"It's funny, we haven't encountered anything else apart from those ants ever since we set out for the core," Lexia asks, still a little grumpy from the last argument.

"Considering the core only sent these three ants, I think those were the strongest elite forces the core could send at us--there aren't a lot of things here that can keep up against Cayden, after all," Eda says, patting Cayden's shoulder. He scratches his head and awkwardly smiles at the compliment, Lexia's glare intensify for a split second.

"What's Cayden's class anyway? You guys know our class, but I don't know yours." Lexia asks.

"I'm a priestess of growth--which is to say, I worship the god of growth." Eda points at herself, then to Cayden. "He's a warrior, swordsman subclass, no surprises there."

"I thought you were a druid, with all the plants and stuff." Lexia says.

"I get that a lot, it's just that plants are easier to grow and use for combat. Growth is a surprisingly versatile term, I can grow limbs, grow stats...grow a conscience." Eda sneaks a glance at Lexia as she says this. "To use those powers I need to pray a lot but also do acts that promote growth, this can mean anything from helping plants germinate, to raise kids so they can grow up right. I'm an adventurer because levelling up counts as growth, I get a lot of favor whenever I gain a level. Speaking of, what's your level James?"

"I'm level fifteen," I reply.

"Ho, that means you had your subclass already, what is it?"

"Subclass?"

"Civilian classes like yours get a subclass at level fifteen. It's usually combat related, the option should be somewhere on your stat screen."

I take a look at my stat screen, and sure enough there is one subclass available, and I choose it.

Congratulations, you are now a War Chef!

War chefs are capable of gaining up to 75% of the experience of the monsters they have slayed by cooking them, they can also permanently increase their stats this way.

Unfortunately, your stat growth will be heavily decreased as a result. The stats and experience increase will only apply to you, although your cooking may benefit your allies in other ways.

"I'm a War Chef," I reply.

Eda looks at me thoughtfully, "War Chef? That's the one that gets stat and experience by cooking, since it's a civilian subclass most of your abilities should be fueled by charisma, so you should try to get recipes that increase that."

"Wait, you mean he can get stats and experience by just cooking? That sounds very abusable." Lexia says.

"Every civilian combat subclass sounds fantastic on paper, but they usually have too many limitations to be considered viable. I've never heard of a super powerful war chef before, so I doubt it's that good, but what do I know."

If I get experience from cooking monsters, then maybe I should've butchered those ants, although I'm not sure if they would taste good. I don't care much about becoming more powerful, but I don't want to be a dead weight either. If I stop being useful, then I might be left behind. It's weird how I was fine being alone for so long, but now I can't imagine being without a party. Is this why being happy is so hard? Because people's standards for happiness increase constantly, so they can't ever satisfy them? That's unfair--rigged even.

"We're here." Cayden says in an uncharacteristically somber tone as we all stop by a big stone door. The door has ornaments on it depicting two snakes eating each other's tail, one's skin is black, and the other is white--although their eyes are the opposite color of their skin. The door has a big open space above it, but the door looks easy enough to open without needing to climb to get past it.

"Eda, how much favor do you have left?" Cayden asks, studying the door intensely.

"Probably enough for whatever's up ahead, but I don't want to waste too much of it unnecessarily."

Cayden nods. "Lexia, don't target more than two enemies at a time if you're using your pain spell on us. James, stay close to Eda and split off from her if you or Eda gets targeted, do whatever she tells you to do."

Lexia and I nod, it's weird to see Cayden give orders like this when he usually looks so carefree, but that's all the more reasons to be careful with our planning if even Cayden thinks it's worth taking seriously.

Once everyone agrees, Cayden opens the door slowly, slowly enough that we can see through the slit of the door if anything is trying to ambush us from the other side. Eventually, the door is fully opened, and behind it is...an empty room.

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There aren't even any decorations, or treasures, or monsters as far as we can see--which makes it all the more suspicious to all of us. We look around us, trying to see anything out of the ordinary, until Lexia slowly points up.

The roof is a mix of black and white, like the stripes of a Zebra. Once everyone notices us, the colors move and spread out of the roof unto the walls, as the bi-colored mass eventually separate itself into two distinct entities.

"Dear brother, I did tell you an ambush was the way to go, you took too long," the black says, two bright lights popping out of the darkness.

"Dear sister, knowledge is power. Observing them was the best course of action available," the white brother replies, two dark orbs tainting its perfectly bleached body.

The black sister extends and reveals its massive, long shape. It towers over us in size, its length is surely much bigger than we see, and its snake like head is at least the size of two or three humans. The white brother mirrors the black's movement and shape almost perfectly, its colors being the only way to truly tell them apart.

I remember what the man from the adventurer's guild told me, how the adventurers that bite more than they can chew are the first to die. I am thinking of this quite literally, could I even cook something this big? The corpse might take days if not weeks to butcher, even after using a skill. Although I have to admit, I am worried about my own safety--and the safety of my party.

"You may flee if you wish," the white brother says. "But I doubt your pride will allow you to."

"Do not tell them that, dear brother. If we show pity on them, they will believe us to be scared." The black sister says.

"Our victory is likely, but wounds are also inevitable. Avoiding a fight is just as good as winning one."

Everyone in our party quietly gets into a fighting stance. Fleeing would be a better idea, their size would not allow them to chase us very far in the comparatively small tunnels of the dungeon, but they might have more tricks up their sleeve than their size alone.

"I will target the anomaly and the prideful, dear brother."

"Very well, the fearless and the caring are mine, then."

It starts.

Fear.

As I have said before, I am not particularly good at identifying my own emotions. But that one I do know. Fear, it's the same feeling I had when she was about to leave me forever. This one is slightly different from that time, though--it is a physical fear. A fear so primal it makes me wonder how I've never truly felt it before--no, the reason is obvious, I want to stay here, I want to live, and I want the people around me to live too.

The slight pain of Lexia's spell begins again, I'm actually happy to feel it for once, it brings me back to my senses and reminds me that my body is still there--I'm still alive.

The black sister's head slithers towards me, and its tail does the same for Lexia. It doesn't really look like slithering, it feels more like darkness that gets larger instead of closer. Its attacks are also not what you'd expect from such a massive beast, instead of slamming itself against us or biting us, it fires bright, white beams from its eyes, pulverizing the ground beneath us.

While it is technically slow, it's really hard to tell where the attacks are coming from. It barely makes any sound as it moves, and since its eyes often disappear into its black body, I can't simply follow its head to see where it will attack next.

I'm trying my absolute best to stay next to Eda, who is targeted by the white brother's tail instead. The white brother's tail is covered in vines and moss, which makes it a lot easier to see the outline of its body compared to its darker sibling. She looks back to me and my opponent, and quickly grow more plants and mushrooms of all sizes and shapes on the black sister, I give her a thumbs up and go back to fighting the black head.

Fighting isn't really accurate, it feels more like I'm stalling for time as I keep running around avoiding attacks. The black sister is now using more physical attacks, a single bite from her would be enough to swallow me whole, and every time I dodge she sends another white beam towards me. I think it was trying to tire me out first before taking me seriously, it sees I'm tired, and there's only so long I can run around like this, I need to do something, but I don't know what.

I rack my brain for a solution, something, anything. I could run away but then the black head will stop targeting me, which will put everyone else in danger.

There's only one thing I can do as a chef, isn't there?

WAR CHEF SKILL: NONE SHALL FIGHT WITH AN EMPTY STOMACH

Cook something in the middle of a fight. The food will give buffs depending on the quality of the meal.

The quality of the meal depends on the ingredients used, the charisma of the user and the time spent cooking said meal.

I shout to Lexia, asking her to drain my charisma, she complains for a bit but complies easily enough. I pull out a few ingredients I know are trash, I don't have anything poisonous on me, but all I need is to mix things that clash with each other and cook it so fast it will turn it into a horrible, disgusting slop.

I forgot what I was doing.

Mix.

Head is trying to eat me, can't be right, I'm not worth eating.

I throw the meal as it tries to swallow me, maybe I shouldn't move, people like me aren't supposed to help, I'm supposed to die for others, so that they can shine.

My body moves anyway, it wants to live more than I do.

The head snaps its jaw shut on what I just cooked, it tries to cough it out, but it sticks to the roof of its mouth. It stops targetting me, it retches and flails around wildly, almost hitting me in the process.

"Dear sister," the white brother says, rising out above the black sister's writhing body. The white brother is bleeding from one eye, and its fangs are broken, "Our health is rapidly decreasing, shall we dance one last time?"

"Our size is a detriment in such a place, a dance will be perfect," the black sister says.

The black and white start to mesh together into an incomprehensible shape, and then, they start devouring each other. Blood is spilled and screams can be heard, their size decrease as they devour more and more of each other, until they become so small their size is comparable to ours.

Still tangled with each other, snaps can be heard as their form merge into one, something...someone emerge from it. An old man that looks like a young lady, standing tall in their short stature, its colors a blinding, dull color I cannot recognize.

"IT HAS A SECOND PHASE!?" Lexia shouts, out of breath.

"Will you dance with us?" They say, two voices speaking as one.