I felt my heart pounding louder and louder the closer we got to the dungeon, my uneasiness rising. The relief I experienced when nothing was out of the ordinary near the portal was great, and my mood was further elevated when one of the soldiers waved at us. I decided to walk up to them to see what information they had.

“Hey,” I said as I approached. “Is it okay if I ask a few questions?”

“I think I have a feeling what this is about,” The soldier who’d previously come to my aid said calmly. “Ask away.”

“That person from before. Do you have any idea who that was?”

“Haven’t seen him before. Said he was an inquisitor that heard about your find and that he’d like to investigate.”

“Any idea if he was sent by the guild or something?”

“Not by Thymhil’s guild, that’s for sure. He showed us an authentic guild emblem that he said was from a city far down south called Arlnore.”

“So he is an official,” I concluded. “I’d hoped that whoever wanted to ask questions about things wouldn’t have his kind of attitude, though.”

“That did look a bit rough yesterday,” The soldier said openly, his companions nodding in agreement. “Especially considering our record-keeping determined it was impossible for you to have killed a person. Besides, it doesn't take an expert to see that that arm was already several days old, if not even older.”

“Thank you for that,” I said in utmost honesty. At least I had some backing from these people. “And truly, if there’s anything you or the guild want to know, do ask away.”

He shook his head.

“Our only question is where this thing came from. It’s starting to feel like someone brought this inside and left it there. It’s odd, but I’m confident our records are accurate.”

“Huh,” I let out. “That would be something. Why would anyone do that, though?”

“Good question,” The soldier replied. “Your guess is as good as ours.”

“I see,” I said while staring at the dirt in front of my lower eyes. “Thank you.”

I nodded and turned around to go to the dungeon entrance, content with the information I’d received. The whole ordeal was beyond strange, and this revelation added yet another layer of ambiguity… 

“Think we should stay with my parents for another night?” I asked, coming to a halt just before the gateway.

“If you think that to be a good idea, then sure. They didn’t seem to mind.”

“They don't,” I said softly before turning my head to Shayla who’d made her way up to my side. “But that’s enough of that. Let’s see if my hypothesis proves true, shall we?”

She nodded eagerly, putting a smile back on my face.

“Alright then, let’s go hunt some bisons.”

We entered the portal and Cellestra donned her heavy plate, before navigating our way through the first parts. We didn’t have any run-ins with angry lionesses and exited the tall grass, ready for what lay beyond.

“Now this could get nasty,” I remarked. “I want the five of you to stay behind until I’m sure it’s safe.”

They stood where they were as I skittered forward, towards one of the bovines in the distance.

“Now, I’m just wondering how I’m going to restrain it without killing. On the other hand, I don’t have too many options. Just gotta make this work.”

I sprinted the last part and summoned two earthen spikes from the ground underneath the creature, each one laden with paralytic venom. I made sure not to have them impale the creature too much because then I’d risk killing it, and that wasn’t my goal here.

The beast let out a roar of pain before turning around and starting a charge. It still had plenty of strength left to do that, which put me at ease. Now, I’d simply run and wait for the venom to do its work.

Certain that I’d delivered a large enough dose to force it to collapse, I started running, the animal in tow. It didn’t take long for my venom to take effect and after I made sure it wasn’t going anywhere, I called in my spiderlings to finish the job.

“Well, dig in,” I said with a smile as I planted my halberd in the dirt. “And it seems I figured it out.”

“Looking good as always.” Cellestra said.

“How’s that armor coming along?” I asked. “Is it getting any better yet?”

“A bit, but it’s still exhausting. I can never wait to take it off.” Her lips curled into a smile. “How about you? I mean, are you getting used to living without all that weight?”

“I’ll be honest, I don’t miss the weight, not in the slightest… It did offer a certain feeling of safety, though, and despite knowing my skin is as tough as my armor was, it still felt odd. It just wasn’t the same. I am mostly used to it now,” I sighed, smiling. “And I am way more agile this way, too, but even if I wasn’t, I think I’d have a hard time going back.”

“Lucky you.”

“Aw, I’m sorry, Cel. I truly wish it wasn’t necessary.”

“It’s okay,” She said softly. “I’ll get used to it… eventually.”

“Hope so,” I said softly as I started looking around for the next bison. The spiders were making great progress with the bison and I feared that they’d already surpassed the threshold of the quantity they needed to eat to obtain a skill.

I quickly ran to the next bison about a hundred yards out and repeated my spells, bringing it down in exactly the same manner as before. As it collapsed, I verbally noted that this seemed to be the way to do it, to which Cellestra agreed.

I beckoned over the others and found that they had no issues following my commands from the large distance that was between us. I let them do their thing as I continued my hunt.

We repeated this sequence of me hunting and paralyzing prey while my spiderlings finished it off and then dug in for a good while, yet we seemed to have little success in obtaining skills. It took about two hours before the first one showed up and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“Heat resistance level one,” I muttered at the blue square before me. “Wasn’t expecting anything like that, but what do I know.”

“Heat resistance?” Cellestra asked. “Makes sense, I guess.”

“Well, it’s a skill so it’s at least something. We just haven’t seen a scenario where it can be useful. I mean, sure, it’s warm here, but it’s not something I’d consider needing a resistance skill for.”

“I wouldn’t mind a heat resistance skill,” Cellestra replied with a giggle.

“Best I can do is some ice-cold water,” I said mischievously.

“I’d love some of that.”

With that, we decided to have a small break. Cellestra even pulled out her small skillet and went on to cook a thin piece of Bison that she cut cleanly from a fresh carcass before the spiderlings got to work their way through.

She grinned as I was channeling a hot flame beneath the pan to fuel it.

“What suddenly drove you to this?” I asked. “Not that I mind, but, you know?”

“Dunno,” She replied with a smile. “Just felt like having some fresh lunch for a change.”

“Oh, it’s fresh alright. Just cook it thoroughly, and if you feel weird, do give me a head’s up. There’s I don’t know how much venom in that beast.”

She giggled as I saw some activity near my rear. A foursome of adventurers had shown up in exquisite armor which reminded me of Cellestra’s. The same odd colorizations could be seen, leading me to believe it was also this wolf iron that the smith had talked about, but their most striking possessions were their weapons.

Two of them possessed swords that were sheathed so I couldn’t say anything about those, but two others carried spears, the tips of which seemed to be made of fire. They ignored us completely and passed us at a generous distance, yet my keen eyesight didn’t fail me.

I couldn’t help but stare at those weapons with all available eyes, that meant my elven head’s included.

“Seems like someone saw something interesting,” Cellestra concluded, smiling warmly.

“You bet I did. I’m going to ask Zearis if he knows anything about spears with fire tips.”

“Fire tips?”

“Yeah. That’s what I was staring at. I don’t know if it’s some kind of enchantment or something else. Maybe he knows.”

“That certainly sounds interesting. Leave it to you to spot something like that.”

I chuckled at her response and watched the adventurers walk out of sight, towards the second floor, still wondering what it was they had and where they got it.