Sylfie slapped Ryu profusely, yelling, “Don’t fall asleep in this cold! You won’t wake up!”

“Ryu, if you die, can I have your stuff, nya?” Aurora asked, circling around him.

“What kind of heartless monster asks something like that?!” Sylfie exclaimed.

“I see a light,” Ryu said weakly.

“No! Don’t walk towards the light! It’s a scam! Wake up!” she screamed, continuing to slap him.

That seemed to have knocked some sense into him. Ryu shook his head in confusion as he came back into a conscious state of mind. Sylfie, however, didn’t notice, continuing to slap him.

“Sylph—Sylphie! I’m awake, d*mmit! Stop slapping me, woman!”

“Oh,” she paused, slapping him one more time for good measure, before stepping away her face red from the exertion. She allowed Wisteria to take over the rest of the healing process.

Ryu stared in shock at his hand, withered like an old man’s. Sweat dripped down Wisteria’s brow as she strained in concentration, hovering glowing blue palms over his arm. Slowly, the hand became fuller, younger, and back to its original state.

“Thanksh, Wisteria,” Ryu said through swollen lips.

As the mage reduced the swelling, Ryu glared at Aurora. “What’s this about taking my stuff?”

“Ehe, well I wanted to take more coffee berries,” Aurora said sheepishly, rubbing her paws together innocently.

“Look at the state of you! You want to eat more?”

“They’re yummy,” she replied, her ears drooping.

Ryu narrowed his eyes, a pit forming in his stomach. What am I going to do with this cat? Something’s going on with her. She seems to be regressing in mentality too.

Thinking back to the first time he had met her. The cat seemed much more capable and slightly more mature. The persistent amnesia must have started to cause her mind to deteriorate. He grimaced. If it was dementia, he didn’t know what he’d be able to do.

If I can help her recover more of her memory, she’ll be whole again. He sighed, scratching Aurora behind the ears.

“We’ll figure something out, okay? I’m just worried about your health, that’s all. Even if you’re immortal I’d rather have your quality of life be good while I’m around,” he said.

“I understand, Ryu.” Aurora smiled, nuzzling his palm.

“I think you’ll be happy to know that you’ve just achieved a new title,” Wisteria mentioned, her eyes flashing.

Ryu wasn’t eager to check. He’d been dealt bad hands with the last few titles, despite performing some daring and heroic feats, in his opinion. He was also a little bit confused.

“I thought titles only get replaced if you do something more heroic than the last act that earned you a title?”

Wisteria nodded. “In most cases that’s true, although there are also instances where you’re awarded a partial title that you can then complete by performing another heroic feat,” she explained.

Ryu grimaced, apprehensively scrolling through his statistics page. His curiosity got the better of him and he figured it was better to rip the bandaid off now rather than later so he could prepare for the fresh wave of ridicule he would face once they returned back to society.

However, when he finally opened the [Adventurer Title] page, Ryu was pleasantly surprised. He blinked a few times to make sure what he was reading was correct asking the others for confirmation. He beamed at the distinction, feeling accomplished for once rather than betrayed by the System.

[Partial title gained for third heroic feat!]

[New Adventurer Title: Grimm Hand of the [Incomplete]]

Grimm Hand! That’s so cool!

“A heroic title for a courageous adventurer, don’t you think?” Jörm commended him.

“Well done! You saved our hides back there,” Tyr chuckled.

“I wasn’t thinking; my body moved on its own,” Ryu replied bashfully.

“We should keep moving. Only the Dungeon Master remains,” Freyja remarked. “And you,” —she addressed Ryu with a sly smile— “remind me to buy you a drink when we get back.”

They moved past the forest, entering a long hallway illuminated by the glow of blue flames burning on the torches lining the walls. They stopped in front of a grand set of doors encased in ice. As the others moved to either side of the doorway to activate both levers, Ryu received a notification.

[Dungeon exploration complete]

[Current level: 9]

[Dungeon Master Checkpoint: Ursa Glacius]

[Skill Acquired: Ice Resistance]

[Level Bonus: Dark Embrace]

[Dungeon Bonus: Storm Lance]

“Checkpoint?” Ryu narrowed his eyes.

“Oh yeah, you get a checkpoint to the Dungeon Master when you get through the rest of the dungeon,” Tyr stated, nonchalantly.

Ryu’s eye started to twitch violently. “You made us go through that entire gauntlet when we could have simply teleported here all this time?!”

“Of course! Where’s the fun in dungeon crawling if you don’t get to experience the dungeon right?” Tyr grinned.

“We could have died!” Ryu exclaimed.

“But we didn’t,” Jörm pointed out proudly.

Ryu tore at his hair, screaming. He had had enough. He was going insane.

“Er, will he be alright?” Freyja asked the other ladies, concerned.

“Eh, he’ll be fine. Let him run out of steam and he’ll be back to his usual self,” Sylfie replied.

“Better out than in. Keeping the anger bottled up leads to high blood pressure,” Wisteria nodded matter-of-factly.

“He needs to relax a little and meditate, nya. I don’t understand why Ryu’s so stressed all the time,” Aurora chimed.

“Really?” Freyja raised an eyebrow.

Aurora stared blankly at her while the other two turned their heads, their ears reddening.

The adventurers pulled the levers until a mechanism in the doors began to operate, the sound of gears turning and the clicks of locks echoed throughout the area. Finally, the sounds stopped and the giant doors opened slowly, letting a strong gust of frigid wind blow into the hallway. The blue flames flickered, though they stayed lit. Ryu continued to scream in front of the entrance, his manic fury only quelled when a mammoth-sized paw shot through the frame, grabbing him and pulling him inside.