Dren decided that working out in the open wasn’t a good idea. Partly because he missed his bonus experience for working in a dungeon. Sure, it was likely that they would be ambushed exiting the dungeon. But at the same time, they could be ambushed at any time, so what did it matter? “Fucking future reading annoying… fucks!” Dren grumbled out of the blue startling Ren and getting nothing more than a slight glance from the woman.

Standing up he made his announcement. “We are going back to the garden dungeon. The timer should be reset by the time we get there.” Ren just started packing up without a word, and the witch did too. She raised no questions or arguments to his announcement. Dren mentally sighed, it was like having a second Ren now. Only this one was crazy and stank. Wrinkling his nose and having his mask filter smell again he made a second statement while pointing at the witch. “You are taking a bath at the pond on the way. You stink.”

She didn’t say anything at his blunt and rude statement but continued packing up her grisly components for the new fetish she was making. There were other reasons he wanted to enter the dungeon. One was to see if the system did anything. Two to see how his solo competency worked when in a party. Three to have a good target to see just what her class could do. And finally, to see if she would try and do something during a fight. He wanted to be facing an enemy he could easily predict like the hulking gardener monsters.

Together they marched back along the path they had taken just the day before. Eventually coming to a small pond they had passed before. When they found it without a word she began pulling off her robes to reveal her filthy clothing beneath. Then she began stripping out of that heedless of him and Ren standing nearby. More flustered than he felt he should be he managed to growl out for her to wash the clothes too before moving away from the pond. He did leave Ren to keep an eye on the woman.

More than an hour later he was sitting with a hide in his hand as he imbued it when the witch walked out of the trees. Freshly clean but still dripping wet and naked as she carried her washed clothes. “What are you doing?”

“I’m clean now.” She said in a dull tone while hanging her clothes on a branch. “My clothes need to dry. Did you want to use me now that I am clean?”

“What? No.” His tone was one of utter disgust even as the woman turned around to stand facing him, her clothes draped in the tree behind her. Her expression never changed even at his words and despite being a bit dense even Dren knew that the sheer sound of disgust in his words was probably rude. But he really had no desire for the woman, even if he couldn’t help but look over her body. No longer filthy and smelly she wasn’t actually terrible looking. But the mass of old scars now visible that wove a twisting map across her body was unsettling. But even more so, he just wasn’t here for that. Even if he hadn’t known that she could curse him to death with a touch. He'd have still passed on her offer.

“Go over there behind those trees while your clothes dry.” He pointed and she went right away seeming no more bothered by the order than she had been by his outburst. “Ren, Make her some underwear, please. And quickly.” Plopping down he felt far more flustered than he should have. His brother's words came back to him again and he shook his head wondering if he was making a mistake.

Ren was able to produce her silk underclothes in a short time. Covered up he had let her come back out from behind the trees but found her in silk underclothes almost as distracting. He couldn’t help it, his experiences with women were absolutely zero. So he had Ren make her a shirt and skirt to better cover herself up. It helped but she looked odd wearing the pure white outfit. But it worked until her clothes and robes were dry. In the end, she just pulled the robe over her head and stuffed the dry clothes in her pack.

Even moving cautiously expecting an ambush at any time they still made good time. Partly because Ren moved ahead by transversing through the treetops like a silent ghost. Arriving at the dungeon they found the timer already expired and with little fanfare entered. Dren felt an odd sense of anxiety entering a dungeon for only the second time not solo. Yet, once inside nothing happened. Setting up their little camp in the entranceway took a little time. But rather than getting to work he headed into the dungeon with the others.

Having checked his status menu he was slightly annoyed to see his solo dungeon competency stat was greyed out. But he wasn’t here to level anyway. The experience and loot of a dungeon were reduced after the first run. He couldn’t get any more prime rewards or increase his competency stats in here either. I was just a safe staging area with an experience bonus and a solid place to see what the Witch could do.

Pulling away a single of the Gardner monsters from their little pond he dragged them to where he wanted before starting up his rhythm of dodges. “Show me what your spells can do.” Dren said even as he seemed to dance between the lightning-fast strikes of the monster. He had Ren standing near the woman, ready to shred her to pieces with her Shredding Cocoon at any signs of betrayal. Though she had mostly used it as a defensive tool, it was actually meant as an attack. Similar to the wind wall the final boss had used it would encase and shred a target.

Dren listened as the woman muttered strange words he didn’t understand for several seconds before the monster he fought staggered slightly. Its attack pattern was thrown off but only for a moment. “Curse of Agony. It inflicted pain on the target, and any pain it sufferers for the next few minutes will be magnified.” Her flat voice explained.

Curious Dren slipped past its attacks with far more ease than even he expected and gave it a hard poke, but avoided a critical attack. Despite the mild attack damage the beast flailed around and staggered back as if mortally wounded. Dren was actually impressed by the effectiveness. He had dealt critical attacks to these tanky monsters before and gotten less response.

“Next.” Dren called out and the woman started muttering away. He gave it a few more experimental pokes and found their response just as potent each time. Her muttering rose to a crescendo several moments later and the monster suddenly turned to the side flailing at the air wildly.

Stolen story; please report.

“Curse of Terror. When first applied they see something they are terrified of attacking them. After that, any form of mental degradation is increased. Both from attacks and normal situations.” She droned on.

Dren nodded as the monster was already turning back on him but seemed almost shaky. Darting forward he poked it and got an even more intense response than before. The brute even took a few hasty steps back as if afraid of Dren, something the mindless monsters had never done no matter how much damage he did to them.

“Next.” Dren said again.

“My next one I have to pick, Anger, Hatred, or Lust. Which do you want?” She asked.

“Not Lust.” Dren shuddered, he didn’t want a hulking monster trying to hump his leg or worse. “I don’t care other than that.”

She simply started her chanting again. Like before it took several long seconds, which would be a death sentence if she was engaged in a fight herself. But soon enough she finished and the effects were obvious. It stopped attacking with its arms and opened its odd mouth in a silent roar as it charged forward in an attempt to trample him. There was no tactics or strategy just throwing its body at Dren. In response, he teleported out of the way and appeared next to it. Poking it several times it seemed to only grow more enraged as the intensified pain shook its entire body. Gone were the lighting fast timed attacks and it flailed around awkwardly as it tried to crush him with its bulk rather than attack properly.

“Next.” Dren said as he avoided the wild monster.

“I only have my killing curse left. You have seen that and I don’t think I can get in to use it on that monster.” She stated.

Dren just nodded actually getting more information from that than he expected. She wasn’t willing to just throw her life away. He recalled she had said as much to the bandits but as crazy as she was. He hadn't been sure if she was suicidal or not.

It didn’t take much effort to finish off the deranged monster. Then deciding it would be a waste not to clear out at least one of the little golden ponds, Dren pulled the last two together. When he first entered the dungeon, pulling two would have been a real problem. Now, he was confident he could deal with two alone. His instructions were clear, he wanted the witch to support him as she saw fit. Just curious if the woman who had probably never worked cooperatively with anyone since the integration could do so. To his surprise, she was actually rather good at it. While her spells took a long time to chant out, it appeared she could hold them once prepared for a short while. Choosing to deploy them at times when they would be of greatest use.

She even was able to get one of the monsters to attack the other with a combination of terror and madness. It appeared to be a lot of effort for just a few attacks but it was effective. In no time flat both monsters were dead. Feeling slightly more confident the woman really wasn’t going to try and pull something he pulled another pool's entire pack while asking Ren to join in.

Despite fighting all three they died even faster than the two pack had. Ren knew well his abilities and created openings for him to strike with his high damage attacks. While the Witch did the same with growing proficiency. They pulled more and more packs. Only to kill them at an increasing pace. Before he realized it, the entire first area was cleared. Blinking Dren was surprised. He was again reminded just how much difference allies made. When it was just him and Ren they were forced to be careful. Even adding a single support made a huge difference, their kill speed increased enough it probably offset losing out on his solo experience bonus.

Eyeing the many corpses he debated on skinning them or not. But his storage space was getting a bit too full. Leaving Ren who wanted to harvest all the ambrosia and lotus flowers he returned to their camp. Sitting down on his customary stack of hides he simply announced. “Crafting time.” Before getting to work.

*****

Dren let out an excited sigh as he put down the new chest piece for Ren and dismissed the notification that his Primitive Leatherworking had finally hit rank nine. In her own little area, the witch knelt in the dirt working on her own project. A grisly looking fetish designed very much like the one she had shown him. Ren in turn was cooking nearby over her campfire of everburning torches. He recognized the clay pots and more so the delicious smell. His stomach grumbled and his mouth watered. Seeing him finished Ren prepared him a bowl of her lotus dumplings. Grinning eagerly beneath his mask he took the hot bowl and sat back to wait for them to cool some. The witch had sat back herself and dug out a strip of the jerky to chew impassively on while staring blankly at the wall. Ren made a second plate and her eyes flickered to the woman then back at Dren questioningly. He gave a small shrug and the Aranea girl froze for a moment seeming to be thinking before she stood before moving to offer the woman the bowl.

Dren watched and saw a look of surprise flicker across the woman’s normally blank face. But she took the bowl with a mumble and just looked at it. Then at Ren as she walked back to the campfire before finally glancing at Dren. Her expression was unreadable as she looked at him but eventually, she turned her gaze down to the bowl of delightfully smelling food in her hands. After a while, she used the fork to spear one of the wrapped dumplings and blew on it before putting it in her mouth. Dren watched the entire event curiously as he started eating his own food. What he didn’t expect was the glazed look in her eyes to seem to peel back and of all things tears to well up in her eyes. She never lifted her eyes from the bowl and ate slowly seeming to take her time with each bite before drinking the brothy sauce. Standing up she moved over to Ren who shifted around the campfire to watch her as she approached. Her face was still streaked with tears she seemed not to notice as she handed the bowl back and thanked Ren in a voice that sounded normal for the first time. No madness nor apathy in it.

Moving back she sat in her corner but didn’t return to work. Instead, she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them while staring at the wall. Dren shook his head, of all the things he expected her actions weren’t them. And it left him feeling oddly confused to the point he almost wished she had acted like the mad woman he expected. Gobbling down the food like a starved animal or eating it with no emotions as she had the leathery jerky. Her actions were too… human and it made it harder for him to think of her as just a crazy madwoman. Without thinking his mouth opened on its own. “What is your name?”

She blinked away her look and tilted her head as she looked at him, again reminding him how Ren occasionally looked at him. “My name?” She actually seemed confused that he asked, but then continued. “My name is Megan. But you can call me Meg if you want.” Her voice sounded so normal, it further eroded his image of her. Dren just nodded and then glanced down at his mostly empty bowl. Did Ren’s food have a mental buff with it? It gave the same bonus as before but he hadn’t expected it to have such a strange effect on the Witch.

“We are going to clear the dungeon.” He said suddenly. “Get ready. We are doing this as a speed run.” Neither Ren nor Meg said anything.