Fenris soon came back and Petris followed him.

Duncan saw Petris was hiding behind Fenris, as Fenris said, “Petris says he will go with us but he has a request.”

“Hello, Petris. What is it?” Duncan asked.

“He wants you to form a Party so he levels when we kill something,” Fenris explained.

Duncan looked surprised for a moment, before asking, “A Party? Can we do that?”

“You should have had access to that option when you hit level twenty,” Fenris replied.

Duncan scratched his head, “Well, that explains why I don’t know about it since I am only at level 17.”

Both Petris and Fenris looked at him with amazement before Fenris asked, “And you went to the mine solo?”

“Yeah,” Duncan replied, scratching his head in embarrassment because he knew what would follow.

“You should be more careful. You only have one life!” Fenris admonished.

“That explains why you didn’t form a party with Shaya,” Petris said and nodded before he continued, “you were not a selfish prick like Demira said. You just didn’t know about it.”

Both Duncan and Fenris looked at him.

“She said that? What else did she say?” Duncan asked.

“I need to talk to that girl,” Fenris said.

Petris’ expression looked conflicted as he knew he had gotten Demira in trouble before he quietly said, “She… said Shaya came back empty-handed. That you did not share any loot.”

“There was not much loot to share. The loot we got Shaya said I could have it,” Duncan said as he shook his head.

“Sorry Duncan, Demira is a bit of a gossip,” Fenris said embarrassed.

“What don’t you say!” Duncan said before he stomped off fuming.

“Let’s go. One of you will form a party,” Duncan shouted without looking at them as walked towards the mine.

Petris and Fenris soon caught up and they walked in silence for a while.

“I am sorry for misunderstanding you,” Petris said in a whisper as they walked side by side.

“It’s not your fault it’s that BLEEP woman. Who else did she tell?” Duncan asked.

“Everyone,” Petris whispered.

“Oh. That’s just great. Now everyone thinks I am a selfish prick. Did she tell them that Shaya almost shot me in the mine also?” Duncan interrogated.

“She did? What did you do?” Fenris questioned.

Duncan looked at Fenris aghast before raising his voice and replying, “Not you too. I did nothing. Her -BLEEP- arrows bounced off the Skeleton as I was fighting it up close.”

Duncan suddenly closed his eyes and made a weird expression as he was in pain.

Fenris and Petris looked at each other, each one redder in the face than the other, and quietly walked beside him.

“I am sorry I doubted you, Duncan. It’s just Shaya is my most trusted and capable subordinate, usually,” Fenris admitted.

“Yeah. Let’s not talk about it anymore,” Duncan replied and the other two nodded.

“Alright. I will make the party and when we get back, I will explain the situation to the others and rip Demira a new one. I doubt Shaya even knows about this,” Fenris replied.

Suddenly Duncan got a prompt.

[ You have been invited to Wolf King’s party]

[ACCEPT] [DECLINE]

Duncan clicked to accept and suddenly he had two small icons depicting Fenris and Petris below his. It showed their names, health, and mana bars.

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Turning to Fenris he asked, “Wolf King really?”

“Well, I got named after him,” Fenris replied, scratching his head.

Duncan took a big breath as they neared the mine.

“I am going into the mine with 200-year-old Chūnibyōs,” Duncan thought as he shook his head.

“For loot distribution, I would say, the money we split equally as for the rest you get first pick. If we really want something we will ask for it,” Fenris clarified.

“OK. Can we go in now?” Duncan said as he took out a torch.

“Yeah. Ready your weapons and torches,” Fenris replied.

They entered and crossed the explored parts of the mine without any problems. Soon they reached the part with the stairwell where Shaya and Duncan stopped.

“Petris, go ahead and scout, we will come after you if you are not back in 5 minutes,” Fenris commanded.

Duncan looked at Petris as he suddenly vanished from his vision.

“Is that Stealth he is using?” he asked Fenris.

Fenris nodded, “Impressive, isn’t it?”

“How does that work?” Duncan inquired.

Fenris took a moment before he replied, “I don’t know. Only Shaya can see him from all of us when he activates it. She has the highest perception skill so it must have something to do with that.”

“What is his stealth level if it is not a secret?” Duncan asked.

“Last time he told me it was 21, I think. He can only keep it up for 21 minutes though at a time, with 5 minutes of cooldown,” Fenris explained.

Petris came back before 5 minutes were up.

“There is a tripwire trap on the stairwell and a dark corridor with another door once you cross it. Shall I activate it?” he asked.

“Do it!” Fenris replied as he nodded.

Duncan could see Petris tugging on something and an explosion rang out from the stairwell.

“Let’s go!” Fenris said as he rushed down.

They came to the door and it was a familiar setup. Four small diamonds and a big gem in the middle. This time it was not a ruby. It was a rectangularly cut blue gem.

“Can I take the gems?” Duncan asked.

Petris and Fenris looked at him and nodded.

Duncan quickly got to work and pried them off. He identified the gem and it was a Sapphire.

“Alright. Free your hands and get into position. Duncan, you stay beside me if a Shade comes out. Petris, you stand by the door and trigger the mechanism,” Fenris commanded.

They both stuck the torches in any gaps they could find and positioned themselves as they were commanded.

“Ready?” Fenris asked and after they nodded, he yelled, “Go.”

The door opened and a draft picked up from upstairs sucking the air into the depths. A screech resounded and Duncan stepped forward a step. It was a Shade, he was sure of that by now. The torches behind him didn’t reach far and he didn’t want to go deeper into the darkness.

He started BLEEPing quietly and making grimaces as he did. Soon an incarnation of darkness jumped from the dark corridor straight at him and impaled itself. It ended as fast as it happened. The shade just wiggled for a bit and then turned into dust.

“Well, that was disappointing,” Fenris said as he picked up a torch and threw it forward.

Soon after that Duncan heard the sound of some dragging and scrapping. Petris used stealth again and Fenris stood in front of Duncan. As the torch in the corridor illuminated the new enemy Duncan gasped. It was not just a skeleton now. It was a black zombie about 3 meters high, with long arms like a monkey and big claws at the end of them. It dragged one of his feet and sometimes scratched the wall which made a similar sound to screeching chalk on the blackboard.

“Be careful! That should be a Ghoul! Don’t let him scratch you! There is poison in the claws. Stay behind me and attack only if you are sure,” Fenris yelled as he prepared to engage.

As the Ghoul crossed fully into the light, they could see he was not actually black but very dark red.

It opened its mouth like a snake much further than a human being could and hissed before it sprung forward and slashed its right claw. It was so fast that the dragging motion before seemed to be an act to let your guard down. Luckily Fenris didn’t fall for it.

Fenris jumped back to avoid the claw which missed him and hit the wall. Then he jumped forward and hacked downward with his sword on it. The right arm was amputated below the shoulder by the powerful slash which had Fenris’ full weight behind it. Fenris immediately jumped back from the crouching posture. It was good that he did as this time the left claw was coming to claim him. Duncan was sure of two things now. The first one was he would not be fast enough to avoid that. The second was Fenris went easy on him when they trained.

The Ghoul bellowed as he missed and tried to backhand Fenris who once again stepped back. He was near Duncan and pushed him further behind.

“Hide behind the door!” he yelled as he feinted an attack to provoke the Ghoul. Duncan hid on the left side and Petris was on the right one.

The Ghoul once again made a full swipe and struck the other side of the corridor. This time Fenris had no time for a slash as the Ghoul blue tongue suddenly flashed out of the open mouth almost 3 meters which he blocked with his sword.

The tongue wrapped around the sword and tried to pull Fenris closer as Duncan, from the side of the wall, slashed at it from above and struck directly on the outstretched tongue. It was cut off and the Ghoul screeched and hit Duncan’s direction who ducked behind the wall and out of reach.

Fenris used that chance to chop off the Ghoul's other arm which was now spilling dark blood from all sides. Its mouth and two amputated limbs were like a grotesque fountain of dark liquid.

It still moved forward trying to bite Fenris who was not nearing the stairs. Suddenly there was movement and Petris slashed the tendons on the back of the Ghoul's legs, which now could not support it anymore. It fell on its knees as it bellowed and Fenris used that chance for a horizontal slash that sent its head flying.

Duncan watched the head defy gravity for a moment before it fell on the floor with a splat and bounced a couple of times. He half expected Fenris to declare, “There can be only one!”, after this glorious moment.

“You guys were not half bad,” was what he got instead.