I backed up and felt my back push into Arturous' solid frame. When he roared, it was a deep bassy sound that vibrated through my body. Gritting my teeth, I thrust my spear low and knocked aside one of the monsters charging at my legs.

Before I could hook the wings of my spear behind its head, three strands shot out from below the water and wrapped around the shaft. With the strands halting my movements, the fish monster dived back into the water and was replaced by another slowly rising from the floor.

"Zharia, burn it!" I called out as I ducked to avoid another attack from above me.

My familiar dove forward and shot out a cone of golden flames directly above my spear. The strands melted to ash, and I tugged my weapon free. Luckily I did so because I was forced to swing to my left and knock away a monster that was aiming for Zharia.

Stepping to my left, I kicked the space next to Arturous' back leg and winced as the undead fish managed to pierce my leather pants and score my calf. Even with the monster landing an attack, I drove the heel of my boot into its skull and crushed it against the floor. It tried to pierce my foot, but the steel plating proved difficult to penetrate.

For another two minutes, I fought a losing battle against a swarm of six fish monsters. Whenever I managed to lock one down, the others would rush in and prevent me from finishing them. The only reason I managed to destroy three of them was because of their constant aggression.

Once their numbers were reduced to half, it was short work for the giant bear to destroy the remaining three. His massive paw landed on top of one of the monsters, and the hardened bone turned into shattered fragments that floated in the stained water.

I collapsed to the ground and coughed up blood, gasping for air. Even with Áine's healing, the amount of damage I took within a short time was worrying. The little fairy had worked overtime during the fight to keep me standing.

Reaching up, I grabbed Áine from her perch behind my back and brought her to my shoulder. "Thank you, Áine. Couldn't have done it without you."

Zharia landed on my other shoulder and pulled a strand of hair. "Hey! I did good too. I burned that stupid fish."

"Yes, yes, you did. Good job."

She chirped softly and settled down. Even if she hid it well, I could tell Zharia was exhausted. Due to the sudden flood of monsters, there was little rest between our last encounter and this one. It was easy to tell she was running on empty without needing to check her mana pool. Sometime during the last thirty seconds of the fight, I felt her siphoning away some of my mana to fuel her attack.

Looking around at all the floating corpses, I begrudgingly stood up and flexed my freshly healed arms. My own mana pool was a little less than three-quarters full, but it would be enough to loot at least half of the monster bodies.

With a mental goodbye, I returned the girls to my soulspace and dragged my feet over to the nearest intact corpse. Grabbing it and the corpse beside it, I held them up and summoned Erebus. There was no need to communicate with the spirit, as he read my thoughts just fine. Soon, his bone-white body disappeared inside the skeleton.

I was too exhausted to experiment with the dark mana, so I simply let him loot the corpse. After he exited with a loot orb, I grabbed it and tossed the dissolving fish skeleton away. The wet sphlat sound it made against the stone wall was oddly satisfying to my ears.

After retrieving the second loot orb, I picked up a final corpse and waited for Erebus to loot it. My mana would be low, but it was enough to allow me to summon the girls if needed. I thanked the little guy when he was done and returned him to my soulspace.

All three orbs were in my hand. I channeled a thread of mana into each of them and watched the shadowy material dissolve. Two of the familiar ghost-goop vials fell into my waiting palm, along with a new item.

Holding it up to the light, it was hard to see in the gloom of the hallway. Moving closer, I used the faint glow coming off of Arturous' fur to examine the object closely.

In my hand was a small ring made of bone. It looked like a piece of spine from one of the fish. What made me examine it more closely was the series of grooves etched into the inside of the ring. The lines formed three consecutive spirals that ran across the inner band. Checking it with my mana senses, I could feel a trace amount of mana running along the inside of the ring, but I had no means of understanding what the mana did.

Arturous turned his head and sniffed the ring. I held it closer to his nose, curious to see if he would react in any way. "Any idea what it does, buddy? Or maybe it just smells like food."

He kept sniffing for a few seconds before turning away. I guess it's not to his liking.

I gave one last look at the hidden room behind us. In future delves, I'd have to remember there were potential ambush spots for the monsters to hide in. The actual ambush was devious, especially with the ability of the fish to phase in and out of the water.

Slowly but surely, I walked behind Arturous as we backtracked through the halls. According to the system clock, it had already been four hours since we entered, and getting back to the entrance would take at least another two. By the time we returned, it would be well past noon, even with the time dilation of the dungeon.

---

 

Pushing through the portal with a hand on Arturous' neck, I let the portal's energy spread across my body. The feeling of exiting the portal slightly differed from entering, but I ignored the nuance as we were transported back to the outside world.

Upon exiting, I stumbled forward and nearly tripped. Thankfully Arturous was large enough to easily catch my fall, and I managed to stop myself from looking like a fool.

When I looked up, the others were sitting around the hall. Teddy stood up and braced himself as Arturous lumbered his way across the floor, splashing water everywhere.

"Welcome back, Arturous. Did you have a good time?" Teddy asked as he fended off an onslaught of licks from the bear's massive tongue.

At that moment, the massive car-sized bear really looked like a giant puppy. The constant licks and low buzz of his growls reminded me of Sam's family dog. Pebbles the pitbull was a stubborn land-hippo that would drown you in licks along with a barrage of headbutts.

Shaking away the memory, I continued staring at the display of affection with amusement on my lips.

Arturous growled deeply and used his giant paw to try and knock the man over. To my surprise, Teddy remained standing and even managed to hold the bear up in an awkward hug.

While the others put away their chairs, I watched as the ghostly water that filled the hall slowly receded into the stone floor beneath. By the time all the water had disappeared, the floor looked as dry as the time we entered.

Aimon appeared behind me, somehow having remained hidden from my sight until now. The dungeon portal was closed, and the two doors covered the entrance again. When he caught my eye, he gave me a strange look before approaching.

He held out his hand and jingled his ring of coins. I summoned the coin from my inventory and tossed it over. After reclipping it through the ring, he tucked it away and turned to the others. "I will be busy tomorrow, so if you want to delve the dungeon, you'll have to ask one of the priests. If that will be all, let us return to the main floor."

Following along behind him, I joined the others as we walked up the stairs and exited the basement. The sound of life was a welcome thing, along with the rays of sunlight that peeked through the temple's open doors. I didn't realize how good incense could smell until I spent hours trudging along a drowned and abandoned temple.

We bid our farewell to the elder and made our way back to the inn. Halfway through our journey back, I spotted a side alley that hosted a bunch of stalls hawking a plethora of items. In particular, one stall that was manned by a shark-like beastkin caught my interest.

While it wasn't the only stall that sported glass vials in containers, this stall had a specific smell that carried in the wind. It wasn't overly strong or subtle. It brought the scent of medicinal herbs and antiseptic.

While it wasn't strange to smell herbs and chemicals, the antisceptic smell, in particular, was shocking. I wasn't sure of the medical standards in this world outside of healing skills and health potions, but smelling something so reminiscent of Earth had me more curious than ever.

Teddy must have been observing me because he stepped beside me and inhaled deeply. He scrunched his nose and held up a hand to block the smell. "Alchemist. Medicinal specialty. I'm surprised they are allowed to sell in the open like this. Usually, alchemists have to rent an enclosed space due to the smell. At least I can understand why there are no food stalls on this street."

I turned to him and observed his reaction. I knew that his soulbond with Arturous granted him some of the bear's heightened senses, but seeing the potential negatives of such a skill was interesting. It was easy to think of the benefits a skill provided. There was literal magic at work, and the things skills could do were downright amazing, but I had to remember that only some things were without costs.

Though I doubt semi-clear, sparkly blood would ever be a downside. Unless I, for some reason, needed to donate some plasma.

"I'm going to try and sell some of the stuff I looted. Meet you back at the inn?" I asked.

"Sure. I'll save you some food."

I shook my head and pointed to the lumbering bear. "Actually, I promised the big guy I'd cook him some fish. After today, he deserves it."

Teddy smiled and looked at me warmly. "Thank you, then, Cyrus. How about we join you? A campfire meal sounds lovely, and we can buy other ingredients besides fish to cook."

"Deal. See you soon."

Teddy patted me on the shoulder and walked back to the others. With them taking care of other ingredients, I would have to change my plans on what I planned to cook. I figured roasting one of the giant fish on a large rotisserie would be easy and simple, but now it seemed I'd have to rely on my old cooking knowledge. Hopefully, the couple of times I experimented with seafood dishes would translate well enough to whatever ingredients this world had to offer.

Sighing, I packed away my future culinary woes and continued down the street. The alchemy stall was positioned further to the back, so I got to examine the other wares on display.

One woman was selling dyes and paints of varying colours. The giant mortar behind her stall was filled with a shimmering orange liquid that caught the light beautifully. Another man was proudly waving two flags in each hand. His stall was overly decorated with the orange and blue flags that could be seen around every building.

On and on it went; the different displays reminded me of a farmers market. Sam and I rarely got to go out and visit places like this, so the experience was refreshing. In a way, I almost wished some of the malls back on Earth were like this place. A corner of the world filled with livelihood and trade, attended by people of varying races and sizes with equally varying fantastic wares, was nice to see.

Stopping briefly, I frowned and clicked my fangs together. That was several times in one day where I couldn't help but compare things to my old life from Earth. For all that I claimed that I was completely okay with becoming a Reborn, it seemed a part of me was a little homesick. Yet, when I thought of wanting to go back to my old life, I felt a rejection deep within my gut. There was no way I would ever want to return to the world of the mundane, one lacking the magic and wonderment that this world had to offer.

When a woman rushed past me and glared, I realized I had stopped in the middle of the street and was currently filling in as a roadblock to walk around. Shaking my head, I walked the last couple of meters and reached the stall, where I smelled the antiseptic mixed with mint and soap.

The large beastkin was busy grinding some kind of paste and had their back turned to me. Not wanting to disturb them in the middle of their work, I waited and examined the many vials of liquid that filled the stall's countertop.

None of the vials had names or writing that I could see. The glass was simple and unenchanted, or at least I could detect no mana coming off the material. After examining the third tincture, I spotted a small symbol on the bottom of the glass. Picking up the vials I had already examined, I found only one had the same mark.

Curious, I looked for more items marked with a little x on the bottom of the glass. After going through all the wares, I counted that more than half of the vials had the mark while the other half didn't. I even found the mark on a tray filled with tiny packages wrapped in paper.

When the beastkin turned around and placed the mortar on the countertop, they finally spotted me standing there examining their wares. "Waaagh! What the? How long have you been standing there?"

I raised my hand and waved politely. "Long enough to examine all your wears. May I ask what the little mark on half the items is?"

Visibly calming down after my question, the beastkin grabbed one of the jars filled with yellow jelly and flipped it over to show the tiny 'x' imprinted into the bottom of the jar. "I mark anything that could be dangerous or harmful if mishandled. Sunburn jelly wouldn't hurt you if you accidentally spill it on yourself, but skrack jelly would be fatal if exposed to large quantities."

I had no idea what either of those two items were, but I understood what he meant. "That's smart. So what were you making?"

He looked over to where I was pointing and picked up the mortar filled with a strange orange paste. "This is my newest recipe. The festival means many outsiders are coming to the village. In my experience, adventurers tend to be a little reckless, especially around these waters. This paste is an antioxidant that'll help draw out any toxins when applied to the skin. Hopefully, this will save our priests from being worked to death. The last thing we need is a bunch of people dying before the festival begins."

The sharkman had a bitter tone to their voice, and I wisely chose to redirect the conversation to my original goal for coming to the stall. "Do you buy alchemy ingredients, then? Or perhaps you have a way of identifying things? I have no idea what the items I got are or their intended use. I figured an alchemist would."

"Worry not. I have an identification skill. Place the items over here, and I'll see if I can use it."

Complying, I held my hand over the counter and summoned one of the balloon organs. When it bounced off the wood and nearly rolled off the counter, the alchemist quickly grabbed a wide square plate and placed the organ inside. Motioning for me to continue, I shrugged and summoned the rest. After the balloon organs, I pulled out the two sacks filled with fish scales.

By now, he was staring at me with narrowed eyes. Once again, I remembered that dimensional storage items were rare. It wasn't my fault that I had forgotten. As far as I knew, every member of Broken Tower had some kind of dimensional storage, with Teddy and Celanae, in particular, having some of the largest.

I summoned the tier-two beastcore and winced as the glass-like material made an unpleasant sound against the wood. Still, I wasn't worried; from what I learned in Edolus, beastcores were tougher than they looked.

After pulling out the six ghostgoop vials that I looted in the dungeon, I lowered my hand. Gently, in the corner away from the rest of the items, I summoned the weird ring made of bone and placed it on the counter. When I removed my hand, the beastkin was staring at me with a critical eye. The intense scrutiny of a person with the head of a shark was slightly intimidating. More than a few people I used to know would have already shit themselves.

"You are more than you seem, adventurer. It seems proper introductions are in order. I am Khrem, a journeyman alchemist at your service. May I have your name?"

"Cyrus, novice adventurer. The weird balloon things, the pouches, and the beastcore were from some fish that attacked our boat on our way to the island. The vials over there were from the dungeon. And the bone ring is also from the dungeon, but I don't know if it's anything useful."

Picking up the balloon organ, he rolled it in his large hands and gently squeezed. He repeated the process for each one before moving on to the beastcore. This time, he pulled out a small device that looked like a compass with a large needle sticking out of the middle. When he placed it on the surface of the core, the compass started to spin, and he tested it again in different places before putting it down.

"The pressure sacks of the Glypul fish look perfect. All too common to accidentally puncture these things during battle. I'll buy them at eleven silver each." He then picked up the beastcore and held it up. "Tier two beastcore, high quality as well. Glypuls hunt in packs with a tier two as their leader. I take it this is from that fish?"

"Correct."

"I can only offer you thirty-seven silver. You can probably sell it for more somewhere else, but I have limited uses for beastcores."

I nodded, and he moved on to the three pouches filled with the special scales. He pulled loose the drawstrings holding one of the pouches shut and shook loose a couple of the scales. "Hmmm. Soft scales. Seven total, decent quality."

"Do they have any uses for alchemy? I figured they were just extra pretty-looking scales."

"Not commonly known, but the soft scales are an important ingredient in crafting waterbreathing potions."

"Huh. There should be seven scales in the first two bags, and the third one has six."

"Fifty-eight silver for all three."

"Fine by me."

He paused and looked up. While he lacked eyebrows, it wasn't hard to understand the beastkin was staring at me with some confusion on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"You do not haggle, Cyrus."

I scratched my head and shrugged my shoulders. "Hard to barter when you don't know what you're trying to sell. I mean, I can if you really want, but without knowledge of local prices, I can't do much about it."

He continued to stare at me for a while. Eventually, he put the scales down and picked up one of the vials of ghostgoop. "Just be careful in the future. I will offer you fair prices, but others may not."

Turning it upside down, he watched the liquid shift inside the glass before placing it and holding it carefully to the light. His fingers traced the three runes etched near the top of the vial.

"Tell me something, where did you get these vials?"

"Uh, not sure I can answer that. Why? Is there a problem?"

He shook his head. "No, everything's fine. I'm just impressed with these vials. The enchantments are simple, but I recognize two of the three runes. 'Seal' and 'Preserve' are commonly used, but the third is foreign to me. Considering the vial's contents, I can only assume it's some kind of anchoring rune. It's rather rare for the dungeon to award this much material, and it's rarely in the form of liquid substances."

It was only now that I realized something I had missed. Khrem claimed to have an identification skill, but I didn't detect any mana being used. In Edolus, the guild identifier conjured a weird purple eye when he activated his skill, but there was no obvious indication of Khrem's skill activating. I didn't want to doubt the man, but there was no way for me to confirm the varacity of his words without him showing me his status sheet. Of course, I could be wrong in assuming his skill was an active one. There had to be passive identification skills that existed.

"What does your skill tell you is inside? It looks exactly like the substance that covered the weird fish monsters in the dungeon."

"Water-attuned ectoplasm. It's a rather hard material to harvest, and the dungeon only ever awards it sparingly. I won't ask how you obtained so much, but I cannot properly offer you what it's worth."

I frowned and watched him continue to examine the vial in his hand. "How come?"

"Simply put, I'm only a journeyman alchemist. I've yet to have the chance to experiment with dungeon materials. I cannot offer you a price if I do not know what I can do with said materials."

"Does that mean I'll have to find some other alchemist to buy them?"

Khrem shook his head and stared directly into my eyes. "I will still buy them, but I would need to see my mentor first. While I have never used dungeon material for potions, he has."

"Fine by me. Do you want me to come back later after you're done running your stall?"

"No need. The other villagers will not attempt to steal from my wares. We can leave now."

"Huh, okay then. Before we go, what about that weird bone ring? Is it worth anything?"

Khrem covered the paste he had made earlier with some kind of film and tucked it away behind the stall. Reaching over, he picked up the bone ring and stared at it awhile. I frowned when he set it back on the counter while shaking his head.

"It is enchanted to grant the wearer "Darkvision." It helps the wearer see in darkened spaces better. Useful but not for alchemy."

"Aahh, so useless for me then. Alright, thank you."

I took the ring and put it in my pocket. Even if it was useless to me personally, it'd make a great gift to someone else. Hell, maybe one of the others could use it.