As you might expect, it took me quite a while to try and explain exactly what had happened while they were away. For one thing, my emotional state was a terrible mess. I was still trembling with fear and unspent adrenaline, so my voice shook with it through the entire retelling. Truthfully, my biggest worry was that they would not believe me. I would not have believed me. It was utter madness. Much to my surprise, however, when I was finally finished with my stammered retelling, they both looked at me in total seriousness.

“Sounds to me like some kind o’ shite the Faen would get up to,” Jax said. “Bunch o’ nuggets, the lot.”

Sherr Hess nodded slowly. She had made a wide perimeter check around our campfire to make sure the creature was truly gone and was now sitting cross-legged across from me — a fact that barely registered in the moment. “Yes, it certainly does. Especially that bit about the laughing. I don’t know much about the Faen, but almost every story I’ve heard ends with some kind of joke. Even if only they would understand it. I just don’t get what they were trying to accomplish. You said something about an ‘offering’?”

“That is what it say,” I confirmed, but then I amended, “she say. At end… when she run,” I slowly shook my head in frustration, “I know not. Like she was… not ram? Trying to get out? Sounded… sad? Frustrated, maybe. But I know not what means.”

Jax had cocked his head to the side as he listened. “Mate… What be a ‘ram’ exactly? Ye keep sayin’ that word, but I never heard it.”

I glanced over to Hess, but she had an equally confused look on her face, “It is just word for sheep. But male. Female is ewe, I think.”

They looked at each other for a moment before Hess said, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a ‘sheep’, either. What do they look like?”

I hesitated, at first. Were sheep not a thing here? But that did not make any sense… Why would they be in the Dungeon if they did not exist? Shaking off my worries, I did my best to explain. There were a lot of bits and pieces that were familiar to them. They grasped my explanation of their general profile quickly enough, though they were confused as to why I seemed to think that they would only ever have four legs. Also, they could not see what use the horns might have for a creature like that. Wool also seemed to throw them, at least until I explained what it was used for.

“Oh, you mean like a lagonki?” Hess asked.

At my blank look, Jax explained, “Big walloper of an animal. Maybe twice the size of a horse. Got a thick coat o’ long and soft hair. People makes clothes out of it.”

That kind of sounded like an alpaca to me, except for the size. But the concept was similar. Still, it was very odd that the Dungeon would throw an animal at me that I was familiar with while my companions were not. Although, neither of them claimed to know everything about the world, and I had seen lots of things so far that were pretty similar to Earth. Maybe sheep did exist somewhere on Vrekfren but not locally. That ram had been way too big, after all. And those eyes…

I shook my head, not wanting to think about it anymore. Jax was in the middle of telling Hess about ‘Angleseffa’ and that I was a deposed lordling that had fled, only recently coming to the Bradfirth territory. For some reason, she found this hilarious, saying that it ‘explained a lot’. I had to admit that I was getting increasingly curious as to what personality traits I had that screamed ‘young lord on the run’. Unfortunately, actually asking about it would probably cause more trouble than it was worth.

Turning to me, she asked, “How do you get to Angleseffa from Bradfirth lands?”

My mouth twitched as I considered how to answer. I could not exactly say that it was ‘up’ from the Allenwood, despite it being the literal truth, so I went with… stretching it a bit. “East. And north. Very far north.”

Hess looked like she was thinking for a moment, and then she asked, “You mean toward the Gond Desert? Or past that?”

Uh… “Yes. Past desert.” Well, here we go. Making stuff up. Hopefully, I would never meet anyone who could call me on any of this crap. That hope lasted right up until my eyes landed on Jax, who was looking at me with an eyebrow cocked. Oh. Right. Thankfully, he held his peace. I groaned mentally. That was not a conversation I was much looking forward to, but… I supposed that I owed him the truth. If the guy was going to fight and probably die for me, and more than once, then he deserved to know… well, maybe not all my secrets. But at least who I really was. Knowing my personality, though, I would probably just not bring it up and hope that he forgot about this little indiscretion.

Meanwhile, Hess was looking at me thoughtfully, “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone from beyond that wasteland. Your people must have quite a long reach to flee so far as that.”

I nodded seriously, “Yes, they do. But not that far.” At least that part was perfectly true. Good grief… I certainly hoped that was true.

After that, the conversation drifted away to less serious matters, and I was able to distract myself a bit from my recent… experience. It helped a lot that my companions had taken me seriously when I talked about it but had not been overly concerned. That told me, if only subconsciously, that stuff like that did occasionally happen to people, but that it was not the end of the world. I would need small comforts like that if I ever expected to sleep again.

That was a fortunate thing, because it was not long after that Hess called for us to bed down. The night was no longer young, after all, and our cores still needed to condense. “I will keep watch until then. Nothing will happen to you. You’ve my word.”

With that assurance, Jax and I laid down head to head by the fire. I put my back to the warmth, and stared out into the dark for a while. It took me a long time before I could convince myself to actually close my eyes, what with the memory of that thing so fresh in my memory, but when I did, I slept instantly. Maybe I was that tired. Maybe it was because of my core needing to do its thing. Either way, I was gone to the world.

The next thing I knew, I was being painfully jostled under my ribcage and flopping about like a rag doll as the world exploded around me.

“FUCK!” Hess screamed from slightly above. “’Snails, toes, and tits!”

Opening my eyes, I saw the ground zipping by underneath me while Hess’ bare legs pounded along the dirt. It took me a moment to realize, as I was still disoriented from my slumber, that I was being carried under her arm while she was sprinting for all she was worth. I started to try and say something, but I saw a flashing red light followed by a loud BIP!

“Oh, shit!” Hess hollered and she leapt for all she was worth. My stomach dropped out from under me as we flew through the air, and as the world tilted about crazily, I still managed to get a clear view of some kind of scarecrow looking thing behind us shoot a red laser beam straight out of Star Wars right at where Hess had jumped from. The resulting explosive shock wave hitting us caused Hess to lose her grip on me briefly, and I screamed as I tumbled end over end through the air only to be caught by my ankle.

As she flipped me up and over her shoulder, I managed to jerkily yell, “What the flying fuck is going on?!”

“Oh, you’re awake!” Hess said lightly, and then she laughed at herself. She had not stopped her mad dash for a single second through any of this. “Look, grope my tits, will you? It’ll give me a speed boost.”

“What?!”

Bip!

“’King ‘snails of the three!” she shouted as she juked to the right. The sudden change in direction caused her shoulder to dig into my side painfully as I flopped uselessly by her head. A scant second later, a massive thoom sounded from behind us, and the slap of the wave of air hitting our backsides lifted Hess from her feet for two to three strides. Her legs never stopped pumping, though, and when her feet met the ground again, she kept on like she had never left off. Three steps later, a rain of dirt and sod rained down around us.

“There’s no time to explain, Donum! Now grab a ‘stoe sucking tit!” she yelled.

I did not need any more encouragement than that, though I was still confused as all hell, and I latched on for all I was worth.

“Ahn~” she moaned. “Not so hard!” Even though she said that, she still leaned into my grip. I might have blushed in other circumstances.

Regardless, we started positively flying. Her legs pumping underneath me began whipping through the air fast enough to actually start producing a tone, and the ground started to blur beneath me.

“Shit, Hess! We need to get you horny more often!” I yelled exuberantly, almost laughing.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you?” she grinned toothily.

Moments later, she cleared the white picket fence of the graveyard in a single flying leap. Skidding to a stop, she bent to the side and let me fall to the ground. Turning, I saw her release her grip on Jax in her other arm. He fell to the dirt limply, like a sack of potatoes.

Scurrying over, I went to check on him. He seemed to be just fine, as far as I could tell. In fact, for all appearances, he was just lying there peacefully asleep. How he had managed it through all of that, I could not fathom. Tapping him lightly on the cheek, I called, “Jax? You in there?” But I got no response. Frowning, I remembered that he had been slow to wake up the last time we had gone through core condensation, as well. Did it take him longer, for some reason? Leaning forward, I tried again, more loudly this time, “Jax? Wake up!”

He came to with a start, his eyes flying open. Looking around wildly, he focused on me, “Mah…” Turning his head, he began coughing deeply. Finally, rolling over and getting to his hands and knees, he spat a large wad of something to the ground. Sitting back, he wiped his eyes briefly before looking at me again. “Donum? What happened?” His eyes took in their surroundings for a brief moment before he continued, “Why we be in the graveyard?”

I was about to answer, but at the sound of his voice, I paused. It had changed again. Whatever gruffness had remained to him from the last time had now gone completely. It was now a nice and clear, high tenor.

For that matter, he had changed physically, as well, if only a little. Most noticeably, his face had come another step closer to fixing itself. That asymmetrical quality that so defined his features was mostly gone now. From top to bottom, his whole aspect had evened out, and the slackness that had once plagued the left side of his face had fully disappeared. The only thing that was still off were his eyes. They were not quite yet in alignment, but they were getting there. If his left eye was rotated just a bit, it would be perfect. For that matter… I was not sure, but his eyes might have been a little bit bigger? Nah… Surely not.

Dismissing that, I noticed that his scar had receded yet again. It was now much shorter in appearance and somewhat less ugly and jagged. Perhaps shallower would be the right word? I frowned to myself a bit. Privately, I sort of hoped that the mark did not disappear completely. It was such a defining feature of his face, after all. Certainly, a few touch ups here and there would be fine, but if it were to be totally removed, he just would not look like himself. Scars were earned things, after all. It would not do to lose it.

Weirdly, his hair had again grown out another inch or so, for whatever reason — just enough to weigh itself down and start to fall about his head and around his ears. Speaking of, now that I looked at them, they seemed a little different somehow. Pointier? No, they were already that. Sharper. That was it. And maybe a touch longer. What is more, his face overall seemed… not rounder, exactly. But maybe just a shade softer? Like the rough edges had been filed away. That may not be the best way to describe a person’s face, but I felt it applied… if only in a metaphorical sort of way.

Other than that he seemed to be mostly the same. Or… no, his muscles were a bit more noticeable. Not bigger by any stretch. More… defined, I would say. And yet… somehow not? If anything, his shoulders now seemed narrower, if that were possible.

Altogether, I would say that he did, in fact, look a bit more… well, I would not say attractive, though I was no great judge of male beauty. Certainly, less ugly, though. He was starting to look less like a grizzled thug and more like an adolescent who might have had a less than easy childhood. Honestly, I was having a hard time reconciling all of it with a single point of Charisma. Some of it, sure, but… I just could not see what was so great about having longer ears.

Then, I had another thought. His race! I had not considered that. The last time, he had developed that organ that let him feed on emotions. Now? Perhaps, lilim had longer ears than laoi. Why not? It seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation. After all, I had seen plenty of odd races so far. Maybe Jax just needed to grow into his racial features a bit, and these core condensation episodes were allowing him to do that.

All the while that I had been examining him, he had been examining me. And he was not the only one.

“Charisma?” Hess asked from the side.

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I looked up at her. She was standing with an arm crossed over her front and a hand lightly grasping her elbow as her other rose to toy at her lower lip.

“I can see why you would invest in it,” she indicated me, “but you’re some kind of warrior type, right?” She walked over and slowly started circling Jax.

He nodded in confirmation as his head swiveled to follow her motion, “Aye. Ye’ve the right of it. Why?”

“Why?” she said incredulously, stopping at his opposite side, “What possible use could you have for Charisma?”

He slowly spread his hands, “No choice. It be a trait o’ me kind.”

“What?” she put her hands down to her bare hips. “What do you mean?”

“Uh…” I raised a finger.

“Because you’re a summoner type, obviously,” she said impatiently, not even looking at me. “Now what do you mean about it being a ‘trait’?”

He sighed, “Not that it be any o’ yer business, Hess, but we o’ the lilim get a point o’ Charisma and Toughness per Layer. But only the two free points.”

“A point of…” she squatted down, “Every Layer? From the beginning?”

“Uhm…” I said again.

“Because it helps you cast more easily and should help you with control. Probably. I’m not certain,” she rubbed her forehead. “Charisma and Toughness? Every Layer? You’re sure?”

“’Course I’m sure. Ye think I’d not know me own stats?” he looked her up and down. “Why ye bent sideways about it, anyway? And besides that, ye never did answer me question. Why we be here? An’ what happened to all them blighted Zombies?”

That was a good question. “Uh… I mean… Yeah, what did happen to the Zombies?” I asked, looking around. “And what was the deal with those turbo-laser scarecrows?”

“Turbo-what? Scarecrows?” Jax said, confused.

Hess looked like she wanted to swat the both of us around soundly, but instead, she just looked to the sky and muttered, “Monos…” Sitting down, she rubbed at her face for a moment before addressing us again, “Alright, fine. The Zombies aren’t here because it’s daytime. They always hide themselves before the sun comes up.”

Now that she said it, it dawned on me that it was, in fact, a new day… if you will forgive the pun. The sun had just crested the horizon, and its rays were skipping along the dewy grass in a very pleasant and innocent sort of way. As if it was blissfully unaware that we were trapped in a pastoral hell dimension of nightmares.

“As for the scarecrows… I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like them.” She shook her head slightly before hiking a thumb toward the nearby field, “They popped up out of the ground out there as soon as the sun started to rise. They don’t seem to move, I don’t think, but they have some kind of spell they shoot at you if you get too close.”

Deciding that seeing for myself would be best, I got to my feet and walked over to the fence. The objects in question were scattered everywhere out there. There did not seem to be any sort of pattern to their placement, but if I were to estimate, I would say that they were spaced at about fifteen to twenty yards apart. They looked, as far as I could tell, like regular old scarecrows that you might see out in a corn field… except for the fact that their heads were slowly rotating… and their eyes were gleaming faintly red. Here and there, I caught sight of some kind of red, glittering light reflecting in the early morning dew, almost as if someone had laid down an incandescent cobweb. Squinting a bit to try and get a clearer view, I could faintly make out what I decided was probably some sort of proximity laser shooting out from their eye sockets. Unfortunately, in the sunlight, it was almost impossible to see how far that laser extended.

Jax and Hess had walked up to either side of me and were doing their own survey of the field. After a moment, Jax pointed off into the distance, “Donum? Ye see them critters out there?”

Following his finger, I could faintly make out a herd of fluffy white shapes moving about in the distance. A drop of cold sweat dripped down my spine as I put a name to their form, “Yeah… Yeah… those are sheep, alright.”

Indistinctly, I heard a far off, “Baaaaah.” I shivered.

“They don’t look all that dangerous,” Hess said.

I looked up at her for a moment and sighed, “Normally, they aren’t… Normally.”

She stared out at them for a while with a distant look on her face. Just then, I audibly heard a squelching noise coming from her stomach. “Are they good eating, do you think?” she asked, a hint of longing creeping into her voice.

Ah, that’s right. I had been provided with Life Energy last night, and plenty of it, but Hess had gone without, not that she had said anything about it. For that matter… none of us had had any water in at least a day. Oddly, I had not even noticed. Maybe that effect of Jax’s provided it, as well? Either way, we would need to find a source of it today.

But, for Hess’ question, I had to think about it for a minute. In America, we mostly ate chicken and beef. And pork, if your religion was cool with it. Did people eat sheep? They were mostly used for their wool, so it seemed kind of wasteful… Right. Mutton! That is what it was called. I had tried some when I went to Disney World that one time. “Uh, yes. They’re red meat, I think.”

Giving her head a small shake before turning back to us, she said, “We’ll deal with them later.” She paused for a moment as if gathering her thoughts. Finally, turning to me, she said, “I want to know more about this class of yours. What exactly is a lilim? And how did you find one?”

I glanced over at Jax. He was not looking at either of us, his gaze still fixed on the distant herd of sheep, but his eyes had gone flat. I was not sure exactly how I should interpret that, but edging toward caution, I decided to leave out what I could about Jax’s past. She did not need to know any of that. “We don’t really know what a lilim is. We’re figuring it out as we go. And I did not find one. I think… Well, I have a spell that can bind a willing or a defeated… uh… ‘entity’, it says. I’m not sure what that means, exactly. But I can tell you that Jax here was not a lilim before I cast it.”

“I ain’t sure I agree with that,” Jax said, crossing his arms. I smirked. Was he still on that?

Hess looked back and forth between us for a moment, at first perplexed but then considering. Finally, addressing Jax, she said, “And were you willing? Or defeated?”

Jax snorted, “As if Donum here could defeat anyone…” Then seemingly embarrassed for some reason, he looked at me, “No offense, mate.”

“No, no. That’s fair,” I chuckled, good-naturedly. I mean… I probably could have taken down Jax. If I were sneaky about it. In the dark. Turning back to Hess, I asked, “Why do you want to know?”

Instead of answering my question, she asked, “And could you bind me as a lilim? If I were willing?”

We both looked at her, at that. I blinked slowly, confusion etched into every part of my expression. Jax, as far as I could tell, was positively glowering. That only confused me further. “Uh…” I blinked a few times more as I tried to gather my thoughts, “I… don’t know? I only have the one slot right now. But, why would you be willing?”

“How do you gain more slots?” she asked, still ignoring my questions.

“I don’t know, Hess. I’ve only been a Lilim Trainer for about a week or two,” I said in frustration. “What is this all about?”

“Okay…” she started pacing, “Okay, it could be a Layer requirement… or you might need to buy slots with skill points.” She paused and glanced at Jax, “There could be other components, as well…”

“Hess!” Jax barked, “Answer the man’s question!”

Startled out of her reverie, she looked at us and chuckled, “Oh, you poor sweet babes… you have no idea what you have.” Slowly, she started pacing again, “Okay, look… Jax, what you were just describing are called tempered stat points. That means they’re baked in. You get them automatically when your core condenses. It is possible to earn them, but you would have to permanently sacrifice a free stat point to get them, if you even can. That’s a whole other thing, and it isn’t easy, let me assure you. There are different levels of quality to them, too. Some of them only apply every few levels. The higher the quality, the more frequently you get them. You, little man, have the very best quality. And you have two of them! From the very first Layer!”

Jax had his arms crossed, “And?”

“And? And?!” Hess looked at him incredulously.

I pointed back and forth between us quickly, “Ignorant Monos, remember?”

“You don’t even know that?” she sighed in exasperation. She reached up to start fiddling with one of her braids for a moment while she gathered her thoughts. Finally, tossing it over her shoulder, she went on, “Alright. I figure the two of you must be spending your stat points at a rate of one per Layer still? Neither of you have an attribute over ten?”

I tilted my head. Uh oh…

“That’s right,” Jax supplied. “And no. Nothin’ over ten. Why?”

“It starts to cost more, doesn’t it?” I guessed. I had seen plenty of games with a mechanic like that. And going off of what she had said so far…

“That’s right. A lot more. Every ten levels, it doubles.” She grinned broadly, “I’ll tell you now, I am well into the second Stratum, and I don’t have a single attribute past twenty. In fact, if I want to improve any of my attributes, at this stage, I have to spend at least two points, and those are for ones that I don’t really need.”

Hmm… ‘Stratum’ was new. I had not heard that one before. From context, I assumed it was some kind of Layer related tier. Going off of the rest of what she had just said, though, that would mean that each stat increase past twenty would cost four points. Past thirty, they would cost eight. Each. Most people would have to save up for two Layers just to take that one extra attribute level. And that assumed that everyone got four, which they might not. If it kept doubling after that? Eesh…

Jax’s Toughness trait alone would mean that at higher levels, he had the potential to be one of the toughest s.o.b.’s alive. The Charisma, though? I had no idea what that might do. Of course, that all presumed that we would live that long. And at the rate we were going, I gave us low odds.

My thoughts having finally caught up with Hess, I said, “Okay, I follow you. And I can see why you might be interested to some extent, but there are downsides to consider. I mean, for one, you would be bound to me, and I am far weaker than you. We aren’t really even sure what effect the binding even has beyond a few observations. For that matter, I don’t have any idea what the spell might do to you. To say nothing of the change in your kind — which we’re also still feeling out, by the way — there may be other side effects that we don’t know yet. I mean… it might even affect your Core or your skills. Even your class might change.”

Her lips twisted a bit at that, “You don’t know any of that for certain, do you?”

“Only some,” I admitted. Truthfully, most of that was speculation based off of some other games I had played. But if I were making up the rules, I would say that just binding some rando level one hundred mob would be massively unbalanced. There would have to be some kind of drawback to it. “But it’s enough to at least wait until we’re in a safe place to try it. Even then… Well, let’s just say that I wouldn’t want you to do something that you might regret.”

Nodding thoughtfully, she turned and bent at the waist, resting her elbows over top of the fence. For a while, she just stared off into the distance. Without thinking about it, my eyes flickered to take in the outline of her muscular backside. Her gray skin was a little unusual, but that really did not matter too much to me. If anything, it made her all the more exotic. Amusingly, I had almost gotten used to the fact that she had not been wearing pants for well over a day. She had hardly even mentioned it. It was kind of weird seeing dirt smudges and grass stains there of all places. If anything, it would be strange to actually see her with pants on.

If I were being honest with myself, I would not mind taking her in on a more permanent basis. She was nice to look at, if a little eccentric… okay, she was very eccentric. But so far, she had done right by us… On the other hand, an attractive girl could make a man do things that might be less than wise. And I had a feeling that Sherr Hess just might be that type of girl.

Turning to Jax, I quietly said in English, “What do you think?”

He was fidgeting with his shirt a bit when I brought my attention to him, picking at his collar distractedly. Finally, he looked up at my face, searchingly. Seemingly satisfied with what he found there, he nodded to himself, “Don’t matter. Y’ain’t got but the one slot, anyway.”

I made a face, “Okay, yes, I know that. But I’m asking about later. When… or I guess if I get another slot, would you be okay with Hess filling it?”

His expression turned… well, it was hard to read. Contented, maybe? “Mmm… Well, since ye want ter be dancin’ in ‘if’s… ye know what ye know about ‘er. She be a drunk and wild woman. Some o’ that be from ‘er class, to be sure, but ye may be able to bring her to heel.”

“I’m not really big on ‘bringing people to heel’, Jax. You may have noticed,” I said.

“Aye, that. So be prepared to get dragged around in ter all o’ her shite, then. Ye know she likes to dive headlong into the bellies o’ Mouths. That ain’t a good way o’ livin’ a long life,” he said with a half smile.

I had not considered that. For all that I had put on airs that I was some ‘Quester’ or whatever, actually doing it professionally was a whole other matter. On the other hand, it was not as if I could break out into indy game development or one of the hundred or so other directions I had thought my life might take. I was currently a passenger aboard the U.S.S. ‘Playing it by Ear’. And I did not see any means of jumping ship, either. “To tell you the truth, Jax, I’m just trying to stay alive until tomorrow.”

“One foot in front o’ the next, then?” he nodded to himself. “In that case, go with yer gut. Y’ain’t a fool. An don’t be worryin’ about me. I spent most o’ my life tiptoein’ around cutthroats. Hess don’t bother me. Long as ye keep ter yer end of our bargain, I’m yer man.”

Our bargain? What bargain had we made? The only thing we had really agreed to was for me to treat him fairly and keep to an even split. He had not even asked anything of me when he agreed to follow me. Really, he had just been afraid of what might happen if I unbound him. I blinked. Oh. “Jax, you weren’t afraid I would trade you out for her, were you?”

He grinned broadly at my question and slapped my shoulder, “Ah, there we go. Ye can do it. And aye. Fer a scanty it crossed me mind. She would be a powerful one fer ye, and many a man would have jumped at the chance. ‘Specially with a bum like that…” he wriggled his eyebrows at me before continuing, “But y’ain’t one ta cross a man. I know that true.”

“Alright, Donum,” Hess said from her perch on the fence, “you’ve made some good points. And you’re right. I need to know more about what I’d be getting myself into here. Usually, I’d just dive in without thinking, but… if there’s the possibility of disrupting my Core… that’s a bit much, even for me.”

I nodded seriously, “That’s good, Hess. Look, Jax and I were talking, and if you do decide you want it… you know, after we get out of here, and if I can get another slot… I’ll cast the binding on you. Or I’m willing, I guess I should say.”

She quirked an eyebrow at me, “Hmm… I suppose that’s good enough for now. Incidentally, have you asked Bline about it? Unlocking slots, I mean?”

“Uh… actually, no,” I shrugged. “But She’s usually not very forthcoming about things like that, so I guess I didn’t think to bother.”

She chuckled, “No time like the present. Besides you need to buy a new skill. You just gained a Layer, after all. You probably have some skill-ups to review, too. I can tell that much from the way you’ve been speaking since you woke up.”

I blinked. The second she said that, a huge litany of panels started lighting up in front of me.