The sign on the door said we were walking into the office of Mentor Dorian. The office looked more like a swap meet than anything else. There were all kinds of random things laying around from old skulls to paintings of circles with lines in them, even an old broken kite was leaning against the desk. There were a few dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, giving the entire room the slight smell of catnip. Various alchemy tubes and beakers we're along one wall under the window with a large orange cat laying on top of a stack of papers in the sun. On the other wall there were piles of broken vases, a wooden doll, and a small bookshelf. No matter where I looked, there was something strange.

"Ah, Cruz! Good to see you here on time, and you brought your demon! Excellent! Let me see those bindings."

*On time? I haven't seen any clocks!*

Mentor Dorian was a tall dark skinned man with dreads and small glasses perched on his nose. He was wearing green robes with a large yellow strip down the center.

"Real quick, I'll give you five buckaroos for the hat with the feather!" I couldn't resist yelling out! I could feel some kind of energy wafting out from the feather.

Mentor Dorian's face immediately focused on me. There was a look of surprise, which quickly turned into curiosity.

"First, whats a buckaroo, is that some kind of demonic money? Second, you can talk?" Mentor Dorian asked while also quickly looking at the hat in question, judging the value in an instant.

*Shit shit shit. I wasn't supposed to talk.*

"Uh...he just repeats stuff he's heard. We stopped by a stall to get his robes and he heard someone asking about hats. He doesn't know what he's saying." Cruz tried to cover for my outburst.

"Nevermind. Cruz, your recommendation letter is done, but according to how long it took to do your binding, the overall score is a little lower than needed to access the dungeons. I need some help collecting some Yekroot herbs. If you can collect them, I'll update your recommendation on your letter."

"Hat..."

"And... I'll throw in the hat for the demon."

Quest: Collect 40 Yekroot herbs.

*Hell yeah! Quest time!*

"Sounds good, we're looking forward to getting into the dungeon as soon as we can. Where's the Yekroot found?" Cruz asked, all serious business.

"They grow along the river at the bottom of the Gretteck Canyon. You can see a couple hanging from my ceiling, but I need about 40 more for my experiments. I've got a herbing bag you can use. It will preserve them for maximum potency. It only holds herbs though, so don't try to put anything else in it. There are also a few higher level creatures down there as well, so be careful not to lose my herb bag."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"No problem. We'll head straight there." Cruz responded.

*Catnip? Dudes sending us to get Catnip? Lame.*

Cruz accepted the green bag and put it into a pocket in his robes. We left the office and started walking towards the city gates.

"Does this city have a name? Did I at least get abducted to the capital?" I asked looking at the various buildings lining the street.

"We're in Crow's Foot. The kingdom is called Talis, but it's shaped roughly like a crow with its wings out. Each wing has a dungeon, along with one in the head, that's the highest level we have, and one a few miles from here, which is the lowest level. Can you guess where we are in relation to the capital? Hahaha!" Crus said it with a dry laugh at the end like it was an old joke.

*At least we're not in like Crow's Ass.*

"How low is the dungeon we're going to after this quest? What are the specifics? And how far is this canyon we're going to now?" I asked, pumping him for information.

"The dungeon is called Goblin City, it's good for level five to level ten. There's some quests we can pick up on the way. The goblins all respawn every eight hours. So the big thing is to make sure we travel fast enough to outrun the respawns. We'll talk more about the specifics when we're ready to go in." Cruz replied.

*Goblins? Sweeeet. This will be cake.*

"Canyon. Distance. Chop chop!"

"Oh, it's not far, about half a days walk." Cruz answered him as he pulled an apple out of his pocket and got ready to take a bite.

*Half a day walking? I've never missed a Uber so much as today.*

.....

"There it is! Gretteck Canyon!" Cruz exclaimed with anticipation.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Who's Sherlock? Was that a Master Warlock you met in the demon dimension?" Cruz was absolutely trying to learn as much as he could about the alternate dimension.

*I can already see you trying out Cruzlock in your head! Hahaha!*

"No comment." I wasn't entertaining this conversation anymore. We got shit to collect, and herbs to kill. Er...yes.

"Ok. Let's get down there and get back to Crow's Foot." Cruz said still daydreaming about being called Cruzlock. If he was in highschool, he'd totally be writing it all over his Trapper Keeper right now.

Quest: Eat 10 Big Cat hearts.

*Oh shit! Another quest! Thats fantastic!*

We walked to the edge and saw a long slopped path we could take down. The bottom was entirely covered in a forest that looked like it had never seen a lumberjack. There was a small river winding its way through the bottom like a snake.

We walked down the path and eventually saw the first cat, laying in the sun. I use the name "cat" very loosely. I mean, it was the size of a lion back home. Big, orange, cat. It was licking a paw and watching us, but didn't seem to concerned with us at all.

"Watch and learn! Demon magic at its finest!" I yelled, and let a Firebolt shoot out my finger.

The cat watched it shoot towards it, and right before it would hit it, it sluggishly rolled over and the Firebolt hit the ground where it had been and missed completely.

*What. The. Hell! Janky ass Firebolt.*

"Hahahahaha! My turn!" Cruz lost it.

He stopped laughing and pointed his finger and yelled "Shadowbolt!"

The cat immediately was hit by a purple flame. It let out a loud drawn out yowl, as it's fur burned and the skin blistered on its shoulder.

"Uh... Chruz, I think we have more coming from the sound of that cats yowl!"

"Let's find a defensive spot to kill them all! And it's Cruz! Cruz! It's not that hard!" Cruz said, with a clear mind.

"You get defensive, I'm going offensive! Don't hit me with your sparkles." I said over my shoulder as I stepped out of my robes.

"It's not sparkles, damn it! That's a 3rd level Shadowbolt!" Cruz yelled back.

I was already running to the cat. Once I reached it a quick rip, and it's guts we're spilling out. It died as soon as I reached in and grabbed the heart.

(40 xp)

*Bottoms up*

Quest (1/10 Cat hearts)

*Woah! That's really good! Both the xp and the taste! Hahaha!*

Three more cats were running at us from the woods. The left most cat got a Shadowbolt from Cruz, the middle was running at Cruz as well, probably because it saw the first get hit with the Shadowbolt. I heard Cruz yelling something about Fear.

The third was mine! We ran towards each other and I launched myself at its face, nails first. The cat's mouth was almost on my stomach, and my nails were ready!

Rip!

Rip!

Rip!

(30 xp)

The eyes went first, then the throat. It happened so fast, Cruz had no idea what I did to that big dumb cat.

*Kill first, hearts later!*