After he successfully climbed up to the first floor, Edward noticed the adventurers were grouping up before heading towards the exit and he ended up joining their group as well.

The journey back didn’t take that long. They reached the exit of the dungeon in around three hours and any monster encountered was taken care of by the large group. As he reached the guards at the entrance, they gave Edward and the sleeping Mya a long look before one of them said: “We’ll have to take 30% of what you collected inside as tax.”

Edward didn’t really understand what they meant and said: “I’m sorry, sir, but this is the first time inside a dungeon and I don’t understand what you mean.”

The guard nodded and explained patiently: “When a level 5 or above monster’s life force is absorbed, they sometimes drop monster cores which can be sold for coins. The city takes 30% of the cores found inside a dungeon as tax for using it.”

“Oh, I see. We’re only level 2, sir. We didn’t kill any monster above our level.” Said Edward as he passed his adventurer tablet to the guard. The guard checked his tablet before turning toward the sleeping Mya, his intention clear from the look in his eyes.

“Can’t you make an exception and let her sleep? Our five-man party lost three of them and she’s quite traumatized…”

The guard looked at Edward, then at the bloodied rags visible through the opening of his cloak before nodding and giving him the tablet back.

“All right. I’m sorry for your loss. You can go now and try to be more careful the next time.”

Edward nodded and left together with Mya atop Minx in the city's direction. As they reached the area he usually leaves Minx at, he stopped, placed Mya down, and rested his back against a tree.

“I’m so fucking tired…” muttered Edward as he looked at the still sleeping Mya. He wanted to go to sleep, but he knew he couldn’t leave Mya alone, and transforming during the day was not very safe for either him or other people.

With nothing else to do, he started speaking with Azure through Fenrir to pass the time. It was a few hours after noon when Mya finally started squirming and looked like she was about to wake up.

Edward stopped his conversation and came to her side.

Mya gently opened his eyes and, as she looked at Edward, the corners of her eyes started getting slowly wet once more. Doing her best to stop herself from crying, she took a deep breath and asked: “Where are we, Edward?”

“We’re close to the city entrance. Since I can’t bring Minx inside, I had to stop here and wait for you to wake up.”

“Thank you.” Said Mya before gently brushing one of her hands through Minx’s fur. “Thank you too, Minx.”

Minx let out a whimper and licked her hand gently before placing her head back on her front paws once more.

“What happened after I passed out? Where’s Brendan?” asked Mya after thanking the two of them.

Edward sighed and said: “He’s probably dead by now. I tried to stop him…”

Mya clenched her small hands into fists and her face contorted as she bit her lower lip to prevent herself from crying. Nodding, she took a deep breath before saying: “The two were always very close…”

“What are you going to do now?” asked Edward, feeling sort of bad for the poor girl.

Mya looked at Edward for a good while before saying: “I’ll just return to the church… I don’t think I can handle going back to a dungeon for a while.”

“Alright.” Replied Edward with a nod before asking: “Do you want me to escort you there?”

Mya nodded weakly and said: “If you don’t mind…”

“Sure, can you walk, or do you want me to carry you?”

“Yes, it’s fine. I can walk.” Replied Mya as she stood up and the two of them started walking towards the gate after saying goodbye to Minx. After a few steps, Mya seemed to remember something and turned her eyes towards Edward’s right arm, which was now covered under the cloak.

She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself before a single word came out. Edward noticed this and lifted his arm from under the cloak before showing the bite mark to her.

“You heard me speaking to her back there in the dungeon, didn’t you?” asked Edward, to which Mya nodded gently. “You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to..”. She could see the hesitation in Edward’s eyes as he mentioned it.

“Thank you.” Replied Edward as he put his hand back under his cloak, choosing not to explain further. After passing through the gate of the city with ease since he was covered by the cloak, Edward led Mya towards the gate of the Church in the center. Once in front of the gate, Mya turned towards Edward and said: “Thank you for saving my life, Edward.”

“No problem. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for the others... Take care, Mya.” Replied Edward as he turned around to walk in the inn's direction, only to hear Mya from behind him.

“Edward, just in case I wanted to speak to you, can you tell me where I could find you?”

Edward continued walking as he said: “Violet Flower Inn in the demi-human district. The innkeeper there knows me.”

“Take care, Edward.” Replied Mya as she kept staring at him with both hands placed on her chest in a praying manner and whispering: “May the light of the Goddess always shine brightly on the path you choose to travel. Stay safe until we meet again, Edward.”.

As her whisper ended, she turned around and passed by the guards at the Church’s gate, heading inside.

Edward continued on his way and headed straight for the inn. He needed to take a bath and change his clothes.

As the Violet Flower Inn door opened, Violet, who was serving some ale to a customer, turned towards the entrance and a smile appeared on her lips after seeing that it was Edward.

“Here’s your ale, customer. Enjoy.” She said to the man who she just served before using the tray she carried the drink to cover her chest and skipped towards him.

“Hi, Edward. It’s good to see you.” Said Violet, doing her best to ignore the strong human blood smell that lingered on him, already used to similar situations happening.

“Good to see you too, Violet. Do you mind passing me the key to my room? I need to change out of these clothes and take a bath before you lose your sense of smell.” Said Edward, half-jokingly.

Violet’s cheeks reddened slightly after getting caught so easily, and she moved toward the counter to hand him his key. As Edward grabbed the key from her hand, Violet said softly: “I’m sorry..”

“What are you apologizing for? If someone should apologize is me since I keep coming here drenched in blood. I imagine it must be torture for you and the other customers.”

“No, I don’t mind it. I like having you here.” Replied Violet shyly as she lowered her head while flattening her small ears.

‘She’s so cute…’ thought Edward as he moved his hand on instinct and gently patted her head right between the ears.

Violet’s ears immediately perked up, as did her tail, while the blush from her cheeks immediately extended until it reached her neck.

Seeing her reaction, Edward retracted his hand and said awkwardly: “I’m sorry..”. He knew nothing about demi-human culture, but judging by the redness of her neck, he thought he might have done something inappropriate.

“It’s fine..” Replied Violet, but she refused to lift her head and look at him.

Feeling the atmosphere turning awkward, Edward said: “I’m going to take a bath and change…”, before turning around and walking upstairs.

After Edward was gone from the main hall, Violet peeked around the room through her bangs and, seeing all the demi-humans inside giving her knowing looks, she couldn’t take the embarrassment and ran to the back room, closing the door behind her.

As she heard the symphony of laughter coming from the dining room, she sat down with her back resting against the closed door and did her best to control her ragged breaths.

“I wonder what the commotion is about down there…” murmured Edward as he picked a change of clothes from his room and made his way down once again.

Seeing everyone quiet down as soon as he started walking down the stairs, he gave the demi-humans there a weird look and walked towards the bath in the back courtyard.

After cleaning himself up, he washed the cloak and threw the other rags in the latrine before changing into his new tunic.

“In this rhythm, I’ll soon have to buy myself some new clothes…” muttered Edward as he came back into the main hall. Seeing that Violet was not there, he thought little about it and placed the key on the counter before walking outside and heading for the adventurer guild. Even if his last trip to the dungeon ended in tragedy, he needed to increase his level.

Entering the adventurer guild, he was about to head to the second-floor information desk when his path was blocked by an all too familiar face, Elena. Edward gave her an unfriendly look and moved around her, only to hear her say from behind.

“I misjudged the situation before… I’m sorry.”

Edward stopped in his tracks and said without turning: “I don’t really care, just don’t bother me anymore. Bye.”

Not hearing any answer from behind, he just continued walking up without giving Elena a single look. After reaching the second floor, he walked to the information desk, only to see that it was the male employee there this time and not Lara.

Taking a seat in front of the clerk, he said: “Excuse me, sir. I’m looking for a party to venture into the dungeon with.”

The clerk appeared to be in a not-so-good mood as he pulled out the book from before and asked simply: “Level and class.”

“Water mage, level 2.”

The clerk nodded and opened the book around the middle before turning it around and presenting it to Edward. “These are the registered parties looking for a level 2 mage.”

Edward nodded and started looking through them, but there was no detail about any of the parties’ experience in the dungeon and most of their members were levels 2 or 1. There was no party written there with a level 3 adventurer in it.

“Is there any way for me to find out the experience these parties have in the dungeon? I would prefer joining an experienced party, if possible.”

The clerk took the book, flipped a couple of pages before turning it towards Edward, and pointed at a party recruitment offer while saying: “You can’t check their experience if they don’t write it in the request. Is not really what you are looking for, but this party will probably agree to accept you for a round of exploration.”

Edward was curious about what he meant and read the offer.

<Level 6 average five-man party looking for an adventurer of any level to carry the cores dropped on the sixth floor. The exploration will take five days and he will be entitled to 10% of our winnings after the city tax. (Cute girl preferred but not necessary.)>

Edward’s eyebrow twitched as he swore in his mind: ‘a bag carrier for this fucking pervert party… No thanks. And what’s with this fucking clerk…’

With a sigh, Edward still thanked the clerk and walked out, deciding to come and check on another day, hoping to find Lara here. There were still a few hours until evening, but he was already quite tired and, since he probably won’t find anything else today, he decided to try again tomorrow. Maybe some better offers will end up appearing.

Walking out of the adventurer guild while ignoring Elena and her party that were staring at him, he made his way to the forest outside where he left Minx.

Once there, he got naked and laid down with his head resting on her soft fur as he practiced for a while, using all his remaining mana before closing his eyes to sleep.