Drip-Fed Pt. 17

Path of Responsibility 1 -- Contested Quest

Atlas and Apexus sat across each other.

They occupied the broad sides of a long table. Next to each of the party leaders sat their many members.

On Apexus' side, Aclysia glared with all the annoyance an angel could muster. She was in full agreement with her darling's moral stance on this issue and, further, she found the whole hassle that now cropped up around it an affront to his valuable time. Reysha was torn on the matter, between old selfishness and learned altruism, and thus sat uncharacteristically quiet. Korith, under other circumstances, could have seen herself on Atlas' side.

As for the Warrior's party, it was not nearly as mixed. Alabasta was the mirror of Aclysia when it came to the morality of this. Although less extreme, Flora and Rahesia both were also of the firm opinion that they were in every right to ask for a massive reward for a Quest that sent them across the entire Leaf. Months of travel would incur costs for provisions, equipment damage, and consumable items, not to mention the danger that they would put themselves through. Out there was the true wilderness. Only Kumlin had some reservations about how much they were taking from the noble.

Said noble sat on one end of the long table. He was a nervous wreck, stress-greyed hair dishevelled and leg bouncing. His sunken eyes darted around the table, searching for any certainty.

On the other end of the table sat the local guild master. The man was a former veteran adventurer. The reason for his retirement was starkly visible: a massive scar from the side of his forehead across the temple. The scar, despite its age, still looked raw in many ways, creating a fleshy trench in this hairline. It was a remnant from an expedition into the general vicinity of the influence zone of the Necro Lord's Crypt. A single axe swing from a Death Knight had left the scar and the guild master's reflexes had never been quite the same afterwards.

Still, he had been level 38 at his peak and such strength may diminish, but it never properly faded. A power to assert dominance, if it was ever needed.

Beyond the people at the table, the guild itself was packed. Everyone with some relation to the Atlas or Inevitable Party wanted to see this -- which was almost every regular adventurer of Drowse. Atlas was the regular, Apexus the sympathetic newcomer, and the fault line that ran down that table ran through the heart of every adventurer as well. All tilted towards one way or another, but no one could deny that there was a call to do both what was right and what was personally rewarding.

"All of this is stupid," Atlas growled.

Apexus stared across the table. The lack of response had Atlas gnash his teeth. He got ready to say more. The guild master loudly tapping his finger on the tabletop prevented any escalation. "Stupid it may be, but it's the situation regardless," the man declared and crossed his arms. His eyes drifted over the crowd. 'I would have preferred to do this privately, but they made a whole deal about it from the marketplace up to this table...'

The whole situation was the logical endpoint of an argument in public. Both sides had accepted the Quest, but neither side wanted the other to have it. Apexus found it immoral to force the noble to sell his entire livelihood when the reward was, in his opinion, plenty. Atlas found it idiotic to sell his services short when the Quest was, in his opinion, too dangerous to do it for less. Had this not been a matter of principle for both of them, one could have backed down.

'Now it has come to this,' the guild master thought as he rubbed his forehead, then let out a heavy sigh. "We will cover our bases first. Lord Tarath, it is my knowledge that you have posted the Quest for 50 Platin, is this correct?"

"Y-yes! That is all the liquid assets I can spare at this time..." the noble answered, his voice growing quieted with every moment.

"And you can go up to 5000, you declared?"

"I-i-I can... accrue some debts..."

"How much can you do without going into debt?" Atlas asked.

"Around 3000?" the noble answered. A sum that caused rumours all around regardless. With 3000 Platin, a party could comfortably retire or get enough magical items to effectively trivialize their current Level bracket. The weapons would become useless as their Levels then increased. Until that point, it was the kind of assurance everyone wanted.

And that was only if they stayed on this Leaf, where competition for such items was high. If they moved to a world with a buyers' market, that kind of money could make them lords of the economy for several years.

"3000 Platin, sounds reasonable to me," Atlas stated. "Just let us do this Quest. He'll lose his lands, but that's just how fate plays things sometimes. His daughter will be saved and they will have each other."

"You would take from a man his house, his pride, and all that he can offer his daughter in the process of saving her." Apexus continued to stare stoically at his opposite. "I would eat Parasytes before I let you do that."

Aclysia sent her man a shocked glance. The wider room gasped, murmurs breaking out between the many parties. Apexus' true nature was somewhat of an open secret by this point. It was not necessary knowledge to know how deep of an insult had just been delivered. Atlas' face gradually turned red with rage.

"ORDER!" The shout of the guild master blasted through the room, his voice boosted by ki concentrated in his vocal cords and neck joint. "I see no way out of this then! Since neither of you will back off, we might as well accept the inevitable. The Guild authorizes a Contested Quest!"

The adventurers returned to speaking to each other, louder this time. The only two parties in the room totally quiet were the ones at the table.

A Contested Quest went against the mission statement of the Adventurer's Guild.

The foundation of the organization laid in being the legitimately accepted arbiter between those who gave quests and those who took them. In that work, it was important that the Guild assured that parties did not overlap in what Quests they took up. This was for a variety of reasons, each of them highly important to the functioning of the ecosystem.

If Quests became an open system functioning on 'whoever reported back first', this would inevitably breed resentment between parties. Doing Quests would not become a matter of actually doing them, but of being the one to actually claim the credit. Charlatans may run back ahead of parties, or just take out competitors in the field, in order to gather the juicy rewards.

Then there was the issue of monopolization of adventuring forces in the hands of the wealthy. Better paid Quests already received much more attention. This was logical and inevitable, and making it so parties could compete over them would leave fewer adventurers that were willing to take work that was comparatively poorly paid.

It was paramount that Quests were taken and fulfilled in an orderly fashion because of this. The involved bureaucracy was kept as minimal as possible to avoid further inefficiency, something every outpost had to evaluate and enact (successfully or not) individually. The fact was that the Adventurer's Guild based their existence on being the one organization to assure that adventurers had no incentives toward killing each other.

A Contested Quest, effectively, authorized this incentive.

The Guild was reluctant to do this at the best of times. Contested Quests were one thing if the Quest was delivering milk to the other end of town. Even if the incentive to screw each other over in the race existed between the factions, they would be seen the entire time. A Contested Quest that was a trek across the entire world? One party could return, the other could not, and no one would ever know if there had been shady business.

The reason that the Guildmaster did this here wasn't because he liked it, he did it because he feared it was the only way to save face. 'Whoever I refuse this Quest will doubtlessly set out anyway and I can't have the Black Quest market grow...' Out loud, he presented a more optimistic message. "The Atlas party is a long-standing pillar of the local adventuring community, and no one would doubt the dedication that Apexus and his party members have for doing things correctly. Therefore, I trust that the only danger that will come in this Quest will be that of the journey itself." Both party leaders grimly nodded. "The conditions are simple: whoever returns with the flower, said to be found at the bottom of the Trauma dungeon, will have completed the Quest. If the Inevitable does win, they will be awarded 50 Platin. If the Atlas Party does win, they will be awarded the sum they asked for."

"It, uhm... will take me time to... liquify my assets..." Tarath muttered. "C-could... I can... if it must be done, I can transfer the land itself on short notice instead...? I-I will assure the other nobles will take no issue with this!"

Immediately, Atlas' expression changed from annoyance to greed. He glanced at Alabasta, who was wide-eyed. 3000 Platin was a handsome reward, no doubt about it, but being landed in the Sleeping Empire was a different matter entirely -- especially when a member of the party descended from an aristocratic family of the capital.

The estate of Lord Tarath lay just outside the current city borders of Drowse. In other words, it was predestined to skyrocket in value as the city continued to grow. What was being promised now was not a one time payment, it was tens of thousands of coins over the course of years through rent, agriculture, and land sales.

None of which Apexus had any interest in.

"When do we begin?" the humanoid chimera plainly asked.

"For fairness' sake, both of you will set out in three days from the north street," the guild master stated. "You are now dismissed to make your preparations. Everything past this point is up to you."

_____________________________________________________________________

"Not gonna lie, I feel like we got swept up in something here," Reysha stated her opinion once they were in the isolation of the Mobile Estate.

"Do you believe we should back down?" Aclysia asked, incapable of holding back the disapproval in her voice.

Reysha shook her head and plopped down on their couch. "Best I try, I ain't as moral as you, 'Clysia, but I can at least acknowledge that this is something good that we, specifically, are best situated to do. Korith, you don't look convinced?"

"I, uhm... not a secret I really like money," the kobold confessed to her desires. "I wouldn't have pushed him as far as Atlas did, but... 50 is really not a lot of money, in the grand scheme of things? We'll be on this Quest for months."

"And we will be rewarded for it tremendously. Light will be our hearts and strong our Sparks," Aclysia declared.

"I'd rather my purse be heavy...?" Korith tried her hand at a joke. It worked at dispelling the tension in the room. Reysha laughed heartily at it and Aclysia gave it a little chuckle.

Only Apexus did not laugh whatsoever. He was squatting in front of the fireplace, watching the fire he had started slowly spread around the log placed among the timber.

Aclysia joined him. "What is on your mind, darling?"

"I spoke emotionally," he admitted. "I am reflecting on it." The eyes on him bade him to elaborate on his thoughts. He had gotten a little better at speaking without being asked to. "My teacher's lessons made it clear that emotions are good, as long as they are understood. One ought to speak their mind. I have spoken mine. I regret that the friendship we have built suffers for it. I do not regret the path that I have put us on."

"Hey, you're the leader, big guy," Reysha assured.

"Y-yeah! I mean... I would love the money but... I'll follow you on this," Korith gave her agreement.

"We would have stopped you if we believed this path was unwise," Aclysia whispered intently. "We follow the steps of virtue. If we must suffer for it, the suffering will be a lesson learned."

Apexus nodded abruptly, then backed away from the fire. The conversation shifted to the couch. "This was not as we intended. However, it is time we return to growing in power rather than wealth anyhow," the leader of the Inevitable party said and unfurled a map of Alarshus on the table. "Let us consider our route," he said. "Aclysia, what paths are open to us?"

Aclysia grabbed a magical map marker and put three routes on the enchanted paper. Two kinds of magic worked together to create lines that would fade on their own in due time.

(will put the image in a comment)

"I believe these are the three routes that are realistic for us. To begin my explanations." She tapped on the water between Drowse and Altuan, where no route was going through. "Taking the sea route will be faster and safer for this first stretch, which I would usually embrace. However..."

"... our destination, the dungeon of trauma, is level 35 to 40," Reysha finished the thought.

"The average of the Atlas Party is 31. Ours is 29," Apexus added.

"Precisely. Our growth rate is higher than theirs so far. Yet, whether we can rely on that fact to stay consistent is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Us being stronger than them will not matter. I believe in their character. What we must concern ourselves with are the 6 levels between us and the dungeon of Trauma. Thus, the red route."

Aclysia's finger wandered to the Worldstem, where they were currently located, then followed the red path northwards.

"Venturing off the common path in Chimerion will provide us with untapped Incursions that will be appropriately challenging. We will then continue into the Vaults of Lightning Influence Zone, training as we travel. If necessary, we will stop at the easternmost of the three Vaults and clear the dungeon. Optimally, this will also provide Apexus with a new Growth."

Korith raised a hand. "Question... two questions, actually. How will we know our level out there?"

"... We will not," Aclysia admitted. "None of us are Scribes. We will have to intuit."

"Okay... second question, how would we make it across the ocean there?" She gestured at the sizable divide between the Vaults of Lightning and the unknown Influence Zone east of it. "That's a bit more than we can be carried across."

"The winter will be our aid there. By the time we arrive there, that segment of the ocean should be largely frozen over. It will be unpleasant, but we can walk across," Aclysia reported.

"Fuck, I forgot it's going to turn winter while we're out there," Reysha groaned.

"We have plenty of equipment and, much as we moan about it, monsters are also affected by the season," Aclysia said. "Furthermore, I may have a solution to cold-related predicaments. I cannot promise anything right now. What I can provide is further explanations on our routes."

"Please," Apexus requested and gestured at the map.

"The unknown Influence Zone should be fairly eventless. Despite the confusion on its dungeons, or lack thereof, it has been travelled repeatedly. In the Verdant Goliath area, we must avoid the free-roaming boss monster. I will stop in Respite for a moment and explain the blue route first.

"This second route is the simplest in terms of advancement. It is the commonly treaded path. Besides the major civilized areas, there will be minor frontier settlements on the route. This makes it quickest and safest -- and thus against our interests. I do not recommend this route, but feel it prudent to mention it.

"Returning to Respite, we can follow either of the two routes from there. Continuing the common route will take us through the Influence Zone of the Temples of Temptations. It is considered an area with very few monsters. If we desire additional training, this route allows us another visit to a dungeon. If we do not, we can take the red route. It should be faster, although intel is somewhat scarce."

"So far, sounds like we should go red until Respite and then switch to blue," Reysha commented. "What about yellow?"

"Risky, for several reasons. First, we will need to secure a ship. I believe we have the necessary sway with the nobles of the Sleeping Empire to allow us this favour, but such an investment is costly. After that, we have to travel the Lanaan Hives. Our only training option here is entering Dungeons considerably above our current Level. If we pass this gauntlet, however, we will emerge with the certainty that we are strong enough to face the Trauma Dungeon."

"Such a foreboding name..." Korith mumbled.

"It is especially prudent to mention that we will find ourselves on the south side of the Impossible Strait." Aclysia tapped on that area on the map. "It is named such for many reasons. The current and airflow is horrid, and the sky teems with flying drones. A harsh winter would be to our advantage here. The insects would be staying in their hives."

"Why not go south around the lake?" Apexus asked.

Aclysia hesitated for a moment. "It has been suggested that individual monsters from the Necro Lord's Crypt are sometimes seen there during the winter."

Even Reysha, the most brazen member of the party, understood that it made the area a no-go zone. A Level 15 gap was suicidal for a small party at most times. This, however, was more than just that gap. Level 50 was when adventurers unlocked their Common Art. Monsters on and past that level were created with this spike in power in mind.

It was safer to face a potential swarm to the north, than just one stray monster to the south.

"Your choice, darling?" Aclysia asked.

Path of Responsibility 2 -- The Path less trodden

"You wish to go through the Lanaan Gauntlet?"

Lady Frashina was as ornately dressed as always. Layers of grey and blue cloth covered slender curves. Like most elves, the noble of the Sleeping Empire was of lithe stature, tall and long-limbed. The grace of such a figure was elevated further by the many gemstones that covered the expensive fabric of her dress and the jewellery she wore on top of that. A large pendant suggestively settled between her, for an elf, unusually large breasts. The dark-grey cleavage was proudly presented.

Apexus focused on her face regardless. The long sidelocks that framed her aristocratic beauty had been put into curls. The rest of her dark hair had been woven into a crown braid. Dark blue eyes observed the Inevitable party, seated across from her.

Frashina was one of the leading nobles of the Sleeping Empire in the city of Drowse. She was not THE leading noble, that honour went to her uncle, the appointed margrave, but she had power through merit, familial connections, and wealth. She was a good noble, someone who had been raised for the position from birth and lived according to the expectations of populace, peers and superiors.

Apexus nodded stoically at her question. They had been received on short notice, a fact they had to be thankful for. Previous dealings with the lady had been pleasant for both sides. In the first instance, she had been the one who had decided who would get the lucrative Quest to deliver diplomatic gifts to Summerdawn. Apexus had not gotten the job, but the manner in which he had failed had impressed the noblewoman. Admitting his loss in a spar when no one had noticed he had been struck first was an act of character few were capable of when there was a princely sum on the line. The second time, they had saved the lady's nephew from a Horroboar.

A debt that Frashina had repaid with a huge monetary sum. She owed them nothing, both sides were clear on that. Yet, she had met them within half an hour, a delay created so she could first inform herself on the events in motion. It was the duty of a noble to at least appear informed about all ongoings in their realm.

"The plight of lord Tarath is a topic I am knowledgeable about. He refused our help to fund his Quest before... men can be peculiar creatures." The dark elf waved air into her face with a plush-trimmed fang. "Your desire to help him for such little recompense is commendable. To go through the Lanaan Gauntlet as well... are you certain of this?"

"We are," Apexus stated clearly. They had been through the debates, now only action remained.

'I would not complain if you offered to add to the reward secretly though,' Korith thought.

Lady Frashina hid the lower half of her face from the party with the fan and considered. "An out of season voyage across the strait costs a considerable sum... that I cannot offer you... but..." She snapped her fingers and a servant stepped up to the coffee table of the opulent meeting room. "... bring me the ledger of supply runs."

"Yes, your ladyship," the servant answered readily. Within three minutes, he returned, presenting the noblewoman with a book.

She took it and began to scan the newest entry. She nodded to herself. "One ship is scheduled to leave tomorrow noon. To delay them until your departure is of no consequence to me. Does this find your agreement?"

"We are in your debt," Apexus said and bowed his head.

"Return successful and consider it repaid," the noblewoman stated. "You will do me a service twofold. The prestige of the Sleeping Empire demands that none of our nobles relinquish their land to outsiders... not to mention the numerous issues that inexperienced adventurers in the administration of the land will cause." She waved off. "Secondarily, you will verify the existence of the flower. Only your teacher ever brought one back. Rumours of its existence can thus be trusted. Still, it is best to know."

"We will do all we can," Apexus assured.

"Of this, I am certain," the noblewoman let his gaze wander over all four of them. "Your reputation is honourable. Continue on this path and the Sleeping Empire will wish to employ you in due time."

The party had no interest in such employment, but the compliment was taken with another bow of the heads of Apexus and Aclysia.

"I will leave the remaining organization to my servant here," Frashina stated and rose. "Other work demands my attention. I anticipate hearing of your exploits, Inevitable."

After she had left the room, the servant sat down and swiftly went through the planning. It was pretty simple. The ship would remain docked until the day and depart once they boarded it. All the party had to be aware of was which ship and where it lay.

Once all of that was sorted out, the party left to attempt other preparations.

_____________________________________________________________________

Why had Apexus chosen the yellow path?

Because it was the most dangerous.

They currently had near level parity with the Atlas party. Assuming they caught up or even exceeded their level somewhat, they would still be behind tremendously. Simply put, Atlas and his allies were loaded. They had money, several enchanted items each, and a massive stockpile of consumables.

At level parity, they would lose the race. Apexus had decided that they needed to play to their strengths. Growth of personal power was where they excelled. A gauntlet would force them to expand their power rapidly.

That was the short view. Expanding their current situation into the future, to their eventual goal of facing or aiding in the removal of Apotho, made clear that growth was required. Rapid growth? Not necessarily. Knowledge in fighting superior opponents? Absolutely.

Last and least was a purely personal reason. Apexus reckoned he could get a permanent Growth on this route, maybe even two or three. That depended on whether his instincts considered the individual Lanaan Hives as their own ecosystems to conquer, or all as part of one. If they cleared the Trauma Dungeon first, then that would net him another Growth as well, in theory.

Life as an adventurer was inherently risky. After several months of safe Quests, this would make them keenly aware of that fact.

____________________________________________________________________________

Alchemy did not come naturally to Apexus.

The humanoid chimera looked at the wooden boxes. Most were simple, containing various pieces of metal, porcelain, or thick glass. Other boxes were lined with velvet, keeping the fragile instruments within from experiencing too much rattling. There were containers, connection pieces, funnels, tubes, wires, and the means to connect everything.

Like all tools, the utensils laid foreign in his hands. Apexus was a creature of his own means. Everything he could do, he did with power innate to him. At least, that was how he preferred to operate. He had to acknowledge the usefulness of craftsmanship, even if it was his nature to grow his own solutions.

The idea of making constructions of glass and metal all to create some substance was odd to Apexus. The theory behind it, he understood. Artificially recreate circumstances that lead to chemicals reacting and infuse that process with esoteric energy through rite, intent, and application of mana. That was straightforward enough. Much like with maths, him understanding the underlying principle did not help much with getting into the actual application of more advanced ideas.

Alchemy did not come naturally to Apexus.

Neither had going hungry come naturally to Apexus.

Magical circuitry had not grown easily inside Apexus.

Wisdom had not been granted easily to Apexus.

The humanoid chimera picked up one of the three books that had come with the starting kit. Their names were in gold letters on a dark background: 'Esoterica Flora', 'Esoterica Fauna' and 'Esoterica Silica'. Together, they made up the three volumes that every aspiring alchemist was expected to read. The Esoterica Flora was the typical start and the opening page of the book reflected this.

Aspiring artist of the alchemical art,

You are about to delve into the realm of Ouros. Alchemy is one of the oldest arts of the Omniverse and reflected in the 9th of the 33 original gods. Ouros is the lord of Alchemy and Ambition, for the pursuit of alchemy is in and of itself an ambitious task. Knowledge and wisdom tailored to you and you alone will be found in this craft.

This may sound enticing to you. All desire to carve out their special niche in the world -- but take heed. What makes alchemy so interesting also makes it so dangerous. What you will learn is your knowledge. You may attempt to teach to others, you may attempt to learn from others, and perhaps it can even work. Most of the time, you will find that their methods do not serve your goals.

In that, alchemy is a lonely art. It is not like smithing or carving or leatherworking, where common methods grant you good results. Following recipes in alchemy makes you inferior. They are nothing more than crutches that you rely on as you learn to walk. Hold onto the crutches and you will hobble all your life. Discard the crutches and you will walk alone.

You will be irreplaceable. You will be confined to what you intuit. You will be incapable of relying on the wisdom of others.

And thus, what you are about to read, the Esoterica trilogy, is knowledge to be gained and rewritten by you. Over the course of these three books, you will be introduced to working with plant matter, animal parts, and finally inorganic materials like metal, stone, and gems. You will be challenged, step by step, to take on ever more complicated works.

You will be taught to think like an alchemist. Method and creativity will intertwine. Logic and magic will wrestle in your mind. It will hurt you, for to be an alchemist is to unify inherently contradicting modes of thought.

Most alchemists turn into eccentrics. This is for a reason. Do not believe yourself the exception. If you are not fine with being strange, you must put away this book now. The craft will change you or you will not succeed in the craft. Such is the truth of esoteric knowledge.

Contemplate this, before you turn to the next page.

Apexus put the open book on the floor in front of him, then crossed his arms. He closed his eyes and contemplated. 'What a strange foreword,' was the first thought. 'An eccentric by his own admission. What does all of this mean for me? I am already strange to others. They deem me other and they are right. My origin is different. Being a Monk makes me think differently and I am a Monk because it resonated with me.'

The humanoid chimera tilted his head one way. He felt the muscle fibres in his neck shift. The joint rolled smoothly on its socket. There was no heartbeat inside him. He sat still and was still within. The temperature level within was nice and even. Inside the warm room, he barely needed to provide the Heat Core with energy.

'What would it mean for me to become even stranger in the eyes of others?' he asked himself. 'Will I or is this book targeted at one who comes from a normal background?'

Apexus' mind went from one question to another, circling around itself until he resolved that he did not know. The only way to find out was to forge ahead. At the very least, he was curious. He finally turned the page.

'If you just spent the last thirty minutes actually contemplating, know that you are not a natural alchemist.'

Apexus stared at the sentence for a solid ten seconds, before reading on.

'As written: the learning of alchemy is a personalized journey. You took an instruction and you took it to heart. You follow authorities without thinking. You are better suited to be a smith and learn tables on melting points.'

'You annoy me, book,' Apexus thought and read the rest of the page with growing frustration. It continued on and on to chastise him for being an overthinker. Sentence after sentence rhetorically lashed him for thinking rather than doing and how such an approach could never work if there was a brew cooking in front of him.

'If, being unworthy as you are, you still want to continue learning, then turn to the next page and follow instructions like the naïve, predictable thing you are.'

Apexus put the book down again, crossed his arms in an annoyed gesture, and glared at the page. The urge to prove the writer wrong by moving straight to the chapter on transmutagens was intense. At the same time, Apexus' thorough nature urged him to do things properly. Between the desires was the thought: 'what do I want my path to be?'

Unresolved on that question, he turned to the third page. Only a singular sentence was written across the double-spread.

'Whatever you choose to do next, remember that it was your choice.'

That, the Monk could agree with. 'I have chosen the gauntlet... then I shall choose the gauntlet again,' he thought and flipped through the pages straight to the page with the mutagens. 'It is time to grow further.'

Alchemy did not come naturally to Apexus.

That was what he thought.

Path of Responsibility 3 -- Departure

The north street of the city of Drowse was lively that day. It was always lively to some degree, carrying most of the traffic that connected the metropolitan area to the large territory of mostly calmed wilds around. That day, all of the adventurers that usually would have streamed down the road or would have been hanging out in the Guild were watching as two paragon groups stood across from each other.

There was no annoyed glaring any more. Three days had transformed the immediate emotions felt. Hot anger had been replaced with entrenched conviction. This was more true for one side of the divide than the other.

The leader of the Leaf's largest Guild outpost suppressed a sigh. He had hoped that three days would have caused at least one side to reconsider. A small hope from the start. Monks did not engage in actions without conviction, and the promise of land would have animated at least one member of the Atlas Party. Both sides stood on principle. Neither could be dealt with by a moral condemnation.

Thus, there was only one thing left to do.

"The Contested Quest begins!" the Guild Master declared loudly.

The people had expected both sides to take off in a sprint -- and they were half right. The Atlas Party took the first of many steps across the line that had been drawn in chalk. The Inevitable turned south-east and moved at maximum speed. Aclysia flew, Reysha sprinted, Korith leapt, only Apexus lingered for a moment.

"I wish you safe travels," the Monk said.

"Likewise," Atlas responded, respectfully. A second later, he worked out why Apexus had chosen that route. "Don't you dare die, you son of a dripstone! I need to gloat once this is over."

"Prepare for my lecture," Apexus answered in kind, then leapt. The crowd around dispersed, instinctively taking a respectful distance to the intense beats of the emerald wings. Dense muscles were necessary to create the kind of lift that let a heavy entity like the humanoid chimera take to and stay in the air.

Once he had gained the initial elevation, the flight went smoother. The soaring feathers did most of the work, keeping Apexus from losing more height than the occasional beat could recover. His tail served to shift his weight, to make mild adjustments as he caught up with the others, then went ahead of them.

Apexus was not strictly the fastest of them. That honour went to Reysha. Whereas the tiger woman was fighting terrain and stamina for her momentum, the humanoid chimera merely had to lean into gravity to continue moving forwards. Flaps of his wings further accelerated him beyond that point.

The port that the supply ships left from was located by the mouth of the river east of the Worldstem. On foot and at regular speed, it was a day's journey. If they moved as fast as their superhuman bodies allowed them to, then they should be able to make it in just a few hours.

Apexus arrived well-ahead of his party members. Despite having been told of their arrival, the sailors went for their weapons when Apexus suddenly landed on the pier. For all of his size and momentum, the Monk came to a gentle halt. A Featherstep made him near weightless for just the brief instant needed to stop. A trick that had cost him many crashes to figure out.

"I am the leader of the Inevitable party," he announced himself to the sailors. "By decree of Lady Frashina, I am authorized to command you to begin preparations to set sail."

Apexus was not used to ordering other people around, yet it came naturally to him. The deep voice, imposing stature, and granted permission intermingled into concise instructions that the sailors followed as soon as their brains had caught up with the measure.

After barking clarifying orders, the captain of the barge approached Apexus. "The rest of your party underway?" he asked.

"They should arrive within the hour," Apexus answered. Reysha was likely to get there next, while Korith had been instructed to hang back so Aclysia did not travel on her own. The chance that their healer was assailed by some kind of flying monster from Chimerion was bigger than 0.

The captain clicked his tongue. "Better they came earlier. Tide will be coming in. We'll have to row until we catch a good breeze."

"Then we row," Apexus stated.

By the time all three of his companions had arrived, the ship was ready for departure. It was larger than the one they had spent days on back on Tacuitos, more spacious with a larger crew. That meant they also had to work harder to get it away from shore.

The sailors were annoyed that they were made to row. It was hard work, usually reserved for emergencies. That they had to do it after being delayed in their mission added a sour note to a bitter taste.

Any grumbles were silenced when they witnessed the adventurers pull their weight thrice over. Korith and Apexus each took a bench usually reserved for three men and dragged the oars through the water to the rhythm of the drummer. Previous experiences on the matter aided them.

The cold of late autumn had seeped into the water of the ocean. The same water pulled the heat from the hull and the rooms within. The same water leaked in cold waves through the holes of the oars. Men shivered despite the heavy work.

Aclysia raised the Scripture from its special holster on her waist. A single hand held the book by its spine. A thought parted the hard covers, causing the blessed paper to whisper. Empty pages turned, a Scripture to be filled with the Blessings of a Preacher. The flutter stopped on the first page, where golden letters rose brightly from the snow-white parchment.

Like artists with their chosen instruments, so too was casting with tools accompanied by individual habits. So it was that Aclysia's angelic voice filled the barge, divine script channelled into syllables of power. Golden letters rose from the page, images of the calligraphy filled with the esoteric and magical power of the tool and the spellcaster.

As Aclysia sang, a golden glow enveloped sailors and party members. A corona of light like that of the summer sun embraced each of them and brought to them the warmth of the desired days. Relief from the cold was near instant, the Blessing of Warmth filling them with fresh energy and motivation. With that boon, they pushed out against the tide and soon got word that the sails were full with an eastward wind.

Afterwards, the party finally got a moment to relax.

By Frashina's decree, they had been given quarters that were usually kept for travelling noblemen aboard the ship. They had a degree of luxury, but not much. Nobles liked to live well, but the rulers of the Sleeping Empire were not so decadent as to compromise the sleeping quarters of the sailors to make their own larger.

"That was pretty neat," Reysha commented. The redhead was the least exhausted of the four, courtesy of not having aided in the rowing. Apexus was recovering biomass by stuffing a whole chicken, feathers and all, down his throat. They had bought it just that morning in anticipation of the trip. Korith and Aclysia were happy to just lay on the bed for a bit. It was big enough for the two of them, but not much else.

The comment by the redhead spurred the guardian angel into motion. She sat up, back against the wall, and opened the Scripture. The golden letter had ever so subtly faded. "It has its own price in material," she informed the others. "Each Blessing is drawn in magical ink and such magic is partly used up with each usage. I will have to redraw the script in due time."

"An acceptable price to pay for access to long-lasting spells," Reysha reckoned.

"Their duration is key, but far from the sole advantage," Aclysia answered, gently brushing over the fine paper. "To commit a spell to paper is much simpler than to learn how to cast it myself and by externalizing some of the mana cost I can avoid strain on my own resources. The greatest advantage, however, is that Blessings cannot be learned no matter how hard I try."

"You can't learn Blessings, period?" Korith asked.

Aclysia gave a confirming, slow nod. "A caveat introduced is that there is a Common Art that subverts this expectation for Witches and Preachers alike."

"Wonder what the Class on our cards will say in the future," Reysha thought aloud. "We're pretty solidly getting out of the standard mould these days."

"I suspect you will find out upon our return," Apexus said. His own card still said Omniverse Slime Chimera, which he did not anticipate changing anytime soon. He was a trained Monk, but that was a fighting style layered on top of his reliance on his unique body.

They spent the next two days onboard the ship, before making landfall in the township that had been carved out of the hostile territory of the Lanaan Hives Influence Zone. Like most colonies, it had plenty of raw materials to work with, but not enough food to get the whole population through the winter. Homesteads had not yet grown enough for the task.

The majority of the delivered supplies were thus food and other items needed to endure cold temperatures. Apexus would have taken a greater interest usually, but they had their own journey to go on.

"Before I forget!" the captain shouted after the Inevitable Party, just as they were setting out. "Her ladyship ordered me to give you this." He handed Apexus a map of the local area. "She kindly requests that you check on these places, if it works for you. They're early attempts to build more settlements."

Apexus traced the locations with his eyes, then handed it to Aclysia for deeper analysis. "I believe we will naturally come through several of these locations," the guardian angel stated. "We cannot promise more."

The captain shrugged and turned away, he had done his part in all of this.

The party turned eastwards again and took their first step into the Lanaan Gauntlet.

Path of Responsibility 4 -- Hive Scents

The Influence Zone of the Lanaan Hives was a disturbing sight. The brown grass was thick and vital. It had complete dominance over the flat landscape. A monoculture that was a stark difference to the chaos of Chimerion.

Incursions were a common sight here. They occurred more frequently and were seldom cleared out. The hills and tunnels created by those mini-dungeons marked the land like hole-riddled boils. All of the holes were just evenly enough spaced to feel like a pattern and just off enough to not be uniform. Insectoid creatures swarmed and wiggled around them, patrolling their territory until the day that adventurers would come and claim it all for the sapient species of the Omniverse.

Four such adventurers were currently advancing into the flatlands. They stepped on foot, their pace moderate. For a journey of this length, haste was not advisable. They were best advised to remain as rested as possible to cope with circumstances and the path ahead.

A path that had been, so far, absurdly smooth.

"Something is super off." Korith finally said it out loud.

"Affirmative. Aggression of the creatures in the area does not match previously encountered patterns." Aclysia's emerald eyes fixed on a cluster of monsters less than thirty metres away from them.

The monsters that expanded into the Influence Zone of the Lanaan Hives came in many shapes and sizes, but they had shared characteristics. In body plan, they were insectoid, with six thin legs propping up thin bodies with large heads and abdomens. Some had stingers, others pronounced mandibles, a few had additional limbs such as pincers, antennas, or tendrils.

All had skin.

Lanaan insects were covered in a thick layer of dense flesh that stretched over the underlying carapace. The combination of skin and chitin gave them remarkable defences. That skin was also one of the reasons to hunt in this area. It was highly regenerative, an attribute it kept, with proper care, even after being removed from the organism. Reysha's new bodysuit was made from it, as were most leather armours on Alarshus.

Courtesy of the closeness to Drowse, the Lanaan Hives were the second most studied area of the Leaf. The guidebook on the matter spelled out their tactics clearly. Alarshus insects had no regard for personal wellbeing and swarmed their target with mass rather than quality. For dungeon monsters, they were relatively small, standing between the size of a dog and a grown wolf. This allowed them to do as ants did, attacking the target from various directions. A lack of size was an advantage when one had numbers.

The insects were trotting about in their usual, mindlessly patrolling ways, passively doing what dungeon monsters were usually doing when no one was around. The party members had seen it before, but that had been when they were concealed by the landscape. There was not even a tall rock to hide behind. They were just standing there, being ignored.

The wind turned.

The creatures raised their heads. Throaty clicks spread amongst the creatures, then they galloped towards the group. The sudden shift in behaviour surprised the party, but the distance was enough for them to get in proper formation.

The formation of the monsters resembled a wedge. The three points were tipped by the largest members of the hive of a dozen monsters. Korith leapt forwards, meeting the assault with a strike of her hammer. The skin helped the creatures against crushing blows, but it could only do so much against an adventurer of superior level. Korith's strike splattered the head of the monster, sending its compound eyes flying like spheres tossed out of their socket.

Two insects grabbed her arms with their mandibles and pulled. The incisor instruments slipped off, incapable of penetrating the reinforced scales, turned grey with Ki. A third insect was upon her with its stinger. Korith let the attack bounce off her sturdy chest plate, before delivering a counter strike.

The rest of the enemy formation encircled the party. Aclysia was up in the air, where she only needed to worry about one of the insects. It spewed a chemical cocktail, missed, and was then swiftly obliterated by an automatic response of the Priest's miniature companion. The diamond-shaped familiar cast a ray of golden light that sliced through the open mouth of the creature, drilling through and cooking the internal organs.

On the ground, the encirclement completed and then broke. Apexus charged at it and the monsters parted around him, as if they had suddenly become bored. Bad news for Reysha, who was not benefitting from a similar change in moods. All of the monsters that were ignoring Apexus now came for her.

"Yeah, no," the Rogue said out loud, then used a Shadowstep to escape her precarious situation. Momentarily confused, the monsters skittered at each other, turned to Korith, then spotted Reysha again. Not before the redhead had rammed a dagger through the thin neck of one insectoid, however.

Apexus caught up with the skittering monsters. Theories on what was happening were forming in his head, but he was focused on combat for the moment. The passivity remained until he ripped the head off one of the Lanaan insects with his bare hands and lingered until he had dispatched two more with swiftly administered Rippling Palms.

The numbers of the monsters were swiftly dwindling. Korith and Apexus kept them occupied, while Reysha dipped in and out of awareness, sowing confusion in their ranks. While the Rogue dealt precision damage, the angel above delivered magical attacks. A hand on her charm, she drew in ambient magic. There was plenty of it to fuel her attacks, a result from the infrequency of adventuring activity in the area, and so she could bombard the insects with little worry about lacking the power to heal. The hovering gem above her shoulder periodically flared, adding its own ray spells to the mixture.

"Do not kill this one," Apexus declared, when only one was left. The other three stood down, watching with interest when their leader met the monster alone. He was larger, stronger, and tougher. He let the last insect grapple his arm with its mandibles. Ironskin prevented any damage. Even breaths kept the technique active, while the Monk lifted the arm. The monster soon dangled in the air, too simple in its programming to realize that it should let go. It kept to it even when Apexus calmly ripped the legs off it.

Cruelty was not within Apexus' nature, yet he did not shy away from it either. It had been cruel to slowly dissolve clams alive, but it had also been necessary for the young slime to survive. Sometimes, utility justified a degree of cruelty and it was certainly easier to justify against monsters that existed to be fought than actual animals.

Apexus concentrated on his Growths. Three seconds later, the unrelentingly aggressive insect suddenly released his arm and fell to the floor. It remained there, inconvenienced by the lack of legs, but otherwise passive. Once more, the slime's attention turned inwards and the wiggling of the monster turned violent. It stretched as best it could towards the Monk's foot, the heel of which brought an end to the monster a moment later.

"They respond to my pheromones," he revealed.

"They do? I thought that was for making horny girls hornier," Reysha commented.

"That is a development on the original that came with making it permanent. Originally, I got this from ants."

"... I'm getting excited by ant smell?" Reysha asked, lightly weirded out.

"It is ant based," Apexus clarified. "It is my scent. I believe we talked about this before?"

"I can't remember everything."

"Why is this the part that weirds you out the most anyway?" Korith asked. "You let him dissolve your hair on a semiregular basis."

"Yeah, and that's weird but the results, squishy!" Reysha tugged at her waistbands to reveal a pubic mound that was not just smooth but spotless. As a Ragressian, she had little body hair to worry about to start with. Opinions differed on whether one should grow their public hair or not and to what degree. Reysha preferred the shave and the full removal by sapient acid left her positively shining down there.

Aclysia, as an angel of metal, and Korith, as a kobold, did not experience hair growth below the ears whatsoever and could not properly relate.

"Seriously, look at it!" Reysha pulled at her waistband a bit more. The skin-tight bodysuit peeled back, revealing parts of her legs as well. They were a wonderful fusion between long, toned, and squishy.

"We can indulge in your exhibitionism another time," Aclysia reprimanded their nymph-cat.

"Fine." Reysha let the flexible material snap back into place. "Question though: do ants really communicate via scent?"

"Yes," Apexus answered.

"Huh... man, insects are weird." Reysha scratched the back of her head. "Did you know that, Korith?" The kobold shook her head. "Alright, so I'm not the only stupid one for once."

"But I gladly will give you the title of Head Stupid," Korith offered.

Reysha laughed out loud at the rebuttal. While her shoulders trembled with glee, she sashayed to one of the legs Apexus had ripped off the last insect and picked it up. She gave the skin a nibble, deemed it bland and rubbery, and then went for the fibres under the carapace instead.

All the while, Aclysia raised her voice. "Am I correct in my estimation that this broadens our strategic horizons considerably?"

Apexus nodded abruptly, then remembered to be more expansive in his explanation. "Pheromone production costs little energy and mass. Once I find the exact scents they react to, I will be able to create desired reactions accurately. Theoretically, that is."

"W-well...." Korith looked at the path ahead and the dozens of Incursions that were just in their current view. "... plenty of testing grounds, aren't there?"

There were indeed. The party had set out only to clear what they encountered on the way. This development changed things considerably. If it worked to even a slight degree, their time in the dungeons had turned considerably easier.

For the Incursions, it worked well enough. The monsters outside, typically around Level 20, were easy to dispatch to start with. The monsters within and the mini boss, going up to Level 25, on rare occasions, were harder. The boss monsters were notably resistant against the pheromones. They were not, however, immune.

Night had come. That was not saying much, at this time of year in this part of the Leaf, night came early and lasted long. Four sources of light broke up the consuming darkness. One was the moon above, three-quarters full this night, bathing the simple landscape in enough illumination to let shapes be visible. Second and third were the spell of Aclysia and the nails of Apexus, both channelling magical power to make the world around them a brighter place. In other areas of the Leaf, travelling in the dark hours, especially with light out, was not recommended. Lanaan insects, however, were inactive during the nights of cold months. They were easily chilled and thus retreated to their holes, making travel safe.

The fourth source of light was a ring of torches and lanterns placed on the roundabout of a circular fortification. This was the group's target for the night, one of the basic settlements that the map pointed them towards.

The walls were earthworks reinforced by wooden planks and tree roots. Stone walls would have been of little use against the Lanaan insects. They were quite capable of scaling all but the smoothest surface. Therefore, the wall existed only to delay and funnel approaches, not to outright stop them. Plus, stone was harder to transport to this barren region than wood was. Druids could always regrow the roots.

The fortification had two gates, located on opposite sides. Solid things of studded wood, moved from Drowse with great care. A half-developed moat surrounded the settlement. It was just deep enough to create a thin pool of groundwater at the bottom. The path to the gates remained unexcavated for now.

Their approach was met with two archers standing atop the wall and a third guard sliding a piece of wood to the side to speak to them through the gate. The archers did not even bother to hook their strings and the guard smirked. "Alright, adventurers, give me a reason not to let you in?"

"I have none," Apexus answered so seriously that the guard waited a moment, before laughing all the same.

"Give us a moment." The viewing hole was closed, the locking mechanism unbarred, and the gate opened. The guard waved the group inside. "Any name we can put on the register?"

"The Inevitable party," Apexus responded.

The guard whistled. "The famous newcomers, ey? Did the lady Frashina send you to check on us?"

"In a sense. We are here on a private endeavour."

"Mind sharing? Not a lot of news gets to these parts. Not important enough to get a Feather and all of that." The guard gestured at the village. Whether it qualified for this high a title was highly debatable.

There were five houses within the walls. A long one served as the barracks, a similarly long one as the facility to store and prepare food, one served as the residence of the minor noble that led this operation and the other two were used for various purposes depending on the current needs of the settlement. It was a research station, military outpost, and claim to the land all at once. The elven noble, peacefully sleeping at the moment, had the lifespan and patience to wait for the territory of Drowse to expand until this fertile flatland could be exploited by farmers.

"We can talk," Apexus agreed. "Before that, however, I would ask if you have alchemical agents?"

"We got some stuff in storage that might qualify?" the guard asked. "Fair warning though, we do not take coin here. Not much of a market around here." He gestured around the tiny square between the houses. "We'll have to barter with actual stuff."

"How about Mana Gems?" Aclysia asked and brought out the pouch she had filled with the day's work.

The guard nodded deeply. "That'll work. Alright, let me take you to storage. The quartermaster is the one you'll negotiate with."

They spent the next hour getting a few items Apexus felt like he needed and serving as entertainment for the guards. Little changed around these parts, so they jumped at the opportunity to hear anything interesting at all. Aclysia exchanged some of the books she had already read for several that every local had gone through thrice. Once such civilities had run their course, they retreated into the Mobile Estate.

The next day, Apexus had some experimenting to do.

Path of Responsibility 5 -- Mutagen Development

Every alchemical production went through the five fundamental processes.

First, "Identification" described the step in which the brewer-to-be scanned through the materials available. Based on their intuition, they assigned meanings to their ingredients as they did. A jalapeño in the hands of one alchemist could symbolize 'heat' and in another's it could be 'pain'. The alchemist had to read their own mind correctly for these assignments which was no easy matter. The desperate craftsman could be tempted to try and swindle themselves. Some succeeded at this, others merely spoiled their brew by trying to act in ways that were convenient, but not true to themselves.

Apexus identified a number of materials. Locks of hair from each of his women made for easy association. Beyond that, he required an ingredient of quick adaptation. For this, he used clay powder, with its capacity to be formed into many shapes. Target and purposes set, he then added blades of freshly cut grass to the line of ingredients. The last in the line was a vial of pheromone-rich fluid, specifically created by concentrating glands in an area of his skin and then separating it from the rest of him.

Second, "Elevation" described the step in which the brewer took the individual ingredients and drew from them the desired attribute(s). To do so, many processes were viable. What mattered was that the ingredient was in a state that most elevated that attribute in the eye of the alchemist.

Apexus deemed that the hair needed no touch, for the white, red and blonde were unique by themselves. The clay he mixed with water, just enough for it to turn into a mass that could be easily separated into small spheres -- for the sphere was the most adjustable of all shapes. From the grass he required only the mass and fertility of nature, as such its freshness was all he required. The pheromones, he gave a quick sniff to ensure that the fragrance was intense.

Third, "Extraction" described the step in which the brewer reduced the ingredient to the elevated attribute. Energy was necessary for this, as all elements were changed by the application and withdrawal of energy.

Apexus placed the clay balls in a flask, mixing them with water. A small flame brought the mixture to a boil over the course of many minutes. At first, such a reaction was purely physical, but the esoteric nature of the process soon transformed the mixture into a brownish black soup that bubbled and frothed. The steam that rose, Apexus caught in a glass tube that let the cooling liquid run off to the side. It gathered an earthy brown liquid in a glass next to a second one where Apexus caught the essence drawn from the grass, itself a vibrant green.

Fourth, "Unification" described the step in which the brewer blended the various ingredients together in whatever way they found appropriate. As brews became more complicated, so did the scale and intricacy of how the various components came together to make a whole.

Apexus poured the two essences together into a bottle with his pheromones and the strands of hair. He put his fingers on the lid, then he shook it thoroughly, until every last strand of hair had fully dissolved in the esoteric mixture of meaning and mana. He repeated this for each of them.

Fifth, "Stabilization" described the step in which the brewer brought the unified materials into a sustainable form. Most alchemical concoctions were not meant to be, created by extracting metaphysical attributes from materials and then putting them together with little regard for universal logic. The brew, as such, pushed outside against the world and yearned to change like water yearned to move according to pressure differences. The material needed to be calmed.

Apexus poured the finished mixture into a small mould. He repeated this for each of the brews, making sure to use a different cast for each of them. Then, he crossed his arms and stared sternly at them. The liquids vibrated, the small casts gradually hobbling to the edge of the table. Before they could fall, Apexus pushed them back. They repeated this seven times. Apexus kept on looking in disapproval until the brews got the message and obediently settled down.

The liquids shrunk down, expelling excess water and turning into six pills each. They had the colours of the hairs that had gone into making them. Apexus carefully removed them from the moulds, put them next to the other instruments for later cleaning, and then brought the pills to where the party was waiting.

Finding Reysha sucking on Korith's tits was not the least bit surprising. The redhead pulled her head back, teeth holding onto the nipples. Pliable flesh stretched. The masochistic blonde writhed. Apexus walked past the scene without a care.

"Where is Aclysia?" he asked, placing the pills on the couch table.

"Bathing." With the answer, Reysha released the huge breasts of the shortstack. They jiggled back into their natural position. Numerous little marks on them proved that there had been extensive worship and consensual abuse going on. "She's addicted to the tub, I swear."

"Cleanliness is holiness," Aclysia said, entering the room at that moment. The metal fairy had heard the door of her darling's laboratory, previously the storage room, open and close and had taken that as her signal to leave the tub. She had dried herself off as best as possible, but her hair and the fluff of her moth-like wings were still damp. She sat down on the couch, then began to help the drying along with gentle sunlight spells.

"It ain't that I disagree, bubble butt, but Korith, the big guy and I spend like ten to fifteen minutes in there. I swear you're in there for at least thirty and you go in twice a day when ya get the chance."

"This... is accurate," Aclysia stated. "The water is free, I cause no waste."

"Eh, it's your time ya wastin'," Reysha rolled off of Korith, who came back to reality a few seconds later. The various kiss marks on her would fade over the course of the day. Either one of Aclysia's healing spells would get them by accident or her own magically increased, natural healing would take care of it.

The party gathered around the table and looked at the pills. "You don't need any?" Korith asked, just to be certain.

"Not for this purpose," Apexus answered. "I have made some for other purposes."

"And where are those?" Reysha asked, out of curiosity.

Apexus tilted his head back. His jaw dislocated, allowing it to open wide enough that the three women could get a proper view of his upper molars. The one furthest at the back loosened from its socket, then, pulled by slime, 'opened' like a hinged lid. The human skull and the human-esque teeth he had gained from a serpentine boss monster were only fused because he had willed it so. It was easy enough to create a pocket in-between in which the pill, no larger than the nail of a little finger, could slot without issue.

The tooth slotted back into place, fused back to the skull, and was then hidden when Apexus hooked his jaw back into place.

"... Okay... ya know... I can stomach a lot... but THAT was sick." Reysha ran her tongue over her own teeth just to make sure they were all nice and firm in their position. "Actually sickening."

"I agree... please do not do that again," Korith requested.

"Okay," Apexus said. He did not question what they did or did not find grotesque about his body. In this regard, they were simply too different for him to track their sensibilities. He distracted them by pointing at the pills. "Not entirely sure what kind of scent they will make you produce. The effect will only last a limited amount at a time, a couple of minutes or so. They will also lose effectiveness in only a few days."

"Shouldn't be a problem, not like dirt and grass are hard to find," Reysha said.

"The right dirt and the right grass are," Apexus told her.

"Is there a certain definition of the 'right dirt' and 'right grass', darling?" Aclysia asked.

"No."

The firm and quick answer caused mild amusement. Had Apexus not been an oddball from the start, his women may have questioned his behaviour. Most alchemists got questioned because of things like this by those that had no understanding of the craft whatsoever or who, worse, judged one alchemist by the measure of another they knew.

In their relationship, Apexus being oddly certain about esoteric topics and oddly uncertain when it came to commonly accepted matters was just expected.

Breakfast and morning baths had already been taken care of. The party only had to get dressed to leave the Mobile Estate. They stepped out into the crisp air of late Autumn's morning. The breaths of Aclysia, Reysha and Korith turned into clouds. Apexus' own looked off by comparison. There was not enough moisture in his breath.

The oddity went ignored or unseen by the others. Apexus' nature was no longer a secret. It did not matter if he was off compared to other species. Plus, the guards around would not have messed with a level 25 party without a very good reason. Healers were always hired at a premium. Level 20 healers, the power appropriate for this Influence Zone, were extremely expensive. As such, not every settlement had one. If a guard got injured, that was a long-term issue and no one was willing to risk being useless in such a hostile environment.

They had a short look around in the daylight, to do basic diligence by Lady Frashina's request. They could not comment on the health of the settlements if they only passed through hastily. Finding nothing worth committing to memory, they then continued on their path.

The next seven days went by eventlessly. In that time, they cleared two dozen Incursions and visited three more settlements, each time trading in whatever Mana Gems they got in exchange for alchemical materials or other small benefits. Korith grumbled each time. The gems were worth much more in gold than the materials they got for them. This, however, was only true back in civilization and the scarcity of the frontier had its own economy.

On the sixth day of the journey, it began to rain. On the seventh day of the journey, it poured. All four of them were drenched. The ground was turned into soggy mud. The flatness of the plains meant that once the groundwater had reached a certain level, there was no escaping the unsteady footing. Fortunately, the land saw no feet beyond their own, keeping the carpet of grass firm enough that their trek was, while unpleasant, still manageable.

The curtain of rain was so thick, not even Apexus could see more than a few metres. His pheromones had no ability to spread. A potentially alarming point, but the terrible visibility had also prompted the monsters to stay in their holes. They were alone in a world of cold rain.

Aclysia whispered a song under her breath. The magic from the scripture kept the four of them warm enough to continue. Korith checked the compass in her hand often. There were no features in the landscape to orient themselves by, only an endless depth of grey to all sides.

This changed suddenly. One step to the next, the shape of a gargantuan spire entered their field of vision. A karst, a sheer and tall mountain, towered up before them. Little insects skittered in the rain shadow cast by craggy protrusions, streaming in and out of holes that let them access the hive. The karst before them was every bit as natural as it was unnatural, a divine structure housing and maintained by the dungeon within.

Finding the entrance was easy, despite the rain, for there were many entrances. Like the landscape, the stone was riddled with holes, resembling a sturdy sponge more than a regular mountain. They simply needed to find one of the holes large enough for them to enter.

The issue came the moment after.

A gargantuan bug guarded the entrance. Its flat head was shaped like a coin and it served to keep the entrance sealed when there was no traffic in and out by patrolling drones. It was a purely defensive creature, sitting there like a living fortress gate. Generally it was recommended to find a smaller entrance, guarded by a smaller bug. They had stumbled across one that was three metres across. The chitin covering the flat top of the hat was tens of centimetres thick.

They did have a solution for this though.

"Reysha, take the mutagen," Apexus requested.

"Roger that," the redhead said and pulled one of the pills out of her Adventurer's Bag. She popped it in her mouth, then lifted her shirt. A gesture that, this time, made sense. The scent needed to escape, after all.

They had tested the effects of the pills on Incursions over the last few days. Each of the three pills Apexus had made had their own specific effect, the flavour of pheromone adjusted by the esoteric nature of their classes.

Korith's pheromone was one usually produced only when there was prey to hunt. It had the effect of concentrating aggression on her, which interrupted the basic strategies of the Lanaan insects and directed them at the one member of the party meant to take attacks.

Aclysia's pheromone was the simplest one of the three, being a basic 'friend' signal that kept her out of harm's way unless she overwrote basic senses with direct aggression. This was also what Apexus used most of the time, although he had begun to identify a few other codes.

Reysha's scent was the most specific one. The pheromone smelled sweet to everyone else, but to the Lanaan insects it was the same as someone screaming GET OUT OF THE WAY! It was a scent reserved to large insects or queens that needed to get through a crowded tunnel quickly. It was the opposite of a stealthy approach, but it worked. It worked so well that the insect moved out of the way for them and let them enter.

"Finally, out of the rain!" Korith cheered, as they entered the first Dungeon of this trip.

Path of Responsibility 6 -- Taking Advantage of Tools given

The tunnels within the hive had a disorienting uniformity to them. Cylindrical, they curved through the chitinous stone. They were three metres across. The walls had a ridged texture, forming circle after circle. Gazing down a corridor would have reminded them of the rings of a tree, had it not been for how rare a straight path was.

Sheltered from wind and weather, the party took full advantage of Apexus' pheromones. It made initial encounters easy, allowing them to walk past even clusters of the enemies. Blue markings on their leathery skin differentiated them from the many insects found in the incursions.

The monsters hung from the corridor at various angles. A few simply stood at ground level, but most were sideways or upside down. They waited there patiently, unaware that the adventurers they were supposed to test were right there. A few of the Lanaan insects moved around, drawing nourishing sap from the 'pantries' of the dungeon and carrying it to the drones on guard duty. The liquid was regurgitated from one insect into the mouth of another, who drank it readily.

"Freaky," Reysha muttered.

The unfamiliar sound caused several of the insects to turn towards the party. Alerted and confused, they skittered towards them. Mandibles clacked. The group raised their weapons. Ant-like monsters trotted forwards, picked up the scent of pheromones with their antennae, then returned to a relaxed stance.

Exchanging gazes, the party nodded to each other, then silently continued on. They wished to find a Healing Fountain before they engaged in combat. Most dungeons of this level had one situated near the entrance, commonly labelled the Gift Fountain by adventurers. Locating it only took them half an hour. One could get around the dungeon fast when not bogged down by combat.

The Healing Fountain was a regular one. Even with the insectoid aesthetic layered on top, the base design did not change. A circular pool of warm, rejuvenating water filled the middle of the circular chamber. Two long corridors led in and out of the room, putting some distance between them and where monsters patrolled.

"Alrighty," Reysha raised her voice. "What's the plan now?"

Aclysia got behind Korith and began to dry the kobold's hair with her magic. The remnants of the rain still clung to them. "That is for our darling to decide," she said.

"We have a unique opportunity to scale our difficulty," the humanoid chimera voiced his thoughts. "The gauntlet of grinding against the great dangers of a dungeon 5 levels above us has been greatly lessened in its dangers. This brings its own issues."

"If we're not being challenged a lot, we won't grow a lot," Korith put words to what they all knew. "So... what do we do? Not take advantage of it?"

"No, we do... but we do so on our terms," Apexus answered and beheld them all with a hard gaze. "As Maltos said: 'learning is found at the edge of comfort'."

The Inevitable party was about to find out what it meant to be led by a Monk.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Reysha could barely make sense of what her eyes saw any more.

There was nothing wrong with them nor the view. It was just the chamber adjacent to the Healing Fountain. An open space, a node between various tunnels, and the perfect spot for the party to put Apexus' training regimen into motion.

The humanoid chimera had drawn in a group of three Lanaan insects from a nearby corridor. Isolating three from a swarm of seven was easy enough through clever use of the pheromones. Three insects had been easy enough to dispatch as well. Each of them had taken on one in single combat. The five-level difference made them strong enemies, but their reliance on swarm tactics counteracted this.

Once they were dispatched, Apexus had drawn in the rest of the seven. Once those had been dispatched, he had pulled them from another corridor, repeating the cycle. Again and again, until there were no enemies left in the direct vicinity, and the chamber was filled with the corpses of a hundred human-sized insects.

Then, they had taken a five-minute break. Five measly minutes in the healing fountain to take care of the wounds and to let them catch their breath before they moved to the chamber that the other corridor led into and Apexus lured in new enemies.

The Rogue's sight was dim and yet incredibly sharp. She was staring down another foe. The ant-like monster was still. Reysha was still. Exhaustion pushed her to another place beyond reality. Dagger and mace weighed heavily in her hands. Reysha barely felt it. She was about to submerge herself in instinct, to fully lose herself in a moment of absolute focus and dedication to only one goal. There was no ego, only the path ahead the-

A memory flooded Reysha's mind with dread and her lost arm with pain. Death. Death brought to the Inquisitor. Death brought to an entire leaf. A gemstone seared her phantom limb. She recoiled from her state of mind.

Exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks. Lungs burned. Shoulders barely managed to rise with each inhale. The weight of her weapons turned out to be too much. They fell clattering to the ground. The monster in front of her lunged.

Apexus' enormous hand grabbed the creature mid-air, ripped it back and sent it flying to the floor. He wrestled with it for a few short moments. Korith and Reysha could only stare, incapable of doing more than dragging themselves forwards, while humanoid slime and guardian angel ended the last enemy in the room through violence and spellcraft.

"That's enough for today," Apexus stated.

Reysha passed out immediately.

She came back to consciousness in their bed. There was a vague awareness that she had been cleaned. Her eyes drifted lazily to where her bodysuit hung from a rack. Apexus and Aclysia sat by the fire of the Mobile Estate, overseeing the preparation of their next meal. Her eyes closed again.

__________________________________________________________________________

'Oh Hoard, oh Hoard, oh Hoard!' Korith had a steady, panicked prayer playing in her head.

Her body, meanwhile, went through expert motions. She ceded ground to the duo of monsters, avoiding the coordinated lunges until the rhythm was inevitably disrupted. In that small moment of time, she gripped the long shaft of her hammer tightly with one hand and went for an upward swing.

Skin dented. Underlying chitin cracked. The head of the monster was forced upwards a bit too far a bit too fast, snapping the thin neck. It went slack.

The second monster had no compassion for the loss whatsoever. Despite that, Korith had to wonder if it wasn't more merciful than their party leader. Korith had gotten quite good at recognizing the subtle differences between the scent that kept reinforcements away from the one that encouraged them.

A horrified little squeak left her when Apexus pulled a Behegrub into the room. The enormous creature was white, covered in blue markings, and squishy all over. Crawling about as grubs tended to do, it nevertheless moved at threatening speed. Worst of all was the circular mouth, though.

Korith blocked a bite of the second insect with the shaft of her Hoard-blessed hammer. She pumped additional Ki into her arms for an explosion of strength, hurling the monster into the air. It was made to block a sticky projectile, launched by the Behegrub. The insect tumbled until the snotty sphere stuck it to the floor.

Ignoring the immobilized enemy, the Warrior leapt upwards. Her hammer crashed into the huge monster's body. The force was translated into wobbles, dispersing without effect throughout the grub's squishy form. 'Ew, ew, ew!' she thought.

Useless as the attack was, it kept the attention of the Behegrub on Korith for long enough that Apexus could circle around it. The Monk's hands disappeared in various folds around the grub's slime-coated body, pressing meridians.

Korith landed in front of the grub. Another projectile was getting vomited up its gullet. Korith thrust out her left arm. The heavy gauntlet she wore on it, a drop from Chimerion, shimmered with power. A block of energy appeared in front of her. It was only as big as a brick, but that was enough to block the attack.

Apexus pushed the last meridian he had looked for. Then, he brought his hand forwards. The Rippling Palm caused the tissue beneath the protective blubber to vibrate violently, until insides were turned outside in an explosion of gore.

Korith couldn't even care about it when she got splattered by pale guts. She had been drenched in monster parts at various times in her life and the last seven days she had spent coated in such gore. The breaks in-between were short to the kobold. That was to say, she was given perfectly adequate resting hours, they just passed in an instant in her perception.

'But man, the super-exhausted sex is soooooo gooooooooooood,' her pervy side cried out.

Then she had to fight another two insects.

___________________________________________________________________________

Aclysia had initially calculated that the hardest part of the journey would be dealing with the Incursion cluster around the Impossible Strait.

That had proven to be poorly informed. In her defence, she could not have foreseen that her darling's pheromones were this effective. 'Even if I had known, I would not have anticipated he would drill us with such efficiency,' she confessed to herself. 'That is my naivety.'

The prism hovering over her shoulder vibrated in a crystal clear note, then launched a Ray spell at one of the enemies beneath. Aclysia channelled the same spell at a different spot in the same direction. Together, the two beams forced three insects to scale the wall to get to the battlefield.

Goal of delaying them achieved, Aclysia upended the spell to keep her mana reserves as best she could. She hovered above the battlefield. Instances of Apexus using the safety pheromones were getting rarer and rarer. The calling pheromones he used were getting stronger and stronger.

Lanaan insects poured out of three entrances that laid opposite of the one they used. They had slightly relocated today's grinding efforts in response to the diminished spawning of enemies. Exploiting the behaviour of the enemies so intensely had exhausted part of the dungeon's local energy reservoirs.

Aclysia watched Korith and Reysha with a great amount of admiration. They were in the thick of it, every swing adding to a growing fatigue that would be relieved at the end of the day -- and no sooner. Aclysia did not suffer this directly. Her job was to scan the battlefield and control its flow through clever application of her spells. Most of the time, going for a kill was mana inefficient. It was better to channel enemies in such a manner that they were fed into the rest of the party at a manageable pace.

The exception to this was when an almost dead enemy was about to deliver a grievous wound to one of her allies.

One of the Lanaan insects had somehow survived having its abdomen and most of its limbs ripped off. Dragging itself forwards by the two that remained, it slowly made its way to Reysha. The combat awareness of the redhead was commendable, but even the greatest master would not have caught the crawling ant amidst all the chaos. Its mandibles parted, ready to snap at Reysha's ankles.

A Sunlight Bolt incinerated the creature's remaining lifeforce. Reysha jumped back, startled by the light. She saw the monster, gave Aclysia an acknowledging nod, then swung her mace at the head of another creature. There was always another creature.

_______________________________________________________________________

Adaptation could only occur under pressure.

In the constant threat of the dungeon, Apexus felt the call of his home. His true home, his place of origin, deeper even than memories of the pond or the forest or Gizmo's house -- no, the true home: nature.

The state of nature was war. Conflict was inherent in every breath. Inhaling drew spores and pollen into lungs, denying them the opportunity to ever find fertile soil. Conflict was inherent in every motion. A step taken brought change, however miniscule, to all of the world. Conflict was inherent in every intention. Everyone, everything, desired to shape the world to their preferences. The state of nature was war and war was the state that forced adaptation.

Apexus suppressed any revelry he felt at this.

He was no longer a being of nature. That was a state he had left behind, shed in a quest for wisdom -- for control. Every step he took was his, taken in pursuit not of base instincts but in a greater goal.

Ki flared along the edge of Apexus' hand as he brought it down. The chop cleaved halfway through the head of the Lanaan insect, before the momentum was exhausted. His hand stopped, the Edge disappeared, and the humanoid chimera rebuked himself. 'Not good enough,' he thought, objectively. To torture himself was unproductive as was to linger in his current state.

He needed to grow. For him, for his women, for all he desired to help.

The Edge returned as he whirled around. It was a marine blue colour and speared more like flowing water than a blade, yet it cut through the neck of another insect all the same. The Edge of the Ready Waters style reinforced the hands and feet of the Monk, giving Apexus the option to cut. The Slicing Stream was sharper than a regular Edge and more Ki intensive -- if one stopped moving. The meridians engaged in its creation were stimulated by motion, keeping the Ki flowing naturally.

It was a dance that Apexus was getting closer and closer to mastering. Where the Rippling Palm encouraged aiming for centre mass, the Slicing Stream demanded that he go for thin areas or shallow attacks, lest he exhaust his mana through repeated re-forming of the blades.

Only practice made perfect.

________________________________________________________________________

"Urgh," Korith rolled out of bed. She hit the cushion she had tactically thrown on the floor with an audible thud. Refusing to get up, she continued to roll, wrapping herself up in the blanket on the way. By the time she arrived at the table, she was fully entangled. "Thanks," she yawned when Apexus lifted her onto the couch.

Reysha was in a similarly drowsy state. The two regular mortals of the party were afforded the proper amount of rest for their bodies to take care of the aches of exhaustion. "We're fragile, slow fleshbags," she groaned, half-jokingly.

"We all have our limitations," Apexus said and placed Lanaan stew in front of Reysha. He did not understand why she liked her meat cooked, but he still did this for her. Aclysia placed a regular breakfast in front of Korith. Her rations were the only truly limited resource they had to measure. "This training has been demanding."

"Ya say that like it's over," Reysha remarked drily.

Apexus nodded, to the surprise of both Ragressian and Goldborn kobold. "Seriously?!" Korith asked, suddenly wide awake.

"Aclysia assured me we were taking on regular swarm sizes with little issue now."

"I can present you the math, if you desire," the angel said and opened her notebook. She had been keeping a diary of their engagements. It had been an effort to train her own mind and to have something that she could perhaps sell to the guild for future editions of the encyclopaedia. It had been of great aid so far and Aclysia wished it to be of even greater aid to future generations.

"No, I believe ya!" Reysha said and took her first bite of stew. The meat was all the richer for the fact that their three-week grinding had come to an end. "Power-levelling like that is exciting but I'm not looking forward to doing it again anytime soon."

"The rest of the dungeon will be a breeze after this!" Korith declared.

She meant it metaphorically, a subtlety that Aclysia did not catch. "I must caution that my statistics say that we are now fighting adequately against averagely sized enemy groups. We are still prone to being overwhelmed."

"A breeze!" Korith insisted, too happy to engage in any further discussion.

Path of Responsibility 7 -- A Wall

"That's a problem," Korith squeaked.

Just three corners past the reaches of their training area, the party was presented with a hurdle.

The room before them was quite large and yet its floor was hardly visible. Dozens, if not a few hundred, of Lanaan insects were skittering about, moving beside and across each other. In addition to those on the floor, there were several more using bridges made from hardened chitin, connecting openings in the curved ceiling that went into various brood chambers. Here and there, a Lanaan insect could be seen carrying a larva or pupa in its mandibles.

All such tunnels were death traps. The larvae were dangerous in their own way, capable of launching sticky silk threads, and guarded by elite insects. There was no point in facing them besides the challenge itself and even then it should only be done in controlled circumstances. The guidebook was quite clear on all of this.

The sole true way to advance lay in a peculiar segment of the wall. The chitin there was thin enough that the ambient glow of the walls shone through it, revealing a corridor behind it. The issue was that it was on the other side of where the group currently laid low -- and it also looked solid.

"Any other ways forward?" Aclysia asked.

"None," Apexus assured. He had been scouting the environment in search of enemies. "All other routes lead to dead ends or similar chambers."

"Then this must be the barrier between the outer and inner hive," Aclysia analysed. The encyclopaedia only detailed that there were 'challenges' for that area. Not everything in the book was terribly detailed. Physical paper and information available limited much of what could use further elaboration.

"I'mma be the one to say the obvious -- we can't win this." Reysha kept an eye on the room, trying to find a route through it. She failed. The overlapping networks were just too dense. "I don't see a way to sneak through alone either, so it's completely impossible for all four of us."

"The pheromone trick won't do us much good either," Apexus informed them. "I cannot outproduce the scent signals of this many. Once combat begins, the chain reaction will be rapid."

"So... the only way is to barrel through?" Korith asked.

"Affirmative," Aclysia answered, her gaze firmly set on the wall. "Barriers such as this usually regenerate on their own. Once we make it through, we will have to defend our position until the gap closes."

"Alright then... roles?" Korith asked.

Apexus pointed at the kobold. "Wall breaker." He pointed at Aclysia and Reysha. "Defenders." He put his thumb on his bare chest. "Distraction."

Aclysia disliked that course of action, as she always did, but when one had a party member with high regenerative power it was the most reasonable to have them serve as the bait. "Reysha will go through the gap first, then I, then Apexus, then Korith," she outlined the rest of their battle plan. It was simplistic. The situation did not call for more.

A beat of Apexus' wings was the signal for the party to descend into the room. Soaring ahead of them, the humanoid chimera landed on one of the bridges. His foot crushed the thin neck of one ant under his weight. Pheromones surged from his pores, sending out a powerful message: enemy.

The swarm of Lanaan insects immediately reacted. Antennas quivered in the air, picking up the scent, and then the masses went into motion. Climbing all over each other, they hastened to the walls, rising up like a brackish brown sea made of blue-marked leather. Hooked claws clung to stone, mandibles clacked with natural aggression, and boots pounded the ground.

Reysha and Korith charged through the opening that the parting masses of enemies created. Stragglers picked up the second set of enemies with some delay. Each of them was dispatched with swift, expert strikes. Tiger woman and kobold alike knew how to kill Lanaan insects with tremendous accuracy. Three weeks of battle against them had etched the proper motions into their very nerves.

Aclysia wove through the gaps between three of the oddly aligned bridges, then stopped in mid-air. She clutched her necklace with one hand, drawing the ambient mana into it, mixing it with her own. The outstretched palm of her right hand shimmered with summerly light. Particles drifted from her skin, then came together in a small point. The concentrated magic flowed outwards, a violent torrent of superheated light.

The Ray spell scorched and sliced on impact. At a measured pace, Aclysia moved her arm further to the right, damaging the insects that were approaching Apexus' back. The spell lacked the destructive power to kill the monsters at a mere graze -- legs, however, could be cut and eyes scorched. The monsters lost their footing, tumbling to the ground below.

One made it through unharmed. Even among all the chaos, Apexus sensed the tremors of the insect's approach. The tail of a Deathhound coiled like a tensing tongue, then slammed against the side of the insect, sending it flying.

It was a mere moment in the waves of motions that Apexus represented. 'To be the Ready Waters,' the mantra was all the Monk had in mind, ebbing and flowing like the ocean itself. He advanced and receded, never standing still. The sharpened Ki around his hands and feet appeared almost solid.

A bite caught the Monk's forearm. Even that was part of the rhythm. The sides of his palm severed the head from the body of the wolf-sized ant-like creature. He spun on his own axis, delivering a low kick that shattered the skull of another monster. He took two steps back, retreating into the space Aclysia had made for him, then suddenly stepped forwards again. His fist descended in a wide curve, meeting the back of an unprepared member of the swarm, flattening it against the ground.

The individual death only meant delay. Dozens were ready to take the place of the fallen comrade. Apexus did not afford himself a single instance of taking his eyes off the field before him. His trust was with his comrades and loves.

Three Lanaan insects were all that remained between Korith and Reysha and the wall. Korith took the helm, breaking the charge of the first enemy with a sideways swing. The second insect jumped simultaneously, aiming for Korith's head, only for Reysha's stiletto to find its way over the shoulder of her small friend. Both enemies were flung to the side, and both party members advanced swiftly.

The last insect was more akin to a caterpillar than anything they had faced before. It reared up, spitting a wide arch of sticky fluids. "Don't you dare!" Korith shouted, as she leapt over the attack. Her hammer crashed into the soft head of the insect.

"But you usually enjoy getting covered in the white stuff!" Reysha laughed, then rammed her weapon into the fleshy side of the monster. She twisted around, putting all of her weight and momentum into carving open the creature's side. A purple-blue trench opened, leaking a variety of fluids.

The monster curled and spasmed. Korith bounced off the wall, then landed hammer first on its head. That second strike shattered something vital, causing the monster to collapse for good.

Korith took a singular, relieved breath. An unamused glare at Reysha was all the answer she could muster to the innuendo. Smirking, holding her sidearm with casual looseness, the redhead hinted at all of the other puns she had in the back of her throat. They were all silenced by the approach of several more enemies. While Apexus' pheromones continued to drag the majority of the attention up to the bridge, there were just too many insects for all of them to take the route up to where the Monk was taking his stand.

A Bolt and a Ray thinned the lines heading for Reysha. Aclysia hung above, continuously scanning the battlefield, turning her attention back and forth between the two fronts. The speed at which she could digest information limited her, as much as the reservoir of mana in the air and inside her. The former was quickly depleting, taxing the latter more and more.

Apexus was burning through his biomass at an accelerating pace. His body heat was rising quickly, as was the speed of his motions. The bridge was slick with the spilled ichor of enemies. One wrong step would send the Monk sailing into the brimming mass of aggression below.

CRACK!

Korith struck the wall once. The hammer made of stone created a spiderweb of gaps in the supernatural chitin. A second swing, executed with urgency, made splinters fall off the impact site. The edges of the cracks were already mending, fusing back together by an invisible force. Repeated strikes prevented the healing from taking over.

The hammer blew through the wall on the seventh strike. Korith leveraged the wide head of the weapon, tearing the gap further open. Nimble as she was, Reysha would have fit through that already, but they needed more for the rest of them. Still, this was the point where things had to get moving.

"Darling!"

Aclysia's voice cut through the haze of combat. One of Apexus' fox ears turned, then he disengaged from the fight before him. The insects were left confused when the Monk suddenly glided away from them. They picked up on the new destination swiftly.

Too swiftly for Reysha's liking.

"Oh shit!" she cursed out loudly, watching the hundred monsters following in Apexus' wake. For all of the ones killed, there were more still pouring out of the side corridors. If anything, the numbers had swelled since they had begun the encounter.

The redhead turned to the wall. The gap was now large enough for all of them to fit through -- in theory.

Korith stepped aside, blocking the path of an insect that followed after Reysha. The redhead did a straight vault through the gap and caught herself with a roll. "All clear!" she shouted after she was through. Aclysia flew through the slowly regenerating gap next.

Apexus, with all of his bulk, landed in front of the hole. He forced himself into the gap. Had he been a regular human, he would have been stuck. Even while liquifying his muscles and dislocating his bones, he had to relinquish his wings. The green feathers fell to the ground, sheared off by the edge of the broken chitin.

Once on the other side, Apexus grabbed the edge of the hole. Reysha joined him, her demon arm pulsing with black veins as they tore the opening open further. Korith turned just as the teeming horde behind her came upon her. An edge of her armour got stuck on the hole. An insect got her by the foot. Apexus and Reysha grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her through.

Korith let out a pained hiss, scales tearing off her skin as they got caught under the teeth and mandibles of the insect. She hit the stone ground on the other side hard, armour clattering. Adrenaline pounded through her system, muting the pain. She was back on her bloody foot within moments.

The Lanaan insects poured through the gap with frightful coordination. One or two at a time was a pace the four of them could handle well. Rippling Palms, strikes and swipes by weapons destroyed the monsters as they made it to the other side, clogging up the way for the creatures that followed. The hole got smaller and smaller by the second. The last insect only made it halfway through, before the gap became too narrow for the abdomen to follow the midsection. The closing wall cut the monster in half.

"Let me look at that!" Aclysia insisted, putting Korith on the floor. The kobold blinked, only realizing just how bad the state of her leg was. The tendon stood out, white, among frayed skin and muscle. She tilted her head back, avoiding looking at it, instead concentrating on the soothing warmth of the healing spell.

Apexus and Reysha gave each other the once over at the same time. The rogue had a number of small scrapes, but by and large she was unharmed. Apexus was visibly thinner, his muscles and bulk diminished from the amount of mass he had burned. Besides the loss of his wings, there was no injury on him and there was plenty of food on this side of the wall to make up for it.

The healing light ebbed away. Aclysia inspected her party member's foot from a few angles. The previously injured spots were starkly visible, gaps of pink flesh between red scales. "Ohhh, that feels so weird," Korith lamented, when she felt the air brush over the spots. "Sensitive in the bad way..."

"I know the feeling," Reysha said.

"Since when do you have scales?" Korith asked.

"I once dropped a hammer on my toe and the nail fell off." The redhead wiggled the foot that had been affected. "I imagine that's similar."

"Unpleasant imagery," Aclysia mumbled and got up. "I may be able to aid you with regrowing the scales once we rest for the evening."

"Or we could pull the rest out so I don't step on one in the bathroom," Reysha suggested.

"It was one time!" Korith squeaked.

"It cut my foot!"

"Stop having such weak feet!"

"Girl, I used to have weak feet, before half of my life consisted of walking! Now I got soles like sandstone."

"They're not that bad," Apexus denied.

Reysha made a tossing gesture. "Definitely not dainty lady feet."

"Before we get stuck bantering in place, shall we advance?" Aclysia gestured down the corridor.

Path of Responsibility 8 -- Dungeon Speak

The inner halls of the Dungeon were not terribly different from the outer layers. The walls were still chitinous, the tunnels confusing, and the skittering of insects omnipresent. However, there was one difference that was as simple as it was impactful.

It was dark.

The sources of ambient light had all been swallowed up, leaving the party incapable of seeing more than the soft glow of Aclysia's spells and Apexus' nails allowed.

Darkness was to the advantage of the Lanaan insects. Their eyesight was poor, beyond what was immediately in front of them. That was an issue out in the plains, where incursions placed them. In the tunnels, however, where corners were many and comrades more, short eyesight meant little -- and it meant basically nothing if everything was pitch black.

Even with their reliable sources of light, the group was put on the back foot by this change in the environment. Light had this pesky attribute of making the sources of it more visible than what it was aimed at. This was somewhat diminished by focusing the lights into cones or making it soft enough to spread evenly, but the fact remained: what lurked in the shadows would see them before they saw it.

The Dungeon was designed with a small mercy in mind. Enemy density in the early parts of the inner layer was relatively low. A grace period that let Dungeon-diving adventurers get used to the basic tactics employed by Lanaan insects before exposing them to greater challenges.

A worm the length and girth of Apexus' arm snapped out of a hole in the side of the tunnel. Its mandibles parted four ways. Large pincers at the sides, smaller pincers at the top and bottom, all in service of grabbing prey. Strong back bristles remained anchored within the hole, ready to strain and pull the victim against the wall.

Apexus allowed his arm to be latched onto. The curved side mandibles hooked into his skin and muscles at lightning speed. Before the humanoid chimera really noted the motion, he had been forced sideways. Pain cascaded through his arm, focusing around the shoulder. He had been ripped sideways with such force that the bone had popped out of its socket. Surrounding muscle fibres had been torn like paper.

Calmly, Apexus put his unharmed hand on his shoulder and aided his regeneration by pushing it back into place. What would have been a devastating wound to other adventurers was a mild inconvenience to him.

The worm continued to hold onto his arm. Having fully retreated into the hole, only the mandibles protruded from safety and even they were mostly buried in Apexus' membrane. In that stubborn grip lay the humanoid slime's inevitable victory. Whenever he desired, he could have just melted those parts by thinning the membrane and letting the acidic slime fill in the gap. Apexus' biology had become vastly more complicated over the years, but that first strength he had he could still call on in situations like this.

Given that certainty, he put the elbow of the grabbed arm against the wall -- then he pulled. His biceps hardened, pulling at the base of the lower arm. The worm's own muscles twitched rapidly, building up force to resist the pull. It was a slow struggle, one the worm was slowly losing. The first segment of its body became visible again. Sharp bristles protruded from soft flesh.

"Ya need help there?" Reysha asked, brandishing one of her knives. One swift cut and the head of the monster would be off.

Apexus denied the offer with a shake of his head. "I am learning this monster's limits. Are you watching, my melody?"

"Closely," the angel confirmed. Despite her mild trepidation, she was making a mental note of all of this, to be put to paper later. Another entry for the report that they would deliver to the Guild once they returned from this Quest. This monster was not even listed in the encyclopaedia, delivering intel on it could save lives down the line.

Through steady pressure, Apexus had now pulled enough of the monster from the wall that his other hand could grasp it. The bristles penetrated his membrane. A mild annoyance at first, turning out to be a much larger issue a moment later.

Apexus stopped circulation of slime through the arm the moment he felt the numbness. The skin of his shoulder visibly moved, cinching as if an invisible rope had been put around it. There was a tingle first, then a numbness. It partly spread to the rest of his body, making him feel light, while that one arm felt quite heavy.

"Beeeen... poisonnnn'd," he slurred, the magical signals moving incorrectly from his core to the speaking plates at the roof of his mouth.

Reysha did not ask whether she should intervene again. Her dagger slammed down on the bit of the creature visible between the wall and Apexus' paralysed hand. Swiftly, she carved fully through it, causing the front end of the worm to fall on its own.

It wasn't dead yet. Worms like it minded the separation of body segments little. In fact, the argument could be made that there were two genetically identical worms now, the headless end retreating further into the wall to regrow a set of mandibles for another day.

Apexus managed to loosen his numb fingers eventually. After that, it was just a waiting game. Aclysia's healing magic aided the gradual dissolution of the toxins by the slime's acidic countermeasures. While he was affected by many compounds in often similar ways as most sapient species were, his physiology did let him purge them quicker -- generally speaking.

Once that had been taken care of, Apexus devoured the worm to get a better understanding on what had transpired there. His stomach came in handy there, allowing him to digest the creature without further exposing himself to the toxin.

"The bristles are hollow." Apexus grew one of them from a fingertip. It was a dark, slightly curved needle. Had it not been for that bend, Apexus could have made at least temporary use of it. These days, he found Growths worthy of limited use quite rare. He had his own set of capabilities and organs now that created a body plan few things matched onto. "Sturdy but weak at the base... easy to regrow..."

As a temporary Growth they were imperfect, but as a permanent one he may have found what he could get out of the dungeon. The bristles themselves came without the ducts that produced the toxin, but Apexus had other uses for them even without that. For a Monk, needles were a tool. Applications were mostly medical in nature, though. Hitting meridians with disruptive Ki was difficult enough. Placing needles in the correct spots? That was borderline impossible in combat.

Still, it was the most interesting tool he had come about in the dungeon so far.

____________________________________________________________________

They continued advancing with very little issue. Reflexes sharpened from the recent training, they dealt with what was thrown at them expertly and swiftly. One day passed, then two days. They had to spend one night in a corner of the dungeon, sleeping in shifts. Getting interrupted in that sleep by an attack of a small swarm of ant-like monsters was the only issue they really faced.

Apexus remembered the days when he had not known what sleep deprivation meant. Back when his biology and thoughts had been simple, allowing him to continue on through day and night with no rests. Acquiring permanent Growths had gradually changed that, adding hours to his day dedicated entirely to resting. He theorized that this was a simple manifestation of complex creatures. Whatever the exact source, it had topped out at some point. Apexus needed about six hours of dedicated rest a day. An amount on the low end, others often assured him.

They were walking around slowly, as per usual. Apexus dragged his fingers over a nearby wall, leaving a neutral pheromone trail. It had taken some experimenting to find a fragrance that the insects did not respond to at all. Now that they had it, it was their tried and tested way to know where they had been before, even in this complete darkness.

Korith was the head of their formation. The kobold valiantly put herself at the edge of the twilight zone. If anything charged at them, she would be the first target struck. Thus was the lot of the frontliner. Apexus held a similar position in the rear, but he had it better for many reasons.

"Oh... I think I found something?" Korith raised her voice. The group did a quick scan of their direct surroundings, then converged closely on the kobold.

On head height of the shortstack, easily missed by a person of regular height, a smooth stone surface peeked out of the gently curved wall. Symbols covered the length of it in four paragraphs, each ending in a blank space.

"A riddle?" Aclysia asked, excitement creeping into her tone. Korith and Reysha shuffled aside to let the metal fairy squat down in front of the tablet. Apexus did his best not to get distracted by the way the guardian angel's round ass stretched the red robes. Oblivious to her allure, Aclysia inspected the tablet. "Dungeon Speak," she stated and began to ponder.

Dungeon Speak was an umbrella term for the vast amount of languages, written, spoken, or otherwise communicated, that were found in dungeons. They universally translated well into Common, as they were not independent languages, but rather codes that were meant to be deciphered by the smart members of a party.

Dungeons had a habit of testing many skills. Codebreaking was just another one. Ironically, the more elaborate codes sometimes were picked up by criminal organizations.

Aclysia inspected the symbols one by one, slotting each shape into parts of sentence structures she knew to try and find patterns. Once she had that, she identified the vowels. "So that's an 'o', which makes this either a 'do' or a 'to'... that symbol is also there... 'threat'...? Ah, I see. 'To what kind of mechanism is a demon sworn?' It's four riddles."

"... a warlock?" Korith suggested carefully. "You know... war-lock? Like... the thing you put a key into?"

"That's so fucking stupid," Reysha laughed.

"Let's try it," Aclysia said, her erudite mind incapable of producing a better answer. She wrote the symbols with her finger into the blank space, leaving trails of white light. Once she had finished the last symbol, the word flared green. "Correct."

"Yes!" Korith allowed herself a little enthusiastic fist pump.

"3-9-27-729-19683," Aclysia read out the next one. She tapped the blank space three times, before starting to write. "...387420489." The field flared green.

"I'm sorry?" Reysha asked, thoroughly confused.

"It is a sequence riddle. 3 times itself is 9. 9 times the previous number is 27. 27 times itself is 729. 729 times the previous number is 19683. 19683 times itself is 387420489."

"... I should tell you more often how fucking good you are with numbers," Reysha said.

Korith gave up on trying to run the maths herself

Apexus hadn't even tried.

"What has the bottom at the top?" Aclysia read out the next one.

"Your legs," Apexus answered immediately. His first woman turned to him, blushing ever so slightly. "It is true," he defended himself.

"I expect lechery from Reysha," the guardian angel muttered, while doing nothing against the way the fabric of her robe had settled between the twin hills of her derrière.

The answer was, all the same, correct.

"If you drop me, I crack. If you smile at me, I smile back. What am I?"

"An egg?" Korith suggested.

"Huh? What kind of weird eggs are you looking at that smile back?" Reysha asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I dunno... I kinda got stuck on the 'crack' part."

"I suspect the answer is 'mirror'," Aclysia said and drew the words in the symbols of the Dungeon Speak. A fourth time, the tablet flared green, then glowed in its entirety. Stone turned to translucent light and then to nothing, revealing a compartment within. Aclysia pulled out the item within.

It was a ring of a dull metal, failing to reflect the light of Aclysia's spell. The symbol of a spider was etched in black on a circle at the top. "Probably not for you, bubble butt," Reysha commented when the Priest put the ring on. "Moths don't get along with spiders."

"Fortunately, I merely have moth wings," the angel responded. "Regardless, you are correct," she admitted. The item whispered to her its purpose, as new Dungeon loot often did. "I shall demonstrate what it does."

Aclysia stood up and then jumped. Up in the air, she slapped her hand against the wall and then dangled there. Flat against the chitinous surface, the hand wearing the ring remained as if adhered to the surface. A simple thought and the magical force was released.

"Literally a Ring of the Spider," Reysha remarked.

"You know of them?" Aclysia inquired.

"It's one of those semi-common items-"

"The word is uncommon," Korith interrupted.

"Shush, squishy. Anyhowzels, it's one of those items that Rogues like to have." She caught it when Aclysia tossed it over, then quickly put it on. The size of the ring changed to fit nearly over Reysha's gloved hands. "For obvious reasons."

Reysha put a hand on the nearest wall, testing the 'grip'. She did the same with her second hand, then her left foot, then the right foot, and then she was halfway up the wall. Following the curve of the tunnel, she soon hung upside down.

"Behold me, I'm the tiger spider!" She took one hand off the roof to wave. She put it back in a hurry, feeling the strain on the gravity-defying magic. It affected only her palms and soles, or the corresponding surfaces on the clothes she wore. Impressive as that was, there was a weight limit to it.

Letting go of the magic voluntarily, Reysha did as cats do and landed on all fours. "How come I find it and Aclysia solves it, but you get the reward?" Korith playfully complained.

"Maybe Hoard just likes me more?" Reysha responded cheekily.

"This isn't even a Hoard Dungeon!"

Path of Responsibility 9 -- Combat, Banter, Bees

"You know what I have been wondering?" Reysha carefully peeked her head around the corner. The Aimed Whisper Skill allowed her to talk without alerting the enemies around the corner.

It was a luxury the rest of them did not have. Her question went unanswered, as they instead reacted to her hand signs. 'Three monsters, right side,' she spelled out with a few gestures. The clicking of pointy feet on hard ground soon confirmed her assessment. The insects had noticed the light.

Korith weighed her hammer with both hands. Her thoughts went to a quiet background noise, the rushing of blood in her ears rising to the surface. She was no berserker, but every frontliner, no matter the Class, knew the value of amping oneself up before charging into battle.

Adrenaline flowing, the Warrior charged. She rushed past the sharp corner and straight towards the opposite wall. The insects lacked the necessary faculties to be confused by that tactic, they simply went on the offensive.

They were larger than their cousins in the outer layer of the Dungeon, almost the size of a pony each. Spikes of hardened chitin protruded from their backs, creating yet another layer of protection for the already sturdy monsters.

Sturdiness was of little aid when they fell for the diversion. Korith leapt for the wall, bouncing off the slanted surface with ease. She swung her hammer sideways, forcing the monsters to back away in unison. They backed right into Reysha and Apexus, who had followed the Warrior with mild delay.

Rogue and Monk descended on the same enemy. With a leap, the heavy hulk of a humanoid chimera landed on the back of the monster. Slammed to the ground, it squirmed beneath him, stunned for just long enough that Reysha could swing one of her swords at it. The weapon was True Silver, like the rest of her extensive armament, and cut a trench into the neck of the monster. Immediately after, she grabbed the underside of a mandible with her left hand.

Even with the bodysuit covering her, the bulging veins of the demon arm were visible. Unholy strength fuelled her, allowing her to rip the head of the creature upwards with enough force to snap the weakened neck fully.

Apexus leapt to the side just in time to escape the vengeful mandibles of one of the two remaining monsters. While they were every bit as reliant on pheromones as their counterparts, these inner layer monsters were a bit better at communicating. The Monk was still learning the signals in detail, but he had encountered this one before. It was the sour scent of martyrdom. The Lanaan insect before him was going to delay them with its life while the other creature attempted to deal with Korith.

An underestimation of the kobold on many levels. Completely in her element, the Warrior ducked and weaved through the hail of bites directed her way. The flow of her Ki filled dense muscles with steady strength. The Warrior Control was the base of every Warrior's toolset, a Skill dedicated primarily to using base self-empowerment techniques constantly. A Warrior always had to be at 110%, to use their Martial Arts not for anything flashy like other Classes, but to be a reliable force on the battlefield.

That being said, there was nothing stopping a Warrior from changing things up.

Korith let her speed drop in the short room between two attacks, then sent mana surging through her muscle fibres. Her small figure allowed the mana to concentrate in a denser manner than in averagely sized or tall people.

The monster bit down again, only to be overpowered and outpaced by the shortstack. Her hammer smacked against the side of the monster's face, cracking the chitin beneath the leathery skin. She released the weapon while the momentum was still strong, gripped the lower jaw of the maw behind the mandibles and tore down. A moment later, the creature's tongue dangled in the air, without a cavity to rest in.

Gurgling, the monster attempted its best to continue fighting with mandibles and front legs. Confident in her armour, Korith let her arm get caught. It was half of the grip she secured, before firing up another wave of Muscle Strengthening.

The world of the monster spun. One moment it stood, the next it was slammed down on its back. Korith hastily retrieved her hammer, which had fallen to the floor nearby. She raised it high, while the creature attempted to flip back around. It failed to do so before the hammer came down on the exposed roof of its mouth.

"Impressive," Apexus complimented her. He and Reysha had taken the third monster out in the meantime.

"It's, uhm, it's what I do?" Korith answered, her thoughts slowly crawling back in. "Glad to be of frontline service."

"An exceptional service that none but you could render with such reliability in this party," Aclysia complimented. The metal fairy had observed the fight from the rear, keeping a lookout for any reinforcements or emergencies. As with most smooth fights, it meant that she had played no part in it. A reserve was a vital part of any flexible strategy.

"T-thanks!" Korith responded to the compliment.

"We will take a minute," Apexus said and picked up a conveniently sized chunk of splattered skull from the floor. He devoured it whole, while keeping a view in either direction. "What were you wondering, Reysha?"

"Whether someone would remember I said that right before a fight," Reysha answered with a smirk. "No, but actually, I was wondering -- if you compare the tastes of these things, what do you think about?"

Apexus tilted his head. "I do not catch your meaning?"

Reysha ripped a lower leg segment off one of the monsters. "'Like these giant ass insects, right? I think they taste like lobster. What would you compare them to?"

"Why would I compare?" the Monk continued to be confused. "It tastes like itself. Insect meat steeped in magic."

"Sometimes I am reminded that you're not human at all," Reysha drawled. "Us species spawned with a Spark like to talk about food."

"I like to eat food," Apexus answered and shoved another piece of meat in his mouth. "Was that amusing?" he asked.

Aclysia had raised a hand to her mouth, to elegantly hide a little giggle. "It was a remarkably pure and simple retort that evoked memories of our early days, darling."

"Cute as he was, I much prefer this," Reysha said between chomps of squishy fibres. "I like the tentacles as much as the other two women in the room, but fuck me, I do like men more than monsters. Hope that doesn't sound rude, big guy."

"My form was always fluid, I am happy my current iteration is pleasing to you," the humanoid chimera underlined his words with a simple smile.

"Personally, kinda glad I missed the slime phase..." Korith admitted. She had seen him reduced to what he had been back in Chimerion, when he had sacrificed much of his biomass to get the cure for her poison. She had found it interesting, but she could not see herself being sexually attracted to that. It was too lacking in height and muscles.

"You're a simple size queen," Reysha pointed out.

"I am a normal kobold, thank you very much!" she pushed back.

"You are-" Reysha's left ear turned.

"Something is coming," Apexus stated.

The constant buzzing sound soon filled the entire corridor. 'Sounds a bit like Reysha's toy...' the comedic thought crossed through Korith's mind, before the reality of what they were actually hearing dawned on her and the others.

Bees.

The swarm of blue-striped insects peeled out of the darkness as a dense tide. The bees were larger than their mundane counterparts, reaching the length of an index finger. Individually, such a lack of size would have been assuring, but in a massive swarm like that it was terrifying.

Apexus took just a moment's stock of the situation before he made the call. "Run!"

The entire party turned back to the corridor they had come from. Aclysia launched two Sunlight Bolts into the swarm as she hovered backwards. Each attack turned a ball of bees into scorched husks, but the holes were filled by more of their kin in an instant. Aclysia turned, to fly at full speed. Her companion prism continued to fire lasers into the crowd at steady intervals.

Following the pheromone scent he had left, Apexus led the party down the trail they had walked so far. They had rested at a healing fountain two days prior. If they aimed straight for that location, they could get there within an hour at most. Running an hour while being chased by bees was possible. Apexus was running his mind for another solution.

Their toolkit was not well suited for encounters like this. They lacked proper area damage tools. Apexus had not yet learned Ki Explosion or the Scattering Hand. Warriors and Rogues were single-targeted by their nature. Aclysia was the best they had and even she had no proper area damage spell.

A glaring weakness that he was now aware of and that they would have to fix after they got out of this.

The swarm continued to chase them. For the moment, they were keeping their distance, but it was only a matter of time until Reysha's stamina ran out. They needed a solution or an advantageous position.

Apexus ran with his head half turned, one eye focusing on the path ahead, the other on the swarm behind. The glow of his nails and Aclysia's Illumni orb were all that parted the darkness. He could not even make out the true extent of the swarm -- not until the prism hovering by Aclysia's shoulder shot another autonomous beam.

The mass of bees stretched on for metres into the corridor. All of it moved in unison after them and the bees clumped together in front of the beam. An odd behaviour for a swarm, except in one circumstance. 'They have something to protect,' Apexus realized. "There is a queen in there!"

"Ya sure?" Reysha shouted.

"Certain enough," the humanoid chimera answered. "We will turn after the next corner. Korith and I will draw their attention. Aclysia, Reysha, you need to find and target it."

"Affirmative," Aclysia answered. She had her doubts about her adequacy. A vital task given meant she had no time to consider those doubts.

"Let's do it!"

"Korith, Reysha, take your mutagens!" Apexus instructed.

Doing so mid run was slightly awkward, but they managed. The effects kicked in quickly and the swarm of bees buzzed even more angrily, matching the signal scent now coming off from Korith and Apexus. The humanoid chimera mimicked it manually, trying to overpower the senses of the eusocial monsters completely.

The bend in the path came. "Now!" Apexus shouted and threw himself into the swarm.

Korith followed suit. Both of them could do little more than flail their arms around and even that they quickly ceased doing. They focused all they had in keeping up their Ironskin, covering the entirety of their epidermis with Ki that prevented the stingers of the bees from piercing them. Even though that worked, the relentless swarm soon covered them, crawling under clothes and armour.

Aclysia suppressed her panic at the sight. It took mere seconds for the people she knew and loved to be turned into humanoid figures, surface crawling with insects. All of the little monsters on her darlings meant fewer monsters in the air though.

"There!" Reysha shouted. The tiger woman snapped forwards, making it through the swarm at a rapid speed. Her own mutagen created a scent that shouted 'LET ME THROUGH!' at the bees. It was as if she was surrounded by wind pressure, pushing the bees aside as she made her way to the heart of the swarm.

The queen bee was slightly larger than the rest and fuzzy compared to the smooth bodies of its kin. Strikingly, its eyes were of a bright purple colour, which flared into an even greater intensity once it realized that the redhead was coming straight at it. A wave of psychic power slammed into the Rogue.

The paralysis spell caught Reysha completely off-guard. Locked in mid-motion, the remaining momentum caused her to topple and fall painfully on her side. A wave went through the buzzing of the swarm, an order by the queen to descend on the squishy target no matter what the pheromones said.

Aclysia weaved her spell. Mana flowed from her palm. Invisible streaks of power, put into a spin by the curl of her half-closed hand. It looked as if she was gripping an intangible object -- and that object manifested in a flash of golden light. Critical mass reached, the Solar Lance was launched a moment later, thrown like a javelin. The metal fairy had little faith in her aim. It did not matter if she used a projectile of sufficient power.

The Solar Lance sliced and scorched its way through the swarm, then turned the psychic bee queen itself into nothing but ash. A high-pitched screech filled the air for three seconds, causing a massive headache in all four members of the Inevitable party. That was the worst of it for them. For the other bees, the death scream of the queen was the end. All of the bees simultaneously turned into husks, dropping where they crawled or flew.

"That went better than expected," Apexus admitted. He had thought they would have to continue running from a disorganized swarm afterwards.

"Speak for yourself," Reysha hissed, rubbing her cheek. "I got stung twice... urgh, it's already swelling..."

"We will move back to the Healing Fountain for now," Apexus decided. Aclysia was not good at detoxifying and having painfully swelling stings would be distracting to Reysha. They did not need that when they were exploring so hostile an environment.

So, they went back to the Fountain to proceed the next day.

Path of Responsibility 10 -- Heart of One Hive

A full month after they had finished the grinding training, the Inevitable Party found the boss room.

By what little available estimates the party had, they considered themselves to be somewhere below the spire of the Lanaan Hive. They could only go off the fact that they had gone down more than up, but they did not have certainty in this.

Three ways led into the chamber in front of the chitinous gate. The party came down the one left of that final door of the dungeon. As was often the case, a Healing Fountain was located in front of the chamber, allowing for them all to refresh themselves before they tackled the boss. Crystals jutting out from the ceiling activated in response to the movement, providing a dim, golden light.

"Fucking finally," Reysha groaned, already starting to strip. "Light, a bath, and the end of this dungeon. I'm getting sick of bug meat."

"You will eat it some more," Apexus reminded her. They may have been about to leave the Lanaan Hive, but the rest of the gauntlet was still out east. "I'll prepare everything, you enjoy the bath," he then told Korith.

The kobold had waited by his side for the moment the Mobile Estate was opened up. With the assurance given, she let out a relieved sigh and began to take off her armour. She had not done so for any meaningful stretch of time in three days. That had been the stretch between their last safe spot and this one.

Apexus pulled the key out of his slime. The magical item gleamed. Being constantly enveloped in a corrosive that only affected organic matter kept it in mint condition. Apexus carefully pushed it into the air, letting it sink into the hole that formed by the gesture, then turned the key to create the door frame of light. By the time the door had fully formed, Apexus had deposited the key inside himself again.

He went inside, quickly filling a pot with the water the Mobile Estate provided, then igniting a flame under it. He hung the pot high, so it would not come to a boil too quickly. Once that was done, he checked what food they still had.

After Apexus had turned the initial storage room into his alchemy lab, they had moved the items within it to either the Living Room or the dead end in the corridor between bedroom and bath. The latter was where Apexus was headed.

No doubt existed that the Mobile Estate was a luxury. After its expansion, Apexus had even felt it to be quite roomy. That feeling had since faded, as they had filled the new space with new things. Huge as the humanoid chimera was, strutting through the corridor, only a metre wide and four deep, felt somewhat cramped.

They had screwed hooks into the wooden ceiling there and from those hooks, on sturdy threads, dangled a selection of ham. Below the meat were sacks filled with hard vegetables, the kind that would require months to spoil. A couple of pickle jars sat in the corner.

Most of the threads only had a bone dangling from them. The sacks were mostly empty, what remained only filling the bottom of the rough fabric. Of the pickle jars, only one had been opened so far. As they had the longest shelf life, they were to be opened last. Korith having a particular craving had been the only reason why they were one short.

Korith could eat a lot. In any given day, she burned the same or more energy than any other Warrior of regular size would have and her intake of sustenance matched that. Fortunately, the party only had one member that ate regular food and they could store a lot more food on a journey.

Apexus cut dried slices off the ham and put them in a clean basket alongside a couple of turnips. It was not a good meal, but it lasted. He carried the basket outside. "Replenishment for your bag," he told Korith and put the basket down near the kobold's clothes. Because getting cut off from the Mobile Estate was a regular occurrence, it only made sense that Korith kept enough food for a few days in her own Adventurer's Bag.

"Thank youuuuu," the blonde sighed. As was so often the case, the shortstack found herself the target of multiple sources of pampering. Aclysia had the kobold in front of her, combing through her golden hair with her fingers. Reysha was scrubbing the rest of the curvy shortie, from face cheeks to butt cheeks. Apexus joined the fun and soon the water was rippling with altogether more erratic motions.

Safety orgy gone through, they went into the mansion, healed and clean, ate together, slept, and then had a final strategy meeting.

Aclysia put the guide in front of her. The opened page was a double-spread, including drawings of the boss monster from several angles. It looked like a mixture of cockroach and hedgehog with its pronounced back covered in sharp crystals. Various texts described the recommended boss strategy.

"According to the manual, this is among the easier boss fights. The boss is described as slow and defensive in nature. However, taking damage in the fight is guaranteed, as striking its armoured crystals causes a reactive explosion. After such an explosion, the affected segment is exposed for a few moments to be struck, before a fresh crystal grows. The challenge, therefore, is to carefully measure resources as the boss is gradually whittled down. The sturdy party members will trigger and tank the explosions, while the nimble damage dealers will strike at the exposed flesh."

"Sounds easy enough, what's the catch?" Reysha asked.

Aclysia scanned over the two pages in front of her, then checked the adjacent ones for full certainty. "There does not appear to be one. It is that straightforward."

________________________________________________________________

Apexus struck the plate of the monster.

The reaction to the attack was, from the chimera's point of view, instantaneous. The black crystal turned grey with light, then shattered into a scattershot blast that dug into the carefully prepared Ironskin and almost broke the ribcage beneath. Apexus was thrown backwards, coming back to his senses only when he was flat on his back on the gently sloped ground.

Reysha rushed forwards from the edge of the flat bowl shape of the arena. The boss monster, three metres of spikes, sat in the middle of it, its belly protected by the shape of the space. Armed with her longest sword, the redhead stabbed at the revealed wound. She repressed the urge to use an Overplayed Edge. The guide had made it very clear that this fight was about preserving resources.

Purple blood oozed from the wound and Reysha snapped back before she could trigger the explosive revenge of the regrowing crystals. Apexus picked himself up, shaking his head, and directed the internal flow to push out the fragments of the crystals stuck in his epidermis. Sharp pieces clattered to the ground one after another.

The boss monster continued to sit there, while the rest of the party prowled around it. Occasionally it would shift its weight to present more of its spikes to the enemies. The guide had detailed that the creature would only really move if it was not attacked for a while, to interrupt any attempt of a party to rest in the middle of the boss room.

Out in wider nature, this creature would have been effectively harmless. In here, where they were forced to choose between killing it or starving inside the sealed chamber, its defensive strategy worked perfectly well. Still, for the Inevitable Party, it was a very manageable encounter.

Apexus was still regenerating when Korith attacked next. The shortstack struck a singular plate. She kept her head turned, shielding her eyes from the shrapnel that then cut hardened skin and scratched armour. Like Apexus, she was flung back. Reysha, who had waited outside the blast cone, then delivered a stab.

This repeated again and again and again, for thirty full minutes, until the accumulated wounds finally caused the creature to unceremoniously turn slack.

By that point, none of the party was in a good state either. Reysha had been caught twice when an impressive strike had triggered several plates simultaneously. The same was true for Aclysia. Apexus and Korith were damaged from taking the constant hits. Courtesy of healing, they themselves were fine, but their clothes were more shreds than anything else. The armour itself was fine, in Korith's case, but any exposed buckles would need replacement.

"I hated that," Reysha stated. "That was so boring and dangerous. That's the worst combination of things!"

"Yeah..." Korith agreed.

Apexus ignored the two of them, too gleeful at the prospect of finally acquiring another Growth. It was in his instincts to crave evolution and it had been altogether too long, for his taste, since he had gotten a change to himself.

Eating the monster was a matter of minutes. Once it had been fully dissolved, Apexus found himself filled with that tingling sensation that came with his body readying itself to integrate another genetic sequence into its chimeric makeup. He considered the reactive plating of the monster for a few moments, but decided against it. The covering would make him too cumbersome. The bristles of the worm remained his choice.

The Growth changed as it went from temporary to permanent. Already hard tubes hardened further, the material composition becoming similar to Apexus' teeth. He integrated the organ that produced the bristles into the underside of the outermost segment of each of his fingers, then concentrated on his index finger.

The bristle pushed out from the tip of the finger. It was a grey-tinted white. It was as thin as any needle would have been, growing ever so slightly towards the base. The bristle had been hollow before Apexus had acquired it, but now that it was part of his biology it had evolved in keeping with his intention. Blue shimmered ever so softly beneath the opaque surface of the biological needle.

Apexus' slime inside the needle was not there to be injected. Once separated from his body, the acidic nature of his internal fluids was nearly immediately lost, making it useless as a poison. No, the purpose was to have control over the hollow.

The humanoid chimera tested the concept on a puddle of purple blood. Placing the tip of the needle in the shallow pool, he pulled his slime back into the finger. The resulting vacuum had to be filled and thus the blood was sucked into the needle. Apexus then stabbed the needle into his own palm for testing. The impact at the front, through clever biological engineering, put a great amount of pressure onto the back, causing the space to contract and the liquid contents to be injected. The same process caused the bristle to snap off right below the skin of the finger. The base of the old needle became the tip of the next one, already grown within the finger, waiting like the next tooth of a shark.

"What do you want to do with that, darling?" Aclysia asked.

"It will be versatile," Apexus answered. "Relaxation therapy outside of combat. In combat, if I can acquire poisons, then I can inject them. I should also be able to inject mutagens and other concoctions."

"How about healing potions?" Reysha asked. The utility of having a second healer, even one limited by potion supply, was obvious.

Apexus looked at the snapped needle. At best, it could hold a hundredth of the contents of a single vial. "It would need to be very concentrated. I will research. Where is Korith?"

"Probably putting her Favour Paper to the chests," the redhead answered. "Let's go check it out. Maybe the Scam God actually has something for us today."

Path of Responsibility 11 -- The Loot and the Road

Korith waited for her party in the Loot chamber.

It was a room at the end of a short corridor that had opened up. As was so often the case with these Dungeons, it was directly attached to a resting area. A larger healing fountain, alcoves for sleeping, and small side rooms for privacy. Apexus had heard them called the Apartment for Adventurers. He had not heard that name often. It was not popular.

The chests were made from chitin, looking more grown than built. Their divine origin made the distinction unimportant. "Put your money on fire yet?" Reysha asked.

"No! I want you to witness the glory of Hoard!" Korith declared. "Since you are too stupid to appreciate an item upgrade, we'll do things differently this time!"

Reysha opened her mouth to argue, but Aclysia put a hand on her shoulder. The redhead glanced back. The moth-winged angel gently shook her head. 'Alright, fine,' the Rogue thought. "I was just saying it's difficult to appreciate when you have no comparison... sorry if I was overly teasing..." She scratched the back of her head. "You know what I'm about."

Korith's cheeks remained puffed up. An appeasing hand was placed on her head by the leader of the group. A couple of ear scratches later, the shortstack was at least happy enough to start her little ritual.

"First, we just check the loot as per usual," she announced.

There were four chests this time around and so they checked the four items within.

First was a magical tent. It was the size for one person on the outside, but fit about 4 on the inside. With the Mobile Estate in their possession, this item could be considered useless. They considered it a good second choice. There were times at which the Mobile Estate was unviable, for social or environmental reasons.

Second was a Ring of Water Walking. They allowed for a person to walk on water as if it was solid ground for a few seconds. After some back and forth, it was decided that Korith would get it. Apexus did not need it, he felt perfectly at home in the water and, as a Monk, he would be able to solve this in different ways down the line. Reysha was the other contender. Utilizing water walking for unique ambush angles was good. However, it was not as good as keeping their fully armoured frontliner from sinking under the waves. Plus, Reysha had already gotten a ring out of this dungeon.

Korith wore the item not on her finger, but on the left of her two larger horns instead. The magical item widened as it was pushed over the ridges, then narrowed down behind the second to last segment. She would have to keep wearing it until her horn broke off, until it grew out, or until they removed it with a cutter. A drawback that was also an advantage, as it was quite firmly attached to her now.

The third item was a spear. It was of artisanal make, decorations most dense where blade and shaft flowed together. For a spear, it was heavy, making it a poor weapon for Reysha, defaulting it to Korith. As she was currently lacking in a weapon with reach, she accepted it. Testing revealed that it was enchanted to inflict a gravity effect on the enemy. A light one, weighing them down by 10% of their body weight. Not enough to cause a creature to collapse, but enough to slow most monsters down.

Fourth was a Page of Communion. It was a consumable item that Classes utilizing some kind of book could use in order to commune with a deity who could reveal to them a new spell. Aclysia took it for herself for later usage.

A good haul, all things considered.

"Alright, now witness glory!" Korith declared boastfully and pulled out 3 of her 4 remaining Favour Papers. "One to seal the lid," she chanted and smacked the paper against the front of the chest. The lifted lid suddenly snapped forwards on its hinges, falling closed so loudly that Aclysia jumped. "One to refill it." Korith put a second paper against the front of the chest. The first one remained glued to the surface by magical power. The gap between the lid and the body of the chest glowed in a spectrum of colours. "One to upgrade the item!" Korith adhered the third Favour Paper to the chest, then snapped back.

The religious symbols on the papers began to glow. Divine energy steeping the fibres rose from within, consuming the material in a blaze of golden flame. Translucent afterimages of the papers remained. Runes flowed into new shapes, gold coins, diamonds, books, and all else that was hoardable. They flowed from the top to the bottom.

They flowed and flowed, moving ever faster. A sound like hard money cascading down a staircase filled the room. It looked like each of the strips of golden light was a spinning wheel. The first one came to a sudden stop, slotting in with a satisfying 'cling' sound. An icon depicting a sword was on display.

"What's that abou-"

"Sssssssssshhhhhhhh!" Korith interrupted Reysha. "Listen to Hoard's coins flowing!"

The second wheel slotted into place, depicting a sword yet again. Korith squeaked in excitement, rocking back and forth with giddy anticipation. The other three members of the party watched with various degrees of interested confusion. They were not yet sure what would come of it.

The third and final wheel came to a halt with teasing slowness. Korith trembled head to toe, hands clasped in prayer to Hoard. Aclysia, Apexus and Reysha leaned in a little closer. They saw the symbol of the sword appear on the upper edge of the moving light symbols. It crawled its way down, first making them question whether it would join the other two in the row, then whether it would snail its way past.

With a sound like a click, the wheel came to a stop and spelled out their fortune: three swords in a row.

The lid of the chest burst open. A blade of gleaming silver came flying out. The edges were gold-trimmed. For all of its luxurious colours, the double-edged weapon was dangerous and sleek in its design. The handle and grip were made from carved bone the colour of ivory. A trail of large runes was burned in black into the spine of the straight blade, a curving accent to the uppermost rune flowing all the way to the tip.

"HOLY SHIT!" Reysha shouted and grabbed the Legendary item out of mid-air. She gave it a once-over, then probingly sent her Ki through the grip of bone into the runes. The flow was familiar. Her eyes widened when she recognized the Martial Art this weapon supported. Then, she started to giggle. "By the Hellroots... yeah, fuck me sideways, Hoard is awesome."

"I told you!" Korith declared, hands on her hips and chest pushed out boastfully. After a few moments of holding that pose, she did deflate. "So, uh, what is it? Besides a cool sword?"

"It's a Runeblade?" Reysha said, and turned the weapon to be inspected by everyone else. "I told you about it before?"

"Did you?" Korith asked.

"She did," Aclysia confirmed. "Although this was back on Tacuitos."

It had been over 8 months since they had left that Leaf and their teachers behind. Aclysia with her erudite memory remembered most details from conversations back then. Korith was far from stupid, but to have details slip after such a long time was only human. Apexus, for his part, did recall it as well. He did not mind the refresher, nor asking for it so Korith did not feel isolated. "Could you tell us again?"

"Sure," Reysha shrugged, used to forgetting things herself. "Runeblades are weapons with runes on them... that sounded better in my head..." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, bad formulation. Runeblades use runes to simulate the way mana flows through the body. They usually have just one or two Martial Arts or Skills inscribed on them, which becomes way easier to turn into a Weapon Art through these weapons. Instead of having to force the Martial Art to be extended, it has a natural vessel. It makes it quicker, cheaper, and more reliable." Reysha gave the weapon a test swing. "This one has the Ki Poison Martial Art. Mai tried to teach it to me, but I only got Edge and Spellslice figured out before we left..." Her Ki flowed into the runes of the light, sharp, and fairly long weapon. A noxious, purple glow replaced the gold of the edge. "... I fucking love this."

"Do you respect Hoard now?" Korith wanted to know.

"I respect the fuck out of Hoard now!" Reysha assured and swung her weapon. It had to be her weapon, no one else in the party could make proper use of it. "I wish I had-" A sheathe bounced out of the still open chest. "That!" Reysha shouted and caught the black, wooden container for the weapon. A few seconds later, she had secured it to her belt, with the other armaments she regularly used, and put the weapon away with a satisfying 'clink'. "Scam God redeemed! Let's buy all of the Favour Papers now!"

"Yeah!" Korith shouted.

"No," Aclysia interjected.

""Eeeeehhhhhh?"" Reysha and Korith complained in unison.

"Favour Papers are a costly affair."

"Aclysia, this is the kinda shit ya can't even BUY at our level. It won't be made because 500 platin is barely enough money to make a craftsman capable of it spit on you!" Reysha was clearly excited. "We could get an armour for Korith -- a Runeplate!"

"Do those exist?" Apexus asked.

"Yes," Aclysia confirmed, valuing truth over making her point as ironclad as possible. "Regardless, a mass investment into Favour Papers is unwise for layered reasons. First and foremost, like all of Korith's games, there is a chance we lose. Do not mistake your victory in this gamble for proof of the absence of misfortune in our future. Secondly, this application does only work at the end of a dungeon. Assuming we manage to engage in a lifestyle where we enter dungeon after dungeon, it would still be prudent to only clear one every two months, translating to six per year and 18 Favour Papers needed per Dungeon."

"B-but... we can get 18 then?" Korith pleaded.

Aclysia glanced to Apexus, who slowly nodded. The guardian angel sighed. "If we have the excess funds, it shall be a priority," she promised.

"Yay! You're the best, Aclysia!" Korith said. "I would jump and kiss you if I wasn't covered in armour!"

"Your awareness of your state of hardness is appreciated," Aclysia drawled. "Shall we take a short break?" She gestured at the pool.

"Do we have time for one?" Reysha asked in return. "As you just mathed out, we spent a lot of time down here. Shouldn't we make up for it?"

"The Atlas Party's speed is not our concern, making our own journey as safe as it ought to be is," Aclysia answered. "Furthermore, I believe we have the fundamental edge in this matter. The route we went for is the shortest and although the Lanaan Hives territory is hostile, it is flat. Our competition treks through the chaotic landscape of Chimerion and, likely, through the forests and jungles of the north thereafter."

"I support Aclysia's reading in this," Apexus raised his voice. "We are also used to wandering. More than they are, at least. They will also have to increase their own power and thus clear a dungeon on the way."

"Such is my assumption," Aclysia nodded. "Ultimately, however, this does not matter. We cannot know and I am not beginning a search for divination magic to acquire intel that will not change our approach. We will move at the proper speed, quick enough to make us competitive, not so hurried that we are guaranteed to stumble into an obvious blade."

"Mhm... I'll just trust ya on this," Reysha answered after a few seconds. "Not like we're losing anything besides our pride here."

"Not pride, honour," Apexus corrected her. "We do this because it is right."

"Imma be honest with you, big guy -- YOU do it because it is right. I could have ignored all of this just fine." She tilted her head and gave him a broad, somewhat tired smirk. "Which is just one of the many reasons I love you. Sticking with you makes me a better person... or at least forces me to pretend."

Like he had done with Korith minutes earlier, Apexus placed his hand on the tiger girl's head. "I'm not good with words." He left it at that, scratching Reysha's ears until she purred. Her gaze, blue orbs in black pools, beheld him with all of the sexual intent that usually accompanied the end of these dungeons.

"If we're relaxing anyway, how does it sound to pound the feeling out of my legs?" she suggested seductively.

Apexus did not have to consider that question for long.

Path of Responsibility 12 -- Desired Roughness [Erotic Content]

They did not make it to the bedroom.

Reysha had already been making out with Aclysia by the time Apexus opened the door to the Mobile Estate. When the door was open, the aggressive groping by the tiger girl had put the usually so orderly priestess' clothes into heavy disarray. Then, Reysha had dragged the dominated angel along, leading the way into their home.

There had been a blatant challenge in Reysha's eyes as she passed him.

Apexus knew he was expected to meet it.

He caught up to the two women with two quick steps. His hand landed on Aclysia's shoulder, a mighty paw on the slender woman. Reysha was forced to stop alongside the priestess and watched when he aggressively pulled the binding sash from the red robes of the moth-winged woman.

"Oh Master!" Aclysia cried wantonly, her silk clothing falling to the floor in a smooth whisper.

"Korith, pull my pants down," he ordered the shortstack.

"Oy, what toys are left for me then?" Reysha complained.

The two submissives left the conflict of the doms uncommented on. One had her order and executed it faithfully. The other was bent over, adjusted in her position where she stood by the man behind her. His cock, large and erect, pressed against her labia, bright pink petals at the centre of a swollen mound, almost immediately.

"They are my toys," Apexus stated. "You are one of them."

A loud moan, a smack of skin against skin, and a spasm through the entirety of Aclysia's body all betrayed the moment he thrust into her. So eager and wet, she was in the perfect position for one hard, quick thrust to fill her completely. Her folds twitched around the member that was tailored to her pussy, just so large to stop shy of battering her cervix, exactly as girthy as she desired it, and with little bumps simulating veins in all the right places.

Apexus held her by the narrow of her waist and the side of her neck, squeezing both so the guardian angel was absolutely certain of her position beneath him. The constant reminder of her physical inferiority only made the white-haired woman moan louder. Her wings vibrated, trembling with the rest of her. The median furrow running down her back was pronounced by the concave arch of her spine. She threw her head back and let out a depraved, "Ye-e-e-e-essssss!" while he hammered her from behind.

Simultaneously, Apexus and Reysha had a staring contest. Korith watched it from the side, twitching in anticipation of what would happen next. When this sort of thing happened, it was always because Reysha challenged the apex of the sexual pecking order. These things also always ended in one of two ways. Either Reysha slotted back into her place as support dom or, sometimes, when the redhead was in that particular mood...

"Yes, Master." The switch flipped, lowering herself to the ground in a symbolic gesture. Once on all fours, she crawled over, rubbing affectionately against his muscular leg and purring all the while. "We're all your little sex pets, Master," she cooed seductively, readily falling into the role.

Suddenly, there was only one dom in the room, with three submissives with their individual needs and wants to take care of. Yet another challenge Apexus knew he was expected to meet. Just like the previous one, he relished the opportunity.

Only now that they were clear on the dynamics of this entanglement, did Apexus let his pheromones switch to the aphrodisiac scent. Korith's eyes fully glazed over when the aphrodisiac scent filled her lungs and she stepped forwards to hug the leg of her dom, a man twice her size. Fat tits pancaked against his thigh. Reysha gasped loudly, grinding herself against his other leg. Her fingers darted between her legs. Her mind readily gave in to the stimuli and she masturbated feverishly.

"MASTEE-----!" Aclysia screamed, her melodic voice caught off at the end by the intensified squeezing on her neck. The aphrodisiac entered her not just through the lungs but through the precum her dom was adding to the lubrication of her primary hole. Her already high arousal reached a new peak. Like all of the chimera's growth, the aphrodisiac only grew stronger with time and Aclysia's resistance against the magical compound was at an absolute zero and had been since the first days of their sexual relationship. What point was there to resisting the most trusted person in her life?

Aclysia let herself dissolve in the ecstasy. Like her perfect, heart-shaped ass, his thrusts sent ripples through her mind that dominated everything else. A worry-free existence, in which only the pleasure of being toyed with by her loved ones remained. She tried to scream again, instinctively, while her first orgasms ran through her from toes to the roots of her hairs. Only choked gasps escaped her. It would only be the first of several climaxes.

Apexus was in a trance himself. He was mindlessly dedicated to the rhythmic ploughing of Aclysia's main hole. The sounds, the sights, the scents, they mesmerized him. Greedy gasps of awaiting submissives. Loud claps of hips meeting juicy cheeks. The ripples, never given a chance to stop, going through her fat ass. The way that bubble butt was distorted, then jiggled back into place. The sweetness of his melody's scent mixing with the aphrodisiac. The light note of hot sweat growing more pronounced while he hammered her.

Pale white skin began to glisten, by the time that Apexus' merciless assault on Aclysia's tight hole took its toll on him. Tongue lolling, eyes rolling, Aclysia still had enough awareness to shape a 'Yes!' with her lips in anticipation of what the twitching cock was about to give her. One final thrust and he came inside her. White hot seed flooded the depths of the guardian angel.

"Oh, she has it goooooood," Reysha commented, voice laced with desire.

"So good," Korith whispered in support, moaning from her pebbled nipples touching hard muscle.

'My desire to be rough today is matched,' Apexus thought in the brief moment of post-orgasmic clarity. It did not take long until his breeding instincts, alive and well despite his decision for temporary infertility, reared up. There were two more nubile females eager to be filled and he had plenty left to give.

Apexus managed to push back his further desires until after he had picked up Aclysia and walked over to their couch. There, he dropped the blissed-out priestess, to turn his attention to the other two submissives.

Without thinking, Korith had joined Reysha in crawling. The two were kneeling in the shadow of their Master and got visible goosebumps when his gaze, equal parts hard and loving, landed on them. He only thought for a short moment, before grabbing Korith by the horns.

The shortstack moaned when she was dragged along. She was spun around, put on the table with her face towards her Master's crotch. She instinctively knew what would happen next and opened her mouth wide. It was immediately stuffed with the hard cock, coated in Aclysia's juices. Korith's eyelids fluttered as she was hit by the double dose of pheromones and her sensitive throat bulging with the size of his manhood.

Apexus pawed Korith's huge udders. The squishy bags made for an excellent hand rest. They were incredibly entertaining to knead, to pull at the nipple, to smack, and to simply let ripple while he fucked her face. He was almost as rough with the comfort hole as he had been to Aclysia's pussy, gaping and leaking cum less than two metres from where he currently was.

"Master, may I taste your cream?" Reysha asked, already crawling towards the delicious spread.

"Yes," Apexus allowed. Reysha was a submissive in this entanglement, but to nowhere near the same degree as the other two. Denying her would have diminished her enjoyment and that was the last thing he, as a responsible dom, wanted.

While Reysha treated herself to the delicious snack, Apexus continued to use and abuse Korith's throat in all the ways the kobold delighted in. The claws of the red-scaled, tanned set of holes cut little grooves into the hardwood tabletop. Every time his cock slid into her depths, her hips bucked up. She loved getting face fucked, she absolutely lived for it, and her pussy kept gushing to underline that fact.

Apexus craved to dominate her more. In the short break he had to take to let her gather fresh air, tendrils emerged from his naked back. They curved around the small woman. Some coiled around her arms and legs, bending and binding her extremities into a position that put everything on display. Her hands were locked behind her back, her legs parted in an almost flat line, and then a two-pronged tendril found her lower holes.

His extensions pushed into her just as he slammed back into her throat. A muffled scream vibrated around his cock, the kobold getting violently pushed over the edge in a squirting orgasm that made a mess of the table. Evaporated sweat and dripping pussy juices had already gathered on the surface, but the explosive release of female love fluids massively expanded the situation.

The rough treatment continued all the same. The triple sensation of fucking all of her holes filled Apexus' being with a constant tingle. Liquid nerves sent signals of delight into his core that empowered the simple imperative to keep on going. The willing sex slave was cumming and cumming again, being made the receptacle of his need for release.

A release he approached rapidly with every swing of his hips. Closer and closer and closer, until the baby batter was ready to shoot out. Apexus clenched his teeth and controlled his breathing, drawing out the ecstatic moment at the edge for as long as possible until instincts forced him to thrust into the depths of Korith's throat.

He unloaded deep inside her. Deep inside her throat, filling her stomach. Deep inside her pussy, filling her womb. Deep inside her backdoor, filling her completely. The binding tendrils twitched as well, showering the thick thighs, toned midriff and plump tits of the shortstack with white streaks. He pulled from her mouth quickly, spreading the second half of his orgasm over her face. She licked it all up with the empty-headed delight of a spasming cocksleeve.

Two down, Apexus turned his attention to Reysha immediately.

"Ohhhh, yes!" she gasped, only realizing it was her turn when he pulled her away from Aclysia's cunt. He grabbed her ankles, bending her until her feet were upside down on the backrest of the couch. The rest of Reysha's hourglass figure was pinned under him. Hands dug into her ass, pulling at cheeks that were nice and shapely. She lacked the overabundant size of Aclysia and Korith, yet she was not thin at all. She was balanced all around, athletic without being muscular, curvy without being plump, slender without being skinny. Her chocolate skin, covered in darker stripes, was exotic, enticing, and contrasted heavily with the pretty pink of the insides revealed when she spread her engorged sex.

Apexus lost no time on words. He was like an animal, seeking to bring pleasure to his submissives. Words were overrated anyhow, when deeds made Reysha throw her head back. He pushed centimetres by centimetre of his cock into her at a rapid pace. She was prepared to take it all, relaxed to ease the entering save for the little twitches and tenses of stimulation.

"Oh Master," she cooed, as a tendril coiled around her neck. It did not strangle her, remaining as loose as a comfortably worn collar. The tip curved around, hovering in front of Reysha's face, then rubbing over her eagerly presented tongue. "Go iiiiihnnn," the open-mouthed tiger woman pleaded.

Apexus teased her for a little bit first. He could not restrain her, for Reysha was not a fan of it, but when she was switched to the submissive side like this, he could get away with keeping things just out of reach for a short while. This was especially true if he paired it with something else the multi-penetration enthusiast desired.

After fully entering her, Apexus slowly pulled back out of Reysha's drenched cunt. Gooey strands connected them already after just a short kiss of pelvis and pubic mound. Once fully out, Reysha's blue eyes set onto the second cock that her inhuman lover had grown. She purred in anticipation, stretching an arm to align it with her backdoor. After a few seconds of spreading his precum over the third of her holes, he pushed into her again.

Tantalizing slowness was the chosen pace. He widened her sphincter carefully, the cock growing slowly in size as he went, matching the size of the original by the time he was halfway inside her. Her tongue swirled around the head of the tentacle that gradually filled her mouth. She only stopped when it penetrated into her throat.

Apexus pushed and pushed, until he was fully inside her. He lingered for a moment, exchanging a heated gaze with Reysha, before suddenly upping the tempo to harsh and heavy thrusts. The meaty slaps of his weight against Reysha's readily presented ass filled the room, underlined by the cockdrunk giggles of two already used sets of holes.

Reysha was the third set and she blossomed in the position, using her limited manoeuvrability to please her Master in whatever ways she could. She put her chest on display, wiggled her hips, massaged his tendril with her tongue, and ran her hands over his biceps. She also failed in all of those for short stretches, orgasmic quivers taking hold of her in increasing intervals while he did his best to fuck her brains out.

A matter he would inevitably succeed in, as they both knew.

Ever so subtly, the shape of his cock had changed. The curve, the bumps, they were now perfect to tease and stimulate all the sensitive spots he knew the redhead had. Her medium breasts were quivering with each quick breath she took. The triple penetration had her wailing, but each scream of delight was muffled by the throat fucking.

Apexus was on his third round, but at this pace he would not last long. He did not plan to, either. He was not in the mood for a lengthy orgy, he wanted to fill Reysha up as he had the other two. He raced towards that goal, making her his willing sex slave for the process, and when the finale came, they were both delighted by it.

A final thrust. A low grunt. A tensing of the slime's muscles. An end to movement. Tentacles and cocks tensed and released, marking the insides of the third submissive with his seed. Wave after wave, ridden out to completion, while Reysha squirted, making even more of the living room a mess.

When it was all done, Apexus pulled out and sat down on the couch. He took a moment to bask in his achievement, surrounded by the petered out cocksleeves that he so deeply loved.

'This is the good life,' he thought.

Path of Responsibility 13 -- Of Walking and Greed

"Ah, the sun," Reysha sighed. "Good to feel that on my skin again."

"Can you even feel it?" Korith asked.

In the time they had spent in the dungeon, autumn had fully made way for winter. They had all changed into winter clothes because of it. Furs were placed over freshly washed combat equipment, keeping them warm but also making it harder to move. Alas, a quick death due to a delayed step would have been preferable to shivering to death. Far down south as they were, the frozen belly of the world was not too far away.

On the plus side, the path they had chosen brought them over frozen flats. The Atlas party would have to weather a shorter distance of frozen tundra. It should ultimately come out in the Inevitable party's favour.

"Just a tad," Reysha said, turning her face in the direction of the sun. "I'll go pale at this rate."

"I don't think you can?" Apexus asked. "I was under the impression humanoids are locked into a range of pigmentation."

"That's a way to put it," Reysha snorted with her usual amusement. "Wonder how pale I could get, honestly. I'd probably bottom out somewhere around Korith's level. Would take years though."

The redhead shuddered when a cold wind blew over them. Swiftly, she followed the example of the others, pulling her hood up. It took some fidgeting to get her ears through the specially made holes. Her hearing was still muffled, but less so.

For all the detriments the clothing offered, the party advanced with confidence. For one, they had left the dungeon notably stronger than they had entered it. The Incursions that riddled the landscape would prove to be of little challenge to them, even while fighting to keep their clothes untorn. However, fighting was also highly optional. The cold also affected the various insectoids, who retreated to their burrows, only coming out if something was practically within snapping distance.

On their journey east, the party made only a few stops to clean out Incursions and they only did so to get a quick hold of the Mana Gems within. They were good to have. Out there, they were more valuable than most currency and they had need to buy fresh supplies.

They passed through a number of the smaller settlements over the next ten days. Each only had a little to spare, but they did not need much. Reysha had made plenty of the Spice of Magic and food for her and Apexus was the only thing the landscape provided in a vast amount. Every time they bought more food than Korith consumed between two points, they made out with a net positive.

"Could you stay a couple of days?"

The question was presented by the head of the latest village they had entered. Unlike the other places they had visited, this one deserved to be called such. It was no outpost of less than twenty people, but a community of almost three-hundred.

It was located south of the Impossible Strait and the two last Lanaan Hives that the group would pass by before making it to the Lamb's Court, one of the territories that had been properly or at least mostly been wrestled from the control of the wilderness.

Fitting for its location, the village was simply called Southstrait, short for South of Strait, and it had been built as a major supply hub between that territory and the port all the way back where the Inevitable party had first landed. The road that was planned to connect all of them was not even in its infancy. Still, the village had been sponsored and continued to be financed by noble decree.

Its position was simply advantageous. Located in the narrow between the ocean and the huge freshwater lake on the eastern side of the Lanaan Influence Zone, Southstrait occupied the only viable land bridge for potential commerce. Going south around the lake was colder, longer and potentially infested with level 50 undead. In short, there was no sane reason to ever take that route. The lake being freshwater also meant the village had ready access to it, alongside with the fish teeming in it and the nearby ocean. An ocean that also allowed the village to be supplied by boat.

All in all, it would have been an enviable position for a village had it not been for the Incursions.

Which brought Apexus to the current conversation.

"Is the situation dire?" he asked.

The head of the village, a minor noble of the Sleeping Empire, nodded. Her hair was white, drawing a sharp contrast with the blueish, dark-grey skin. Eyes of a deep, almost brown red sat in features beautiful but compromised. She lacked the materials out there to cover the rings under her eyes with makeup.

"The Incursions have been unusually high this year," she said. "Our adventurer core is exhausted from constant travel and combat. We need a few days to simply... sleep."

"Any reward?" Korith asked, while Apexus contemplated the question.

"We can't offer you much," the head of the village answered honestly. "Some materials... a few coins... that's about all we have to spare."

Apexus was arriving at a conclusion. To the surprise of him and the other two members of the party, Korith raised her voice again before he could. "Weird question, but do you mind leaving your house for a second so we can talk privately?" the Goldborn kobold requested. "Ehm, we can find a quiet corner if that's more convenient for you..."

"No, that will be fine," the dark elf assured and rose from her chair. "I will be outside."

"Thank you!" Korith said sharply and waited until the noblewoman had left them in her well-furnished home.

"Alright, Korith," Reysha said first. "What's on your mind?"

"I don't think we should take the offer," she stated firmly.

Apexus could not stop himself from shifting his features into a mildly displeased expression. Despite that, he did not say anything immediately and he triply considered his words when Korith noticed what face he made and did not comment on it. "You do not believe we should work for no adequate compensation."

Korith nodded strongly. "I respect- No, I love you, I love you all a lot." The blonde crossed her arms in front of her breasts. "I would not dream of changing any of you. I love the altruism and all of that. But we are crossing into the realm of being exploited by every person we are coming across. We spent at least an extra hour in every settlement we went through on the way here, helping people lift stuff or move something or whatever, and we did it for coppers on the gold."

"An exaggeration," Aclysia spoke softly. "It was a maximum of an hour and it was only seven out of the twelve outposts that we visited."

"She still makes a valid argument." Apexus' deep voice was the focal point of the discussion. He was their leader, for many reasons, foremost of which was that he found it easier than the three others to embody the different perspectives and balance them. Any other dynamic they had, as men and women, frontliners and backliners, were all complimentary to that fact.

The Monk turned his attention to the window. He looked outside, to the mild activity of people that were exchanging goods and patrolling the walls. One of the houses in view had collapsed several weeks ago during the attack of a swarm of flying insects. It had already been stripped of every building material that could be reused, leaving little more than foundations attached to a skeleton of shattered wood.

It was the only sign of visible destruction in the community.

"I believe that we should help everyone we can," Apexus voiced his own opinion on the matter. "Yet, to be slaves to our altruism is a disservice to ourselves. Perhaps I have been leading us too far down the road of selflessness." He nodded to himself, then returned his gaze to Korith. "It would be of use to us to stay a few days to repair our equipment fully."

"We've been doing that just fine on the road." Korith swayed on her heel claw. She did not enjoy being the sole voice of opposition here, but she could stand helping people out just because they asked for it even less. "We have no reason to stay here. There's a Quest we are on and it has a decent monetary reward. They say they need the help, but I think they'll make do without us."

Apexus beheld his upset party member and weighed his responsibilities. She was his Warrior and his partner, both of which made her more important in his life than 300-odd strangers. If he stayed, the best case was that he would save a couple of lives. If he moved on, the worst case was that such lives were lost.

He extrapolated the individual case into the future. There were more villages on the way, many of which would have their own woes, as the ones in their past did. Each incident was another diminishment in his time. How much time did he owe people?

The answer to that was easily found: none.

How much time was he willing to sacrifice for the good of others?

That answer was more difficult and was among questions he would never find a good answer to.

However, if there was any good indicator that they were spending too much time on others, then it was that Korith had decided to speak out about it. It was not in the nature of the shortstack to state her opinions so directly. A break from that had to be respected.

"I understand," Apexus said. "Call her back in. I will request additional payment. If it is not enough to be worth our time, then we will continue on."

Korith let out a held breath. "G-great," she stammered, no longer needing to keep up the tough front. "How much is enough?"

"I do not know," Apexus said. "I maintain that we should stay for a few days to fix our equipment. We still have not ironed out all the damages sustained from the dungeon."

The pace that they had taken in making their way through the Lanaan Hive had put many holes, dents, and scratches into their garments. While all of them were mendable with the usual tools, it required persistent and repeated application of them and as much as they wanted to get that done in one sitting, sometimes the laws of craftsmanship demanded to let projects sit for hours between treatments.

"If you do not know then... uh... how does this work?"

"I'll watch you, closely," Apexus stated.

Something in his tone made Korith blush. She could not explain why or how, it just did. Something about knowing just how well he knew her? Impossible for her to say.

Reysha poked her head out the door to call the head of the village back in. She moved past them, as proudly as she could, and retook her seat in the ornate chair. "What conclusion have you come to?"

"That we have a Quest to be fulfilled in a timely manner," Apexus answered, "and that your limited offer is not enough reason to stay."

The dark elf woman gave a resigned nod, having expected that answer. "Sadly, I am withholding nothing from you. There is nothing out here that I could offer you that is of value. Were you interested in settling, I could try to sell you a plot around here...?" She let her voice drift, transforming the hypothetical into a question.

"We are not," Apexus denied.

"Settling really isn't what we do," Reysha said.

'Even if we did, this bug infested plain would not be my choice,' Aclysia kept that rude thought to herself.

"Given the nature of what you told me, I presume you put stock in promises by the nobles of the Sleeping Empire?" the dark elf put forth a question.

"We have had only honourable dealings with your people in the past," Apexus answered with a respectful nod. "What do you propose?"

"I am in no position to move from this post nor can I have money moved to you, for the influence of my family here is negligible. However, I can offer you a writ of favour. If you ever go to the capital, the Nightsongs will provide to you a quarter to stay."

An interesting offer with a difficult value to nail down. Apexus was not that interested in the quality of the quarter. Between the Mobile Estate and the range of luxuries afforded to the nobles of the ascendant empire, he was certain that any room would be good enough, especially in the capital. The question was whether they would ever enter said capital.

Had they been humans or a similar species with a regular lifespan, Korith would have shown no interest. However, these were elves, a species that lived hundreds of years, and so any promises made by one of their own would be good for a long, long time. As successful adventurers, the members of the Inevitable party would also live for a while.

With that much time on their hands, they would make a visit to the Sleeping Empire at some point. Having a free inroad into a high society at that time could make things much easier.

Korith glanced over to Apexus, who took that as a signal to agree. "That is good enough for us," he said and the dark elf breathed a sigh of relief. "If it suits you, we will take the night watch. We are well-equipped for the dark hours."

"I can see that," the noblewoman said, nodding towards the Ragressian. "This suits me fine. Two nights of proper rest will assure we have the power to weather through the next couple of weeks."

"If it further soothes you, know that we will move northeast after we depart," Aclysia said. "Albeit not our intent, we will likely draw the attention of insects that would have otherwise found you."

"I will take whatever boon I can," the noblewoman said. "I will have the writ prepared by the time you are ready for departure. Such things take time."

"Good," Apexus said with a nod. "Then we will go to your markets. There are things we still need. Afterwards, you can find us behind our magical door."

"Mobile Estate," Reysha pre-empted the question. "Very fancy."

"... Very fancy indeed," said the noblewoman in an oddly hollow tone.

Path of Responsibility 14 --Stitching, Oiling, Killing

Aclysia looked at the tear in her robes with disdain.

It was about a handspan wide. No enemy attack had created it, at least not directly. During one fight, Aclysia had flown past an enemy she had thought dead. The grip of its mandibles had caught the fluttering skirt, she had been stopped mid-flight, and somehow that strain had caused the robe to rip where it was stretched taut over her wide hips.

A dark impulse urged Aclysia to give the fabric another pull, to test if she had been duped on its quality. She did not do it, of course. The seller had been a sanctified priest, his holiness had been clear by the aura around him. It was simply the case that there was a tiny, accidental imperfection in the clothing that had allowed it to tear in that specific spot in those specific circumstances. Such things were the unfortunate side effect of most hand-crafted items. Only the divines, who turned will into matter, could claim perfection and even they chose to make their provided armaments flawed in one way or another.

Aclysia sighed and got out the Blessed Yarn. She was decent at sewing. When they had stayed on Tacuitos, she had first picked it up and over the months they had spent focusing on Questing, she had gotten better at it. She was not good enough to stitch this tear up in a way that stuck -- at least not when she had only been given some time every evening to do so.

Apexus was similarly tending to Reysha's bodysuit. He still loathed the work. The oil sticking to his fingers was annoying. Reysha was still terrible at it though and she had her own work to do that day.

"I love this thing," the redhead purred and poured a little bit of extra water on the whetstone. Her arsenal of weapons was scattered out around her. There were the ones awaiting resharpening and the ones that had been finished. Just a few more repetitions of the motion and Reysha was satisfied with the ease with which the sharpened blade cut a groove into a testing block of wood.

An oil-soaked rag was gently moved over the blade, coating the metal in a sheen that would protect it from air. Even magical materials were not safe from rust. Enchanted gold was an exception, but even it would bleed out magic into the air without proper care. Best to insulate the items with enchanted salves.

"You ever think about how weird materials are?" Reysha asked.

"Yes," answered Aclysia, inspecting the progress on her seams.

"Yes," answered Apexus, testing the texture of the leather.

"No?" asked Korith, confused on where this was going now. "What's there to be confused about."

"Not confused just... 'huh, that is how it is' kinda feeling." Reysha pinched the handle of one of her throwing knives between index finger and thumb. When she shook her wrist, the solid piece of metal looked like it was wobbling.

"Please don't tell me you think it's actually bouncy right now?" Korith groaned.

"Huh? No, obviously not, I'm just doing idle motion stuff." She stopped, to inspect the edge of the weapon. "I'm more thinking about how weird it is that I rub metal against a wet rock so I can cut stuff better."

"... I mean... yeah?" Korith was confused why that was even worth mentioning. "Am I the weird one again?"

"You never consider the oddity of the material reality in this world created by the Progenitor and the gods that came after him?" Aclysia posed a question.

"I mean... not really? Uhm... what would it accomplish if I did?"

"Nothing." Apexus frowned about all the sticky stuff on his fingers. "Even though we can influence reality, it always bounces back to the base state. Thus, contemplating how matter would be if it was not as it was means nothing. There is no power any of us have over it. We can as little change that iron is iron as we can that two and two is four. All we can do is take what is given and work within it."

"But what if I stab reality really hard though?" Reysha joked.

"The answer to that is your left hand." Apexus did not know what way he had wanted that to come out. It was a snappy comment, made in poor judgement, and he took that lesson to heart. That Reysha's smile died on her lips was certainly not the intended consequence. "That was harsh. I apologize."

"Don't." Reysha raised her hand towards the window and inspected it against the semi-natural light fell on through. "I did have to learn not to put my problems outside myself." She put her hand down and recovered a gentle echo of her smile. "Guess ya can get snappy too if you have to do my dirty work."

"It is dirty work." Apexus attempted to wipe his hands clean. He already knew that it would take minutes and that, by the end, the rag he was using would have to be boiled twice. The oil used to mend the Lanaan leather was a seriously sticky affair.

"Anyway, so sharpening metal is weird, right?" Reysha drove the conversation in the room, as she usually did. "But you know what's even weirder? Wood!"

"What's weird about wood?" Korith asked.

"It's super sturdy one way and easy to cut the other."

"... Yeah, I mean... that's how fibres work? It's the same with meat and stuff?"

"Yeah, isn't that weird?"

"What's weird is that you said you weren't confused at the start of this conversation and now... uhm... yeah, you're just continuously using words like 'odd' and 'weird' -- so imma call you confused."

"And I'll call you cutie."

"Wha- that's got nothing to do with anything."

"It true though."

"It is true though," Apexus corrected and agreed in equal measure, "or is that one of those acceptable corruptions of language?"

"This is entirely dependant at whom the question is directed, darling. Personally, I find it out of bounds for polite conversation. However, with Reysha, 'polite conversation' is rarely the goal. In order, the goals are: noise, innuendo, and other puns."

"I do plenty of normal jokes too," Reysha threw in, "oh, and don't forget the sassing."

Aclysia needed a second to take that set-up. "I wish I could forget the sassing."

A double knock on the door distracted Apexus and Reysha from the conversation. Korith and Aclysia did not pick it up until it happened a second time, this time with the Monk already on the way to the door.

On the other side waited a set of very tired looking adventurers. "It would be your shift...?" The leader of the party, a Hunter, suggested with tired hope.

Apexus glanced at the sun, scarcely visible between the clouds, yet visible still. It barely even tilted towards the orange. "It is early," he remarked.

"Eh, we'll manage," Reysha said, poking her head out under Apexus' arm. He put it around her, treating himself to resting his hand on the curve of her butt. "We'll just get equipped real quick."

The men in the party before them were too tired to even appreciate the tiger woman in front of them. The tiny linen top and pants she wore were barely more than underwear. One of the many leisure clothes she had bought over time. At the time, she had also seen lingerie made of silk and such, but those items had been firmly outside her budget.

For now.

The party leader nodded, then turned on his heels. Apexus closed the door and gave Reysha's ass another squeeze, before the laughing redhead made her way to her mostly mended bodysuit.

Everyone wrapped up their repair works and put on the new maintained equipment. Korith clicked her tongue at one of the new belt buckles. It was better than any improvised solutions, but she could already see that it would loosen in due time.

That put aside, they were as battle ready as they could ask to be. Their equipment was no longer the pristine condition they had bought it in, but neither were the items so ruined to be more patches than original item. Once they put the winter clothes on top, they were looked just well-outfitted.

They met the party outside. They hadn't stepped away, betraying a lack of discipline. Although short, the time between their knocking and the Inevitable party stepping out could have allowed a monster to attack.

Apexus did not voice his criticism on the matter. He was not invested in these people, nor were they in a state to hear it. To begin with, he assumed they knew what their mistake was and that they were simply too tired to care.

Reysha raised her hand as they walked past. She got no reciprocating gesture. "I hate these people," she meowed, sarcasm showing in her voice. "My hand goes un-high-fived!"

"L-low five?" Korith asked, offering her own palm.

"... You really are way too cute!" Reysha exclaimed. The two of them put their hands together, while Korith blushed, and then they made their way to the top of the walls.

The settlement was a concentrated affair. 150 people needed very little space, when wood, stone, and thus homes were in short supply. Wood and stone that had been primarily invested in the defences that wrapped around the entirety of the village.

It was not a tall or proud wall. It was only about one and a half metres up, not even covering the roofs of the houses, and it was too narrow that more than one of them could stand or walk on any one spot. That, however, was enough to break a potential charge on the ground by insects much shorter than the average person.

It was the fliers they had to worry about.

The weather that night was mild. Usually that was good news, in winter. Near these Lanaan Hives, it meant that the more frost-resistant members had an easy time to get around. Unlike their floor-bound kin, these insects were also known for good eyesight. Certainly, good enough to spot the soft light that made it through curtained windows, of fireplaces heating winter homes.

Too bad for them that Apexus' eyes were sharper.

Night had fallen over the village, when Apexus suddenly leapt. His wings beat, reinforcing the upward momentum, until he had ascended enough to soar as he continued to gain altitude. The rhythmic beating of his wings was starkly different from the rapid buzz of the three insects and the magical vibration of his melody following behind.

The insects were each about the size of a small horse. Huge creatures by Lanaan standards, that moved through the air at a slow but constant speed. They had the ability to stop mid-air, Apexus did not. He did have every other advantage besides that.

The creatures attempted to gain altitude in response to his approach -- way too slow. The Monk took a sharp dive and crashed into the back of one of the monsters. Its size was its undoing, making it all too easy for the humanoid chimera to rip its wings out. He leapt, Feather Step turning the falling insect into a suitable springboard.

Apexus' wings remained unopened. He soared dozens of metres up in the air between two insects, fuelled only by the power of his legs. Then, he crashed into the second insect. His tail wrapped around the neck of the monster, giving him a quick anchor to steady himself, before the tiling of its body could throw him off. Then, he did as with the first and tore the wings off an opponent he outclassed by a solid 10 levels.

As the second monster fell to the floor, he leapt once more. This time, he did open his wings, keeping his altitude steady. The third monster had already been taken care of, its wings burned away by quick spells of Aclysia.

On the ground, Korith made the quick trip to the fallen monsters to make sure they were finished off, then returned to the walls herself. The party of four gathered again.

"Easy enough," Reysha said, "or looked easy enough at least."

"Just going to be a bother to keep eyes up all night," Korith muttered.

"You sound distracted by something?" Aclysia asked.

"Something is rubbing me the wrong way..." the kobold confessed. "I feel like some pieces do not line up properly..."

"Want me to do a sniff around?" Reysha asked.

"That would be highly immoral," Aclysia criticized. "We have already been obliging our worse nature enough, being as greedy as we have been in bartering for our aid. Do you suggest we now spy on the people that rely on us?"

"No... kinda... yes, actually," Korith answered. "It's just dawning on me... for a place that she claims has a connection to the capital, this place is remarkably poorly defended? Also, the locals aren't approaching us at all? I'm used to at least some thanks coming in, in situations like this."

"Not the worst points," Reysha agreed.

Apexus looked back at the village, slumbering behind them. "You believe we are being tricked?"

"I believe it wouldn't hurt to know if we aren't," Reysha said. "They could just be that tired. It is an option."

"I consider this a paranoid course of action... but it has been proven that paranoia is sometimes justified." Aclysia let out a heavy sigh. "My vote shall be against this. I will not protest the result."

Apexus was the deciding vote. Two party members for and one against and as the leader his vote was the tiebreaker. "I wish for certainty," he decided. Breaking into people's homes was not a monkly thing to do. Neither was letting himself get tricked though. "Only do what you must."

"I'll be back in a bit then," Reysha promised and Stealthed away.

Path of Responsibility Finale -- To know Balance

There were two ways Reysha contemplated on how she could learn the truth of the matter.

One was to simply get lucky and overhear a conversation. When she approached the house of village leader, her ears picked up nothing, so that route was out. The second route was slightly more complicated: break in and check whatever correspondence she could find. If she had any favour or disfavour, tokens of it should be found. Nobles were in the habit of keeping letters, especially in a place like this.

Getting to the house unseen was easy. 'If there was any lie amongst what she said, them needing helping was not one of them,' Reysha thought. 'The security sucks.'

As the sole Rogue of her level in the entire village, the only people that could have reliably spotted her were the same three that waited for her to return from this mission. Even when she pulled out her lockpicking set, the little clicks and clacks of manipulating the springs within when unnoticed. Once the door was open, she hurried once. With it closed, the hard part had been done already.

'Except for that,' Reysha thought, after scanning through the building.

The issue with poor places was that everything was condensed. Regularly, nobles had their sleeping arrangements in entirely different sub-apartments within their lavish mansions. This house only afforded a single door's separation between the bedroom and the living room, within which the work desk was also located. No second floor. There was a pantry and a kitchen that was it.

The Mobile Estate was larger than this house.

Reysha kept watch on the sleeping dark elf for a full minute. Exhaustion was a perfidious thing, as the redhead knew from experience. People that were stressed and incapable of full rest for several days on end often times did not get the proper sleep they were looking for when the opportunity first arose. The body needed a couple of nights to return from the alerted state to regular activity. As such, Reysha expected the dark elf's sleep to be light.

It wasn't. She laid on her back, unmoving, save for her chest's up and down under the expensive bedsheets.

Reysha found that state perplexing and caution made her assume it was a trick. She Stealthed a little closer, to trigger the trap. If it existed, she wanted to find that out on her terms.

Instead, she found that the woman remained sound asleep, even when Reysha stood by the bedside. She raised an eyebrow. Her eyes fell on a cup on the bedside table. She raised it to her nose and took a cautious inhale. The scent of mild narcotics was easily recognized. 'Not the worst idea,' Reysha thought and put the cup down.

Judging poisons by scent was a part of Rogue's base training and Mai had re-drilled that knowledge into her when they had time. Reysha was able to recognize that the dosage was too mild for someone who used it regularly. She really had needed the help and was making the most of it.

'So that at least clears the intention, now does she have what was promised?' Reysha asked herself. Despite the proof that the woman was out cold, the Rogue did not drop her efforts of being sneaky. It was bad craftsmanship to get complacent.

She made her way back to the work desk. It was the first sign that something was off here. They had been told it took time to create the letter of recommendation, but there seemed nothing meaningfully different about the desk between their visit earlier that day and now.

Reysha quietly opened the drawers one after another. She found a stack of clean paper, a seal ring, melting wax and other items used for the creation of such letters. What she was looking for, however, wasn't proof that a letter could be made, but that it would mean anything.

The Rogue's guidebook suggested to always check the open places last. This was not because the desired items were least likely found in those open places, but because it was difficult to put things back in place. One may not raise an eyebrow at the altered state of a drawer's content. The placements of objects on a desk, however, was swiftly noted by basically anyone, even people with poor memory.

That was why Reysha found what she was looking for only after some time.

It was a stack of correspondences, lying at the back of the table. Scanning through it lightly was all that Reysha needed. Demands for payment on one side and dissuading diplomacy from the other. At first, it sounded like the leader of the village herself was in hot water, but it became swiftly apparent that her whole family had come across difficult times. Demotion in the social order was even being threatened.

Reysha had found what she was looking for.

___________________________________________________________________________

"So, what do we do with that?"

Reysha wrapped up the sharing of the intel. At that moment, it was only Apexus on the wall. Aclysia was sniping enemy wings up in the sky, while Korith was involved in a melee with two of the insects.

The answer to that was difficult. After being lied to, selfishness was an appropriate reaction, one that Apexus considered and dismissed. He could not bring himself to be self-centred enough to leave these people in the middle of the night with monsters constantly streaming down from the north. Even if he had wanted to awaken the protection party, he doubted he could.

Korith and Aclysia returned while he was still contemplating. He let Reysha give the quick rundown while he remained quiet. Other people would have mistaken his prolonged silence as a lack of investment. His ladies knew better.

"We will until the morning," he stated.

__________________________________________________________________________

The head of the village was wary when they appeared on her doorstep. She had not yet changed into her day clothes, wearing a nightgown that was acceptable to be seen in but not the appropriate image. The sleep had notably improved her looks, yet she was not recovered from recent deprivations. Her mind was sharpened enough to immediately pick up on the fact that something was wrong.

Apexus halfway muscled his way inside. He had considered his approach to this carefully these past couple of hours. The dark elf stumbled back into the room. She was as little used to being shoved around like this as Apexus was to leverage the fact that he was the strongest singular creature in a several days radius. Korith, Aclysia and Reysha all were his equal in level, but none of them could have defeated him with his unique biology and the lesser adventurers certainly would have stood no chance unless they all banded together with proper coordination.

"Sit," he stated, pointing the woman at a chair.

Her lower lip trembled at the indignation, but she was too proud and too smart to go for a swing. Arms and legs crossed, she positioned herself on the chair.

Apexus had no interest in hiding his knowledge. He marched over to the table and picked up the letters that Reysha had described. He quickly scanned through the contents to verify the intel for himself. "You were right," he stated.

"Was that ever in doubt?" Reysha grinned, back leaning against the door. Her smile did not reach her eyes. "Someone's been making promises they cannot keep."

"One promise," she carefully corrected.

"That is one too many," Apexus stated, back to her. He was still checking the details of correspondence. "I appreciate your situation is difficult. You look out for your community. That is admirable. Yet, you put me in a difficult position."

"I know that," she answered. "I was going to tell you the truth tomorrow."

"Sure," Korith weighed in, voice laden with sarcasm. She put her hammer down with a heavy thump, before climbing onto the chair opposite of that of the village head. This was the part of the conversation where she was supposed to take over and she did so swiftly. "Obviously we'll be leaving," he blonde stated.

The dark elf pressed her lips together, but nodded. She had wanted that extra night's sleep, but she would take the one proper night that she had gotten for what it was worth. It was what would come next that worried her.

"Obviously we will complain to the Lady Freshina about this incident," Korith began. That made the greyish blue skin of the woman lighten.

"That would be a drastic waste of her time," she said swiftly.

"She has requested we check out these areas and report back to her. Wouldn't want us to spare the highborn any details, would we?" Korith crossed her arms. "Or do you think it should not be part of our report that we have found your situation so desperate that you need the support of a second noble plus their guard?"

The woman opened her mouth in reflex. Only after a few seconds did it dawn on her that what had been said was not necessarily bad. "You... aren't really here to punish me, are you?" she asked very slowly.

"Yes, we are! You tried to swindle us out of shinies!" Korith responded forcefully. The shortstack was not the most impressive sight on the regularly sized chair, but it did not take an adventurer to feel the mana radiating from her. Her golden eyes almost seemed to shine with anger. "I really tried being nice here! We are on a stupidly low paid Quest, taking a stupidly long time and taking stupidly many side jobs on the way for stupidly low rewards! Its... yeah!"

Korith stopped there, having already ranted on the matter enough to air her grievance with it all. Her red-scaled tail smacked the legs of her chair in agitation.

"I don't mind being nice, but I hate being taken advantage of! Therefore!" Korith jumped off the chair and wandered towards the nearest shelf. Without another word, she began to randomly stuff items that looked even the slightest valuable into her bag.

The dark elf was shocked at first, but quickly resigned herself to this being what happened. There were some family keepsakes there, many items of memory, and very little of actual value. This was very little about the Inevitable party getting their worth out of this and very much about making a statement.

"I desire to know this," Aclysia spoke, doing her best not to look at Reysha, who joined Korith in the plundering. "Were we known to you beforehand?"

"Word of your party has reached me, yes," the leader of the village answered, unable to suppress the edge to her voice. "I read that you were good people, ready to do the right thing first and foremost."

Apexus put the letters back on the table. "Because of that you thought you could enlist us. That we would help you because you needed it." He beheld her with a stern gaze. "You took our time for granted."

"Believe me, to fuel cynicism in your heart was the least of my intentions. You can judge my situation yourselves for what it is."

"I do not blame you for what you had to do." Korith inspected a peculiarly shaped piece of chitin as she said. "Still though, it was shitty, so... yeah, uhm, you can't exactly blame us for what we do now either. If we're gonna get punished for our good deeds by people willing to take advantage of it, then we have to punish you in kind."

"It's easier to ask for forgiveness then to beg from the disinterested," the village head responded with an adjusted saying of her own.

"What is wisdom?" Apexus suddenly weighed in.

"A word too large for all of us," the village head responded, to the mild surprise of the humanoid chimera. "I have read on the journeys of Maltos on this Leaf. Under other circumstances, I would have been humbled to be in the presence of one of his students."

"Under other circumstances, I would have loved to help you," Apexus answered. "However, I have to bow to the wisdom of my Korith."

'Awwww, I am his Korith,' the shortstack thought, impulsively. Then focused back on the situation. "I love to eat and be rewarded for my efforts and we are not being rewarded enough for this!" She stuffed a last couple of items in her back, then wandered over to the desk, and took some of the empty papers for good measure. "Good day, madam! We will be on our way!"

The village head watched them leave with only another sigh.

If anyone else in the village had an inkling of what had just transpired, they did not voice it or stand in the party's way. Inevitably, they marched out of the northern gate, then continued their trek up north.

"Was that too mean?" Korith blurted out after some time.

"It was what needed to be done," Apexus responded. "No one was in the wrong here. She had her people to consider. We have our reputation to consider."

"Which, as much as it pains me, has been too altruistic," Aclysia admitted with heavy heart. "Even the Church can not afford to Mobilize for the sake of help alone and they are afforded resources by the divine."

"It is a lesson to take to heart, to not forsake the responsibility we have to ourselves." Apexus smiled at Korith. "You reminded us of that very well."

"Well, uh... thanks?" Korith answered, bashfully.

And they continued northwards.