Sliver of Fate was a devastating weapon against the undead. More so when she imbued it with her mana. It was a one-off thing, so it was far too expensive to use against every undead she came across. But she knew it'd be invaluable when they inevitably faced the Sage in battle.

Currently, their group was on the second floor of a dungeon. It was nothing special, just a mausoleum that seemed to keep going further and further down. Ralrouk stayed on the surface. Unable to easily fit into the cramped dungeon. If they ran into anything that required mobility, he'd be a hindrance.

The rapier was large for Trillia's current size. She knew she'd grow into it fully by the time she was an adult, but for now, it was a bit difficult to use. Still, watching it light up with divine energy whenever she held it and burn through skeletons in a single attack was worth the slight loss in speed.

Maldoun had learned a new ability that they were currently testing. He and Ialu were holding off a small horde of twenty or thirty undead, funneling them into a tunnel. Glancing back at Trillia, he shouted. "Try it now!"

Trillia took a deep breath, draining a thousand mana to vanish the Sliver. She brought up the crossbow and stabilized it with her other arm. Dumping more and more mana into it.

"[Augmented Radiant Lance, Mana Cannon]!"

A cool sixty thousand mana drained as the tunnel in front of her became awash in radiant light.

As the light died down, Maldoun and Ialu stood there unharmed with no skeletons bearing down on them. Maldoun wore a smirk, and Ialu yipped and jumped around, wagging her tail.

Kismet pumped her fist next to Trillia. "It worked! It worked!"

Trillia grinned and wiped the sweat off of her forehead with her arm. "That's going to make a potent combination going forward."

Maldoun nodded, and the group moved forward with more confidence.

Mana Sage had become an evolutionary path to Mage the last time she had gotten Mage to max level. So she evolved it instead. Mana Sage also let her utilize known skills as a prerequisite to its skills. A bit of a mix-and-match-your-own attack. The ability that Maldoun had learned was an aura that made himself and all allies near him immune to radiant damage. This resulting combination would make horde work significantly easier.

"I wonder what other ways I can use Mana Sage to augment skills. I really wish we could utilize three classes. I want to keep Mana Sage and Monster Slayer. But also use Rune Fencer." Trillia didn't bother lowering her voice. The group often cleared these dungeons, and stealth was never on the table. The loot from them wasn't worth it at all. Mostly just rusted scrap gear and armor. If there was anything rare that could drop, they hadn't gotten it yet.

Kismet glanced at Trillia. "Why not use your divine skill for yourself for once? When we get back home, ask Lethe if you can obtain a third class?"

Trillia stopped in her tracks and looked at Kismet. "That's a really good idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

Kismet chuckled faintly as she shook her head, motioning for Trillia to keep up.

-=- Months Pass -=-

"This is frustrating!" Trillia groaned and lay her head on the table where half a dozen books lay open. "Lethe said that the way opens for the enlightened few. Why does it have to be so darn cryptic!"

Arlyss chuckled as he flipped another page in the book he was reading. Trillia shot him a glare. "I know you know how! Your cursed dragon half knows everything!"

Arlyss nodded absent-mindedly. "I know what Lethe is trying to tell you. But rules are rules, Trillia. I won't break the rules for that question."

"Rules are dumb." Trillia said simply before burying her face back in her book.

-=- Months Pass -=-

Kismet and Maldoun lay in a pool of their blood near a door. Ialu stood guard over them, covered in wounds herself. Trillia had already begun eating into her tenacity time. Turns out that when humans get extremely low on health, they pass out to avoid dying. Because of tenacity, orcs just keep fighting.

The undead serpent in front of them whipped its tail forward again. Trillia threw herself onto her back and watched the tail pass over her head. Ralrouk stood there unflinching as it slammed into him and flayed off more skin, spraying blood into the air. He roared in response and continued to rip bones off the creature.

Trillia stayed laying on the ground charging her crossbow again. She couldn't just coat Ralrouk in it since Maldoun and his aura were out of commission. Instead, the next time the tail swung by, she activated everything she could. All her Monster Slayer skills, radiant lance, and augments. All of it. Nearly a quarter of a million mana vanished as she sprayed the creature's tail with radiant energy.

The thing shuddered and screeched. Trillia winced, knowing that the attack did a small portion of health damage. Praying to Arlyss that her friends wouldn't die from the attack.

As the thing thrashed in pain, Ralrouk managed to catch its skull. The fight was over shortly after that.

Trillia collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. She could feel the seconds ticking down to her demise as she dropped her rapier and began rummaging in her pouch for any healing items. Ralrouk was at her side in a second, dumping a huge potion of regeneration down her gullet. Pinching her nose halfway, causing her to choke most of it down. She rolled to her side and began coughing roughly as she watched her health spike up.

Ralrouk moved across the room to the others and forced a drink down their throats as well. All in all, he went through three of the potions for the four of them before going through another two on his own. "I'll need to return home. The Elder Alchemist is the only one with skills high enough to transmute my regenerative blood with a healing potion to make these."

Trillia nodded weakly, still feeling exhausted and wiped out despite her health hitting max. As the others groaned and came to Ralrouk moved over to the corpse, inspecting the bones. "We could make some seriously strong armor with this stuff. Any objections to me taking it?"

Everyone managed to shake their heads with Trillia speaking up. "You're the only reason we aren't dead, brother. If you want the bones, take them. Just make sure to speak with Arlyss in case they are cursed."

Ralrouk nodded and began shoving bones into his storage space. It was an ability he had been expanding over recent months. The one good thing about all of this is that all of them were gaining incredible amounts of experience. Ralrouk held up a small necklace and peered at it. "This is an artifact. Definitely, something we'll need Lord Arlyss to inspect first. NO!"

The force of that no startled Trillia. She thought something had happened and tried to spring to her feet. She watched Ralrouk stuff the necklace into his pocket space as well. Fear-filled eyes looked toward him.

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Ralrouk glanced at her. "I uhhh... I just want to make sure the system knows. Father told me a story once of a man who said yes to something else, and a cursed artifact choked him to death."

Trillia groaned and flopped back on the ground. The doors on the far side of the room slowly opened and bathed the room in a sickly blue hue. All of them turned their eyes to the dungeon core. It was only seven or eight inches long. A relatively young core for such a potent guardian. The problem was that it had a small sickle carved into its surface. Another Sage corrupted core.

Ralrouk glanced at everyone before speaking. "Anyone have the strength to do the honors? Trillia, you haven't taken one yet. I think you should. The trait is potent, and the bonus experience for delivering the final blow is worth it."

They had been trying to convince her to smash one of the corrupted cores for the last seven dungeons. Something about it felt wrong, though. She was happy to kill the undead or attack an enemy she knew could respawn. Ralrouk snapped his fingers to shake her from her thoughts. "Think of it like a megapede, little sister. It's a beast that means to do harm to those you care about. Whether it can think or not is irrelevant. It's an enemy."

Trillia wanted to protest. After a moment, Ralrouk came over and hauled her to her feet. "There will come a day when you must turn your blade against humans and orcs. There will come a day when the people you strike down are just following orders like you are. It is better to work through this dilemma now when you are surrounded by people instead of freezing in front of an enemy."

Trillia nodded ever so slightly, and Ralrouk led her to the core. The swirling energy in it whipped around in a panic. Trillia raised the Sliver of Fate and imbued it. "May your next life be blessed in all the glory of the gods." She whispered the words and thrust forward with the rapier. The core didn't explode, nor did the dungeon shake and crumble. Instead, a small wisp of blue escaped through the newly formed crack, and the crystal-like structure of the core faded to darkness.

Trillia slowly removed the rapier's tip from the core. "Can we go home for a while? I just..."

Ralrouk hugged her and nodded. "Of course. We've done plenty."

-=- At Home -=-

Trillia still hadn't looked at the notifications. She sought out wisdom and reasoning for it. She knew deep down that it was the right choice. That the core would have kept spewing out creatures that wanted all living things dead. It still didn't feel right to her.

She found Stas in the farms tinkering with a machine. He was alone. It was, after all, quite late at night. "Hey, Uncle Stas. Do you have a moment?" Trillia would have never dreamed she'd go to the creature that terrified her when she first met him for advice like this.

Stas glanced at her, slowly lowering his tools. Trillia knew that he could read surface thoughts. Stas already knew why she was here. "Of course. What's bothering you, Trillia?"

His tone was different. She had always known him to have a cold, angry edge to his voice. But this was warm and welcoming. "Why do I feel so guilty? I shouldn't feel guilty."

Stas offered a smile and patted the ground next to him as he sat down. She walked over to join him, staring ahead at the machine he had been tinkering with. "You're a mortal and a good person. You go out of your way to help others. You should embrace that guilt. It's healthy. It's warning you that what you did, while necessary for you and your people. Was wrong."

Trillia had tears in her eyes. She hugged her knees to her chest as she stared hard at the machine. He continued. "It's when you can kill and not feel anything; That's when you need to worry. That's when you've lost sight of what you are. We mortals need to stand together. The universe is a big place filled with all manner of creature that sees us as less than insects. You did what you needed to do, Trillia. But always look for a better way."

She nodded through tears and buried her head into her knees as he wrapped an arm around her. "Go and speak with the Red River core. Ask if you can speak to his core without clearing the dungeon. I'm sure he can give you a perspective that I cannot."

Trillia nodded again and leaned against him. "I just want to run and play and not worry about any of this."

She didn't see the tears in Stas' eyes or the pained smile he forced on his face as he squeezed her a little tighter. "As all children do. But fate has served you a terrible path that you are now forced to walk."

The two sat in silence for a long time as Trillia just worked through her worries. She didn't see the megapedes as thinking living creatures. The dungeon goblins and wolves respawned and were friends she could laugh with. All of the undead she had come across so far had been unthinking brutes that followed the simple order of kill on sight.

The core. The core could think, could fear. Trillia felt it frantically reaching out to the floors of its dungeons, begging for help. She saw the strand leading to the sage be severed before she killed the thing. She knew that its last thoughts were that it had been a failure and had been abandoned. Trillia cried harder.

-=- 10th Birthday -=-

Trillia decided to spend her tenth birthday in a different way. She sat in the core room of the Red River dungeon. She had been blindfolded and led through the now twelve-floor dungeon. Everyone had left her and the core to their privacy. They all trusted Trillia not to harm the core. She had done so much for them. Trillia looked up at the four-foot crystal structure. A thousand small engravings spread through it of goblins and great cliffs and valleys.

Trillia smiled at the warm glow as divine energy and mana coalesced throughout the core, bathing the room in a soft red hue. "Thank you for seeing me. I was hoping I could talk to you about something I did recently."

For the first time, she heard the core's voice. It started as a small whisper of a connection before she could see an image in her mind. Closing her eyes to focus on it, she saw a goblin standing before her. He didn't look like most goblins. Standing well over a foot taller than the tallest goblin she had ever seen. Scars ran the length of his arms and torso. A loin cloth hung at his waist with no other clothes or decorations. His wrists had leather straps wrapped around them, holding long claws in place.

His eyes were a brilliant bright red, and he wore a warm, welcoming smile on his face. Despite his terrifying warrior appearance. Trillia felt right at home. His voice was smooth and held no hint of an accent. "Let's talk."

Trillia nodded mentally to him. After a moment spent sorting her thoughts, she relayed the situation with the hostile dungeon core. If he had any emotions toward the action, he certainly didn't show them mentally to her. She sighed and sort of motioned around them. "I don't know. I know I shouldn't feel bad. I guess I came here to ask...what's life like for you?"

The goblin seemed to be lost deep in thought. After what felt like an hour of his pondering, he shrugged. "It's like life? There are times I am happy. There are times I am sad. There are times when I desperately claw for anything I can to save those dear to me. The goblins that all call me Father. It's a lot of responsibility. I am lucky in that the people who enter my dungeon rarely try to harm those who cannot respawn. With all the humans, orcs, and minotaur that pass through. I've only lost a single raiding goblin. "

Trillia's eyes widened a little at that. She hadn't heard of any incidents. Red River raised a hand to calm her. "It was an orc who was berserking. The Raider goblin went in to try and stabilize another orc that was bleeding out and nearing the end of its tenacity. There is a memorial to him in the healing hall. The orc who did the killing has come every single day for the past six months since that incident. Learning to help in the healing hall, paying his respects, and helping us out. It's to my understanding he voided his Berserker class as well."

Mentally, Red River gave her a pat on the back. "You aren't a malicious person. I sincerely pray that you never become a malicious person. But if it helps. You and I can try to develop a better way for cores to communicate with people. Perhaps we can sway some of the other dungeons to our side instead of having to slay them as an enemy."

Trillia smiled at that and nodded. "Thank you. I'd like that. In the meantime, I'll continue protecting everyone the best I can."

Red River nodded once more. "Good! Remember, you still need to actually delve through my dungeon. I've made quite a few areas I think you'd enjoy. It'd be a shame if you never got to."

Trillia smiled wider. "I'll be back to delve. as soon as everything settles down a little."

By the time she had been led back out of the dungeon, it was late into the night. She decided that instead of going anywhere, she would head to the healing hall and pay her respects to the fallen healer as well.

Name: {Trillia Demonsbane}

Species: [Mortal]; [Orc] Level: 74

Subspecies: [Mana-Infused Orc-Adolescent;Runt] Level: 68

Class: [Monster Slayer] Level 71

Class: [Mana Sage] Level: 54

Mastery:

Minstrel- Restorative Chant - MAX

Minstrel- Astra's Amazing Agility - MAX

Fencer- Fleet Foot - MAX

Fencer - Weapon's Path - MAX

Swashbuckler - Disarming Charisma - MAX

Mage - Magic Dynamo - MAX

Mage - Augment: Extended Range - MAX

Mage - Augment: Blast Radius - MAX

Monster Slayer - Mental Bestiary - MAX

Bound Artifacts: 3

[The Shattered Bolt]

[Red River Resonance]

[Sliver of Fate]

Mentor: Amelia Shatterhoof (Minstrel/Alive) Skill: [Marching Cadence] -MAX

Mentor: Maldoun Mostafa (Radiant Blade/Alive) Skill: [Radiant Lance] -MAX