The day had finally come for Krystal's caravan to hit the road again. They would head south to Pirn, a small fishing village that relied on travelers to bring them much-needed supplies. Despite the exciting day of travel finally being here, the caravan chief Krystal Mership was practically fuming with rage. She stood in the center of the village, arms crossed and face the embodiment of anger. Before her stood a much shorter man who repeatedly bowed and apologized, begging her to not leave him behind.

The reason for this scenario taking place were the broken wheels on several of the wagons that made up the caravan's main mode of transportation. The man called Jerry was an aspiring engineer who had for reasons unknown decided that the wheels needed an upgrade and taken it upon himself to 'fix' the wheels during the night without asking for Krystal's permission. Had it just been something as simple as the wheels being detached from the wagon then fixing them had been a simple task, but the fool had somehow managed to split the axels horizontally. The useless axels had then snapped when he had tried to test the wagon by pushing it a small bit. The stressed wood and metal that made up the underside of the wagons had given way and either flown as shrapnel, impaling other parts and the horses. The parts that hadn't gone flying had instead bent and hit the other parts out of place, either breaking them or weakening them enough to make the entire wagon useless. 

If it had been just one wagon break then sure, fine Krystal could forgive that if he paid for the damage done, but the arrogant engineer had been sure his work was not to blame and had then moved on to do the same thing to 2 more wagons. 3 of the biggest wagons out of the 8 that made up the caravan were now useless.

Krystal had attempted to smash Jerry's head when she had first found out early in the morning when the caravan was supposed to leave. Johna the dancer had appeared at some point and convinced Krystal to not 'split that arrogant fool's head open like an egg'. The dancer had shown great skills in negotiating which was perhaps the reason Jerry still hadn't lost any limbs.

The fuss they raised had attracted a rather large crowd. Some were hoping a fight would break out and others were just worried for Jerry. After many calming words and promises made about repayment, the hectic discussion ended without casualties. Krystal stomped off into the forest claiming that "Punching a few trees would do her good". When someone pointed out that there were dangerous things in the forest like bears and bandits she responded with "Cracking the skull of a bear with my bare hands would be even better." and the threat of bandits just made her laugh.

And so the seemingly unstoppable woman went into the dense Feytale forest.

Once the silent oaks blocked out the buzz of the village Krystal finally let herself relax. The whispering breeze that rustled through the leaves was almost as calming as the sound of the ocean to her. She picked a random direction and let the many hidden animal trails lead her away. Birds chirped and the weather was just right, not enough sun to be scorching hot and just enough clouds to not make the breeze freezing. The quiet atmosphere one can only find in the middle of mother nature's embrace surrounded Krystal on all sides. 

Idiots will be idiots and only another idiot will pour all their energy into telling said idiots how idiotic they are. Using 90% of your energy into beating them up for being idiots and using the remaining 10% to calm down and feel good about not having completely destroyed them was a way better solution. Krystal hadn't gotten to beat this particular idiot up but at least everyone understood that he was wrong and she was right, and that was almost as good as a good beating.

Krystal liked being right. She also liked violence. A nearby birch received the full force of one of her skull-cracker-punches and nearly toppled over. The forest's inhabitants grew quiet for a moment to check if the sudden sound of creaking wood meant them any danger. When nothing obvious threatened them they returned to their chirping and buzzing.

Krystal was just about to kick at another tree when a snapping twig stopped her in her tracks. Something was moving behind the thick bushes up ahead. Curious, she crept closer to the rustling sound. The patch of bushes had big black leaves that glistened whenever the light hit them. A faint red light shone from within the veil of leaves. Krystal brushed some leaves away to get a closer look at the glowing red flower that clung to the innermost branches. She was just about to reach out and touch the flower when a teeth-filled maw exploded through the leaves and flew towards her throat.

The serrated teeth dug into her arm as she threw herself to the side to avoid her attacker. The huge wolf kicked off the ground again to push itself on top of her all the while flinging its head back and forth in a try to break her arm. It yelped in surprise when the woman roared and swung her arm, sending it flying with chunks of her flesh still in its mouth. The woman roared again and charged the stunned wolf, the flicker of a knife making its way from her belt to her hand was all the warning the wolf got before it was shoved into its ribcage.

The wolf coughed up blood and tried to get away but then Krystal tugged at her knife, drawing a straight line from ribcage to crotch. The wolf's guts hit the ground with a splat as the life faded from its yellow eyes. Krystal huffed and pushed the wolf away onto its side. Something small was squirming in the exposed innards.

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Hesitantly she used her blade to uncover the wriggling little thing. A pink lump of flesh flailed weakly before dying. Krystal just stared at the fetus as it died and grew still. Faint features could be made out in the unfinished creature making her pretty sure that it was no unborn wolf cub she was looking at. It lacked a tail and the black undeveloped eyes were many and irregularly placed all across the head. The wolf must have been half way through pregnancy for it to be this developed, yet as far as she knew it was far from the wolves breeding season.

Puzzled, she lifted the wolf by the neck and began dragging it with her back to the village. The sand colored pelt would earn her a few coins if she were lucky. Her right arm hurt like hell but it was far from the worst injury she had suffered. Noticing now that she was bleeding quite heavily, she dropped the wolf to tend to her wound a bit.

A small uproar started when Krystal returned with a mangled arm and a gutted wolf almost the same size as her dragging behind her.

She didn't mind the injury as much as people thought she should. What she did mind was the news that getting new wagons buildt would take at least 2 weeks. People were too busy building a shrine to some forest god who had kidnapped the mayor's son to help a caravan that was vital to their livelihood. Stupid bumpkins got their priorities all messed up!

Meanwhile, in the dungeon recently named Mageon, a certain half-elf and Arachne were strolling around just outside the cave entrance.

"Sso red clothess are expenssive becausse it takes lotss of blood to make them right?"

"No no no, you still don't get it. We don't use blood to dye stuff."

"But the you ssaid those sstrong ones with bone armor did?"

"Barbarians are not normal people. Using blood, bone, and skin from people of your own race as clothing is just a way for them to appear even more scary and brutal. No normal person would wear clothes dyed red by blood."

"But wouldn't you need to throw away anything that getss sstained when fighting then?"

"Uh, armor gets bloody sometimes yes... But you can clean armor so the blood doesn't show."

"But why clean it away if you're jusst going to dye it red with ssomething elsse then??? Why use expenssive things when blood iss sso much eassier to use? If everyone jusst ussed blood then red would not be expenssive?"

"Wearing others blood is gross..."

"Why?"

"Uh... It just is, ok? It's a human thing."

'It's a human thing.' Had quickly become a well-used excuse to why some things were not allowed and why other things were. If Fanv and Mikvel couldn't explain why a thing was the way it was then the others just had to accept it as 'a human thing' until someone figured out a better explanation.

"Oh wait I think I getss it now. It'ss like cannibalism right? You can't eat your own race and you can't use them as materials either."

"Yeah, something like that."

"Sstill a bit weird though. Iss it the tasste that makess it so you can't eat other humanss?"

"Uhm, no I think it's more of a thing to prevent murder. If people ate each other then we'd be way more violent. Besides, I've never eaten a human so I don't know if the taste has anything to do with it."

"The tasste iss pretty good."

"Really... Ah, that's it. Humans can't trust each other if they're afraid they'll get eaten."

"But if ssomeone ssays they won't eat you then why would you sstill be afraid? I've told you before that I won't eat you and we are able to work togheter?"

"Yeah, but it's still a bit creepy. Especially after you said you like the taste... I guess we just have a hard time trusting others? Paranoia."

"That'ss the word for people who are afraid of everything right?"

"Paranoid people always think the worst is gonna happen."

"Yess, that one. So are you afraid of me?"

"Hmm... Not really? I mean I was terrified the first time but that's mostly because everyone in the dungeon are monsters. I think you would have eaten me if you wanted to by now so I'm not that worried."

"That'ss right. Why drag it out, when I could just have killed you on the sspot the firsst time we met. Paranoia iss sstrange and troublessome."

"Indeed it is. Ah, I think I found some sticks we can use."

Mikvel picked up a fallen branch and bent it in some places to test its durability. While the chair they had made some days ago was nice and sturdy, it was far from enough to furniture the entire throne-room. Maker could use her dungeon powers to sculpt furniture from stone and trees but she needed a reference to copy.

The crafty duo was sure that they could create marvelous things if they just had the right materials to experiment with. Stones, twigs, roots, plants, mother nature supplied them with both materials and ideas so venturing outside every day to look around for useful stuff had become a habit for them both.

Maker had started sculpting the outside entrance to the cave. The looming ruins covered by dark plants and moss created an awe-inspiring image. The many red glowing plants added light and color to the otherwise bleak surroundings. The formerly small patch of black grass had already stretched itself far and now even trees and bushes sported the dungeons trademark color-less bark and leaves.

A message from Maker made Mikvel and Sam pause their exploring.

Could you both come into the cave system? I will lead you to a cave deep inside it where I have something I want Mikvel to examine. 

They both replied that they would be there soon, picked up their haul of materials for the day and headed in the direction Maker showed them. A rather long walk led them into the deepest parts of the cave system, the parts where the more dangerous creatures dwelled such as the Bansheep.

Maker led them to a wide wall that to their surprise moved and split, to make an opening that revealed a hidden cave. Bloodied armor, weapons, bags and some strange tools littered the floor. The same kind of glowing fungi from the lake-cave covered the ceiling to cast a soft light over the pile. Maker's core stood in the room, holding what looked like a simple wooden staff topped with a white gem.

I want Mikvel to see if he can use this staff. I will aid you as best as I can.

Mikvel stared in wonder at the staff as Maker handed it to him. The same second his fingers touched the wood the entire staff began to hum.