I blinked away the grogginess and stared at the ceiling. Nothing happened; No buzz, no spasm of pain or bad memory.

It felt wrong.

Slowly, I sat up and stared at the reflection in the mirror. I felt tired, but my face didn't show it. Who knew having a fairy that could heal would be amazing for your complexion?

Chuckling was too much effort. I fixed my hair before plodding over to the attached bathroom. It was funny to think about, but today was probably the last day I'd ever have to go to the toilet.

Thank fuck for that.

After my morning ablutions, I stopped once more near the mirror and opened my mouth. With a flex of muscles, my stomach contracted and the Fragment of the Stars was spat into my hand.

It was smaller than before, but not by much--maybe a few centimeters at best. Even with my resistance to the pressure, I could feel the waves of mana leaking out.

Progress.

Patches of my bones crystallized and changed. I was correct in choosing the stone; it had done more for me than the numerous bags of gemstones I had been pilfering from Celenae's supply of snacks for Magnus.

I placed it between my teeth and tried to bite down on the weakened parts where my stomach had eroded the edges. But I couldn't scratch it no matter how much I chewed on the thing.

Oh well. Hopefully, the evolution will draw from it.

That was the plan, and with a lot of careful checking from Celenae, she gave the go-ahead. Evolving with the stone inside my body should activate my perk and speed up the process.

Or it did nothing and I had to process the crystal naturally.

After swallowing the crystal I got dressed and headed for the dining room. Walter was there, serving food to Teddy's parents.

Anastasia took a massive bite out of some pancakes and gave me a thumbs-up while Nathan was building a tower of them on his plate. Poor Walter could only sigh as he brought out another stack before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Morning, Cyrus!" They greeted together.

"Are the others still asleep?" I asked.

"Mmm. I believe only Igas is asleep. Teddy and Celenae went to the adventuring guild while Eodyne and Isaac left in a rush," Nathan responded.

He placed the last stack of pancakes, which was well over twice his height before he jumped and slapped his hand onto the top piece. I cocked my head as he squished the pancakes down into a solid puck before he drizzled a variety of fruit syrups on top.

Walter returned just in time to hand him a cartoonishly large fork and disappeared.

"I have to ask. Were you always like this?"

"Like what?" they asked as one.

I shook my head and enjoyed the meal. Once I finished, the duo stopped playing around and grew serious.

"How are you holding up, Cyrus?" Anastasia asked.

"Good," I admitted. "Why?"

They frowned, but Anastasia shook her head.

"Well, as long as you are fine, then that's all that matters. We wanted to inform you that an investigation was launched."

Oh.

It was surprising how quickly they got things done. But two days was plenty for people with the right skills.

"Anything of note?"

"Yes," Nathan confirmed. "Of the five gangs that were destroyed, each base was a ruin of rubble and ash. No blood. Even the hidden space you emerged from was eventually breached but all the blood was gone."

"So the kid cleaned up."

"Looks that way."

"Thank you for telling me."

Again, they shared a look.

"No problem, just thought you should know. Ritual magic is concerning when it involves mass killings, so the royal guard has eyes on the Underground just in case. If anything else is revealed, you'll know."

I downed my juice before standing and stretching.

"Teddy tell you what we're doing?"

Anastasia smiled. "You'll be delving for a few days. Can't say I like maze-style dungeons, but they are useful to a city."

"Are they common?"

"Not at all. Most dungeons prefer to have a more natural environment to work with. The golems are especially more niche."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Well, I'll try to enjoy it then. Thanks for the meal."

I said my goodbyes and relaxed in the main living room until the others arrived.

Teddy and Celenae were normal, while Isaac and Eodyne were all smiles.

I crossed my arms and stared pointedly. "What's wrong with you two?"

Isaac continued to grin. "Nothing. Why?"

"You're freaking me out."

"Too bad," Isaac said, dropping the too-wide smile. "You ready to leave?"

"Are we waiting on Igas?"

Isaac swore and sank into the floor. As he went to fetch Igas I glared at Eodyne.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," she replied.

"Dragonshit. You don't smile."

Her face morphed into a scowl and I chuckled.

"You'll see soon enough," she said before turning away.

I glanced at Teddy and Celenae but they shrugged.

Eventually, Igas lumbered down the stairs. Before he reached the bottom step, Walter appeared with a small wooden box.

Igas cracked the box open and the smell of pancakes and sweet syrup wafted out as well as a cloud of steam before he shut the box.

"Thank you, Walter," Igas said.

Walter bowed and was gone with a blink.

"Are we finally ready?" I asked.

"Yes. Let's go. We'll stop at the adventuring guild to verify your presence, grab the tokens and head into the dungeon."

"And Sereza is already at the guild waiting for us," Celenae added.

I pictured the felkin and felt a mix of emotions. On one hand, I couldn't wait to see her reaction to me absorbing another skill stone. On the other, it meant answering a lot of questions.

It wasn't just her reaction to my evolution, but I wanted to avoid talking about Lezka and his family. It was a tense time when she woke up, and the endless questions thrown my way didn't help my mood.

She wasn't the type to hold it against me, but still, emotions were running high two days ago.

As we exited the manor, Arturous bowled us over and flopped to the ground. Teddy groaned and I tackled the bear's head to give him a good rub behind his ears.

Before I could move, he tipped his head up and rolled me onto his back before shuffling around and repeating the process for the others.

Once more, we rode the massive bear into the city below.

--------

More than a few people pointed as we hopped off the bear and stretched. There was a lot of incredulous looks–a few nasty–thrown our way.

"You're scowling," Sereza said as she approached.

She pointed to my eyebrows and realized she was right.

"Too used to having my mask on," I replied.

"Hey," she greeted. "About the other day..."

I summoned a pancake and threw it at her face. It slapped against her cheek, but she caught it before it hit the ground.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"But-"

My eyes narrowed and I summoned another pancake slice. "Apology accepted."

She sighed and I tossed her the second hotcake. A few hesitant nibbles were given before I summoned a thimble of syrup. The food was devoured before we made it to the door.

"So what am I doing, and where is the dungeon?"

Celenae pointed to the desks lined with staff and motioned for the second to last. The elf had on a different color uniform, blue instead of green.

"Verify you into the registry first. Then you get your token and we can proceed. We should be taking the south entrance."

"South? Not east?" Sereza asked.

"Nobody likes fighting the crazzor golems."

"You want somewhere that's not populated. What are we doing inside the dungeon, then?"

Celenae didn't answer, but the others had a knowing smirk that drove Sereza crazy.

Luckily, the line moved quickly and within minutes, I was standing in front of the guild clerk.

The elf looked plain, with short hair, cool-grey eyes and a face that was somewhere between neutral and polite.

"How can I help you today, adventurers?"

Celenea stepped forward and presented her adventuring pin. The clerk ran his hand over the topaz emblem and I watched mana scan through it. When the mana stopped, it swirled back into the gray ring on his finger.

He went glass-eyed.

After a few seconds, his eyes widened and he took in the group. "Oh my. It's an honor to meet you, Broken Tower."

I looked around the room, but another enchantment had activated, one I recognized.

Smart to have sound suppression.

Celenae smiled and nudged me forward. "We pre-registered this morning. Cyrus here would like to officially register at this branch."

The man scrutinized me, nothing malicious but there was definitely interest. He pulled out a white crystal I had only seen once, back in Edolus. "If you would place your hand here."

I eyed it suspiciously. The chances of it being able to accurately scan me were next to none. What was more likely to happen would be the clerk getting suspicious and some alarm got tripped.

"Don't worry," Celenae assured. "Once it breaks, it should send an automatic response to the guild head."

"Breaks?" the clerk asked in alarm.

I shrugged and slapped my hand against the crystal. Mana activated. A wave of static tried to crawl over me. Before it did, my mana responded and rebuffed it, a faint chime sound playing in my ears.

The crystal turned red and the clerk took a half-step back. As he did, mana flooded from below, holding him in place.

His eyes turned glassy, and he muttered something I couldn't hear.

A mental knock rang against my thoughts. I cautiously let it in but was prepared to summon Magnus and Galarion.

"So it seems you've finally decided to grace these halls."

The voice was young, and feminine.

"Got five seconds before I start shouting," I warned.

There was a sigh before the clearing of someone's throat. "I'm the guildmaster of Solara. Brelten warned me you'd come here eventually. Should I expect any trouble, Reborn?"

"I'd like to say no, but I don't exactly get a choice."

Amusement bled through before the emotion was strangled out of the telepathy.

"I'll have people on alert just in case. What are your plans for my dungeon?"

"Ascendence. And some brief delving."

"I see," she stated. "As long as you keep the chaos to a minimum then you may proceed."

A snort escaped before I thought to contain it.

"Something funny?"

"No," I mused. "Just unfortunate word choice. What's your name?"

"I am Avaline Giltollo, tier three and head guildmaster of Solunaria. I'll approve your entry; don't worry about presenting the token to the dungeon guards. Zachias will hand you a special one to bypass the lines. And I'll keep your entry off the records, but only this once."

Giltollo? Wait!

"You're Brelten's sister?"

"It was a pleasure to meet you, adventurer Cyrus. Good luck on your ascendence."

Mana swirled around my head before it rushed into the palm of the clerk's hand. He jumped but revealed a shiny orange coin that burned in my senses.

"Brelten has a sister?" I asked, prodding the connection.

"Big sister," Avaline corrected. "And Cyrus? Come by and say hello the next time you're free. I owe you an apology for what my idiot brother has done."

What?

"Cyrus?" Sereza prodded.

I poked her back and tried to grasp the connection, already weaving mana into strands to connect to Galarion's skill.

But the connection snapped and the mana receded. I followed its path into the floor, glaring at the spot.

"Cyrus? What's wrong?" Teddy asked.

What the fuck was she talking about? What apology?

I was half tempted to storm down the stairs and demand an answer but I let the intrusive thought go. Instead, I clicked my fangs and crossed my arms.

"None of you wanted to tell me the guildmaster was Brelten's sister?"

"What?!" all of Broken Tower shouted.