“You’re not a healing potion,” Joshua said as he stared at the scene in the stone room.

The man stared back at him. He was wearing far more than Joshua had expected to find him in, adorned as he was in dark armor covering him head to toe—in a stark contrast to the woman beneath him.

The armor was strange, and Joshua’s attention lingered on it. It was a hundred different shades of black composed of a thousand different strands of organic-looking wires. The armor gave off the impression of being alive, shifting subtly in hue as though expressing emotion.

While the man wearing more than expected was a welcome surprise, what wasn’t was the woman, who appeared to Joshua to be unconscious.

Though Joshua couldn’t see his face—as it was covered by a helm with a single glowing bar where the eyes should be—the man’s posture indicated that he was as startled by the intrusion as Joshua was by the discovery.

The two just stood there, staring at each other for a long moment, Joshua’s eyes locked onto that faintly glowing bar in the man’s helm.

After what seemed an eternity, the man spoke. “What are you doing here?” His voice was definitely surprised, but more confused than guilty sounding. Also, distorted and unnaturally deep.

“Dude, I’m not the scary guy in evil armor suspiciously straddling a naked unconscious woman. What are you doing here?”

He got a weird sense of déjà vu talking to the man for some reason.

Did I hit my head when I fell?

He couldn’t recall. Which wasn’t reassuring.

Before the man could respond, Sin alighted from Joshua’s shoulder and divebombed him.

Though the bird was fast, the man was faster. He threw up his hand before Sin could reach him and a beam of… something… shot out and slammed into the pigeon, sending it flying across the room.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the man said, a little too calmly for Joshua’s liking. He stared at Joshua for several more long moments, and the sense of déjà vu intensified.

“Don’t try to stop me,” he said finally.

“Looks like I’m a little late for that.”

The man looked down at the woman, made a dismissive sound. “Don’t be crude. I—” he began, but was interrupted as Sin flew back up into the air with a defiant squawk and dove at him again.

“It survived?” he said, sounding completely shocked.

The shock did nothing to slow his reflexes however, and he blasted Sin again before it could reach him, then, with one last glance at Joshua, took off through the closed stone door behind him.

Literally through it, as though either it or he had no substance whatsoever. Maybe both.

Either way, Joshua had no interest in chasing after him, but apparently his guide thought that would be just a dandy idea.

New Quest: [Armored Stranger]

Find out who the stranger is, and what their purpose in being here was.

“Not even any reward? Uh, no thanks.”

He dismissed the quest.

Joshua did wonder why the man ran, but wasn’t that interested in finding out. He wasn’t one to look anyone in the mouth, let alone a gift horse.

Sin, apparently as unharmed by the man’s second attack as it had been by the first, pecked furiously at the stone door.

“You dive bomb the evil dude in scary black armor without hesitation, but from a rabbit you hide in a tree? Is that because I enhanced you? You are looking slightly more intimidating.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Joshua shook his head and hurried over to the woman.

He knelt beside the stone bed she was on, wincing as he put pressure on his bruised toe. He switched to his other knee to move weight to his other foot. The wounds in his lower legs throbbed, but he ignored them and felt for a pulse on the woman.

When he didn’t feel one, he put his ear by her nose, but neither heard nor felt breath. He looked to her stomach to see if it was rising and falling at all and was about to perform CPR on her when he noticed a tiny hole, right above her heart. There was no blood, but even in the dim light the wound looked deep.

He set the unihorn down beside her and lifted her to get a look at her back. He found a matching hole, as clean as the one on the front. Whatever had pierced her had gone cleanly all the way through. Still no sign of blood though.

“Sorry, I don’t have healing magic. Maybe that’s a thing here. I’m told healing potions are.”

Loot [Slave Overseer]?

Though the body was warm, going by the loot message, it appeared the woman was dead.

Ongoing Quest Update: [Mysterious Dungeon]

You’ve explored the dungeon and discovered that slaves are being exploited for nefarious purposes somewhere inside. Find out where, and to what end.

“Slave Overseer? That’s an ominous title. Maybe that dude wasn’t the bad guy. Maybe you’re the bad guy. Or bad girl, I guess.” He frowned. “That sounds really wrong in this context.”

He remembered his Map spell upgrade and brought it up. Sure enough, there was a skull next to his own blue icon, indicating a corpse.

He didn’t see any other icons, but whether because he hadn’t identified the man or because he was out of range through that door, Joshua didn’t know.

The loot message flashed, drawing his attention.

He raised an eyebrow. “Um… you’re not going to do anything gross, right? Because I don’t think she has any items.”

He thought about it. It had dismantled the rabbit, wolf, and octovine, but then the animals had come back to life. In a less monstrous state. The same hadn’t happened with Randall, God of Wrath, but maybe that was because he’d been a god.

Joshua might be able to bring her back to life by looting her.

It would be plain rude of him not to at least try.

Even if she was a slave overseer.

“Sorry if this goes badly,” he told the body. “But you were apparently evil. Maybe.”

You have received ⦃Claw⦄

You have received ⦃Affinity Stone⦄

You have received ⦃Ring⦄

“You’re naked. Where did a claw come from?” And he hadn’t noticed her wearing a ring. “Is my spell creating the items? If that’s the case I would have preferred a bow, maybe some climbing gear. Not that you care what I want.” He sighed. “Guess I can’t be picky. I still don’t know what exactly an affinity stone is, other than being used to give talents. The first one I looted got taken by a goddess. Do I have to worry about this one being stolen too?”

He waited for a message to appear in answer to his question, or something more to happen with the body. But he got no answer, and the woman didn’t stir to life, nor did she turn into a pile of items. She was also still solid, unlike with the monsters.

The claw and affinity stone had gone into his inventory, filling it, causing the ring to appear on the ground next to Joshua’s knee.

He stared down at it. It wasn’t the kind of ring he was expecting. It looked like a bracelet made of fine rope.

He looked back to the body. “Huh. So… monsters get brought back to life, but not humans? That’s weird. Is there some other pattern I’m missing?”

Though he didn’t get an answer to his question, someone did respond.

By putting the blade of a giant axe to his throat.

----------------------------------------

Outtakes

“Guess I can’t be picky. I still don’t know what exactly an affinity stone is, other than being used to give talents. The first one I looted got taken by a goddess. Do I have to worry about this one being stolen too?”

He waited for a message to appear in answer to his question, or something more to happen with the body. His guide didn’t answer, but a portal of smoke and lightning suddenly opened and a giant of a man stepped through.

The giant surveyed the scene imperiously, then locked eyes on the corpse. “Oh, they’re going to have to censor that if they want to keep their PG-13 rating.”

Joshua stared dumbly. Getting pulled to another world by a god was one thing, but this… this was something else. “You’re… you’re…”

The giant man turned to look at him, his smile growing wide, showing off giant, horse-like teeth. “I am… inevitable.”

“No! Dead! I already killed you in the last outtake. What’s with things coming back here?”

“I am the greatest threat the worlds have ever known. Nothing, not even death, can stand ag—”

Joshua summoned [Wrath’s Blade] and pointed his crackling hand at the intruder.

The giant faltered. “No! But… you… The goddess took it away. You don’t have it anymore.”

“Nah, I can still summon it. Bye now.”

Joshua obliterated him. This time completely, in case that was why he’d been able to come back the last time.

Joshua looked around the stone room, and smiled. “Nice. Not even any collateral damage this time. I’m getting better.”