Interested in seeing how this supposed dungeon story played out, I rode the horse in the direction that he had been going. It seemed like he knew which way we were heading, so I trusted it. Perhaps, my horse was still bound by karmic debt, unlike me.

Along the way, we were attacked many times. It turned out that the Sabertooth Feral had kept other monsters at bay. A horse didn’t intimidate them as the beast did. Maybe it had nothing to do with fear, and monsters just left monsters alone. The Feral might have just been covering up my stink or something.

As a result, I couldn’t move forward for more than thirty minutes before I ended up encountering something that wanted to stop me. Luckily, we didn’t encounter any more demon ambushes. Those might have been too powerful for me to handle safely. However, a few wolves or a shambling undead that didn’t appear to be part of any army were pretty simple to deal with. Since Mimic was such a low level, it went up to 5 fairly quickly. As for Demon Knight, it gradually increased to 6.

Mimic unlocked Disguise, Change Voice, Charm Up, and Copy Behavior. Meanwhile, Demon Knight unlocked Dark Slash, Dark Barrier, and Dark Light. Did they think just tossing Dark in front of the name of everything made it sound more demon-like? I seriously wanted to chastise whatever god came up with this world’s naming convention sometimes.

Finally, after a long day on horseback, I came before the fort we were heading to. At least, it was another fort guarded by the undead who wore the same colors as the last fort. This one was a bit bigger than the last one, and there was no chance I could approach it unseen. It was getting dark though, and I had a feeling the random encounters I was experiencing now would triple once it got dark. I didn’t think I could get any rest out here.

I just had to trust in this supposed Karma. After considering my options for another few minutes, I got off the horse and approached the fort slowly, giving them plenty of time to see me coming. I was very conscious of the arrows pointed at me, but I kept going as they didn’t immediately start firing. Once I reached the front gate, I stood there in silence for nearly a minute before there was a call.

“Who are you?” A voice called from the wall.

It was too dark now to see any faces up there. Plus, there were torches on the door that blinded me. Taking a deep breath, I called out.

“It is I, Drakus Lightking, come to deliver an urgent message!”

I decided to leave it at that. This would either work or it wouldn’t work. They’d either see me as a soldier like them, flesh or no flesh, or they’d see me as some kind of enemy. I fought the urge to close my eyes as I waited for a response.

When the door started to open, I let out a breath of relief. It looked like I was Drakus Lightking in their eyes. I had guessed right. Now, it was time to see what could be done about this dungeon!