‘Are you finally going to tell me whatever it was that was so secret you had to be my vassal before you could bring me in on it?’

  I badgered Mindy lightly as we ran side by side under the power of [Elemental Surge] on our way to the boss of the Dungeon. We’d taken a vote as a Party and, overwhelmingly, agreed to attempt the boss in search of the loot defeating it would grant us. We were only a quarter of the way into our eight hour limit and, given our travel speed using [Elemental Surge], could make it all the way across the Dungeon in less than an hour as a group. The only dissenter was Ylsa, but when Gabby told the [Mountain Tempest] she might have a way to ‘defeat’ the boss without even fighting it, she finally relented.

  Mindy looked away from me, doing anything she could to avoid my gaze as she finally answered my question. ‘So, you know how Marie and I were raised by our mom, right?’

  ‘Yeah, dad wasn’t really in the picture before you and he left entirely when…’ I trailed off, realizing what I was going to have to sail.

  Luckily, Mindy saved me from that embarrassment. ‘When I came out a Tiefling instead of a human. I’m over it, though Mom never got there.’ She huffed as we leapt over a ten foot ravine without breaking stride. ‘Anyway, Mom didn’t exactly like me. It wasn’t until she got involved with Ranald that I can remember her being remotely kind to me. He was amazing, he brought us food, toys, and when it got cold, paid to move us into a two bedroom apartment’ She snorted. ‘I might have only been five at the time, but I told Mom I’d do anything if she would marry Ranald. I didn’t know how wrong I was.’

  She shivered and held her arms around herself in a self-hug. ‘Less than two months after Ranald moved us into the new apartment that Mom went missing. She just didn’t come home one night, leaving me alone with Marie. It wasn’t until a week later, when we’d been out of food for two whole days, that Ranald showed up. He swept the pair of us up and told us how sorry he was for our loss, that our mother had gone missing but he’d take care of us until she returned.’

  Sounds like a textbook setup for any number of shady organizations, I’m guessing this is where she owns up to the connection she and her sister have to Devourer? If so, I can put her mind at ease, because there’s no way Dominus gives her back. Once she adopts you, you’re hers forever and you can count on her support for the rest of your existence.

  I wasn’t wrong, but I had no idea how bad it really was for them.

  ‘Instead of bringing us food and water, he took us away from our, admittedly kind of shitty, apartment and dropped us off at the local Devourer church, where they greeted him as Your Holiness, not Ranald.’ She sneered. ‘It turned out that he was the local priest for Devourer and dear old Mom had been going to see him to try and sell us off, though we didn’t find this out until much later when Marie snuck into the church office and looked for the paperwork they had on us. I guess that, when they wouldn’t pay for us, citing that they only took in orphans, she started banging him for money. The documents pointed out three times she tried to abandon us, but Ranald dragged her back and said the money would stop if she didn’t step up and be a good parent.’

  She sniffled, but waved away my hand when it moved over to comfort her. ‘She never really was a good mom, but at least for the year or so she and Ranald were shacking up she wasn’t quite so awful to me.’ She blew her nose as loud as a trumpet, continuing to mentally speak while doing so, which I kind of found confusing, but moved past it quickly. ‘When the church took us in, they moved us into their orphanage, but I’ll credit them for keeping us together. I’d have been lost without Marie, she was just so strong despite only being a little bit earlier than I was.

  ‘Anyway, that’s when I got to go to school for the first time and the deacon teaching soon realized I was a borderline genius, their words not mine, in math, science, and magic. I made my first barrier at age seven, just for your reference, and the church was ecstatic. That’s when Marie made a deal, she’d do anything they asked, but they had to leave me alone. They had to let me follow my passion and leave me and my work alone. For most people, they’d have laughed them away, but they listened to Marie because she heard Devourer and learned a hidden art of his the first night we spent in the orphanage.

  ‘From then on, I only saw Marie occasionally, but she was always so positive. Always asking about my latest invention or test score, she was the parent I never really had. When she hit her System Day, she took me and we moved out of the orphanage, despite their protestations. We moved to Chalcedony, hitching a ride on the first caravan out of the Empire we could find. We lived there until we met you, but you know that part. Now, she still disappeared from time to time and I got her to tell me she was still working with the church, but that was their requirement for not chasing us down. She still had to do things for them, to kill for them.’

  She nearly broke down crying, but I swerved over and laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘It’s OK, you’re safe now.’

  Apparently, that was the exact wrong thing for me to say because her eyes lit up with rage and she started yelling at me out loud instead of talking in our heads.

  “Marie isn’t safe! I have no idea where she is and she hasn’t even contacted me!” She glared at me. “Don’t you ever act like you know what it is to worry about a sibling in danger, because you don’t!”

  ‘Got it.’ I held up my hands placatingly and accelerated a bit to make a gap between us. ‘Thank you for telling me about your connection to the church of Devourer, it’s good to know you’re capable of being honest about difficult things like that.’

  So she doesn’t know her sister is Devourer’s Chosen. Good to know.

  She gasped as I sped ahead of her, leaving her to think about what she’d just done. It wasn’t like I was mad at her, far from it, but she hadn’t disclosed that before it could have hurt me, which was a problem in itself. I figured leaving her to stew it over for a while would do her good as I drew level with Raiju.

  Raiju was having a great time, flitting in and out of my [Elemental Surge] bubble like a fish popping in and out of a current. Seeing me drawing up alongside her, she flashed a wolfish smile at me before jumping, giving me a small arm hug, and landing without missing a step.

  ‘This is so fun!’ Her tail was wagging a thousand miles an hour. ‘I can’t wait to fight the boss, maybe it’ll drop some loot we can use to celebrate Mindy joining The Dominion?’

  Stolen novel; please report.

  ‘Maybe it will.’ I didn’t have the heart to tell her we likely would be skipping the boss if it looked like it’d be a long fight. That was the only way we could get Ylsa to agree to let us head over to it, even with Gabby’s non-combat plan. ‘We’re getting close and I think Ylsa said she and Gabby were as well.’

  I opened the main Party Chat and confirmed with Ylsa. ‘ETA, Ylsa? We’re about ten minutes out from the boss’ glade.’

  Roughly ten seconds later, Ylsa replied and she sounded pissed. ‘Gabby just walked in on her own and the damn entrance said I can’t get in without you! Get here now, or we’ll be down one Treasurer!’

  Yep, can’t have that happen. It’s time to show off a bit.

  ‘Volta, Mindy, get up here!’ I barked at just the pair of them through the chat. When they did as I asked, I looked Volta in the eye. ‘I’m going to make us all effectively weightless, run as fast as you can, dragging us behind you.’ There were too many trees to teleport, or I’d have done just that. We were going to need to be creative to save Gabby.

  Her eyes widened, but she nodded. ‘Whatever you need, Pactlord.’

  Closing my eyes and trusting my companions to stop me from making a fool of myself or crashing, I tapped into [Elemental Mastery] while focusing on the concept of an air cushion beneath Mindy, Raiju, and I. Once I had the image firmly entrenched in my mind, I opened my eyes, nodded to Volta, and pushed a hundred Mana into [Elemental Mastery].

  It may not have been exactly what I was going for, but the resulting air cushion did the job, it just slammed Mindy, Raiju, and I together in a pile while Volta cackled as she hauled us along at [Lightning Speed] for the next forty-five seconds.

  When we arrived and I managed to right myself before banishing the air cushion, I was surprised to see the wall around the boss was down and Gabby was sitting on the foot of the strangely quadruped silver barked tree boss. She was slapping her leg and laughing with her head thrown back while the boss appeared to be smiling.

  I glared at Ylsa, who stood in the gap staring at Gabby. “What the hell?! She looks fine!”

  My bodyguard turned to look at me and I was suddenly immensely grateful she’d probably die if she broke all the oaths involved in becoming my bodyguard because the look she gave me was enough to shut me up.

  She raised an eyebrow. “It just happened a few seconds ago, I’m as surprised as you are.”

  From inside the glade, the boss called out to us. “FRIENDS OF GABRIELLE, PLEASE, ENTER. ALL OF YOU ARE WELCOME IN MY HOME.” The voice was so loud it was painful to hear.

  “Well?” I threw up my hands in frustration before wandering in to join Gabby. The boss lowered a series of roots to let me sit next to her and I bowed gratefully to it. “Thank you…”

  “PLEASE, CALL ME CELADON.” He rustled his boughs and an eighteen inch green-tinted silver leaf fell into my hands. “That should be better, now I won’t hurt your tiny ears.”

  Holding the leaf against my side, I gave him a grateful nod. “You are most kind, Celadon. Also, I’d ask you to call me Arthur or Artie, whichever you prefer.”

  My eyes lit up when I looked down at the leaf, it was a Unique magic item, not just a Skill!

  [Leaf of Celadon - Unique (Fleeting)

  Uses - 2/3

  Description - This leaf was shed by the guardian of the Whispering Woods for those who wisely chose to talk instead of attempting to kill him. This leaf has three uses, each of which are different and each can only be used once. The first use is to reduce the sound of Celadon’s voice, as otherwise just hearing him will deal a substantial amount of damage. The second use is in compressing the leaf to drain it of moisture, then storing the liquid to make a Legendary Healing Potion. The third, and most powerful use, is to eat the compressed leaf, which will grant you one of three Skills based on your needs.]

  “This is…too much.” I held the leaf out to him. “This is far too generous a gift.”

  His laugh shook my entire body. “It has been many years since I have had such an engaging conversation as Gabrielle has provided, think nothing of it.” Four more leaves floated down and landed beside me. “Please, provide those to your companions who have not entered my glade and invite them in. We have much to discuss.”

  Over the next half hour, Celadon lavished our group with praise for our actions in cleansing the shrine that used to act as his counterpart within the Dungeon. Originally, the shrine would have been a place where raiders of the Dungeon would have an opportunity to ask a question of one of the gods, including Dominus, until Devourer took control of it thousands of years before. Unlike most Dungeons where the boss was randomly generated, Celadon was actually part of the [Whispering Woods]. He was an original feature of the Dungeon and would remain so until the day its core was destroyed, when he would die along with it.

  In the end, we parted ways as friends, as the items from killing Celadon’s avatar would be worth far less than the [Leaves of Celadon] he gave us freely. It didn’t hurt that we didn’t actually have to kill him to finish the tasks we’d been given before entering the Dungeon and, from what I could tell given his immense size and age, there was no way he’d be any sort of slouch in the combat department.

  Before we left the Dungeon, I made sure to help everyone process their [Leaf of Celadon]. Technically, it was everyone except Gabby. She let me know privately that Celadon had given her more than just a leaf, he’d directly given her the three Skills in addition to a cutting she could plant to grow her own [Whisperwood Sentinel], Celadon’s first offspring in more than seven thousand years. She promised to cultivate the cutting wherever we ended up setting The Dominion’s first homestead, as a fully grown [Whisperwood Sentinel] would serve as a powerful and loyal deterrent against attacks from all but the most determined opponents.

  The Skills themselves were impressive and I was glad to have [Skill Dominance] so I could eventually have all three of them. Ylsa, Mindy, and Raiju received [Silverwood Barkskin], a powerful variant of the traditional [Barkskin] Skill most nature classes got access to. It was better than the normal Skill in that it was nearly invisible, but mostly in how it allowed the caster to move with it active. [Barkskin] was notorious for slowing its caster down enough that some of those with access to it would forgo using it entirely in favor of simple leather or hide armor.

  Volta received [Silverleaf Storm], a Unique Skill that filled in a gap in her current Skillset since it still used her [Storm Marshall] buffs, but wasn’t based on water, wind, or lightning damage. Instead, it would produce a mass of pointy silver leaves and shoot them out like daggers at an area, though she said she was confident she’d be able to focus it better given her Class.

  Glyph and I were last to devour our leaves, mostly because I had to force him to eat the damned thing, and we both received the same Skill, [Greensight]. It didn’t sound like much, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth. [Greensight] was a toggleable Passive Skill that allowed the user to perceive the flow of life energy through the land. While that might still not sound impressive, it really was. Notably, Glyph found different uses for it than I did, in that he found he was able to predict the actions of anything living around him far more accurately while it was active and I couldn’t seem to do the same. Instead, I was now able to see the health percentage any being was at with [Essence Reading]. I was a bit confused when it didn’t merge with [Essence Reading], but it made sense when I realized I had far more to learn in using it.

  Before bedding down outside the Dungeon, I checked in with everyone and found that each of them had managed at least a level in the Dungeon, with Gabby leading the pack at three levels. The items we got were all tree themed and everyone agreed Gabby needed the help, so we gave each of them to her, despite her protestations. A quick dinner later and we all laid down to sleep, knowing each of us would level safely within the two foot thick stone and ice walls of the box I’d created for that express purpose. Ylsa tried arguing about doing watches, but I summoned a trio of [Earth Elementals] and [Air Elementals] with [Elemental Pactlord] to get her to calm down.

  “It’s time for us to level up, we need to hit level forty before making it to Sunhome, so we need to get a move on.” I poked her gently in the shoulder. “Now go to bed, we’re well protected.”

  She grumbled, but complied, and we were soon all on our way to the land of dreams.