Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lilit yelled into her mic, “Trevor, I need you to start kiting the boss. Mike, stay focused on the mob. Kayla, start picking up the stragglers for Mike. Everyone stay focused. We did not just spend the last three hours crawling through this dungeon to die to some stupid lich.”

A series of confirmations came in, from Trevor’s grunt to Kayla’s perky “Roger!” Lilit navigated her character on the screen closer to Mike’s paladin. As the healer it was her job to keep everyone, but especially Mike going long enough to bring down the mob of skeletons and zombies so they could focus on the boss.

Since she was a cleric and these were undead, it was also her job to try and maintain crowd control. She threw a turn undead at the lich as it lumbered past, trying to reach Trevor’s rogue. The spell didn’t send the lich running away like it would a lesser enemy, but it did pause for several seconds, giving Trevor time to give himself a dex buff via potion.

As soon as the lich started moving again, Trevor continued to fire bolts from his crossbow. Near the top of the screen, Kayla was picking apart the mob that had been drawn to Mike’s taunting and ground pounding attacks with her battleaxe.

“Kayla, why aren’t you raging?” Lilit asked. She swore she had to remind everyone to do their buffs before practically every battle. She was honestly surprised that Trevor thought to take his dex buff potion without her nagging him. Small miracles.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Kayla squeaked out. Her tiny barbarian goblin threw his head back on screen to apparently scream his anger before Kayla waded back into battle. This time more effectively reducing the number of undead.

Mike was doing well, keeping the mob of undead focused mostly on him. She grimaced as she noticed his reduced health. “My bad Mike, have some heals buddy.” She cast a greater healing word on him. His health jumped up to refill most of his bar.

She threw a smite into the middle of the mob on some random zombie, just trying to do her part. A couple of skeletons broke away to head toward her. She hit one as it closed with her and then started running away while she waited for her turn undead to finish its cooldown. She stopped and swung her great hammer at another skeleton. That one crumbled to dust so she waited for the next skeleton to hit before dodging away again.

Trevor ran past with the lich following behind. He shot a bolt at one of the skeletons chasing her. It crumbled to dust as well. “Thanks!” Now that there were only two skeletons left, she decided to stand her ground and finish them off. She kept an eye on the rest of the screen and watched her party chipping away at the final enemies.

She’d been playing with this party for a couple of months now. They were all fairly new to their guild and hadn’t been picked up by any of the other established parties so they decided to band together. She thought they made a pretty good team, even if she did have to babysit them more than she would have liked. It was honestly like herding cats sometimes.

A few minutes later the mob of undead had finally been taken care of. Mike got one more heal before she sent him to grab the aggro of the lich from Trevor. The lich was already down almost a third of its health bar. From what she’d seen on the forums, each third of a bar depleted would cause the lich to summon more helpers. But the summons always appeared near the throne at the top of the room.

“Mike, pick up the aggro toward the bottom of the room. That’ll give us the most time to wear down his HP before the mob hits us and we have to pivot.” Everyone started rushing to the bottom of the screen after Lilit’s command.

Mike taunted the lich before unleashing a ground pound for good measure. Although now he’d have to wait until one or the other’s cooldown wound down before he could grab the majority of the mob’s attention when they appeared. It worked like a charm though. The lich locked onto Mike’s paladin and then stumbled to the ground.

“Now Kayla! Get him while he’s on the ground.” Kayla’s barbarian rushed in and performed whirlwind, spinning in a circle while swinging his battleaxe.

Trevor hid as soon as Mike had taunted the lich. Now he popped out for a sneak attack. “Yes!” He crowed into his mic. It looked like he’d scored a critical hit. The lich’s health was dropping fast.

Lilit started throwing out buffs to attacks, strength, dexterity, whatever she could think of to help them push down the lich’s health bar faster. It hit about the halfway mark before the first summoned skeletons and zombies appeared at the top of the screen.

“Alright, Mike, go grab the mob. Trevor go back to kiting. Kayla, keep your rage up and pick apart that mob.” Lilit shouted as she hit the party with a group heal. It wouldn’t heal anyone as much as a targeted heal, but it gave everyone a little boost that they would need soon.

Lilit hit the mob with turn undead, sending several skeletons and one zombie rushing away from the party. That would last for about six seconds and then they would hurry back. But anything to lessen the pressure on Mike and Kayla would help.

Trevor was doing too good of a job if anything. They hadn’t even finished off this second mob when he triggered the final mob. It was great that Trevor was doing so well against the lich by himself, but geez did it keep everyone else too busy to help him.

Five minutes later it was done. The lich lay dead at their feet. The lootdrop window popped up and everyone got to see what epic items they were about to grab. Lilit scrolled down the list of items looking for the color text marking a rare or legendary item.

There it was. Near the bottom of the list. She read the name and let out a groan. The chatter of everyone congratulating each other cut off. “What is it?” Trevor asked.

“Well, we got an epic item drop. Problem is its mage’s robes. No one in the party wears that kind of armor,” she answered.

“We can still sell it and make pretty good money,” Kayla interjected.

“I mean yeah, but half the time the item drops from stuff like this is so much better than what we could afford to buy at our level. It just sucks that this doesn’t help anyone in the party.”

A couple of grumbled comments came in over Lilit’s headphones. They agreed to meet up over the weekend at a tavern close to their guild house. Lilit said her goodbyes and then logged out of the game.

She twisted herself around in her chair, her back popping in several places. She repeated the motion in the other direction and got a couple more pops.

Looking at the time on the bottom of the computer screen she judged she had time for a quick shower before her evening class. She hurried out of her office/gaming room and into the bathroom.

Half an hour later she was jogging out the door and headed toward campus, her backpack slung over her shoulders. This early in the year it was still light out as she walked to her seven o’clock class. It was times like this that she was glad she’d been able to snag one of the elusive apartments on the edge of campus. After sitting on her butt in front of her computer for several hours it was nice to be able to stretch her legs out as she walked to class.

She walked through the door of the classroom and was almost immediately run into. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry Dr. Lipka. I didn’t mean to run into you or anything.” A blushing freshman stammered as he jumped back from her.

Lilit brushed herself off. “It’s alright Todd. Maybe don’t go running around in front of the door. Hmmm?”

“Of course, Dr. Lipka. Sorry.”

“Ok. Go grab your seat so we can get started.”

Todd nodded his head vigorously and nearly tripped he twisted around so quickly. He rushed to a seat about halfway down the middle row. Lilit walked to the front of the classroom and began the class by asking if anyone had had problems during the lab earlier that week.

Chapter Text

The next day Lilit was heading home after teaching an early morning class. She didn’t have office hours until after lunch so, like she usually did, she planned on getting a few hours soloing to grind for levels. She usually preferred to play with a party, especially as a cleric that was focused on buffs and healing. She really needed to unlock the spells at the next level though before they started going into harder dungeons. She was so close and knew that by the time she got together with her party this weekend she’d be leveled up and prepared for more adventure.

She worked on a sprawling campus that stretched over several blocks in each direction. She had to cross several busy streets to get from the building she taught in back to her apartment. As she was waiting on the corner for the light to change she noticed a cute little girl standing beside a young woman. She was quietly bouncing a ball while the woman beside her was talking into her phone quietly but urgently.

The little girl couldn’t have been older than three or four. She was adorable with little blonde pigtails sticking off the sides of her head. Lilit kept an eye on the little girl who was standing close to the edge of the curb.

If she hadn’t been she wouldn’t have seen what happened next it happened so fast. The little girl’s ball hit the edge of the curb, and bounced directly into the street. The little girl took off like a flash to get her ball back, not paying attention to the traffic on the street.

Less than ten feet away was a metro bus barreling along. She saw the moment the driver saw the girl dart out in front of the bus. His eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped open. She heard the brakes squeal as the tires locked up.

Without thinking, Lilit’s body was already in motion. The instant the ball bounced into the street she’d started to move, knowing exactly how this was about to play out. She was several steps away though and the little girl was in the street and too far to reach from the curb by the time Lilit made it to the edge.

The woman, who she assumed was the little girl’s mom let out a fearful screech. Lilit was already in motion and pushed the woman away from the street as she took a step out to grab her daughter. It was too late. She couldn’t grab the girl and snatch her from in front of the bus, there wasn’t time. As she stepped into oncoming traffic, Lilit reached out and shoved the little girl past the edge of the lane. No one was coming from the other direction and she would be safe from more than a skinned knee.

The same could not be said for Lilit. She didn’t have time to get herself out of harm’s way as well. She kept her eyes locked on the little girl as she felt the sudden, bone crushing impact of the bus hitting her. The pain was unbearable. It felt like every bone in her body had been crushed and splintered at once. Thankfully darkness took her quickly.

She never woke up after being hit by the bus. Her body was rushed to the closest trauma center, paramedics doing the best that they could to keep her heart beating. Lilit was beyond the pain. She heard murmurs and voices speaking over each other, but it was muffled and distorted like she was listening to it underwater.

She never heard the beeps from the machines they hooked her up to. She’d already left that body far behind by the time they got her onto a gurney at the hospital. Lilit was pronounced dead ten minutes later by the doctor.

Lilit floated through the void. She watched as stars were born, and she observed them as they died explosive deaths. There was no up or down, no side to side. The void cradled her in its embrace. Though what the void was cradling Lilit didn’t know, because she had no body anymore.

She floated for minutes or an eternity. She really couldn’t tell which before she felt the presence of someone else. The presence wasn’t familiar. Something about it felt benevolent though. So she shifted her attention and took in the presence beside her.

Welcome. I have been searching for someone such as yourself. Someone capable of sacrifice. Someone who can put the idea of others over themselves. The words seemed to echo in her mind. Beside her was a tiny spark. She had no true sense of dimension in the void, but she got the impression that the spark would fit into her hand, if she had still had one.

Lilit wasn’t sure how to communicate with the spark, but she tried her best as she thought at the spark. You don’t know me. I’m no great hero. I’m as selfish as the next person.

The spark seemed amused. Nothing observable changed about the spark, that was just the impression it left on her mind. I have looked through your life. I saw the sacrifices big and small that you made for those around you. Even those who you knew didn’t deserve it. If that is not a hero, what is?

Bitterly now. That makes me a doormat, not a hero.

And what if I could give you another chance. Maybe this time you could be the hero you wish you could have been? The hero that I already can see within you. The spark was more somber now. Its amusement spent.

I have lived my life. I have looked upon the void. I know that there is nothing left but for me to become one with the void and in that way become recycled and born again. I look forward to that end and the peace it brings. I am not afraid. Lilit replied.

Ah. But you cannot see every path open to you from your vantage. I know another way. A way that will let you continue to exist as you. One that promises adventure, action, maybe even romance if you’re brave enough. The spark seemed to chuckle bemusedly at the thought.

Lilit considered the spark’s offer. Yes, she was unafraid of joining the void. Being out here stripped her of many of her inhibitions and fears. She knew that this was simply the way of the universe. There was nothing inherently wrong with what would happen.

The idea of putting off joining the void a little longer, now that it was on offer seemed too good to pass up. She enjoyed being herself, and while not scared, she was a little concerned about the idea of no longer existing as herself. It needed to be more than a knee jerk reaction. She couldn’t just agree to anything. For all she knew the spark intended her more harm than good. She wasn’t sure what the spark was going to get out of this, or even what she would get out of this.

Tell me more.

The spark told her a tale of the multiverse. There wasn’t just one void, there were infinite voids, with even more infinite worlds, with even more infinite lives. Although intelligence was much less infinite. The spark imparted this wisdom with more than a little smirk in its ‘voice.’

Entropy fought against order to balance out the energies of each universe. Between each universe gathered the energy that leaked through. Nothing is perfectly contained, not even universes.

If left alone, the energy in a universe would eventually drain out into the in-between spaces. The entropy would eventually win. Then each universe would snuff itself out one by one. In order to fix this problem the various deities of the various universes gathered together. They recognized the problem, but not how to fix it.

They spent eons going over different plans and strategies to more contain the energies leaking through. No sooner did they fix one leak than another would pop up. No matter what they did, energy continued to leak away from the universes.

Finally, one of the youngest gods who had been near silent the entire time asked why not just periodically put the energy back into each universe? They couldn’t keep all the energy contained, but there might be a way to siphon it back into play so to speak. In that way they could maintain a kind of balance for each universe.

The other deities were shocked, but they readily agreed that this might be the best way to save themselves and their universes. So a plan was put into motion where structures would be built in the in-between spaces. These structures would trap the incoming energy. The problem then became how to get the energy back. None of the deities wanted to step in between to release the energy. What if they couldn’t make it back, what if their enemies trapped them away forever?

It was decided that mortals would have to play a part in releasing the energies. And that is where Lilit came in.

The deities had to change the design of their siphons. A mortal mind would not be able to comprehend the abstract nature of the structure, let alone be able to return the flow of energy. So, dungeons were born.

Each dungeon attached to an in-between space and one or two universes. The dungeon collected the energy that passed through and used it to build defenses, traps, and creatures to protect itself. By clearing a dungeon, mortals would release the stored up energy back into the universe it came from.

What, like a video game? Lilit asked.

Very similarly yes. The deities have been quietly spreading games and stories about dungeons like these in every universe so that mortals would be prepared to face them if chosen. The spark seemed smug now.

So, if I play this game. If I clear these dungeons for you, what do I get?

Aside from keeping the rest of the multiverse intact? You get more time to maintain your own memories and personality. You get to build a whole new life again. Live again, love again. You put off the inevitable a little longer. You stay you a little longer. You’re not alone any longer.

It wasn’t until the spark said something that Lilit realized that she was lonely. The spark was the first presence she’d felt since she became aware of the void around her. And the idea of being her, even if just a little longer, was pleasant. She felt herself wanting to give in. The void would be there to welcome her back when she was done clearing dungeons. She’d become one and be recycled eventually. She was really just delaying the inevitable. But now that the option was in front of her, delaying it was really looking appealing.

I accept. What do I have to do?

Nothing yet. I’m going to guide you through the process to prepare you for the dungeons. Be aware though. There are no solo dungeons. You need to be in a party of at least three. So keep in mind that you’ll need to both help and rely on others. You will not be expected to carry the entire burden on your own. The spark replied.

The next instant Lilit found herself staring at her own body. It was startling. Her body was completely stripped down and bare. The same long brown hair. The same lean, runner’s body. It also wasn’t really her. It was missing that spark. It was missing her.

Screens began to populate around the body. She tried to focus in on them but they flashed too quickly, text scrolling by at lightning speed.

I have replicated your body. Now our system is registering you. It will determine your baseline stats.

Lilit was a little concerned about that idea. She wasn’t exactly the most athletic person she knew. She taught biology at a small university and played MMORPGs on her computer. If her stats were based on that she was not going to survive long at all.

The spark seemed to sense her apprehension. Be not afraid. You will be given the opportunity to improve yourself before the process is finished. First though, you need to pick a class.

Lilit felt her attention turned away from her body to a screen populated by sixteen classes. As she focused on each one, a brief description popped up for her.

Sentinel           Vanguard

Sorcerer          Conjurer

Berserker        Hexblade

Acolyte           Crusader

Guardian         Elementalist

Wizard             Warlock

Ronin              Druid

Shaman           Sage

There were some she could cross right off her list. She had no interest in being a berserker for instance. Conjurer sounded interesting. [Summons creatures from the beyond to do their bidding. Creature can take on the role of combatant while the conjurer buffs them. Can only heal their creature.]

Maybe. It was definitely something that sounded like it could give her a wide variety of options as far as how she played. She read through a few more.

Ronin. [A strong fighter with a code of honor. Capable with both melee and ranged weapons of many types.]

Warlock. [Magic granted through a pact with a higher being. Focus on offensive magic with limited area of effect spells. Light armor only.]

Sentinel. [Medium to heavy armored knight. Not capable of magic. Martial weapons of ranged or melee.]

As she continued to go through the list, they all sounded interesting. She could see how each one would fit into a team and what style of play they’d be good at. But she felt drawn to the healer classes. She’d always played a healer in her old games. It allowed her to be a step away from the combat and take in the whole battlefield. It let her lead her parties to victory time and again. It wasn’t enough to just hack and slash at monsters. You needed tactics and strategy to win long term.

Acolyte. [Focused on holy healing. Medium to heavy armor. Some martial training, but limited weapons.]

Sage. [Ancient wisdom guides their healing. With a focus on potions and alchemy. Ranged weapons.]

Shaman. [Animal spirit based healing and buffs. Summon animals as companions. Simple weapons.]

Druid. [Plant based healing and buffs. Can summon plant based entanglements to control the environment. Simple or ranged weapons.]

They all sounded good. She could imagine the strengths and weaknesses each might possess. It ended up boiling down to what she was familiar with. She often played as a cleric or something similar in her games. A holy healer with a martial tilt. The acolyte seemed to fit the closest to her normal playstyle.

I’ll choose the acolyte.

Very good choice. And exactly what I expected. Now, let’s take a look at your basic stats, the spark said.

A new screen appeared in front of Lilit.

Str: 10             Wis: 16

Dex: 8             Cha: 16

Con: 10           Mana: 0

Int: 12             Stamina: 8

Wow. That was underwhelming. She was either average or below average on everything but intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.

You have twenty additional points you may add in to your stats. Be careful, and be wise about your decisions. The spark notified her. Leveling up will not give you a chance to improve your stats again. They can, however, be improved by successfully completing certain tasks and actions a number of times. Each stat level is twice as large to fill as the one before it, making it difficult to max out any stats.

Well, a high wisdom score would make tactics and strategy easier. And looking at the acolyte screen pop up again, it looked like wisdom was also the stat used for casting. She needed mana in order to do magic though, so she definitely needed to put more than a few points in that.

She didn’t plan on getting too close to the fighting very often, so she was actually ok with her strength and dexterity stats. Her stamina stat might need a bump. While it was hard to turn down being smarter, she didn’t need more intelligence. And her charisma was pretty decent.

She deliberated for quite some time before dumping all her points in a rush.

Are you sure? The spark asked.

Yes. She looked over her new stats and before she could second guess herself, finalized her selections.

Str: 10             Wis: 18

Dex: 8             Cha: 16

Con: 10           Mana: 18

Int: 12             Stamina: 8

She watched as her body subtly changed in front of her. Nothing really physically changed, but she could see where the new reservoir of mana would sit behind her heart. Her mind became just a touch more intuitive.

The body in front of her became clothed in stiff, leather armor. I white tabard belted over top. Over the breast lay a symbol composed of a red cross surrounded by a thin, black crescent on one side and five green, five-pointed stars on the other.

Choose a weapon.

In front of Lilit a series of simple martial weapons appeared. She wasn’t trained on how to use a sword, and she wasn’t keen on trying to learn while defending herself. She’d heard that spears were easy to master, just poke the sharp end into someone. But her eyes were drawn to a five bladed mace near the top of the weapons display. That seemed both simple and effective enough she could become proficient. Just bash something as hard as she could. No fancy moves or stances. Just club monsters over the head until they stopped moving. Even she couldn’t mess that up.

The mace. Lilit answered.

Very good. Now, are you ready? The spark asked.

Before Lilit could answer she found herself thrust back into her body. It was disorienting having a body, feeling physical sensations, breathing, and all of the things that go into living. She gasped in a breath as her eyes flew open.

Chapter Text

The light surrounding Lilit was blinding. She clenched her eyes closed and covered them with her hand. Slowly she squinted through her eyes, her hand shading her eyes still.

As her eyes grew accustomed to the light she opened them more and began to take in her surroundings. She found herself in a bog, or a marsh, or whatever. There were large standing ponds. The ground was soft and wet. Fog lay thick on the ground.

Overhead the sky was overcast. So it wasn’t as bright as Lilit had first thought. She just wasn’t used to actually having eyes anymore.

She took a step forward and nearly fell on her face. It seemed like she would need to take a moment to get used to having a body again.

Her left wrist felt especially cumbersome for some reason. She brought her arm in front of her face. On top of the leather bracer on her forearm there was strapped a shiny, metallic band. On that band were a set of small, glowing button.

As her arm came parallel to the ground a holographic screen winked into existence above her arm. Welcome to the tutorial! Large, black letters formed against the blue background of the screen. A cursor blinked at the end of the message. On her arm one of the buttons blinked along with the cursor.

Taking a guess, Lilit touched the flashing button. The screen wiped away and a new message appeared in smaller text. The Dungeon Delver Help Tool will vibrate and flash with an incoming message. During the tutorial phase, helpful hints will appear as needed. You can access the knowledge database at any time by searching your query or scrolling through the categories.

The blinking cursor stood at the end of the message. Lilit tapped the next button again.

To complete the tutorial you will need to make it to the tavern in the middle of the marsh. You may come across enemy creatures or other adventurers. You may form small temporary parties for the tutorial period.

When Lilit pushed the next button after reading the message the screen winked out of existence. Well that was both helpful and at the same time not very helpful at all. She drew her mace from the iron ring hanging off her belt.

It was about eighteen inches long and solid metal. Leather was wrapped around the handle to offer a better grip. The head of the mace was a large metal head with five flanges winging off about an inch past the surface of the head. It was very weighted and not balanced at all.

Just carrying it in her hands at the ready was going to wear out her wrists. She let her arm dangle down as she trudged forward into the fog.

She froze after a few steps. What if she was heading in the wrong direction? In the fog she could end up anywhere.

Lilit pulled up her left arm and a screen popped into view. Type or speak your search term. To browse by category press the blinking button.

“How…” Lilit coughed. It had been a long time since she spoke and her throat was a desert. “How do I find the tavern?”

Use the map or quest log to mark a waypoint.

Lilit spent the next several minutes figuring out how to get to the map and quest log. The map was mostly blank with animated fog swirling all around her. Guess she’d have to explore to see more of it. Through the quest log though she was able to set a waypoint at the tavern.

A beam of light, much like a spotlight back home, shone upward in the distance. It was directly in front of her. She took off in that direction, skirting brackish water and trying not to get sucked into the mud as she went.

Lilit had been walking for several minutes before a loud splash erupted to her right. Looking over she could see the ripples in the water. A small wake of water was making its way toward her, distorting the ripples behind it.

Lilit prepared her mace and stood in as close to a fighting stance as she knew how. Mostly she spread her feet apart and bent her knees to lower her center of gravity.

With another loud splash a large body erupted out of the water. Her head automatically turned away from the splash of water, and she knew her mistake.

A large frog man appeared on the bank in front of her brandishing a rusty trident. The frog man jabbed his trident forward at Lilit. She barely dodged out of the way.

As she focused on him, a name popped up above the frog man’s head. Bullywug Lvl 1.

The bullywug would have stood about chest high if it wasn’t crouched down on its long legs. Its webbed hands gripped the trident firmly and it thrust forward again.

This time Lilit swung her mace into the path of the trident. It connected with the wooden shaft just behind the head. A small crack resounded in the air and the trident was diverted to the side.

The bullywug circled to the side, swirling its trident in small arcs back and forth. Ok, maybe she should have taken a second to look up her moveset before wandering into enemy territory. As soon as this was over she promised herself to look it up.

Until then, she still had her mace. She just had to get inside the reach of the trident in order to strike at the bullywug. Lilit circled away from the bullywug.

The next time it lunged forward Lilit slapped the trident to the side with her mace and stepped forward. The tips of the trident were now well away from her body and she was close enough to attack for once.

On her backswing she put all her weight behind her swing. She aimed for the bullywug’s head. She wanted to end this quickly.

A blink later and she heard the crunch and shatter of bone splintering beneath her mace. Thick blood and other bits flew onto her, some landing on her cheeks. One warm chunk landing on her lower lip. She found herself frozen in place for a minute.

She looked down and could see the destruction she had wrought upon this bullywug. Its skull was a meaty paste with its lower jaw hanging down. The body flickered before melting and then quickly evaporating away.

It was too late though. She’d never seen something so horrendous in her life. She turned to the side and retched into the water. She fell on her knees and continued to heave until there was nothing coming up but acid.

She quickly wiped her face, noting that at least the blood and bits had disappeared along with the body. Her tabard was once again a pristine white.

She felt her left wrist vibrate and a small pinging noise could be heard. She quickly pulled her Delver up and a message popped in front of her. Gather any fallen loot by opening the pouch left behind by defeated monsters. Place items you’d like to keep in your pack. Any gold will be stored for you in your account.

Lilit looked over to where the body of the bullywug had disappeared. Sitting in the middle of the grass was a small leather pouch with a leather string tying it closed.

She stood up and walked over to the pouch. Bending over, she picked it up. It didn’t seem to weigh hardly anything at all. She wondered what exactly could even be in this thing.

Her curiosity piqued, she pulled the knot apart and opened the pouch. A flash of light and heard several things thunk onto the ground around her. Looking down she saw a rusty knife, a pair of boots, and a couple gold coins. Ignoring the knife and boots, Lilit picked up the gold. It immediately disappeared out of her hand. At the edge of her vision a small screen popped up. 3 gp.

Well, at least she didn’t have to lug around a bunch of gold all over the place. She wondered how much a gold piece would buy anyway.

Before she could forget she pulled out her Delver and searched for her moveset. There it was. All three moves.

Smite – holy energy infuses your weapon and delivers extra holy damage. Can be used on melee or ranged weapons. Cooldown 30 seconds. Cost 25 mana.

Minor Healing – heal a target for 10% of their health. Cooldown 1 minute. Cost 20 mana.

Ward – cast a protective barrier around target. Cooldown 3 minutes. Cost 40 mana.

The cooldowns didn’t seem that long, but based on what she’d just experienced she had a feeling they would feel like a lifetime.

Also, cool and all, but how did she actually activate any of her powers? Lilit looked over the buttons on her Delver. She found a set of arrow keys and sure enough they highlighted different moves on the list. She selected the first one.

Smite – send a holy aura through your body into the weapon.

She started to question what that even meant when a flash of understanding popped into her head, like just asking the question got her the answer. She visualized sending a holy aura through her hands and into the mace. She opened her eyes and the mace glowed faintly with a pure, white light.

She found the button to back out of the menu and selected the next move on the list.

Minor Healing – concentrate on the spell you want to cast and open your prayer book. Read the prayer from the book.

She searched through her pack, but couldn’t find any prayer book. She started patting herself down all over to see if maybe she had a hidden pocket somewhere. She found a large pouch attached to her hip on the opposite side from her mace. Reaching in she found a small booklet about the size of her palm. Its cover was black with gold etching along the edge. Turning it over she found the edges of the pages themselves gilt with gold as well.

She smiled to herself before concentrating on Minor Healing. Then she flipped open the book to a random page. And there on the page was a small prayer for her to chant.

She took a chance and closed the book. This time she thought Ward before turning to a fresh page. And there again was a small prayer for her to recite. How intuitive.

It would make casting anything during the heat of battle a little difficult. Hopefully her target wouldn’t have to hear her prayer in order for it to work on them or she’d end up hoarse from shouting.

Lilit let her arm drop. She pulled the mace back out from its place on her right hip. Turning so she was lined up with the beacon in the distance, Lilit continued on her journey.

The next time she heard a large splash, she was more ready. She brained the bullywug before it could even prepare an attack. She noticed a small bar pop up in her vision labeled Stamina with a small chunk missing from the end.

This bullywug had a rusty cutlass that it dropped, another rusty knife, and two gold pieces. She ignored the rusty weapons again. Having to carry the weight herself and not just put it into a slot on a screen made her reassess what was important loot and what wasn’t. And she doubted the rusty weapons would be worth their weight if she could sell them.

The beacon didn’t seem to be getting any closer as she continued to travel toward it. The marsh around her was just as bleak and quiet as ever. She kept having to backtrack and find a new way forward as her path ended in ponds and thick mud. She nearly lost her boots twice before learning the warning signs for the patches of sinking mud holes.

She stepped through a patch of fog and stumbled right into a small group of bullywugs gathered around a fire. All three bullywugs and Lilit froze as they all locked eyes.

Before she could do anything the bullywug across the fire from her let out a loud croak and leapt clear across the fire and within a dozen feet of Lilit. He had a small cutlass that he led with as he charged her. The other two bullywugs stood up and lumbered after him, drawing their own weapons.

Lilit needed to end this quickly with the first bullywug. There was no way she could defeat all three at once. She wasn’t even sure two would be possible, but she felt more optimistic about it than with three.

She stood her ground as the bullywug charged her, her mace held out in front of her to deflect incoming blows, or that was the plan. As the bullywug came within reach of her, she feinted to her right, away from the bullywug’s sword arm.

The bullywug took the bait and lunged forward as Lilit easily stepped around him and brought the mace down on the back of his head. He fell crumpled at her feet.

The other two bullywugs surged forward, croaking and hissing. One circled to the right while the other went left. Lilit backed away to try and keep them both in front of her. They stayed about ten feet apart from each other as they advanced on her. Far enough away that she could strike out at one, but close enough that the other could lunge forward and place their crude spears in her back.

There had to be a way. Think. What would she do if this was a game? There had to be a way for her to defeat them both. This was just a tutorial level according to the Delver on her wrist. She hoped that meant what it did in games and that everything here should be easily defeatable.

Like a lightning strike, inspiration hit her. Of course! She reached down to her left hip and flipped the cover off the pouch holding the prayer book. Grabbing the black cover between shaking fingers, she drew it out as the bullywugs continued to advance on her.

Focus! She needed a ward. She concentrated on that idea and flipped open the prayer book one handed. Yes! There were the words to her prayer. She just needed to take her eyes off the bullywugs long enough to read the prayer. Crap.

The bullywugs halted and crouched down as soon as she pulled the book out. This was her one chance. They were still far enough away that a single leap wouldn’t reach her. She took a deep breath and looked down at the prayer she needed.

“A wall of light, A shield of light, I offer protection, Wrapped in argent light.

 "A wall of light, A shield of light, Reflect their aggression, Wrapped in argent light.” She rushed through the incantation as quickly as she could. And just in time too. As she looked up both bullywugs were within striking distance.

One lunged forward, spear tip pointed at her heart. She stumbled backward, but wouldn’t be able to get far enough away in time to avoid the strike.

The spear tip came within six inches of Lilit and seemed to hit a wall. Light flashed like a ripple across the air in front of Lilit. She heard a small chiming sound and the bullywug’s spear ricocheted away from Lilt. The bullywug stumbled as it tried to recover his momentum.

The other bullywug sent out a cautious tap against the barrier surrounding Lilit. Again, about six inches away from Lilit it hit a wall and a flash of rippling light appeared with a chime. Lilit instinctively flinched away.

This was her chance. Lilit leapt forward toward the bullywug on the right, her arm cocked back for a hard strike. The bullywug apparently wasn’t expecting her to attack because he flinched and stumbled back a step, bringing the shaft of the spear up to try and hold her back.

She took the spear shaft to the chest as she brought her mace down. Running into the bullywug’s spear shaft disrupted her swing however, and instead of crushing the bullywug’s head, she shattered his arm at the shoulder.

The bullywug immediately drooped to one side, hissing as he grabbed at his wound. Lilit heard the chime of her ward being struck as she followed, hot on the heels of the wounded bullywug. There was a small cracking sound mixed with the chime this time though. She feared that her ward was close to failure.

She lunged forward again. With one of his arms out of commission, the bullywug struggled to hold her off with his spear. She was able to quickly dispatch him.

There was the sound like shattering glass as she started to turn toward the other bullywug. It appeared that her ward was all used up. She twisted around, instinctively dodging a blow from the spear that wasn’t there.

Lilit and the bullywug glared at each other across several feet. Lilit was breathing heavily. And it looked like her stamina bar was down by half. She really wasn’t made to be a front line fighter.

She took a step forward, her arm cocked back. The bullywug seemed to tremble for a moment before it threw down his spear with a loud croak, turned and ran into the fog.

Lilit stood there confused for a moment. She had not been expecting that at all. Her wrist vibrated with a new message from the Delver. She held her arm up and the screen hovered over it. Some enemies can become frightened and flee when you quickly dispatch their allies.

Huh, cool. Less loot, but also fewer chances of dying. She’d take it. Lilit took a deep breath and then wandered around the ground, picking up her loot bags. More rusty weapons, a bruised apple, and five gold coins.

Chapter Text

Lilit wasn’t sure what time it was. The sun never seemed to move. It felt like she’d been walking for hours though, and the beacon didn’t appear to be any closer. She’d probably only walked several miles toward it though with all the backtracking and going around obstacles that she had to do.

She had poked around in her Delver earlier until she found the quest log. Lilit hoped maybe it would give her a hint, like maybe she had to defeat a certain number of enemies. Nothing like that was the case though. All it said was to find the tavern.

She decided to stop and dig around in her pack for something to eat. She was starting to get hungry. As soon as she had her pack off, before she could go digging in it, she heard voices yelling in the distance. It was the first time she’d heard something other than bullywug croaks and hisses. Maybe it would be an adventurer like herself.

Lilit threw her pack back on and hurried off in the direction of the noise. She continued to hear yelling. It was getting louder as she drew closer. Soon she began to hear the clash of weapons as well. Lilit hurried her steps.

She felt like she was right on top of the voices when out of the fog she stumbled upon a village. The buildings were all short, and made from hardened mud adobe with grass roofs. Some were round, some had more angles to them, all were squat.

Lilit slowed her steps, not wanting to run into an ambush. All that she’d found living out here so far had been bullywugs. She was fairly certain that this was a bullywug village. Lilit crept closer. The fog slowly unveiling more and more of the village.

The clashing of weapons was getting louder. Over that and the voices yelling Lilit could make out angry croaking and hissing. It seemed that someone else hadn’t been as cautious as her and had walked into an ambush in the middle of the village. She could take advantage of it and sneak past unscathed, or she could lend a hand to her fellow adventurers.

Lilit had never been one to shrink from duty. She readied her mace and crept from building to building until she came upon the scene of the fighting.

In the middle of at least a dozen bullywugs stood an armored giant. On one arm hung a tall shield. In the other hand was a broadsword. Every time the giant tried to make an attack with their sword the bullywugs would rush in and shove against their shield, keeping the giant off-balance.

On the far side of the conflict a smaller figure jumped into and out of the fray. They swung a pair of axes and would deliver vicious attacks. They would fell a bullywug and leap away before the attention of the group could land on them.

Lilit pulled forth her prayer book and flipped open the prayer for a ward. She recited the prayer while focusing on the giant. If she could free them for a moment they would be able to attack the bullywugs harrying them.

The next time the giant attempted to swing their sword, the bullywugs ran into the ward before they could come in contact with their intended target. This allowed the giant to finally swing their sword out in a deep arc, cutting through several bullywugs at once.

The giant, as if sensing Lilit across the square from them, looked up. She couldn’t see their face through the helmet covering their head, but she felt their eyes upon her. The giant inclined their head in a silent salute and waded back into the fray.

The skirmisher on the opposite side seemed to realize events were shifting. Instead of leaping away they too waded into the mob of creatures, their axes now ablaze as they swung through the air.

Not to be left out, Lilit strode forward and began attacking bullywugs from behind. It wasn’t long before a pile of dead bullywugs lay at their feet. Everyone stood panting for a moment.

“Well met. I imagine I have you to thank for the assistance back there?” The giant’s voice was raspy, but definitely feminine. Lilit stared as the giant removed her helmet to wipe sweat soaked hair from her face.

Standing closer, Lilit decided she wasn’t much of a giant. She was decidedly taller than her and the other person panting beside them. Maybe just over six feet, she was never good at judging that.

Her face was pale with shiny, red blotches scattered across her cheeks and down the sides of her neck. Moving closer, she thought they looked like small scales, but they just added to the beauty of her stunning features. She had high, sharp cheekbones and full, pouty lips. Lilit felt like she could drown in the forest green of her eyes. Sticking out of her scarlet red hair, just above her ears, were a small pair of black horns.

When the large woman smirked at her, Lilit knew she’d been caught staring. Her face heated with a blush. What had she asked again? Oh, right! “Y-yes. That was me. I cast a ward on you.”

“Again, thank you. We would have had it handled, but your help eased the burden and quickened our victory. I’m Awendala.” She gestured to the figure just starting to rise beside them. “That is Rana. Who might you be?”

Lilit’s gaze flicked to Rana and back to Awendala. Then what she saw registered with her brain and her eyes slid back to Rana.

Rana was a little taller than Lilit. She was also wearing stiff, leather armor like Lilit’s. She had no tabard though. What really set her apart was the dusky, grey fur running across her body and the fact that her face was that of a jackal with the tall ears sticking up. Gold highlights seemed to peek through the dark fur as the wind rippled it. Lochs of dark hair were pulled back into a thick ponytail high upon her head.

Lilit felt her mouth sag. She suspected that not everyone she met would be human, but it hadn’t prepared her for actually meeting someone quite so different.

Rana chuckled. “She must have good taste. My beauty has truly entranced her.” She nudged Awendala in the ribs playfully. Her voice was sweet like strawberry wine. Her golden lips quirked in a grin. Lilit wondered if it was cosmetic or her natural skin tone under the fur.

The disconnect between that musical voice and more animalistic features kept Lilit unbalanced. She blinked and tried to come back to herself when she noticed the other two laughing at her expense. Her cheeks heated even more.

“I-I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. I just have never seen anyone like you before and it took me by surprise.” Lilit tried to explain.

“No worries. We’re ok, for now. But don’t go thinking that because I look different that you can treat me with any less respect.” Rana’s chin rose up in challenge.

“No, of course not. God, I would never.”

“We have given you our names. It’s only polite that you give us yours,” Awendala reminded.

“Crap. I am just stepping all in it.” Lilit muttered under her breath. She caught Rana’s ear twitching in her direction though and wondered if she’d heard her after all. “My name is Lilit. It’s nice to meet you both. Oh, do either of you need any healing?”

“Are you a healer class then?” Rana asked.

Lilit nodded her head. “Yes, I’m an acolyte. What are you two?”

“First, I do have a small gash here,” Rana lifted her arm to show a long, shallow cut along her ribs. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but this was a great chance to try out her healing spell.

“Alright.” Lilit closed her prayer book and concentrated on the healing spell. She reopened it and focusing on Rana, read the prayer.

“May the light guide you, May the light heal you, Burn away the sickness, With cleansing light.

"May the light guide you, May the light heal you, Wash away your hurt, With cleansing light.”

Lilit looked up in time to catch Rana’s golden skin knitting itself together before her dusky fur grew over top. That answered a few questions.

“Thank you.” Rana said as she twisted and moved her body around to check for soreness and mobility. “And second, I’m a hexblade. Awendala over there is a guardian.” Awendala waved in response.

Thinking back, those classes could be pretty powerful. With Awendala playing tank with her heavy armor and shield, and Rana acting as DPS with her duel wielding axes wrapped in elemental damage, and Lilit acting as healer they might make a well-rounded party.

She wouldn’t be allowed to enter any of the dungeons on her own, and having a party you could trust would be paramount. She could give working with these two a try and see how things went. If they didn’t vibe she could find a new party at the tavern she assumed. That would be a logical place to look for new party members if she was setting something like this up.

Nodding to herself she made a decision. “Do you two want to join my party? We can see how well we work together at least until the tavern. We’ll make a decision about whether to continue together or go our separate ways once we’re there.”

The Delver on Lilit’s arm vibrated and pinged. She pulled her arm up and a new message appeared. Invite Rana and Awendala to your party? Y/N A red and green light flashed on her Delver to indicate what to press. Pressing the green button she sent out the party invite.

She looked up to see Rana and Awendala having a quiet exchange several feet away. Both kept sneaking occasional glances at Lilit as their discussion became more animated.

Lilit took the opportunity to pick up the loot bags from the bullywug’s she’d killed.

“Woah! What do you think you’re doing?” Rana thundered.

“Ummm…looting?”

“Those were our bullywugs. We –”

“I’m only grabbing the loot of the ones I actually killed.” Lilit tried to placate Rana who seemed to be fuming over the idea of Lilit “stealing” their loot. “Besides, if we’re going to be a party we’ll need to learn how to split the loot moving forward.”

“Yeah, but we weren’t a party when those bullywugs were killed. We were the ones that started the fight. We risked our necks to fight all of them like that. We had everything perfectly under control. You just came in at the end and started killing our bullywugs.” Rana stepped closer. Lilit could feel Rana’s hot breath on her cheeks.

“You know what. On second thought.” Lilit pulled her Delver back up and navigated through deleting her invites to Awendala and Rana. “I don’t need to deal with hotheads. Best of luck ladies.” Lilit tucked the unopened loot pouches in her bag. Or tried to. They kept sliding off an invisible barrier before they could pass the opening in the pack.

It appeared that you couldn’t stash loot bags to open later. Shrugging her shoulders she slipped her bag back onto her shoulders and carried her loot bags in her hand as she reoriented herself on the beacon she was headed toward. She’d open them and deal with the contents once she was further away from these two, especially Rana.

“Wait!” The smoky voice of Awendala shouted after Lilit’s retreating back.

Lilit kept walking, flipping them the finger over her shoulder as she walked away. It might not be universal enough for them to understand exactly what it meant, but she figured they’d get the gist of it based on context.

Lilit heard rapid footsteps stomping toward her as she walked away. From beside her Awendala tried again, “Please. We would like you to join our party. Rana is sorry.” Awendala looked behind her, “Aren’t you Rana?”

Rana heaved a deep sigh. “Yeah, real sorry.” It was probably the least convincing apology Lilit had heard.

“See. We can make this work. If this size group showed up this far from the tavern imagine what we might run into the closer we get,” Awendala said.

Lilit stopped walking. She hadn’t thought about the mob like that. Even in tutorial levels foes tended to get stronger or start ganging up toward the end of the level. She turned around to give a hard glare to Rana. “You’re not sorry.”

“Not really, no. Those were our kills.” She sighed again, “But I guess we could part with the loot you already took.” At least Rana was honest. Lilit could work with that. Probably.

“Fine, but moving forward everything is split equally no matter who kills what. Deal?” Lilit thrust out her hand toward Rana.

Rana looked hesitant at first. After a few silent, tense moments she reached forward and clasped her hand around Lilit’s forearm. Lilit grabbed Rana’s forearm in turn. Rana’s fur , just past her bracer was soft and downy under her fingers. They shook their grip up and down once before breaking apart.

Lilit queued up the party invite link again and sent it out to Rana and Awendala. She better not regret this later. She didn’t normally give out second chances so easily, but Awendala seemed earnest and sincere. Rana was at least honest about her opinions as well. Considering some of the people she had to put up with in her previous life, she could deal with these two.

It didn’t hurt that Awendala was strikingly gorgeous and Rana had a kind of exotic beauty to her. She wouldn’t mind getting to know them better. Lilit prayed that she wouldn’t live to regret this.

Chapter Text

Rana lopped off the head of the final straggler that had tried to run away in fear. He hadn’t made it very far at all before she caught him. They never did with her around. She was fast as lightning.

After the village they met up in, they’d stopped for a quick meal. Only to find out that their packs didn’t contain any food except anything they’d taken off of defeated bullywugs. A few bruised apples and one slab of jerky later the three of them had trudged on toward the tavern.

Over the last few hours they had come across several other villages and a handful of traveling war parties. All of them had been dealt with rather efficiently by the three of them. As predicted, Awendala made an excellent tank and was able to draw everyone’s attention to her, and Rana was a murder machine set to extra violent. Together with Lilit throwing in strategic heals and wards they were able to very quickly cut their way through any opposition. She only rarely ended up being able to wade into the fray herself.

They stopped for a moment to collect and divide up the loot. Lilit found it pretty easy for everyone to agree about considering how their partnership had begun. The experience points, which Lilit had barely paid attention to when she was by herself, were automatically divided amongst them equally. It didn’t matter that Rana technically had most of the kills, since they worked as a team, they all got the reward.

The beacon had finally begun to appear to be getting closer. Twenty minutes later, they looked to stumble upon it any minute. Lilit could just begin to make out the outer walls of a large structure ahead when out of the fog stepped a different group of monsters than they were used to. There were still several level one bullywugs, but at the back of the group was a much taller reptilian creature urging them forward.

She scanned him as he came into view. Above his head floated, Lizardman Lvl 2. It made a kind of sense that there would be a boss fight now that they were so close to the end.

The lizardman stepped forward, parting the rows of bullywugs. “Why have you been attacking the subjects of—”

While Lilit had been stunned by one of their enemies actually talking back in a language she recognized for once, it seemed Rana was less impressed. She’d thrown a rock and hit the lizardman right between the eyes, staggering him, before she took off in a sprint toward the group. Apparently the time for talking was over.

Awendala used one of her moves, letting out a loud roar that drew the attention of all the bullywugs. She marched forward toward the now rushing bullywugs. Rana continued her mad dash toward the lizardman. Lilit stepped out to the side and circled around the dozen or so bullywugs struggling to reach Awendala.

Glancing over toward Rana, Lilit saw she couldn’t quite make it to him before he was able to shake off taking a rock to the face. Now he had drawn a much larger version of the scimitar the bullywugs occasionally used. The two of them circled each other, occasionally sending out probing strikes to test the other. This was the first time Lilit had seen Rana act anything but recklessly impulsive and violent in a fight.

Lilit decided to give Rana an early edge. She pulled out her prayer book and flipped it open to the ward page. The prayers were simple enough that she’d memorized them by now. She’d found she still had to activate the prayer book to the correct spell though, or nothing happened. But, she didn’t have to take her eyes off the action as she chanted her prayer. When she was done she shouted, “Rana! Ward!”

Rana acknowledged her with a head bob before she darted forward with intent.

Lilit on the other hand refocused on the mob of bullywugs trying to encircle Awendala. Her mana bar flashed in her vision a few times. Crap, she only had enough left in the tank for one minor healing, or maybe a smite. She’d have to be careful about how she used it. If she used it too soon and needed it later, they’d be screwed. If she was more cautious and waited too long someone could get seriously hurt.

Lilit stepped forward and began swinging as she waded into the mob of bullywugs. It only took a few kills to draw the attention of the rest of the group onto her. Lilit stepped backward, trying to get space before she became surrounded.

As soon as the weight let up on Awendala she pulled her sword back and activated her sweep attack. Her sword swept out in an arc, slicing clean through several bullywugs at once. In moments they had more than halved the number of bullywugs attacking.

Lilit spared a glance toward Rana as she circled away from the bullywugs, dodging from probing spear attacks. Rana had lightning flickering across her axe blades as she danced forward, her arms a whirlwind. There was at least a small cut bleeding down her side. That was all she had time to take in before she had to turn back to where the danger for her lay.

Awendala had already killed another bullywug. Now several of those left were turning away from Lilit to deal with the threat at their back. That left two still coming after her.

If she was patient she could wait them out until one of them made a mistake or Awendala got to her. The problem was her stamina bar was dangerously low, and sinking fast. She was winded and breathing heavily. Combat was the ultimate cardio.

One of the bullywugs made to rush her. Lilit tried to feint to the side, but the bullywug didn’t take the bait. She barely leapt out of the way. His spear grazed her ribs, punching through a gap in the side of her armor. She felt warmth flow down her side.

His spear became stuck in her armor as she stumbled backward, tearing it out of the hand of the bullywug. He stumbled forward and fell to his knees at her feet. Before he could move, she brought her mace down on his head with a sickening crunch.

The second bullywug hadn’t been idle though. It jumped toward Lilit on its long, muscular legs. Scrambling to get away from the bullywug, Lilit tripped over something soft. She went down, arms flailing. When she hit the ground, all her breath seemed to explode from her lungs. Her vision darkened and she saw flashes of stars.

Then the bullywug was standing over her. It kicked her hand holding the mace, causing her to drop it in pain. Smiling a froggy little smile at her, he raised his spear up in preparation of shoving it through her armor and into her heart.

This was it. She’d done everything she could. She just wasn’t enough. How depressing a thought that was. Apparently the little spark had been wrong. She hoped that it would be as painless as her first death, but somehow doubted it.

She watched helplessly as the spear began to streak down at her. At the last instant the bullywug stumbled forward. An axe appearing in the back of his head. But the spear was already in motion. It pierced through the armor, but instead of her heart, it pierced deep into her abdomen.

The pain was a white hot lance through her guts. She had never experienced anything like this before. It was beyond debilitating. All she wanted to do was curl up around the pain and try to hold herself together. She could feel her blood flowing over the sides of her body, pooling under her back. A scream was ripped from her throat.

Above her, fuzzy silhouettes were looking down at her. She could make out sounds as if from underwater, murky and distorted. She stared, breath hitching in her throat, until Rana and Awendala came into focus above her.

“Fuck! What do we do?”

“I don’t know. She’s the healer, but even then I doubt she’s a doctor.”

“The inn is close…”

“No, I don’t think she has the time.”

“Look I think she’s starting to come back to us.”

Lilit had trouble distinguishing who was saying what, her mind was a bit too preoccupied at the moment.

Rana knelt down so she was close to Lilit. “What do you want us to do? I don’t know what to do here.”

“Take it out, Rana. It hurts. Please, just take it out.” Lilit panted.

“I don’t think we should sweetheart. I’m pretty sure if we do, you’ll bleed out before we get to help. That’s about the most first aid I know.”

Awendala knelt down beside her. “Do you think if we pulled it out she could heal enough to stop the bleeding at least?”

“I don’t know,” Rana retorted. “Ask her.”

Awendala turned to look down at Lilit. “Little one, do you think you could heal yourself if we pulled the spear out?”

Lilit thought about that for a second. Sine Rana mentioned it, she did remember more clearly that she wasn’t supposed to remove something that was sticking out of you. But, on the other hand…magic. The question was if she believed in it enough to take the chance and go against logic.

Her hands and feet were already starting to feel cold and numb. She wasn’t sure she’d last too much longer no matter what they decided. But there was a chance with the magic. But, she’d definitely want the spear removed so it didn’t accidentally heal around it. She did not need a new piercing.

“Hand me…my prayer book.” The pain kept stealing her breathe.

Awendala reached down and pulled Lilit’s prayer book free. She placed it on Lilit’s chest, then folded her hand over it, like she knew that Lilit didn’t have the strength. Lilit concentrated with all she had on the healing spell. Then she nodded at Awendala, who used Lilit’s hand to open the book.

“Do I need to hold it up so you can read it?” Rana asked.

“No. Memorized.” Lilit was panting in pain again as her concentration slipped.

Rana and Awendala nodded their heads. They looked at each other, exchanging silent words. Awendala nodded her head, then bowed it as if in prayer. A moment later she stood up and took the spear in hand, careful not to jostle it.

“On three,” Awendala said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Awendala took a deep breath. “One…two…” Then she ripped the spear from Lilit’s body.

Lilit was shocked speechless for a moment, and then a scream bubbled up her throat, leaving it raw and burning. Before anyone could admonish her, she quietly started chanting her healing prayer.

 “May the light guide you, May the light heal you, Burn away the sickness, With cleansing light.

 "May the light guide you, May the light heal you, Wash away your hurt, With cleansing light.”

An itching, burning sensation started up inside her. It felt like tiny ants on fire crawling around her guts and onto her abdomen. A moment later, the feeling disappeared. She lay panting on the ground. She tried to sit up and found that her abdomen was still very tender. The flesh appeared to have knitted back together, but it was obvious she’s still need some healing.

“I hope neither of you is badly hurt, because that was my last heal until I can regenerate some more mana.” She took a shuddering breath. “Fuck. That was close.”

“Take it easy. You were very recently impaled, little one. Are you ok?” Awendala asked.

Lilit nodded her head. She would be ok eventually, and that would have to be good enough. She looked around the clearing. By now all the bodies had disappeared. There were loot bags all over the ground.

“Will you grab all the loot bags?” She looked up in Awendala’s face.

Awendala agreed and moved away, bending to pick up little bags. Rana kneeled back down, placing a hand on Lilit’s shoulder. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I will be. And, thank you. I would have been a goner if not for you…so, thanks.”

Rana clapped her on the back, “Of course. Can’t have my favorite healer dying on me. Who would argue with me about every little thing?” She smiled at Lilit.

Lilit gave her the finger. Rana just laughed. “Help me stand up,” Lilit demanded.

Rana helped pull Lilit to her feet. She swayed a little with dizziness. Rana stepped closer, wrapping a furry arm around her waist. Lilit let herself lean against her for the moment. It felt warm, safe. It felt nice.

“What did we get Awendala?” Lilit called out.

Awendala had piled all the bags together and was quickly opening each one to release the loot. Lilit stepped forward, and Rana kept pace with her, supporting her weight.

“Well, I did find this.” Awendala held up a small bottle with a viscous, red liquid inside. “Wish we’d found this a few minutes ago,” she mumbled under her breath.

A second later, Lilit understood as a small label popped up above the bottle, Minor Healing Potion. Lilit couldn’t help it, she let out a loud bark of laughter. Then immediately regretted it as pain lanced through her abdomen. “Ow…”

Awendala held the potion out to Lilit, “Here, take it. You still look a little pale, and you just had a spear sticking out of you.”

Lilit waved it away. “I’m fine for now, and once we have time to rest I’ll be able to cast healing on myself again until I’m all better. We should keep it for another emergency like this though. Next time I might be out of mana, or the prayer might not be enough to stabilize whoever is injured, or I might just not be able to get to you in time. Either you or Rana should hold onto it. You’re more likely to need it than I am.”

“I’d feel better if you’d drink this. I’m sure we can purchase more, probably at the inn.” Awendala thrust the potion toward Lilit.

Lilit stood taller, stepping away from Rana. “I don’t need it, but one of you might later. There is no reason to waste it now.”

“Giving it to you is not a waste.”

“Yes, it is. I am stable. I can heal myself later. You two,” Lilit gestured between Awendala and Rana, “can’t. So stow it.”

They stared at each other for several moments, but Awendala ended up being the one to look away first. She placed the potion in her pack. Then stood up over the pile of loot that was left.

Rana leaned over, “Does this mean you are willing to be in a party with us moving forward?”

Lilit sighed, “Yeah. You guys are pretty alright, I guess.” She smirked at Rana’s frown.

“There are a few decent weapons in here that might actually be worth some money. A small shield, and a few dozen gold pieces.” Awendala informed them.

“So, we sell the weapons and shield, and split the gold for it?” Lilit looked around to confirm everyone was on the same page. “Ok, then it doesn’t matter who carries it.”

Awendala simply started stuffing equipment into her pack. Rana shrugged when Lilit looked in her direction.

A few minutes later they found themselves walking toward the inn again. The wooden walls coming into view through the fog.

“Oh. Congrats on the lizardman kill, Rana. Looked like you had him on his back foot the entire time.” Lilit smiled at Rana.

“Awendala deserves a fair amount of credit. If it weren’t for her decidedly underhanded trick I don’t think I would have finished him off in time to save you.”

“It wasn’t underhanded!”

“You threw a boulder at him.” Rana laughed back.

“It wasn’t a boulder. It was a small rock.”

Rana held her hands about a foot and a half apart when she looked at Lilit. “I’m proud of you, Awendala.”

“It wasn’t underhanded.” Awendala paused, trying to find the right words. “It was tactical.”

Rana laughed. “Either way, it worked. The lizardman stumbled trying to jump out of the way, and I was able to bury my axe in his chest.” She shrugged. “Then I saw that bullywug standing over you and threw my axe into his back. No big deal.” She buffed her nails against her top, a wolfish smile spread across her features.

Lilit bumped her shoulder into Rana’s. “Thanks.”

The trio stepped up in front of the doors to the inn. Above the door a sign hung down that simply said, The Inn. Not very original. It was a wide, two story structure. A wooden building, painted white with pale blue trim. A small porch with outdoor seating stretched the length of the building. No one was seated outside, and Lilit could understand why.

They looked at each other one last time before they climbed the steps up to the porch. They crossed it in a few strides and Awendala pulled the door open for the other two. A small wave of sound poured out of the open door. Loud in the silence of the swamp. The sound level dropped as conversations paused when Rana and Lilit stepped through the door. It dropped again when Awendala’s imposing frame stepped in behind them. She had removed her helm as she stepped through.

It was quiet enough that they all clearly heard a tiny, high pitched feminine voice, hidden at the back of the room call out, “Damn! I want to climb that like a spider monkey.”

Chapter Text

The sound of laughter from all over the room washed over them. A waitress, or serving wench, or whatever came over and guided them to an empty table near a window. She was tall and willowy. From within her dark hair protruded two, pointy ears. Her skin was a dark ochre with dark freckles across her bare shoulders. What really caught Lilit’s attention were her eyes, they had no sclera at all. They were a solid, crystalline blue with a small, black pupil. Both beautiful and alien at the same time.

“Welcome to The Inn, looks like this is your first time with us. We have food and drink you can take down here or up in your room. Each party has their own suite of rooms. The suite will expand to fit the number of people in your party. If you’re not in a party we can set you up with a temporary room until you join someone.

“You’ll come back here after clearing each dungeon. The Inn acts as a neutral zone with several buffs on the area including sped up healing and mana and stamina regeneration. You can advertise to join a party or for a party member on the bulletin board by the fire.” She gestured behind them. “On the third floor—”

“I only saw two stories when we…” Lilit gestured vaguely toward the door they’d come through.

The waitress winked. “Things are a bit larger on the inside. Otherwise how would we fit all of you in here?

“On the third floor are the dungeon merchants. They’ll buy your gear from the dungeon and sell you equipment, travel food, armor, weapons, potions, et cetera.

“On the fourth floor you’ll find the suite merchants. You can customize your suite of rooms to match your taste and preferences. Add more space to rooms. Buy furniture and decorations. Though if the party splits only the person in the party that paid for it will retain its use for their future rooms.

“On the fifth floor are training rooms. You can train solo, as a party, or hire a trainer to work with you.

“You can attempt a dungeon whenever you want, but you have to start one within seven days of leaving your last dungeon. A party disbanding does offer an additional seven days to recruit before needing to head out.” She took a deep breath, “So, any questions?”

“How much do the rooms and food from the inn cost?” Lilit asked.

Their waitress straightened up. “We actually take a small percentage of your gold when you clear a dungeon and step across the threshold. So all meals and rooms are already paid for.”

Lilit pulled up her delver and after a few false starts navigated to her bank account screen. Sure enough, she’d completed the dungeon with sixty-three gold pieces, and there was a deduction of three gold pieces labeled as The Inn. It really was a small percentage, but it would help if she knew what a gold piece was actually worth. Hopefully she’d figure it out when they visited the merchants later. First she needed a shower and to crash for like ten hours. And a giant dinner.

Rana on the other hand sputtered in rage. “Y-you just take…and we don’t…what the…”

Awendala reached across and placed her hand on Rana’s to calm her down, “It’s not that bad. It’s a fair trade.”

Lilit chimed in, “If you check your account, it’s only like five percent.”

Rana shook off Awendala’s hand and pulled up her own delver, a small blue screen popping up above it. From this side though, Lilit couldn’t see what was on it at all. A few minutes later, Rana let out an aggrieved sigh. “I see it wasn’t that much, but still. I want at least the illusion that I have the choice.”

“Would you have not paid a larger fee for the same services if given a choice?” Awendala asked.

“That’s beside the point. It’s the principal of the thing,” Rana ranted.

“Let’s just eat down here for now, then head up to the rooms, clean up, and crash for like twelve hours. We’ll figure the rest out later,” Lilit said.

The other two nodded in agreement. The waitress placed a set of menus down on the table and left them to peruse it for a few minutes.

After they placed their orders and the waitress walked away, Lilit leaned back. “So, for now at least, are we sticking together? I feel like for the most part we get along. I can even deal with that hot head if she’s going to go around saving my skin.” Lilit cocked her thumb at Rana with a grin.

Rana leaned forward, black eyebrow mark raised, “Next time I don’t have to, you know.”

“Who says there’s going to be a next time?”

“Of course there will be. You have the least weapons training among us.”

“A trainer might not go amiss actually,” Awendala interjected.

Lilit huffed out a breath. “Yeah. You’re probably right. I was just a biology professor in my other life. No combat involved. A lot of this is pretty new to me.”

“Really? With the way you guided us through several of those encounters I assumed you had some kind of tactics training, maybe led a small strike team or something.” Awendala said.

“Nope. I just played a lot of these kinds of games on my computer,” Lilit answered. “Wait, what did you two used to do?”

Awendala and Rana exchanged a glance over the table. Rana answered first, “I was raised in the ruling caste, hence my,” she gestured up and down her body.

Lilit just stared at her confused. No idea what Rana was referring to.

Rana leaned forward and combed the fur aside on her upper arm. “My golden skin is the mark of the ruling caste.”

Lilit nodded in understanding. Rana continued her story. “Anyway, I had an illicit affair with one of my maids. She opened my eyes to the corruption inherent in our system. A system based on something as unlucky as birth.

“One day she introduced me to a group of rebels. Well, they kidnapped me first. But then we talked and I ended up joining their rebellion. I led the cell of rebels that captured the Grand Duke and forced him to surrender his forces.

“Then a bomb went off, killing me instantly. Turns out one of the rebels in my cell was a little more zealous than the rest of us.” Rana laughed. “Anyway, then I ended up here. I’ve had training in all sorts of weapons and armor.”

Lilit leaned back, “Huh. I just thought you were an asshole. That’s kind of cool. Props.”

Rana looked at her funny. She started to ask something, but Awendala spoke over her. “I was just a grunt in the army. These swords are a lot less effective than the vibroblades I’m used to. I served alongside my sisters in arms in combat in several campaigns. I’m most familiar with large shields and longswords like I use now.” She shrugged with a smile, “Why mess with something that works.”

“How did you die?” Lilit asked.

“Oh. That.” Awendala actually blushed. “Well, I actually tripped over a mine. But turns out, setting it off like I did saved half of my platoon.”

“Ummm…wow. That is unfortunate. At least you get to be here with us now.” Rana beamed at Awendala. Lilit nodded along.

Rana turned to Lilit with a sultry smile. “How did you die sweetheart?”

It was Lilit’s turn to blush. “I—I got hit by a bus. I jumped in front of it to save a little girl that ran into the street.”

The three sat in silence, each reflecting on their own deaths and what they meant when the food arrived. Lilit couldn’t help but compare her life and death with the others’. They had both been warriors, trained to fight. Dying heroic…ish deaths. Lilit was the odd man out in this situation.

When they were done, the waitress appeared again. This time she had several keycards she placed on the table. “You gals are at the top of the stairs and down the hall to the right, room 309.”

They thanked her and made to stand up. Before they did, they heard the same feminine voice from when they entered The Inn. “Hold up a second, ladies.”

Lilit turned toward the sound of the voice. Standing next to the table was a very short, very green, woman in a set of purple robes. She looked like she might come up to the bottom of Lilit’s breasts, putting her at less than four feet tall if Lilit had to guess.

She had sharp features, pointed ears, thick black hair, and tiny little tusks poking past her bottom lip. Goblin was what Lilit immediately pegged her as. That felt like the closest equivalent anyway. She was also eyeing the three women like they were juicy steaks and she was starving.

She pulled over a tall stool from another table and hopped up onto it, bringing her closer to eye level once Lilit and the others sat back down. In a sultry voice, “Let’s see, we’ve got curvy and pink,” she looked at Lilit. “Tall and fuzzy,” looking at Rana. “And extra tall and muscular.” She licked her lips while looking at Awendala.

“Ladies, let me be the first to welcome you. Name’s Izumi. If you’re nice, I’ll let you…” Her voice trailed off and she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “Anyway, you’re a lovely bunch. Are you all staying partied up?” Izumi looked around at all of them.

“Yes,” Awendala answered simply. She looked a little confused about what this little woman was doing at their table.

“Look, whatever you’re selling, we don’t want any. Got it?” Rana glared at Izumi. “We just got in, we’re tired. We’re going to go crash for a few hours.”

“Maybe after you’ve all had your beauty sleep,” added sotto voce, “not that any of you need it.” Izumi met everyone’s eyes in turn. “We can have a conversation. I’m looking for a new party, and I like what I see.” Again with the suggestive eyebrow wiggle.

“Sure,” Lilit answered. “Maybe after we come back downstairs. For now, goodnight.” They all stood up from the table and made their way to the staircase at the back of the room. A few minutes later they were walking into their team’s suite.

The door opened on a sitting room with several couches and armchairs. A tall bookcase stood against a wall, stretching nearly its entire length. Lilit looked forward to checking that out later, after she slept for twenty or so hours. She was so exhausted. A fireplace sat in the far wall, logs crackling in a warm fire. The whole room screamed relaxing.

Lilit stopped Awendala and Rana before they could leave the room through the door across the room. “I think I should be able to hit you guys up with some heals now. Let me just look you guys over real quick.”

“Actually, I think I kind of already healed all of it down in the dining hall.” Rana lifted the edge of her armor where there had definitely been a gash earlier. “Yeah, looks like I’m all good. You?” She looked over at Awendala.

“I didn’t sustain anything in the last engagement. But, how are you, little one?” Awendala asked Lilit.

“Oh, huh.” Lilit patted along her abdomen absently. Not even any tenderness anymore. “I guess I’m good too. I mean I know she mentioned increased healing, but I didn’t think it would be that fast. That’s kind of cool.”

Rana nodded her head and was the first through the door leading out of the room. A short hallway led to the left and right. Doors were closed up and down the length of the hall, but all on the opposite side from the livingroom. Shrugging their shoulders at each other, they split up and wondered down the hall in different directions.

Lilit turned left and opened the first door. Inside was a small, round table with several chairs. Light streamed in from windows on the far wall. She went to flick the lights on anyway, only to discover a slider instead of a switch.

She shrugged and pushed the slider up and down. Nothing inside the dining room changed, but the light through the windows went from early morning to bright afternoon as she pushed up, and then to twilight as she pushed down. She could see starlight through the window.

She definitely wasn’t looking out at the world actually outside the inn. Although since the waitress mentioned that the inn connected to every dungeon, maybe she kind of was. Outside the windows she saw an idyllic meadow with wildflowers blowing in a gentle breeze. At least the view was nice.

To her left was a swinging door. She pushed it open to see a small galley kitchen. Awendala was inside, digging through the fridge.

“Dining room through there,” Lilit hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Did they stock the fridge? Is there stuff to cook with?”

Awendala stood up, closing the fridge. “Yes, it appears they did. I saw several items I recognized from my world, and others I didn’t that I assume are from yours and Rana’s.” She shrugged, “There are also pots and pans in the cupboards, so yeah. If someone wants to, we can cook for ourselves.”

“Do you like to cook?” Lilit asked.

“Not particularly, though I know a few staples. Do you?”

“Yeah. I find it relaxing. I enjoy cooking for people. Maybe I’ll cook for us.” Her voice was very upbeat.

“Let’s go see what’s down the other way,” Lilit suggested.

Awendala nodded her head in agreement and they headed back into the hallway. Rana had just stepped out of one of the rooms down the hall. She looked back at them.

“These are all bedrooms. They look pretty similar, so it shouldn’t matter where we sleep. What did you guys find?” Rana said.

“Kitchen and dining room,” Awendala hooked her thumb over her shoulder.

Lilit followed Awendala down to the other end of the hallway. They peaked in each room. There was a queen size bed, a small desk and chair, what she guessed was an armor stand, a wardrobe, and a door that she hoped led to a bathroom. The only difference was each room was done in different colors.

One, she mentally dubbed the autumn room. It was full of muted oranges and reds. Another was the royal room. It was full of deep purples and bright gold accents. The last was the ocean room. It was filled with soothing blues and greens. Awendala took the autumn room, Rana the royal room, and Lilit didn’t feel slighted in the least when she accepted the ocean room.

They separated into their own rooms after wishing each other a goodnight. Lilit immediately began untying her armor. It was surprisingly easy with several ties, a few buckles, and one zipper. She hung everything up on the mannequin in the corner of the room that seemed to be set up for it.

Underneath the armor she had on a light cotton, loose fitting shirt and close fitted, linen pants. Everything was soaked through with sweat. Looking around she dropped everything on the ground when she couldn’t find a hamper. In a sports bra and boyshorts she opened up the only other door in the room and was rewarded with the view of a tiny, but serviceable bathroom.

There were the usual bathroom features, small counter, single sink, mirror, and toilet. There was also a tiny, enclosed shower. No bath. That was going to be one of the first things she ordered to add to her rooms…a soaking tub.

She peeled off her sweaty undergarments and climbed into the shower. There was instant relief feeling the hot water sluicing down her tired muscles. Lilit ended up staying in the shower a bit longer than she had originally planned. When she finally crawled out her fingers were pruney.

Lilit pulled back the heavy comforter and silky sheets, both in matching light blues, and slipped into bed naked. By the time her head hit the pillow she was already out.

Chapter Text

Lilit woke slowly some time later. Her muscles were sore from yesterday, but otherwise she felt a million times better and more rested. She luxuriated in a few long stretches, prolonging the time before she’d have to leave this comfortable bed.

Lilit realized after crawling out of bed, that the only clothes she had were filthy. With some trepidation, she walked over to the wardrobe. They had stocked the suite with everything else…clothes didn’t seem to be that big of a stretch.

She opened the doors and hanging up were a handful of shirts. They all looked similarly to the shirt she’d peeled off yesterday in style. A kind of short sleeved, billowy poet shirt. They were in several colors. Lilit grabbed one at random.

In a set of drawers underneath she found underwear and sports bras, also similar to what she had on yesterday. She threw a random set over her shoulder, aiming for the bed. In the bottom drawers she found more of the closely fitted, linen pants. Most seemed to be in a shade of brown or black. Again, she carried it over to the bed where she began to get dressed.

All in all the outfit was comfortable enough. It wasn’t very stylish, but then again, fashion had never been high priority for her. She finished by pulling on the tall leather boots from her armor. She gave herself a once over and headed out into the rest of the suite. She was starting to get hungry.

Lilit made it to the kitchen and began rummaging through the fridge and pantry, trying to figure out what to eat. Like Awendala said yesterday, there were several foods that she recognized from home, but more that definitely looked almost alien in nature. And it was heavy on the meat from what she could tell.

Lilit settled on some eggs and toast. She pulled out what she needed and heated up a skillet. A few minutes later she was plating up some delicious looking fried eggs. She took it into the dining room and nearly ran into Rana as she was trying to come in the kitchen with her own dirty plate.

She was in a shirt similar to Lilit’s, but with a deeper cut neckline, exposing quite a bit of cleavage. Lilit got an eyeful without meaning to and found herself blushing deeply as she looked away. “G-good morning, Rana.”

Lilit could hear the smile in her voice as Rana answered, “Good morning, sweetheart.” She stepped around Lilit and entered the kitchen.

Lilit shook herself and walked over to the table. Awendala was thankfully facing away, sitting at the table with her own breakfast.

“I think we should head to the training floor today. See how much it costs to hire a trainer for you. But I also thought a small shield might be good for you, so maybe we should head to the merchant area first so when you train you train with the equipment you’ll have on you.” Awendala greeted her.

“Well, good morning to you too.” Awendala looked a little sheepish at this. “I guess we could check out the trainer. I don’t think I’ll be able to use a shield though because I need that hand free for my prayer book, remember?”

Lilit finally noticed that Awendala, while in a similar style outfit to everyone else, fit hers quite differently. It was much tighter through her shoulders and around her biceps. Lilit could see her muscles bulging as she moved. It was more than a little distracting.

Awendala just looked confused at Lilit. “What does that have to do with a shield?”

Now it was Lilit’s turn to look confused. “Because shields need to be held?”

“You have to hold a shield? Huh. I might have some ideas. Let’s see if someone has what I’m thinking of.”

“Oh, well sure then. We should head there first to look around.” Lilit took a bite of eggs. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “Is there anything you or Rana need?”

“Nah, not for me. You’ll need to ask Rana. But it won’t hurt to look around either way.”

“Maybe we could get each of you a healing potion as a backup in case I’m incapacitated or something.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Awendala agreed.

They finished their meals in silence after that. Each lost in their own thoughts and plans. Lilit continued to steal glances at Awendala’s dancing muscles as she ate.

Awendala and Lilit met Rana in the front sitting room. She was skimming through a book when they came in. Seeing them, she closed the book and slid it back onto the shelf. “Ready?” She asked.

Lilit and Awendala nodded their heads in agreement and everyone headed out of the suite together. No one thought to bring their weapons or armor, but they had all grabbed their packs. They each had a few things they hoped to sell in the marketplace.

Lilit had the least amount of coin. Both Awendala and Rana had come across more bullywugs while solo, and they’d teamed up and started dealing with mobs earlier than Lilit had as well. It didn’t matter a great deal. No one expected to be able to buy much here at the beginning. They still had yet to figure out what a gold piece was worth.

The group clomped down the hall to the stairs. There waiting for them was one tiny, green, loud mouthed Izumi. She grinned impishly at them as they drew closer.

“I figured it would be easier to wait for you ladies here. No need to go looking for me.” She winked at them.

Lilit rolled her eyes. She looked around at Awendala and Rana to see their reactions. Rana had the flirtiest smile Lilit had ever seen aimed at the little goblin. Awendala just looked thoughtful. Apparently she was the only one who found Izumi to be more than a little over the top.

Lilit sighed. She knew better than to try and overrule the rest of the group. Even if she wasn’t particularly interested in having Izumi join them, the others might be. She was almost obligated to pay attention and to figure out exactly how to convince the others that they didn’t want Izumi either. “Sure. We were just headed up to the next floor to sell stuff and look at upgrading a few things.” Lilit braced herself to say this, “Do you want to join us?”

“Oh, twist my arm why don’t you! I’d love to accompany you. Stick with me, I’ll show you all the best merchants for buying and selling.” Izumi skipped forward and grabbed ahold of Lilit’s and Rana’s hands, pulling them forward. She turned around to send a wink over her shoulder at Awendala.

Lilit found herself drawn into the shadow of this tiny tornado as she practically dragged them up the stairs. She took them past the initial rows of merchant booths. She waved away any questions about checking the stores out with an assurance that she’d get them the best deals.

There were even more people milling around this level than there had been downstairs in the tavern portion of The Inn. And a wide range of people too. Lilit saw every shade of mythological person she’d ever heard of. She also saw just as many people she had no frame of reference for.

There were eight foot tall, four armed, boulders of people. There were nimble footed, tiny people shorter than even Izumi. There were people that she would classify as kitsune, elves, oni, and even centaurs. There were translucent, blob people. There were several people who looked to have come from the same worlds as her companions. And of course there were all varieties of humans. And there were so many more people that she didn’t have a chance to really take in before Izumi hurried them along.

Izumi dragged them to a booth a few rows back from the staircase. Behind the counter stood a stout dwarf. He greeted Izumi warmly before turning to the rest of the group. “This is the best person to sell your loot to. He’ll buy pretty much anything you find. His brother next door,” Izumi pointed to a booth to the right, “takes the reagents from Smulgom, here and creates some one of a kind potions. While Smulgom’s sister a few rows back smelts down a lot of the trinkets into armor and weapons.

“It’s really a family business. But, if you do business with one sibling, the others tend to offer discounts on their wares. Pretty great!” Izumi was bouncing on her toes by this point.

Awendala stepped past the group and plopped her pack down on the table. The packs always looked fairly empty, they’d fit things in there that really shouldn’t have fit. So they were almost like a bag of holding. However, you still felt all the weight from whatever you put in the bag. So the appearance of the bag was extremely deceiving. Awendala’s bag made a hearty thunk as it dropped onto the counter.

Awendala had apparently had less qualms with carting around rusty weapons, because she began to pull out several rusty knives and place them on the counter. Smulgom watched her intently. Final count, Awendala put down six rusty knives, one broken shield, three decent looking spears, one decent conditioned knife, and a rusty scimitar on the counter. Then she pulled out a small handful of throat bladders, which Smulgom was quick to place a bowl under. A few more odds and ends ended up on the table.

Smulgom eyed the items on the table for several minutes before making his offer. “Twelve gold pieces, five silver.”

Izumi seemed excited by the number. Lilit had no idea if Awendala had just been low-balled or not. They still had no frame of reference for how much a gold piece was worth. Awendala’s trusting nature though let her take him at his word. She nodded and Smulgom counted out her coins.

Rana scoffed next to her. “Not even going to haggle a little? What is wrong with you?”

“What are you talking about? If he was willing to pay more, then he would have offered more.” Awendala innocently answered.

Rana simply groaned loudly. Smulgom swept the items off the counter and Rana stepped forward to empty her bag. “Watch how it’s done,” she said.

Rana had been more discerning in what she carried back. There were two rusted knives, four spears, two scimitars, one oiled knife, and a small pile of throat bladders.

“Eleven gold, six silver,” Smulgom offered.

“Fifteen gold, two silver.” Rana countered. Though how she came to the conclusion her pile was worth that was beyond Lilit.

Smulgom actually smiled, “Twelve gold even.” They continued to counter each other until Smulgom offered, “Thirteen gold, four silver.”

Rana accepted with a nod. Smulgom was quick to sweep everything off the table. Izumi looked at Rana like she was going to eat her right then and there.

Rana went to step back, but Lilit grabbed her elbow. “Will you please do that for me? I have no experience with haggling or anything.”

Rana looked excited, and Smulgom looked a little weary when she accepted. Lilit stepped forward and emptied out her own bag. She had much less, being even more discerning in what she carried. At the end of the day she sold Smulgom four knives, one spear, one scimitar, and a small pile of throat bladders. Rana worked him up to nine gold, three silver. All told, that brought Lilit’s total to sixty-nine gold, three silver.

Smulgom, on top of buying all their gear, sold general store type items. He had a menu chalked up on the back board then he’d hurry in the back and scurry out with your requested items. Rana helped out by haggling for the group again. By the time they were done Izumi looked like she was going to spontaneously combust.

They all stocked up on food provisions. Izumi recommended a week’s worth to be on the safe side. They also bought bed rolls and tents, and a few other odds and ends they thought they’d need. When she was done shopping, Lilit was down to fifty-eight gold, one silver.

They headed to the apothecary brother next. Steve sold Awendala and Rana each their own healing potions for ten gold a piece. He was not amused with Rana’s attempt to haggle and almost raised the price before Izumi could stop them.

After that they headed back toward Smulgom’s and Steve’s sister the blacksmith. This far back from the staircase the booths began to transform into proper shops. Slokenra’s smithy was set up inside a proper shop front. Rana and Izumi looked around at the wares, wandering off on their own. Lilit caught Rana walking with her hand on Izumi’s back, guiding her through the shop. Interesting.

Awendala took ahold of Lilit and guided her to a wall of shields. Each one was a different shape or size. Awendala drifted around until she seemed to spot what she was looking for. There were several small to medium sized shields around where Awendala was staring, so Lilit wasn’t sure what she was looking at.

“How can I help you folks?” A voice popped up by Lilit’s shoulder, causing her to jump.

“Oh, sorry about that,” a small woman who could only be Slokenra based off the family resemblance said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She placed a hand on Lilit’s arm.

“No worries. I think my friend was helping me find a shield.”

“What class are you?”

“Acolyte, why?”

“Some classes have particular needs. Like I know you need both your hands free for your prayer book. Not a common problem for not a common class,” Slokenra answered.

“That makes…wait, my class isn’t very common?”

“Nope. Not a lot of people go for the more support class kind of roles. Most of the people that end up here are the gung-ho hero types. They’re much more action oriented.

“You on the other hand are going to be in high demand. No one wants to be the healer, but everyone wants one in their party. You could set your own rates and be guaranteed to get them if you advertised on the board downstairs,” Slokenra said.

She held up her hand to forestall Lilit’s response. “I’m not trying to sow discord or stir up problems with your own party. You should trust the people in your party for more than a paycheck I say.”

She looked back to where Awendala had been staring. “I think I know what your friend was looking for. I don’t have one up there because they’re honestly not that popular outside of certain classes. I do have something in the back, and if not, I can fashion something in a few days.”

Awendala and Lilit followed her to the back of the shop. Slokenra slipped past the counter and into the actual back of the shop. Lilit and Awendala waited while listening to her mutter and bang around.

Lilit looked over at Awendala, “It looks like she knows what she’s talking about.”

Awendala nodded her head, “I agree. Izumi doesn’t seem to have steered us wrong. What do you think of her?” They turned to watch Izumi tripping after Rana as they ambled around the shop.

“I think she wants to get in all of our pants. I’d say especially yours based on some of her comments, but since the haggling at Smulgom’s she seems to have become infatuated with Rana.” Lilit laughed.

Awendala’s deep chuckle warmed Lilit’s insides. “True. I had noticed that. Beside that though, what do you think of her?”

“I’m not sure. What do you think of her?” Lilit turned the question around.

“Hmmmm. I think she’s been honest and helpful, even when she didn’t have to be. She took us to vendors she seems to trust. I like her fire too.” Awendala nudged Lilit, “And she is kind of cute, don’t you think?”

Lilit’s face burned. She did think that Izumi was at least a little cute, if you could get past the flirty bravado.

“Should we give her a chance?” Lilit asked. “In the party I mean.” Lilit’s blush deepened.

Awendala didn’t seem to notice, “I think we should at least sit down and talk to her. See what she can bring to the table. What class she is. She already seems to fit in with us otherwise.”

Lilit sighed. She hadn’t wanted to bring in another stranger when she was still getting used to Awendala and Rana. But, she could admit when she was beat. Izumi had thoroughly defeated any of Lilit’s excuses she could have made to keep her away.

Just then Slokenra stepped out from behind the curtain. “I found it!” She rushed to the counter. On top of it she placed an odd contraption. It was one part bracer that fit over the forearm. One part glove. And maybe one part shield, Lilit wasn’t sure.

“Try it on. Try it on.” Slokenra was practically bouncing in place. “I took a guess based on how you moved, but you’re right handed right?”

“Yeah,” Lilit confirmed. She picked up the bracer shield thing and inspected it from every angle. It looked like there was a small metal backed glove attached to a bracer. Only instead of just fitting around the forearm, the back of the bracer fanned out about six inches around her hand, and then sloped back to a sharp point at the elbow. Like if a kite shield had been shrunk and welded to the back of a bracer.

She slipped her hand inside the bracer shield. The glove was actually fingerless, but wrapped around the thumb to keep it in place. It fit surprisingly well. She was able to secure the buckles on the underside one handed.

Lilit looked up at Awendala who looked super excited by the bracer shield. “Is this what you were looking for?”

“Yes. It’s a wing-shield. It’s small, but versatile and keeps your hands free. You can block and deflect some of the blows coming in instead of trying to dodge everything.” Awendala’s smile popped up a dimple in her cheek.

“Now,” Slokenra brought their attention back to her. “I couldn’t part with that for any less than twenty-six gold.”

From behind them, Rana seemed to pop out of nowhere, “Nineteen gold, not a silver more.”

“You wound me, ma’am.” But Slokenra was grinning. “For someone as important as a healer, I guess I could be persuaded to drop the price to twenty-four and five silver.”

They continued back and forth for several minutes before finally settling on twenty-two gold, six silver. Lilit gladly paid and everyone waved as they left.

“All that shopping has left me starving. What say we head back downstairs for lunch?” Rana asked everyone.

Lilit and Awendala readily agreed. Izumi was too busy staring heart eyes at her newest crush to say anything. But she followed along doggedly at Rana’s heels.

Chapter Text

The group sat down around a table down in the pub part of The Inn. Lilit sat down across from Rana, placing Awendala on one side of her, and Izumi on the other. The same waitress from before came by to take their orders.

“I’m sorry. But I don’t think we ever caught your name,” Lilit said. She’d hated having to refer to this woman as just ‘the waitress’ even in her own head.

“Oh, well thank you. You can call me Sapphire.” The blue eyed elfin woman answered. “Now what can I get you ladies?”

They placed their orders and sat back. Sapphire sashayed away, hips swaying gently. There weren’t that many, but it’s like all the women sent here were just so beautiful. Lilit tore her eyes away and refocused on the group she was with.

“Alright, Izumi why should we take you on in our group?” Awendala started the discussion.

“Wow, just going to jump right in, huh?” Izumi cleared her throat, “Well, aside from the fact that I am extremely helpful around here, I would be a huge asset in the dungeons. My class fits right in with your group.”

“How do you even know what classes and roles we have that you think you could fit so well in?” Lilit asked.

“Well, just based on armor and weapons, I can tell that big girl over there,” she indicated Awendala, “is some kind of sponge for soaking up damage. Rana on the other hand,” Izumi placed her hand over Rana’s on the table, “is some kind of damage dealer with her duel wielding axes. You though,” she turned to Lilit, “I’m not so sure about.

“Ultimately it doesn’t matter though. My class is versatile enough to work in pretty much any role. I’m a conjurer. While right now I only have one summons, I can use him however we need. Either soaking up damage or dealing damage. My future summons may even be good at crowd control. On top of that, I personally use ranged weapons. I noticed all of you are close up fighters, so just that right there is spot you’re weak in.” Izumi sat back, proud of herself.

“Why do you want to leave your current group?” Lilit asked.

Izumi sighed, “Well, you might have noticed that I love the ladies. The group I’m leaving behind is a bunch of swinging dicks. Real sausage party, you know what I mean?”

Lilit couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Rana on the other hand let out a great big guffaw of a laugh. Awendala didn’t react at all.

“So, you just want to come with us because you think you’ll have a chance of getting laid?” Lilit sounded disgusted.

Izumi stared her right in the eyes and in a sultry tone answered, “I don’t just think it, beautiful.” She winked. Lilit found herself blushing. “Besides, have you looked around? Most of the adventurers are men. There aren’t exactly a ton of women, let alone all women groups. How could I not want to tag along?”

About that time, Sapphire showed up with their lunch. Everyone dug in and ate silently for several minutes. By some unspoken agreement, they all kept conversation during lunch much lighter and focused on enjoying their meals.

All too soon they all sat back from the table. Full from a delicious meal. Lilit kicked off the questioning this time around.

“We agreed to split loot drops as evenly as possible, to the point of jointly selling large value items and splitting the gold. The only exception is if a piece of equipment will obviously benefit one of us in the party, then that person uses the equipment no matter who picked it up. Is that something you can agree to?”

“That sounds more than fair, and is a sight better than what I had going with my last group. They were very much a keep what you kill kind of group.” Izumi answered. “What do you do if equipment is more general and would benefit more than one person?”

Lilit leaned back impressed with the thoughtful question. Awendala beat her to the answer though. “We haven’t had that come up, but we would talk it out and come to a decision that helped the party.”

“Party first. I can respect that.”

“You’ve obviously been here longer than we have, what level are you even?” Lilit asked.

“I’ve been here a just little longer than you ladies. I’ve done one dungeon with my former group. I’m only at a level two, so I shouldn’t be that far ahead of any of you. Especially based on the amount of loot you all sold earlier. You’re all probably close to level two yourselves,” Izumi said.

Rana finally spoke up. “Why don’t we take one of the training rooms and see how well she meshes with us all. We already needed to do that to help Lilit get a little less squishy.” She winked at Lilit who rolled her eyes.

Everyone agreed that would be a fair trial. They pushed away from the table and all headed back upstairs. First to their rooms to retrieve their gear, then up to the fifth level. Lilit was the only one that was even a little out of breath by the time they reached the landing.

“What even is your stamina?” Awendala asked Lilit.

If it had been anyone else, she would have gotten defensive. But, Awendala was just so forthright and earnest in everything she did that it was hard to be offended by her question. Instead, Lilit answered a little sheepishly, “I’m sitting on an eight. I didn’t think it would be all that important in my role in the party.”

Rana and Izumi had pulled ahead as Awendala quietly questioned Lilit. She placed a hand on Lilit’s arm, “I understand the reasoning, I think, but you should probably do something to raise it.” Awendala said.

Lilit silently agreed, nodding. She was rewarded by a shy smile from Awendala before they both hurried to catch up to the flirty duo.

Looking around, there was a large open area with several booths set up along the perimeter. To the left and right were long hallways that led away from the landing by the stairs.

In the middle of the square, Lilit and Awendala caught up to Rana and Izumi standing in front of a large bulletin board. Posted on the board were the rules for this level. Down each hallway were training rooms. To the left were individual rooms and they cost a gold per hour to rent. To the right were rooms for parties to use that were three gold per hour. The booths contained trainers you could sign up for and hire to teach you. Their prices varied based on experience.

“We don’t need a trainer for this. Let’s head down and grab an open party room. Does anyone see where we need to pay?” Lilit asked.

Izumi answered, “You pay the room itself. There’s a slot for you to insert coins beside the door, inside the room.”

They headed across the room and down the hall on the right. The first few doors had large glowing X’s on them. There wasn’t very much room between doors, maybe a dozen feet or so. So, it wasn’t very far down the hallway before they came to the first available room.

Rana pushed the door open and they all stepped inside. Lilit looked back next to the door, and sure enough there was a small coin slot, but nothing else to the left of the door. The rest of the room stretched out in every direction, clearly larger than it should have been. Something the group was coming to be used to in The Inn.

Lilit conjured three gold pieces from her account by concentrating on her need. “I’ll cover the first hour.” She quickly inserted the gold pieces into the coin slot. The lights in the room dimmed and a ping was sent to Lilit’s Delver.

She pulled up her arm and a screen popped up above it. Choose your targets. Then it listed several options. Automatons, Skeletons, Bullywugs, Spider. There were several more exotic choices after that. Lilit showed the group her screen, and asked “What do you guys think?”

“I’m tired of bullywugs, and it looks like spider only gets one, so it’s probably a big fucker, which isn’t what we’re looking for. How about we just go kind of basic? Skellies or automatons?” Rana asked everyone.

“That’s fair. I vote automatons, I’m curious what they look like if I’m honest.” Awendala threw out.

“Sounds good to me,” Lilit said before selecting automatons with several taps on the Delver.

There was a grinding noise from the wall opposite the door. Spotlights flashed on, highlighting the middle of the wall as it split open, revealing six bronze automatons marching out. The lights in the room came back up.

“Ok. To make this close to what we’d actually be doing in the field, I want Awendala to pull the mob to her. Then I’ll come in from behind and get an individual’s attention. Rana and Izumi can keep an eye on things and make sure neither of us gets overwhelmed. After I fell one, I’ll switch with Izumi and we’ll go back and forth a bit,” Lilit calmly informed the group.

Awendala simply stepped forward and let out a deafening roar, drawing the attention of all six automatons. The others circled around to the rear. Several of the automatons in the front were wielding short swords and bucklers. Two in the back were using spears to jab past their comrades. In the very back was an archer. Lilit figured he’d be the easiest target for her, and the most danger for Awendala. So, she targeted it.

Lilit stepped forward as she swung her mace into the back of the automaton. A large dent formed and some red, noxious smelling hydraulic fluid dripped down through gaps in the plates. The automaton turned quite a bit faster than Lilit thought something that large should.

It quickly zeroed in on her and stowed its bow. Instead, it pulled out a long dagger. The automaton stepped toward her and jabbed toward her ribs. Lilit leapt back, avoiding the strike.

“You’re supposed to be using that new shield you bought. Quit dodging and start deflecting. It’ll keep you in range to counterattack.” Rana shouted at her.

Lilit felt a little embarrassed for forgetting essentially one of the main reasons they were here. She stepped back into range of the automaton. It circled to the side a few steps before lunging forward again.

This time, Lilit, against all her ingrained senses, shoved her forearm in the path of the dagger. It skipped across her wing-shield, and past her body as she stepped forward for another strike. Lilit was now within the guard of the automaton. She swung her own mace into the side of the automaton’s head. A deep ringing sound echoed around the room and a deep dent formed in the automaton’s armor. More viscous fluid dripped from under the helmet.

The automaton stumbled to the side. It flung out an arm to catch itself, but Lilit followed doggedly on its heels. She struck the helmet again with her mace. This time it was knocked clean off and skittered across the room a jumbled mess. The automaton slipped to the side, and crashed down onto the ground. It twitched once and then lay still.

“Great job!” Izumi called out. “Now step back and see what I can do.” Izumi stepped forward, held out her hand and commanded, “Phantasm! Arise!” Then she pulled her short bow out and fitted an arrow to the string.

A few feet in front of Izumi a flame appeared on the ground suddenly. It shot to over six feet in height before just as quickly dying down. Out of the flames stepped a dark robed figure. Long spectral claws extended from the ends of the sleeves.

“Phantasm, tank!” Izumi commanded her summons.

The phantasm let out a sickly shriek that grabbed the attention of the mob of automatons away from Awendala. The first automaton to reach it immediately received a deep slash across its chest. Four claw marks tore through the bronze like paper, leaving it dripping viscous fluids. It sidestepped a thrust from an automaton’s short sword.

Then the lead automaton sprouted an arrow from the middle of its face. Lilit had nearly forgotten about Izumi and her archery. The phantasm was very eye catching and it was hard to look away as it continued to engage the automatons, dancing away from strikes between delivering deadly blows.

“Awendala, can you take back the tank role?” Izumi asked after her and the phantasm brought down their second automaton in as many minutes.

Awendala nodded and let out another roar to grab the attention of the remaining three automatons. They turned and rushed across the room once again.

“Phantasm, fighter!” Izumi shouted before Lilit could step forward.

The phantasm paused before it faded from view. It quickly reappeared at the back of the pack of automatons. It raked its claws across the back of an automaton in two quick swipes. Then it just as quickly faded back away as the automaton turned to engage it.

Izumi drew and released an arrow into the breastplate of the automaton. It turned toward her. As soon as it took a step forward, away from its brethren, the phantasm flickered into view behind it again. It swiped quickly with each clawed hand and faded from view once again. Izumi let another arrow fly as the automaton was beginning to turn away.

The automaton collapsed to the ground, fluid leaking out of the many cuts and tears across its body.

“Alright, let’s let Lilit have another go.” Awendala called out as she backed away from the remaining automatons. Her shield hung between her and danger.

Lilit had to march across the room to reach one of the automatons. One had a short sword with buckler, and the other a spear. Lilit decided to attempt the spear wielder this time. She pulled back her arm and rushed the last few steps, bringing her arm down on the back of the automaton’s head.

There was a loud bonging sound. The automaton swept around to target her. It swung spear first toward her mace arm though so she hoped back instead of interspersing it with her shield arm.

It swept past her and Lilit leapt forward to deliver another strike. This one dented in the automaton’s shoulder, crippling its ability to raise its arm. Limiting the range of the spear as well. It also lurched to the side from the force of the blow.

She was well inside its guard. It already couldn’t bring its spear to bear on her, and she’d made it even harder to do so. She pressed the attack while she could. She already felt herself breathing heavier and moving a little slower.

On her backswing she aimed for the automaton’s head again, but misjudged and slammed her mace into the top of the breastplate. The automaton lost its balance and fell over onto its back.

Lilit went to step forward to finish off the automaton when her face was sprayed with red, viscous, hydraulic fluid. Lilit looked over, and Awendala was pulling her broadsword from the other automaton’s torso, letting it slide to the ground to finish bleeding out. Apparently she had gotten bored waiting for the others to kill the automatons.

Lilit refocused on the final automaton. She stepped forward as it was struggling to rise, and delivered a vicious blow to its head, leaving it hanging on by a few wires and gears.

When Lilit stood back up, she received a ping on her Delver. Lifting it to her eyes she found two messages. One from the room asking if she’d like to pick out different enemies for the next round. Scrolling past that she found a notification that she had improved a skill.

She clicked into the message. Stamina increased by 1. Stamina at level 9. “Wooh. Check that out.” She held out her arm for everyone to see her Delver screen.

“Congratulations,” Awendala slapped her on the back, nearly sending Lilit tumbling.

Lilit looked around as all the automatons suddenly glowed brightly for a moment and then faded away into nothing. There were unsurprisingly no loot bags left behind from these enemies. Otherwise people might start farming the training rooms she supposed.

“Do we want to keep going?” Lilit asked.

“Yeah, we haven’t even seen what we can do as an entire team. And you need more practice blocking instead of dodging. Don’t think we didn’t see you jump out of the way of the spear with the last guy,” Rana said.

“Ok. You’re right. I just need a minute to catch my breath. What do you guys want to fight this time? Same thing?” Lilit asked.

“Pull up the list again. I want to see what’s available again,” Izumi said.

Lilit pulled up her Delver. She opened the message from the room. You may continue with the same enemies or choose new ones. Your time remaining for the room is 00:45:36 a timer ticked down. Lilit chose new enemies and the list of combatants reopened.

“Skeletons?” Rana asked hopefully.

Lilit sighed, “Sure.” She highlighted the skeletons option and noticed a slider on the side. “Oh, look at this.” She moved the slider and the number of enemies changed.

“Oh! Yes!” Izumi and Rana shouted together.

“More skellies for me to smash.” Rana added.

Awendala interjected with some common sense, “Let’s start with ten and then we can go up from there depending.”

“That’s reasonable,” Lilit said before the other two could argue. She adjusted the slider and pressed ok.

Chapter Text

Once again the lights dimmed. The back wall was lit up by hidden spotlights as it slid open to reveal a small phalanx of skeleton warriors. Awendala stepped back and let out a loud roar to capture their attention.

This time Lilit decided to test out her ability to draw and use her prayer book with her new wing-shield on her arm. Her fingers were free, but the strap holding the shield bracer with her hand made pulling the book out a little more difficult. It wasn’t enough that she thought it would really be a problem, just something to adjust to.

Thinking of her ward spell, she opened her prayer book and began chanting. She was getting faster as she became more confident about speaking the prayers. She focused on Awendala as she cast her ward, and soon the skeletons’ weapons were bouncing off of the light ward, several inches in front of Awendala’s armor.

With a single sweep of her sword, Awendala stepped into the mob and ripped two skeletons in half. At the same time, Rana dashed forward and began dismantling another skeleton, one limb at a time.

Izumi’s phantasm wasn’t fairing as well. Its slashing attack didn’t seem to be nearly as effective against the skeletons. Izumi launched an arrow into the crowd of skeletons, but it seemed to lodge between the ribs of one of the skeletons, not dealing much damage.

“Izumi, aim for the head!” Lilit called out before stepping forward to engage her own skeleton.

Izumi called out for her phantasm to become a tank before Lilit could reach anything, and several of the skeletons near the back of the mob broke away to engage the phantasm.

Frustrated, Lilit changed direction and smashed her mace through the middle of a skeleton, sending bone fragments scattering across the room. The skeleton turned around toward her sword raised high, shield arm on the floor.

Lilit shoved her arm in front of her as the skeleton swung down. She felt the strike reverberate through her entire arm. Note to self, deflect instead of block…ow. As the skeleton’s strike was rebounding, Lilit swung under her arm, shattering the skeleton’s pelvis, dropping it to the floor.

The upper half of the skeleton flipped itself over and started to crawl toward her. Lilit stepped forward and smashed the skull to powder. The rest of the skeleton fell apart.

She looked around. The skeletons that Awendala had cut in half were currently trying to trip her up. So, Lilit rushed over to beat them off of her.

“Smash the skulls or they just keep coming!” Lilit yelled to her companions.

“Decapitation works as well,” Rana yelled back.

Lilit took a moment to catch her breath before wading back into the mob. It looked like the phantasm was on its last legs as it took a slash across its chest. Darkness seemed to creep out of the cut. Izumi chanted a short incantation that Lilit couldn’t decipher and the rip in the phantasm closed up and it stood taller. Once again doing its best to hold off the skeletons.

Rana was on the side of the room, working on the phantasm’s mob with Izumi. So, Lilit stayed near Awendala and did her best to help reduce their number. Awendala’s sword wasn’t very effective for killing the skeletons. She didn’t have the room for more than jabs and the occasional sweeping cut with her giant shield on her other arm.

There were several skeletons missing an arm or leg, but they kept coming. Since they didn’t bleed, or seem to feel pain, they didn’t slow down. They just adjusted how they moved forward and kept coming.

Lilit came in from the side and began smashing her way through skeletons. While Awendala’s sword wasn’t the best weapon in this situation, Lilit’s mace worked beautifully as bone splintered and shattered under her attacks.

As Lilit’s assault began to draw more attention from the rest of the mob, Awendala let out another roar to bring back their attention to her. Around the same time, Lilit heard the eerie shriek that the phantasm used to do the same thing.

Lilit came up to one of the skeletons with one leg. It hopped forward to lunge at Awendala. Lilit reared back and kicked it, knocking it over easily. Then she bent over and smashed her mace through its skull.

They continued like this for several more minutes before the final skeleton fell apart as Rana removed its head. Lilit was bent over, breathing heavily. Her stamina bar had been empty for the last two minutes or so, and swinging her mace had taken an extreme amount of effort.

“So…maybe not skeletons next time,” Izumi suggested.

“Yeah, maybe not,” Awendala responded. “I didn’t realize how ineffective I would be as anything but a damage sponge.”

“And I didn’t realize how ineffective my summons would be.”

“It was still a good learning experience, I think.” Lilit said. “We know if we run into skeletons that the typical attacks and strategy won’t work as well. I feel like with my mace, I was a lot more helpful than I normally am though.”

“Definitely,” Rana agreed. “And once we figured out their weakness, it was a lot easier for me to kill them.”

“Unfortunately even shooting them in the head wasn’t always good enough to kill them,” Izumi complained.

“Should we look into getting some weapons that would work better against skeletons just in case?” Awendala asked.

“I mean, it couldn’t hurt,” Lilit answered.

“Let me think about what we might use,” Rana suggested.

“Let’s see what else we can play with in the meantime,” Lilit suggested. She pulled up her Delver and reopened the menu for the room. The time was down to a little more than thirty minutes. The others gathered around and they began more seriously going through the list of opponents.

***

By the end of the hour, Lilit’s dex had gone up a level. Now she sat at a nine in dexterity. Awendala had somehow gone up a level in charisma, bringing her to a whopping seven. That explained so much about the imposing woman.

Lilit had also had to cast her healing prayer a few times as fatigue and sloppiness had started to catch up to even the party members that had stamina for days. Lilit wished she could soak in a tub, let her sore muscles relax in the heat. She’d have to settle for standing under the hot water in her shower for as long as it lasted.

“Can we drop off our armor and freshen up, then visit the suite merchants? I’d kill for a bathroom,” Rana pleaded as they left the training room.

“Wait, you don’t have a bathroom?” Lilit asked.

“Nah, I’ve got a shower room. Besides, bathrooms are communal. Why, do you have a bath?” Rana looked excited.

“Oh, no. We just call all rooms with a toilet and somewhere to bathe a bathroom where I’m from. I have a shower too. I’m not sure about communal baths though.”

“What do you mean? All baths are communal, right?” Rana looked around at the others.

“We had both private and public bathhouses,” Awendala answered.

With a glint in her eye Izumi shouted, “I want communal baths!”

“I’m fine with that,” Awendala said.

Everyone turned to look at Lilit. She stammered for a moment before latching onto a potential problem. “Well, who would pay for it? If we split up or something, only one of us can take it with us. Do we all chip in or does someone need to pay for it all themselves?”

“Easy, it was my idea, I haven’t bought much with my gold. If I can afford it, I’ll get it today. If not, depending on how much it costs, we split the cost and then I’ll buy you all out after the next dungeon,” Rana offered.

“I…guess,” Lilit hedged. It’s not like she’d have to use it if she wasn’t comfortable. But the idea of soaking in some hot, steamy water sounded divine right now.

The group split at the stairs, with Izumi heading the opposite direction to her single room since she’d apparently already left her team when they gathered armor. She’d assured everyone that even if they didn’t take her on, she didn’t want to keep dungeon diving with her team.

“So, what do you guys think about Izumi?” Lilit asked as soon as the goblin was out of earshot.

“I like her,” Rana answered immediately.

“Of course you do,” Lilit mumbled under her breath.

It apparently wasn’t quiet enough or Rana’s hearing was just that good, because she whipped her head around and glared at Lilit. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

It was too late to back pedal now, so Lilit just plowed ahead recklessly. “It’s no secret that you like her. You were practically drooling while she threw herself at you.” Rana growled deeply, sharp teeth flashing. “But,” Lilit continued bravely or stupidly, she’d soon find out, “she has been throwing herself at all of us. You really think she’d just stop trying to get in all our pants after she seduces you?”

Now Rana and Awendala both looked genuinely confused. “So?” Rana asked.

Lilit sputtered as they came up to their suite door. “Wh-what do you mean, so?”

“Why should I care if she wants to have a relationship with Awendala, or even you,” she sneered. “That wouldn’t change anything that happened between us. Whether anything happened or not.” She huffed, “I was not drooling.”

“Wait, what? But relationships are between two people, not four.” Lilit said, mystified.

“What are you talking about?” Awendala finally asked. “Of course a relationship is between two people. But, you know you can have more than one relationship right?”

“Oh,” Rana gasped, “is this some weird cultural thing your race has?”

“Weird cultural thing? How am I the weird one? Two people are in a relationship, and that’s it. Anything else is cheating.” Lilit was adamant.

“My world isn’t like that. We often have many mates and live as a pack. A new lover might date one, several, or all of us at once.” Rana explained.

“Yeah, and mine is similar, but we all date as a group. So any new person has a relationship with everyone or no one.” Awendala added. “I wasn’t part of a wing yet before I died. I was waiting to get out of the military first.”

“Huh. That is a lot to take in. So, you wouldn’t care if Izumi started doing stuff with anyone else?” Lilit looked at the other two.

They both shook their heads. Lilit nodded in understanding and then walked away to her room to think. She got there and began taking off her armor, placing it piece by piece on the armor dummy in the corner.

Once again her underclothes were soaked through with sweat. She quickly stripped down and then took a quick, hot shower. After drying off she opted for a short, sundress in lavender along with a set of flats. They were both a new and thankful addition to her wardrobe when she opened it.

When she came back into the sitting room area of the suite, neither of the others was there yet. She sat down in one of the armchairs, staring into the flames in the fireplace, to think.

Izumi really was a good fit for the team as far as combat went. But something about her over the top flirting bothered Lilit. She wasn’t sure if it was because it bothered her ingrained monogamous upraising or if she genuinely didn’t like Izumi’s personality. One she could eventually get over. Thinking about the other women in the party, she could probably get over that pretty fast. Both, Rana and Awendala were gorgeous in their own ways. The other would cause personality conflicts that could end up tearing the team apart if anyone sided with Izumi over her.

She needed to come to a decision soon. She had a feeling that the others weren’t going to let the day end without one. It seemed like Awendala and Rana were both leaning toward letting Izumi into the party. Lilit didn’t want to think about if she tried to force them to choose between her and Izumi. No matter the outcome things would inevitably fall apart from there.

Lilit thought back to what the armorer Slokenra had said. If Lilit decided to leave the group she wouldn’t have any problems finding a new one. If it was just Lilit that ended up having a problem with Izumi, then Lilit could find herself a new team, or even build one around herself from the ground up. That ability to bail if she wasn’t happy actually gave her the courage to commit to a decision.

A moment later, both Awendala and Rana entered the sitting room. “Ok,” Lilit took a deep breath. “She can join. You can invite her to our party.”

Rana let out a loud shout of excitement and pulled up her delver to send the invite request to Izumi. Awendala calmly walked over and leaned against the chair Lilit was sitting in. “I think this was the right thing. I really think we’re all going to get along great,” she smiled down at Lilit.

Chapter Text

Izumi was ecstatic when she met them in the hallway, practically bouncing off the walls. Apparently The Inn would take care of moving her belongings while they were out. That’s what had happened to her when she moved out of her old party’s suite.

Everyone trooped downstairs so that Izumi could turn in her room key and pick up her new suite key. Then they all went right back upstairs to the fourth floor.

The fourth floor was a single shop. There was a door off the landing that opened up into it. Inside were holographic displays of various features. Everything from furniture to additions to their rooms, to full room additions to their suite. The displays flickered between various styles of architecture and design.

They were greeted by what could only be an advanced form of automaton, verging on the edge of an android or robot. At least if it didn’t have a large key twisting around on their back. It was shaped like a man, and even had a bit of a beard going on. It was dressed in rough cotton with a leather apron over top of everything.

“Welcome. My name is Dave. How can I help you ladies today?” It had a slightly tinny sound to its voice, but spoke and moved quite naturally.

“Hi, Dave,” Rana stepped forward. “We’re looking to add a bathroom to our suite.”

“Come over this way and let’s see what we can find that interests you.” Dave turned and walked deeper into the store. Rana hurried after it, and the rest of the group followed behind.

They didn’t have to go far before Dave stopped in front of a holographic bathhouse looking room. It looked to be Greco-Roman in design and was basically just a large swimming pool. Tall columns bordered the pool with lights hanging down from the ceiling.

Then the display flickered and it suddenly looked very Japanese. There was a small shower area on one side, and a round pool surrounded by volcanic rock filled up the rest of the space. A small waterfall cascaded into the pool near the top of the room.

“Can you show me something more Anpuvian?” Rana asked.

“Of course, miss,” Dave answered. It reached toward the display and a small holographic keyboard appeared in the air in front of it. Dave typed a few commands into it and the display suddenly changed.

Now, the room was ringed in small, red trees. There was a small showering area in the front of the room. After that was a series of three round pools, each a little larger than the one in front of it. The smallest pool in the front sat higher and flowed over the back into the next pool. The middle pool sat above and flowed into the final, largest pool. Steps were set leading down to each of the pools, with large landings around each pool. Rana hummed in approval.

“Why are there three pools?” Lilit asked.

“Each one is a different temperature. It goes from coolest to hottest,” Dave indicated the pools moving from the front to the back. “You’re meant to start in the first and once you’ve grown accustomed move on to the next pool”

“Not everyone uses all the pools,” Rana added. She turned back to Dave, “Are the pools individually adjustable?”

“Yes, ma’am. There is a control panel set next to the door to allow you to make adjustments as well as on the sides of the pools themselves. They can be programmed to display multiple temperature scales as well.” The key in Dave’s back continued to tick away.

Rana asked about tweaking a few aesthetics and Dave showed her how to make choices and adjustments to the model. She spent several minutes moving things around and changing little details. Lilit was beginning to become bored and her attention drifted to other models nearby.

There was a smaller display with bathroom design add-ons. One of them was a bathtub feature. Lilit wandered over and began looking at the options she could mess with. First she messed with the homeworld base. For the most part things stayed the same. The biggest differences she noticed were sizes and depths. Out of curiosity, Lilit asked Rana how to spell Anpuvian so she could look up bathtubs from her world. An error flashed with a small message indicating that Anpuvians didn’t have personal baths and used showers or public bathhouses for cleaning themselves.

By then Izumi had wandered over. “Oh, check out Skaalah tubs. That’s where I’m from.”

Lilit pulled up the model for Skaalah and wasn’t at all surprised at how shallow it was. She was surprised, thought maybe she shouldn’t be, that it was large enough to fit a dozen goblins. “That’s rather large,” Lilit pointed out.

“Oh, that’s because we bathe as family units. It’s great for bonding!” Izumi seemed earnest. Lilit decided to take her at face value.

“Ok, but I need something deeper if I want to cover all of me.”

“Pfft. Where’s the fun in that?” Izumi wiggled her eyebrows at Lilit.

Lilit decided to ignore her. For her own sanity. Instead she called Awendala over to ask how to spell her homeworld.

“Well, I’m not technically from there. I was born on a colony world in another solar system. But it should be the same for Lanchili as it was on Bisyeh.” Awendala answered.

“Wait, your people were interstellar?” Lilit asked, sounding astounded.

“Well, yeah. Why? Were your people not?”

“No. We were probably a few generations from even thinking about colonizing planets in the same solar system. Wait, is everyone else that far advanced as well?” She wondered if she was the primitive in this situation.

“Nah. My people never bothered with the stars. We were happy where we were. Although some people did like creating fantasy worlds to explore in cyberspace. That’s the closest we got to other worlds.” Izumi said.

Before she could get more distracted by asking Rana who was still busy playing with the bathhouse features about her world, Lilit input Lanchili in to see what their bathtubs looked like. When she did, she was a little confused.

There was a small enclosed shower like space. But there was no showerhead, and the floor looked like it was covered by sand. Next to that was a tub that looked like it would reach up to Awendala’s neck, but she’d have to be sitting with her legs bunched up or crossed to fit. And then there was another small shower space on the other side of the tub. This one with what looked like misters all over the wall.

Lilit stared at the unusual setup for several seconds before turning to Awendala. “What is all that?”

“Yeah, I noticed none of you seemed to have scales, so a lot of this stuff you wouldn’t use.” She pointed to the sand covered shower stall. “This blasts warm sand across our scales to help with molting and to keep our scales polished. Then we’d soak in the water in the tub here,” she pointed to the tiny but tall bathtub. “Then we’d step in here and have scale oil sprayed on to keep them from getting too stiff or brittle.”

She stepped forward. “Actually, how much does this cost? My scales are feeling a little tight.”

Lilit stepped aside so Awendala could inspect the display. She tapped away on the display’s holographic keyboard for several seconds, adjusting a few features. She chose a tub that seemed a little shallower and much closer to a length Lilit was familiar with. And added what looked like a set of dryers.

“Huh, looks like a basic setup is thirty-five gold pieces, and with my tweaks it’s only thirty-eight gold pieces.” Awendala murmured to herself.

“That doesn’t sound that bad,” Lilit said. Awendala jumped a little. She looked over her shoulder with a chagrined look on her face.

Lilit pulled up her account on her Delver. And…she was down to thirty-two gold, five silver. If the prices were similar she was out of luck for now. She let out a deep sigh. “Mind if I check how much mine would actually cost? Unless you’re going to get yourself one.”

Awendala shook her head and stepped back, “No. I want to see what happens with Rana. Besides, I bought some scale oil when we bought health potions. I just might need some help rubbing it in everywhere.” She looked hopefully at Lilit.

“I would love to help with that,” Izumi jumped in front of Awendala.

“Thank you.”

Lilit stepped up to the bathtub display and quickly navigated to her own world’s bathtubs. As much fun as it might be to try bathtubs from other species, she knew she’d fit in this and be compatible with all the features. Yep, basic tub was thirty-five. She checked out some of the options. Looked like a garden soaker tub with jets was going to be thirty-nine. She was not getting one today. All the more reason to hurry up and go through a dungeon.

Rana stepped away from her display. Looking over, Lilit couldn’t really tell the difference in what was displayed now and what Rana had tweaked about the design. She shrugged as Rana stepped in front of the group.

“Ok, so the bathroom costs 130 gold pieces. Also, this is run by The Inn and they don’t negotiate prices.” Rana rolled her eyes. “I have seventy gold. If I put up fifty-five, that should leave me enough to get a backup weapon. That is if you all can chip in twenty-five a piece.” She looked around at everyone, “So, what do ya say? Want to get a bathroom?”

Lilit spoke up first. “I can’t afford a bathtub for just my room, so I’ll throw in my share for a bathhouse we can all use.”

Izumi and Awendala quickly agreed. Everyone transferred Rana their portion of the money. Rana returned to the bathhouse display and spoke with Dave for a few moments. She handed over the gold and turned back around to the group.

“Dave said the bathroom should be finished setting up within an hour. Should we go weapons shopping to kill time?” Rana asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Awendala said. Lilit and Izumi nodded their heads in agreement.

The group went back to the stairs and traveled down one flight. They were back in the dungeon merchants hall again.

“Everyone ok with going back to Slokenra’s? She seemed to know her stuff.” Awendala asked everyone.

Lilit shrugged. She wasn’t in the market for anything new today. She was just here with everyone. Were they friends, she wondered as they headed deeper into the merchants’ hall.

Everyone else agreed so that’s where they headed. Slokenra greeted them warmly when they entered her shop.

“Have you had a chance to try out the wing-shield?” She asked Lilit excitedly.

“I did. I’m still getting used to the fighting style, but it seemed to work well enough and kept my hand free to grab things.” Lilit beamed at Slokenra.

“That’s brilliant. So, what can I do for you today?”

“Oh, this time it’s all of them that need assistance. We wanted to get some bludgeoning type weapons as backups. We had problems with the skeletons in the training room.” Lilit answered for everyone.

“Ah, that’s a good idea. Undead are a favorite of lots of the dungeons.” Slokenra sounded excited. Lilit wasn’t sure if it was for the sale or for the excuse to talk so many different styles of weapons with everyone.

Over an hour later the group left with lighter pockets than they went in. Awendala chose a warhammer that was little more than a shortened sledgehammer. It was very crude, but effective. Rana had opted for a quarterstaff with steel capped ends. Unfortunately Izumi hadn’t found anything ranged that would work well against undead. She was going to head to another vender nearby that Slokenra had recommended to see about getting a wand of lesser fireball. Slokenra assured everyone that it would be safe even in close quarters.

Everyone else headed back toward the staircase and their suite. It should have been long enough for the new bathhouse to be added to the suite and everyone was getting excited.

Izumi caught up to the group right before they entered the suite. It looked like she’d run the whole way back. She was a little winded, but obviously excited.

When they got to the hallway at the back of the suite there was a new door down the bedroom hallway. That would be Izumi’s new room. At the very end of the hall instead of along it sat another new door. This one was a set of double doors and almost certainly belonged to the new bathhouse.

Lilit followed the rest of the women down the hall. Everyone allowed Rana to push open the door and be the first person in the room. From the smile on her face, she was quite happy with how things had turned out.

Lilit and the rest followed on her heels. Inside the room was steamy and dimly lighted. Some details that Lilit hadn’t noticed before popped out at her. Immediately as you came in the room was a small changing area with benches and cubies to put clothes. Towels were stacked on the other wall on a table.

Just past that was the small showering area with a half dozen little showerheads hanging over drains and soap dishes on the walls. From the changing room and through the shower area the floor was tiled in marble with black and gold veins running through it.

Then there were the actual baths. Everything in that part of the room was tiled in reverse. A black marble with white and gold veins. Steam rose from each of the pools. The smallest of which would easily fit a dozen people at a time without anyone rubbing against anyone else.

“Ok. I’m going to go grab some clean clothes and then I’m coming back to soak. That looks so luxurious,” Lilit practically moaned. She could almost feel her muscles loosening just looking at the hot pools of water.

Everyone else nodded in agreement and they all hurried from the room. Lilit quickly grabbed a new dress and underwear. Beside the boots there was now a pair of sandals she assumed were for the bathhouse. She slipped off her flats and slipped on the sandals before heading out of her room.

She was the last one to make it to the bathhouse. Everyone else was stripping down, and Lilit found she couldn’t take her eyes off of any of them as she hovered in the doorway.

Awendala had the same red scales that were scattered like freckles across her face and hands running down the rest of her body. They grew larger and closer together as they went down her body. They ran mostly along the sides of her body, but there were a scattering all across her torso. She had a ridge of scales running down her spine that were the same red as the others, but flecked in gold. They ended just above her very fit, firm looking butt. She had small, pert breasts adding softness to her muscular frame. When she turned around, Lilit was able to make out a defined six pack of abs.

Rana had the same dusky fur running down her entire body. She was also much curvier than her clothes and armor had indicated. Rana had rather large breasts tipped with dark bronze nipples. It was harder to make out the muscles rippling underneath her fur, but she was still obviously in great shape. And between her legs was a golden colored cock that put Lilit’s last girlfriend to shame.

Lilit was glad Rana felt at home enough with them to bare herself in front of everyone. Lilit’s last girlfriend’s dysphoria had made her uncomfortable undressing in front of anyone she wasn’t intimate with.

Izumi was built more like a runner. She was slender, but with muscular thighs and calves. She also had probably the roundest butt of everyone there. Her skin was a dark, muted green except where she would wear a swimsuit. Those areas appeared to be much paler green from not being exposed to the sun. She was also leering at the other women, which is what finally shook Lilit out of her own staring spell.

Lilit averted her eyes and fully entered the dressing room. She quickly took off her clothes without looking at anyone else, stuffing them in a cubby. She followed the others to the showering area. She kept her eyes on the tiles in front of her as she quickly scrubbed off the day.

Lilit followed behind everyone as they all slid into the first pool. She did her best not to stare at anyone else again, but it was so hard with everyone just sitting there naked and beautiful. Her little gay heart was pounding away in her chest. Izumi seemed to not have the same hang ups as she sidled up close to Rana and they began whispering back and forth.

The first pool was like a warm bath. Just enough to get her skin to redden comfortably. She leaned back and let the heat soak into her muscles. Lilit and Awendala sat quietly in the pool and tried to relax.

“So, when can we move to the next pool?” Awendala asked a few minutes later. “This is nice, but I prefer my baths a bit hotter than this.”

“Oh, we can head to the next pool. There’s no time minimum or anything, and you’re welcome to skip any of the baths you want.” Rana answered.

“Great,” Awendala said. Then she stood up and promptly climbed out. Lilit shrugged at the others and they got out and followed Awendala to the next pool.

This one was just on the edge of almost too hot. Lilit winced as she sank into the bath. It took a few minutes, but it soon became comfortable. Leaning back, she decided she didn’t want to risk entering the hottest bath. This one was as close to perfect as she was going to get. She could already feel her muscles loosening as she relaxed.  

Izumi and Rana were giggling together across the pool. Awendala had sat a bit closer to Lilit this time. “You doing ok?” Awendala asked.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just, you expressed unease about that,” Awendala nodded toward Izumi and Rana who were now slowly kissing.

Lilit blushed. She hoped it looked like just a flush from the hot water. “I wasn’t worried about that per say. I was worried about any of it coming between us.”

“I wouldn’t worry. We’re all adults here. You’re the only one not used to multiple partners. It might take time for you to get used to the idea,” Awendala scooted closer and placed her hand on Lilit’s thigh. “But I think we’ll all be here when you’re ready.”

Then she stood up and made her way to the next pool. Lilit stared after her in disbelief. Had Awendala meant to hit on her? Was she saying what Lilit thought she was saying? And did it make a difference in how she felt if the others did like her that way?

Lilit couldn’t come to any conclusions right now. Especially not when she was alone with Izumi and Rana making out across from her. Lilit stood up suddenly, needing to be anywhere but here. “I think I’m done. I’m gonna head to my room.” Izumi threw a thumbs up over her shoulder. Rana didn’t seem to notice. Awendala waved as Lilit started making her way back up the steps toward the changing room.

She quickly dried off and put on some clothes. Her body still felt hot and flushed. And with flashes of Rana and Izumi floating through her head, she wasn’t sure this feeling would be going away anytime soon.

Chapter Text

Lilit left her room the next morning and ran into Izumi and Rana coming out of Rana’s room together. That hadn’t taken long. Looking closer, Lilit noticed bite marks peeking out of Izumi’s top. Lilit felt a small surge of jealousy and arousal. Both confused her. She didn’t have any claims on either Izumi or Rana. She hadn’t started any kind of relationship aside from friendship with either. She also wasn’t usually one to participate in voyeurism. But the thought of what the two women had been up to all night had Lilit’s panties uncomfortably damp.

She followed behind them to the kitchen. Her eyes strafing over both their bodies. Her gaze lingered on where Izumi had her arm wrapped around Rana’s waist, and jealousy pulsed through her again.

Lilit vowed to be a supportive friend and not cause strife. She would act happy for her friends. If she practiced that enough, maybe she’d even start to believe it.

She was startled to find Awendala cooking inside the kitchen when they came in. Lilit hadn’t expected to apparently be the last one up.

Awendala was searing some kind of meat in the skillet. It smelled like bacon, but nuttier. It looked a bit like steak. In another skillet she had some rather large eggs sizzling away.

“I thought you couldn’t cook,” Lilit accused.

“I never said I couldn’t cook. I said I couldn’t cook well. This though is pretty easy. Even a hatchling could cook this,” Awendala happily replied.

“Well, it smells delicious, muscles.” Izumi complimented.

“Thanks. If you want, you can have this one and I’ll make another.” Awendala offered and Izumi’s head nodded so fast she looked broken. “Does anyone else want any?”

Lilit and Rana quickly piped up that they’d want some. “I’ll help out if you show me what to do,” Lilit offered.

“Thanks, I’d love the help.” Awendala smiled at Lilit. Lilit blushed at the warmth in Awendala’s eyes.

She stepped forward and grabbed the carton of eggs. Awendala quickly sent her back for her eggs, which were in a slightly different, larger carton. Lilit was curious if there would be much difference. She got to frying the eggs while Awendala seared meat.

It wasn’t too long before they were all seated at the table, eating together. Izumi had finished by the time Lilit and Awendala sat down, but she stayed seated with a contented smile on her face.

Lilit took a bite of eggs. Not bad. Tasted pretty similar to the eggs she was used to. If there was a difference it was subtle enough that she didn’t pick up on it. When she cut into the meat and took a bite, she moaned in appreciation. It was succulent and flavorful. It tasted a bit like pork with a slightly nutty flavor. It was seared beautifully and was so delicious.

Awendala smiled at her as she continued to eat. Lilit wanted to take her time and savor her breakfast, but it felt like no time before she was pushing back from the table, plate empty in front of her. “That was so good, Awendala.”

“Thanks,” Awendala answered shyly.

When everyone was finished, Lilit cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “I think we ought to head into the next dungeon today. We had a lot of practice yesterday, and I feel like we’re really syncing well. I don’t know that practicing will help us get any better without hiring a trainer for us individually and as a group. But, we’re all broke.”

“I’m not,” Izumi interrupted.

“Ok, we’re almost all broke. We’re still low level, I think we’re in a good spot to take on the next dungeon. If we take too long we may end up psyching ourselves out more than helping. What does everyone else think?” Lilit asked.

Rana and Awendala looked thoughtful as they considered what Lilit said. Izumi on the other hand was practically bouncing in her seat in excitement. Her eyes darted between everyone. Lilit didn’t doubt that she was raring to get back into a dungeon. She had a feeling that Izumi craved excitement in all forms.

Rana was the first to speak. “I think it would be ok. I might want to do a little more practice as a group against different enemy types, because we don’t know what’s going to be in the next dungeon. But…I can also see what you mean about being over prepared.”

Awendala nodded along, “Yes. I feel the same way.” She let out a deep sigh. “I don’t want us to be held back by fear though. Like you said, Lilit, we’re a low enough level that we shouldn’t be too overwhelmed by anything we encounter.”

“I’m ready, let’s gooooooo!” Izumi yelled.

Everyone around the table laughed. “Yeah, let’s make sure we have enough rations and gear, and then let’s go.” Rana said.

Awendala grinned and nodded her head. “Yes, let’s do this.”

***

They decided to take the morning to make sure they were happy with their packs. They’d eat one last lunch in the inn, and then head out for the next dungeon. It was Rana’s suggestion that they eat down in the tavern one last time. Everyone else was game.

So, at lunch time they found themselves down in the tavern, once again being waited on by Sapphire. “You ladies look like you’re getting ready to head out.”

“We are. I wanted to ask, where do we enter the dungeon?” Lilit asked.

“Oh, well I’m sure you could have just asked your companion here,” Sapphire patted her hand on Izumi’s shoulder. “But you just need to head out the front door. The Crucible takes care of the rest.”

“The Crucible?” Rana asked.

“Oh, that’s just what everyone calls this place,” Sapphire waved her hand around generally. “All the dungeons and The Inn are a part of The Crucible.”

“Hmmm. Thanks, Sapphire.” Lilit said.

Sapphire’s smile lit up her face, “You’re welcome, dear. Now how about I bring you ladies out some lunch. Don’t want to start a dungeon on an empty stomach.”

They placed their orders and ate their lunch. As usual it was all delicious. Before they knew it they were up and striding toward the door. The entire tavern seemed to hold their breath as they watched the group approach the front door.

The group paused in front of it for a moment, then Lilit waved at Awendala. “Maybe you should lead the way. Just in case.”

Awendala nodded her head and reached up, gripping the door handle. She took a deep breath and then shoved the door open. She stepped through it before Lilit had a chance to see what was on the other side.

“I’ll take up the rear position. Make sure no one sneaks up on us,” Izumi volunteered.

Lilit nodded in appreciation and then stepped through the door, following Rana through. Immediately the brightness around them dimmed. Shadows creeped along the edges of the small room they found themselves in.

Awendala had stopped in the middle of the room, looking around. Rana stepped to the side, and Lilit stepped to the opposite side so they were set up in a diamond formation. Izumi thankfully maintained her position behind everyone else. The room was only maybe twenty feet across and circular. Dim lights seemed to glow around the edges of the ceiling, barely illuminating the stone tiles they stood on.

The door thudded closed behind them. But not before they heard the other patrons start talking again. The one thing that Lilit was able to clearly hear before the doors closed was the word, ‘crypt.’ She had a sneaking suspicion they were all going to be glad they picked up those backup weapons.

Everyone’s Delver went off on their arms at the same time. A notification popped up in the air when Lilit brought her arm up. It was duplicated in the air in front of the others as well. Safe zones like this will be indicated by your Delver. These areas will remain monster free and give you the opportunity to regroup, strategize, and camp without worry.

Well, that was actually pretty helpful. She had tried not to worry too much about what they would have to do if the dungeon took longer than a day to clear. But, with rooms like this that wouldn’t be a problem. Provided they appeared frequently enough to not have to worry about using whatever one they found when they found it.

“Alright, ladies. Let’s go kick this dungeon’s ass.” Rana was getting pumped up again. She twirled her axes around in her hands impatiently.

Awendala nodded over her shoulder and strode forward to the door in the far wall. There was no handle on it, so she pushed. The door slid back slowly and scraped across the ground loudly.

“Well, any thoughts of catching anything on the other side unaware are out the window.” Lilit complained.

Lilit felt something smack into her butt. She twirled around to catch Izumi smirking, “Lighten up buttercup. We’ll be ok. You’ve got me watching your gorgeous backs.” Her eyes raked up and down Lilit’s body.

Lilit turned away, blushing furiously. Fuck, she may not survive this dungeon. Not because of any monsters, but because of all the mounting sexual tension she felt between them all. Tonight promised to be eventful, especially if they were still in the dungeon and forced to camp.

The group followed Awendala as she marched through the door. The room they entered stretched into the darkness. Two rows of square columns held up the ceiling. Torches lined the walls some hundred feet away and hung from the columns. They cast small pools of light, surrounded by inky shadows. It would be easy for monsters to sneak up on them out there if they weren’t careful.

Nothing seemed to be moving in the room, but Lilit could just make out the distant sound of clicking and clacking in the darkness.

“Fuck, I think those sound like skeletons,” Rana reported.

“Everyone have your backup weapons ready,” Lilit ordered. “Let’s not meet them out in the open like this. They could come at us from any direction. If we hug one of the walls that cuts down on which directions they can come at us from.”

Awendala silently led them toward the wall to their right angling for one of the pools of light. By the time they made it over there, the sound of clicking and clacking had grown louder. Lilit could make out movement in the shadows between the columns up ahead.

Lilit moved herself so she was closest to the wall in the formation. She wanted the most distance between her and the monsters in the dark so she could direct and manage the team’s health.

“Actually Lilit, we might need you up with us with that mace of yours.” Rana suggested.

It was less than ideal, but Lilit understood Rana’s thought process. Depending on how large the mob of probably skeletons was it might be difficult with just three people killing things. Izumi’s phantasm was not very helpful at all against them.

“Izumi, if these are skeletons don’t call your phantasm. Let’s save your mana since we don’t know what’s up ahead or how fast regeneration is going to be here.” Lilit ordered.

“Sounds good, boss.” Izumi called out. She pulled her new wand out and pointed it forward.

“I see them. It’s skeletons,” Awendala confirmed quietly.

“Really, you can see that far away in the dark?” Lilit asked.

“Yeah, can’t everyone?” Awendala turned to look at them incredulously.

The rest of the group shook their heads no.

“Oh, well, yeah those are skeletons.” She turned back around to face the oncoming mob. “Looks like twenty or so. A little hard to count with the bony bastards all bunched up like that.”

Rana slipped her axes into their sheathes on her hips and pulled the quarterstaff off of her back where she’d tied it. Lilit pulled out her mace and stepped forward with the others. That many skeletons would take all of them if they wanted to avoid anyone getting overwhelmed.

Just then, Lilit could begin to make out the shape of the skeletons rushing out of the dark. Bobbing above their heads was the name Skeletal Raiders Lvl 1. Moments later they crashed upon the party like a wave. Awendala leapt forward, swinging her hammer in a huge arc that took down several skeletons at once. She let out a loud roar and the rest of the skeletons rushed in her direction, clamoring to get to her.

Lilit and Rana circled around to come at the mob from the sides. Izumi stayed behind Awendala and started blasting her wand into the mob. At first her aim was a little off and she just blew holes in ribcages and knocked off a few arms or legs here and there. It took her a few moments to adjust how she was aiming the wand so she could target skulls.

By that time Lilit was stepping forward, swinging her mace into unsuspecting skeletons. The first went down with a single swing to the head, bone shards sent splintering into nearby skeletons. This seemed to get their attention as three skeletons turned to target her all at once.

Lilit danced back, pulling her small group of skeletons away from the larger mob. Looking over, Awendala was practically mowing them down with her sweep move. Lilit just hoped she didn’t exhaust her stamina that way. Hopefully they had a chance to rest and recover after this.

The first skeleton to reach her swung its rusty axe at Lilit’s face. She lifted her arm up to black the blow and swung her mace out underneath it, shattering the skeleton at the hip. The upper body landed at her feet, and Lilit stomped on the skull with all she had. The crunch of bone shattering was satisfying, but the next skeleton had already reached her. She had to hope that her quick stomp had done the job.

This time, Lilit decided to smite the skeleton. It was undead, and she figured her holy magic would be extra harmful to it. She forced some of her mana down her arm and into her mace before swinging it at the skeleton in front of her as she skipped to the side to avoid an overhead swing of its broadsword. She hadn’t had the best aim as she was leaping out of the way, so her mace ended up striking the skeleton in the ribs, breaking off half of the bones on that side. But as the mace struck, a flash of light erupted from the point of impact and quickly spread over the skeleton. More than half the skeleton seemed to flash fry away in an instant, then it just crumbled to the ground in several pieces and stopped moving. Good to know.

By then the third skeleton had already begun to swing its sword at Lilit. She barely managed to put her shield arm in place to stop the strike. She felt her whole arm vibrate painfully as she took the strike on squarely instead of redirecting it at an angle. Instead of stepping forward, Lilit stepped back and shook out her arm to get the feeling back in her hand.

The skeleton followed after her. She ducked to the side and smashed her mace into its shoulder, breaking the sword arm off of the skeleton. With her backswing, now that it was weaponless, she aimed higher and took its head clean off in a cloud of shattered bone fragments.

Lilit looked back toward her group. She’d wandered quite a distance from everyone else as she danced away from her attackers. It looked like they were doing well though. Half of the mob lay on the floor in pieces.

She took a moment to catch her breath before she dashed back in and attacked her next victim. They went on like this for another few minutes, pulling small groups away from the larger horde of undead. Awendala crushing more than her share of skeletons as Lilit and Rana kept her from being overwhelmed and Izumi sniped from the back.

Rana was like a whirlwind with her quarterstaff. She twirled it faster than Lilit could keep track of. She’d sweep skeletons off their feet, break bones, and crush skulls with flashes of flame dancing across the metal caps of the quarterstaff. Many of the broken skeletons lying on the ground were half scorched from her attacks.

All too soon it was over. Lilit was left bent over panting. The fight hadn’t been long. In fact with their new weapons, the group had dispatched the entire hoard in less time than they had the smaller mobs in the training room.

“Well…done…ladies,” Lilit panted out. She stood herself up as her breathing slowed down. “Is everyone ok? I wasn’t able to track if anyone needed healing while we were fighting.” She looked around at the others, but everyone shook their head no.

“Should we continue on then? Or should we take a minute to rest first?” Izumi asked, looking at Lilit.

“I’m fine,” Lilit said a little angrily.

Izumi held her hands up in surrender, “I was just asking.”

“Rushing ahead before you’re ready will just get you hurt or worse,” Awendala added. “There is no shame in needing a few minutes to catch your breath and let your stamina bar recharge.”

Lilit took a look at her stamina bar. It was already above halfway again. “I really am fine. I know I’m not going to be a heavy hitter or anything. So, as long as you’re all there to help I should be ok.”

They took a few minutes to go through all the loot that had been dropped. It was a nice change of pace from the training room. The items dropped were of better quality than what had been in the bullywug swamp. The amount of gold was higher as well. They split the loot and weight the best that they could. Awendala volunteered to carry the bulk of the weight, but no one would let her since she already had on so much armor. She carried the team in a lot of ways already and it didn’t seem fair to ask her to carry more.

After that they made their way further into the large hall. They stuck to the wall, and if they moved a little more quickly between the pools of light, no one was there to judge them. A few hundred feet away they found the crypts the skeletons must have come from.

There were alcoves cut into the wall where the bodies had been laid to rest. There were a few items the skeletons had left behind. Mostly what would have been sentimental items, but there was one health potion that they gave to Izumi. So, they made sure to search all the alcoves carefully but quickly.

There were more alcoves across the hall on the opposite wall. They could see them in the pool of light cast by the torches. They debated whether or not they were worth crossing the room for. Lilit was in favor, more loot was always good. Izumi of course was game. Rana was neutral about it, and didn’t care either way. Awendala was more cautious, but eventually gave in to Izumi’s excitement.

So, they marched across the long hall and nothing bad happened. They raided the alcoves, this time not finding much of anything. Lilit and Izumi were disappointed of course.

As they were setting out they heard the distinct sound of clicking and clacking again. It appeared that another mob of skeletons was on its way to attack them. They fell back into their formation and waited by the alcoves.

A few minutes later the horde of skeletons came rushing out of the shadows. This group was a little bit larger, but the party didn’t have any problems taking them down either. Lilit found herself huffing and panting at the end of the fight. This time she didn’t argue about taking a few minutes to let her stamina refill and catch her breath.

They once again collected and split the loot. Then headed further down the hall. They ran into two more hordes of skeletons, each a little larger than the last. They also found the crypts the skeletons crawled out of. They found a stamina potion in one of them, and the entire group agreed that Lilit should carry it.

“Is anyone hurt this time?” Lilit called out while everyone started looting the latest group.

Rana lifted her arm to inspect her side. “I took a hit to my ribs, but it doesn’t look like it pierced the leather. Just a little tender.”

“Let me fix that for you. No reason to not be fully healed with me here.”

“I don’t want you to waste the mana. It’s not that bad.” Rana argued.

“It’s fine. I have tons of mana and it’s not like I’ve had to use very much of it so far.” They stared at each other silently for several moments.

“Fine.” Rana dropped her eyes. “Thank you.”

Lilit pulled out her prayer book. She flipped it open and chanted the healing prayer. A soft golden light she hadn’t been able to see in the sunlight before enveloped Rana for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, obviously without pain.

“Thank you,” this time she was much more appreciative.

“No problem,” Lilit said bashfully. “I’m here to help.”

Rana looked at her with some tenderness in her eyes. Lilit blushed and quickly turned away to help the others finish looting.

Not too much further down the hall they finally came to the exit. It was a large double door that stood some twelve feet tall, flanked with burning torches. It was layered in a dark, tarnished gold. It wasn’t until they got closer that Lilit was able to make out the designs etched into the door.

There were several layers of etchings. On the bottom were marching skeletons. Above that were several robed figures with something dripping from their bodies. Above that were rows of rotting corpses rising up. Above that were hunched creatures with large gaping maws and sharp claws. Near the top of the doors were a pair of figures. One on each door. A woman was on the right hand door, and a man on the left. Both were dripping something from their bodies like the people several rows below. On each of their heads rested crowns. At the very top of the door was a single hooded and cloaked figure. Inside the hood was a skull leering down at them.

“That gives off major creepy vibes,” Izumi commented quietly.

“No kidding,” Lilit all but whispered back.

“What do you think it means?” Awendala asked.

“I don’t know, but we need to go through them. Want to do the honors Dala?” Rana asked.

“Don’t call me that, please.”

“Sorry, no problem. Want to do the honors Awendala?”

Awendala nodded her head and silently stepped forward. She braced her hands on one of the doors and began pushing it open. This door opened silently and easily. Awendala looked a little startled at how quickly the door opened for her.

Inside was another circular room like the one they’d entered the dungeon through. The group followed behind Awendala into the room. It was lit with the same mysterious glow near the ceiling. This room though had one slight difference. On each side was a small fountain splashing with water in an alcove.

Just then everyone’s Delver alerted. Lilit pulled hers up to read the announcement. This is a safe zone. The water in safe zones is safe to drink. Rest, recharge, regroup, and strategize.

Chapter Text

“Wow, I hope the safe rooms are all this convenient. I definitely need a minute to rest and recover,” Rana complained. Her shoulders were slumped and she leaned against the wall. Everyone started taking their packs off.

“Yeah…they’re not,” Izumi sadly informed the group. “The first one seems to be like this, but that may just be because it’s a first level dungeon. For me, after the first break we got, they tended to show up every two or three rooms.”

“Ok. Well we started late in the day, do we want to press on at least to the next safe zone? Or should we camp here and clear the rest of the dungeon in the morning?” Lilit asked.

If she was being honest, she was tired, but she wanted to press further. The more they got done today, the less they’d have tomorrow. If the rooms were easy enough they might even press on to a third safe room before they stopped. But she didn’t want to try dictating what the group should do. She tried not to be that kind of person. Sometimes it was necessary, but in her experience not that often.

“I’m not that tired. I think we should keep going,” Awendala was the first to answer.

“Yeah, this is a low level dungeon, we can press harder than this,” Rana said.

“Weren’t you just complaining about needing a break?” Izumi asked her playfully.

Rana snapped her jaws at Izumi, but there was a smile on her face. “Yes, but I’m not that tired. I can keep going.”

“Same. Plus, there’s going to be more than a few rooms if it’s similar to my first dungeon. We should definitely get more done today while we feel good.” Izumi addressed the rest of the group.

Lilit silently drew everyone’s attention, “Ok, then we’re all agreed. Let’s take a fifteen minute break. Drink and refill your canteens, stretch, and then we’ll head out.” The rest of the group nodded then broke up headed to the fountains or slid down the walls to rest.

Lilit pulled out her canteen and drank deeply from it. She wandered over to an empty stretch of wall and slid her back down it until she was sitting with her legs extended away from her.

She dribbled a little bit of water down the back of her neck and sighed. She already knew from experience that she was soaked in sweat under her armor. But the cool water on her skin helped.

Awendala wandered over and sat herself down beside Lilit. Lilit looked at her out of the corner of her eye, not sure what was going on. Then she felt something soft and warm rub against the side of her hand. She looked down in time to see Awendala’s pinky finger hook over hers.

Lilit looked up at Awendala. She was facing forward, but a slight smile was tugging at her lips and a blush had spread over her cheeks. Lilit faced forward and found herself smiling too. She hooked her pinky around Awendala’s. They sat like that for several minutes.

“We should probably finish getting ready for the next part of the dungeon,” Lilit finally said.

“Wait, we still have a few minutes,” Awendala argued. Lilit wanted to argue with her, and get up and start planning the next steps. She wanted to be ready to lead the party to success. But, yeah. A part of her did really want to stay in this moment and bask for a few more minutes.

Awendala slipped her hand more fully over Lilit’s. Lilit flipped her hand over and interlaced their fingers. Neither one looked at the other.

“Ok,” Lilit whispered. They sat like that for another few minutes.

Eventually Izumi and Rana stood up. Izumi looked over and gave Lilit a sly smile, her eyebrows bouncing. Lilit snatched her hand back and started to stand up. Looking over, Awendala looked a little disappointed.

“I think it’s time to go,” Rana said oblivious to the rest of the group.

Everyone started pulling their packs back on and gearing up for the next portion of the dungeon. Lilit slipped the straps of her pack over her shoulders before turning back to Awendala. She refused to look at Lilit now, and marched straight to the door leading out of the room.

Lilit felt guilt gnaw at her as she lined up behind Rana. She thought she might have maybe been making some kind of progress with Awendala. Now she wasn’t sure if it had all been in her head, or if she’d fucked things up. She hated how little confidence she had when it came to flirting or relationships. Maybe that’s why she never had that many before she died. And it looked like nothing had changed after she died either.

The exit was much smaller and less elegant than the entrance. It was a single, normal sized door made of a dark wood. It swung open silently when Awendala pulled. Behind the door were stone stairs leading upward. Awendala looked back at everyone, shrugged her shoulders and started climbing.

The stairs spiraled around counterclockwise. There was a wall along the inner curve of the stairs, so it was impossible to see how far they rose up. No landing or doors led off of the stairs for several turns. Lilit was starting to breath heavily by the time they reached the top of the stairs. There a landing so small they couldn’t all fit on it stood in front of a plain wooden door.

Awendala looked around and met everyone’s eyes before she nodded to herself and pushed the door open. The rest of the group rushed behind her. The space they entered was empty. A hallway stretched to the left. In front of them stood a grand staircase leading up to the next floor, stone balustrade lined the upper floor landing. To the right was a set of ornate, wooden double doors. The ceiling stretched high above them, crystal chandeliers hanging down shedding candlelight on the group.

There were several small tables with candles burning in fancy holders on either side of the door they came through. Lit candelabra were set on small tables going down the hall to the left.

“Which way do we want to go?” Awendala asked. Her head swiveled around the area, keeping an eye on everything.

“Split—” Izumi started.

“We are not splitting up.” Lilit interrupted.

“Fine,” Izumi dragged out the syllable for several seconds.

Rana smirked, “I wouldn’t have agreed either. We already have a small party, and some of us are squishier than others.” She glanced over at Lilit.

The decision was made for them as the doors to the right were thrown open. Standing in the middle of the doors was a tall, thin man. He was dressed in fine clothing and a cruel smile adorned his features. Above his head floated Vampire Lvl. 2.

“Welcome! Let me—”

Rana interrupted him by throwing one of the candleholders, still holding a flaming candle, into his chest. It knocked the wind out of him and caught the edge of his shirt on fire. He immediately started beating at his shirt to snuff out the fire.

“Wow, you really don’t like to listen to monsters,” Lilit calmly remarked to Rana.

“I hate monologuing,” Rana shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, what’s there to know? We’re in a dungeon. Kill all the monsters. That’s literally our only job. I don’t need to hear his life story for that.”

“Fucking murder hobo,” Lilit mumbled under her breath.

Rana laughed, “I don’t know what that is, but probably.” She started marching toward the vampire who was still flailing around. She muttered something under her breath as she clinked her axes together. Flames erupted along the edge and she dashed forward.

The vampire caught Rana coming at the last moment and ducked out of the way with impossible speed. Instead of burying her axe in his chest, she only caught the edge of his arm. The edges of the shirt and the skin underneath were blackened.

“Foul wench! I will rip you apart and feast on your very soul,” the vampire howled.

“Rana, let Awendala engage him. Fall back,” Lilit shouted. “Izumi, summon your phantasm, fighter mode. Awendala…fuck him up.”

Awendala lunged forward, much faster than her bulk suggested she could. Her shield was leading her charge. It caught the vampire flatfooted and she slammed into him, sending him sliding across the polished wooden floor on his back. The flame on his shirt finally died out. It left it a gaping, charred ruin. Underneath his flesh smoked.

Izumi’s phantasm sprung up behind the vampire and immediately fell onto the prone creature. Its razor sharp claws flashed out and blood sprayed through the air. Rana took advantage of the vampire being attacked to leap forward herself and bury both axes into his chest.

A wet, coughing laugh erupted from the downed vampire, unnerving Lilit. The vampire grabbed ahold of the phantasm’s arms as they were swiping at him and pushed them away from himself.

Rana seemed to only get mad that she hadn’t managed to kill the vampire and with two swings took off the vampire’s arms at the elbow. The phantasm fell upon the vulnerable vampire while Rana began hacking into his body. It took several moments of bloody savagery before the body stopped laughing, then stopped moving. Blood pooled around Rana and the phantasm. It had sprayed and splattered all over Rana’s face and arms. The front of her armor was soaked red.

If the blood and bits didn’t disappear with the bodies, Rana would definitely end up with bloody, matted fur by the end of that debacle. Awendala and Lilit stood frozen several steps away. Izumi had an arrow knocked, but not drawn.

“Or, I guess Rana can go berserker. That worked this time.” Lilit tried to lessen the tension as everyone stared at Rana. “Maybe next time we work as a team?”

“Oh, uh sure. Sorry,” Rana sounded a little sheepish. Like she got caught sneaking a cookie, not like she’d just brutally killed someone. Yeesh. Friggin’ murder hobos.

The body and all the blood disappeared, leaving a small pouch that Rana bent down to pick up. “Oh, cool. Vampire fangs. I bet these will sell well to the apothecary.”

Lilit shuddered and stepped around her. Looking into the room the vampire had come from, she found a large ballroom. Inside there were several bodies lying strewn across the floor, dressed in finery, small pools of deep red blood surrounding them. Three figures were crouched around a final victim. The woman in their arms was breathing fast and shallow, her chest barely rising.

The three vampires looked up as Lilit stepped into the ballroom. “Hey!” She yelled, not sure what else to say. It was enough though. They dropped their latest victim on the floor and spread out to stalk toward Lilit.

The rest of the party stepped into the room around her. “Ok, for real this time, Awendala gets their attention then we focus on one vampire at a time. Based on how long it took to kill the first one, this is not going to be pretty. Izumi be prepared to have the phantasm take over as tank if Awendala starts to flag. Everyone got it?”

Everyone chimed their agreement. Awendala stepped past the rest of the group. She banged her broadsword against her shield, taunting the vampires. The rushed forward faster than anyone could react. Two angled toward Awendala and the last, a woman ran at Izumi.

The phantasm flickered from behind Izumi to in front of the vampire’s charge in an instant. At the same time there was a deafening crash as the other two crashed into Awendala’s shield.

By pure happenstance and muscle memory reflexes, Awendala managed to bury her broadsword into one of the vampire’s guts as it slammed into her. Far from slowing the vampire down, it seemed to anger him and he began gnashing his teeth and clawing at Awendala as he climbed further along her blade.

The other vampire shoved along Awendala’s side, keeping her circling and off-balance. As the first vampire made it to the hilt he reached forward, trying to latch onto Awendala’s throat. She surrendered her sword by shoving it and the vampire backward several feet. Then she unleashed a shield bash into the other vampire, sending it stumbling back several feet. That gave her the opportunity to pull out her hammer and ready herself for the next attack.

While that was happening, Izumi’s phantasm tore into its vampire. She let out an ear piercing shriek as she tried to latch onto the phantasm. Not being a being of flesh and blood though, there was no blood for her to drain. The phantasm was slowed down as she assaulted it, but she was also danger-close and it focused entirely on digging through her chest to her heart, oblivious to any damage it took.

Izumi started chanting her own incantations to buff the phantasm. Its arms seemed to suddenly speed up. Rana was anything but idle during this time, but had to close the distance like a normal being. Her axes were still flaming as she spun past the vampire in the phantasm’s arms. She struck out and slammed her axe into the back of the vampire’s neck. Apparently she severed the vampire’s spine as she just went completely limp and crashed to the ground.

The skin was already starting to repair itself on the vampire’s neck and chest as Lilit looked at it. “Head or heart. Take off their heads or pierce their hearts. Otherwise the regenerate.” Lilit shouted to everyone.

Rana looked back, nodded and then casually decapitated the vampire at her feet. The body stopped moving, and the wounds stopped healing as a pool of blood spread from its mangled body.

Izumi finally had her bow up, the fight so far had been lightning fast. She pulled back and let an arrow bury itself into the vampire that still had a sword impaling him. The vampire staggered to the side, but still focused on Awendala. The phantasm flickered away and appeared behind him. It lashed out into the vampire’s back, finally drawing his attention away from Awendala. Now she could focus on a singular attacker.

Awendala’s swings with her hammer were too slow to be much of a threat to the vampire. He danced in and out of her range with glee. He had already left a deep gash on her side, between plates of armor. Lilit noticed and pulled out her prayer book. She chanted her healing prayer as fast as she could and watched a golden glow infuse Awendala’s being. The vampire happened to be reaching toward Awendala and touched the healing glow. His fingers immediately blackened and smoked. He flung himself back some twenty feet. He was no longer smiling gleefully, now he was seething as he stared at Lilit over Awendala’s shoulder.

Lilit was stunned for only a moment. She started chanting her healing prayer at the same time the vampire took off for her from across the room, this time focusing on the vampire as the target. After all, the spell never specified it could only be used on friendly party members. The vampire was closing fast, and she raised her shield as he got close. The last line left her lips right as the vampire clamped down on her shield and started shoving it downward to expose her throat.

As soon as the last syllable left her lips, the vampire was covered with a much brighter golden light than Lilit had seen before. Inside that glow though the vampire smoked and burst into flame. He screamed a tortured scream that bounced off the walls of the ballroom. He fell back and thrashed on the floor, attempting to put the fire raging across his body out.

Lilit shoved a smite down the length of her mace and waited for the vampire to still enough that she could hit him. As soon as he slowed down, the last of the flames flickering away, Lilit stepped forward and slammed her mace into his chest.

A bright light flashed where the mace met his charred body. The mace seemed to smash through the vampire like wet tissue. When she could see again, Lilit’s mace was buried deep inside the vampire’s chest, and everything inside was a crispy, mushy mess. This was much more gruesome than anything she’d had to participate in before. She had a feeling this dead vampire would star in her nightmares for some time.

She was able to look around and see that all the vampires had been dealt with before she turned to the side and threw up. She felt her Delver alert on her arm, but ignored it as she emptied her stomach.

When nothing else would come up, she stood up and looked at her party. Her eyes snagged on Awendala who was looking at her with sympathy. Lilit couldn’t help herself, she left her mace buried in the vampire’s chest cavity and ran into Awendala’s arms.

Awendala wrapped her arms tightly around Lilit. She murmured soft, comforting noises that Lilit couldn’t make out over her own quiet sobbing. She leaned into Awendala’s touch and let herself be comforted.

“You know those things aren’t real. They disappear after we kill them. They’re just manifestations of the entropy or whatever.” Rana explained. There was tense silence where only Lilit’s sniffles could be heard. “What? I was just trying to help.” Lilit could just imagine Awendala glaring at Rana.

“That’s so not how you help, sweetie.” Izumi muttered.

“Whatever.” Rana stomped closer. She awkwardly dropped her hand on top of Lilit’s head and patted it several times. “There. There.”

“Oh, my goddess, I think you’re making it worse,” Izumi laughed.

Lilit found herself laughing quietly. She wiped her eyes before stepping back from Awendala. She refused to meet her eyes and turned toward the other two. “I know all that stuff, Rana. Seeing that though isn’t still just as viscerally disturbing. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“Technically, you still haven’t,” Rana countered. “These aren’t strictly people. They’re conjured monsters. They didn’t even exist before we stepped into this dungeon.”

“How do you know that?” Lilit asked. It made an odd amount of sense. She wanted to believe it with all her heart, because that would mean what they were doing wasn’t wrong on any level. She wasn’t invading people’s homes and killing them. It was so much easier when the monsters looked like monsters.

“It’s what makes the most sense. We’re not in any actual universe, right?”

“That’s what the little sparky thing said anyway,” Awendala agreed.

“So, nothing could be just ‘living their life’ in here. Look at us, none of us are living normal lives.” Rana argued.

“What about like Slokenra and Sapphire?” Izumi asked. Lilit was a little ashamed to admit that she hadn’t even considered what life was like, or how the people that serviced The Inn came to be there.

“I’m not sure that they’re any more real than the monsters,” Rana said. “Unless they’re like retired adventurers I guess. But it makes more sense considering how many there are that at least most of them are manifestations of the gods or entropy or whatever too.”

They all stood around quietly for several minutes. That was a lot deeper than any of them probably intended to get today.

Lilit suddenly looked up from inside Awendala’s embrace. “Wait, did anyone check on that woman they were feeding on? She was still—”

“She’s gone,” Izumi interrupted. I checked as soon as the fighting was over. “Whether they’re manifestations or not, this dungeon is bit fucked. I haven’t heard anything about there being anyone but adventurers and monsters in the dungeons before.”

They split up and went to grab the loot bags. The bodies of the victims had not disappeared. Lilit went to get the one next to her vomit to spare anyone else from it. She felt eyes on her and looking around, caught Awendala looking away as soon as they made eye contact.

It was about that time that Lilit’s Delver sounded again. She remembered hearing the chime a few minutes ago, so she pulled it up to check. Congratulations. You’ve leveled up to Level 2. New move learned: Burning Hands.

“Oh, hey guys. I leveled up. I got a new move too.”

Everyone else stopped and lifted their own Delvers. Awendala and Rana had leveled up as well. Izumi was still a level two. Rana learned a move called curse, while Awendala learned breath weapon. The look on Awendala’s face when she read that off made it seem like the move had a lot more significance for her than just a random moveset. Lilit decided to ask her about it tonight, whether they were in the suite or more likely, bunking down in the dungeon.

“Oh, curse should be effective against the vampires. It slows down the target and causes slow poisoning damage.” Rana informed everyone.

“Cool,” Izumi laughed.

The group gathered together and set off back out of the ballroom. Thankfully there were no other doors off of it, so they could cross off this half of the hallway.

“Which way from here?” Lilit asked the group.

Chapter Text

They agreed to head down the hall opposite the ballroom before venturing upstairs. It felt too much like leaving the enemy at your back to skip it, even temporarily. The lighting was dim with just the candles on the small side tables. There were no windows or other light as they moved down the stretch of hallway.

After a dozen feet or so, doors began appearing on either side of the hall. They stopped in front of the first one. Everyone looked around at each other.

“Looks like we’ll need to clear each room. I’m not sure if triggering anything or anyone will draw more attackers from other rooms, so Izumi is on overwatch. Keep an eye down the hallway while we check the rooms.” Lilit began quietly organizing the party. “I’ll stand to the side and throw the door open. Awendala, you go in shield first. Then Rana will follow you, and I’ll follow her.”

Everyone nodded their heads. Awendala and Rana lined up to the opposite side of the door. Lilit felt a little like a swat team getting ready to raid a house. The others seemed to have more experience doing this, because she hadn’t thought to not stand directly in front of the door, but it made sense. Everyone deferred to her decision making anyway, which was a little surprising and a pleasant change from her time on Earth.

Lilit counted down on her hand so Awendala could see. Once she hit zero, she leaned forward, twisted the knob on the door and flung it open. It swung silently open. Awendala darted forward to dash into the room. She made it about a step into the doorway before she was thrown out of the room with a loud ringing peal as something struck her shield hard enough to fling her out of the room and put a dent in her shield.

Lilit looked around the doorframe. Hanging in front of the door, and swinging back and forth was a log about eighteen inches across and several feet long suspended by a set of braces and levers. If Awendala had not gone in with her shield in front that would have very likely caved in her breastplate enough to crack her ribs at the very least. If anyone else in the party had gone through, it would have probably been lethal.

Nothing else seemed to be moving in the room, which was shrouded in darkness. Rana leaned forward and assessed the situation before she darted into the room. Lilit followed behind once she saw Awendala beginning to gather herself to stand up. She’d take a look at her in a minute. First they needed to make sure there was nothing else threatening inside the room they were all standing in front of.

It was too dark to really see anything but the vague shape of a large bed was outlined from the light coming in the door. Nothing moved. All Lilit could hear was her own breathing and pounding heart.

She turned back toward the door just as Izumi snagged a candelabra off a small table in the hallway. She handed it to Lilit who nodded her thanks. Turning around, she held the light above her head in order to light up more of the room.

There was a large four poster bed, but the curtains were all pushed back. There were a few wardrobes and vanities around the outer walls of the room. Nothing else stood out to Lilit. Rana ducked down and checked under the bed. Fairly quickly she was back on her feet and shaking her head. The room was empty.

By the time Rana and Lilit cleared the room, Awendala had struggled to her feet and was examining her shield. Lilit placed the candelabra down on the table by the door and walked over and laid her hand on Awendala. “Are you ok?” She asked.

“Yeah. Nothing hurt but a little pride.” Awendala smiled shyly at Lilit.

Lilit turned around to find Izumi on her hands and knees examining the doorframe. Rana was standing out of the way and rummaging in her pack. A moment later she stood up triumphantly with a small, wrapped torch. She lit it with what looked like a small bic lighter. Thankfully the shops had had lighters and no one had to rely on flint and steel or anything else archaic for fire starting.

“Here, Lilit you carry this. Awendala can see in the dark, and I want both my hands free. You should be coming in fast enough behind us that it won’t make much difference for me.” Rana handed Lilit the torch.

“Thanks,” Lilit grabbed the torch.

Izumi stood up and brushed herself off. “Looks like a simple tripwire trap. Should be able to disarm it by snipping the tripwire next time. It’s also set to sit flush with the door when it’s closed so the door doesn’t set it off.”

“Ok. Let’s check doors for tripwires before opening anymore. Does anyone know if cutting the tripwire will activate the trap or disarm it?” Lilit asked the group.

“Usually disarm, but I don’t think any of us have wire snips or even scissors. So, using either my axes, or Awendala’s sword would probably be fifty-fifty whether we disarm or set it off.” Rana informed everyone.

“As long as the door is closed when it happens, that should mitigate some of the impact, depending on the type of trap I imagine. And, next time we’re back, I’ll look into picking up some wire snips or something for next time. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we run into traps.” Lilit straightened up. “Let’s check the next room,” she pointed across the hall.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Izumi remained in overwatch, the others stacked on either side of the door. Rana crouched down near the bottom of the door and ran her hand up and down, trying to detect any tripwires. She didn’t seem to find anything down at the bottom, so she slowly moved her hand up the door toward the top. About two thirds of the way up she stopped. She ran her fingers around in a circle a few times. Rana stepped back drew her axes and ran one of their edges along the door near where she seemed to detect a trip wire.

She leaned in and shook her head, “Have to do this the loud way. Also, this way is more likely to set off the trap. Stay back.” With just her arm in front of the door, Rana reared back and hacked into the door.

Everyone froze, listening for sounds of a trap going off. Though no one knew what to expect. Rana leaned around the doorframe again and took another look at the door. She turned to Lilit and gave her a thumbs up along with a goofy grin and stepped back behind Awendala.

Lilit took a fortifying breath, leaned forward. She turned the knob and threw the door open. Awendala once again rushed through the doorway, shield first. This time she made it into the room. Immediately there was shouting and the sound of metal on metal rang through the air. Rana was next in the room, and Lilit came in hot on her heels.

Inside the room were two vampires engaged with Awendala in a dark corner of the room. Lilit moved forward to add light to the situation while looking around to make sure nothing else was going to jump out at them.

The rest of the room was arranged similarly to the room across the hall. Large four poster bed in the middle of the room, a few wardrobes and such. Hanging above the doorway was a weird set of pipes set up with a large container of some kind attached to the other end. Lilit wasn’t sure what would have come out of the pipe, but she was sure they wouldn’t have liked it.

Lilit turned back around as Rana drew one of the vampires away from Awendala. Her axes were once again aflame since it seemed to be a good deterrent against the creatures. The vampire was barely keeping ahead of her flurry of blows. A few charred lines across her shirt indicated where Rana had already gotten close.

Lilit circled around. She caught Rana’s eye and hoped she’d realize what she had planned. Lilit forced magic down into her mace once again. When the vampire leapt back to avoid a reckless swing from Rana that left her temporarily open, the vampire seemed to zero in on the ‘mistake’ and lost her focus on the rest of the room.

Lilit stepped forward before the vampire could strike back at Rana. Her mace sliced through the air as she aimed for the vampire’s head. As she struck a bright flash of light lit up the room. It staggered the other vampire in front of Awendala. Allowing her to shove her sword into his chest. Lilit hoped it got him right in the heart. Like before, the smite seemed to add extra oomph to Lilit’s strike. Instead of simply smashing a deep dent into the vampire’s head, it tore completely through it, spraying blood, brains, and pieces of skull across Rana. There was nothing left of the vampire’s head above the jaw. And that was currently on fire as the body dropped like its strings were cut.

Looking over, Lilit saw Awendala’s vampire slide to the floor off the end of her blade. Just as she was about to celebrate their quick victory, Izumi called out. “Vamps in the hall!”

Everyone rushed out of the room to join Izumi. One of the doors from a little further up the hall was hanging open and several vampires had apparently rushed out. Lilit could see one was littered with several arrows sticking out of his torso. Izumi’s phantasm was holding back the three vampires while Izumi drew yet another arrow from her quiver.

“Awendala, take over as tank. Izumi be prepared to switch your phantasm to fighter mode. Let’s focus on one vamp at a time.” Lilit shouted hurried orders.

Awendala nodded her head and stepped around the mob of vampires. With a deep, sweeping cut across their backs she drew two of their attentions away from Izumi’s phantasm briefly. She roared to pull their attention full onto her.

Izumi shouted at her phantasm. Rana rushed forward. Lilit hung back to see where she would be needed most. Awendala was easily keeping the attention of the two vampires with quick jabs of her sword around her shield. She interspersed it with hitting them with said shield. It wasn’t a full shield bash move, but it was still effective in keeping the vampires engaged and enraged as she backed away from everyone else. Rana and the phantasm were keeping their vampire spinning in circles lashing out as he took attacks from all sides. Izumi helped out by firing arrows into his back when he turned away from her.

Lilit sidled closer to the middle between Awendala’s group and the lone vampire. Lilit kept an eye on everyone, looking for anyone getting hurt that she could help. Or someone she could put a ward on to give them some breathing room. She pulled her prayer book from its pocket after putting away her mace and switching the torch to her other hand.

One of the vampires attacking Awendala managed to reach around her shield and raked his claws across her armor. It didn’t penetrate the armor, but the blow knocked Awendala off balance. Lilit flipped open her book and quickly chanted a ward around Awendala. She took a few more hits, keeping her unbalanced in the increased ferocity of the attacks. When the ward sprang up around her, Awendala was able to reset her stance and reengage her vampires.

Lilit looked over to Rana and Izumi. She was just in time to see the phantasm slash through the vampire’s spine. He stumbled to his knees and Rana was quick to remove his head. The body dropped over to the side.

Everyone looked up at Awendala just in time to see her breath a jet of fire onto the two vampires in front of her. They both went up like dry kindling. One threw itself on top of Awendala’s shield, clawing toward her as it withered in the flames. The other took off at a dead sprint and ran directly into the wall a few feet away. It bounced off the wall and Rana rushed forward to remove its head.

The final vampire had been quickly losing control of its limbs as it slumped over and slid off Awendala’s shield. It collapsed onto the ground and burned for another few seconds before all the fires seemed to wither away at once, leaving nothing but the loot bags around the circles burnt into the stone.

“Wow,” whispered Izumi. And Lilit couldn’t help but echo the sentiment. That was definitely new. Lilit assumed it was Awendala’s new move she’d received when leveling up. It was quite powerful.

Lilit did a quick check on everyone. Rana had gained herself a small but deep slash across her thigh. She seemed to barely notice it until Lilit pointed it out. She quickly healed it and the group collected all the loot and moved on.

Everyone took a look at the trap that Lilit had noticed in the room. After a little experimentation, they managed to safely trigger it from several feet away down the hallway. Turns out the pipe had been designed to siphon oil out of the reservoir above it. It was ignited as it passed the end of the pipe, creating a very hot burning fire trap. Everyone was happy to have not found this type of trap the first time.

The next few rooms were empty. No booby traps, no vampires, just empty guest rooms. All the checking made for slow going though. The hall wasn’t as long as it had seemed at the entrance thankfully. It took a sharp turn to the left and continued for another few doors. Before ending at a set of double doors.

The first door they came to after the turn in the hall was booby trapped. This one armed with a large stone set above the door. They set the trap off before anyone would walk under it into the room. Thankfully it was clear of any vampires.

The next room contained another three vampires, this time without a booby trap on the door. Awendala rushed in first as always. It had been agreed beforehand that in the small rooms, Awendala would not use her breath weapon move. She engaged all three vampires with her sword and shield.

Lilit watched in awe as Rana suddenly sped up and was able to match the vampires’ speed. She dipped as her vampire tried to dodge, managing to slice right through one of his arms. This was apparently distracting enough that she was able to quickly remove his head. She moved onto her second vampire and landed her first strike before Rana staggered and returned to normal speed. All told, her increased speed had lasted maybe ten seconds.

Lilit noticed her stagger as the vampire looked like it was about to lunge at Rana. So, Lilit took a page out of Rana’s book and threw the torch she had in one hand right at the vampire’s head. Since she was throwing left handed and she was right handed though, the torch only glanced across the vampire’s hip before sliding further along the floor. Thankfully it was enough to distract the vampire long enough for Rana to wade back into the fight.

Lilit continued to hold back as a reserve. Without the other vampires to force her attention to constantly shift, Awendala was able to quickly dispatch her own vampire by shield bashing her into the wall and stabbing her through the heart as she rebounded. The vampire let out a little whimper as it slid off her blade. That allowed Awendala to turn and assist Rana.

Lilit wasn’t sure if it was because the rooms were smaller and therefore the vampires didn’t have as much room to maneuver, or because of their own increase in level, or their adjustment of tactics, but fighting these vampires was proving much easier than the vampires in the ballroom. It wasn’t much longer before the group was going through loot bags again.

The rest of the rooms were empty. There was only one more trap, this one another log set to swing down into the doorway. It was set off when Rana tried to disarm it, cracking the middle of the door and sending splinters flying into the hallway. Finally they came to the double doors. This time they would all go through together. Lilit would more easily be able to focus on the overall tactics of the group and keep an eye on everyone during the battle. She hoped it would be enough.

Throwing open both doors at once, Awendala strode into the room like she owned it. Shield high, with just the top of her head from the eyes up peaking above the top. Rana dashed in behind her and immediately spread out to the side. Izumi and her phantasm spread out to the other side. Lilit brought up the rear.

Inside the room was a set of baths. The air smelled coppery and it took a minute for Lilit to notice that the pools weren’t full of water. They appeared to be full of blood. The room was eerily silent. Nothing moved.

There were three pools, two smaller ones flanking a large center pool that stretched for several dozen yards. Lilit’s head was on a swivel. She kept looking around the room, looking for the trap that they were obviously about to trigger. There was no way this large, seemingly important room was going to be empty and clear. But there wasn’t anywhere for anyone to hide that she could see.

The rest of the group slowed down and started looking around as well. They had the same instincts that she did. Something was off about this place.

Rana kicked at the ground in frustration. Something small went flying from under her boot. Lilit didn’t track its flight, but she heard it hit the liquid in the center pool, sending out ripples across its surface.

No one said anything. They all just looked at the blood rippling in the pool. So, they all noticed the addition of a new ripple further away. This one moved and began slowly tracking toward the front of the pool. It looked like the bow of a boat or something pushing water ahead of itself as it moved through. As the ripples neared the close end of the pool, everyone gripped their weapons in tight fists. They tried to prepare themselves for what was coming.

Lilit took a moment to look around the other pools. Thankfully they were both still. She looked back in time to see a head rise out of the blood. Red running down his face and clumping together his hair. The body continued to rise from the blood as he apparently mounted the steps leading out of the pool. Behind him the ripple continued and more heads broke the surface.

A moment later, five vampires were thigh deep in the blood pool, climbing out in a wedge formation with black, hungry eyes. “Awendala, light ‘em up!” Lilit called out. This was not the time to save up abilities. That was more vampires than they’d had to deal with at once before this point. She didn’t want to take any chances.

Instead of answering, Awendala simply breathed in a deep breath and then breathed out a swath of fire. The first three vampires immediately went up in flames. The final two, flanking on the outermost edges of the wedge managed to avoid the flames long enough to leap out of the way. Awendala kept the flames up for several seconds as the three bodies writhed in pain. They tried to rush out of the water toward the group, only to fall several feet away, barely out of the pool.

The final two seemed to think better about coming for Awendala, implying that the mob rules from her video game days wasn’t entirely faithful. One vampire targeted Izumi and rushed toward her, jaw hanging open, clawed fingers extended. He was met by the phantasm before he could get close. The other vampire lunged at Rana, who met him head on with flaming axes.

Awendala turned toward Izumi, presumably to assist. Before she had taken more than a step, the phantasm and Izumi had fought the vampire to a standstill and were backing him up toward the smaller pool on her side. Awendala turned around toward Rana just in time for her to witness Rana remove the arm from her vampire at the shoulder. His neck and torso caught fire.

Awendala turned to look at Lilit and shrugged. Their team members seemed to have everything well in hand. Lilit shrugged back unhelpfully. She was used to it. But she kept an eye on both fights. They ended a few seconds later. First Rana buried her axe in the center of her vampire’s chest. Flames shot out of his mouth and ears as her axe seemed to light his insides on fire. He collapsed moments later as she pulled her axe out of his chest. Izumi not too long after shot an arrow through her vampire’s eye while her phantasm held him still in a bear hug. He dropped like a bag of bricks as soon as the phantasm released him.

Because Lilit was paying attention to everything around them, she was the first to notice the ripples start up in the other two pools. “Ladies, back in formation. Movement in the outer pools,” she called out. Making a quick decision she ordered, “Everyone shift right, let’s move closer and focus on this one first. It’ll give us an extra few seconds before the other pool reaches us.”

The group shuffled to their right. The stopped in front of the pool as vampire heads began to rise up out of the blood. This time only three vampires were coming out of the pool, but with a quick glance Lilit confirmed that the far pool on the left also had three vampires emerging. Unless they evened the odds quickly they’d be facing six vampires at once.

“Awendala, can you light them up again?” Lilit called out.

Awendala shook her head, “Nope, still in cooldown for another few minutes. ‘Breath Weapon’ has a five minute cooldown.”

Well shit. “Izumi, swing your phantasm around and kite the other group away from us if you can. We’ll join you as soon as these three are dealt with.”

“Got it, boss,” Izumi saluted and with a sharp command hurried away with her phantasm in tow. Lilit threw the torch behind them. It wasn’t doing much good in this lighted room and she was needed now as more than a light source and leadership. It was time to once again wade in mace first.

As an added precaution, Lilit cast a quick ward around Izumi who would be the most isolated and hard for Lilit to track. She moved up behind Rana right as Awendala lunged forward in a perfect strike that speared the first vampire on the end of her sword. She withdrew her blade and leapt behind her shield too quickly for Lilit to see if it was a killing blow.

The other two vampires rushed past the leading vampire to attack Awendala. The third vampire stumbled for a few more steps and then seemed to gather itself to join the fray. So, not a killing blow unfortunately. It was enough though to allow Rana to close with it and draw it to the side. Lilit followed after them as quickly as she could. They were moving very quickly though and with all the space it was hard for Rana to corner it so that Lilit could be helpful.

Lilit decided that instead of chasing them, she’d focus on her own vampire and pull some of the pressure from Awendala. Sending another smite into the end of her mace, Lilit strode forward and swung with all her might at the back of one of the vampires’ heads. She didn’t know if the vampire saw her and tried to dodge, or if it was naturally moving to get a better angle on Awendala, but the results were the same. Lilit’s strike wiffed through the air. Her smite faded from the end of her mace.

Lilit found herself turned away from the fight from the force of her swing. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that one of Awendala’s vampires noticed her and jumped straight at Lilit.

Lilit crouched and threw her shield arm in front of her face as she tried to turn her body in time to intercept the vampire. She didn’t see it, hiding behind her shield, but she felt it as the vampire sailed over her, only the smallest part of him slamming into her shield as he did. It was enough to bowl her over though.

She did her best to try and roll with the blow, but she’d never even practiced the move. She ended up stuck on her back, sliding along the floor for another foot or two. Before she could gather herself and get up, the vampire was on her.

He picked her up by the sides of her leather breastplate, and then slammed her down onto the stony floor. Her head bounced off the stone and she saw stars. He bounced her once, twice, three times before he left her dizzy and very concussed on the floor.

Lilit waited for the killing blow to come, for him to tear out her throat with his fangs. Drink her blood and drain her like a caprisun. But it never came, and Lilit couldn’t in her rattled state figure out why. She also couldn’t figure out how to get any of her limbs to work and to get the room to stop spinning long enough for her to stand back up. Her friends needed her.

Funny how now, with an obvious concussion that had left her reeling, as she waited to die, that she realized that Awendala, Rana, and Izumi were in fact her friends. They weren’t just a party delving dungeons together. When had that happened?

Suddenly a shadow cast itself over Lilit. Several Awendala’s were standing over her. And all of them were pissed. She couldn’t see any of their faces through their helmet, but all of their bodies radiated their rage so clearly. They were also practically coated from head to toe in blood. That just made them that much scarier.

“Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Awendala’s voice echoed eerily in her mind.

Lilit couldn’t find words, so she tried to nod her head. That was a mistake. She found herself a moment later, on her side, clenched into the fetal position as she emptied her stomach once again today. Awendala would never want to kiss her at this rate was the only thought that seemed to make it through all the pain and dizziness.

She felt Awendala place something over her body before she stomped loudly away. There was the sound of roaring, yelling, then the wet sound of metal leaving a body, followed by screaming, and finally silence.

Lilit didn’t know how long she waited there, but eventually the darkness that had been creeping in around the edges of her vision caught up with her. She was pulled under the darkness where the pain couldn’t reach her.

Chapter Text

Lilit woke suddenly feeling like she was drowning. A bitter taste coating her tongue. She sat up, coughing hard enough to rock her entire body. When the fit finally passed, she was left panting, sitting on the floor. Awendala sat crouched in front of her, her helmet off and a worried expression on her face. In one hand she held an empty potion bottle.

Awendala reached forward and placed one gloved hand on the side of Lilit’s face. She felt herself leaning involuntarily into the caress. A small smile played across Awendala’s lips.

“Are you ok now?” Rana asked from off to the side. Lilit hadn’t even seen her crouched nearby. Looking around, Izumi was kneeling on her other side.

“I think so. What happened? The last thing I remember was that vampire slamming me against the ground over and over again.” Lilit asked.

“Well, as soon as you went down, this big lug,” Izumi gestured toward Awendala, “threw the vampire she was dealing with back into the blood pool with a shield bash from hell. Then she grabbed the vamp on top of you and practically ripped him in half with her hands.” She looked in awe at Awendala.

“Next thing I know, she’s laying her shield over your body and then she went berserker on the rest of the vampires.” Rana added to the story. “She took that great big sword of hers and just started annihilating vampires left and right.” Rana mimed swinging a sword two handed in big sweeping arcs.

“It wasn’t like that guys.” Awendala protested.

“Umm, yeah it was exactly like that,” Izumi interrupted. Awendala hung her head. Her hand fell off of Lilit’s face.

“Yeah, I just went behind her and finished off the vampires laying in pieces all over the floor. It was so hot.” Rana looked hungrily at Awendala now.

“And I thought I had problems” Izumi said. “Who gets hot and bothered from a massacre?”

“What? I’m not ‘hot and bothered.’” Rana protested.

“Uh huh.”

“Anyway,” Awendala looked reprovingly at the other two, “when we cleared the room I came back and gave you my healing potion since we couldn’t wake you up to do your prayer.”

Lilit looked around at her friends and smiled. “Thanks. All of you.”

Rana and Izumi clapped her on the back and then stood up to go through the loot bags. Awendala and Lilit stayed where they were for a few more moments, doing their best to not stare at the other. Finally Awendala stood up and offered Lilit a hand up.

Lilit grabbed hold of Awendala’s hand and felt herself pulled gently to her feet. “Thank you.”

Awendala nodded her head and then bent down to pick up her helmet and shield. She readied herself once more for the dungeon and then the two of them turned to help the others.

Izumi called out a few minutes later, “Hey, I found something that might be important.” Everyone else stopped what they were doing and headed over to Izumi. “There’s a key.” She gestured to a large brass key sitting amongst the loot. “We haven’t gotten one of those before. What do you think it goes to?”

“I don’t know,” Rana answered. She stood up and looked around the room. “There aren’t any chests or anything down here.”

“Maybe it’s for something upstairs?” Lilit guessed. “We haven’t seen any locked chests or doors so far.”

“That’s the only thing I can think of,” Awendala agreed.

Izumi pocketed the key with a shrug and everyone else returned to sorting through the loot that had dropped. Ten minutes later they were all ready to go again.

Awendala led the group back down the hall and up the stairs. A deep red, plush carpet quieted their steps as they ascended to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a deep landing, covered in similar carpeting. The landing stretched about a dozen yards in each direction. There was a singular door set in the wall across from the stairs.

They set up in their formation once again. Lilit stood off to one side while Awendala and Rana stacked up on the other. Izumi stood off to the side and away from the wall. She was in a good place to see past the door when it opened without being in front of it, as well as having most of the stairs covered. Her phantasm hovered at the top of the stairs, directly in front of the door.

Lilit went to turn the knob to throw the door open, but was stopped in her tracks when the door was locked. Looking down, there was a keyhole under the knob the same brass as the key they’d just found. She turned to catch Izumi’s attention, “Looks like we might have found what that key goes to.”

Izumi nodded her head and pulled the key out of her pocket as she walked over to the door. She handed the key to Lilit and then stepped quickly back into position without saying anything.

Lilit carefully inserted the key and gave it a twist. She tried the doorknob again, but it was still locked. What the fuck? She glared angrily at the door.

“Try turning it the other way,” Awendala whispered across the doorway to her.

Lilit rolled her eyes at her own foolishness. She quickly reinserted the key and gave it a twist in the other direction. This time she felt some tension against the key as it turned. The key twisted completely over and back again before it seemed to reach the end of the lock. She pulled the key from the lock and put her hand back on the knob.

This time when she twisted the knob it turned smoothly. Lilit flung the door open and Awendala and Rana rushed past her. Lilit followed hot on their trail, mace raised and ready.

They found themselves outside, with thick fog swirling around them. When Lilit looked back there was a glowing doorway hanging in the air, with Izumi and her phantasm on the other side. There was no indication out here that there was a building they’d just come out of, but she could see it when she looked through the door at Izumi.

When nothing jumped out at them after a few moments, Lilit headed back toward the glowing doorway. “Hey, I think this is the door to the next room of the dungeon. I think you can come across now,” she said to Izumi.

“Oh, sweet. Wonder what we’re going to run into next.” Izumi happily skipped through the door, her phantasm floating after her. As soon as she was across the glowing doorway faded from view. There would be no going back.

Everyone automatically formed back up into the formation they’d used for the first room of the dungeon. Awendala took the lead, followed by Rana, then Lilit, and Izumi took up the rearguard position. The others followed as Awendala marched into the fog.

They’d been walking for several minutes before they began to hear the first sounds other than their own footsteps and breathing. The fog seemed to distort the sound so that it was impossible to tell from which direction it was coming from. There was a shuffling sound, like feet scraping over the wet grass. It was accompanied by soft grunts and wheezy, wet breathing.

Awendala stopped where she was and the group spread out around her, facing out into the fog. They could see maybe a dozen feet before their sight was swallowed.

Lilit suddenly became aware of a stench in the air. She nearly gagged as she was hit with a smell of putrefying flesh. She wished desperately for a mask or even a shirt to pull over her nose right now. She tried breathing through her mouth, but then it was like she could taste it and that was worse.

Out of the fog shuffled several figures. Skin hung decaying over the hunched frames and the bony limbs of the creatures in front of her. Hair had fallen out in chunks across their skulls. Zombie Lvl 2 sat above their heads. Fucking zombies were way grosser in person than seeing them in movies. The smell alone was going to kill her before they even got within range.

“Zombies on my side,” Lilit called out. She stepped back as the others flowed around her to engage the undead.

Awendala stepped forward and performed a sweeping cut across several zombies at once. Two of them fell over, split in half. The third also fell over, but because it tripped over its newly exposed intestines, not because it was dead. Thankfully, it didn’t appear that they could survive being split in twain like the skeletons had as the other two didn’t so much as twitch after that.

The group of zombies shuffled agitatedly toward Awendala. Rana and Izumi’s phantasm skipped forward and began a deadly dance amongst them. The zombies were slow, but they couldn’t be underestimated. Rana found out the hard way when she was hit by a zombie and sent stumbling away. Her bell had definitely been rung at least a little. Awendala was being rocked side to side by all of the hits she was taking on her shield as she slashed away at the growing horde stumbling out of the fog. Izumi sat beside Lilit and fired arrows into their ranks. They seemed to be as effective with zombies as they were with other creatures, which was a positive.

Lilit pulled out her prayer book and sent a quick heal to Rana. She seemed a little shaky on her feet after that hit. Rana’s swings became steadier and surer a moment later.

The horde of monsters stumbling out of the fog continued to grow. Awendala wouldn’t be able to hold all of their attention. In a video game she wouldn’t have a problem, but in the dungeon that just wasn’t going to work. “Izumi, shift it to a tank role. Awendala’s about to be overrun.” Lilit called out.

No one said anything, they just shifted their way across the battlefield. Izumi and her phantasm shifted further away from Awendala. The phantasm let out a whirlwind of slashes that drew the attention of several zombies. It then let out a haunting wail that drew even more toward it.

Unfortunately, with the party now split like it was, it meant that Lilit needed to step in and become a damage dealer herself. Against these disgusting, smelly zombies. God, she hoped she didn’t puke before she could get close enough to actually hit one.

Lilit focused on Izumi’s horde. The phantasm being able to be defeated was their weak point out of everyone. And Izumi’s bow took longer to fire and engage the zombies than Rana’s spinning axes of destruction.

Stepping forward, Lilit swung her mace into a zombie’s skull. There was a sickening, wet thump along with the sharp crack of splintered bone. The smell seemed to actually increase momentarily before the zombie slumped to the ground. Their slow movements, as long as they could avoid being hit, would make this an easy task for Lilit and the others. It was just the overwhelming numbers that was alarming.

Five minutes later, Lilit was completely out of stamina, breathing heavily, trying not to gag on the smell as the last zombies fell. One with an arrow protruding from its skull, and the other being shoved unceremoniously off the end of Awendala’s sword.

Lilit stepped away from the fray to catch her breath while she waited for the last of the bodies to dissipate and take the smell with them. Or she hoped it would anyway.

Doing her best to catch her breath without breathing through her mouth, Lilit noticed she had an alert on her Delver. Attributes increased. Stamina increased by 1. Stamina at level 10. Strength increased by 1. Strength at level 11.

“Huh, I got some stat increases guys. Stamina went up again, and strength went up.” Lilit smiled at her friends. Rana was already going through the loot. The others stopped and checked their own Delvers.

“Well, I got an increase in wisdom,” Izumi announced.

“Same,” Rana added.

“I went up two levels of wisdom,” Awendala said. The others looked over at her impressed. “It was kind of low before,” she sounded embarrassed.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Lilit assured her. “Most of my stats are kind of low too.” She walked over and thumped Awendala’s bicep. Her shoulder was just too far away to comfortably reach for Lilit.

Everyone returned to looting, doing their best to balance the weight so no one would be overly encumbered or anything. It didn’t take very long. They’d had plenty of practice as a team figuring out what was something they were willing to carry and what wasn’t.

It wasn’t much longer before they formed back up and trudged off into the mist. The site of their battle soon left behind. Over the next two hours they ran into several more hordes of zombies. They were just as easy to take down, and just as smelly as the first mob. But they still hadn’t found the exit for the dungeon room. None of the other rooms had been nearly this large.

“Oh my gosh, how long is this room?” Izumi complained.

“I don’t know. It feels like it goes on forever, doesn’t it?” Rana asked.

The fog surrounding them was just as thick as it had been when they entered the room. The eerie silence had started getting to everyone. They were all on edge and slightly snappish with each other as time dragged on.

“I swear I have seen that tree before,” Lilit complained.

“Wait, what?” Rana reached up and tugged Awendala to a stop.

“O-oh, I just…I thought I’d seen that tree before. It has a weird bend in the branch there.” Lilit pointed up.

“Damnit!” Rana yelled.

“What? What’s wrong?” Lilit asked.

“I thought it was just me. I thought my eyes might be playing tricks on me or something.” She huffed a deep breath, “But I think we might be going in circles.”

“Seriously? Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Izumi said.

“I thought it was just in my head.”

“How did we end up going in circles?” Lilit asked.

“It’s actually not hard to do, especially when there are not really any terrain or markers to keep you going in a straight line,” Awendala mumbled. “I’m sorry guys.”

“It’s ok, it’s not your fault,” Rana reassured her. “It could have happened to any of us.”

“Well, what do we do?” Izumi asked.

Everyone pondered her question. How would they avoid circling this floor forever? They obviously couldn’t trust their eyes with all this fog rolling around. There weren’t any noises that could potentially lead them in a direction, not that the fog didn’t distort sounds out here already. Lilit thought about how the zombies always sounded like they’d surrounded the party until they burst through the fog each time.

“Let’s take a break and eat something while we figure this out,” Lilit suggested.

“Yeah, I’m getting kind of hungry,” Awendala agreed. Izumi and Rana nodded their need as well.

The group settled in a circle facing in on the ground. So far nothing had snuck up on them, the zombies were noisy enough to alert the group several minutes before they came into view, so Lilit and the others felt safe enough to face each other while they ate.

The rations that they’d packed weren’t that great. Dried meat, hard crusted bread, and a little cheese. Plain, but filling was the best Lilit could give the meal.

As she was packing up, her Delver got stuck on the bag. Unhooking it from where it had snagged, Lilit had a sudden thought like a bolt of lightning.

“Oh, my god,” Lilit groaned. “The Delvers have a map function and we can set a waypoint on it.”

“Wow, I feel dumb now,” Rana muttered. Izumi nodded along with her. Awendala simply hung her head.

“Yeah, well none of us thought of it. Come on, let’s see if we can navigate our way out of here.” Lilit pulled up her Delver and opened the map.

The area they were in was quite large it seemed, but yeah, they should have reached the end of it a while ago. And there at the bottom of the map was a giant circle they had uncovered as they walked around in circles for who knows how long. There wasn’t an indication of where the exit to the room was, but it made sense that it would be on the far side of the room. Thankfully they were at the top of their wandering circle, so they wouldn’t need to cross any more areas they’d already been through. She tried to focus on the silver lining here.

“Let’s set something at the far edge of the map,” Lilit suggested. The others agreed and soon they found themselves heading out once more. A beacon lit up through the fog to guide them.

It took another hour to cross the room. They ran into one more horde of zombies. The party was careful, Lilit didn’t let them get overconfident, and the mobs were fairly easy to clear. Unfortunately, the exit for the room wasn’t where they had set their first waypoint. But the map had uncovered it at the edge of their ‘perception’ of the cleared area of the map. So they headed out in that direction. This time they didn’t run across any more zombies and they quickly shuffled through the gate and into the next room of the dungeon.

Everyone’s Delver once again chimed. This is a safe zone. The water in safe zones is safe to drink. Rest, recharge, regroup, and strategize. The room was similar to the first safe room they’d come across. There were a pair of fountains trickling water and a large open space surrounded by stone walls. The difference was that this safe space had a soft, grassy floor where the last one was hard stone. This would be so much better to lay down on.

Izumi, Rana, and Awendala huddled across the room discussing something. Lilit was pretty sure it involved her as they kept glancing over at her periodically. Rana and Izumi seemed to be encouraging Awendala. About what, Lilit honestly couldn’t say.

Right now it wasn’t as important to Lilit as stripping out of her sweaty armor, cleaning herself, and putting on some clean clothes. She quickly unlatched herself with the quick releases built into her armor.

She turned away from the others before she pulled her tunic over her head. It was heavy with sweat and splatted wetly against the ground when she tossed it in the corner. Her sports bra followed. She’d need to do something about drying those out before she stuck them in her pack and got the rest of her things covered in second hand sweat. A shudder ran down her spine at the thought.

Lilit pulled out a small cloth from her bag and wet it in the fountain. It wasn’t as good as an actual bath, but it would be better than nothing. She started swiftly scrubbing down her arms and the front of her torso.

When Lilit was about to move on and pull her pants down to get at her legs and feet, she felt a hand on her bare shoulder. “Let me help,” Awendala murmured from behind her. Awendala’s breath tickled her neck. Goosebumps erupted down her body.

Silently, Lilit handed the damp cloth over her shoulder to Awendala. She refused to look at her though. Awendala took the wash cloth and began to slowly scrub Lilit’s back. And across her shoulders. Down her arms.

Lilit had already cleaned there, but she couldn’t say anything to Awendala. Her voice seemed lodged in her throat. And part of her didn’t want Awendala to stop touching her.

Awendala’s hands swept over the top of Lilit’s chest from behind. Her fingers and the cloth grazing over the tops of Lilit’s breasts. When she didn’t say anything, Awendala seemed emboldened. This time she swept her hands down over Lilit’s breasts. She cupped them, and ran thumbs over Lilit’s nipples. The cloth clenched in one hand was all but forgotten as well that she was supposed to be cleaning Lilit. Lilit pulled it from Awendala’s fingers and tossed it onto the edge of the fountain.

Awendala’s hands tightened on her breasts. Her thumbs flicked and brought Lilit’s nipples into twin peaks which she pinched and rolled between her fingers. It drew a gasp from Lilit. Her hips rocked involuntarily.

Awendala stepped up closer, pressing herself against Lilit’s back. Lilit felt Awendala’s warm skin pressed against her. She felt Awendala’s hardening nipples pressed into the top of her back. Lilit pressed her ass back into her. Felt her firm muscles pressed against her from thighs to shoulders.

Awendala leaned forward, her head coming into the corner of Lilit’s vision. Awendala reached up and guided Lilit’s head to the side. Lilit leaned forward to meet Awendala. Their lips met gently, hesitantly. Awendala was so soft under her lips. Awendala’s lips moved under hers, and Lilit matched her. When Awendala ran her tongue over Lilit’s bottom lip, she opened her mouth and welcomed her in.

Awendala’s tongue was like the rest of her, surprisingly gentle and soft. Lilit melted into the kiss as it deepened. She let Awendala take the lead for the first few tentative strokes of her tongue. But then Lilit took back control. She twisted in Awendala’s arms. Awendala moaned into her mouth while Lilit ran her hands up the firm muscles of her back. Fuck, she was so strong and yet so gentle and soft.

Lilit finally drew back, breaking the kiss to suck in air. They were both breathing heavily. Lilit leaned forward and pressed her forehead onto Awendala’s broad chest as she stood up straight. Geez, she was so tall too.

“I think…I think we need to stop,” Lilit started, leaning her head back to meet Awendala's gaze. When she saw the dejected look in her eyes, Lilit was quick to interject, “For now. We need to stop for now.” Awendala still looked a little saddened.

“Look, the other two are just across the room, there isn’t even a barrier to set up between us.” Lilit reached up to cup Awendala’s cheek, “I’m not an exhibitionist. When we get back to our suite, you bet I’m going to want to explore this. Ok?”

Awendala nodded her head, but she still seemed down about the whole thing. Lilit stretched up and pressed a swift, chaste kiss on her lips. She did her best to convey her earnest feelings to Awendala.

When she looked over, Rana and Izumi were pulling on clean clothes, conspicuously not looking in their direction. They had their bedding laid out side by side on their side of the safe room. Lilit turned around and quickly finished up her own hurried washing. She changed into her dry clothes, then spread her wet clothing across the lip of the fountain. Hopefully it would be dry enough by morning.

She lay her bedding down on the soft grass a few feet away from the fountain. Lilit did her best to keep her eyes to herself while Awendala finished cleaning herself on the other side of the fountain. She found her eyes constantly drawn to those muscular shoulders again and again. Just a glance and then her eyes would dart away.

A few minutes later Awendala lay her bedding out near Lilit. There was a large gap between them, and Lilit didn’t know how to overcome it. The idea of lying in Awendala’s arms and drifting off to sleep sent a pleasant pull through her heart, but she didn’t know how to ask. Or if she could after rejecting her advances earlier.

Awendala lay down on her bedding, and the two stared across the distance between them, searching each other’s face. After a few minutes Awendala gave out a great big sigh and turned over, leaving Lilit to stare at her back. She traced the scattered scales she could see dipping down into Awendala’s shirt. Her broad back sloped down to a solid core before flaring out gently at her hips. Lilit wanted nothing more than to trace the muscles from her neck to her firm, squeezable butt.

With a groan, Lilit sat up and rolled off of her bedding. This was stupid, and she was old enough to not keep making stupid mistakes. She let out a frustrated huff as she pulled her bedding across the grass and lined it up with Awendala’s.

She saw Awendala tense up as she lay down behind her. Lilit placed her hand on Awendala’s shoulder and gently pulled her over. When she was on her back and turned her head, a confused look on her face, Lilit asked quietly, “Will you hold me?”

Awendala’s face relaxed and smile tugged at her lips. She nodded her head and stretched her arm out, welcoming Lilit into her embrace. Lilit crawled across both their bedding until she was scrunched up against Awendala’s side. She draped one arm across her abs, tracing random designs with her fingers, while she tucked her head onto Awendala’s chest.

Lilit let out a contented sigh. She felt Awendala place a soft kiss on the crown of her head. She lay there and listened to Awendala’s steady heartbeat as she gently drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Lilit woke up slowly. She was wrapped in warmth and felt so safe. She didn’t really want to get up. There was a warm presence at her back, and an arm wrapped around her middle. She felt herself snuggling in closer to Awendala without any conscious thought.

A deep, rumbly laugh vibrated through her torso as Awendala chuckled behind her. “Are you ready to get up?” Awendala whispered into her ear. Goosebumps raced down her body as the warm breath tickled her skin.

“Five more minutes,” Lilit reached up and tucked Awendala’s arm tighter against her body.

There was that same deep rumble she felt in her chest as Awendala chuckled in her ear. Her arm tightened around Lilit, giving her a comforting squeeze. “Unfortunately, it is time to get up,” she swept a piece of hair from Lilit’s face and tucked it behind her ear. “The others are already stirring as well.”

“Fine,” Lilit threw off the blankets in a huff before worming her way out of Awendala’s arms. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head, her back arching. She looked over her shoulder and smirked when she caught Awendala watching her intently. When she noticed she’d been caught Awendala blushed and looked away quickly. Lilit just laughed.

They quickly put away their bedrolls and blankets. They sat around in a circle and ate a cold breakfast. Conversation was light. None of them seemed to be especially morning people. A quick wash in the fountain, this time sans help, and then they were putting their armor back on.

Awendala soon led the group out through the exit doors and into the next room of the dungeon. Despite what time it was outside the dungeon, it was deep twilight in the next part of the dungeon. The sky was a band of dark purple on the horizon that led up to the first stars appearing in the darkened sky overhead.

The grasses in the open field they found themselves in stretched up to Awendala’s waist, so it was just shy of Lilit’s ribs. The wind swept across the plains, tossing the field into a whirl of moving grasses. It was impossible to know if anything was in the field with them. They’d just have to keep their eyes out for danger.

They were currently standing on a small hill in the field that gave them a better view of the surrounding area. Across the field Lilit could see an old crumbling church. Between the field and the church though was a large cemetery. Though it would have been completely on brand, there was no fog seeping between the gravestones or anything like that. Just an open field, a cemetery, and a church. Behind them was the start of a dark forest, but Lilit could almost feel the dungeon urging them toward the church. She just wondered where the danger was going to be coming from this time. And what nasty creature would be unleashed.

Thinking back to the door leading into the first safe room, Lilit began to suspect it had been there to warn them of the dangers in each room. The skeletons on the bottom represented the first room. The dripping figures were the vampires covered in blood. The rotting corpses were the zombies. She wasn’t sure what this floor would bring. Something humanoid with sharp claws and large gaping maws. The figures above that seemed like they would indicate more vampires, though the fact that there were only two and they were crowned was worrying. The final panel had been the creepy skull in the cloak, which again, could be lots of things. She hoped they would be ready for whatever they encountered.

“Let’s head toward the church,” Lilit said to get everyone moving again. The sooner they got started, the sooner they’d be done. And the sooner she could get back to whatever was going on with Awendala. She found herself licking her lips as she thought about it. Shaking her head to clear it, she needed to focus on the here and now. Plenty of time for fantasies later.

Awendala once again took up the lead with the others following. The group set off through the tall grass. There wasn’t any other sound than their breathing and the whisper of grass as it rolled in the wind.

They were halfway down the hill before they heard it. It started off as a howl almost like a wolf, but something was just a little off. It ended in the eerie cackle of a hyena. The howl-laugh was picked up by several other voices before Lilit saw the first movements in the cemetery.

From behind several crypts and tombs raced out strange figures. They barreled across the ground like gorillas, hunched over on long arms. The creatures were surprisingly swift. As they ran, their jaws swung unnaturally wide, sharp teeth gleaming, and the creepy howl-laugh was repeated.

As they reached the field, they disappeared into the grass. They were just short enough hunched over like they were to become hidden by the tall grass. With the wind blowing through, it was next to impossible to track them.

“Two sweeping out to flank us,” Awendala called out as she came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and readied herself to meet their charge. Lilit wasn’t sure if it was Awendala’s extra height or her military training that allowed her to track the creatures so well, but she’d take it.

“Rana on the left, phantasm on the right,” Lilit ordered. “When they get within range, use your breath weapon to hit them and clear the grass away so Izumi can see them,” Lilit continued her instructions.

The creatures went silent about five seconds before they struck. Three came head on, directly into Awendala’s path, leaping out of the grass. One came up on the left, and one on the right in a pincher attack. They were probably semi-intelligent pack hunters. With their speed and those large jaws, this wasn’t going to be an easy fight.

Awendala let out a sweeping arc of fire directly onto the three creatures attacking her. They darted backward away from her flames, but she was able to catch one of them outright. Lilit could hear the high pitched, whistling shriek coming from it as it rolled across the ground. Awendala didn’t stop there and poured out as much flame as she could arcing from left to right. The grasses in front of her flash fried in the fire. The ones along the edge of her breath attack’s range caught fire and spread quickly. This might not have been as good of an idea as Lilit thought.

They were moving too fast for Lilit to concentrate on long enough to identify what they were and more importantly what level they were. She watched her friends lay into the beasts attacking them with trepidation. There wasn’t much she could contribute to this fight, not with how fast they were. Lilit’s little bit of experience didn’t give her the tools to go toe to toe with these creatures. She realized how far she needed to go to be a stronger team member for her party.

Awendala let out a loud roar that had the two creatures that weren’t on fire scrambling away momentarily. While they were on their back foot, she leaped forward and brought her sword down in a glittering arc to bury it deep into the creature still rolling around trying to put out the flames. The creature’s shrieks turned into wet wails as its lungs filled with blood. It stopped moving a few moments after Awendala stood up and pulled her sword free of its body.

On her left, Rana seemed to have activated one of her abilities as her body sped up. She attacked ruthlessly, not giving an inch. Her creature did its best to dodge her blows, but the blood freely flowing over its body told the story of Rana’s attack. It rushed in at her with sharp claws wide, trying to tear through her armor. Rana managed to dip to the side at the last instant.

It seemed to dismiss Rana as it ran past her, refocusing on Lilit who was directly ahead of it. Lilt pulled her shield up and braced herself for an impact that never came. Rana had followed on its heels and managed to slam one of her axes straight through the creature’s skull. Her axe was buried to the eye in its skull. It was ripped from her hands as the creature collapsed and slid to a stop at Lilit’s feet. Rana stepped forward, placed her foot on the creature’s neck and yanked the blade of the axe out. She grinned a feral grin at Lilit before she bound away to help Awendala.

On Lilit’s right, Izumi’s phantasm was barely holding its own against the creature in front of it. The phantasm was slower, but seemed to hit harder when it could land a hit. But the creature had been able to land several hits of its own based on the dark, shadowy substance leaking out of several gashes in the phantasm’s robes. Every time the phantasm tried to flicker away to avoid a hit, the creature would reorient onto Izumi and Lilit. Izumi was firing arrows as fast as she could into one of the creatures hassling Awendala, trusting her phantasm to hold its own.

“Izumi, pivot targets. Your phantasm is struggling,” Lilit called out. Izumi turned and noticed what was happening to her summons. She let her bow dip down as she chanted some incantation. Her phantasm’s speed picked up and it began to really lay into the creature in front of it. She rolled right into a second incantation that had the black seeping shadows absorbing back into the phantasm’s body.

It was a few moments too late though. With a final swipe from the creature it battled, the phantasm fell apart into a cloud of smoke. It swept up and swirled around the creature that had killed it, seeming to inflict one last bit of damage. The creature convulsed in pain within the shadowy cloud. Then the cloud dissipated, leaving an angry creature. It had finally sat still long enough for Lilit to identify, Ghoul Lvl 2.

Before it could recover, Lilit leapt forward. Izumi also managed to loose an arrow into the ghoul’s shoulder, staggering it further. Lilit swung her mace toward the ghoul’s head, but it twisted out of the way. Instead her mace impacted it in the same shoulder as the arrow. The sound of shattering bone echoed in the air, but it didn’t seem to slow down the ghoul in the least.

The ghoul quickly recovered and lunged at Lilit. It bowled her over with a swipe of claws. She felt it tear through the leather over her chest, but it didn’t seem to pierce through to her skin. She was on her back when she looked up to see the ghoul take an arrow straight through the throat. It gurgled for a moment before falling over backward.

Lilit scrambled to her feet in time to watch Rana down the last of the ghouls. The entire party was huffing and puffing, all but Izumi bent over as they tried to catch their breath and not fall over. That fight hadn’t lasted long, but if anything the ghouls had been faster and more organized than the vampires they’d faced previously. The zombies and skeletons had only been concerns because of their numbers. Vampires and ghouls were dangerous on an individual level.

“Fuck, it’s going to be another few minutes before I can resummon Bob.” Izumi told the party.

“Bob? Who the…who is Bob?” Rana asked loudly.

“Uh, the phantasm. I had to call him something. I couldn’t just keep saying, ‘the phantasm,’ it’s a mouthful and a little rude. Everyone deserves a name,” Izumi said.

“Bob the phantasm?” Lilit asked.

“Yeah. Why not?”

“Well, ok then I guess,” Lilit said. “How long is your cooldown for Bob?”

“Five minutes. Should be close to three by now,” Izumi answered.

“Cool, anyone need some heals?”

“Umm, you do,” Awendala pointed at Lilit.

Lilit looked down at herself. Huh. Apparently the ghoul had slashed straight through the armor all the way to her body. She had three long gashes across her ribs on her left side. They weren’t very deep, but as soon as she looked at them and acknowledged they were there the pain flared up. Blood had already run down her side halfway to her hip. “Oh, ow. Yeah, you’re right.”

Lilit pulled out her prayer book and recited her healing prayers focused on herself. She felt a warmth spread through her flesh as she watched it knit back together.

Rana ended up needing a little healing as well. A ghoul had scored a hit on her forearm that looked very painful, but she’d managed to fight through it. A few minutes later Izumi summoned Bob once again. The party headed out immediately after.

The grassland that they had been walking through originally was almost all burned out in a wide arc that raced away from the group and toward the church. The fire had finally died out after over a hundred feet had been cleared.

As they continued through the field they were met with more ghouls. They came as single individuals instead of a pack, but they were preceded by that same eerie howl-laugh. Awendala and Rana acted quickly and took down each attacker. They worked together like a well-oiled machine, never needing more than a single word and often not needing even that. A single look had them reacting to each other.

After several small engagements they made it to the edge of the cemetery. The headstones were all at least waist high, and there were crypts and tombs scattered throughout the grounds. It was several hundred feet to the back of the church.

As soon as they all had stepped into the cemetery the night erupted in a cacophony of the eerie howl-laughs the ghouls were known for. From around several crypts ahead of them drifted hunched over figures. The cries echoed all around them, and Lilit spun in place to see that ghouls were popping up all around them. She did a quick count. Ten. They had struggled to defeat five earlier. She sent up a silent prayer that they would survive this.

Lilit pulled out her prayer book, flipped it open and began her chant to bring up a ward around Rana. As the most mobile fighter and in such light armor she had ended up receiving the most injuries in all their confrontations so far.

The night went silent. All the howls and creepy laughter stopped. As one the pack of ghouls charged across the cemetery at them.

Chapter Text

As the ghouls rushed toward the party, Awendala let out a roar that seemed to gather the attention of all the ghouls in front of her, and several from the party’s flanks. Lilit leaped forward and grabbed onto the back of her armor. She began guiding Awendala backward so that she wouldn’t be flanked by any of the approaching ghouls. Lilit wished they’d made it a little deeper and the party could have backed against a crypt or something to limit the ghouls’ approach.

Lilit still had her hand on Awendala when the ghouls hit her shield as a group. Awendala had just planted her feet, but she was still pushed back several feet from the weight of the ghouls. Lilit hanging onto her from behind nearly stumbled over when she felt Awendala slide backward into her.

She could hear Rana and Bob fighting off ghouls behind her. The sound of Izumi’s bow was lost to the clash of the two sides. Lilit took a look around to get her bearings and decide where she could best help.

In front of her, Awendala was struggling against six lightning fast ghouls. Her shield and armor were holding them off for now, but Lilit would need to keep an eye on her for healing. Rana was to her left. She appeared to have activated her ability to increase her speed and agility temporarily. She was dancing between three ghouls like a whirlwind of deadly metal. Her axes seemed to be coated in shadows, and when she was able to land a strike on one of the ghouls they were slowed down considerably. To Lilit’s right, Bob was holding off a single ghoul barely. Izumi was firing arrows into the ghoul as quickly as she could but with its quick movements she missed as often as she scored a hit.

If Lilit could free up Bob and Izumi then they could all pivot to helping Awendala and Rana more quickly than if she tried to free up Rana by herself. So, Lilit pivoted to her right and stepped up behind Bob. Over her shoulder she called out, “Try the wand. Fire seems to be effective against all the undead.”

“Got it!” Izumi called back. A few moments later small balls of fire were flicking past Bob and Lilit into the ghoul. The fire seemed to travel faster than the arrows so more of her strikes were hitting, and the fireballs seemed to stagger the ghoul much more than her arrows had been.

Lilit stepped around Bob while the ghoul was staggered off-balance. She swung her mace in a horizontal arc into the ghoul’s shoulder. There was the sound of shattering bones and the ghoul’s arm hung limp. It now only had a single arm to attack with, though the pain didn’t seem to faze it at all.

A few moments later, Bob ripped through the ghoul’s throat and it collapsed into a heap in front of them. Lilit immediately pivoted to help Rana with her ghouls. Bob flashed across the space and appeared behind the group Rana was dancing with. Izumi began firing fireballs into several of the ghouls.

“Izumi, help out Awendala.” Lilit ordered. The fireballs shifted and Izumi began targeting the ghouls at the front.

Lilit finally made it over to Rana and had to wait a moment to find an opening. Rana was everywhere. Then for a second she stumbled as she seemed to lose her speed all of a sudden. Lilit leapt in swinging wildly at two ghouls. She smashed into the hip of the one on her left, but missed the one on her right with the backswing. The one she hit stumbled to the side, its leg not really supporting its weight anymore.

It was enough for Rana to regain her equilibrium and charge back into the fray. By unspoken agreement Rana took the ghoul that had dodged Lilit’s swing, and Lilit took the more injured ghoul.

It was bleeding from several deep gashes across its body as well as the broken hip. She didn’t know how it was still up and fighting, let alone this violently. Lilit couldn’t underestimate her ghoul. She circled toward its wounded leg, trying to gain even a small advantage.

Then she heard Awendala cry out in pain. Without looking, Lilit pulled her prayer book out and flipped it open. From memory she quickly chanted her healing prayer while mentally targeting Awendala.

It was enough of a distraction though for the ghoul to try to take advantage of. It took a quick step toward Lilit to close the distance, but its wounded leg collapsed under it. It fell to the ground raking its claws out to catch any part of Lilit.

She pushed her shield arm in front of herself and took the hit like she’d been training to. It was more powerful than she expected, especially from such a weakened monster. Her arm was knocked downward from the force and she lost her grip on her prayer book.

Lilit didn’t let that distract her though as she stepped forward. She stomped down on the shoulders of the ghoul to keep it down before she swung her mace into its head once, twice, three times in quick succession.

It had stopped moving after the second hit, but Lilit was more than a little angry, frustrated, and just a little scared at this point. She didn’t think a first level dungeon should be this hard, or come so close to killing her so many times. When she looked up, Rana was giving her some side eye before she pivoted to helping out Awendala. Lilit looked around and it seemed that Rana and Bob had managed to take down their ghouls about the same time. Bob had already begun flickering back and forth, harassing the backline of the ghouls.

Lilit took a minute to search for her prayer book. It was probably more important than her mace right now. She found it underneath the ghoul she’d just bashed, sticking out from under its torso. She picked it up and brushed it off.

She took a look at the fight raging in front of her. It was down to four ghouls, but Awendala was starting to lag. Lilit flipped open her prayer book she couldn’t send another heal because the cooldown was still in effect. She instead started chanting the prayer for her ward, which she targeted at Awendala. That should give her at least a few seconds of breathing room.

The twilight lit up as Awendala breathed flames onto the ghouls in front of her. They had all bunched up too closely for them to avoid her attack. All four ghouls scattered away from Awendala and the others as they flailed about and tried to put out the flames covering them.

From there it was simple for Rana and Bob to follow after the ghouls and put them out of their misery. Rana and Izumi began going through loot bags while Lilit walked up to Awendala to give her a once over.

Lilit placed her hand on Awendala’s lower back, not that she could probably feel it through the armor. “Hey, you ok? Need more healing?”

Awendala turned around. She smiled down at Lilit, “Just a little more should be good. Thank you.”

Lilit checked her cooldowns. Good to go. She flipped open her prayer book and recited her healing prayer while watching Awendala. A golden light enveloped Awendala as Lilit’s holy healing took effect. As soon as it did, Awendala stood up a little straighter and some of the lines around her eyes eased.

“Much better, thank you.”

“Of course,” Lilit reached out and grabbed Awendala’s hand before giving it a quick squeeze. Then she stepped back and walked toward some unopened loot bags.

They took another few minutes as a group to sort through everything. Rana ended up needing a little bit of healing as well, which Lilit was quick to provide.

“I hate to admit this guys, but if this is a first level dungeon, and we haven’t even met the boss yet…” Lilit trailed off.

“We need another person or two in our party,” Rana finished.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t remember it being this difficult with my first party. And I think we had the same number of people,” Izumi said.

“Maybe it’s more challenging because of how well we’ve done so far?” Awendala suggested.

“Maybe,” Lilit hedged. “But has anyone noticed that none of these monsters have retreated no matter how fast we kill them? I mean I was able to scare off a bullywug in the tutorial by killing his friends pretty quickly. But we haven’t had anything like that happen in this dungeon.” Lilit looked around at the others. That thought seemed to put them on their heels a little.

“We should probably talk to some people who’ve been here longer when we get back,” Lilit continued. “See if this is normal or what. And definitely find another damage dealer, because I am not picking up nearly as much slack as someone dedicated to it would.”

“You’ve been doing alright,” Awendala shot back.

“Alright isn’t good enough obviously,” Lilit said. “We need more people.”

“The only thing we can do now is focus on clearing this dungeon and making it back safe,” Rana told the group. She patted Lilit on the arm as she passed her.

The party was up and moving not too long after that. They continued on to the church. A few small packs of ghouls came charging out along the way, but nothing like their initial assault when they entered the cemetery. The ghouls were put down fairly quickly and with minimal injuries. After the last confrontation Izumi informed the group that her wand was out of uses. She’d be restricted to arrows moving forward.

Eventually they made it to the front of the church. It was a small little chapel. It looked to have room for a small nave and altar with maybe a single office in the back. It wouldn’t hold more than a hundred people Lilit guessed. The double doors were tall, stretching around twelve feet of dark wood. A little ostentatious for such a small chapel.

Awendala waited until the group was formed up behind her, ready for whatever was on the other side. Then she stepped up to the doors and pushed the one on the left open, striding through. The party followed on her heels.

As soon as Lilit was through the door she saw that it was vastly larger on the inside than it should have been. The room in front of them stretched on for several hundred feet, a deep red carpet running down the center of the room. Columns ran in two rows down the sides of the room, large heraldic banners hanging down from each one. The columns stretched to the ceiling some twenty feet high, much taller than the one story church had been. There were no windows in the room, despite there being large stained glass windows visible from outside the church.

As the door boomed closed behind her, Lilit realized that this must be the entrance to the next room of the dungeon. At the far end of the room, opposite the door they’d come through was a small dais. Upon the dais sat two large, ornate chairs that could only be described as thrones. Figures obscured in shadow could be seen resting upon them.

Looking around, there were no other exits except the one they’d just come through. She briefly wondered how they’d be entering what she hoped, based on the relief carved into the door so many rooms ago, would be the final room of the dungeon. Something to worry about later though. First they’d have to survive this encounter.

“Ok, if the door carving is at all reliable,” Lilit started.

“Which it surprisingly has been,” Izumi interrupted.

“Then there should just be two vampires or something like that to battle in here. So, Izumi, you and Bob will focus on one. Awendala, you and Rana should focus on the other. I’ll provide backup where needed.” Lilit finished giving out her instructions. The party all nodded their agreement and stepped forward.

They walked down the carpeted aisle between the columns of stone. Their footsteps were muffled by the thick carpet. The only sound being the jangling of Awendala’s armor and everyone’s slightly heavy breathing. Lilit’s heart pounded in her chest. How powerful would these monsters be if the dungeon felt two was enough?

As they neared the back of the room, Lilit was able to identify the creatures lounging on the thrones, Royal Vampire Lvl 2. At least they weren’t above the party’s level. That was actually a little surprising considering how hard the dungeon had been challenging them. Although the ghouls were level two as well, but most of their difficulty came from their coordinated packs rather than individual power.

As they drew near the dais the thrones were perched on, the vampire on the left stood up. He was tall, over six feet. He had dark hair, a thin beard along his jawline, and piercing silver eyes. A tall, ornate, golden crown sat fixed upon his head. He was dressed in ceremonial armor with golden accents. He unsheathed the sword upon his hip as the party continued forward.

“You have done well to make it this far. But you will go no further.” He did not raise his voice, yet Lilit was able to hear him as if he were standing right in front of her. This time there was nothing convenient for Rana to throw to interrupt him. Though as he started down the steps of the dais, he didn’t appear to have any more he wanted to exchange.

On the other throne, and still lounging lazily sat a regal woman. It was hard to determine her height while seated, but she seemed quite small. She appeared dainty and thin, almost comically too small for the large throne she sat upon. Her dark hair was pulled back in a severe, probably overly complicated bun. She was dressed in a fairly simple gown, and upon her head sat a very light, thin tiara. As she watched the party close on the thrones, she began tossing a small crackling ball of lightning back and forth between her hands.

Fuck. They hadn’t really come across any magic users before now. “Izumi, right side. Keep her off us as much as possible,” Lilit said out of the side of her mouth. Looking over, Lilit saw her nod her head and slightly angle herself to the right of the group, giving her a clear line of fire.

When they were about five feet from the bottom of the steps, the vampire on the left leapt down the dais right into Awendala. She managed to get her shield up barely in time. But, she was pushed back several feet as she stumbled.

This opened up the area that the vampire could swing his sword in and soon the sound of metal crashing on metal rang through the room. Awendala caught his blows on her shield as much as possible, attempting to lash out at him with her own weapon. Rana tried to dance around the pair, but then the other vampire threw her ball of lightning, catching Rana in the side.

She let out a terrible cry between clenched teeth as her body seemed to lock up. Lilit looked over and Izumi was firin g arrow after arrow at the vampire. They were all hitting a glowing shield in front of the throne and bouncing off. Bob was doing his best, but was being held off with flashes of bright magic the vampire was throwing out with her raised left hand.

As long as that shield was up, she’d be able to pick them off one by one while the first vampire kept them too busy to overwhelm her. Lilit needed to act fast. She rushed over to Izumi’s side.

“I can’t get anything through that barrier,” Izumi gritted out angrily.

“Let me see if I can help. Nock an arrow, but don’t draw it yet.” Lilit instructed. When Izumi had done as instructed, Lilit reached forward and grasped the arrow. She concentrated and willed a smite into the arrow. It picked up a light glow and Lilit stepped back giving Izumi a nod.

Izumi drew her arrow back, aimed, and released in a single smooth motion. This time when it struck, a loud gong rang out followed by the sound of glass breaking. There were now cracks all across the vampire mage’s shield. Her face looked over in surprise. That distraction was enough for Bob to flicker in to her side and take its own swipe at the shield. Bob’s claws slammed into the shield and the entire thing shattered. The vampire woman cried out in pain.

Izumi already had another arrow drawn by that time. She released the arrow with a grunt and Lilit watched it bury itself into the vampire mage’s throat. She clawed at her throat and stood up, rage and pain rolling off of her in waves.

“You’ve got this,” Lilit tossed over her shoulder as she darted off to the side. Just in time too as a bolt of lightning struck the ground behind her.

Bringing her attention back to Awendala and Rana, Lilit discovered Rana hunched over several feet behind Awendala who was doing her best to hold back the first vampire but losing ground. Awendala was trying to steer the vampire away from Rana, but he kept circling back in that direction.

Lilit pulled out her prayer book and flipped it open and started her chant to heal Rana. She was interrupted when Awendala’s shield was battered hard to the side and the vampire’s sword made a deep slash across Awendala’s thigh. Dark scarlet ran down her leg as it crumpled beneath her.

Lilit wasn’t sure exactly what happened next. All she knew was that she literally saw red swim across her vision and she found herself with a burning hand wrapped around the throat of the vampire royal. He tried to beat ineffectively at her, but she was inside his guard and fucking rabid. With her other hand, she shoved a smite down her mace right as the cooldown kicked over. She swung the mace with all her might into his side.

A bright light flashed and the vampire was flung to the side out of her hands. The entire battle seemed to pause for a moment as everyone stared at Lilit. Her senses coming back to her, Lilit turned back around to find Rana climbing wearily to her feet and Awendala kneeling on the ground. Her prayer book lay on the ground some distance away from where Lilit stood.

She hurried over to it. Scooping it up, she flipped to a page and began reciting her healing prayer directed at Awendala. She seemed to stabilize after a few moments. The bleeding at least seemed to have stopped when she reached Awendala’s side.

Lilit looked around at the rest of the group. Bob was standing over a very dead vampire mage. It looked like it had ripped her throat out and Lilit could see what she assumed was her spine at the back of the injury. To her other side, Rana was hacking the other vampire into smaller and smaller pieces. He was still alive and screaming until Izumi walked up and put an arrow through his eye.

Well, looks like this room was cleared. One more to go. At least they had time for Lilit to heal everyone. Awendala alone was going to take a couple of rounds she assumed, and there was no telling how much Rana needed.

Lilit sat down on the steps to the dais. She needed a minute herself.

Chapter Text

“So, that was your burning hands skill?” Izumi asked as she sat down on the steps next to Lilit.

“I think…I think so. I’m not really sure,” Lilit answered.

Izumi looked at her like she was confused. “How do you not know? Didn’t you have to like activate it or whatever?”

Lilit shrugged sheepishly. “I just kind of…” She waved her hand vaguely as she trailed off. “I’m not sure what happened. I saw Awendala get hurt and I just saw red. The next thing I know I’m sending that vampire guy flying across the room with a burnt throat and crushed ribs.”

Izumi bobbed her head side to side, “Alright. That makes a little sense I guess. Are you going to be ok?”

Lilit nodded before holding up her hand to pause their conversation. “One second.” She pulled out her prayer book as she felt the cooldown for her minor healing skill finish. She cast healing on Awendala again. When casting her healing magic she got a general idea of where her target was at physically. She was getting better at gauging how effective her prayer would be for someone’s injuries. Her ability had also increased by a decent margin when she leveled up yesterday.

It was easy for her to tell that Awendala was pretty much all healed up. Anything else she poured into her would just go toward a few superficial aches and pains and then be wasted as excess. The next time her cooldown kicked over she’d need to help poor Rana and then Izumi if she needed anything.

Lilit let her prayer book slip back into her lap. She looked at Izumi, “Yeah, I think I’m going to be ok. I just—” She broke off with a hiccupped sob. “I just don’t know what I would do if something happened to her, or any of you. You know?” There was a burn in her eyes as tears threatened to fall.

Izumi leaned over and wrapped her arm around Lilit’s shoulders. She was small so it was a little awkward with her breast crushed against Lilit’s arm so she could reach all the way around. “I know. We got this though. We’ve got each other and we’re going to be ok.” She rested her head against Lilit’s shoulder and they rocked side to side for a minute.

Lilit picked up her book and fired off another healing prayer toward Rana this time. Wow, getting the healing feedback, she wasn’t sure how Rana was still standing. She had taken a beating from the vampire mage queen it seemed. Thankfully with her new healing strength Lilit figured it would only take two, maybe three more prayers to bring her up to speed again.

Unfortunately, Lilit’s mana was getting low. She’d need to wait an extra couple minutes for her reservoir to fill back up partially before doing anything else. “Ugh,” she groaned. “We’re going to need to either wait for a while for my mana to recharge or I’m going to need to use one of my mana potions,” she complained.

Izumi just shrugged, “I’m in the same boat. Those ghouls really kicked Bob’s ass, and we didn’t get a chance to recover before we stumbled onto Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder toward the thrones. “What’s your mana regen rate anyway?”

Lilit shrugged her shoulders.

“You mean this whole time you never checked to see…” Izumi trailed off. “Ok, pull out your thingy and look up your stats.”

Lilit pulled up her Delver and pressed a few buttons to navigate to the right window. Huh, she’d never taken the time to actually look at this before had she? She just kind of ran on intuition and how things felt.

“So, that was your burning hands skill?” Izumi asked as she sat down on the steps next to Lilit.

“I think…I think so. I’m not really sure,” Lilit answered.

Izumi looked at her like she was confused. “How do you not know? Didn’t you have to like activate it or whatever?”

Lilit shrugged sheepishly. “I just kind of…” She waved her hand vaguely as she trailed off. “I’m not sure what happened. I saw Awendala get hurt and I just saw red. The next thing I know I’m sending that vampire guy flying across the room with a burnt throat and crushed ribs.”

Izumi bobbed her head side to side, “Alright. That makes a little sense I guess. Are you going to be ok?”

Lilit nodded before holding up her hand to pause their conversation. “One second.” She pulled out her prayer book as she felt the cooldown for her minor healing skill finish. She cast healing on Awendala again. When casting her healing magic she got a general idea of where her target was at physically. She was getting better at gauging how effective her prayer would be for someone’s injuries. Her ability had also increased by a decent margin when she leveled up yesterday.

It was easy for her to tell that Awendala was pretty much all healed up. Anything else she poured into her would just go toward a few superficial aches and pains and then be wasted as excess. The next time her cooldown kicked over she’d need to help poor Rana and then Izumi if she needed anything.

Lilit let her prayer book slip back into her lap. She looked at Izumi, “Yeah, I think I’m going to be ok. I just—” She broke off with a hiccupped sob. “I just don’t know what I would do if something happened to her, or any of you. You know?” There was a burn in her eyes as tears threatened to fall.

Izumi leaned over and wrapped her arm around Lilit’s shoulders. She was small so it was a little awkward with her breast crushed against Lilit’s arm so she could reach all the way around. “I know. We got this though. We’ve got each other and we’re going to be ok.” She rested her head against Lilit’s shoulder and they rocked side to side for a minute.

Lilit picked up her book and fired off another healing prayer toward Rana this time. Wow, getting the healing feedback, she wasn’t sure how Rana was still standing. She had taken a beating from the vampire mage queen it seemed. Thankfully with her new healing strength Lilit figured it would only take two, maybe three more prayers to bring her up to speed again.

Unfortunately, Lilit’s mana was getting low. She’d need to wait an extra couple minutes for her reservoir to fill back up partially before doing anything else. “Ugh,” she groaned. “We’re going to need to either wait for a while for my mana to recharge or I’m going to need to use one of my mana potions,” she complained.

Izumi just shrugged, “I’m in the same boat. Those ghouls really kicked Bob’s ass, and we didn’t get a chance to recover before we stumbled onto Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder toward the thrones. “What’s your mana regen rate anyway?”

Lilit shrugged her shoulders.

“You mean this whole time you never checked to see…” Izumi trailed off. “Ok, pull out your thingy and look up your stats.”

Lilit pulled up her Delver and pressed a few buttons to navigate to the right window. Huh, she’d never taken the time to actually look at this before had she? She just kind of ran on intuition and how things felt.

Lilit – Lvl 2 Acolyte (37%)

Weapons – Mace and Wing-Shield

Mana (17/450) +8/min

Stamina (98/250) +4/min

Health – Normal

Str – 11           Wis – 18

Dex – 9           Char – 16

Con – 10         Mana – 18

Int – 12            Stamina – 10

“It looks like I recover eight mana a minute,” Lilit showed Izumi her screen.

“Huh, I have the same regen rates for stamina and mana, but I have different capacities. At least for mana anyways. Obviously they’re tied into the stats somehow, but I don’t have enough information to say how.” Izumi started mumbling numbers under her breath.

Lilit did some quick math in her own head, “It would take almost an hour for me to regenerate all of my mana.” She hung her head, “And that doesn’t even account for the mana I’ll burn healing Rana or you.”

“Oh, I’m fine. I don’t need any healing.”

“Well, that’s good at least. But poor Rana is going to need a couple rounds of minor healing,” Lilit explained.

They spent a while in the throne room. They collected the loot, which was quite nice. There was even a small chest, which was a first for them. Inside it they found some armor that Rana or Lilit could use to replace theirs. Considering Rana was an actual front line fighter, they all agreed that she would use the armor and sell her old stuff. So, Rana upgraded from stiff, but light leather armor to a more robust medium leather armor. It covered more of her body and was quite a bit thicker while still allowing her to move fluidly. Lilit also managed to heal all of Rana’s injuries.

They looked around the throne room, searching for the exit to the room, but couldn’t find anything. They then had to go back and start looking more closely for hidden doorways. Izumi and Lilit went over the thrones themselves with a fine toothed comb, looking if there was a trigger somewhere on them. Awendala and Rana ended up knocking on walls and pressing on bricks.

After over half an hour, everyone kind of just gave up. They met back up on the dais and flopped down onto the stairs together. Lilit leaned up against Awendala. Her armor was cold and hard, poking her and digging into her side, but Lilit still managed to find comfort from it.

“What does everyone want to do?” Awendala asked. Lilit could feel the vibrations from Awendala’s deep voice rumbling through her chest.

“I don’t know. Maybe we’re supposed to wait?” Rana suggested.

“Wait for what though? It’s already been a while.” Izumi argued.

“We could try going back out the main doors. Maybe there’s somewhere else in the graveyard we’re supposed to go.” Lilit said.

“You reckon we’ll have to deal with the ghouls again?” Awendala asked.

“I don’t know, but I can’t think of anything else and it beats sitting around here.” Lilit said.

“Worst comes to worst we can always come back in here and look again I guess.” Rana hedged.

“Should I pop one of the mana potions? Do any of you need to take a stamina potion?” Lilit asked.

“They’re meant to be used, not hoarded. There’s no telling how long they take to work, so taking it now instead of in the middle of a battle or something makes the most sense,” Awendala said.

“You’re right. I’m just used to the idea of holding back in case I need it later. But, it’s not like I can’t buy more when we get back.” Lilit brushed her hand over her face. She sat up and dug through her pack until she found the mana potion. It was bright blue, but clearly labeled on the bottle. She was still a little surprised about them being capped like beer bottles instead of a cork. Steve the alchemist had explained that needing a corkscrew to open a potion made no sense at all if you needed it in a hurry, and keeping in taller corks that could be accidentally pulled out was dangerous.

Lilit twisted the metal cap off the top of her potion and chugged it. It surprisingly didn’t taste horrible. Lilit had been prepared for a more medicinal taste based on the smell, but this was actually quite smooth and a little fruity.

She could feel that little reservoir behind her heart filling up. The mana was regenerating so quickly. Her regen rate jumped up from eight a minute to seventy a minute! There was a small timer she noticed on her screen when she checked it. The potion’s regeneration only lasted three minutes.

“Alright, it works by vastly increasing the mana regen per minute, but it takes several minutes to finish. So, not a good thing to try using during a fight. Maybe there are different ones that just dump in mana directly.” Lilit told the group

“We’ll have to ask Steve if he has any other kind of mana potions, or maybe shop around a few alchemists.” Izumi said. Lilit nodded in agreement.

They waited the few minutes until Lilit’s potion finished filling her reservoir. When Lilit checked again, she was enjoying being able to see actual numbers and not just going on feelings, she had managed to hit her cap. Time to get the show on the road.

Lilit stood up and the rest of the party followed her. Izumi brought Bob back out in preparation for dealing with the ghouls. Hopefully they wouldn’t be waiting for them when they came out.

The doors swung inward, so Awendala wouldn’t be able to shove the door open and head through shield up. Instead, Lilit and Izumi stepped forward to pull the door open so Awendala was free to fill the gap until she could burst forward shield leading the way. The door was kind of heavy and they both had to strain a little to pull the door open. Gods, how strong was Awendala anyway?

Awendala waited until the door was wide enough and then strode through it, Rana on her heels. Izumi and Lilit quickly let go of the door and followed behind. Outside everything had changed again.

There was no church yard or cemetery in sight. Instead when they stepped out they found themselves in a long deserted crypt. The room was barely lit with flickering candles interspersed throughout the room. It was just enough to not be completely dark, but not enough to actually light anything up.

Along the walls were rows of stone sarcophagi. Tall stone lids adorned with images of the dead rested on top of each one. Each lid had to weigh at least an actual ton unless the stone was much thinner than they appeared.

The room seemed to fade into the distance as the light seemed to light up less and less. The stone sarcophagi marching along neatly on each side of the aisle. There was the chittering of rats and the dry rustling of large insects scuttling out of the way as the party moved forward.

Awendala paused once she was even with the first set of tombs. The rest of the party lined up behind her. Behind them they heard the door slam closed, sending a small wave of wind sweeping down the aisle.

“Well, I guess this was the right way to go after all,” Izumi grumbled. Everyone nodded or grunted in agreement. There wasn’t anything else to really say. They hoped that this was in fact the final room of the dungeon. But the fact that it had been depicted with a single figure in it didn’t leave Lilit feeling very happy about what was waiting up ahead. It was probably a boss of some kind. And those were rarely straightforward.

Ahead of them, where the darkness seemed to swallow the rest of the room, a pair of red lights blinked into existence. The lights seemed to take in the party before rising up. They stopped well above the height of Awendala. Lilit had a bad feeling that these weren’t just lights.

“Welcome adventurers. You have travelled far to reach me down here,” a dry, dusty voice croaked out of the shadows in front of them. “Though I doubt you truly understand how far you have travelled considering all the help you’ve received.”

There was a sound like two bones rubbing across each other that only belatedly did Lilit realize was a sigh. “There are two choices that lie before you today. One, I can allow you to return to The Inn, whole and hale, but never to return to the dungeon again. Once you quit, it will not accept you back. But you may live out the rest of your second lives in peace. Maybe you can open up a little shop like the others before you. Or…” The voice trailed off.

After a few tense moments it was Izumi who broke the silence, “Or what?” she shouted.

“Or I can grind your bones down to dust and you can join my companions here in serving me.” With that the sound of stone against stone ground out all around them. Lilit looked around and saw the lids to the sarcophagi slowly sliding off of the tombs. It wasn’t long before a loud crash echoed throughout the room as the first lid fell onto the floor.

From out of the tomb rose a skeletal figure in rusted armor. In its hand was a rusty sword. Above its head was the label Wight Lvl 2. It crawled out of the sarcophagus and stepped toward the party. Skin still hung tattered between its ribs and weathered and shrunken on its face. Milky eyes locked onto the group.

“Blunted weapons everyone! Back up to the door and let them come to us.” Lilit called out. She ran up behind Awendala and hooked her hand in the back of her armor, once again guiding her back as she was ready to defend them from the front. “Izumi in the back. Rana you take one flank, Bob take the other. I’ll float.”

She heard everyone sheathing their weapons before pulling out their blunt edged weapons. Rana stepped far out to the side, she’d need a lot of room for her quarterstaff to move through without hitting one of them on accident.

Several more booms sounded throughout the room as more lids were thrown to the floor and more wights exited their tombs. Once they were standing outside though, they stopped and seemed to be waiting. Not all of the sarcophagi opened up, and Lilit wasn’t sure what that meant for them. All told there were six wights. Four armored wights with swords, and two robed wights with staffs topped with dark crystals. Probably magic users then. Damn.

“New plan. I’ll take Bob’s flank. Izumi I need you to send Bob after those magic users. They’ll more than likely hang back and try to hit us from afar.” Lilit said over her shoulder.

“Got it! Don’t forget my wand is out of uses so all I have are arrows, and I’m running low on those too.” Izumi calmly informed everyone.

“Shit, I forgot about that. I guess focus on Bob as much as you can. Take headshots that you’re confident of. Those seemed to still be effective before, right?” Lilit ordered.

Izumi nodded her head, “Yeah, for the most part.”

“So…you have chosen death,” the voice from the shadows sounded disappointed. “So be it.” A skeletal hand appeared out of the darkness and waved the wights forward.

The armored wights surged forward as fast as the ghouls. The only thing that kept the party from being immediately overwhelmed was that they were as far from the first tombs as they could get.

Lilit stepped out to the side opposite to Rana right as Bob flickered out only to appear an instant later behind the closest mage wight. As the warriors got close, all funneled into the aisle between the tombs, Awendala let out a large wave of flame. She breathed her flame as long as she could, she was interrupted when the first wight ran through the flames and she had to bring her shield to bear. It was still several seconds of sustained fire breath.

One of the wights lay withered and smoking on the ground. The other three warriors crashed into Awendala’s shield. Lilit immediately stepped to the side, shoved a smite down her mace, and swung with all her might.

A bright flash filled the room and the wight she’d struck in the side turned to her as what was left of its arm fell off and clattered on the floor. It stumbled slightly as it stepped toward Lilit, but was quick with its sword. Lilit barely got her shield up and in place in time.

The sword struck her shield and her arm ached from the blow. She stepped back, which was a mistake as she opened up the room for the wight to swing at her again. Again she barely got her shield in place to intercept the strike in time. Again her arm ached from the force of the blow.

There was another bright light, this time an icy blue and centered on Lilit. A freezing feeling swept over her mace arm, like she’d plunged it into icy, arctic waters. She glanced down quickly to see ice coating her arm and side. She skipped backward just in time to avoid a follow up strike from the warrior wight.

With all her might, Lilit flexed and bent her arm, cracking the ice. She raised her shield arm up in preparation of the next sword swing. But it never came. In front of her the wight stumbled to the side with an arrow bored through the side of its head.

Lilit didn’t give it time to recover. She surged forward and swing her mace up and into its skull. There was a sickly squelchy crunching sound as her mace became stuck inside the wight’s face. She gave a hard yank that sent the wight stumbling to the side. Awendala’s foot came in out of nowhere and slammed into the wight’s chest as Lilit pulled and the mace came free.

The wight collapsed onto the floor and didn’t get back up. Lilit looked around and the other warrior wights had been dealt with as well. Bob was struggling against the two mage wights, but Bob was at least keeping them occupied for now.

Lilit nodded at the others, and they began marching down the aisle. As they neared the mages, a figure finally stepped out of the shadows. It was hooded and cloaked in black. Its features obscured by shadow. Only the glowing red eyes visible in the hood.

“That will be far enough I think,” the dry desiccated voice from before spoke out of the hood. Above its head hung Lich Lvl 3. It waved its hand toward Bob and a black ray shot out, striking Bob in the chest. Bob became frozen in place and the mage wights turned on it. A few moments and several flashes of power later Bob faded from view. Fuck.

“Rana, you and I will handle the wights. Awendala…keep the lich busy. Izumi, do what you can.” Lilit murmured to her group as they continued to close the distance.

In the short lull that followed, Lilit pulled out her prayer book and quickly chanted a ward around Awendala. She was going to need it more than anyone else.

The wights seemed to need a moment to recover from the power they threw out to destroy Bob. The party took advantage of that. As soon as the ward snapped around Awendala she leapt forward and Lilit and Rana followed on her heels. When they were one set of tombs away from the wights Awendala let out a loud roar. The room almost seemed to vibrate from the sound and dust swirled in the air.

The wights and lich all turned toward Awendala. The wights’ staffs lit up briefly and Awendala slid to a stop. Spells flew through the air, but passed through the space in front of Awendala, where she would have been if she hadn’t stopped.

Lilit and Rana did not stop. They ran forward and as quickly as they could engaged the wights. Lilit was a few seconds behind the taller, faster Rana as she sprinted past Awendala.

Lilit soon crashed into her target. Literally. She miscalculated how fast she could stop on the smooth stone floor and instead slammed straight into the wight, sending it stumbling back and knocking it over.

She recovered more quickly than the wight did. She dove forward and began raining down blows with her mace. They weren’t her most powerful swings, but they came down fast and without pause. The wight soon lay still under Lilit’s assault.

She stood up and backed away, breathing heavily. Awendala was doing her best to keep the lich engaged while avoiding its attacks. At this close a range, the lich wasn’t sending out spells. It had a large mace in its hand it was swinging at Awendala as it towered over her. It had a lot more force than it probably should seeing how much it shoved Awendala over when she couldn’t avoid the swing and instead took it on the shield. The shield was quickly becoming very dented and bent out of shape. She must have already burned through Lilit’s ward.

Awendala wasn’t completely defensive though. The lich needed a few precious moments to wind up its swing and in these split seconds, Awendala would lash out with her own large hammer. She struck like lightning despite how heavy her warhammer was. It kept the lich dancing back and disrupted many of its swings. The few hits the lich did receive seemed to barely faze it though. It just kept coming.

Lilit ran over toward Awendala. She had to skirt around an opened tomb and its fallen lid, but she eventually came up along the flank of the lich. She couldn’t stand too close to Awendala when she was swinging that warhammer, its swings took up a lot more space than her attacks with her sword did. From this close, she could tell that the lich seemed to tower over everyone in the group at close to eight feet tall.

Lilit lunged forward as the Lich danced back to avoid a swing from Awendala. She struck it in the back near its hip. It staggered away from Lilit, turning slightly toward her. As it was distracted, Awendala’s hammer pulsed a bright blue for a moment before she swept it horizontally in a huge sweeping strike. It looked like she’d activated her sweep skill as she stepped forward into the lich’s space.

The lich took that hit right under its ribs, and it was not able to shake this one off. It stumbled heavily to the side. Then Rana was there with her whirling quarterstaff. She struck out at the lich several times, landing hard strikes to its upper body and head before it stepped back.

With more agility than something so large should have, it leapt backward putting space between it and them. They were now all firmly past the line of sarcophagi and into the deeper shadows at the back of the room. Behind the lich was what looked like a mad scientist’s lab. Strange and dark experiments were obviously taking place before they arrived. The lich raised its arm and a black orb flickered into existence an instant before it was sent hurtling forward.

Awendala rushed forward after the lich. She brought her shield up as the lich shot out its spell. The spell hit her shield like a freight train. She hadn’t had her feet planted and was shoved over onto her back as she slid down the aisle.

Lilit and Rana didn’t have time to stop to worry about Awendala though. Lilit had her prayer book in hand and flipped it open as she ran to close the distance with the lich. She chanted out her healing prayer as she swung her mace with all her might.

With her attention split the way it was, it was little wonder that she didn’t concentrate enough on Awendala to target her with her healing. Instead she targeted the lich. As it was enveloped in the soft golden glow of her healing prayer, the lich seemed to freeze up and its body seized up with its head thrown back and a deathly wail echoed through the room.

As the light receded, the lich was left cowering over and smoking slightly. Lilit was stunned and frozen for a moment she’d almost forgotten that healing seemed to harm the undead. Rana was not. She quickly stepped forward and began to take the lich apart with her sweeps and spins as she struck with lightning speed and precision.

The lich flinched and flopped away from them, seemingly vastly weakened from Lilit’s healing spell. And then Awendala was there and swinging her warhammer like some avenging goddess. Lilit had to take a step back to stay out of Rana’s and Awendala’s way. It didn’t take but another minute before the lich stopped moving and lay still upon the ground.

“Ummm, guys. We may have a problem,” Rana spoke slowly. The group turned back to her standing over the lich’s body. The body that should have evaporated or whatever and dropped a loot bag by now. “It looks like it’s getting back up.” And sure enough, Lilit saw that the lich’s body had begun to twitch and snap back into place under its heavy cloak.

Lilit and Awendala jumped forward and they and Rana began quickly raining down blows upon the lich’s body, trying to break it faster than it could put itself back together.

“Izumi!” Lilit called out, “Look for its phylactery. I don’t know what it could be, smash everything if you have to.”

Izumi didn’t say anything, but there was very soon the sound of breaking glass and shattering ceramics along with other sounds of destruction. The other three continued to beat down on the slowly reforming lich, but as time went on the process seemed to speed up. They were in a losing battle against time.

“I think I found it!” Izumi cried. “It’s the only thing like it and the only thing that doesn’t seem to be part of any experiments. But I can’t break it.”

“Well, what is it?” Lilit asked.

Izumi jogged over to the others holding something out in her hand. “It’s a silver bracelet. I can’t break it.”

“Here,” Awendala held out her hand. Izumi dropped it in her hand. She looked at it for a moment before she dropped it on the ground. Then she stepped back, pulled her warhammer over her head in a two handed grip and then smashed it down onto the bracelet.

The lich screamed in pain for only the second time. Awendala seemed to take that as a good sign. She swung her hammer down two more times, flattening and distorting the shape of the bracelet. Each time the lich let out an ear piercing shriek of pain.

Finally she bent down and picked up the misshapen piece of silver in her hands. With a casual flick of her wrists, she snapped the metal in two. A darkness seemed to congeal around the two broken pieces of what once was a bracelet. They dripped out of the broken ends onto the ground as the lich’s body stopped trying to repair itself.

The next moment the body disappeared and a large loot bag appeared in its place. At the back of the room a light shone out and traced around the outside of a door that hadn’t been there before. Looks like they wouldn’t have to look for the exit this time.

Chapter Text

Their entrance into The Inn was much more subdued than the first time. People still looked up from their meals and conversations to see who was coming through the doors. But, seeing their party instead of the newly arrived, everyone went back to what they were doing fairly quickly.

Sapphire once again greeted them once the door had closed behind the last of them. “Well, look what we have here. You ladies doing ok? You look a little worse for wear.”

“We’re ok,” Lilit hedged.

At the same time Izumi spoke up, “You see everyone coming through here right? Have you noticed people saying anything about the dungeons getting harder?”

Sapphire paused for a moment before plastering a very fake smile upon her face, “Can’t say that I have. Are you sure you’re ok?” She looked very concerned and anxious beneath her fake smile.

“Really? Because—” Lilit clapped a hand over Izumi’s mouth.

“We’re fine. Is it possible to have something sent up to our suite?” She changed the subject. Something wasn’t right here, but now wasn’t the time to push it. They were exhausted and weary from their time in the dungeon, and this looked like it would need more subtlety than any of them were capable of right now.

Sapphire’s smile became a hair less brittle. “Of course. You just want your usual orders?” Everyone nodded their assent and Sapphire turned and headed back to the kitchens.

“What was that about?” Izumi asked angrily after Lilit finally removed her hand. It was covered in Izumi’s spit from her attempt at licking it to get Lilit to take her hand away.

“She’s right, something is wrong. She looked…scared,” Rana answered for Lilit. “Let’s take this upstairs. We can discuss it in our suite.”

Izumi took Rana’s hand in hers. “Ok. But, first we need to put up a request for a party member. No telling how long it will take to weed through people for that.” They all agreed and headed to the bulletin board by the fireplace.

“First, check to see if anyone is advertising solo. We might luck out and not need to put up an advertisement.” Izumi suggested.

“Even if we found someone, we should still put out an advertisement. The more choices we have the more likely we’ll find exactly what we need.” Lilit argued.

“The more choices we have, the more people will be disappointed they won’t get to see all of our beautiful faces every day.” Izumi countered. Lilit just rolled her eyes.

They scoured the bulletin board for several minutes. Most of the posts were parties looking for people, usually any support classes. Especially healers. Slokenra hadn’t been wrong. Very few people seemed to choose healer capable classes. There were only a handful of individuals advertising to join a party.

One was another guardian class like Awendala. Another was a sentinel class. When Lilit looked it up they seemed to be basic fighters with heavy armor, so likely another tank as well. An elementalist, who seemed to be like a monk but with a single element to empower their attacks. Sounded like The Last Airbender type shit to her. Could be useful. Finally there was a warlock. Any kind of caster could be useful, but apparently the warlock was very offensively focused according to the Delver, which is kind of what they were looking for.

Lilit pulled the info for both the warlock and the elementalist onto her Delver, they looked the most promising. She showed her choices off to the rest of the group and they all agreed to contact the two to see about interviews.

Awendala had been writing up a post on her Delver while everyone else searched the board. She turned it so everyone else could see her post. She’d highlighted the fact their group came with a dedicated healer class, which should draw quite a few people. No one had any suggestions so she sent the post to the board and they all watched as it popped up on there.

Rana suggested giving it a day or two to draw people in before talking to anyone. So, Lilit sent out a message to the warlock and elementalist asking to meet in two days time. The elementalist came back right away to let her know they’d already joined a group, but thanks. Lilit shrugged and let the group know.

Awendala pointed out that their food was probably almost ready, so as a group they all trooped up the stairs and found their suite. Coming inside, Lilit immediately headed to her room to peel out of her armor and to take a quick shower.

When she came back out she heard voices coming from down the hall so she headed in that direction. She found Izumi and Rana still in their armor, or in Izumi’s case her robes. They’d brought the food into the dining room and were sitting around the table.

Lilit found her spot and sat down, digging in right away. Something about hot food after two days of dry rations just made things taste better. A few minutes later Awendala joined them, also obviously just out of the shower with her wet hair pulled back.

The rest of the night passed quietly. Izumi and Rana headed to the large bathhouse room in the back after they ate. Lilit and Awendala loitered around the table for a while after they’d finished eating. Neither seemed to want to leave, but both were yawning before long.

After her third yawn in ten minutes, Lilit had had enough. “Hey. I’m sorry, but I am really tired. Do you…do you want to come back to my room?” Her mind blanked for a second from her own boldness. “To sleep!” She tacked on hurriedly. “Just to sleep. I…well I really liked sleeping in your arms last night.” By now her entire face was burning from embarrassment. And Awendala was just sitting there. Not that she could bring herself to look up and meet her eyes though.

Finally, after several silent moments, Lilit raised her eyes. Awendala was beaming at her with the warmest smile. “Ok.” That was it. Did Lilit hope she’d say something more? Maybe, but that wasn’t really the kind of person that Awendala was. This was fine. It was perfect.

Awendala stood up from the table and held out her hand to Lilit. She took it and was pulled from her seat. Still holding hands, they walked down the hall together. Awendala stopped at her room and Lilit waited while she ran in to get some sleepwear. When she came back out, a small pile of clothes in hand, she grabbed Lilit’s hand once again and they continued down the hall.

Once inside, they took turns changing into pajamas and getting ready for bed in the bathroom. When Awendala came back out, Lilit found her breath stolen from her lungs. Awendala stood in the doorway in tiny little shorts that clung to her small hips and showed off the miles of muscular leg she had. Tiny scales started scattered around her ankles. They grew in size as they reached further up her legs. They were nearly the size of Lilit’s palm by the time they reached the outside of her thighs. On top she had on a loose short sleeved shirt that billowed open at her neck, leaving her sharp collar bones on display. Her throat bounced as Lilit continued to stare in silence.

“I-is this ok?” Awendala asked shyly.

“Y-yeah. Let’s, um. Let’s get in bed.” Lilit threw back the sheets on one side and slipped quickly into bed.

The bed dipped as Awendala slipped beneath the covers on her side. Lilit lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling. It had been her idea. Rather, it had been her unfiltered mouth that had gotten her into this, and now she was too shy to do anything but stare sightlessly at the ceiling listening to her heart beating itself out of her chest.

“Hey,” Lilit felt Awendala’s fingers on the side of her jaw turning her head to look at her. “You ok? It’s ok if you’re not. I can go back to my room, no harm done.” The honesty and empathy shining in her eyes was what finally allowed Lilit to get over her nerves. This was Awendala. Dependable, quiet, strong, honest Awendala. There wasn’t anything to be scared of.

Lilit rolled onto her side and scooched in close to Awendala’s side. She lay her head on Awendala’s chest and looked up at her. With a deep breath, “I’m ok.” She let her hand rest on Awendala’s stomach. Her shirt had ridden up, and Lilit could feel the steel of her muscles beneath the silk of her skin. Heat bloomed in her center. She went to pull her hand away, but Awendala reached up and rested her hand atop hers. With her other arm, she pulled Lilit in closer until she was nuzzled up to Awendala’s side.

“So, do you usually sleep with the lights on or,” Awendala’s voice trailed off in question.

“Gods damnit.” Lilit complained before sliding out of bed. She ran over and switched off the light before jumping back into bed and curling herself back up into Awendala. Awendala just laughed quietly before placing a quick kiss on the top of her head.

They lay like that for a while, just enjoying being close before they finally drifted off. Lilit had one of the best sleeps of her life curled up in Awendala’s arms. She’d never felt safer.

***

Lilit woke wrapped up in warmth. She couldn’t help but snuggle in a little deeper to Awendala’s body behind her. A small chuckle breathed into her neck sent shivers down her spine.

“Guess you’re awake then?” Awendala asked as her arm briefly squeezed Lilit. Her voice was a little more husky than normal from sleep.

Lilit hummed in the back of her throat, “Hmmmm. I guess so. But we can stay like this for a few minutes can’t we?” She pulled Awendala’s arm more firmly around her middle.

Awendala kissed her quickly on the cheek. “I would love to, but my bladder is about to explode,” she rolled away from Lilit and practically ran into the bathroom.

By the time Awendala came back out of the bathroom, Lilit was up and rifling through her wardrobe for some casual clothes. “We should probably do some shopping today,” she threw over her shoulder. “I could use some new armor. You need a new shield. And I kind of want some different casual clothes to wear.”

“Mmmmm. And a scale scrubber addition for my shower room.” Awendala added. Lilit smiled at her over her shoulder.

Awendala left to go back to her room and get dressed. Lilit donned one of the billowy pirate shirts in a pale blue and a pair of the tight, brown linen breeches. She really hoped she could find somewhere to get a proper sports bra and tighter shirts. Maybe even some leggings.

While she was getting dressed, Lilit received a message on her Delver. The warlock from the bulletin board yesterday had reached out and agreed to meet with them tomorrow afternoon. Lilit started a party chat for their group and let the girls know. A few minutes later Awendala sent a message that she’d gotten several people reaching out about their ad as well. Though there were apparently already a few she felt they’d have no problems scratching off the list right away.

When Lilit arrived in the kitchen, it was just her and Awendala that seemed to be up and about. They ate a quick breakfast from the stock in the fridge. Lilit wasn’t ready to spend so much time alone with Awendala, so she suggested asking the others if they wanted to come shopping with them. Awendala didn’t seem disappointed. Just planted a kiss on top of Lilit’s head as she headed into the hall to bang on Rana’s door. It was better than even odds that Izumi would be in there too.

They both agreed and soon the entire group was setting off toward the stairs to the third floor. They stopped at Smulgom’s first to sell off their extra equipment. Rana ended up getting quite a bit for her used armor. Apparently gear provided by the gods or the system or whatever was in charge was of pretty decent quality and was easy to recycle or improve them into new items.

When everything was done and said, Rana managed to negotiate a pretty good deal for all of them. With the money found in the dungeon and the returned loot, Lilit ended up with three-hundred seventy-seven gold pieces and six silver pieces. She was doing quite a bit better than when she first arrived. She was fairly certain she could upgrade her armor and even order a good sized tub for her bathroom. She honestly wasn’t sure what else to spend her money on right now except for casual clothes which she didn’t expect to cost much of anything based on prices so far.

The next stop was across the aisle to Steve to pick up some more potions. Lilit asked about different types of mana potions. There were higher level potions that absorbed more mana per minute, but the jump in price was substantial. Lilit decided to buy one just in case and a few of the regular mana potions as well. Then she made sure to buy herself a few health potions. She’d learned just how important they were in the dungeon, even to a healer like her.

From there they headed to Slokenra’s smithy. Awendala was able to find an even larger tower shield that covered her from feet to shoulders when rested on the ground. If she were to crouch down a little, her entire body would easily fit behind it. With her massive strength it wouldn’t pose any problems for her either. Lilit thought that the dragons etched into the front of the shield didn’t hurt as a selling point for Awendala either. Slokenra offered to have it sent to their suite.

Slokenra did not sell armor though, only weapons and shields. She was able to give them directions to a part of the floor where there were a handful of good quality armorers. Some were even reported to sell enchanted gear, which got everyone’s attention.

Lilit followed behind the group. She walked close to Awendala bumping, well her shoulder into Awendala’s bicep, but it still counted. She loosely held onto Awendala’s hand. It made her giddy and she squeezed her hand every time Lilit consciously noticed. It felt so natural, and made her way happier than it probably should have.

They walked down several rows of shops before they found themselves in the square that Slokenra had described to them. There were several shops specializing in different types of armor. Thinking about it, it made sense. Leather armor needed different skills than chainmail which was different than plate. There was some overlap, but specializing probably allowed them to focus on a narrower skill set that hopefully meant improved quality.

There were also a few enchanted armor shops, though they seemed to be more focused on enchanting robes for casters than adding enchantments to normal armor. Lilit called out to the other two to halt.

When they were all huddled up together she started, “I think we should split up. We all need different types of armor, and there’s no point in all of us being bored while we wait for each other.

“Plus,” she added, “the sooner we finish the sooner we can visit the suite shop upstairs.” They’d already discussed some of the additions they all wanted. Izumi had stated emphatically that she needed a much bigger bed. Something about having the room for six or seven people. Yikes!

“Don’t you want to go clothes shopping too?” Awendala asked. It was sweet that she’d remembered the offhand comment Lilit made this morning.

“I want to get the necessities out of the way before I get anything else,” Lilit answered. She honestly wasn’t sure if she’d have the energy to shop that long. They’d already done a lot of walking just to sell and buy the things they had. They still needed to trek back and head upstairs as well. “I’ll see how I feel when we’re done.”

Awendala hummed in agreement. “I’ll go with you if you do.”

Lilit beamed up at her. She’d hoped Awendala would want to continue spending time with her, but she hadn’t wanted to push it. She’d had plenty of more masc girlfriends, similar to Awendala, that hated shopping and refused to go with her.

“Thank you. I’d love that.” Lilit looked away from Awendala’s enchanting gaze and noticed that Rana and Izumi were already heading off to do their own shopping. Rude…but understandable she guessed.

Lilit gave one last squeeze to Awendala’s hand before she tried to let go. But, Awendala wasn’t having any of it. She dragged Lilit closer before she bent down, tilting Lilit’s head back, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. She smiled at Lilit as she stood back up to her full height. Lilit’s face burned, whether it was with desire or something else was anyone’s guess.

Awendala winked and headed off across the square to where plate armor was on display. Well, that was certainly one way to say goodbye. One that Lilit thoroughly enjoyed and hoped continued to happen. Lilit’s smile wouldn’t leave her face and she practically skipped over to a different armor shop.

Though her class suggested it would work with heavy armor, Lilit wasn’t sure she had the strength or stamina to pull off full plate the way Awendala had. The leather armor she’d started with was actually fairly light and it still dragged at her during fights. She was slowly getting used to it though.

Lilit wanted something a little sturdier. Something that would offer more protection than the leather had offered since she wasn’t dexterous enough to avoid everything coming in at her. Nor was she skilled enough to catch everything on her shield.

The shop she headed toward seemed to be a mix of leather and scales. Some of the armor on the stands in the window looked reminiscent of ancient Chinese armors she’d seen in a museum before. But that wasn’t quite right either. It was like someone took those designs and then tweaked and modernized them somewhat.

Lilit took a look at one of the sets of armor, and unlike her current armor, this seemed to be a single piece. She picked at it in places as she walked around the stand.

“Welcome!” A voice boomed out from the back of the store, causing Lilit to jump a little. “You have a fine eye for armor. Svartalfar made armor is some of the best you can buy. It’s strong and durable, but still light enough to move freely in. Yes, uh,” the man’s voice trailed off for a second as he came into view, “ma’am. You won’t find anything better.” He recovered quickly.

The man was slender and tall. He had dark grey features and short bone white hair. His ears were pointed and slanted away from his head for several inches. He looked like an anime version of a drow with his long, knife like ears.

Svartalfar sounded familiar as well. It niggled at the back of her mind. She desperately wished for the internet and the ability to instantly search for information.

“Oh, you must be from Midgard. Haven’t seen one of your kind in a while. Welcome to my shop, little lady. My name is Alfred. What can I do for you?” The man, or she guessed svartalfar, stopped in front of her looking her up and down.

Midgard set off the connection that Lilit had needed to make to recognize svartalfar. Midgard was the name of the earthly realm given by Norse mythology. Svartalfar were some type of elf. She wasn’t as familiar with the mythology, but based on his appearance dark elf or drow wouldn’t actually be that far off.

The idea of beings from her own world’s mythology actually existing was wild to think about. She wondered how many other myths were actually based in reality.

 Lilit mentally shook herself to get back on track. “I’m a healer class. And while I do have some offensive ability, I’ve found that I’d like a little more defense than the light leather that I first got. But, I don’t have the strength for heavy armor.”

“Then you’ve stumbled into the right place. Like I said, these are svartalfar designs.” Alfred picked up the edge of the armor Lilit stood in front of. “The leather of the main body is thick, but light weight. The scales across the top reinforce it without adding as much weight as full plates would. How about we try a set on and see how you like it?” He sounded very excited.

He led Lilit further back into the shop to an armor dummy with a smaller set of armor on it. The leather of the armor had been dyed a deep midnight blue and the scales were a bright silver. There were also silver shoulder pauldrons shaped like snarling wolf heads. It was truly a beautiful set of armor and Lilit was in love already. If the armor even remotely fit, she might drop her whole pile of gold on this armor. She needed to be careful, but didn’t know if she’d have the willpower.

Alfred quickly untied one side of the armor and removed it from the model. Lilit stepped forward and he draped it over her shoulders. It slid on like a robe, and then the front wrapped around and tied to the far side. It hung down to her knees like a heavy dress. Alfred tied a blue and silver belt around her waist, cinching it to her upper body. The pauldrons hung a little heavy on her shoulders, but otherwise it wasn’t that much heavier than her other armor. It was much easier to put on though, and was at least a little more comfortable.

She squatted down low and felt the ‘skirt’ around her legs flare out to accommodate her. She then lunged forward, jumped up and down a few times, and basically anything else she could think of to make sure it fit and wouldn’t fall off or out of place. It all seemed pretty snug.

She added a set of vambraces of the same blue leather covered in silver scales. Alfred wouldn’t sell her a single vambrace, which was all she really needed since she already had her wing-shield. He promised to have it delivered to her suite today for what Lilit felt was a very reasonable one-hundred ten gold. She didn’t have Rana to help, and didn’t even bother to try and haggle the price down. It made her feel like she was trying to rip off the merchant just thinking about it.

Lilit met the rest of her party outside in the square twenty minutes later. Since Rana already had her own armor she’d gone with Izumi to help haggle down the price of what they had all assumed would be the most expensive of the sets.

The group decided they’d take a short break and get some lunch before heading up to the fourth floor. They headed back to the stairs and headed down.

Chapter Text

When they reached the tavern downstairs, for the first time they weren’t seen to by Sapphire. Instead a young man took their orders and brought their drinks. When Lilit looked around she couldn’t find Sapphire anywhere in the tavern at all. It wasn’t unreasonable that the elfen woman couldn’t be working every single time the party went downstairs. However, Lilit couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with the panicked look in her eyes when Izumi had questioned her yesterday.

No one said anything, but the entire lunch was much quieter and more subdued than normal. She caught the others looking around the room searching as well. Lilit began to worry that there was in fact something going on with the dungeon. She just didn’t know how to figure out what it was. There really wasn’t anyone here that she knew or trusted well enough to give weight to what they had to say. Even Sapphire would have been stretching it a bit as far as trust went, but she’d been so helpful up until now it was hard not to want to hear from the bubbly woman.

They ate their lunch quickly and then headed back upstairs. They skipped up to the fourth floor and straight into the helpful arms of the automatons that seemed to run the suite shop. Rana ended up being the only one that didn’t add anything extra to her room. Lilit ordered a bathtub big enough for two with several sets of massaging jets and other assorted features. It put her back another forty-five gold. Awendala got the slightly tweaked scale cleaning and oiling setup that she’d looked at the last time they were here. Izumi got the biggest bed she could order. It was said to sleep up to half a dozen and cost her nearly one hundred gold. If she managed to have more lovers than that she’d have to set up a rotation Rana teased her.

Rana entertained herself helping Izumi outfit her new bed. There were several hardpoints and rings set into the frame and head and foot boards that Lilit didn’t understand. When she asked about it, Izumi and Rana couldn’t stop giggling. Lilit decided it wasn’t worth the effort to deal with them when they got like that.

Afterward Lilit and Izumi both wanted to go clothes shopping for more casual attire. Rana and Awendala tagged along with little fanfare. They spent a few hours wandering through what could have passed for an almost typical mall full of various vendors selling less dungeon-centric items. They even had a food court in the middle of the mall.

Lilit was able to find several shirts, leggings, skirts, shoes, and other various clothes that she’d be much happier in than the weird piratey crap that came standard issue in their wardrobes. All told she dropped another ten gold and three silver. Izumi fell in love with nearly twice as many clothes and shoes as Lilit and still only ended up spending a few more gold than her. Lilit worried a little that Izumi was going to need to go back to the suite shop and order a large closet to fit it all in.

When they returned home Lilit was tired. Izumi still had plenty of energy and ended up dragging Rana back downstairs to the tavern with her. Awendala quietly declined her invitation and stayed in the suite with Lilit.

When it was just the two of them, Awendala invited Lilit to cuddle up with her on the couch in the sitting room at the front of the suite. She was a little apprehensive about being out in the open where the others could come in and see them. Not that she was ashamed of being intimate or close with Awendala, but she’d never been truly comfortable with being affectionate in front of others.

Something about Awendala just seemed to put her at ease though. She quickly found herself curled up around the warm and firm body of this striking, kind, caring woman. She wrapped an arm around Awendala’s waist and was surprised when she came into contact with warm, smooth skin as Awendala’s shirt had ridden up.

After freezing for a moment, she quickly found herself tracing inane patterns into Awendala’s side. There was a large scale on Awendala that her fingers would occasionally glide over. She hadn’t been sure what to expect when she first saw them, but they weren’t much harder than the rest of her skin. A little tougher. A little smoother. And a little warmer oddly enough. But not unpleasant in the least.

Awendala leaned over and placed a lingering kiss on Lilit’s head while she breathed in her scent. It warmed Lilit’s heart to feel so obviously cared about. They’d only known each other for a few days at this point. Less than a week. But she couldn’t help feeling drawn to her solid strength and tenderness.

If she was honest with herself, she felt drawn to Rana’s passion and Izumi’s unbridled excitement as well. Yet, she wasn’t quite ready to look at those feelings too closely so she pushed them away to deal with another day. She knew she couldn’t kick the can down the road forever. The others had all expressed interest in multiple partners, and eventually Lilit would need to figure out for herself if she was comfortable being a part of that, even peripherally. But that was a problem for future Lilit. Present Lilit was very much focused on the muscle mommy whose lap she had practically crawled into.

Awendala’s lips brushed against Lilit’s forehead, and Lilit couldn’t stop herself from raising her own head to meet those lips. They touched in a tender caress. Lilit pulled back and looked into Awendala’s eyes, darkened with need.

She pushed herself up to reach her lips again. She straddled Awendala’s lap to reach her. Lilit’s lips parted in a gasp that Awendala swallowed. Awendala slipped her tongue between Lilit’s lips and glided it along Lilit’s gingerly. She moaned into Lilit’s mouth as the kiss deepened and Lilit’s belly filled with warmth.

Awendala gently pressed Lilit back onto the couch until she was lying atop her. Lilit relished the full weight of Awendala pressing her down. She ground her hips into Awendala’s chasing for any friction against her center.

Lilit scratched her nails up and down Awendala’s back. Feeling those thick muscles flex under her fingers. She pulled Awendala’s shirt up until she could get her hand underneath it. Skin on skin once again.

Awendala broke their kiss, leaving Lilit panting while she trailed more kisses down Lilit’s jaw and then her neck. Lilit tilted her head to give her better access. Lilit felt Awendala nip gently at her neck before soothing the sting with a swipe of her tongue. She trailed her lips, biting, licking, and kissing her way up to Lilit’s lips. She swallowed Lilit’s moans with her kiss.

“Ok. Let’s take this somewhere a little more private. Yeah?” Lilit suggested, pushing Awendala’s shoulders. The last thing she wanted was to be in the middle of something compromising when Izumi and Rana walked back through the front door.

With molten eyes, Awendala sat up straddling Lilit’s thighs. She had to blink a few times before the words seemed to sink in. Silently she stood up off the couch and reached her hand down to help Lilit up.

Not letting go of her hand, Awendala led them down the hall to her room. It was exactly the same as Lilit’s except decorated in warm reds and oranges reminiscent of fall leaves. Lilit didn’t have much time to take things in before Awendala was at her lips again. She swung her around and pressed her against the door as her tongue danced along Lilit’s.

Awendala slid her thigh between Lilit’s and she immediately ground herself down onto it. Fuck, she wasn’t going to last long, at least the first time. Lilit buried her hand in Awendala’s hair as she cradled her face with the other. Her hand bumped into Awendala’s small horn and her hand latched onto it. It was hard and smooth, but warm to the touch. And it seemed to be sensitive because Awendala groaned into her mouth as she ground her thigh into Lilit.

Awendala’s hands landed on Lilit’s waist and squeezed. One slid upward, over her side and up her ribs until it sat briefly just below her breast. With another groan that Lilit gladly swallowed, Awendala slid her hand up and cupped Lilit’s breast. Her thumb flicked over her nipple, bringing it to a stiff peak through her clothing. She pinched it between two fingers and Lilit threw her head back.

She gasped for breath as the world seemed to tilt around her. She was dizzy with desire that had come on quick and fast like lightning striking her nervous system. But gods, she could not get enough of kissing this woman. Her lips were soft, yet firm. She didn’t demand control, she gently guided Lilit.

Both hands slid down and cupped Lilit’s bottom. Then she was being lifted into the air and carried back to the bed. Awendala lay her down gently before she stood back up. She yanked the shirt over her head.

Awendala wasn’t wearing a bra underneath and Lilit froze as her eyes roved over her body. Awendala’s breasts were small and high but perky. Barely enough for a handful, but Lilit wanted her hands on them so bad. Her nipples were dark and peaked in arousal. Small scales swirled in patterns across her torso. They ran across her ribs and cupped under her breasts and skimmed across their tops. A line of scales ran up along each side of the V Lilit could see rising from her hips, peeking above her pants.

Then she was shoving her pants down, her underwear a second behind as it stuck to her wetness. Red curls trailed down between her long, toned legs, and all Lilit wanted to do was bury herself in them. She wanted to smell and taste Awendala. To carve herself into her flesh and bone until they were one.

Lilit lay there for a moment just stunned into silence as she took in the raw beauty that was Awendala. Awendala stood there and practically preened with delight as Lilit dragged her gaze up and down her entire body. Absolute perfection.

And then it was her turn. She sat up enough to tear her own shirt off her body, followed closely by her sports bra. Lilit’s mouth quirked up in a smile when she saw the heat leaking from Awendala’s gaze as she stared. Lilit rolled onto her back and lifted her hips to wiggle out of her pants and underwear which followed her other clothes onto the floor. She lay there, bare upon the sheets. The air cooling her hot skin.

Awendala moved up onto the bed on her knees. She moved with reverence as she climbed up toward Lilit. She spread Lilit’s legs apart with her knees as she came closer. Lilit gulped audibly at the look in her eyes. The pure hunger in those eyes. A small bright ring of green was all that was left as her eyes dilated in excitement. Awendala licked her lips as she stopped directly above Lilit.

Lilit leaned up as Awendala bent down. Their lips met in the middle and they both moaned as Lilit’s tongue darted inside Awendala’s mouth. Lilit reached up and cupped one of Awendala’s breasts. So deliciously soft on her otherwise hard body. Lilit pinched her nipple between her fingers and gave it a small pull.

Awendala pushed her chest toward Lilit as she smiled into their kiss. “Just like that,” she mumbled into her mouth.

So, Lilit reached across to the other breast and repeated her pinching and pulling on Awendala’s nipple. Awendala purred above her. Lilit could feel the literal purr vibrating through Awendala’s chest as she played with her breasts.

Lilit felt herself being pushed back into the bed as Awendala shifted more of her weight on top of her. Lilit shifted her hands from between them to run down Awendala’s back. She let her hands roam down further until she had Awendala’s very firm butt gripped in her hands. She couldn’t help herself when she let go of one cheek just to swat her hand down against it.

Awendala yelped and jerked away from Lilit’s mouth to glare down at her. Lilit couldn’t help but giggle as she shook the sting out of her own palm. It had probably hurt her more than it had Awendala.

“Serves you right,” Awendala grumbled as she watched Lilit shake out the sting.

“I couldn’t help it. They’re just so,” Lilit trailed off and shrugged.

“Uh huh.” Awendala rolled her eyes before bending back down to capture Lilit’s lips.

Awendala’s hands snaked between their bodies and slid downward. She skipped right over where Lilit really wanted her and she began tracing circles on Lilit’s inner thigh. She continued until Lilit broke from their kiss to huff at her in frustration.

Awendala just chuckled. “Is there something wrong?”

“Please,” Lilit begged.

Awendala’s eyes darkened and her hand slid up to the apex of Lilit’s thighs. Awendala’s fingers slid through Lilit’s folds and she threw her head back as she bucked her hips up. Lilit ground herself against Awendala’s probing fingers. Then she slid those fingers a little lower and began teasing at Lilit’s entrance.

“Please, Awendala.”

“Please what?”

“P-please…inside,” Lilit gasped.

Awendala hummed in pleasure as she slipped two fingers inside Lilit. Lilit felt herself squeeze around those fingers as Awendala pushed deeper. Gods her fingers were so long. And thick. Lilit felt a slight burning stretch that quickly eased into a pleasant full feeling. And then Awendala crooked them and began pumping slowly in and out of Lilit. Her fingertips kept pressing into a spot that left Lilit breathless and moaning every time, sending shockwaves of pleasure through her. She was already quickly nearing her peak.

Then Awendala lifted her thumb on top of Lilit’s clit and pressed down. Lightning bolts shot from her clit throughout her entire body as her hips jumped up to meet the touch. Awendala slowly circled Lilit’s clit with her thumb as she kept pumping her fingers in and out of Lilit.

“S-so close,” Lilit stuttered.

In a slightly awed voice, “That’s it. Come. Come for me, Lilit.”

And she did. Her body clenched around Awendala’s fingers. Her hips pushed back against Awendala’s thrusts. Pure electric pleasure flowed through her veins and pulsed out of every pore as she let out the loudest moan that echoed around the room.

Awendala continued to thrust her fingers slowly. Prolonging the feelings for Lilit as long as possible. It felt like an eternity and no time at all before she began to come back down to herself. When her body flopped down against the sheets boneless and wrecked, Awendala pulled her fingers out. Lilit immediately missed them and felt so empty.

Awendala took her fingers and slipped them into her mouth. A deeply depraved smile stretched her face after she sucked them clean and pulled them out with a pop.

This woman was going to be the absolute death of her. Damn that was so hot. Lilit was too wiped out from that orgasm though to do more than stare greedily.

Awendala lay down beside Lilit and scooped her up into her arms. Lilit curled into her, resting her head on her shoulder. It felt so good to just be held after falling apart like that. She needed a minute, and then she was going to rock Awendala’s world.

As soon as she felt the littlest bit more coherent and that her body would respond to her, Lilit rolled over on top of Awendala. She let out a cute little squeak as Lilit pressed their lips together.

“Your turn,” Lilit murmured before she dipped her head back down to attack Awendala’s lips. She trailed kisses down her chin and the side of her jaw. Awendala gave another little squeak and a wild giggle as Lilit kissed the sensitive spot behind her ear. It seemed the big bad dragon was a little ticklish. Lilit tucked that gem away for later.

She nibbled and kissed her way down Awendala’s neck. Then she worked her way back up to Awendala’s lips. Her hands slipped into Awendala’s silky hair until they bumped up against her horns. Lilit traced the shape of them while she continued to kiss her. Awendala broke the kiss and buried her face in Lilit’s neck as small whimpers broke from her.

“Does that feel good?” Lilit stroked her fingers slowly over the horns.

Awendala nodded her head, too overwhelmed to speak. Lilit chuckled before she pulled one of her hands away. She grabbed a fistful of Awendala’s hair and pulled her head back. Awendala’s hips pushed against her as Lilit dipped her head down to steal another kiss. She could feel the wetness soaking her leg as Awendala ground herself against her.

Lilit let Awendala off the hook. For now. She’d explore those horns more later. They had all night after all. She began trailing kisses back down Awendala’s throat, leaving little love bites along the way. Not hard enough to mark, just hard enough to earn little gasps and moans from Awendala’s mouth.

Her lips trailed down over Awendala’s chest and between her breasts. She circled her way over to one of those delectable breasts and licked a circle around her nipple until it was a hard, stiff peak. Then she sucked it into her mouth, flicking her tongue. Awendala arched her back off the bed, pressing her breast more firmly into Lilit’s mouth. Lilit bit down just hard enough to cause Awendala to whimper and writhe under her.

She moved over to Awendala’s other breast and repeated the process. Awendala was so responsive it was hard to not stay there forever playing with her. But, Lilit was on a mission and wouldn’t be deterred.

She reluctantly let Awendala’s nipple slip from her mouth with a wet pop. Her kisses began trailing down Awendala’s body once more. Down her toned stomach. Across to her muscular hips. Down her thick thighs and onto the sensitive inner thigh with small nips of her pale flesh. Then Lilit jumped over to the other hip and worked her way down the other leg with her lips and teeth burning a trail of desire.

When she had Awendala all but panting, hips thrusting up any time Lilit’s mouth came close to her center, Lilit finally placed a light kiss directly on top of Awendala’s clit. That caused a loud moan as Awendala tried to still her body.

Lilit grinned to herself. It had been a long time since she’d had somebody this turned on that they just couldn’t help themselves. Awendala truly wanted her. All of her. And Lilit would give it to her.

With a deep groan, Lilit slipped her tongue between Awendala’s folds. She tasted sweet but kind of spicy at the same time, and Lilit couldn’t get enough of it. She dipped her tongue as deeply between Awendala’s wet folds as she could reach, licking and lapping up as much of her essence as possible.

Awendala had the sheets clutched tightly in her hands as her hips bucked up. Lilit chuckled before pressing another kiss to Awendala’s clit. She sucked it into her mouth before swirling her tongue around it, and Awendala stilled above her. Awendala’s entire body straining and stiff.

Lilit began really licking and sucking on her in earnest. She was soaked from her nose to her chin as she used her entire mouth on Awendala. She lightly scraped her teeth against Awendala’s clit, eliciting a shriek followed by a loud, “Fuck!”

Soon Awendala was truly writhing above her as Lilit devoured her. Then Awendala’s entire body bowed off of the bed, pressing herself into Lilit’s mouth. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as Lilit continued to lick her through her entire orgasm.

When Awendala finally fell limp onto the bed Lilit climbed back up her body leaving a trail of wet kisses. She arrived back at her mouth for a searing kiss. Then she lay down beside Awendala and tucked herself into her side. She rested her head on Awendala’s chest and waited for both of their breathing to come back under control. She was not going to be getting very much sleep tonight.

Chapter Text

The next morning as Lilit came out of Awendala’s room she was greeted by the smirking face of Izumi. Lilit tried to play it off by rolling her eyes when Izumi just wiggled her eyebrows at her, but she could feel her face heating.

“You go girl,” Izumi smacked Lilit playfully on the butt.

Lilit jumped a little while a squeak snuck out of her. “You don’t have to be so…” Lilit waved her hands vaguely to encompass all of Izumi’s short stature.

Izumi’s smile turned more playful, “What? Sexy? Good looking? An amazing lover?” Izumi winked at her, “I’m teasing. I’m just happy for you two. Am I sad that I wasn’t the first one to take a crack at you?” Her eyes traveled up and down Lilit so blatantly that just the look felt lewd. “Maybe. But am I glad that you got laid? Definitely!”

“Don’t be so crude,” Lilit almost stomped like a child. Izumi always just seemed to know how to, and enjoyed pushing her buttons.

Izumi laughed and threw up her hands in surrender. “Ok. Ok. I’m sorry, princess.

“Are you ready for all these interviews?” Izumi changed the subject. “Awendala messaged us soooooo many people.”

Awendala came out of the room just then, “What did I do? I heard my name.”

“There are sooooo many people to interview,” Izumi complained.

Awendala frowned at her, “There are five people.”

“That’s sooooo many,” Izumi whined.

Lilit took the opportunity to laugh while she grabbed Awendala’s hand and started walking toward the kitchen. She needed some coffee if she was going to deal with all of this all day. The plan was to sit down and figure out what they might be looking for in a new party member this morning. This afternoon they would hold the interviews, and hopefully by this evening they’d be inviting someone into their party.

Breakfast was a lively affair. Izumi insisted that whoever they picked needed to be a woman, because she “didn’t do dudes.” Lilit didn’t see what that had to do with anything. While Rana and Awendala were both pan and open to anyone joining the party. Lilit was even more confused about why everyone’s sexual preferences were an important part of the decision making process. She just wanted someone that she could get along with and would fit in with their combat styles. The others looked at her like she was crazy.

Awendala eventually took Lilit off to the side and explained to her that since their party was all open to dating within the party, they’d all assumed that being part of the party and being a prospective romantic partner were synonymous. Lilit was of course flabbergasted.

“I’m open to seeing where things go between us, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to date the other two as well,” Lilit insisted.

“What? Is this more of your human hang-ups? I thought we’d moved past all that when we let Izumi on the team,” Awendala whisper yelled. “Do you not find Rana attractive? I’ve seen the way you look at her when you think no one is looking,” she went on the attack. “And I’ve seen how flustered Izumi makes you with just a few words.”

“F-first of all, Izumi frustrates me. She doesn’t ‘fluster’ me or anything remotely like that,” Lilit argued. “Second of all, yes…Rana is very attractive. That doesn’t mean I want to date her. I’m dating you. I like you.”

“And I like you too. But I also like Izumi and Rana.” Awendala rested her palm on Lilit’s cheek, not letting her look away. “I want to have a relationship with them as well.”

“B-but,” Lilit sputtered.

“It doesn’t mean I like you any less,” Awendala tried to placate her.

Lilit knew that they’d all kind of discussed this before, and she had tacitly agreed with Rana and Awendala about everyone dating everyone when they talked about bringing in Izumi. Did that mean that her not wanting Awendala to be with the others made her a liar? Did she want to be with Rana? Izumi? Could she be open to something like that? She just didn’t know. She wanted to kick this can down the road, to leave it to future Lilit to deal with, but she felt like she was quickly coming up to the point where she either had to put up or shut up. Future Lilit was quickly becoming present Lilit.

“D-does that mean I have to date Rana and Izumi too?” Lilit asked.

“You don’t have to no. No one will make you be with any of us. But, I know they both want to be with you.”

“Oh,” Lilit felt so small. Was she really the one holding them all back? She did find Rana very attractive. And…she also did kind of like Izumi as well. She took a minute to really think about things.

Picturing Awendala curled up with Izumi or Rana didn’t automatically engender jealousy or even frustration in her. She wasn’t to the point where it made her happy to think about her lover with someone else, but she was willing to admit that maybe it wouldn’t be a horrible thing either. She had a feeling that she was going to need to really pay close attention to her feelings, and be willing to communicate about them with the others. Burying her fears and concerns would just make things worse in the long run she suspected.

Maybe she could be open to Rana and Izumi, both with her and with Awendala. But was she ready to let in another person to the mix already? She’d barely even let herself consider just Rana and Izumi. What if the new person and her didn’t get along? Would the others take her side over theirs? Would it be fair to ask them to?

“O-ok. I’ll try harder. Alright?” Lilit asked quietly.

“Ok, sweetheart. You know I’m not trying to push you on anything, but you did kind of already agree to all this.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I really will try harder.”

Awendala placed a tender kiss atop Lilit’s head. Lilit looked up to meet her eyes and Awendala smiled warmly down at her. If the others could be as patient as Awendala then things probably wouldn’t be too bad. But, she knew that Izumi in particular was not a patient person.

When they went back into the dining room, Lilit made the point of sitting next to Rana. She even smiled warmly at her. Rana was the most obvious case of someone to open thigns up to. Izumi was just too much…everything to make Lilit comfortable right now.

The others at the table seemed to sense the change in Lilit. Awendala sat across the table from her instead of beside her, and Izumi hopped up to sit next to Awendala. Rana reached out and patted Lilit on the shoulder with a little squeeze at the end. Lilit couldn’t see what Izumi was doing with her hands beneath the table, but she was leaning over dangerously in order to be in Awendala’s space. Apparently they were actually doing this. Lilit surprisingly didn’t feel much of anything one way or the other. Which was kind of a relief in and of itself.

They continued their discussion about candidates. There was the warlock they had reached out to, a ronin, two berserkers, and one vanguard. Based on their roles alone, any of them would make a good fit. Lilit had been a little surprised to learn that the vanguard class was about the only rogue type class available in the dungeons. Ronin were like paladins with their strict code of conduct, but without the divine magic or anything. Berserkers were pretty self-explanatory honestly. And the offensively focused warlock. Five candidates they’d need to interview and hopefully pick someone from.

The ronin was the first person to meet them in the suite for an interview. His immediate leering at all four of them caused all of their hackles to rise. Lilit tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just awkward. He was more in line with anime beastkin than someone like Rana. He had some kind of animal ears on top of his head, and a tail swaying back and forth behind him, but otherwise looked human.

Before Lilit could ask him anything about himself he declared, “Wow. You three are so beautiful.” Turning toward Awendala, “Sorry, I don’t do muscles. Seems kinda gay.”

All four of them stared at the young man with disbelief. Surely he hadn’t just, but yes he had. Even-keeled Awendala was beginning to turn red and her face was set in a deadly scowl. Izumi started to snicker, muttering something about digging his own grave under her breath. Rana looked like she was ready to commit murder then and there. And Lilit was just dumbfounded.

“I’m kidding. Obviously. But…” he trailed off.

“L-let’s try and stay on topic. What level are you and what kind of role do you provide in a party?” Lilit tried to bring everyone back to the job at hand. She’d already basically written him off, but she could still be professional.

“I’m a level three ronin, and I’m a ‘the more the merrier’ type of partier.” He grinned in what she was sure was meant to be flirtatious but was really just creepy. “I joke. But, seriously I could handle it.” He winked at them, the same creepy smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’m not sure—” Lilit began.

“Get the fuck out you little cretin,” Rana growled in a menacing tone.

The beastkin man across from them became immediately defensive, “What are you talking about? I just got here. I haven’t even had a chance to—”

“Get. Out. Now.” Rana slowly raised off of the couch next to Lilit. Her entire demeanor screamed violence and her willingness to use it. She made a small lunge forward and the ronin fell over himself getting out of the chair.

He jumped up and stomped toward the door, throwing over his shoulder angrily, “Fucking dykes.” The door slammed behind him.

“Well that started well,” Izumi started cackling.

Lilit rested her head in her hands. She could already feel a headache building. They had set up interview times thirty minutes apart, hoping to get through the interviews quickly. None of them expected them to go quite that quickly though, so they had another twenty-five minutes before their next person showed up.

The second interview was only marginally better in that the man, one of the berserkers, showed himself out after declaring he wasn’t here to play tea parties or get his nails done when he laid eyes on the four women. Lilit didn’t even have time to register what kind of being he was.

The third interview at least started much more normally than the others. This was the warlock they’d reached out to. She walked in very timidly, almost hunched into herself. She was an elven woman, though not the same kind as Alfred or Sapphire. Unlike both, she was pale skinned with long blonde hair. Unlike Sapphire she had normal looking eyes instead of them being a solid crystalline color. She had the same long, thin ears like Alfred, but they were more horizontal than vertical. So, elf-like, but not the same kind as either of the elves Lilit had already met. Which begged the question, how many flavors of elf were there?

She settled in her seat across from the party and offered them a small, shy smile. Her fingers twisted in her lap and they could feel the anxiety pouring off the poor girl.

Lilit tried to put her at ease with a warm smile of her own, but the poor girl just blushed and looked away. “So, let’s start off easy. What level are you and what role do you fill in a party?” Lilit asked after a few moments of nervous silence.

The warlock took a deep breath, and still not meeting anyone’s eyes, began mumbling into her lap. Unfortunately it was too quiet for them to hear anything she said. Lilit looked around at the others, because this level of shy was beyond her norm.

Rana rolled her eyes, “She said she’s still a level one, she’s only done the tutorial level so far. She also claims to, ahem,” she gave a little cough, “rain down the pain.” At which point Rana began chuckling. “She’s oddly cocky for someone so obviously shy. I like it,” she smiled at the others.

Apparently they were going to have to filter her answers through Rana. They found out the elf’s name was Fiadh, and she was Aos Si which was a distantly related cousin to Sapphire’s Sidhe, and Alfred’s Svartalfar. She had several spells, all geared toward destruction of some kind. She hadn’t teamed up with anyone in the tutorial, and she had spent the last six days looking for a party. Most people gave up on her when no one could hear her speak.

Her quiet voice was due to a mild form of selective mutism that was related to her anxiety. She assured them that she could talk at normal volume once she was comfortable with people. Until then she was apparently quite fast at sending messages via the delver. At that point Lilit and the others added her as a contact and she dictated her answers to them while Rana continued to act as her voice.

When Izumi rudely asked about her orientation, already having developed a crush on the tall, willowy woman, they found out she was ace and panromantic before Lilit could finish yelling at Izumi for her question.

“We are not here just for you to find more girlfriends!” Lilit yelled across the room.

“But how will I know if she’d want to be flirted with if I don’t ask?” Izumi yelled back.

They yelled back and forth a few more times, managing to throw in a few insults until Rana and Awendala separated them on the couches. Rana silenced Izumi and distracted her with a deep kiss. Awendala quieted Lilit by wrapping her up in her arms and rocking her back and forth for several minutes. When Lilit managed to pay attention again, Fiadh was giggling and blushing behind her hand. They wrapped up the interview after that.

The next person was a bit of a bust as well, though not for the same reasons as earlier people. He was the other berserker. He was very kind and respectful. He spoke at a normal volume. But, it turned out he hadn’t read their ad very closely because he was a level eleven berserker, which just wouldn’t work well with everyone else being level two. Just too much of a gap for any of them to feel confident working together. But he thanked them for their time and left the suite with a smile and wishing them all good luck.

The final interview was with the vanguard, who showed up banging on their door ten minutes late. At least this was their final interview. Lilit was ready to throw in the towel and start over. When Rana let the latecomer in, the party was greeted by another beastkin. This one was a woman, and almost assuredly a feline beastkin.

“So sorry I’m late y’all. I’d say it never happens, but it happens all the time,” the cat girl smiled unashamedly at the party before climbing into her seat. She was dark skinned with deep, hooded eyes. Her hair and ears and the tail lashing behind her back were a typical mixed calico coloring, a ginger, brown, and white interspersed through her hair and fur.

“I’m Soon-Bok! I’m a level two vanguard, which means I like to scout out traps and enemies while striking from the shadows. I’m very much a high-risk, high-reward player.

“Oh, wow. I love your fur color!” She randomly shouted at Rana who seemed a bit taken aback. “You’re so pretty with the smoky grey and the gold highlights. I’m jealous. I’m just a little calico neko. Nice to meet you all!” She turned her exuberant attention onto the rest of the party and waved excitedly.

The rest of the interview went along the same lines. Soon-Bok was very excited and happy to share things. Maybe a little too much at times. She was more than happy to share her lesbian card when Izumi asked and Lilit buried her head in her hands. Awendala and Rana were quicker this time to separate the two before the yelling started again.

By the time the interview wrapped Lilit was a little exhausted from the amount of energy pouring off of the little vanguard. They thanked her for her time and ushered her out of the suite.

The group slumped against the couches. “That was so hard,” Lilit moaned. The others nodded and grunted in agreement.

“So many duds,” Izumi complained.

“Maybe we should give up and try a new ad? Maybe give it a few more days to populate people? Once we add to the team our seven day timer gets reset after all,” Lilit offered.

“Nah. I think we had at least two good candidates,” Rana said.

“Ugh. The quiet one and the loud one. They couldn’t be more opposite I don’t think.” Lilit complained. “I guess we could do a day in the training rooms with them and see who fits better with our dynamic.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Awendala said. “Should I reach out to them both and see if they’re interested?”

The others looked around at each other before nodding.

“Worst comes to worst we can always redo the ad like Lilit said. But I think these two deserve a chance and then we can make a decision tomorrow,” Rana offered.

“Ok….and sent,” Awendala informed them. “Now we can relax for the rest of the evening.” She leaned over and placed a kiss on Lilit’s cheek.

Lilit looked back at her confused. She thought they were already supposed to be like rotating partners or something.

Awendala put her mouth by Lilit’s ear, “We’re not rushing things. We just needed to know that you were open to being with more than just me.” She placed a soft kiss beneath her ear, causing Lilit to shudder in her seat.

Lilit followed Awendala back to the kitchen to find something the two of them could try to cook together. Rana and Izumi headed downstairs to the tavern. They promised to keep an eye out for Sapphire, but not to be too confrontational about the dungeon this time.

Tomorrow they would meet with the only two halfway decent candidates and figure out if either of them were worth bringing onto the team. Lilit found herself hoping that things would go well tomorrow. She didn’t want to have to go through all of that again.

Chapter Text

The next day they met up with Fiadh and Soon-Bok outside one of the team training rooms on the fifth floor. Lilit had talked to the rest of the party and after they did the group training to see who better fit with their style Lilit was going to hire a trainer and get a little more one-on-one training for her shield and mace. She’d done ok, but with some training she hoped to do better than just ok. She didn’t like feeling like she was letting the others down.

Fiadh and Soon-Bok were waiting for them outside the hall leading to the team rooms. Both were geared up. Fiadh stood tall for once in her blue robes with tiny silver stars sewn scattered across from mid-torso and up. She held a large crooked, unshaped staff with a knot of wood wrapped around a dark inky orb. It looked like it had simply grown around the orb instead of being carved or shaped at all. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a large bun at the back of her neck, drawing more attention to her pointed ears.

Soon-Bok had on very light looking leathers dyed a deep brown that neared black. Over that she wore a black, sleeved cloak with the hood down. Her hands were covered in thin, fingerless gloves. Dark braces that matched her armor peaked out from under the cloak. Whatever weapons she used were hidden by her cloak.

Their party had come prepared as well. Lilit loved her new svartalfar armor. She was getting used to the slight addition in weight, but she didn’t feel like it was going to affect her performance enough to matter. Her mace was hooked in the metal ring off her belt, and the prayer book sat in its pouch on the opposite hip.

Rana was in her new armor from the dungeon. The thicker leather creaking as she moved. It covered her from shoulders to mid-thigh in plates of thick leather and brass studs. She didn’t have true pauldrons, but there were wing-like shoulder pads that reached the end of her shoulders with a little overhang. She wore thin leather pants underneath, and over her shins and up to her knees she had her new greaves. Her axes hung from her hips and her quarterstaff was secured to her back.

Awendala made quite the impression with her red and gold half plate armor. Her breastplate was lacquered a deep crimson with gold accents along the edges. Gold plated pauldrons hung down to her elbows. Her bracers and greaves were in the same style as her breastplate. Underneath it all and connecting pieces at the joints ran fine chainmail. She clinked and clanked as she walked. There would be zero stealth on her part moving forward.

Izumi was in the least elaborate or ostentatious outfit of everyone. Though hers were arguably the toughest ones. She had on a set of plain jade green robes that reached down to her ankles. She didn’t wear bracers, greaves, gloves, or anything else. But, her robes had been enchanted to withstand a lot. The shopkeeper had apparently impressed her and Rana both by demonstrating directly on her armor with several daggers and even a crossbow bolt fired from across the store. Nothing had penetrated the robes, though the shopkeeper had warned that the actual blunt force from all the attacks would still bleed though. So, she couldn’t be cut, stabbed, or shot by most weapons, but she’d still end up needing healing from all the bruises and possible broken bones that would make it through her enchantments. Her enchantments didn’t offer any offensive support, but she was happy with her robes nonetheless.

Lilit and her party stopped in front of their prospective members. “You ready?” she asked. Fiadh wouldn’t make eye contact, but nodded her head.

Soon-Bok smiled from ear to ear, “You bet! Let’s go.” She stretched the last word into several syllables.

Awendala led them to the first open training room. Rana, with the most gold, volunteered to pay for the room for the next hour. She didn’t give anyone else a chance to say anything before she picked their first monsters. Though, Lilit had seen her slide one of the sliders pretty far, so she suspected whatever was coming out was going to be quite the mob.

“First up, let’s see how you each do on your own. Izumi and Awendala are going to tank the mob and each of you is going to work on whittling down their numbers. Soon-Bok, you’re with Izumi. Fiadh, you’re with Awendala.” Lilit announced as the lights in the room began to dim.

They’d discussed this all this morning before leaving the room. They wanted to give the girls several different types of enemies to fight to see how they’d do before integrating them into team drills. Izumi had talked them into using their final amount of time together to have both women work with the team at the same time. Rana and Awendala had wanted to indulge her, so Lilit agreed.

The spotlights shone on the back of the room as the wall split with a grinding groan. Out of the opening hopped a hoard of about twenty bullywugs. Bullywug Lvl 2 hanging over their heads. Guess they were starting off a little easy. Though it’s not like any of the available monsters in the training room were that difficult.

Izumi summoned Bob at the same time Awendala stepped forward. They waited until all the bullywugs hopped all the way into the room before they rushed forward and began kiting the mob in two different directions.

Awendala cleaved an entire bullywug in half and let out a roar. Most of the mob ran at her. Then Bob flickered behind the group and began slashing heavily into a pair of bullywugs. This peeled off roughly half of the mob from the rear, separating them in opposite directions.

Soon-Bok stalked around the back of Bob’s group. “This would be even easier in terrain where I can hide and leap out from. But this will still be fun!” she called out as she lunged forward, piercing a bullywug in the back with a long dagger. The bullywug arched backward in obvious pain, but didn’t make a sound. It was dead before it finished crumpling on the ground.

“Hehe! Stabs to the kidney are very painful. Sometimes so much so that they can’t make a single sound before they expire.” She giggled while skipping off to her next target. This one she slashed behind the knees, causing him to collapse like his strings were cut before Soon-Bok stabbed him in the neck. She grinned through the splatter of blood across her face. From there she seemed to flicker similarly to Bob as she suddenly appeared on the other side of the mob and began dancing her way through more bullywugs, a smile splashed across her blood splattered face.

Lilit looked around at the others. Soon-Bok was more than just a little scary. Rana was busy staring at Fiadh, so Lilit turned to take a look.

Fiadh wasn’t what Lilit exactly expected from a mage. She could already see that she was going to end up needing robes with similar enchantments to Izumi’s. About every ten seconds she blasted someone with a spell. It alternated between a shadowy missile that left smoking holes in bodies and a sparking ball of electricity that cooked its target before branching out and shocking two to three others nearby. In between her magical blasts she twirled her staff around and beat bullywugs like it was a long club. Her face was set in a neutral mask that gave away nothing.

Both women carved through the bullywugs like a hot knife through butter. It was no time at all before both women were left panting, the bodies of their slain victims disappearing before them. They both also pulled blue potion bottles out of their pockets to chug while they waited for their breathing to come back under control.

“Well, that was interesting.” Lilit looked around at the others. Izumi’s eyes were a little wide, but the smile on her face stretched from ear to ear. Awendala was being stoic, but she’d had the least opportunities to observe both women. Rana looked as shook as Lilit felt.

“Ok. Rana, let’s dial it back a little bit and have only Bob tank. We’ll start with Soon-Bok so Awendala gets a chance to see her in action. Then we can try as a group.” Lili looked around the group, “Sound good?”

The others including Soon-Bok and Fiadh nodded in agreement. Rana pulled her delver back up and with a smirk tapped a few buttons and let her arm fall to her side. She chuckled quietly as the wall at the back of the room lit up and began to split again. Out of it poured a half a dozen skeletons Skeletal Warrior Lvl 1 above their heads. Lilit approved. It would be good to know if Soon-Bok could adjust to the new kind of enemy. Fiadh’s fighting style already lent itself to blunt damage, though Lilit was curious about how the electricity would play out.

Soon-Bok grinned excitedly while sheathing her dagger. She unclipped a pair of short rods from her belt. She flicked them out and they extended to nearly two feet long with a short, thick bulb of metal gleaming at the tip.

She barely waited for Bob to draw the mob of skeletons to itself before she dove into the crowd of bones from the side. She was a whirlwind of breaking bones and snapping joints as she sang a catchy tune about a lesbian hunter. She dipped and dodged blows from skeletons from all sides as she quickly began leaving heaps of them on the ground.

Soon-Bok didn’t defeat any of them outright, but she very quickly had all six skeletons on the ground missing one or both legs. The next minute was her jumping around, smashing skeleton skulls like a she was playing hopscotch.

Lilit wasn’t sure how well she’d hold up against higher level monsters, or the more aggressive ones they’d encountered in the dungeons themselves, but Soon-Bok could definitely hold her own. Even if her smile and laughter while she slaughtered monsters was a little off-putting.

When it was Fiadh’s turn she wasn’t nearly as fast as Soon-Bok. She also wasn’t half as creepy. Fiadh moved with little grace as she flung spells and her staff. As Lilit predicted, the electrical ball spell wasn’t very effective against skeletons. The shadowy missile though was quite effective as it exploded skeletons into large chunks. Fiadh adapted to the situation and instead of wasting the electrical spells, she just focused on the shadowy missiles and her staff. It did raise the time between spells to closer to twenty seconds in between. That seemed to indicate there was a twenty second cooldown for her individual spells. That wouldn’t be a problem as long as they took it into account during a fight.

It only took a few minutes for Fiadh to mow down her mob. She once again chugged a bright blue potion. Mana regeneration. It made Lilit wonder about both women’s stats. She only remembered seeing Fiadh throw a handful of spells, and she already needed a potion. Similarly, Soon-Bok had only done one skill that would have used mana that Lilit had seen, but needed to chug a potion. It worried her a little.

While Fiadh’s problem might be partially because of her smaller mana pool at level one, Soon-Bok’s problem seemed much worse. Unless that spell was truly a mana dump, she had a tiny mana pool and would need help raising it if she was going to be the most effective rogue archetype. The teleportation could come in handy in so many situations.

Awendala wandered over to Lilit, soon followed by Rana and Izumi. Fiadh and Soon-Bok gave them space to talk. Soon-Bok was talking excitedly with Fiadh. Well, she was doing enough talking for both of them from what she could tell, which probably worked out well for both of them honestly.

“What do you guys think?” Izumi asked right away.

“They’re both really good. I’d venture that if we can level up Fiadh she’s going to be nigh unstoppable.” Lilit said. The others nodded their heads. “And, honestly her being quiet isn’t that much of a problem. She still communicates pretty quickly with the Delver.”

“So you’re leaning toward Fiadh?” Rana asked.

“I mean I guess so. Soon-Bok is just…a little creepy and unnerving. The smiling and giggling while covered in blood and viscera was a little much.”

“I don’t know. She’s also very skilled. She mowed down those skeletons way faster and more efficiently than Fiadh did,” Rana argued.

“Sure…but she’s creepy,” Lilit returned.

“I don’t know. I find her upbeat personality and happy demeanor kind of charming,” Awendala ventured. Lilit stared at her like she’d grown a second head.

“That was more than just a ‘happy demeanor.’” Lilit deadpanned. “That’s psychotic.”

“We could always just ask her to tone it down some,” Izumi said. “Besides, I’m with Awendala. Maybe she can balance out the sourpuss on the team,” she looked Lilit dead in the eye.

“I am not a sourpuss, you horny little—”

“Lilit!” Awendala interrupted. “Please don’t finish that. Izumi, there’s no need to pick fights.”

Lilit turned away from the group so she could get a handle on her emotions. Izumi just seemed to know exactly how to push her buttons. The realization did nothing to soothe her soul.

“I like the idea of keeping both girls,” Izumi chimed in. “There’s no rule about how large a party can get to that I found. Just a minimum of three.”

Lilit was once again blindsided when the other two looked interested in the idea when she whirled around. They had agreed to one. One extra person on the team. And she was supposed to be ok with them dating said person. Now she was supposed to double that level of discomfort.

“Can we please just pick one? One was hard enough for me to be ok with.” Lilit pleaded.

“This was your idea!” Izumi yelled.

“Finding one person for the team was my idea, not finding as many people to fill out your harem as we can,” Lilit bit back with a grimace.

“Ok. Let’s take a break you two,” Awendala stepped between them.

“Yeah. There’s no reason to get nasty. We’re all friends here,” Rana added.

Lilit turned her back to all of them, her arms crossed over her chest. She didn’t need to take a break. She needed everyone to stop changing the rules every time she turned around. She needed time to get used to this whole situation between all of them, let alone bringing in someone else. The last she wouldn’t get because of the countdown on their dungeon delving. Seven days wasn’t a long enough time to wrap her head around what felt like an ever changing landscape of her relationships.

Lilit felt herself get wrapped in a pair of strong arms. She grabbed hold of them for support. Looking down, she was surprised to find the soft fur of Rana under her hands.

“Hey, we know this is a lot. Don’t think about the relationship stuff. That can come when or if it happens. If you were making a party, would you really not pick both of those women to fight by your side? They each have their own strengths, and they’d both help shore up our weaknesses.” Rana whispered close to her ear. It sent shivers down Lilit’s spine that she tried her best to hide.

Lilit let out a quiet huff. She knew when she’d been out maneuvered. “Yeah. If I was just worried about the party I would want them both.”

Lilit was surprised when she felt Rana place an excited kiss on the side of her neck. There was no way she could have hid that shiver. And Rana’s little chuckle let her know she noticed.

“Thank you. We can do a trial run or two in here before we make the final decision, but I think this is the right way to go,” Rana continued to whisper. Lilit just nodded her head in agreement.

Chapter Text

Lilit followed Rana back over to the group. They’d called over Fiadh and Soon-Bok already. Lilit nodded at both women. “Let’s try something a little harder, but with all of us together as one team.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Rana already had her Delver up and was rapidly pressing buttons and sliding fingers across the interface.

The lights once again dimmed and the back wall rumbled as it split open. Out of the opening swaggered out a small gang of people. All of them had masks, bandanas, and hoods covering their faces. Above each one Bandit Lvl 3 hovered. A mix of various weapons from rusty scimitars to long daggers and in one case a large wooden club were on display. As the last one trickled in and the back wall slid closed, Lilit counted a dozen bandits across the room from them.

She kept an eye on the newbies to see if the more people shaped enemies would cause them any hesitation. Especially Fiadh who hadn’t battled anything aside from bullywugs. “Wait for Bob and Awendala to grab their attention,” Lilit called out when she saw Soon-Bok getting ready to skip into battle. “Fiadh and Rana with Awendala. Soon-Bok with Bob and Izumi.” She wanted to make sure one side wasn’t all melee and one side all ranged. Balance was the name of the game.

The party split in two and spread out a little. Bob flickered forward, claws flying, as the bandits started charging the party. Awendala let out a mighty roar and swung her broadsword at the nearest bandit while Fiadh and Rana hovered behind her.

A rusty sword swept up and intercepted Awendala’s swing, though it didn’t stop it. Awendala followed through with her strike and sent the bandit stumbling to the side. Rana darted forward and buried one of her axes in his side before he could get his feet under him. And the battle was joined.

Fiadh went back to her paced, alternating spells. She stayed closer to Awendala and swung her staff into the bandits nearest them. Her black, shadowy missiles didn’t blow completely through bandits like they did the lower level monsters, but they did manage to blast through armor and caused significant damage. Her balls of electricity she flung around also didn’t one shot anyone, but when she timed it right, the bandits bodies were locked up in time for Awendala or Rana to cleave through them.

Before Lilit could take in the other half of her team, a pair of bandits rushed past Awendala and Bob’s tanking and came for the backline, which was just her and Izumi. “Izumi, front!” Lilit called out.

She had enough time to put an arrow through the throat of one of the bandits before the other nearly crashed into Lilit. Lilit threw her wing-shield up to block the heavy, overhead swing coming her way. At the last moment she remembered to deflect the blow and angled her arm a little more.

The bandit’s giant cleaver looking sword struck hard and Lilit’s arm ached from the blow. Before he could recover she slammed her mace into his unprotected knee. It shattered and bent sideways, bone splinters and blood flying through the air. The bandit hit the ground hard immediately after. He angrily swung his sword out at her ankles and Lilit had to dance backward out of his reach. Izumi took advantage of having Lilit further away and sunk an arrow into the bandit’s chest in the gap at his armpit. She’d fully drawn the bow though and the arrow pierced all the way through the other side of the bandit’s chest. He choked on his own blood as it dribbled down his chin and slumped onto his back.

Lilit and Izumi both turned their attention back to the larger fight at hand. Bob was standing its ground and keeping several bandits occupied. Soon-Bok literally skipped in and out of the fray to stab someone here, slice a hamstring there. Wherever she went, screams and blood followed. And even from a distance, Lilit could see the wide smile on her face. Izumi went back to picking off wounded targets on that side of the room.

Awendala’s pain filled cry split the air and Lilit’s head whipped around. Awendala sat hunched behind her shield, her sword lying on the ground a few feet away. Rana by her side let out a deep, guttural growl and flew into what could only be classified as a blind rage as she activated skills and became a whirling dervish of destruction.

Fiadh looked pale and shaken. Awendala turned her head and said something to her that Lilit was too far away to hear. A cold mask dropped across her features and she turned back to the few bandits that were left.

Lilit fumbled out her prayer book out of its pocket and thumbed it open. She quickly recited her healing prayer while focusing on Awendala. After a moment Awendala seemed to breathe easier, but she stayed hunkered down behind her shield and cast tearful glances down at her right hand.

A few moments later the room’s noise died down as the final bandits were killed. Lilit already rushing over to Awendala’s side to check on her. Awendala pulled her shield off. It rang like a bell as she let it fall to the ground. She cradled her other hand close to her chest.

Rana and Fiadh were huddled around Awendala. Fiadh was crying and apologizing profusely, and loud enough to be heard for once. Awendala waved her off with a grimace.

“What happened?” Lilit begged them all.

“I-I…” Fiadh tried to start.

“Awendala had some fingers cut off. We need to get her a healing potion or something,” Rana spoke quickly.

“Fiadh, grab her fingers,” Lilit tried to give her something to focus on. “I’m not sure if I can regrow them, but let’s try to reattach them. Rana, hold her fingers to her stumps the best you can while I cast a healing prayer, and then we can try a potion if that doesn’t work.”

Rana nodded and carefully placed each finger against Awendala’s hand when Fiadh handed them to her. Awendala had lost her index and middle finger. Left like this she’d never be able to hold her sword again. Awendala kept her head turned. She was looking very pale under her scattered red scales.

Lilit thumbed open her prayer book again and recited her healing chant. A golden glow wrapped around Awendala. It glowed brightest around her hand. When it faded away, Awendala clenched her fist and all her fingers moved together and appeared to be attached once more. Lilit let out a grateful sigh.

“How do they feel? Is everything ok?” Lilit worriedly asked.

“They’re a little numb and tingly. But everything seems to be working,” Awendala’s voice was a little hesitant. The color began to return to her features, and she seemed less shaken.

“Want to take a healing potion to see if that helps?”

“Yeah,” Awendala sounded a little off still.

Lilit pulled out a healing potion and handed it to Awendala who threw it back as soon as she had it opened. Everyone waited while the potion took effect.

Awendala clenched her hand into a fist several times and nodded her head. Her voice seemed a little stronger as she spoke, “The numbness seems to be gone. There’s still a little tingling, but it seems to be fading.” She met Lilit’s worried eyes and tried to offer a reassuring smile.

Awendala turned to Fiadh, who was pale and shaking, “I’m ok. Accidents happen. I don’t blame you, ok.”

Fiadh nodded her head but didn’t seem convinced. Her eyes were red rimmed and she looked on the verge of crying. Izumi wrapped an arm around her waist and led her away, speaking quietly while she rubbed soothing circles on Fiadh’s back.

“Let’s call it for today. I think we have everything we need.” Rana suggested. She sounded like she was shaken up as well.

Lilit nodded her head in agreement. “We’ll contact you guys in the next day or two to let you know.” She looked back and forth between Soon-Bok and Fiadh.

Soon-Bok offered a smile, but for the first time it looked strained and unnatural. She nodded her head and grabbed Fiadh on her way out of the room. She leaned into the taller Fiadh and seemed to be offering her own comfort as she guided her away.

“So, what exactly happened?” Lilit asked.

“I didn’t see all of it, but Fiadh seemed to stumble into a bandit or something when he was swinging his sword at Awendala. She bumped him enough that his strike took off Awendala’s fingers,” Rana explained.

Awendala nodded her head, “Yeah, that’s basically it. I didn’t see what caused her to stumble though.”

Lilit looked around at everyone, “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

Lilit, Rana, Izumi, and Awendala headed back to their suite. Everyone seemed to be recovering from the close call pretty well, even if they were all a little shaken up. Awendala managed to convince Lilit that she was doing fine, and that she should return to the fifth floor and hire a trainer like she’d planned. Lilit reluctantly agreed after triple checking that Awendala was in fact going to be fine.

Lilit returned to the fifth floor and for the first time went over to look at the booths of trainers. They seemed to be organized by weapon types. There were multiple booths for each type of weapon, from sword to spear to shields to maces and many more. Lilit wandered through until she found the area set aside for mace wielders. There were only a handful of trainers in this area, unlike some of the other weapons areas which had dozens of trainers.

Lilit decided she’d be better served by working with a lower level trainer on more basic principles and techniques. So, she marched herself over to the lowest level trainer for maces, a stout man with a barrel chest and dog like ears peeking through his blonde hair.

“Hello there, are you looking to hire a trainer for the mace?” the man asked excitedly. Lilit nodded and opened her mouth to answer but was quickly interrupted by the man. “Do you have any experience with it, or is it something you’re trying out? Do you have your own mace? Do you need to borrow one?” Then looking chagrined as he seemed to realize his excitement had taken over. “S-sorry, I’m Bryan. I teach beginner level mace.”

Lilit did her best not to laugh, but a smile still spread across her face at his exuberance. “I’m Lilit, and I do have my own mace. I’ve only used it since I’ve been here,” she gestured vaguely around them, “but I’d like to be more proficient to help my party.”

“Certainly. And what kind of role do you fill in your party now?”

“I’m a healer, but I’ve already had to get involved in most of the fights we’ve been in so far.”

Bryan rubbed his hand over his chin. “Don’t come across too many healers. But it’s good that you’re taking your own safety seriously. I can definitely help you out. My services are ten gold an hour, plus the training room fee.”

“Alright, when can we get started?”

“I’m free right now for the rest of the afternoon. My last client for the day left about twenty minutes ago.” Bryan bounced on his toes excitedly. Lilit could just make out a tail wagging back and forth behind him as she looked over the counter.

Lilit handed over eleven gold for an hour. Bryan assured her that more than that in the first few lessons would be wasted. He didn’t want her to have a chance to be overwhelmed with new information before she could build it into a good foundation.

They marched off to the solo training rooms, down the opposite hall as the team training rooms. The room itself when she stepped inside was much the same, but instead of being thirty yards across, it was only thirty feet across. Everything else was much the same.

Bryan paid the gold for the room and pulled up a small tablet off of his belt. She hadn’t noticed that he didn’t have a delver, but she figured that made sense if he wasn’t someone clearing the dungeons. He tapped a few things on his tablet before he turned to Lilit. “I don’t know if you’ve used the training rooms before, but instructor interfaces allow for different types of opponents and encounters than you’d normally find in here. I’m going to summon your opponent in a minute and I’ll let you interact with it for a few minutes so I can get a good idea of what we’re working with. When I call stop, I want you to stop right there. Your opponent will do the same, so don’t worry. Ok?”

Lilit nodded her head, “Yeah, I’ve got it.” She felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter as the wall in the back of the room scraped open. There wasn’t anyone else here to protect her if she messed up. She tightened her grip on her mace, her knuckles turning white.

Out of the gap in the wall stepped a single person in light armor. Their features were blurred so that she couldn’t really tell what kind of person it was, but she could make out basic features like eyes, nose, and mouth. Floating above its head was Training Dummy Lvl N/A.

Curious, Lilit let her opponent close the gap between them. It carried a short sword that it immediately thrust forward at her abdomen as it stepped forward. Lilit danced backward and tried to bat the sword aside with her mace. There was a clang of metal on metal. The training dummy twisted the blade away and swung back in with a sideways slash.

This time Lilit stepped forward and raised her shield to intercept the strike. She forgot to angle her arm, so she took the full brunt of the strike, knocking her off balance and stumbling to the side while leaving her arm tingling and aching. Lilit was too off-balance to make an effective strike with her mace, but she was embarrassed and anxious, so she took a swing anyway.

Her strike barely caused the training dummy to shuffle sideways, but it did save her from an immediate counterstrike from it. The training dummy went for an overhead strike next. This time, Lilit remembered to deflect the strike more so her feet were still planted when she took her next swing. This time she felt bone crunch as she hit the training dummy in the hip. It fell sideways onto its knees, one hand braced to catch itself. Lilit’s backswing was aimed directly for the training dummy’s head when Bryan yelled, “Stop!”

Lilit stepped back, lightly panting to catch her breath. Her shaky hands dropped to her side as the adrenaline still coursed through her veins.

“Alright. Not bad. You’ve got some good instincts and you’re not afraid to close with your opponent. First let’s start with your footing and stances. Proper footwork will keep you from flailing about quite so much and keep yourself more planted so you can deliver better counterattacks.”

Over the next hour he guided Lilit into better stances, focusing on keeping her feet spread apart and her body over her center of mass. He showed her how to step forward and keep her weight centered. How to plant her feet and use her hips to follow through on her strikes better. He told her next time they’d work on her shield work and defense before he dismissed her for the day.

Lilit walked back to the suite exhausted. She didn’t even feel like she’d really done a whole lot, but her whole body was sore and drenched in sweat. When she entered into their suite she found the other three all cuddled up together on the couch. Awendala was sandwiched between Izumi on one side and Rana on the other. They all looked up at her as she slumped through the door.

“That looks nice. Let me shower real quick and then I want in on that,” Lilit moaned. “Fuck today has been a long day.”

“And it’s barely time for lunch!” Izumi called back to her as she trudged from the room.

Lilit undressed and took a shower as quickly as she could. She could use some cuddles after everything that had happened today. Missing fingers, psychotic potential members, grueling training. It felt like a lot already.

When she walked back into the front room, everyone was still right where she left them. Awendala held her arms out and Lilit crawled up into her lap. She turned sideways toward Rana and wrapped her arm around Awendala’s muscular back.

“Hey you. How was your training?” Rana asked.

“Ugh. So tiring. I know what I’m doing is important and will make me better, but it felt so humbling to have to go over all this like basic level shit. You know?”

“You have to start somewhere,” Awendala murmured into her hair.

“You’ll be more appreciative of it when you start using it in the dungeon and you see how much better it makes you,” Rana added.

“Can we talk about something else?” Lilit asked. “I know the training is important and I will take it seriously. I promise.”

“Well, we were talking about Fiadh and Soon-Bok before you came home,” Izumi said from behind her.

Lilit tensed up. “What do you guys want to do?”

“Nuh uh. Let’s hear what you think before we tell you what we think.” Izumi argued.

“Fine.” Lilit took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I think we should grab them both. They’re both pretty good, and as soon as Fiadh levels up some more she won’t be as reliant on those mana potions and she’ll be a huge asset. Hopefully we can keep her a little closer to the backline with me and Izumi. Soon-Bok is a little…different…but she is really talented, and having someone scouting for traps and stuff would be helpful.”

Rana leaned forward and brushed her lips against Lilit’s forehead in a gentle kiss. She felt Awendala do the same on top of her head and Izumi pat her back.

“Yeah, that’s basically what we thought too. I’m glad you agree,” Awendala purred into her hair. She pulled Lilit in tightly to her chest in a one armed hug. The others murmured their agreement.

They stayed like that, all cuddled together for a while. Lilit wasn’t sure exactly how long they all held each other close. They didn’t get up until Lilit’s stomach growled at all of them to let her know they’d burned a lot of calories since the last time they ate. The others laughed and they all got up to head downstairs.

Chapter Text

Before they left the suite, Awendala sent out a message to both Soon-Bok and Fiadh to meet them for lunch. Everyone seemed more at ease now that the decision had been made unanimously to invite both women onto the team. Like a weight had been lifted from their collective shoulders.

 Downstairs they found a table big enough for all six of them. A few minutes later Soon-Bok came bouncing down the stairs. She plopped herself down close to Izumi and the two fell into giggling whispers immediately. Fiadh trudged down the stairs a few minutes later and ended up next to Rana. She kept casting frightened glances at Awendala despite Awendala’s disarming smile.

Lilit sighed. “Ok, so we called you both back because we’d like to offer both of you a spot on our team.”

“Of course. We’re great!” Soon-Bok announced loudly.

Lilit held up a hand, “Hold your horses, Tony the tiger.”

Soon-Bok looked confused, “No, I’m Soon-Bok…the neko.”

“I know. Sorry, bad joke from home.” Lilit waved away the whole thing. “You both did well, but there are some things we need to talk about. Like why you,” she pointed at Soon-Bok, “need to chug so many mana potions.” Lilit thumbed over in Fiadh’s direction, “Her I can make a guess about, but you make no sense.”

For the first time, Soon-Bok’s smile slipped. “So, I wasn’t aware of what my class would be capable of when I assigned my stats. I didn’t realize I would need mana, or how powerful my one mana powered skill would be. Mana was my dump stat and I’m lucky I put in any points at all. It’s improved since I use it so much, but I’m really behind on the curve for that. Sorry,” she muttered at the end.

“That’s about what we suspected,” Rana said.

“And it’s an easy-ish fix,” Lilit added. “We’ll set you up with low level potions and you keep practicing your skill throughout the day until we head out again.”

“I can’t–”

“You can. You can accept this help if you’re going to be on our team,” Izumi interrupted. “We may argue, but we’ve got each other’s backs.”

“For you,” Awendala addressed Fiadh and she shrank down into her chair. “First of all, no one blames you for what happened. Everything was fixed, see?” She wiggled all her fingers like she was doing spirit fingers from that one movie. “But, we assume you’re struggling with mana because of your level. I’m guessing you didn’t under-power yourself.” Fiadh shook her head. “Good. So, then we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to offer you mana potions and take you to the training rooms until we get your level up. You only get half the XP for the training rooms compared to the dungeons, but we can still get you a level gain before we leave.”

Fiadh looked like she was going to cry. She nodded her head and hugged herself in her seat. She fiddled with something in her lap and everyone’s Delver buzzed with an alert. Lilit looked down and opened the message from Fiadh. Thank you. I won’t let you guys down.

“We know you won’t,” Lilit answered. She nodded her head at Awendala who immediately set to sending the party invites to Soon-Bok and Fiadh. They both quickly accepted.

About then was when Sapphire showed up at their table. “Thought you were avoiding us,” Rana accused none too gently.

Sapphire looked slightly chagrined, “I was, but not for the reasons you probably think. I had to check some things.” Lilit, Rana, Izumi, and Awendala stared back at her unblinkingly. Soon-Bok and Fiadh looked around slightly confused.

“I see you’ve added to your party,” Sapphire nodded her head approvingly. “Good. You’re going to need it. You’re right that the dungeon wasn’t acting right when you went through it.

“Not all of us are or ever were delvers like you, but some of us who work closely with delvers and The Crucible get a feel for what’s going on. I could feel something wasn’t right when you all went through the first time. And it was worse on your way out. The dungeon was angry.

“I had to talk to,” Sapphire paused to think like she wasn’t sure how much to reveal or what they would think. “The Manager,” she finally confided. “He’s one of the beings that tracks the dungeons and makes sure we’re extracting energy from them to return to the outer realms.”

The others nodded. Soon-Bok and Fiadh still looked confused, but also intrigued.

“The Manager is concerned. He hasn’t seen anything like this, and he doesn’t know what it means. When most delvers go through the dungeon some energy bleeds through back into the real world outside our little pocket dimension like it’s supposed to. But not all of it. For some reason when you four went through though, most if not all of the excess energy from the dungeon escaped into the real world.

“For some reason, your group is extra efficient with returning the lost energy, and the dungeon doesn’t like that. So, we expect The Crucible to fight harder against you. So, good thing you upped the size of your party.”

“But what does that mean? Why is it happening?” Lilit asked.

“We don’t know.” Sapphire shrugged her shoulders.

The rest of lunch was much more subdued than earlier. Soon-Bok and Fiadh were curious about what had been talked about and Lilit and the others did their best to explain what had happened to them their last time in the dungeon. Fiadh looked worried, but determined. Soon-Bok just looked excited.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. The group split the cost of a small horde of mana potions, and then Rana took Fiadh to the individual training rooms to keep an eye on her. The rest of the group returned to the suite where two new rooms had been added to the hallway. Izumi complained good-naturedly about the bathroom getting further and further away.

Awendala pulled Lilit into her room after her. “Honey, I’m really not in the mood for that right now.” Lilit complained.

“No! No. That’s not why I pulled you in here.” Awendala chuckled lightly. “I wanted to talk to you about how you’re doing with all this,” she gestured vaguely around.

“Ok.” Lilit tapped her toes, “So, do you want the truth or do you want me to blow smoke up your ass?”

“The truth. Always the truth,” Awendala insisted. “You seem…I don’t know. That’s why I need to ask.”

“I don’t like that it feels like I’m always the one making sacrifices for everyone else. Bringing more people into the group would be one thing if I wasn’t also told that everyone would be expected to date them too.”

“Woah. No one is expecting you to do anything. We just–”

“No. I was told by all of you that that was what it meant. That I had to be open to everyone dating everyone else, whether I was comfortable or not.” Lilit hadn’t realized she was this angry about it until she’d been given a chance to voice her concerns, but it really did make her so mad that she was practically shamed into accepting this behavior from everyone.

“Ok, that’s not the way I intended any of this,” Awendala insisted.

“Then what did you intend?”

“You don’t have to date or have sex with anyone you don’t want to. You don’t even have to date or fuck me if you don’t want to anymore. The last thing I want is for you to feel pressured into anything, baby.” Awendala stepped forward with her arms out, but Lilit stepped away. Awendala’s arms fell to her side.

“Every time I turn around it feels like someone is trying to rush me into something new. We’ve barely been together a handful of days Awendala. And you want me to be ok with dating other people on top of that? That’s a lot. I’m used to dating one person at a time. I’ve never done this before.

“I am ok with you seeing other people. I am. I’ve thought about it, and it doesn’t make me jealous or upset or anything like that. But I am not ready to see other people at the same time. I just want you for right now. Maybe later that will change, but for now that’s all I’m prepared to give.”

Awendala’s arms twitched at her sides. Lilit could tell she really wanted to hug and comfort Lilit. And part of her wanted that too, but she stood firm in her desire to keep some distance between them. For now.

“I’m ok with that. I appreciate that you don’t expect me to change who I am to date you.” Awendala let out a loud sigh, “I will work harder to extend you the same courtesy. I really don’t expect or need you to be with anyone else in the group. I think you would find a lot of strength and love if you were able to, but I won’t ever force you to. And I am so sorry that you felt like I was trying to pressure you to do that.”

Lilit let herself step forward into Awendala and wrapped her in a tight hug. She leaned her head on Awendala’s chest, “Thank you.”

Awendala leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on top of Lilit’s head, “Of course.”

“I’m not in the mood for sex this afternoon, but I could be persuaded to cuddle until dinner time,” Lilit traced loose patterns across the skin on Awendala’s back, under her shirt.

“Mmmmm…I could get behind that idea,” Awendala curled her hands around Lilit’s waist. Her fingers brushed over the skin above Lilit’s pants. She leaned further forward and pressed a light kiss against Lilit’s pulse point on her throat.

Lilit did her best to stifle the moan that crept up her throat. Something may have escaped because she could feel Awendala smile against her skin before she picked Lilit up by her hips and swung her around. Lilit ended up sitting on the bed with Awendala leaned over her.

Lilit scooted back toward the center of the bed and watched Awendala crawl up after her. Despite everything, Lilit felt a warm throb start between her thighs.

Awendala crawled over Lilit and then flopped onto her side beside Lilit. She turned on her own side to face Awendala. One hand reached out to trace the scales trailing down her throat. The other propped her head up while she stared into Awendala’s handsome face.

Awendala wrapped her fingers around Lilit’s hip and pulled her flush with her body. Lilit let out a little sigh and leaned into Awendala’s strength. She pulled her own hand back and curled into Awendala’s chest. She placed a kiss on her exposed collarbone and rested her head against Awendala’s broad chest.

They stayed cuddled up like that until Lilit drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were pleasant and full of warmth and affection. She woke up a few hours later to find Awendala watching her with a tender expression.

Lilit leaned up to place a chaste kiss against Awendala’s lips. “Probably time to get up.”

“Probably,” Awendala quietly agreed. She pressed forward and returned Lilit’s quick kiss with something a little slower and lazier, but no less welcome.

Chapter Text

The following days were quite busy and full. Lilit, Fiadh, and Soon-Bok would go out and train for hours and then return exhausted. None of it was a waste though as there were gains all across the board. Some larger than others.

Lilit managed to get much more confident in her ability to defend herself and those around her with her mace and shield. She even managed to add another stat in both dexterity and stamina by the end of the week.

Fiadh managed to increase her level pretty quickly and the size of her mana pool was no longer a concern except in more drawn out fights. She would still be carrying a few mana potions with her when they left for the dungeon, but her need wasn’t nearly as great as it had been. She was also fairly confident that she was nearing level three with how hard she’d been pushing herself. Which should put her on close to the same developmental level as the rest of the party.

Soon-Bok ended up with the least amount of gains, but she was still confident in her abilities. She managed to gain a single level of mana, growing her mana pool somewhat. She apparently now had a four in mana. She’d originally had a two. Lilit and the others felt pretty confident that Soon-Bok was on the cusp of breaking into the next stat level for mana considering all she’d been doing. She could now perform one of her mana skills twice before running out of mana, which in itself was a vast improvement. Now she just needed to keep working hard at it so she could continue to improve. The levels would just continue to be harder and harder to advance as she progressed, so it really was a shame that she’d put in so little to the stat to begin with. She’d probably never even reach the same mana level as even Awendala.

Eventually there wasn’t any more time they could stay out of the dungeon and they all made preparations to delve once more. They took the final afternoon off and stocked up on potions, arrows, food, and other items.

Lilit slept in her own room by herself that night. She wanted to make sure she got plenty of sleep, and truth be told, that wasn’t usually what happened when she spent the night with Awendala. Not that she would ever complain. She just wanted to be at her best when they stepped into the dungeon the next morning.

For their final breakfast at The Inn they decided to share a meal together in their suite instead of heading down to the common room. It was a subdued affair without a lot of talking. Even Izumi was quieter than usual. Everyone could feel the tension that had built up over the last week. The original part members were anxious about going back into a dungeon that seemed to have it out for them. Fiadh and Soon-Bok were worried about that as well, but with less real context about what that looked like.

Finally it was time. Everyone dressed in their armor or robes and geared up with their weapons, potions, and packs full of provisions. They trooped out of the suite and down the stairs with Awendala and Lilit taking up the rear to walk together, hands held with fingers intertwined.

“I think I’m more anxious about going into the dungeon this time than I was last time. And I know I’m better prepared than I was last time,” Lilit confessed to Awendala in a hushed voice.

Awendala turned her head to look at Lilit, “I feel it too. Knowing that the dungeon has something against us specifically is more than a little worrying. I don’t want anything to happen to you or any of the others.”

Lilit gave Awendala’s fingers a squeeze, “Hopefully with Fiadh and Soon-Bok that’ll tip us over the edge and give us back the advantage.” Awendala just smiled and squeezed Lilit’s hand back as they walked down the stairs to the common room.

They gathered at the door and Lilit gave Awendala a quick side hug before she let her wade through the rest of the party so she could lead the way through the door. Lilit did one final touch check that she had everything and it was all in its place. Yep, she was ready to go.

The door opened and a twilight wood stood on the other side. Nothing immediately jumped out to attack as Awendala pushed forward, followed by Rana and Soon-Bok. Next went Izumi and Fiadh, and Lilit brought up the rear.

As soon as she stepped through she could feel the difference in temperature. This side of the door was hot and muggy. Large bugs buzzed through the air around them. It sounded like crickets chirping in the distance and birds calling in the trees around them. The door slammed shut behind Lilit and the entire forest seemed to go silent for a moment. Then the sound ratcheted up with wild shouts from animals high in the trees and the screams of large predators further away.

Then there was a low rumble that was more felt than heard and the sounds all dwindled back down to what Lilit imagined were the more normal levels of noise.

They were standing in a small clearing ringed by towering trees. Above their heads there was no break in the canopy it was so thick. Around them even the smallest trees would need two or more party members together to wrap their arms around their trunks. Lilit had never been that much into botany, preferring the micro when she went through school to do her PhD, so she couldn’t tell much of anything about the trees around them.

Their bark was a pale grey, like an aspen but sickly looking almost. The leaves looked to be as big as her hand if not bigger. They were shaped like rounded spearheads and were a dark green that was almost black, especially in this twilight lighting.

As densely as the canopy was layered, it was no surprise that there was next to no undergrowth between the trees. Nothing taller than grasses with the exception of one or two thorny shrubs.

This time, Lilit did not hesitate to pull up her map on her Delver. Unfortunately that helped for fuck all, because there was no indication that there was any specific destination they needed to head to. There were no beacons they could set.

“Well, the maps are useless. There’s nothing to track which direction we need to head,” Lilit informed the rest of the group. “Any direction seems as good as any other.”

“Straight ahead it is then,” Awendala said.

“Girl, ain’t nothing about any of us that’s straight,” Izumi deadpanned before bursting into giggles. Lilit rolled her eyes.

“That’s as good a direction as any other,” Rana said, laughter in her voice. Lilit watched Soon-Bok high-five Izumi behind Rana’s back.

“Ok, Awendala in the front, obviously. Then Soon-Bok, be ready to jump behind anyone that pops out at us. Squishier people in the middle. Rana walk with me in the back,” Lilit ordered. Even Izumi and Soon-Bok looked serious as they nodded back their agreement.

Awendala straightened up, looked around meeting everyone’s eyes for a moment then stepped forward into the woods. Lilit and the others followed behind.

The light got darker directly under the trees. Lilit began to reconsider if this was a dungeon at twilight and wondered if it was just that many leaves and branches in the way, blocking whatever constituted a sun around here.

As they walked, Lilit could hear faint humming coming from the front of the group. No doubt Soon-Bok…the rogue…was unable to keep quiet and be stealthy. On the one hand, killing monsters was important. It released entropy and increased their XP so they could level. But actively inviting them in felt just a tad reckless. It’s not like Awendala could ever be actually stealthy anyway either though. Lilit sighed, but kept her eyes peeled as they marched forward.

They marched through the forest, everyone alert and at the ready. But eventually the minutes added up. Five minutes became ten became a half hour became an hour. And as time crept on and nothing happened, everyone’s attention began to drift. It’s hard to stay focused for long periods of time. Even more so when nothing is really going on. The trees began to all resemble each other, there were occasional vines and a few large flowers sprouting off them, but otherwise nothing changed. So maybe it was not surprising that no one noticed what happened until it was too late.

After the second hour, Lilit wasn’t sure if anyone was still paying active attention to their surroundings. They were all trying, but her brain was getting fatigued from the effort. Which is probably why it took them all by surprise when Soon-Bok was suddenly slammed against the ground as her feet were pulled out from under her and she was dragged up a tree, a thick, thorny vine wrapped around and piercing into her leg.

Everyone cried out. By the time anyone could react Soon-Bok had been slurped up into a bright orange flower similar to all the other flowers growing out of vines hanging from the trees. The petals closed around her and her screams were cut off and muffled. The flower hung upside down now with the weight of Soon-Bok, but was still some fifteen to twenty feet in the air. It was only then that a name appeared above the plant, Kulamtu Lvl 2. Apparently the system didn’t need to identify the plant as a monster until it attacked.

With the flower hanging down now, its petals within which Soon-Bok was held, were in the way of its main body holding it to the tree. None of the melee fighters could reach it, and there were no branches starting before the flower to climb up upon. And Izumi and Fiadh couldn’t get a clean shot that wouldn’t put Soon-Bok at risk.

“What do we do!?” Izumi yelled in frustration, a single arrow hanging limply from her fingers. She glared indignantly up at the flower.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Can anyone climb that?” Rana asked.

Lilit looked at the smooth bark, “Not me. I need something to grab onto.”

Fiadh began to quietly circle around the tree, looking for a shot she could take to free her new teammate while the others argued.

“I can’t find anything to even shoot at,” Izumi complained.

“What if I tried to use my axes to help me climb up?” Rana asked.

“I’m not sure that would work,” Awendala offered.

“I’m gonna try it,” Rana mumbled as she pulled her axes free. She took a moment to eyeball the tree and plan her way up. She reached up and slammed her axe into the tree trunk then slammed the other axe in next to it. The heads were angled instead of straight up and down. Rana jumped up, her feet scrabbling for purchase on the tree trunk before her axes slipped free and she tumbled down to the ground.

Izumi cried out, “Let me see if Bob can climb it!” She summoned Bob on up and tried to explain to it that it needed to climb the tree and cut down the flower. Bob just stood there like a himbo in a science lecture, very confused. It took several minutes and lots of miming before Bob seemed to kind of get what Izumi was asking and began climbing the tree. It dug its clawed fingers through the bark and pulled itself up, its legs still dangling down hovering in air. Bob began to slowly ascend the tree, one carefully placed hand at a time.

Bob was about halfway up and just under the flower when suddenly it jerked violently and began falling off the tree, black crumbling and smoking vines trailing behind it as it smacked into Bob and pulled them down together. At the same time came a yelp from the other side of the tree.

Lilit ran around the tree while Rana and Awendala began trying to hack through the petals of the flower without hurting Soon-Bok. Directly behind the tree was Fiadh dangling a few feet in the air, covered in vines. But with no flower to pull her into, they just held her tightly.

A few vines lashed out toward Lilit who smacked them aside with her shield. One managed to latch onto her shield though and started pulling her in. Lilit activated her burning hands skill and grabbed hold of the vine. It immediately let go and writhed in the air trying to escape her grasp, flames spreading along its length.

Before the skill could finish, Lilit jumped up toward the nest of vines holding Fiadh and began slapping her burning hand along their length. She jumped up and down like a hopped up toddler as she reached out toward the vines. They immediately dropped Fiadh and pulled away, beating at the ground and tree to put out the spreading fires.

“T-thanks,” Fiadh spoke quietly.

“Of course. I assume you’re the one who got the flower to fall, so great job. Now let’s go help free Soon-Bok,” Lilit panted.

They both rushed back around the tree trunk. Awendala and Rana had managed to split some of the petals and were pulling them apart. The flower was still fighting them, because both were struggling and straining while they pulled their petals. Izumi had reached in and was in the process of pulling Soon-Bok out of the flower. Lilit and Fiadh leapt forward to help Izumi get her out faster.

Soon-Bok was covered in a thick, clear, slimy mucus. As soon as she was on the ground, Lilit began scooping it off from around her nose and mouth. It looked like Soon-Bok’s breathing had stopped, but with a quick check her heart was still beating, though barely.

Lilit rolled her onto her side and smacked her back roughly several times. Some mucus came out, but she still wasn’t breathing. So Lilit rolled her back onto her back and began abdominal thrusts which forced out even more mucus. Lilit was about to roll her back onto her side when Soon-Bok inhaled a deep breath and began coughing violently. Her eyes slid open and she looked around at the others. She rolled onto her side and emptied her stomach of even more mucus.

Her coughing eventually died down and she was able to thank everyone. She had tears in her eyes, and began trying to sit up. Lilit helped her up. Soon-Bok looked down at herself and cringed, “Wow, I hope this comes off.”

Chapter Text

The mucus kind of came off. Everyone helped scoop off as much mucus as they could with their hands, and Soon-Bok sacrificed one of her own shirts to cleaning her exposed skin and weapons handles. She still had a sheen in her hair and on her clothes and armor. Hopefully they could find a safe zone and there was water for her to wash with. Until then they just had to push on. At least now they knew to be wary of the plant life as well as the monsters.

For some reason, the kulamtu didn’t drop any loot when its body disappeared. The vines from the main part of its body even stayed attached to the tree. Lilit hoped that the rest of the monsters didn’t prove to be the same way. It’s not like they got paid any other way except with looted coins and selling looted items. If the dungeon was withholding loot, that could prove the end of their delving after not very long.

 After a few minutes allowing everyone to rest and recover from their brief fight with a flower, they headed deeper into the forest. For its part, the forest continued on as it had up until then. Dark, gloomy, and grey.

Nearly an hour later they came across a clearing in the forest. Lilit freaked out, thinking they’d circled back around to their original entry point. She hastily checked her map to thankfully discover that despite the group having arched away from a truly straight path, they had not circled that far. This was a new clearing.

Awendala made to skirt around the clearing. Lilit was confused, and Rana must have noticed. She leaned over and murmured to Lilit, “Walking through the clearing would leave us more exposed without any kind of cover or anything to put our backs up against unnecessarily. It would be a good spot for an ambush, so we avoid it.”

Lilit nodded her head in understanding. That made perfect sense once Rana explained it. She smiled at Rana as they circled around the clearing.

They were about halfway around when all of a sudden something fell out of the trees near them on the edge of the clearing. Then more somethings fell from other trees nearby. They weren’t in the center of the ambush, making it a more equal fight thankfully. She noticed across the clearing figures bounding out of the woods and through the clearing. They really would have been surrounded. It seemed that Awendala’s and Rana’s experience fighting in their past lives may have just saved all their lives this time.

Looking closer, several figures were running at them from around the trees. They were gnarled, hunched, and twisted. When they got closer, Lilit could make out that they seemed to be made of sticks and vines interwoven together. Their heads were topped by growths of leaves that trailed behind them as they ran silently forward. Their eyes were green orbs shining haphazardly through gaps in their interwoven heads. Their arms hung low and their hands ended in long curved thorns. They carried no weapons. Above their heads sprang up the label Spriggin Lvl 2.

“Monsters. Left!” Lilit shouted before the spriggins could close the gap any further. Awendala had already begun to swing herself around to face their opponents. Izumi began her incantation to summon Bob. Lilit moved herself to be behind Awendala and beside Izumi. Rana, Fiadh, and Soon-Bok fanned out to flank Awendala. As everyone was set, Bob popped into the picture and moved up beside Awendala.

Then the spriggins were upon them. The pack heading toward them growing with each passing moment. They moved nearly silently. The only sound being the air whistling through their branches as they ran. It made for an eerie melody.

The first spriggins crashed into the party as Awendala leaned forward and breathed out her fiery breath. A huge swath of spriggins instantly caught fire. It spread as they careened into each other. A tree over a dozen feet away gained a sooty scorch mark on its trunk, but never actually caught fire.

The burning spriggins collapsed after only a few moments. And then the next wave of monsters was crashing into them having trampled their fallen kin. Awendala met them with her shield and began slashing out with her sword. Rana clanked her axes together, causing the edges to catch flame and then she was a whirlwind of violence beside Awendala. Bob began slashing everything it could reach, drawing more spriggins as it wounded them. Soon-Bok began dancing off of Bob’s flank, slashing through vines, but bouncing off most of the sticks making up the spriggins’ bodies. Fiadh on the other hand was blasting the little bastards apart with her shadowy missiles. Her swings from her staff knocking spriggins away as she kept to Awendala’s shield hip. Izumi pulled out her newly recharged wand of lesser fireball. She began taking potshots between everyone’s shifting bodies. Lilit sat back and kept an eye on everything, looking for where she needed to put in a ward or a healing prayer.

Soon-Bok seemed to grow frustrated with her inability to cause much lasting damage with her weapons. Her daggers just lacked the heft to cleave through the wooden monsters’ intertwined stick bodies more than superficially. She took a step back and then seemed to trigger a skill that had her dashing forward in a blur. When she came to an abrupt stop, she was in the middle of the horde of monsters though. And while the two spriggins she’d seemed to target with her mad dash did look worse for wear, they were far from down.

Lilit panicked a little when she saw Soon-Bok surrounded by all the spriggins. She flipped open her prayer book and as quickly as she could cast her ward of light around Soon-Bok. She took several shallow scratches before the ward popped up, her armor deflecting the strikes from more vital areas.

Soon-Bok started trying to bully her way back to safety. Awendala seemed to catch sight of her out of the corner of her eye. She triggered two skills at once. With a mighty roar that grabbed the attention of all the monsters, she swung her sword in a sweeping arc through the mass in front of her. Five or six spriggins fell over, cut clean in two. It was hard for Lilit to keep an accurate count with all the body parts flying around. Awendala was almost singlehandedly crushing this enemy. She’d cut down or burned about half of their number. The others struggled to cut through the spriggins. Though Rana’s burning axes did eventually put them down. It just took a few swings. And Fiadh’s spells had their lengthy cooldown.

Soon-Bok made it back to their lines. She was about to dive back into the fray as the ward of light finally died. Lilit called out, “Soon-Bok, try breaking them instead of cutting them.” Lilit didn’t know what else for her to do since her daggers were so ineffective.

Lilit cast a healing prayer on Soon-Bok to get her back up to speed. So far everyone’s armor had been keeping them safe from the spriggins’ claws. As soon as she was done, she decided to wade into this fight herself. She was tired of seeing her friends struggling. So, she put her prayer book away and stepped up on the other side of Soon-Bok. Both of them began to rain down blows on the wooden creatures. The weight behind her mace helped her more than Soon-Bok’s batons, but both were only leaving behind wounded and limping spriggins.

Even when Lilit reached out with a burning hand, she only caught one or two spriggins, and the burning wasn’t enough to take them down permanently either. And the mob in front of them continued to grow as more spriggins joined them. Awendala and Bob held firm in the middle, but Rana, Lilit, and Soon-Bok were being pressed back on the flanks.

Awendala kept the space in front of her less congested with her periodic sweeping cuts with her broadsword. She cut through swaths of spriggins yet they still kept coming. Her breath weapon still had a few more minutes on its cooldown. Bob kept the spriggins in front of it engaged and constantly wounded with its quick sweeps and long claws, but it was beginning to flag as it sustained more damage. Izumi would need to cast a healing spell on it soon or risk losing it.

Lilit fought alongside Soon-Bok on the far side of their formation. Part of her knew she shouldn’t be there. She was needed in the back where she could keep an eye on everything and send out the heals. But she felt so useless back there. Safe. Coddled.

She’d never had this kind of problem when she played games as a healer before this. She knew her part to play in the party, and she played it unselfishly. But here, now, when there was real blood on the line…she couldn’t make herself sit on the sidelines anymore. Not with her friends, and whatever was going on with Awendala, were in danger. Her combat training had been for when she had no choice but to wade into the fight, but she chose to put it to use in the now.

Her brain continued to churn as the fight went on. In this instance, yes, it seemed dire. Yes, Soon-Bok and the others were struggling with this new monster type. But, it wasn’t hopeless and it wasn’t like they weren’t making progress. So, she knew that she probably shouldn’t be there on that frontline with them. She knew on some level she was needlessly putting not just herself but the welfare of the others on the team in jeopardy. But it was so much harder in real life than when she was staring at a screen.

Her guilt gnawed at her as she fought hard against the spriggins. Her guilt also distracted her from the fight. Drew her mind away from the here and now. So it wasn’t have a surprise that she messed up. Only that she’d lasted as long as she had before doing it.

She missed a swing coming in from her shield side and didn’t get her arm up in time. She was able to deflect it at the last second, but the spriggin managed to rake its thorny claws across her face, barely missing her eye. The left side of her vision was immediately blocked by the blood gushing in her eye from one of her cuts. She felt the blood continue down her face and neck and coat her skin down to her torso.

She cursed loudly and ducked away from the fighting, leaving Soon-Bok awkwardly covering the expanded front. If Soon-Bok hadn’t moved as quickly as she did to cover the gap she created by being there in the first place, Lilit and possibly Izumi would have been easy targets. From behind her, Lilit heard Awendala let out an angry roar, drawing more spriggins to her.

With fumbling fingers, Lilit pulled out her prayer book and cast minor healing on herself. It didn’t clear her vision, but she felt the cuts on her face close and stop bleeding. She shoved her prayer book away and wiped at her eyes.

When she made to go back to the frontlines, Izumi reached over and grabbed her arm. Lilit was forced to stop and when she turned to glare at Izumi, she just glared right back.

“Don’t do that shit again. Stay here where you belong,” Izumi said angrily. “You are not a frontline fighter. You’re the gods damn healer!”

Lilit was so taken aback that she just stopped. She froze in place before her head dropped in shame. If even the irrepressible Izumi thought she had stepped out of her zone, maybe she had crossed a line. She nodded her head in agreement and slid back next to Izumi.

Lilit pulled out her prayer book and returned to watching the fight from the back. She pretty quickly cast another ward spell on Soon-Bok as she struggled with the spriggins. It would still be a little bit before she could cast her minor healing again.

Awendala called out, “Falling back. Flanks hold the line, we’re going to draw them to the center.” The others called out acknowledgements. Awendala and Bob slowly began retreating while still fighting and keeping the attention of the majority of the spriggins. Soon-Bok and Rana held the ends of the line, fighting as hard as they could. Fiadh retreated with the middle of the line since she was between Awendala and Bob.

Soon Awendala and Bob had pulled the spriggins so they were in front of them and between both Rana and Soon-Bok. They were all but encircled. Her breath weapon’s cooldown must have ticked over because when she had them all bunched up together, she let out a giant plume of flames all over the group of spriggins.

They were decimated. They caught fire and quickly crumpled on the ground. There were still spriggins coming out of the trees, but they had to be nearing the end of them because they were down to a trickle from the deluge it had started as.

It was only a few more minutes until the final spriggins died. Everyone paused, trying to catch their breath as they waited to see if any more monsters would show up. When everyone was sure that it truly was the last of the spriggins Rana and Awendala both marched angrily up to Lilit.

“What the hell were you thinking?” They both yelled simultaneously. They briefly shared a look and then returned to scowling at Lilit.

“W-what are you talking about?” Lilit asked.

“You know exactly what we’re talking about,” Rana huffed. “Why were you on the frontlines?”

“I–I just wanted to help.”

“You know better. Your job is to stay in the back and heal and buff people. You not only needlessly put yourself in danger, you put all of us in danger.” Rana was really picking up steam now, “What if something had happened to Awendala, like in the training room? And you weren’t there to heal her right away and the monsters broke through? Huh?

“And what did happen when you got hurt and had to suddenly step back? I’ll tell you what, you left Soon-Bok to pick up the extra weight you were trying to help with because you’d drawn the monsters so far along the front. What if she’d gotten hurt because of that?

“What you did was selfish, and stupid. Your job is not to be fighting. We picked up two other people to fight in order to give you the space you needed to be the healer of our group. If you have to fight, then we have all failed. I don’t want to see you up there on the frontlines again.” And then she stomped off to where the others were quietly going through the loot bags.

Shameful tears began to burn in the corners of Lilit’s eyes. She already knew she’d fucked up, but to see her party so upset about it really hit home. And Rana was right. She had put more than herself in danger by joining the fight when she didn’t need to. Wanting to help was a poor excuse when she had a role to play already. It’d just never been so hard to take a back seat to all the action.

Awendala put her hand on Lilit’s shoulder and Lilit broke. She flung herself into Awendala’s arms crying and apologizing. For her part, Awendala held her firmly and just let her vent her frustrations at herself.

When Lilit was able to get herself more under control she pulled back far enough to look up into Awendala’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she hiccupped.

“I know. While I don’t agree with how Rana said it, I do think she made good points, babe. Your job shouldn’t be stepping in to fight the monsters. You should be in the back taking care of all of us.” Awendala leaned forward to brush a chaste kiss across Lilit’s lips. “Your job is to see the bigger picture and help us out that way. Today, I had to step up and direct the tactics for our fight. Up until now, that’s been you. And you’ve been doing a great job of it. Don’t think what you do is any less important just because you’re not killing monsters directly.”

Lilit couldn’t speak, she just nodded her head and then rewrapped her arms around Awendala’s waist. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Ok?”

“Ok,” Awendala whispered into the top of her head. “Now let’s check our statuses, because I’ve been feeling both of our Delvers buzzing for a few minutes now.”

Lilit realized that, yeah, she could feel her Delver buzzing on her arm. How had she missed that? She stepped back and brought her Delver up. Congratulations. You’ve leveled up to Level 3. You have a choice between Light of the Faithful, and Divine Weapon.

Well that was new, last time it chose her skill for her. Maybe there was only one skill available to her last level? Either way, she needed to know more about what the skills were so she scrolled over and highlighted them.

She started with Divine Weapon because she had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to take it, even if part of her really wanted to. Divine Weapon: Summon a weapon of your choice created from divine energy. It is autonomous and targets enemies around you until its energy is spent or it is dismissed. Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 1 minute.

A good choice if she was going more for damage, something her party had just violently objected to. She sighed at the opportunity lost and took a look at what would likely become her new skill. Light of the Faithful: Cast a divine light upon your allies and increase their strength, and increase their passive regen of stamina. Lasts 30 seconds. Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 1 minute.

Lilit sighed. She knew what she needed to pick, and it was a great choice. No doubt about it. Just the feeling that she didn’t actually have a choice in her choice was grating for her. But ultimately she knew that this was about the party and all of them, not just herself. She chose the buff skill and let her arm drop. She wondered what everyone else was going to get. It sounded like at least some of the others had leveled up as well, and the ones who didn’t should be close. Even Fiadh should be close to a level up.

Chapter Text

Turns out all the original party members leveled up. Fiadh and Soon-Bok were close though. While Lilit did choose the party buffing skill, everyone else simply received skills without a choice. Lilit made a note to talk to Sapphire or someone about that. It felt like an oddity that she was given a choice and the others weren’t. It also felt a little like the gods mocking her with her choices being party buff and personal damage dealing.

Awendala picked up a skill that temporarily blinded the enemy. Rana picked up a self-warding skill. And Izumi was extra excited because she’d finally managed to pick up another type of summons.

Meanwhile, the loot everyone had gathered had been both a boon and a pain. They had overall come out quite a bit ahead with coins and what they hoped were alchemy ingredients. Unfortunately they only came out so far ahead because of the quantity of monsters for them to loot. Each individual monster didn’t provide very much at all. This was definitely a case of quantity having a quality all its own.

They rested for a little while. Most of the party was low on stamina or mana, and they weren’t in any kind of rush to get this done or anything. They’d brought supplies for several days.

Rana came over toward where Lilit was sitting. Awendala saw her coming and got up after placing a kiss on top of Lilit’s head. She wandered off and Rana took her place, sitting next to Lilit.

“Izumi made me realize that I owe you an apology. So, I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Rana looked down at her lap. “I just…I was so worried when I saw you get hurt. And again when I saw Soon-Bok struggling. And in both cases there was nothing I could do.

“I really don’t think you should have been fighting, but that didn’t mean I had to yell at you about it. So, yeah.” She shrugged.

Lilit sat with the apology for a minute. “We both kind of messed up. I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, you’re right. And…and I knew that even when I jumped in there, but I ignored it because I didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t contributing the same as everyone else, like I was being coddled. So, I’m sorry too.”

Lilit looked up and met Rana’s gaze. Rana leaned further into Lilit’s space. She could feel the warmth radiating off of Rana’s skin. Rana ran the back of her knuckles down Lilit’s cheek, causing a shiver to run down Lilit’s spine.

“You do contribute. You contribute a lot to this party, and we all appreciate what you do for us.” Rana assured her.

“Th-thanks,” Lilit blushed.

Rana leaned back on her hands and let her head loll around on her neck. The ends of her locs sweeping across the dirt on the forest floor. She let out a deep sigh, “We should probably get going. Don’t know if there’s a night cycle here, but I don’t want to be out here if there is one.”

Lilit stood up and followed Rana over the rest of the group. With very little fanfare, and little said between everyone, the group set out once again.

They walked in the same order they had before, so Lilit had plenty of time during their march through the woods to look over at Rana and study her. Rana was certainly outside the norm for what Lilit would have normally called attractive with her soft grey fur and short snout. But there was no denying the exotic attractiveness of the woman and her soft touches, even if her personality could be a little abrasive. Lilit knew that she’d been coming from a good place, and she could even understand being upset enough to yell at someone, but that didn’t mean it felt good. But, Lilit would do her best to put those hurt feelings behind her and move on. Rana and the group at large were more important than some hurt feelings.

They continued marching for another hour without running into anything. They were all a little wary when they stopped for a quick, cold lunch from their bags. No one really talked, and their meals were eaten fairly quickly. Then they were back to marching through the forest.

Lilit started noticing shadows or something flitting between the trees as they walked through the forest. Every time she looked directly at the movement though, nothing was there. Before she could say anything Rana called out, “Something is tracking us. Everyone stay alert.”

The level of tension in the group ratcheted up another notch, and people began loosening weapons in sheaths. Lilit kept her head on a swivel as she walked, trying to keep an eye on everything at once.

Suddenly every sound in the forest silenced. It was hard to tell how much ambient noise there actually was until it all cut out suddenly. The group came to a silent halt, everyone facing out into the forest.

“There!” Shouted Izumi, pointing.

“And there.” Rana called out, pointing in a completely different direction.

Taking a quick look around, Lilit came to a conclusion, “We’re surrounded. Izumi, Get Bob on the opposite side from Awendala, everyone else on the flanks. Close in on each other so you’re shoulder to shoulder without inhibiting anyone.”

Lilit stepped into the closing center of the lopsided square they’d fallen into. Everyone else moved into their spots. Fiadh ended up next to Soon-Bok on one side, and Rana stood on the other.

“Damn, I can have multiple summons out, but I have to wait for the cooldown for one to end to summon the other. Unless we can hold on for another few minutes this might be all I can contribute,” Izumi told the others.

“Wait, why don’t you just keep Bob out all the time?” Lilit asked. There still wasn’t more than flickers between the trees giving away the presence of something out there.

“Bob is kind of slow and it hasn’t been a problem before now. I didn’t even think about it,” Izumi complained.

“It’s ok, we can go a little slower if it lets you be able to use both summons for a fight,” Rana said over her shoulder.

“We’ll figure it out later. Focus everyone,” Lilit said.

“They’re coming,” Awendala called out a moment later.

Lilit turned to look over Soon-Bok’s head. She was the only one on the outside not taller than her. Hunched, shadowy figures were rushing between the trees. “I think it’s more spriggins guys,” Lilit called out. There were several groans with that announcement, but everyone seemed ready to meet their enemies head on.

As they closed, Spriggin Lvl 2 did begin to pop up above their heads. More slowly moving in were a few other, smaller figures. Still too far out to identify.

Soon the groups met with a resounding crash of noise and violence. Lilit kept a close eye on everyone, but this close it was easier for them to cover each other. Fiadh and Soon-Bok proved to be well matched. Soon-Bok was able to fend off most of the spriggins, but couldn’t finish them off. Meanwhile Fiadh could finish them off with a spell, but couldn’t do that and fend them off at the same time. Rana was a more constrained fighter while she needed to stay close to the party. She was still fast and a vicious, but she was less a whirlwind of violence and more of a steady, inevitable destruction. Bob was keeping spriggins busy, but wasn’t having much luck putting them down. On the opposite end, Awendala was putting them down so fast that they were starting to avoid the area in front of her. At least until she let out one of her guttural roars that seemed to enrage the spriggins back into attacking her. Then she followed it up with a blinding flash emanating from her shield that blinded the spriggins around her. She quickly fell as many as she could reach.

Luckily this wasn’t an endless seeming horde of monsters like before. There were maybe thirty spriggins that had surrounded them. Not a small amount by any means for five people to fight, but not as dire as their first ambush. Or that was how it seemed.

From further away, the smaller figures began casting some kind of spell. The spriggins were surrounded by a deep green glow and their wounds seemed to grow back together and tiny blossoms and sprouts burst out of their bodies. It didn’t resurrect any spriggins, but it did seem to fully heal those still alive, setting the party, especially Bob, back.

The distant monsters had continued to approach and Lilit was finally able to identify them. Dryad Lvl 3 sat above most of their heads. But there was one shifting around toward Awendala’s side of the formation with Dryad Matriarch Lvl 4 above her head.

“Dryad healers in the back. Izumi, see if you can’t get some shots between bodies. Focus on the one incoming in front of Awendala, she looks like trouble. Fiadh, target the healers you can see,” Lilit ordered. A couple grunts of agreement were heard and then spells and arrows began firing into the distance.

The dryads were far enough away to dodge Fiadh’s fire with moderate ease. Izumi’s arrows travelled with a little more speed and she quickly found her target. A roar that was too loud and too deep to have logically come from the throat of such a small creature erupted from the matriarch as she took an arrow to the thigh. But she kept on coming.

“Fiadh, that’s ok. Focus back on the spriggins. We’ll let them close a little more.” Lilit called out. “Keep it up Izumi.”

Fiadh returned to focusing on the spriggins in front of her, to which Soon-Bok seemed thankful. Izumi nodded to Lilit and slid over to better fire from behind Awendala.

Lilit tried to keep an eye on everything at once. She stepped back closer to Bob in order to keep the others in sight a little more easily. The others continued to fight on. Lilit felt the same restless feeling of not helping as she sat safely inside their formation and her party fought bravely along the edges.

She had to push that feeling down though, because it was no longer her job to do that. It was her job to support her party and make them work better. To that end she finally did something she should have done before the fight even started. She pulled out her prayer book and cast her minor ward around Fiadh, the squishiest person on the frontlines right now. Honestly she should probably be in the back too, but she was actually very proficient with using her staff as an impromptu weapon. Soon a light sheen popped up in the air around Fiadh as she cast her spells and swung her staff.

Most of the party were taking small injuries from the spriggins, but Lilit waited to cast her healing spell on anyone until it was more dire. She needed to save it, her mana, and her cooldown for something more serious.

Izumi must have been keeping an eye on her cooldown because she started cackling before a small dark red creature popped into existence next to her. It was about her height, had short nubby horns on its forehead, a bald head, and angry orange eyes. When it curled its lip in a smile, tiny needle sharp teeth gleamed in the light. It was wearing a simple loincloth covering its bits, and that was it. “Fuck ‘em up,” Izumi called out.

Her imp didn’t respond out loud, but its smile grew. A flame instantly wrapped around it and it disappeared. Another flash of flame outside the formation and then fireballs began raining down with impunity among the spriggins, accompanied by bright flashes of flame as the imp disappeared from one location and leapt out of another.

The imp and its flames were highly effective and inspired a new level of fury on the part of their team. Soon the group was beating the spriggins back. The healing spells coming in from the dryads was slowing down everyone’s progress, but it wasn’t stopping them.

Awendala let out another angry, guttural roar, ensnaring the attention of several of the dryads as well. Unfortunately they were spell casters instead of melee, so Awendala couldn’t do a lot with that. It did distract the ones on Fiadh’s side though, which allowed her to fire off a few spells their way. The dryads proved to be especially weak to Fiadh’s dark shadowy bolt. Her electrical attack was less so, though still effective.

Then the matriarch came for Awendala. A green hue wrapped around two spriggins directly in front of Awendala. The spriggins arched back, their bent spines suddenly straight, heads thrown back. Roots shot up from the ground and twisted around their bodies, quickly adding mass to them. The spriggins grew taller and wider. Their arms lengthened. Their claws grew thicker and longer, more jagged. The hue faded from around them and they towered over the spriggins around them. The labels above their head flickered from Spriggin Lvl 2 to Greater Spriggin Lvl 3.

“Flame breath!” Lilit shouted. “Awendala, use your flame breath!”

Before she could react, the greater spriggins rushed forward, shoving their lesser kin aside and smashed directly into Awendala’s raised shield. She struggled to hold them back. She began to be pushed back herself, one step at a time. One of the greater spriggins grabbed onto the edge of her shield and tried to yank it away from her. It wrenched her arm and Awendala ended up crying out.

Without thinking, Lilit reached down and pulled out her mace. She called a smite down into her weapon and then rushed in behind Awendala. She swung for all she was worth and smashed her mace into the hand wrapped around the edge of Awendala’s shield. A flash of light went off as she made contact with the spriggin, so she lost sight of it for a moment. When the light faded, the greater spriggin was cradling its hand, dripping sappy blood down its arm. She looked down to see half of its hand crushed and mangled, hanging from the edge of Awendala’s shield by the same sticky, sappy blood.

Awendala nodded to her and wrenched herself back into position. She activated her shield bash and sent the remaining greater spriggin reeling back several steps. Before either of them could recover, Awendala drew in a deep breath and then released it in a torrent of flame across all the spriggins in front of her. They all withered and fell to her flames.

A pair of dryads stepped into the opening, each with a spear in hand. They began jabbing and pressing toward Awendala who pulled her shield in and weathered the assault. Izumi began peppering them with arrows. She got a lucky shot and took one through the heart, dropping the dryad after a few seconds of pained stumbling. Awendala angled her shield to let the spear deflect past her and stepped forward. Before the dryad could react, Awendala buried her blade in the dryad’s middle. She paused for a moment and then ripped it sideways out of its body. The dryad crumpled to the ground and Awendala stepped back into place in the formation.

The entire exchange had taken a few seconds at most. Lilit was a little embarrassed by just how turned on it left her. She wasn’t usually one to find violence sexy, but something about the sheer competence and precision that Awendala moved with was mesmerizing and heart stopping.

The matriarch on the other hand seemed more than a little pissed instead of turned on by the display. She raised her arms threateningly and began casting some kind of spell. The ground around them began to shake and tremble.

Then Izumi’s little imp flashed into view right beside the matriarch and cast a fireball in her face before flashing away again. She barely managed to deflect it in time, but still caught some of the damage on her side. The matriarch’s spell was disrupted and she was left reeling. Izumi refocused on taking down the matriarch, firing arrows at her as quickly as she could.

Lilit refocused on the rest of the fight around her. It was beginning to wind down now. Most of the spriggins were dead. Rana had shifted over and was helping clean up after Bob’s pile of wounded spriggins. There were only a pair of dryads left, and Fiadh was trading off shots at them with shots into the few remaining spriggins near her.

“Soon-Bok, take out the dryads. Fiadh and I can handle this,” Lilit instructed. She stepped forward. There were less than a handful of spriggins in front of her. She raised her shield and began swinging at spriggin joints to slow them down for Fiadh.

Soon-Bok giggled with glee and faded into a shadow. She popped up behind one of the dryads, finally with her daggers out, and began a bloody dance around her newest victims. There were some screams, but also a lot of slightly mad laughter.

Very soon the final spriggins were felled, and the last screams of the dryads died out. Rana gave Lilit an exasperated look when she passed her to start looting. Lilit just shrugged her shoulders. What she had done this time wasn’t the same as what she’d done last time. This time she’d acted much more rationally and less emotionally. She hadn’t recklessly stepped into the line of fire. She supported her team and expedited getting some tougher enemies taken off the board.

Was Rana still upset about her stepping into danger? Yes. Was she going to have to get used to her taking small risks to help the team? Also yes. Lilit made plans to have another talk with Rana when they found a safe space. If the dungeon even had something like that. There was no indication that this dungeon would even have any safe spaces for them to rest in.

Lilit didn’t plan to act recklessly again. She could push down her emotions and make logical decisions. And Rana couldn’t expect her to never step forward to help out her teammates and lend a hand. She just needed to be more careful and purposeful about it. No jumping in because she felt like she wasn’t contributing or felt coddled. But when she saw a way for her to end a fight sooner by tactically stepping forward, she would take it. There was a balance that she intended to strive for. And Rana and the others were going to have to get used to it. She was an adult and more than capable of making these kinds of decisions on her own.

Once again, the spriggin loot wasn’t that great. There were a few nicer drops from the dryads though. Izumi floated the idea of everyone pooling their money to get a storage item instead of everyone lugging their packs around through the dungeon. She said she’d seen one at the market for a thousand gold pieces. Lilit agreed, but figured that it might take another dungeon run before they could afford it, unless this dungeon suddenly turned a lot more profitable. Until then, they’d be hauling their own loot, which unfortunately meant leaving some of the heavier, bulkier, or just less expensive looking loot behind. Though having such a large party to spread the loot around with was helpful.

After collecting the loot, they walked another hour through the woods without running into anything else. This dungeon was a lot more walk and wait than their previous dungeon. Lilit wasn’t sure if she liked it more or not. It did give everyone time to regenerate quite a bit of mana and stamina though.

Up ahead, through the trees Awendala signaled she’d spotted something. She wasn’t sure what it was at first, but she kept an eye on it. It was Fiadh, walking behind her who deciphered it first.

Everyone’s Delver buzzed with a message from Fiadh, ‘House up ahead.’

Everyone perked up. If nothing else, it was something to break up the monotony of the march. And at least for now, it wasn’t trying to kill them. Win-win.

When they got close enough for everyone to make it out, they saw a little stone cottage, smoke gently rising from the chimney. Thatched roof overhanging the grey walls. A small red door and two windows flanking it sat on the side of the cottage facing them. There was a small garden and flowerbed on either side of the small stoop leading up to the door. They watched the house from behind the cover of the trees for several minutes without any sign of movement from inside.

“I say this has got to be one of the safe spaces,” Izumi asserted.

“I mean, that would be nice. I’m exhausted,” Awendala complained.

“Well, look at all the armor you cart around, of course you are. Even if you are all muscles.” Lilit muttered the last under her breath.

“Should we check it out?” Rana asked.

“I’ll do it!” Izumi volunteered.

“No,” Lilit and Rana hissed at the same time. Awendala just shook her head.

Soon-Bok grinned and put her hand up. Before anyone could acknowledge her she volunteered, “I’ll do it. If something happens I can just shadow step away.”

The others silently conferred with quick looks. “Ok, but be careful,” Lilit implored her.

Soon-Bok didn’t wait for anyone else to gainsay her. She leapt out of cover and sprinted to the front door. Before anyone could so much as breathe she yanked the door open and stepped inside. There was silence for a moment, then Soon-Bok called out, “Izumi was right! It’s a safe space.”

With a relieved sigh, the others trudged toward the door. Unlike the last dungeon. There would be no negotiation about whether or not to make use of the safe space. Everyone needed a break and to rest.

As soon as Lilit crossed the threshold her delver chimed. This is a safe zone. The water in safe zones is safe to drink. Rest, recharge, regroup, and strategize. She finally allowed herself to relax, her shoulders slumping.

Chapter Text

Inside the cottage, because that was what it looked like on the inside as well, was very rustic. Lots of exposed wooden beams, dark couches and chairs to the right as they entered. A fireplace burning on the far side of the room. To the left was a barebones kitchen and dining room combo. There was a long counter with cabinets and sink on the far side of the room. A table and six chairs sat between the counter and the livingroom furniture. Grey wood floors stretched the entire space, with rugs scattered around to soften the look.

Lilit dropped her bag by the front door and walked past the front rooms. There was a short corridor that quickly teed off at the end. There were three rooms down each side of the back corridor. One on each side, and one at the end. So, everyone could have their own room, she suspected.

Lilit picked a room at random and walked inside. There was a small room with a small bed that still managed to take up most of the space. There was a door she peeked through that led to a small bathroom with a shower stall and a toilet. The whole arrangement was giving big hotel room vibes, unlike the rooms back at The Inn.

She stepped back into the hallway and nearly got bowled over by Rana coming from the other direction. “Oh, there you are!” Rana stopped a hairsbreadth from running Lilit over. “You just wandered off. Are you so quick to get away from us all?” she teased.

Lilit could feel the warmth radiating off of Rana. Their chests brushed, and she could feel the warm air against her lips as Rana spoke. Lilit felt her knees weaken and took a steadying step back. She felt the flush rush over her cheeks. “N-n-no. I just wanted to…” She gestured vaguely toward the door she’d come out of as she trailed off. Rana smirked down at her.

Lilit swallowed painfully and hedged to the side of the corridor. Rana followed her with her eyes, but didn’t block her way. With a squeak, Lilit went scurrying back down the hallway, Rana’s soft chuckles following after her. She emerged back in the front of the cabin and found the rest of the party spread out across the couches and chairs. She flopped onto a couch beside Awendala who pulled her into her side with her arm wrapped around Lilit’s waist.

Lilit let the conversation in the room wash over her as her heartrate returned to normal. She wasn’t even sure why her heart had tried to beat its way out of her chest to begin with. It’s not like she had a thing for Rana. So what if she was attractive, and fiery, and caring. She was also loud, and angry, and annoying. So…yeah. Lilit definitely didn’t like like Rana in that way. She’d just been startled. That made total sense. Nothing else going on here.

One thing she didn’t feel though was guilty. She didn’t feel like she was betraying Awendala by admitting that Rana was attractive. If anything, she knew that Awendala and the others would approve of her attraction. Izumi would encourage her to pursue any interest. Awendala would tell her there was no pressure and to take her time. Rana could go either way. Fiadh and Soon-Bok she didn’t know well enough to know how they’d feel or react. She sighed and snuggled in closer to Awendala. That was a problem for future Lilit.

There wasn’t a stove or anything specifically to heat up their food on, but it wasn’t too hard to jury-rig something using the fireplace. While the food heated, Lilit took the opportunity to take off her armor and jump in the shower. They ate warmed up rations and refilled their water in the sink. It was such a huge difference from how the rest of the day had gone that it left Lilit’s mind whirling a little bit. It was a little jarring.

They all retired to their rooms soon after dinner. The day had been long and hard and they all needed their rest. Lilit was exhausted. Fiadh and Soon-Bok took their own rooms, while Rana and Izumi shared one. And with a tilted head and raised brow, Awendala lured Lilit into her room as well. She might have a little energy left after all.

As soon as Lilit was through the door, Awendala was on her. Her lips were soft and hungry against Lilit’s. She tangled her hands in Lilit’s hair as she guided Lilit toward the small bed. Awendala eased her down onto the mattress and Lilit scooted her body toward the middle. Their lips locked together the entire time. Awendala swallowing Lilit’s moans and whimpers as she crawled after her.

Lilit fumbled with Awendala’s shirt. It became stuck around Awendala’s shoulders somewhere, forcing her to sit up and rip the shirt over her head. While their lips were apart, Lilit took a chance to yank her own clothes off. Her shirt went flying off the side of the bed. They raced to pull off their pants until they were both kneeling on the bed in their underclothes.

Awendala dove back into Lilit. Her arm wrapped around Lilit’s shoulders as she once again guided Lilit’s back onto the bed. She lay atop Lilit, her body pressing her down. Lilit whimpered with the feeling of Awendala pressing down on her. She wanted to be smothered in her lover…girlfriend. They should probably talk about that, but not now. Now she had more pressing matters and few enough brain cells to focus with.

Lilit glided her hands up Awendala’s sides. She was so soft and warm, and at the same time hard and firm. It was a contradiction that she couldn’t get enough of, and it was uniquely Awendala. She moaned and Lilit smiled into their kiss.

Lilit’s hands reached Awendala’s bra. Her fingers traced the edge before sliding underneath the elastic. She teased the bottoms of Awendala’s breasts until a shiver ran down her body followed by a wave of goosebumps.

Awendala broke their kiss to sit up. She reached for her bra and ripped it off over her head. It followed the rest of their clothes in the growing pile on the floor. Lilit went to place her hands over Awendala’s breasts but was interrupted when Awendala leaned over to pull her bra off as well. It caught briefly in her tangled hair and Lilit huffed out a laugh before they got everything untangled.

Awendala let her weight settle back over Lilit, melting into her as their lips came together again. Lilit slipped her hands between their bodies, causing Awendala to lift up a little so she could reach Awendala’s nipples. She pinched and plucked them between her fingers, causing little whimpers from Awendala that she devoured greedily.

As had become their norm, Lilit could not get enough of Awendala’s soft lips. Kissing her was one of her favorite activities and she could spend all evening doing just that. It was addictive, and all the little noises they were making just added to the feeling of perfection.

Awendala broke their kiss once again and trailed her lips over Lilit’s throat. It was Lilit’s turn to whimper and moan. Her hips thrust up into Awendala’s. Awendala slid her thigh between Lilit’s legs for her to grind on.

Lilit pressed herself against Awendala’s thigh. She could feel how wet she was as she rode Awendala, leaving a shiny wet streak behind.

“Mmmmm. So wet for me,” Awendala whispered in her ear.

“Yes,” Lilit panted. “A-all for you.”

“I’ve got you, baby.” Awendala pulled away from Lilit long enough to strip them both of their panties. Then she was right back on top of Lilit, bearing down with her thigh as Lilit ground up.

“I need you,” Lilit whimpered.

Awendala didn’t say a word, she sat up and spread Lilit’s legs with her thigh. She pulled her other leg between Lilit’s spread thighs and pressed forward, rolling Lilit’s hips forward and her legs back. Soon she was all spread out with her ankles dangling over Awendala’s elbows as she pressed her hands down above Lilit’s hips.

Lilit looked down and saw Awendala’s sopping wet pussy leaking down on top of her own as she hovered over her, lining them up. Then Awendala pressed her hips down and ground her clit against Lilit’s.

“Oh, fuck!” Lilit cried out. “Right there. Please.”

Awendala set a steady pace, sliding back and forth in each other’s slick. Lilit pressed herself up into Awendala, doing everything she could to help. Chasing that high.

Lilit panted into the air as Awendala picked up the pace slowly. She reached up to tweak Awendala’s nipples, running a thumb over them until they stood in twin peaks. She didn’t want to move her body and potentially misalign them, so she couldn’t take Awendala’s nipples in her mouth like she knew would drive her warrior woman wild. She contented herself with pinching and pulling with her fingers while Awendala thrust her chest forward and moaned into the air above Lilit.

Awendala’s pace picked up more, and she began grinding harder against Lilit. Little sparks began shooting up her spine as Lilit ground herself up just as roughly. She felt her impending explosion nearing and did her best to push it down and try to last. She wasn’t some young inexperienced thing. She could last longer than a few minutes. Maybe. No. She was hurtling toward her orgasm and there was nothing she could do about it.

Lilit’s hips began to stutter against Awendala’s, losing the rhythm they’d established. Awendala bent over, still grinding just as hard, and caught Lilit’s mouth as she toppled over the edge of oblivion. She moaned and whined into Awendala’s kisses as her body clenched and spasmed. Pleasure shot up from her clit, lighting her entire nervous system up like fireworks. Fuck! It felt so good.

Awendala sat up, leaving Lilit a panting mess. Awendala continued to grind into her until her body stopped shaking and her body finally went limp. “No, I can…you didn’t finish,” Lilit whined.

Awendala looked a little bashful as her eyes darted away. “I was wondering if,” she cleared her throat. “Could I…um…I want to…”

“Just say it, babe.” Lilit grinned lazily up at her.

Awendala looked completely away from Lilit and in a strangled voice asked, “Iwanttositonyourface.”

It took Lilit a moment to parse what she’d said, but then she laughed, which caused a blush to crawl up Awendala’s throat and over her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh,” she tried to get her giggles under control. “It’s just a little funny, this big, strong, powerful, sexy woman is shy about asking to sit on my face. Of course you can. Come up here.” Lilit’s fingers curled around Awendala’s thighs and began urging her up her body.

Awendala smiled shyly down at her as she began scooting up the bed. “I can be both,” it was her turn to whine now.

“I know, baby. I’m sorry. Come up here and sit on my face so I can eat you out until you scream.” Lilit winked up at her.

The red deepened on Awendala’s cheeks, but she kept moving until she was kneeling directly over Lilit. She looked down at her face between her thighs and couldn’t stop the shy smile that crept across her face. Lilit looked up at her with a devilish smile of her own. The sight, the smell of her aroused core, excited Lilit. She was more than ready to make Awendala see stars.

She slid her fingers up Awendala’s thighs until she had her ass in each palm and pulled Awendala down onto her mouth. She dove in like a woman starved. Lilit licked, sucked, and kissed every inch of Awendala’s beautiful pussy. When Awendala began rocking back and forth on her face, coating her from nose to chin, Lilit stuck out her tongue in a broad, flat plane. Awendala’s fingers twisted in Lilit’s hair, pulling sharply. They were both moaning loudly. Lilit let Awendala ride her face, swirling her tongue around Awendala’s clit every time it swept by.

When Awendala’s hips began to stutter, and her pace became erratic, Lilit knew it was time. She sucked Awendala’s clit into her mouth, flicking her tongue across the extended nub. Awendala cried out above her. Her thighs clenched together, blocking any sound from reaching Lilit’s ears. She pressed herself hard against Lilit’s face, keeping her from pulling in any more oxygen.

Lilit continued to lick and suck on Awendala through her orgasm, prolonging it as much as possible and then easing her through the other side. But she was quickly running out of air, and if Awendala didn’t sit up soon, Lilit was going to pass out. Despite the hype, she was not of the opinion that she would die happy, even if it was between the thighs of a beautiful woman.

She was about to start panicking and slapping at Awendala’s body when she sat up. Lilit sucked in a huge breath of air and immediately choked. She started coughing hard, her whole face turning red. Awendala hopped off of Lilit as fast as she could and looked down at her in a panic.

Before she could ask, Lilit held up her hand to indicate she’d be fine. She just needed a minute. Damn that had been close.

After a few minutes, her coughing and breathing were back under control. “Sorry. It’s like the air went down the wrong tube? I don’t know. Sorry,” Lilit said.

“No. No, it was my fault. I’m sorry. I almost killed you down there. Are you sure you’re ok?”

“But what a way to go, huh?” Lilit joked half-heartedly.

Awendala lay down beside Lilit and slid in to cradle her body. Lilit leaned her head on Awendala’s shoulder. Together they just lay there, cuddling and basking in being this close.

“So, um…you got to find out one of my fantasies.”

“The face sitting?” Lilit interrupted.

Awendala nodded her head, “Yeah. I always feel self-conscious asking to do that. I know I’m not a small woman. I don’t want to hurt anyone, but at the same time…it is so hot.” A goofy grin spread across her face and Lilit couldn’t help but chuckle with her.

“Is there…anything you would feel self-conscious asking for? Any fantasies you haven’t shared?” Awendala asked.

“I…” Lilit felt the heat rush to her face and knew she was a bright red. She did have one recurring fantasy. She wasn’t an exhibitionist, and she wasn’t into group sex. But she was a bit of a voyeur. And there was one specific scenario that she’d recently come to be very interested in. She weighed whether or not to share her actual fantasy. It felt so much more extreme than what Awendala had shared.

She knew that Awendala wouldn’t laugh at her. And she was fairly certain she wouldn’t think she was gross for her fantasy. But it was hard to overcome that ingrained fear of disgust and rejection. She’d shared her fantasies with one other partner before, and it had not gone well. She’d called Lilit a pervert and made her feel so bad about herself. Their relationship hadn’t lasted much longer after that.

But, Awendala wasn’t like that. She’d never made Lilit feel small. She’d never made Lilit feel like a burden. Or that she was lesser. Awendala was sweet. And supportive. Awendala was kind and considerate. She was safe.

“I like to watch,” Lilit blurted out before she could stop herself and then buried her face in Awendala’s chest.

“Oh,” Awendala mumbled. “Ok. Like anything specific?”

Lilit took a deep breath and exhaled it in one long sigh. “I would l-l-love to watch you with R-Rana.” If anything, Lilit’s face felt like it was even more on fire. She couldn’t even imagine how red she must be right now.

“Huh.” Awendala tilted her head in thought, “But you wouldn’t want to like be involved? Just watch?”

Lilit nodded her head she’d buried in Awendala’s chest again.

“I could do that. We’d have to ask Rana, but I don’t think she’d say no.” Awendala sounded thoughtful. “Though Izumi may be upset she isn’t involved, but this is your fantasy. Maybe after we get back to The Inn?”

“Ok,” Lilit squeaked out.

Awendala chuckled a little. “Until then, we should probably get some sleep. I’m going to take a shower. Do you want to join me?”

“Yeah. We should definitely save water,” Lilit cheekily joked.

“Huh? No. I want to fuck you in the shower,” Awendala sounded confused.

Lilit couldn’t stop laughing. “I know, sweetheart. I was teasing. Yes, let’s take a shower and then go to bed.” She followed Awendala across the room to the small shower in the bathroom. This might not work as well as they thought.

Chapter Text

The next morning Lilit and Awendala woke up late. They’d had a very late night before Lilit had collapsed in exhaustion next to Awendala’s spent body. By the time they made it out of their room the rest of the group had already finished breakfast. They both hurried to eat their own meals despite the others telling them not to worry about it.

Izumi teased the couple lightly which just caused Lilit to occasionally choke and constantly blush. Awendala on the other hand grinned proudly. Eventually they finished eating and the group all got ready to leave.

Exiting the cottage, the forest looked exactly the same as it had yesterday. Despite the late morning hour, it was still dim and dark under the canopy. The trees enormous size kept the undergrowth small to nonexistent. And there was an oppressive miasma in the air that seemed to saturate everything in the dungeon.

She hadn’t noticed it until stepping out of a safe space where it hadn’t existed. The buildup before must have been gradual for no one to notice. Or it built up overnight.

They all seemed to shrug off the atmosphere after a few moments. No one commented on it, but assessing glances were cast all around. They got into their marching order, this time with Bob joining Izumi in the middle. Awendala once again led them through the forest.

They set off in the general direction they’d been travelling yesterday. Eventually they would either reach a boundary or find a way out of the dungeon. It couldn’t go on forever.

They walked for several hours. There were a few more ambushes by small bands of spriggins. No more dryads showed up though. And the group was able to easily fend them off. Fiadh was particularly enthusiastic in blowing up spriggins. She even smiled at the others after one of their bigger fights.

The first thing Lilit noticed that had changed was the smell. Until now, the forest had had a pleasant forest-y smell. Trees, plants, the large hanging flowers that they avoided walking near, and wet soil. But then Lilit started to notice a more pungent smell. Something darker and less earthy. Something foul and it kept getting worse the further they travelled. Eventually the smell picked up overtones of death and decay.

Then, as they continued to walk through the forest, the trees finally began to give ground. There were intermittent patches of blue sky and bright light shining through. Undergrowth began popping up and impeding their path. Thorny shrubs blocked entire swaths of the forest and they had to either hack through them, or find a way around.

Since they didn’t have a particular destination in mind, and any direction was as correct as the next from their perspective, the party decided to skirt these areas as much as possible. Fighting through the overgrown underbrush wasn’t worth the effort of maintaining a fixed path.

The continued to run into smaller and smaller packs of spriggins. Then they stopped coming altogether. They walked over an hour without running into any monsters before anyone noticed. It was Fiadh who sent a message in their group chat that alerted them to the lack of opposition.

“I don’t like this,” Rana muttered in front of Lilit. The rest silently agreed. Any kind of change wasn’t generally in their favor.

The next change that Lilit noticed as their march continued was the softening of the ground. At first it sank a little more with each step. Then feet were visibly sinking into mud as they tromped through the woods. Then they were skirting around puddles of sitting water that progressively got bigger.

The tress and underbrush began to make way for scraggly grasses. The smell of dead fish was added to the putrid air they walked through. The ending of the forest was almost sudden. One minute there were a handful of trees and scattered thorny bushes. The next they were standing on the edge of a large bog.

The water and mud seemed to stretch off into the horizon. There didn’t appear to be any way around it. Awendala came to a stop and the group huddled up around her to get a better look.

Brackish, putrid water stretched out in front of them with little puddles of land scattered across it. Lilit thought there might be the faintest smidge of the forest resuming on the other side she could see, but it was just as likely a delusion she’d conjured with optimistic hope.

“It looks like it goes on for quite a ways if not all the way across the dungeon,” Lilit grumbled.

“Do we want to try and skirt around it?” Awendala asked hopefully.

“I’m not sure we can. We need to cross it,” Rana said.

“Well, at least it’s not too wide. I can make out trees on what I assume is the far side,” Awendala said.

“Really? I wasn’t sure if they were or I was just being hopeful,” Lilit asked.

“Yeah, maybe five or five and a half kilometers,” Awendala chirped.

“I have no idea how far that is, but I believe you,” Lilit assured.

“I can’t see anything to either side to indicate this ends and we can skirt it unfortunately,” Awendala grumbled.

“Should we let someone smaller go first if we try and cross?” Izumi asked worriedly.

“No. Someone lighter might make it and leave Awendala or me in a sticky situation,” Lilit said. “I think we should at least travel down one way or the other and see if there is a better way to cross, because straight ahead looks like all of us swimming.”

The others agreed. Awendala took the lead skirting around the muddy shoreline of the bog. Lilit kept an eye out for a crossing and an ambush from the forest. The others seemed to be doing the same. No one expected this to be an easy or pain free crossing.

Half a mile or so down the shore they came across a thin little stretch of land that extended into the bog. It was covered in scraggly grasses and was undoubtedly muddy as all hell, but it looked like their best option. Awendala reported that it split and circled in some spots, but seemed to stretch all the way across. She couldn’t see for sure though.

With nothing better presenting itself, the group decided to give the path a try. Awendala stepped out onto the little land bridge hesitantly, feeling each step before committing to it. By the third step she was sinking down into ankle deep mud. But she didn’t seem to sink any lower as she continued to cross. With a little encouragement, the rest of the group followed after, though with a little more space between party members than before. Everyone but Izumi sank down to their ankles with each step. Izumi could have waltzed across it. And of course Bob floated along without touching the ground.

The deeper they got through the bog, the darker it seemed to get around them. The sun was still very much out, and the sky was just as clear, but the color seemed to drain from everything the further they went.

They were about halfway across, and it was shadowy and grey all around them when the water began to ripple toward the party. It had become so silent around them, that everyone heard when Fiadh let out a squeak and pointed off to the right.

Several dozen feet away a dark, oily figure had begun rising from the water. Its skin was pitch black with an oily sheen. Its limbs were thin, elongated, and bent wrong. Its body was thick and bloated, like a corpse whose skin was about to burst. Two sets of glowing, red eyes stared out of its misshapen head. It was hairless, but had a set of dead branch-like antlers protruding from the sides of its head. Everything about it screamed its wrongness. Above its head floated Blight Lvl 4.

“Awendala, burn it!” Lilit shouted while the blight was wading toward them. “Fiadh, hit it with some lightning!”

The next second a ball of lightning flicked across the intervening space and struck the blight full in the chest. Its steps stuttered for a moment, and wispy smoke rose from its torso. Its jaw unhinged to an impossible degree and it shrieked at them. It was a full sonic assault that left the group reeling. Lilit’s ears were left a whining, ringing mess. The blight quickened its steps.

When the blight was a dozen feet away, Awendala puffed up with a deep breath and exhaled flames. The blight was coated in flames and thrashed around. It fell back into the water, quenching the flames a little too quickly. Though when it stood back up parts of its body could be seen smoking and charred.

The land bridge they stood on was just narrow enough to allow the frontliners to stand in front of the more squishy members of the party. There would be no room for retreat though. A dark missile streaked into the blight from Fiadh with minimal effect as everyone shuffled into position.

The final few feet before the blight crashed into them its legs emerged from the water. The knees bent backward like a bird. When its feet lifted from the water, they were webbed like a duck’s but with razor sharp claws.

Awendala let out a giant roar right before the blight crashed into her. It grabbed her shield and tried to wrench it away. Rana stepped up next to her and swung her axes, smoky black shadows coating her blades. When they bit into the blight it let out a scream and its movements slowed down. A putrid stink seemed to almost shoot out of the wound at the same time. It oozed a yellowish pus-like substance instead of blood.

Bob and Izumi’s newest imp summons tore into the blight with claw and flame. Awendala’s sword flashed out and tangled with the blight as well. Soon-Bok dashed between the others to run through the water at its back and slice into its legs and back. Each wound added to the smell in the air.

Even at a higher level, it didn’t take long before Rana was taking the head from the blight’s shoulders with a solid swing. The blight collapsed back into the bog, sinking down into the water. Oily stains mixing with the pus-like blood in the water.

A loot bag popped up on the bank of the land bridge. Thankfully they wouldn’t have to go wading through the water to retrieve it. Lilit probably would have just written it off as a loss at that point. Soon-Bok was drenched and muddy up to her thighs from her little jaunt through the water to attack the blight.

Inside the loot bag they found a dozen gold coins and what looked like some reagents they could sell to Steve when they got back. Lilit noticed though that despite the body apparently disappearing like other bodies in the dungeon, the smell and the pus-like blood in the water remained. A feeling like she was being watched itched over her skin, but she couldn’t see anything out in the bog in any direction.

They’d only made it another hundred feet down the land bridge when they were attacked again. Both level four blights, one coming from one direction, one coming from the other. Bob and Awendala automatically split themselves facing opposite directions. Unfortunately the strip of land they found themselves on hadn’t gotten any wider, so everyone was set to face one monster or the other, there was no safe space.

“Izumi, with me and Bob. Use your wand. Soon-Bok and Fiadh with Awendala. Rana, switch as needed. Try and weaken them like you did last time,” Lilit called out while she shuffled into line on one side of Bob. With them unable to circle up, Lilit might have to fight to defend herself. She pulled her mace from her hip and brought her prayer book out with her other hand. She flipped it open and began a new prayer.

“Light to strengthen, Light to embolden, Burn bright with light, That you may prevail.

“Light to strengthen, Light to embolden, Blessed by the light, That you may prevail.”

A glow ensconced all of their bodies briefly, and Lilit could feel her muscles strengthening. She could feel the stamina from walking through the thick mud return to her at a faster rate, leaving her energized. Her light of the faithful skill made her feel nigh invincible. They could do this. She looked over to see Izumi grinning crazily at the blight as it tried to run at them through the calf-deep water.

The blights closed more quickly than the first one did. These seemed almost crazed. They came tearing toward the group like their ability to do anything else had been stripped from them. The only sound that of the water frothing from their wading through it.

Lilit could only focus on the blight in front of her. She’d have to rely on her teammates communicating any need for healing or aid. Small fireballs began to whiz out of Izumi’s wand, followed almost immediately by her imp throwing balls of fire at the blight on their side.

Its skin charred and smoked under the fire, but it quickly quenched any flames with scoops of water from the bog. Bob lurched forward over the water and slammed into the blight, doing its best to hold the blight in place. Lilit focused on her smite skill until her mace began to glow. Then she swung with all her might into the ribs of the blight.

A flash of light went off, and a large chunk of the blight had been dissolved. Its screams sounded like twisting and grinding metal and set Lilit’s teeth on edge. The edges of the wound gave off a faint smoke. The pus-like blood oozed out in a torrent, and the smell of rot and putrid death slammed into Lilit like a blanket covered brick wall. She gagged and almost lost her lunch before she regained control of her breathing.

She was backlit for a moment from a flash of light behind her. Awendala must have used her blinding flash or whatever the skill was called. A warped shriek echoed across the water from the blight behind them.

Izumi’s imp flashed from one side of the blight to the other and began hurling handfuls of fire into the hole in the blight’s chest. The putrid blood oozing from its flesh caught fire like it’d been soaked in gasoline. The blight let out another twisted shriek of pain before collapsing into the shallow water in front of the land bridge. It quickly dissolved into a loot bag, leaving behind its death smell and smoking blood that if anything smelled worse than before.

Lilit turned around in time to see Fiadh take a claw to the face as Rana buried her axes on either side of the blight’s collarbones to the eye of the axe. Fiadh reeled away with blood painting half her face, an angry sneer on her lips. Lilit rushed over as quickly as she could and cast her minor healing on Fiadh.

Everyone else was fine. Lilit dumped a little water on a rag and wiped down poor Fiadh’s face. She was blushing quite prettily underneath. “T-thank you,” she barely whispered.

“No problem, that’s what I’m here for,” Lilit told her. Her thumb ran absentmindedly across Fiadh’s rosy cheek several times before Lilit noticed and jerked away. “Sorry.”

Everyone hurried back into marching order and they set off once again. Another hundred or so feet down the bridge they were set upon again, this time by four blights. They quickly dispatched them and headed off once more.

Another hundred feet down they were attacked again, by eight blights. Five on one side, and three on the other. The group beat them back and defeated the monsters, but they could already see the next wave of blights headed their way. The wave had doubled again.

“Just run for it! We’re running out of stamina, and I’m not sure how we’ll do against an even bigger wave after this one,” Lilit called out.

No one had to be told twice. They all picked up their pace and started jogging down the land bridge. Mud churning and flying through the air. They managed to make it several hundred feet this time before the wave caught up to them. The weird thing about the blights was that no matter what, they never seemed to leave the water. But their long arms meant they could reach clear across the land bridge to the other side. But their party wouldn’t actually be stopped.

“Fighting retreat! Keep moving, they won’t leave the water. Keep pushing,” Lilit ordered before sending off another light of the faithful prayer for the group. She focused on keeping them all moving forward and deflecting blows where she could. She mixed in the occasional smite when she had the energy to swing her mace again. But, just running in her armor through the mud was sapping her stamina.

Awendala and Izumi’s imp seemed to be keeping the majority of the blights at bay. They’d come to fear the fire, and the closer to the land bridge they were, the shallower the water was and the harder it was for them to put out the flames.

The party continued to push forward, but the waves of blights had grown to the point that it seemed never ending. Lilit was beginning to lose hope that they’d make it through unscathed when Awendala took a claw that caught a gap in her armor. Lilit quickly cast her minor healing, and Awendala was even more quickly back in the thick of things.

Awendala finally called out, “I see the shore! Not much further.”

Lilit seemed to get a second wind from nowhere with those words. She rushed forward with the rest of the party until they finally stood on the far shore of the bog. A literal horde of blights gnashed their teeth at them from the edge of the bog. But, just as Lilit had noticed earlier, they couldn’t seem to come any closer to dry land.

There were too many blights. Even if they stood at a distance and used Fiadh’s spells and Izumi’s wand and bow, they would run out of mana and arrows long before they could cut down all the blights stomping in the shallows.

As one, the party turned and headed back into the forest. They stopped and took a break once they could no longer see the blights through the trees. They could still hear the occasional shriek that sent shivers down Lilit’s spine, but they were once again safe…ish.

Chapter Text

Soon-Bok bounced around the group, somehow more excited and bouncy than usual. Eventually Rana snatched her up as she bounced past. “What is wrong with you? This isn’t some romp through the woods,” she snarled.

“I leveled up!” Soon-Bok sing-songed. “And I got a skill for dealing crippling damage!”

“Congratulations, now get back in line,” Rana gave her a light push back toward the front of the line.

“Good job!” Izumi shouted, bouncing around with Soon-Bok in circles.

Everyone else gave their own praise while trying to coax her back into place. Eventually Soon-Bok settled down and they were able to continue on their journey.

Leaving the bog behind meant leaving behind the mud and the smells that had steadily grown as they closed in on it. It was a steady process as well, though in reverse. The ground began to harden and dry up first, then the trees began growing more densely and the undergrowth gave way to soft grasses and dead leaves. The trove of putrid smells died away last. Eventually they found themselves in a forest exactly like the one they’d travelled through yesterday.

Like the terrain, the encounters began to steadily reverse. They started running into individuals and pairs of spriggins, then small groups, then larger groups. They never returned to the same size as the group that tried to ambush them yesterday and they didn’t run into any more dryads leading parties of spriggins.

Shortly after defeating a large group of level 3 spriggins, Fiadh started hoping in place with a grin spread across her face. Izumi was quick to ask her what happened. A new message soon popped up in their little group chat on the Delvers. ‘I leveled up!’

“Congratulations,” Izumi gave a giant whoop. The others joined in with their own words of encouragement.

“Thanks,” the quiet woman whispered to the group. Fiadh added in the chat that her skill allowed her to hit harder with her staff. Apparently the dungeon had picked up on her fighting style.

With very little fanfare the group continued on their way. They ate a meal on the march. Dry rations and cold meats sitting heavily in their gut.

Lilit began to wonder about how long they’d been travelling. If the sun ever moved surely it would show they were nearing evening and no safe space in sight. She hoped they hadn’t missed anything. She wasn’t sure how the dungeon felt about them, but surely there would be a spot to rest coming soon. They needed a moment to rest and recover in safety.

It was about that time that Lilit heard the faint notes of quite possibly the loveliest song she’d ever heard. It was such a haunting melody, something that would stick with you as an earworm for the rest of your life after you’d heard it once.

She turned around in a small circle, looking for the source of the beautiful music. Surely something that could sound so sweet must be kind. It could help them get through the dungeon, she was sure of it.

Lilit took a single step toward where she thought the music was coming from. She looked around again, having lost the direction again, and noticed the others weren’t nearby anymore. She thought she could make out Izumi and Rana yelling into the trees several hundred feet away. But, why would they be yelling? They should be quiet so they could hear the song as well.

Lilit stepped further away from her companions. She needed to find who was singing this song and beg to sit at their feet for eternity. And her friends were making it hard to hear.

There. Just at the edge of her perception she could make out the flowing robes and gentle swaying of a woman singing as she danced through the forest. Lilit hurried her steps to catch up to the absolute angel ahead of her.

No matter how fast she hurried though, she couldn’t catch up to the easy grace of the angel she chased. She led Lilit on a merry run through an increasingly younger area of the forest. Trees began to become smaller, trunks thinner. They began to grow more closely together, crowding the forest floor.

Until she stumbled across a small spring feeding into a bubbling brook. The first she’d encountered in the forest. There, sitting on a rock at the foot of the spring, feet drifting lazily in the water was Lilit’s angel.

Lilit couldn’t quite make out her features. They were hidden behind dark hair. The skin of her hands and feet, which were all that Lilit could see from under the layers of diaphanous material she was wrapped in, were a pearly white.

Her robes were multicolored silky, translucent fabric wrapped in overlapping layers across her entire body. The whole gave off the appearance of her robes shifting colors with every movement.

As Lilit stepped into the clearing around the spring the woman’s song came to an end. Her head rose up to meet Lilit’s gaze. Her eyes were black pools, depthless and empty. Her smile was filled with entirely too many jagged, shark-like teeth. She stood up, and suddenly she was towering over Lilit. Her hands hung low and her fingers were tipped in claws. Above her head Lilit finally noticed a label ĚƢǷȸɔʤѨҦ Lvl ??? She should be terrified, but couldn’t seem to dredge up the necessary energy to care.

‘Wake up!’ A strange voice echoed in her head. It was just enough to finally knock Lilit out of whatever dreamlike state she’d found herself in. This was no angel. This was a dangerous monster. The system couldn’t even give her a legible name, let alone a level. And it had lured her away from all of her friends and allies. This did not bode well at all. She was fucked.

“Welcome traveler,” the voice was just as beautiful as from the song. It almost brought a tear to Lilit’s eye to hear it again. “Fear not. I would offer you guest rights that we may converse. We have much to discuss,” the monster’s smile seemed to literally spread from ear to ear.

‘Be wary,’ the voice from before once again echoed in Lilit’s mind. The monster in front of her showed no response to the voice. ‘Darvius is not what she appears to be, but you can trust that you will be safe for the duration of this conversation. After that will depend entirely on you.’

“See, even my brother says you’ll be safe…for now.” So, apparently the monster had heard the voice.

“What are you?”

“Pffft. Such a boring question. Try again, and have a seat. Might as well be comfortable,” Darvius told her while settling herself back down on her rock.

Lilit walked to the spring’s edge and sat down on a flat rock surrounding it. “Who are you?”

“My brother already gave you a name to call me by. The nosy git.” She said it with good natured snark.

“What do you want?” Lilit hedged.

“A better question, though not the best. I wish to talk to you, obviously.” Darvius was having quite the time toying with Lilit.

Lilit decided to try a different tactic. One she used with ornery students. Silence. Lilit sat and waited. If this monster truly wanted to talk to her, Lilit would let her. That didn’t mean Lilit had to play the monster’s games though.

And like it always did, Lilit’s ploy worked. No one wanted to leave an awkward silence unfilled. That appeared to be true of monsters as well as young adults too full of themselves. Though it did take several long minutes of awkward silence while the monster’s smile slowly faded from her face.

“Gah! Fine, I’ll tell you,” Darvius huffed. “Some…let’s call them higher beings, have taken notice of you. You seem to have a profound effect on the dungeons. It intrigues them what you might be capable of. Some of those beings are quite excited with you, and others are quite upset with you.”

“Which one are you?” Lilit asked.

“I’m somewhere in the middle. I stay out of the politics of things as much as I can. I’m merely working as an intermediary. It is frowned upon for gods to get directly involved in the affairs of mortals.”

“So, you work for gods?”

“In a manner of speaking. In another manner of speaking I am a lesser god myself. Or maybe demigod is closer to the right name?” Her head cocked to the side like a curious bird. She shook herself, “That’s unimportant. What is important is that in the coming days, you will be made an offer.”

“What kind of offer?” Lilit asked.

“Oh, now we’re impatient, huh?” Darvius asked a little perturbed. “I can’t tell you what you’re going to be offered. You’ll know it when it happens. What I can tell you is that accepting this offer will put you more in the path of certain gods. Both the happy and unhappy sort,” Darvius’ smile spread once again. “Accepting the offer will grant you a modicum of power that you may be able to grow into something that would make negotiating with a godlike entity more equitable when the time came.”

“And turning down the offer?” Lilit asked.

“Turning down the offer will keep you protected from direct interference by the gods, but as you can see,” she gestured to herself, “there are ways around that.”

“So take the offer then?”

“I didn’t say that. There is a lot to be said for laying low and keeping your head down. Maybe the gods decide you’re not worth the effort to squash.”

“So, don’t take the offer?”

“I’m not here to tell you either way. I am simply here to make you aware of the potential consequences. No matter what you choose there will be consequences.” Darvius’ smile was once again much too large for her face.

“Now, I am curious about what has the gods so riled up.” Darvius’ countenance shifted from ambivalent to menacing in the blink of an eye. “I think this conversation is over. That ends your guest rights, but I think I’ll be fair.” She paused for effect, “I’ll give you a head start.”

Lilit’s mouth was as dry as a desert. She tried to swallow and nearly choked. “Head start for w-what?” She rasped.

Darvius’ head twisted about so she was looking at Lilit from upside down as her shoulders hunched forward. “I think you know,” her smile spread and a thick, purple tongue poked out between her teeth to run across her lips hungrily. She took a step forward, “Boo…” she whispered.

‘Run,’ echoed loudly in Lilit’s head.

She did. She turned and fled back into the trees. She pulled her prayer book from its pouch and flipped it open. For the first time in a long time, she needed to look at the pages to remember the words she was so terrified.

She started simply. She needed a ward. Then she needed to buff herself. It was hard to read the pages as she ran around trees and over undergrowth. She managed to cast her ward skill after two failed attempts when she stumbled over her words. She didn’t have time to attempt to buff her strength and stamina recovery before she felt Darvius moving behind her.

Lilit tried to slide her prayer book into her pocket, but it slipped out of her hand and fell to the forest floor with a soft thump as she continued running.

With her other hand she slipped her mace free. She immediately began pushing her smite skill along with all her anger and fear at the situation down its length. Lilit continued to sprint through the forest, but now that she was concentrating completely on her running she began trying to add some zigs and zags to her route. Anything to delay the inevitable.

Her breathes were coming in heavier, faster pants with every passing second. She couldn’t maintain this pace for much longer. She could hear Darvius catching up to her anyway. She didn’t crash through the forest. No, Lilit only heard the rushing of the wind through her robes. The scrape of her nails across tree trunks as she ran after Lilit.

Lilit felt the little hairs across her body stand on end. She could almost feel the breath on the back of her neck. With all her might, she whirled around and swung her mace through the space behind her.

There was a bright flash of light and a solid crunch that jarred her whole arm. Darvius went flying through the air, crashing into the trunk of a tree some dozen feet away.

Lilit didn’t stop to see if Darvius was going to get back up. She turned and sprinted further away. From behind her she could hear the most sadistic laugh she’d ever heard in her life. Darvius cackled gleefully as she picked herself back up and once again began chasing down Lilit.

‘Down!’ The strange voice shouted in her mind.

Without thinking too hard about it, Lilit dropped down to a single hip and slid like she hadn’t since her days in high school softball. As if stepping through a fog, she was suddenly surrounded by bodies on all sides that she slid between.

Over her body she heard a somewhat familiar voice shout at the top of her lungs, “Shillelagh, bitch!” A splash of darkness erupted around them and she heard Darvius fly through the air and slam into a new tree.

Lilit looked up and found herself laying in a heap at the feet of her party of friends. Fiadh stood directly above her, her staff coming back from behind her as her arms straightened out from what Lilit assumed was a massive swing.

Darvius stood up slowly from against a tree a dozen feet away. “I begin to understand I think,” she swiped at a red stain dripping down her chin. She looked at her hand before she swirled her thick, purple tongue across its surface. “Mmmmm. I taste delicious. I bet you do too.”

Awendala stepped forward and breathed a thick plume of flame across Darvius’ body. Her entire form was covered in fire. She cackled like it tickled. When Awendala’s fire breath died down, Soon-Bok seemed to step out of Darvius’ shadow. She swiped both daggers across Darvius’ thighs before stepping back and appearing behind Awendala. Darvius laughed even harder if possible.

Lilit climbed to her feet unsteadily. If this was going to be the end, at least she’d be surrounded by friends. She looked around and noticed how ragged the group looked. They’d clearly already been in a pretty big scrape before even getting here.

“I believe this answers some of my questions. Most unexpected. Until we meet again travelers…and we will meet again,” Darvius’ smile stretched literally from ear to ear, her sharp teeth on display. With a multicolored flash Darvius disappeared from the forest around them. The group stayed vigilant for several more moments before anyone relaxed.

“What the fuck was that?” Rana asked.

“I’m not exactly sure,” Lilit answered. “Her name was Darvius and if she can be believed she was sent here on behalf of some interested gods.” Lilit spent the next few minutes explaining what she had just been through.

“Are you alright?” Awendala reached out and ran the back of her fingers across Lilit’s jaw.

“I’m fine. I swear. What about all of you? You look like you’ve been in a fight before you even got here,” Lilit asked.

“We could use a little healing actually,” Rana said quietly.

“Oh, well I dropped my prayer book during my run. Are you ok with backtracking a little so I can find it?”

“We’ll manage,” Rana smiled wanly at Lilit.

The group all began shuffling down the clearly marked path that Lilit had been running down. Foliage had been crumpled by Lilit’s feet and claw marks rode low on tree trunks. As they walked the group filled Lilit in on what had happened to them when Lilit had gone missing.

“One minute you were right there in front of me, then the next nobody could see or hear you,” Rana complained.

“We started looking for you right away,” Izumi added.

“But we couldn’t find any tracks at all,” Fiadh whispered.

“We ended up running into a level five ent. We’re pretty sure it was the dungeon boss,” Rana continued. “There’s a door marked on the map now. We were actually headed there to see if you had somehow ended up over there when we stumbled across you.”

“A level five ent? What the fuck are they playing at?” Lilit complained.

“Yeah, well thankfully giant trees are susceptible to fire. Between me, Sandra, and Awendala we had it in the bag,” Izumi crowed.

“Didn’t stop some of us from getting hurt though,” Rana glared over at Soon-Bok who had been limping along quietly.

“Who is Sandra?” Lilit asked.

“Oh, that’s what I’m calling my little fire imp,” Izumi answered.

“Ok then…”

A few  minutes later Lilit found her prayer book lying on the ground near the roots of a tree. She dusted it off, but it appeared no worse for wear. Lilit immediately began casting her minor healing skill on everyone in the party as they made their way toward the door on the map. They didn’t run across any more monsters on their walk through the forest.

Finally they came upon a large wooden door free standing tall between a pair of trees. Awendala opened it up and peered through, “It’s The Inn she told everyone before she stepped through. The rest of the party followed her in one at a time. Lilit was the last to leave, and she could have sworn she saw the glint of light off of dead doll eyes and shiny teeth behind them as she stepped through. A shiver ran down her spine as the door thudded closed behind her. The sudden roar of The Inn as she stepped inside caught her by surprise and she found herself stumbling a little. Awendala’s arm wrapped tightly around her waist, catching her and holding her safe. For now.