"My preferred method is to talk this over and come to an agreement," the elf says, "using force should always be a last resort."

I stare at him as he rubs his forehead. Why would force be the last thing? Isn't it the best way to make others respect your strength? I sneak a glance at the unconscious Mari. Perhaps not. There is a lesson here, don't push too hard on those weaker than me, or they may do crazy things like I did. Still, he did imply he could use force. In response I push down a little harder on Mari's chest. A rasping moan escapes from her.

Tarvinder starts tapping his chin while looking at the ceiling. "Now, what could we offer you. I know!" With one hand he points at Mari while looking at me again. "Wouldn't you like to hurt her more than just this once?"

I look at Mari, then back at Tarvinder. "No." There is absolutely no need to keep her alive for that reason. Kill her and be done with this place.

"Oh." Tarvinder remains silent for a moment. "I'm very knowledgable, I could answer some questions?"

As tempting as it is to hear things from someone else than Harijia, I'm not sure it's worth it. There is no guarantee he'll be able to answer the things I want to know.

Sensing my hesitation, Tarvinder presses on. "I can explain a lot about the magic here."

Now that grabs my attention! "Teach me?" I ask, trying not to sound too eager.

My hopes are dashed soon when Tarvinder shakes his head. "You'll have to learn it at your home world. Magic is a fundamental and natural extension of your body and how it interacts with the world. When all is said and done, you're not really here."

It's hard to argue with that, but I'm not satisfied with the answer. Or perhaps I just don't like the answer.

"There may be something of use, but it's in my room. If you care to follow me?" With a few steps Tarvinder is in the short corridor behind him and turns a corner. The sound of a door opening can be heard. "Are you coming?"

I pick up Mari as I'm not going to leave her behind, ignoring her moan of pain. It's a bit tricky as she's smaller than me, but not small enough to hold in a claw. I settle for clasping her against my chest with her limbs hanging down. They're shorter than mine so they won't bother me by catching on or bumping into things.

The way the situation is now feels a little frustrating. It felt like I was in control at first, but now I'm not any more. Tarvinder is not going along, but is setting the pace and tone. Briefly I consider killing Mari now, but he has me by the curiosity. Hopping along on three limbs I follow him. Past the short corridor and the bend is indeed an open door. As I pass through the doorway it feels like I pass through something intangible which tickles my skin.

Immediately after, standing in the main corridor, I feel some kind of flow going down the corridor. It is not actual moving air, but something is flowing from my right off to my left. Further down the corridor I see Tarvinder standing by yet another door. My gait is a little uneven, causing Mari to groan again, followed by some mumbled words. The only one I can hear is 'momma'. Just in case she is about to wake up, I tighten my grip.

Tarvinder opens the door for me to yet another corridor. I don't remember the dungeon layout being like this. As if reading my mind, Tarvinder explains. He's even more into telling me things I don't ask than Harijia, but without telling me how great devils are which makes for a nice change.

"It's been a while since you were here last and the dungeon elemental expanded quite a bit. The room back there is specially made by me for summoning rituals." He looks a bit smug as he tells me this.

"The flow you're no doubt noticing is what people call the breath of the dungeon, but would be more accurately be its farts." Tarvinder chuckles at this. "It's a waste-flow of energies these tunnels funnel away from the being itself. This interferes with summoning and teleportation spells and rituals, so we had to shield the room. In case you find it uncomfortable, my own quarters are similarly shielded."

I'm grateful for that. The sensation is unsettling as something seems to be streaming past me, like wind, but there isn't anything. It's very disconcerting.

A few corridors further I'm very certain the layout is nothing like I remember. We have reached Tarvinder's quarters, but now they are off to one side of a second large corridor, no longer a chamber in the line of the only main corridor. As we enter I feel the same prickling sensation on my skin and the flow stops and I shiver in relief. The room is not quite as comfortable as the summon room, though. Where the corridors felt like standing in a stream, this place is like a pond. I can still feel that strange energy swirling around me, but slower, not as disruptive.

Tarvinder, meanwhile, is walking around his room, searching for something.

"Get up on the desk, it's a pain to talk to you on the floor," he says, pointing at the desk for a brief moment.

Though Ara said I shouldn't, she isn't here and with a short hop I'm on the desk. Once there I just drop Mari and place my claw on her chest again. There is a brief moan of pain again. Tracking Tarvinder with my eyes, I keep my ears open for any other sounds. I have not forgotten about the big cat thing. It takes a while in which I slowly get bored, but suddenly the elf straightens up while holding something in his hand at eye height. It's a greenish stone.

"This is what people tend to call a monster stone or core. Monsters form them from waste mana they can't get rid of normally. Here, smell it."

As he extends his hand I'm tempted to take the stone and hand both. There is no reason to do so yet, so I lean over his hand instead. A short sniff before I withdraw fills my nose with a somewhat familiar scent, mixed with something stimulating.

"Smells familiar? It's yours. Mari brought it to me after you left, last time." He looks pensive for a moment. "Maybe I should have asked more questions about that." Tapping the stone on the desk a few times, he continues. "If it wasn't for this I would have stopped you back in the summon room."

As he looks at the stone he has a strange, intense look on his face. "Poison attuned stones are very hard to get my hands on, yet here you are, an endless and easy supply. Imagine all the experiments!" 

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

I'm distracted by movement under my claw. It seems Mari has come to. Looking down I am surprised to see her broken arm and leg almost mended. Even I do not regenerate that fast, what is going on? Since she's on her back she is looking up at me as I am looking down, but her gaze is unfocused and wandering. Whatever knocked her out is still affecting her. The strangest thing is that she's smiling in a very meek way. While it is normal to submit to the stronger one in a fight for dominance, this wasn't one. Was it? A snap near my head makes me crouch and brings my attention back to Tarvinder. He withdraws his hand in time, before the reflexive swipe of a claw hits it.

"Focus, please. Leave the concussed fairy alone for a while, we were talking." With a few steps he has the length of the desk between us again. "I want you to keep coming back here, eat those oversized pill-bugs and make me lots of these stones. So you can't kill Mari, or I'd have to summon a demon of my own and hope it's a swarmling."

Before I can say anything Tarvinder continues.

"I'll make sure you're well rewarded. With this and some slivers of the dungeon core, I can make an elixir known for influencing the growth of a summon, that means you." He straightens up and looks at me. I get the feeling he expects me to thank him.

I'm distracted by Mari who starts squirming again. For some reason she's also stroking one of my claws and, purring? She looks me in the eyes a moment before speaking. "Imma call you Krak, for the sound of breaking bones. Like, crack!" Then her gaze drifts off again. Another snap near my head and another missed swipe at Tarvinder draws my attention away from the weird fairy.

"I said, don't mind the fairy. She's only adolescent so don't worry, this mood will pass as soon as the concussion clears up and her normal sunny self will come back." He states, leaving me with the question why her age matters. For now, he looks a bit grumpy about the interruption.

Do I want to remain here and get this elixir thing for whatever it does, but have to deal with a fairy with mood swings and violent tendencies? It will hurt. I will have to learn to hide and run and stalk and remain undetected. If it wasn't for the fairy it would be a nice place to come back to, but without the fairy I can't come back here. The main question for now is, will I ever get another chance at killing her? Obviously, the answer is yes. I will only get stronger. The harder she fights me, the stronger I will become. 

If a lot of pain is what it takes, that's fine. I've died more than once. I've had my bones broken, was stabbed, torn apart and crushed. Then I was frozen, burned and shocked, slammed into a wall, what could be worse? These 'games' with Mari will be one step above what I can find with the swarmlings and I can do whatever I want, it's not like she can really kill me.

A grin starts to stretch my mouth, baring my teeth. Then I blink. Once, twice, a third time. When did I start to think like this? Last time I was here I had barely a thought beyond the 'now', but here I am, thinking about the future. Before I can consider this further, Tarvinder interrupts me yet again.

"Does this mean you'll do it? If so could you please hand Mari here? I did make a promise to the dungeon to look after the place and she's useful to me." He sounds almost apologetic about Mari.

I nod at him before licking off some of the blood still sticking to Mari. Her wounds are almost completely healed, just some small scabs covering the places where her bones broke through the skin. Initially she looks at me with a frown. It quickly changes to one of pain as my saliva burns her skin and she cries out in a high pitched voice. She's not resistant to acid, it seems. 

With that, I'm done here and hop off the desk. Before I leave the room I look back at Tarvinder who starts to bend over Mari. He sees me stop at the door. Now I have his attention. " 'Lixer, next time."

Irritated he waves me away. "Yes, yes. Now shoo, I have a stupid fairy to check on."

With a hiss I stop him. It's fun to do the same as he did to me and interrupt. "Where is Seo?"

My question appears to have surprised him. "What? He is around, doing what cave tigers do. It's not like she has any more influence over him than she has over me." With that he turns back to Mary. Again I hiss.

"What!" He yells. He really looks angry now.

I can't help but grin at this. "Nothing," I say before passing through the door.

Out in the corridor I feel the flow of the dungeon again. I simply start walking in the direction of the flow until I find a larger corridor. Following the down-flow until I reach rougher stone takes a while. Tarvinder wasn't lying when he said the place expanded. There are regular large intersections branching off in different directions. Where before it felt like a zigzag line with random connections, this feels like the web of a spider, folded into a cone in one direction going both up and down.

There are still smaller tunnels connecting them, though some are not too small for me to use. Even though my spikes from before are now folded along my body, I'm too big for some of the smaller tunnels! Have I really grown that much? Maybe Ara has a point when she complains about my weight. As I peer down the narrow tunnel I see some movement up ahead. A toad-like creature slowly walks into view, chewing something. Sniffing the air, I only smell toad and bug, so it's either eating another toad or it eats the bugs before they develop a shell it can't crack.

Slightly annoyed the easy pickings are out of my reach I shuffle backwards, because I no longer have the space to turn around. Before I reach the end, I step on something soft that hisses at me, then bites me. A little bit of euphoria lightens my mood as my rear limb convulses, digging my claw into whatever it is that bit me and shaking it around. The hissing stops and I can smell blood as the pressure of the bite on my limb goes away. Another new thing, some kind of serpent.

Taking the time to thoroughly take it apart and taste test it, I decide the poison is only of low quality.

Touring the tunnels I find many tasty new creatures, though sadly most of them do not carry toxins. Hunting the things Tarvinder called 'pill-bugs' this time is much easier now I'm stronger. Only the biggest and heaviest are safe from me! All I have to do is tip them over, ignoring the little legs drawing blood in their frantic scrambling movement. This way I can tip over a few of them at a time and eat at my leisure. Sometimes I only take the nicest bits and leave the left-overs for the spiders.

As I'm scooping out my latest kill I hear the sound of stone against stone coming from the direction of the previous victim. The one I'm eating now ran around a corner, so I don't have a line of sight. Curiosity draws me off once again and I climb up a wall in order to approach from the ceiling. Progress is slow as my belly is a bit bloated. Too bad this eating doesn't count for my growth, but it was delicious.

It probably isn't Mari, but it's best to be cautious. Peeking around the corner I spot one of the two legged lizards I saw the first time I was here. It's using a stone knife and a stone bowl to essentially do the same as I did, which is take all the edible bits out. Outrageous! This is my kill! Even if I don't really want to eat more! Moving closer along the ceiling I spread my back-spikes and hiss at it. My tail is twitching back and forth nervously. Can I fight this? I'm sure I can! It's a bit bigger than me, but I've never been stronger. Who would dare to challenge me!

Startled by my hiss, the lizard-man-thing drops the bowl and the knife. It freezes for a moment before dashing away. I drop to the ground and pursue immediately, but am unable to catch up. I can run on almost any terrain, but this creature is specifically good at running in these uneven tunnels. Up ahead I see it duck through a curtain of vines which is covering the entrance of one of the larger sub-tunnels. 

As I do the same I receive an unpleasant surprise. The vines which didn't do anything when the lizard-thing passed latch little hooks on me and jerk me upwards. With my limbs stretched in different directions it's hard to free myself quickly, even my tail has some vines grabbing onto it. The rapid ascent quickly slows down. Looking up I can see a sac-thing to which I was being dragged.

Being too heavy never seemed like a good thing, but it may have helped me. There is an occasional twitch as the vines try to draw me further up, but I just bob up and down. A slight struggle doesn't help me and I'm not yet prepared to thrash about. I'm still full and hanging here isn't uncomfortable. Surely the vines will get tired at some point and I'll get back to the ground.

Looking at the wall, I've dropped maybe halfway down. It's been several hours already, as far as I can tell. In these caves, telling time is near impossible, so I just make a guess. It's long enough. My food is mostly digested and I'm ready for more. With hanging lower also comes a little more movement. With my sharp claws I manage to free one limb after another. The tail is the hardest as it has been drawn way out. I need to use the vines to climb towards it in order to cut me loose. 

When I am finally back on the ground in a little pile of cut vines, the first thing I do is sniff around. The lizard-thing may be gone, but I can still find a trace of its scent. Lets find out where it is hiding!