The centaur pulled out a brace from a pack he had on his side. It was a strange, foldable contraption, allowing the centaur’s human half to support itself on his horse half quite easily. It gave his human torso a back brace that would be supported by his horse half.

It made the centaur look like he was bending in an uncomfortable position, but he seemed to be relaxed by the looks of it.

“Introduce yourself then,” Darvind spoke.

“You mean you haven’t told them about this?”

“We just made the plans not an hour ago. I hadn’t got the chance.”

The centaur snorted.

“Well, I suppose that’s what I’d expect from a dwarf who can’t see past his own beard. I’m Velin, Cleric of The Lord of Wisdom. I’ve worked with Darvind in the past and when he notified me of this impromptu group he’d formed, I offered some help with his first escapade.”

“He’s worried that I decided to join up with a half-demon,” Darvind clarified.

Velin glared at the dwarf.

“I said no such thing.”

“You didn’t have to,” Darvind shrugged. “It was obvious.”

The centaur closed his eyes and sighed.

“Less than five minutes and I’m already exhausted with you,” he muttered.

“I didn’t ask for ya,” Darvind replied.

“No. You just joined a party with a half-demon with no other considerations whatsoever.”

“I considered it! He seemed alright so I joined their party! Tell ‘em Niff!”

“Elurn doesn’t smell like a bad guy,” she commented. “And he’s smart!”

“And that’s all the reason you need to trust him with your lives?” The centaur asked them.

Both the dwarf and mouse-kin glared at the centaur on my behalf. What was it with these two? Why did they trust me so much?

“It’s fine. I don’t mind,” I cut in.

The centaur looked at me inquisitively.

“Pardon me, but I have yet to meet a grown half-demon who has not shown any signs of physical turning yet. How do you maintain yourself if you don’t mind me asking?”

Well, that was new. No detection spells, no holy analysis, and no hatred, just plain curiosity.

I actually didn’t mind that.

“I cut it off anytime that happens,” I answered.

“Interesting, how so?”

I pulled out two beakers, one full of holy water and the other being a high-grade healing potion.

The centaur's eyes widened at the mixtures, studying one then the other before looking at me.

“I see, that must be… painful,” he commented.

I shrugged.

“If I cut off the physical changes before they’ve settled in they won’t regenerate. I’ve had horns, wings, and even a tail once. But they fall off with a little bit of holy water, and after that, it’s just time and healing.”

“Crude, but highly effective,” he said nodding at the two potions in my head. “Also manically insane, but that’s better than becoming a demon I suppose. I sense no hostility from you, why is that?”

“Why would I be hostile towards you?”

“I’m here to inspect you and make sure you’re not evil, doesn’t that trouble you?”

“As long as you do it fairly, I don’t mind.”

The centaur squinted and studied me once more.

“Interesting,” then he turned to the other two. “Have you all thought about your line of approach towards this dungeon, particularly with the current threats it holds.”

“We were just about to do that now once we got to our rooms,” Niff spoke.

“Our rooms?” Both me and the centaur asked.

“Oh, yeah… I booked us three for one room, is that a problem?”

“I’m fine with it,” Darvind replied. “Long as you don’t mind my snoring.”

I shrugged nonchalantly.

But the craziness of it all kept knocking around my brain. I hadn’t slept around anyone for a long time. It had been… decades. I had never met anyone I trusted enough nor had anyone willingly closed their eyes around me.

The food had been paid for. They had stood up for me. They had gotten me a room, and they had both asked to work with me, even after hearing about my bloodline.

I closed my eyes and breathed. I would know if this was a lie. My mother had gotten me blessed by Archina ages ago and I knew lies. I knew them.

This wasn’t an act. These people were genuinely that kind. Or that stupid.

Who knows.

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“You alright?” Niff asked me, her little eyes staring at me in wonder.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

She nodded and hopped off the chair, doing some stretches on the hotel floor.

“Well, I won’t be sleeping with the half-demon, but I suppose we should all go upstairs and figure it all out.”

“Aye!” The Dwarf shouted, drowning in his seventh mug of ale. “I’m feeling calm and thoughtful, and besides, it’s still midday. We can talk out the details till evening.”

We walked to the stairwell and made our way up. I watched as the centaur went first. The stairs were wide in this city, probably to fit the myriad of races that lived here and the centaur had little problem making his way up. Niff skipped along the stairs like a cat and Darvind and I had no trouble with them.

But still, it must be hard running a hotel in a city like this. Seeing all the different shapes of people here reminded me of why colonies existed.

Niff had gotten us a room with three beds. All humanoid and bathroom included. All things considered, it was cheap. There were no special facilities or species-specific needs so the room all in all cost five hundred a night. Some inns could go as high as ten thousand, but those were luxury inns or hyper-specific inns, like hotels for fire elementals or something like that.

I wondered how you’d design that, fireproof spells? Fire resisentant structures? Or maybe they used flame constructs?

I let the other two pick out their beds first and I ended up getting the middle one. I set up doing my basic detection routine before settling down, I raised my hands and cast for a good minute or two as the rest of them got settled down.

“What was that?” The centaur asked me. “Seventeen cantrips and four detection spells?”

I nodded.

“Why?”

“Magic doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Different spells have different reactions to the magic around them-”

“I understand that,” he puffed. “But why cantrips? Why not one good tier-five detection spell.”

“Too much mana waste,” I replied.

“Well, it’s not like you’re in the middle of a fight.”

“Doesn’t matter,” I answered. “And besides, this is more thorough.”

“It’s more of a burden on the casting side though. One spell would be far easier than twenty-one.”

“I can handle it. And besides they’re all cantrips, barely took effort.”

The centaur looked me up and down before shrugging it off. Three minutes later, the others were unpacked and sitting on their beds. The centaur opted to stand.

“Well, I suppose we should start by introducing our combat capabilities and our reasons for entering this dungeon,” Velin stated.

“I am Velin. I’m an acolyte at the Church of Wisdom and have been contracted by the Adventurer’s Guild to investigate the disappearances of bronze and copper-rank adventurers. I’ve entered multiple times with different teams, one gold and one silver, and both expeditions were fruitless. I’m hoping to gain some insight into the threat and help the Guild clear the dungeon for bronze and coppers once more.”

The centaur pulled out a longbow and a cuddle.

“As for my combat capabilities, I am trained in traditional centaur archery and use the cudgel as my holy weapon. I know little magic but I am a cleric by trade. In terms of strength, I’m at the entrance of silver rank.”

“I thought you were here to check out Elurn?” Darvind asked.

The centaur snorted.

“I was originally planning on forming a party with you and some others here, a gang of noble dryads on their way here to earn merit for dealing with the threat. But since you’ve formed a team here, this will have to do.”

“Right, right, and my beard is like this naturally,” Darvind snorted. “Velin doesn’t like talking and he doesn’t like nobles. He was probably ordered to pair himself with them but is using this as an excuse to run away from nobility, ain’t that right you draft horse?”

The centaur snorted again.

“He was already trying to get out of it before I even told him about you. Kept sending me messages about getting him out of this ‘noble babysitting trip.’ I woulda just found a party at the guild but then I saw those dryads and boy oh boy. I ain’t cruel enough to pair him up with them.”

Velin nodded.

“The Van Heeds are one of the caretakers of the Asrin Tree, a powerful family and a prideful one. I’d be following their orders everywhere if I were to go in with them. And besides, her party’s way too powerful. They have an adamantium ranker in there along with three gold rankers. It’d be a waste of time.”

“The attacks only happen to bronze ranks and below,” I replied.

“Exactly, and there are never any witnesses. I was the one who looked at the data of each adventurer and came up with the limitations on adventurers' rank on entry. With all of us, we should be just slightly above the benchmark of attack, but I’m hoping we can coax out the threat.”

I frowned. We were bait now?

“It seems a little unfair to guide us into mortal danger without our permission,” I replied.

“You’re more than welcome to leave,” Velin replied.

“Woah, wait! Elurn joined the group before you did! If he doesn’t want to do this then you should be the one to leave!” Niff shouted at the centaur.

“No, it’s fine Niff. I was talking about all of you.”

“But he told you to leave! That’s not right! He has no right to say that!”

I looked at the mouse-kin and smiled. Darvind might have joined with us for Velin’s sake, but Niff, she really did just trust me.

That felt odd and good.

“We’re safer with him on the team. He raises our overall strength and whatever monster is inside the dungeon will think twice before attacking us. But since he’s choosing to actively chase this thing, I think the rest of us should have some input on whether or not we’d like to be involved in that decision.”

“I’m fine with it,” Darvind said with a shrug.

“Me too! I’m not afraid!” Niff added. “But still! Watch your words Velin!”

Velin frowned, then nodded. That seemed to please Niff and she sat down on her bed with her bushy tail poking above her head.

“Why two silver?” I asked the centaur.

“Collective strength is different from individual strength. The monster seems confident in dealing with individuals under silver rank, even groups of them as long as they don’t exceed that of two silver rank one adventurers. It’s a pattern I noticed.”

“It adds up the numbers,” I added.

The centaur looked at me with genuine shock on his face.

“Wh- yes. That was the conclusion I had arrived at as well. How- how did you know?”

“I was wondering how a monster would able to accurately assess adventurers of that precisely,” I replied. “Rankings are just rankings, generalized descriptions of power. They shouldn’t matter to a monster. Monsters move on instinct, but this thing acts on rankings alone as if it’s aware of them.”

“Yes,” Velin replied, nodding to my conclusion.

“It could be a person,” I added.

“No, it can’t. We’ve managed to rule that much out with divination,” he replied.

“What are ya talking about now?” Darvind questioned.

“The monster, the one that’s been killing off weak adventurers in the dungeon. It’s somehow reading their adventurer’s license.”

“What? How?”

“Don’t know, but that’s the only option that makes sense,” I replied.

“Indeed. They’re either a very capable human or a very intelligent monster,” Velin replied.

Darvind let out a slow whistle.

“Why didn’t they get someone stronger to investigate this? Why not gather some gold-rank adventurers?”

“They did. Nothing happened. It’s either one of the churches or one of the stronger adventurers at this point. If it were a normal dungeon, this wouldn’t be a problem, we’d just flush them out but this dungeon is the size of a whole realm. We’d have to send every adventurer in the city and then some to fully flush it out.”

“Then why not send a fully trained cleric?” I asked.

“I am a fully trained cleric,” Velin replied.

“You’re an acolyte,” Darvind snorted.

“I’m fully trained in all but name, and all the higher-ups in the church of wisdom are working on something.”

That was interesting.

“What?”

Velin shrugged.

“If I knew I wouldn’t be here.”

“Okay! Okay! Enough about the centaur, what about everyone else?” Niff interjected. “We’re supposed to be getting to know each other, not talking about the dungeon yet!”

“Of course, of course, my apologies,” the centaur said with the smallest bit of sarcasm.

“I’ll finish presenting myself then. In terms of enhancements, I can do basic strength, speed, senses, thought, and charisma up to seven. I can push thought up to twelve if need be but not for long. I’m capable of holy magic such as heal, burn, ward, and other such spells.”

Those were probably a basic requirement he had been forced to meet.

“What about miracles?” I asked.