It turned out that all of the stalactites on the ceiling were actually human sized bat-like D-Ranked monsters called [Spiketail Bats]. Their wings were harder than steel and their tails produced dozens of pitch black spines they threw with deadly accuracy. Despite the rank disparity between Raiju and the bat monsters, she was only able to defend herself from so many angles and blood was leaking from wounds all over her body.

Despite that, she seemed to be having a great time as the small [Thunderhead] behind her poured out bolts of lightning toward her foes. She kept barking at the monsters as they bounced off the shield generated by [Storm’s Embrace] until it shattered in a crash of thunder that made the bat creatures scream.

“They’re basically huge bats!” I yelled as I sprinted through the air toward Raiju. “Lightning might work, but thunder should be even more effective!” Two of the bats unaffected by the latest thunderclap launched themselves off the roof of the cavern toward me like a pair of black arrows with their bladelike wings spread out wide.

I knew my [Arcane Armor] paired with my actual studded leather should be more than enough to deflect a pair of level twenty monster attacks, but my parents hadn’t raised an idiot. Dad always said it was better to dodge than deflect, so I did just that.

A second before the pair of wings were about to slash through where my neck and torso were, I threw myself forward as I spun to look up at the pair. I stabbed my pair of purple psionic blades into their wings and dragged them through their flesh as they swept by. Despite my [Skill] not not leaving a physical wound, you wouldn’t have been able to tell by the way they screamed before bursting into a pair of dark grey leather bags that tumbled toward the cavern floor below.

Not one to let a good opportunity go to waste, I sprang up from another air platform to stand beside Raiju. With a quick application of [Essence Reading], I was able to tell that only two of her wounds were more than superficial, the spike through her leg and a slash on her other back leg. Trusting her to cover me, I crouched to make myself a smaller target as I tugged the spike from her leg.

She howled in pain so loudly that it had the strange benefit of driving the [Spiketail Bats] back with their feet trying in vain to cover their massive ears. The second I had the spike out, I poured mana into [Healing Light] until the wound closed up. It took maybe ten seconds, if that, before I turned my attention to the second wound. It was already seeping green puss, making me hiss.

“These fucking things have some kind of disease or poison on their wings. If you have to choose between taking a spike or a wing slash, take the spike. OK?” I leaned close to her massive head as I pulled a mid-grade healing potion and put it up to her muzzle. “Tip your head back, this should clear up the poison as well as your other wounds.” She snatched the bottle with her teeth and threw her head back to gulp down the liquid.

“Tasted like cherries!” She really was having a good time. “Can I make a bigger [Thunderhead]? This one isn’t big enough to do anything to monsters of this level besides piss them off.”

I did some mental calculations regarding the structural integrity of the cavern before nodding. “Drop down ten feet and keep it less than fifteen feet across, alright? Any bigger and you could collapse the ceiling on us.”

“Yay!” She howled happily as the roiling ball of thunder and lightning following her grew from five feet across to fifteen feet across in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, she let herself fall ten feet down, which had a bonus of giving her a better view of the monsters she was fighting.

She wiggled her butt. “I’m going to chase some of them. Can you go help Ylsa? She made me promise not to, but you don’t have to listen to her.” Without waiting for an answer, she sprang forward with her [Sparkling Charge] ability, streaking toward a trio of bats who were still recovering from her latest howl.

In the wake of her leaving, I took a moment to take in the state of the battle. The [Aurimental] was doing an admirable job of keeping two of the three entrances to the chamber we were in clear as it hurled and retrieved chunks of itself down those tunnels with satisfying crunching sounds. The same could be said for the [Azers] and [Arcweavers] I’d left behind as I leapt into the sky, they were well on their way to clearing the mob that I’d been working on and none of them seemed to be too injured. Jaegan was living his best life, raining pain with his [Arcane Gatling] with a huge smile on his face.

As for Ylsa, she wasn’t doing as well.

Despite her tankiness, her [Storm Drain] only granted healing from fifty percent of the damage she dealt with lightning, not thunder, so only every other punch was healing her. It was a nice benefit, but I couldn’t help but wonder why she wasn’t using [Bloodsplitter]. With its help, she’d likely have been able to carve her way through most of the [Goblins] without any help from Jaegen or me, for that matter.

There has to be a story there. From what I read about [Storm Knuckles], it applies the thunder and lightning damage to any weapon she’s holding, so why is she avoiding it? She’s obviously not afraid of using the [Skill] it grants, so what gives?

A spine flying by my ear so close as to give me windburn snapped me out of my analytical funk. Without looking, I whipped my [Psyknife] back the way it had come and heard a high pitch scream that went quiet moments later. I summoned another one before letting myself freefall toward where Ylsa and Jaegan stood, blocking the final remaining entrance to the cavern.

Two more thrown blades and two more dead monsters later, I was astounded at how powerful [Psyknife] was as a [Skill] before realization dawned upon me. It’s not supposed to be used by someone with Stats like mine. My [Wits] are likely double what even a level fifty assassin type has, so it’s overperforming. It almost makes me wonder… I shook my head. No, no combat Spells. It’s too dangerous.

A dozen feet off the ground I turned myself into a whirlwind of purple energy blades as I fully let loose, channeling [Rapid Strike] as I hurled dozens of [Psyknives] into the oncoming horde in the space of a few seconds. It may have been [Mana] intensive, but with my inflated stats from [Suzerain] I could afford to go a bit wild, at least for a little while.

We fought like that for what felt like a day or so, with me acting as a quick response force for whoever needed either healing or a sudden burst of damage. However, when I checked the System, it was only six hours before the monsters stopped spawning.

The four of us flopped down in a pile atop the landing zone where Jaegan and I both produced cushy furniture for us to sit on. To the side, one of my [Azers], the [Aurimental], and both [Arcweavers] stood, patiently waiting for me to address them.

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The second Ylsa sat down on the beat up couch Jaegan produced, she passed out cold and nothing I was willing to do was able to wake her up. Jaegan explained that it was the downside to the upgraded form of her normal [Primal Rage], [Primordial Fury]. It was able to last as long as she needed, unlike [Primal Rage], but she’d then need to sleep as long as it was active or she’d have some nasty debuffs that were tough to remove without a dedicated healer.

The veteran dungeoneer sat in a beat up old armchair with his feet on the couch Ylsa was napping on. Despite his lax appearance, his eyes were locked on me with a strange fervor. “So, when were you going to tell me about that new summoning [Unique Skill] of yours?”

“I wasn’t hiding it. It only evolved while we were flying in.” I curled up on a large plush leather club chair with Raiju. She was in her shrunk form asleep with her head on my legs. “What do you want from me? I’m new to this whole Dungeon diving thing, despite my training.”

He didn’t answer for a while and I almost thought I’d gotten away without a lecture when he laid into me.

“What I want is transparency.” He clenched his fists around his staff. “I’ve lost more than a few good friends because the people in charge only felt the need to tell us the bare minimum for the task they sent us out on.”

“That’s not what I–”

“No, it’s not,” the old mage sighed, “but it could be. All I’m asking is to be read in on your capabilities so I can make plans.” He waved a hand at the elementals to my right. “Case in point, if I knew how potent your new [Skill] was, I’d have had you create a few easily deployable sets of elementals for any situation. What was it called again?”

“[Elemental Pactlord].” I murmured. “Plus, it’s actually a [Unique Skill].”

He threw up his hands, dropping his staff to land in a holster built into the side of the chair for that very reason. “Exactly! I need to know what you can do, what all of us can do if I’m being honest. Raiju and Ylsa told me what they could do last night around the campfire, but you were lost in your own head and didn’t join in. Why are you so resistant to letting me help you?”

Am I avoiding letting him help me? That doesn’t exactly sound like me. I’ve always had the help of anyone I needed in Wyrm’s Rest… oh, that’s probably it.

“That’s the problem.” I ran my fingers through Raiju’s silky silver fur. “I grew up with everything I could ever want. Want to learn magic? Mom’s got it. Want to learn how to use a sword? Uncle Arlo to the rescue.” I chuckled. “I’ve never had to do anything by myself in my entire life except pay attention and learn what people were trying to teach me and I got damn good at that.”

“Why do you sound so sad about that?” Jaegan looked at me with a curious expression. “It sounds like the ideal childhood to me. Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted to grow up like I did.”

With a loud sigh, I leaned back even farther in the chair as I locked eyes with Jaegan. “I can’t tell you where I grew up, but I can tell you I was forced to leave the morning after my System Day. It’s tradition as well as law that I can’t return for at least a year and even then I can only stay for a week before having to leave for at least a year.” I shook my head. “I can’t live in my hometown uninterrupted until I’m twice as old as I am now, can you believe it?”

“I fail to see how this relates to what we were talking about.” He sounded irritated.

“It’ll make sense, I promise.” I steeled myself. “I’ve never told anyone but my grandfather this, but I couldn’t wait to leave home. I wanted to leave and make my mark on the world all on my own, but as soon as I reached civilization I found my parents’ shadow reached me even in the boonies at the edge of Verdant.

“From there, I was forced to work for a king I’m still not sure is good for his people in conjunction with a pair of people more powerful than I.” I snorted. “There are probably only a dozen people in Verdant who are higher level than me and King Evergreen just so happened to have the pair of you locked up and ready to go when I arrived?”

“Arthur, you don’t–”

“I don’t?!” I roared, startling Raiju partially awake before I lowered my voice as I rubbed her head to calm her down. “All I wanted was to go out and meet people my age, go on a few adventures, and figure out who I really am. My Class is amazing and I’m excited to help Dominus out moving forward, but somehow I know she’d be fine waiting for me to figure it out on my own. Now?” I let out a bark of laughter. “Now I’m just another cog in the wheel of a system I hate and I can’t leave without screwing over two people who don’t deserve it. You two are–”

“Stop talking and listen.” Jaegan’s tone didn’t brook any disagreement. “The Weaver is a fickle bitch and now that I know about Dominus and what most of her children did, I think I understand why that is. Regardless, we have to work with the hands we’re dealt. You were gifted with a tremendously blessed childhood of travel, training, and love. Most people would kill for what you had, me included, but the heart can be as fickle as fate and I respect what you’re saying.”

“I’m confused, what are you–”

“I’m not done.” He glared at me. “What you have to remember is that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. Regardless of what you wanted? This is where you are, so make the fucking best of it.”

I sat there in a daze for the better part of an hour as I considered everything we’d discussed. In the end, I didn’t quite agree with him, but knew his vision of reality was closer than my own. It might not have been perfect, but it was enough to snap me out of the funk I was in

I opened my eyes to find my team asleep and snoring all around me. I looked over at the elementals waiting for orders and whispered to the smaller ones in Ignan.

“Can you please gather the loot from the monsters and drag it over so I can go through it all before everyone wakes up?” They nodded and quickly set to the task I’d asked of them.

I turned to the [Aurimental] with a small frown as I addressed it in Terran. “Were you summoned, or is this mine and Dungeon your home?”

“I have lived in this ore vein since the world was new.” Its voice sounded like gold coins sliding over each other. “I was pulled into this place when the Dungeon was interfered with.”

“Oh? How so?” I was intrigued. I hadn’t expected the [Aurimental] would be a source of information. “What was done and did you recognize who did it?”

“I am unable to distinguish manlings from one another, but I know they were taller than you and shorter than the one on the large furniture near you.” It bobbed the blob that passed for its head. “They threw an orb made from compressed Mana into the Dungeon portal and it grew agitated a while later. A week after that, it sucked me inside and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Thank you for the information, I’m sure it’ll prove to be helpful.” I bowed to the creature. “I can send you back to your native plane if you’d like. Given how long you’ve been away from the elemental planes, it’ll likely be Genovia, if that’s good with you?”

It bobbed its massive blob of a head. “It would greatly please me if you could do that, Pactlord.”

I pulled up my [Elemental Pactlord] screen and highlighted the [Aurimental]. A second later a button labeled ‘Return to Genovia’ appeared. I smiled and waved at the elemental as I pressed the button. “See you soon.”

I watched as it faded from the space in front of me to reveal the [Azer] and [Arcweavers] who’d been waiting patiently behind the massive elemental. In their hands were strings of leather bags in a dozen different shades of green, grey, and black. I waved for them to approach and had them dump the strings of bags onto a table I summoned to my right.

“Thank you.” I nodded to them. “Would you like to stay here, or go home? There will likely be more fighting if you stay.”

The [Azer] knelt. “Pactlord, I would like to return to my family forge.”

“We will stay.” The [Arcweavers] spoke in unison. “We’ve finally claimed our rightful place with the Pactlord.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that, but I’m glad you’re sticking around.” I waved to the [Azer] as I used the other hand to send him back through the system. “Have a safe trip home.”

Surrounded by piles of loot, my eyes gleamed and I rubbed my hands together. “Let’s see what we got.”