“Help? Always ready ta help you out. What needs to be done? Wait, didn’t you just get back? Why not take some rest first?”

“We did,” I said with a smile. “But we wanted to get here before anyone else had the same idea, to be totally honest.”

The dwarf let out a bellowing laugh.

“Smart woman you are. So you are successful? And I was the first you came to visit?”

I nodded twice, once to each of his questions as he asked them.

He stepped forward and extended an arm.

“Then let me be the first to congratulate you.”

I gladly accepted it and shook his hand before he put it on his side.

“Now, what can I do to help?”

“Well,” I said. “First of all, I need some repairs on this chest piece. After that, I wondered if you’d be willing to help out some people we met and fought with. I wanted to convince them that you’re good at your trade, and I also hoped I could convince you to give them a discount.”

“A discount, eh?” He said, stroking his beard as he thought about it. “Well, they do seem like they need something made by an expert’s hand. I suppose I can knock off at least a few coins of whatever they purchase.” He tugged his beard again before looking me in the eyes. “Let’s get you out of that armor so I can go to work then, shall we?”

His words, taken out of context, would fit his flirtatious nature, but there was nothing but seriousness in his voice when he said them. It made me look at him in confusion, and he answered the question that I had.

“You said there will be more people stopping by, no? If you don’t mind, I’d like to get to work as soon as possible.”

“Ah,” I let out. “I see. Thank you Dworag. I won’t keep you waiting.”

I took off the chest plate and he addressed the others.

“Feel free to look around inside, but try to hurry up. I planned to close shop for the day.”

“That’s alright,” Krelion replied. “We’ll stop by again tomorrow. We’re very thankful for your help and don’t want to burden you.”

Dworag shrugged. “Works for me.”

“Thank you again.” The leader of the elven party continued. “And you too, Elania, Velariah. If you don’t mind, we’ll be off to the guild to collect our rewards and then head to our inn.”

“Take care,” Velariah responded, waving them off. Once they exited the alley, she turned to the rest of us. “I suggest we head back home as well, unless you feel like stopping at the guild now, but I fear things may be quite hectic there right now.”

Nira was quick to nod, which put a smile on my face.

“That’s a good point,” Eric said. “I’ll be off as well. I suppose I’ll see you somewhere at the guild tomorrow?”

“We can always pick up the reward in the morning,” I said. “So yeah, if you’re there then, we’ll bump into each other.”

“Great,” He said with a nod. “I’ll see you then.” He waved and left as well.

“And I’d love to just get home as well,” I continued after he was gone. “Perhaps get you guys something to eat.”

“Hell yeah,” Seralyn said, overly excited. “Some proper food. I’m in.”

“Well then,” Velariah said with a grimace. “Let’s have Elly cook up something.” She turned to the dwarf who was inspecting the chest plate I gave him, his fingers running over the metal, seemingly ignoring our conversation. “Thank you Dworag. We’ll probably stop by again tomorrow if that’s not a problem.”

“Not at all. You guys get home safely and enjoy some rest.”

When walking home, it was no surprise to see the white-haired knight’s prediction come true. Rows of adventurers were waiting outside the guild hall in a more orderly fashion than I had thought, but it seemed the ones in front were eager to get in. Upon closer look, I thought I saw Vymar appear in the entrance, which would probably explain a thing or two.

No skipping in line with that guy around. That’s for sure.

The best part came when we arrived at the mansion, where our mere knocking on the door caused movements inside. The clicking sound of nails on stone, followed by scratching on wood gave away that it was Gray. When a bark followed, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

When Elly opened the door, the wolf pup immediately jumped at me, and then Velariah, and then me again, his tail wagging with excitement.

“Welcome home,” Elly greeted us as she smiled at the canine.

“Hey Elly,” Velariah greeted her back. “How are things here?”

“Excellent. Quiet, but everything’s going alright. Your father is here already as well.”

“Huh, that’s interesting. I’d expected him to linger at the guild.”

“I am not one to question him about it,” Elly replied. “But he is still working on something, I believe. He’s writing some things down at the table.”

“That’s fine. Guess I’ll ask myself,” Velariah said as she bent forward to pet the little wolf. “And it seems you’re doing well, too. Thank you for taking care of him so well, Elly.”

“My pleasure.”

We got rid of our armor and weapons as Velariah asked the maid to prepare some dinner, which, apparently, was already being prepared as we spoke. Once in the living room, the others sat down at the table next to Valtheril who was indeed busy with whatever he was doing, but did greet us warmly, so I didn’t think it was anything bad.

I, in the meantime, made my way over to our sleeping quarters after leaving Gray in Nira’s care. The heterochromatic elf saw what I was doing, chuckled, and smiled.

After closing the door, I stepped onto the bed, finally able to rest my legs and have them hang freely. I didn’t know why, but even when sleeping or lying down on grass, I would still feel the tension building in them no matter how much I tried to relax them. Here, in this hammock of  silk, was the only place where I would feel that tension disappear completely.

I let out a deep sigh, just as a certain spider I’d already spotted earlier made her way across the wall until it jumped onto the hammock, right in front of where I was resting my head on a pillow.

“Hey, Minia. Missed me?”

Her emotions told me a definitive ‘yes’

“I missed you too. Glad to see you’re doing well.”

I extended a finger and petted the spider, whose happiness rose with each stroke.

“What have you been up to, hmm?”

She was confused. I assumed it was because she couldn’t understand the question. It really made me wonder if my inherity affected her in some way. Her recent growth was unnatural, that much I was certain of, but more interestingly, it allowed me to understand her better, and she me. Just how complex could our communication be if this process repeated itself?

Talking with spiders. I never thought I would have been this excited about it, especially after my first talk with Arch. I remember very well just how creeped out I was at that moment.

All this had me remember my hypothesis from earlier.

“Minia, would you like to come with us to the dungeon one day?”

Again, she couldn’t understand the question, and a stream of confusion was projected into my mind.

“Go with us, outside,” I clarified.

She was more than interested in that. She would love to come with us.

“I have to warn you though, it can be dangerous, and I may have to take some precautions to keep you safe.”

I had feared that sentence was too intricate, but it seemed she knew the concept of ‘keeping safe’.

“Alright,” I said with a smile. “I’ll go to the others now. ‘I’ll be back later, okay?”

She then seemed to ask a question that translated into very simple words: ‘can come with?’

“If you want to, I guess it’s alright.”

She then jumped into my hair, ticking my skin as she readjusted herself so she was facing forward.

“Just don’t randomly jump off or jump at anyone else, alright? I’m not sure how they would react.”

She agreed to the terms, and with that, I made my way back to the living room.

“Well, look at you,” Velariah said almost immediately after laying eyes on me.

“I know, I know,” I said. “Don’t even start. How are things here?”

“Excellent,” Valtheril said, scribbling down what looked like a signature before neatly stacking the papers and taking them with him as he stood up. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He excused himself and left to go upstairs.

“You guys discussing our next plans already?” I asked as I took my place at the table.

“Not yet,” Velariah replied. “We’ll start with that tomorrow I guess, as well as finish up all the loose ends; armor, money, place the order for elven wood at the guild hall, etcetera.”

“How about lodging?” Seralyn asked. “Will we still stay here for the foreseeable future?”

“If you don’t mind,” The other elf said. “There’s still no trace of Lorin and…” She paused, seemingly realizing something. “Hold on, you guys heard nothing about the dungeon, have you?”

We shook our heads almost in unison.

“Strange. Maybe my father knows more.”

Heavy footsteps came from the stairs, heralding the general’s presence. When he walked back into the room, he once more had a serious expression written on his face which didn't disappear as he sat down. All of us remained quiet wondering what he was going to say, but instead, he seemed to take his time to think things over and nobody dared to disturb him.

“So,” he eventually spoke. “The battle is past us, but we’re not done yet, as much as I want to celebrate.”

“What is the matter?” The white-haired knight asked.

“We found the dungeon that you mentioned.”

His words shocked us all. It was clearly visible on our faces, as well as the question ‘How?’

“If you’re asking yourselves how, it’s simple. Some of the soldiers were in fact highly skilled with a specific kind of magic, illusion magic. I estimated that with this many people, there wouldn’t be a way for a dungeon to go unnoticed, except if it had a way to hide its entrance, and I was proven right in that regard. There’s an entrance that’s disguised with a spell. In addition, beyond that, there’s a rune-locked door, which is worrying, to say the least.”

“A high-level dungeon? This close to Dawnleaf?” Velariah said with a gasp.

Valtheril nodded slowly, indicating the severity of the find.

“I may have to go down there myself to make sure things are stable, but I believe you’d like to be present, Elania, considering you have some way of communicating with it.”

“That,” I let out softly, doubt creeping into my mind. “Remains to be seen. We don’t know if it’s hostile, if it was forced into doing what it did, or whether it’s cooperative. If it’s the latter, I can instruct it on how to communicate with me, but if not… well, I don’t really know what to do then.”

“That would mean it’s nigh impossible to find out who collaborated with it.”

I nodded. “It could still be Lorin, but we can’t know for certain.” I paused before an idea entered my mind. “Wait,” I said quickly, just as it struck me. “Has anyone entered the dungeon?” I asked Valtheril.

He shook his head.

“Three soldiers remained behind, but nobody’s entered yet.”

“What if Lorin is in there?” I suggested. “Seems like a perfect hiding spot, no?”

“Plausible,” The general said. “Unlikely, but plausible.”

“How do you enter a dungeon with a rune-locked door?” The usually quiet Nira suddenly asked.

“You either use a runed orb, obtainable from magic shops and only sold to adventurers with a high enough tier for the dungeons,” Valtheril said. “Or break open the door with a spell powerful enough to break through, which is what I’m going to do.”

“What about the door then?” I asked. “Won’t anybody be able to enter if the door is broken?”

He smirked.

“A dungeon will simply remake the door, usually after the adventurers inside leave. It gets plenty of mana from the visitors to do that.”

Another thing learned.

“Right,” The general suddenly spoke, determined, as he lowered his hand to the table and balled it into a fist. “How much time do you need?” He asked. “I’d like to leave as soon as possible.”

“Uhm,” Velariah and I both hummed at the same time. I chose not to speak and look at her, allowing her to do the talking.

“One day,” She said. “We need to sort out a few things tomorrow. After that, I think we’re good to go.”

“Excellent,” He spoke. “I’m sorry for this, and I ask for your understanding.”

“You got it,” Velariah continued. “Don’t worry. Believe me, we want this over with as quickly as possible as well.”

“Alright,” He said, shoving his chair back as he stood up. “I’ll inform the me-” He halted himself mid-sentence. “Actually, no. I won’t do that.”

He slowly lowered himself back into the chair, just as Elly arrived with the first parts of dinner; bread and butter. If I were to guess, she was going to serve some soup.

“I’m going to let things be for now and be here with you all for once,” He continued. “Do tell me, did anything interesting happen during the mission?”

Draco put on a large smile as Velariah started recounting several notable events. She obviously started telling her dad about the large battle we had, and how many goblins she and the others killed. She didn’t hesitate to talk in great detail about how I mowed through trolls with my powerful new weapon.

And then, of course, there was the turkey, or Kul-Kul as they called it. We still had those feathers with us, but as things stood, we’d get no time to process the ones Seralyn wanted to save and to sell the rest.

“That reminds me, Elania,” Velariah suddenly called my name. “You were going to tell us about something called the ompics, right?”

“Olympics,” I corrected her. “Yeah.”

Before I could continue, she already talked again, excitement rising within her eyes which left me smiling.

“A troll hit her by throwing a hammer,” She clarified to her father, and the others since they weren’t close enough to hear me say it. “And then she said something about him training for the Olympics.”

“Well,” I said with a sigh. “Where to start. Guess I’ll start with the history.”

I explained a bit of old Greek mythology and the mountain on which their gods resided, which was where the event got its name from. That little bit obviously couldn’t be skipped. Then, I went on to elaborate on the event’s history and how every four years the strongest Greeks would participate in several events that would put their bodies to the limits to see who would come out on top.

I named the old sports that I could think of such as boxing, wrestling, jumping, running, javelin and discus throwing. In addition, I knew the older games included horse events, including chariot races, but I didn’t know exactly how and why. I was certain I’d missed several events, but there was no way of them knowing that anyway.

Then, I went on to talk about the modern version of the games, which allows all nations to compete and added many different, new sports, such as swimming, weightlifting and a myriad of other spots. I chuckled as my eyes moved over to Seralyn.

“And yes, there’s archery too.”

“Sick,” She replied. “That would be awesome to compete in. What range are we talking about?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. I believe it was somewhere around two hundred and fifty feet. I’ve looked it up at least once, but my memory is a bit fuzzy.”

“That’s a decent challenge at least,” She said. “I should start practicing.”

“The Olympics are not a thing in this world, you dummy,” Velariah grinned while verbally ‘bonking’ Seralyn.

“Until it is. And then I want to be prepared,” came her reply.

Velariah shook her head and sighed.

“And what about the hammer?” She asked. “They throw hammers? Is that correct?”

“They don’t,” I said. “It’s a metal ball on a steel wire connected to a grip. I honestly have no clue why they call it a hammer, but I imagine they used to throw hammers in the past.”

“You people are crazy, you know that?” Seralyn let out. I could tell she wasn’t entirely serious about it with that smirk of hers.

“You’re one to talk. Climbing trees and all.”

“Guess what we’re doing next year when we have the festival,” Valtheril suddenly said in a far-too-casual manner.

Oh, no.

The look in my eyes caused him to burst into laughter.

“Just kidding.” He said when Elly returned with a large pan of soup. I’d been right and I couldn’t wait to have some. “But really, the concept is quite interesting. The strongest compete against each other and train for years to be the best at something. That’s something I can only admire.”

I knew that he’d like the story to some degree as well. Hell, a good part of his life so far has been spent on training. No doubt he’d appreciate others doing the same.

“Thanks for the amazing piece of history from your world, Elania,” he said as dinner was being served. “I’d love to learn more whenever you feel like it.”

“And I’d love to tell you more when I think there’s something interesting that I can share, but there’s just so much at the same time that I wouldn’t know where to start, not what is considered safe.”

“That’s fine,” He assured me. “I’m not gonna wring you dry or anything,” He then said with a mischievous grin.

I chuckled at his words and took some bread, dipping it in the soup absent-mindedly while thinking about the dungeon we were intending to visit the day after tomorrow.

I wonder just what secrets and treasures it houses.