{Name: Terra

Class: Tank

Job: Earth Manipulator (LVL 45)

Unlocked Jobs: None

Race: Earth Golem}

Naturally, I couldn’t help but look at her status. I didn’t know quite what to make of that. On the one hand, I supposed her abilities weren’t exactly on the level of an Earth Mage. She could manipulate the ground and she was sturdy, but I didn’t see anything like her casting spells. She was an Earth Golem, which I didn’t even know was a race. Wasn’t that close to a monster? I guess that wasn’t the case since she was able to get jobs too.

However, being as she was freshly created for one purpose, she never had the chance to earn any other jobs. Even Celeste had picked up a couple throughout her years in the dungeon. Maybe it had to do with Terra’s race that she was unable to do anything but level up Earth Manipulator. Furthermore, would it open up a new job when she reached level 50? I was definitely interested in whether this was a possibility.

I also noticed that everyone leveled after the fight. I had been too distracted before to notice the text, but once Carmine had taken control of the dragon, we had been allocated experience. That was a testament to how powerful this dragon was. Even a fight that didn’t end with us defeating him netted experience at the level where we leveled up.

Lydia was at level 36 Swordsman, Miki was 32 Spiritualist, Celeste was a Master Wind Magician of level 2, and my Basic Magician and Hero had gone up. Basic Magician unlocked the Water Jet and hero gave me something called Last Chance that sounded ominous and not at all something I wanted to try until I read what it did in a book.

Putting everyone’s status away, I made sure to clean out the dungeon after asking for Terra’s permission. Given her story and the nature of this dungeon, robbing this place felt a bit like graverobbing. Thankfully, she assured me that nothing that the dungeon created was specifically something buried from the village. In other words, I wasn’t swiping someone heirlooms or something like that. All the magical items had long been dissolved and used to sustain the dungeon. There were only a few alchemic ingredients and some gold coins left.

“Master, what is this?”

I glanced over where Miki was indicating. She revealed a long staff. I recognized it in the image of one of the murals. I had interpreted it as some kind of control rod.

“Ah… th-that’s my…” Terra looked on helplessly as I reached out and grabbed the rod.

{Terra is now your slave.}

“Wh-wait… what happened?” I said, sweating suddenly.

“I was going to say…” Terra lowered her hand. “The first person to touch my control rod imprints and becomes my Master.”

“Ah… s-sorry… I was impulsive and grabbed it without asking.”

“I-it’s fine. I’ve already decided to help you.” Terra responded. “If I am… Master’s slave, then it is perhaps for the best.”

I walked up to her, even as she still looked down and then I patted her head. “We will stop this dragon. I will definitely help you complete what you set out to do. I’m there for you.”

She looked up at me, her eyes tearing up slightly. “Mm… Th-thank you!”

The other girls suddenly came forward and wrapped their arms around the both of us. The girls were all smiling happily. I didn’t get it, but this seemed to make Terra cry even harder, and soon the other girls were crying too. It took a promise to cook some very good food before the girls stopped hugging us and crying.

“Is everyone ready to go?” I finally asked, checking my equipment one last time.

We couldn’t guess what we would find on the other side of that portal. Had these been normal circumstances, the bandits would have been expelled the second that we defeated the lore. However, Carmine didn’t destroy the lore. She took it and ran. The Bandit King could still be on the other side of the door, none the wiser that the dungeon has already been destroyed.

As for Carmine, she might have fled with the dragon, or she might have used it to mop up all of the Bandits. We could be returning to a complete bloodbath as run by Carmine. Then again, perhaps the Bandit King was able to defeat the dragon after all, and now Carmine was in his arms and waiting for us to reveal ourselves. Thus, I made sure everyone, even Terra, was combat-ready. Who knew what we’d find?

“Ready!” Lydia called out comfortably.

“Ready…” Miki added, less sure.

“Ready, Master…”

“Master… Mm!”

We stepped into the circle, and the transportation began.