get her to let it go… for now.

“Ice or Metal?” I asked Zavira. Neither of us wanted to linger on the floor at this point, and the only way forward was to grind out levels.

I really didn’t like the thought of having to spend decades navigating mazes and fighting humanoid creatures, but I supposed that was the point of making the floor so miserable. If it was like the other floors, more people would probably make the floor a long-term home instead of giving up and leaving the dungeon.

It was quite devious of the original designer, in my opinion.

“Didn’t we already agree to Metal?” Zavira asked curiously. “I mean, you can Teleport, so I guess it doesn’t matter which one you enter, but I’d like to challenge the Metal Labyrinth this time.”

“That’s fine,” I assured her. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t change your mind since I’m pretty sure Metal will be the more challenging of the two.”

“I don’t think so,” Zavira said, shaking her head. “Besides, it’s good to mix things up a little bit.”

I couldn’t disagree. The labyrinths were very repetitive, especially at the lowest stages.

Using our disguises, Zavira and I had learned a little more about what to expect on the floor. At least this time, we weren’t going into the new zone as unprepared.

“Alright,” I said with a nod before stepping a bit closer.

“You don’t have to slow yourself down for me,” she added abruptly. “You have a time limit, and I don’t. Don’t feel bad about pushing ahead if you can. I’ll stick it out until I reach the eighth floor, regardless, so don’t drag your feet for me.”

Her sudden declaration made me pause and step back.

“Where is this coming from,” I asked.

“The Patriarch mentioned something in his last message,” Zavira admitted hesitantly. “It made me realize that I might be inadvertently causing you to hold yourself back on my behalf.” She sighed and glanced out the nearby window. “This floor setup makes it almost impossible to work together anyway, and we both know that you can progress much faster than I can.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘much faster,’” I hedged. “If anything, the increase would be minor, at best.”

Zavira shook her head. “There is no need to spare my feelings,” she replied. “Just progress as swiftly as you can manage safely. Let this serve as practice for later floors when I’m not here with you.”

I frowned at the unexpected shift in my friend. I wasn’t sure why she was suddenly pushing me to advance beyond her, but pushing the topic felt like it would be counter-productive.

Even half-dwarves could get ridiculously stubborn sometimes. While a lot of stereotypes really weren’t very accurate, especially those from old Earth fiction, that one was spot on.

I wasn’t sure what had been contained in the message from her Patriarch. Knowing that he and Master Kairos were observing our progression together… it could have been any number of things.

“I’ll do my best,” I agreed awkwardly before adding, “Hopefully, that doesn’t mean you’re going to avoid contacting me, though.”

“Of course not!” Zavira said with wide eyes. “I don’t think I could handle that much isolation! Besides, it’s not like we won’t stay in touch after we leave the dungeon, too.”

I hoped she was right, but I knew all too well how easy it was to slowly grow distant from those you only had intermittent contact with. No matter how much you cared or how important someone once was, time and distance made relationships infinitely harder to maintain.

While I still messaged my friends and family every month, I’d already experienced several gaps and missed messages from everyone except my parents. Even contact with Justin and Bell was growing less frequent as they found themselves settling into life on Hadier.

My parents likely would have gradually shifted to something similar if they hadn’t recently decided to move to Hadier to live near Justin and the kids.

Had they not found themselves suddenly expecting another child – talk about the butterfly effect – they probably would have stubbornly remained on Earth for years longer.

Even so, most of our recent discussions had centered on their upcoming move and the surprise addition to the family.

Knowing that I was going to miss the birth and the first years of my unborn sibling’s life was another regret, but I tried not to focus on the things I missed. Instead, I thought about the new opportunities my family now had because of my choices.

It was a small consolation, sometimes.