The salamander looks at Ronan, then at me. Now how do I explain this—I hope she understands.

"Salamander, if you swear fealty to me, you'll be like a pet for Ronan and able to communicate with him mentally, even though he's not a tamer. I think it would be safer for you."

I give her a look that says: This way he'll try to protect you better. You'll be one of his special friends—probably the only living one.

The creature lowers her head, pressing it to the ground.

Salamander, Level 1, wants to swear loyalty to you. Do you accept? Yes/No.

I accept.

"Great!" I exclaim. "Ronan, you can now make her one of your soldiers. That way you'll be able to give her mental commands. And while you're at it, please explain to her that, even though you're a mage with high affinity for darkness, you don't intend to kill her."

"But my lady, my pet already knows that. If I had wanted to purchase something to raise, I would have gone to the butcher's for bones."

"Just tell her," I insist.

After the mental exchange, I see the creature relax a bit. On top of that, since she's now my vassal, she should have gained one point in both health and damage. That'll make her more resistant to accidental death, which is nice—because I doubt a level 1 salamander has many HP. The seed, if I remember right, only had two.

Speaking of the seed—it still hasn't come back.

"What do we do?" I ask Ronan.

One of his bats is flying toward him with something in its mouth. Ronan extends his palm, and I see four small golem cores drop into it. He also takes a few steps forward, his creatures shifting to make way, and then, with the help of a small knife, he cuts and collects one of the legs from a fallen zombie bat.

I look away, my stomach churning at the idea of watching him slice through it, and wait for him to answer. He seems to be choosing his words carefully.

"My lady," he finally says, "I think we should continue, but with caution. You should be ready to renew the channeling on your bow, with the spell halfway cast, just leaving the last few words. I do not think the divine beast is in trouble, but I would prefer to leave the maze and head towards the lake, just in case. I will send the bats ahead down different corridors to see if they encounter it."

I nod, suddenly worried. I hadn't thought of that, but the pup can't evolve without me, and he's just a little wolf in the face of those terrible specters I imagine he went to bother.

We resume our march, and a few minutes later Ronan says:

"It is close. A skeleton bat found it. It is bringing it here."

Soon after, through the gap between our heads and the ceiling, I see the small flying skeleton holding a tiny pup, about the size that fits in my pocket, clinging to its spine as best it can. It flies toward Ronan, flapping its bony wings to hover at his chest level.

Magic. It has to be magic. Because without skin, fur, or membranes, I don't see how it could fly otherwise.

Ronan extends his hand and carefully takes the divine beast, thanking his minion. He turns and hands it to me.

"Thank you," I say, and immediately fix my gaze and anger on the little rascal. "What do you think you were doing? Did you go to the lake and call the wraiths? Well, more than one or two came, you almost got us killed. And where were you, by the way?"

In response, he plays innocent and whines.

"My lady, he was probably running from other wraiths. Besides, he neither flies nor passes through walls; it is normal that it took him longer to return to us."

"Ronan, no. Don't excuse him. He really went too far this time."

I keep glaring at him, still very angry.

"Look, I can buy the secret level thing, since you were capable of beating the bosses. But this? You put us and yourself in danger. If we're not together, you can't evolve. What the hell do you think you were doing?"

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The pup whines more and presses his snout against the palms of my hands, where I hold him, looking pitiful.

Okay, now I am starting to feel sorry for him.

It even makes me doubt if it's possible I've miscalculated and he'll realize he almost died and killed us.

Really, if he was pursued by a wraith, I can't figure out how he escaped.

Oh... wait... what an idea!

"Ronan, can you turn him into your vassal soldier? That way you can interrogate him and we'll find out what he did and why."

"It would not be appropriate, my lady, he is a divine beast, I am not worthy of giving him orders."

"But I am, do it," I command.

I'm so angry at the pup that I ignore Ronan's feelings. I realize almost immediately, but before I can open my mouth to backtrack, he answers me.

"My lady, I just tried, and I cannot make the divine beast my vassal."

"I guess that's for the best. I apologize, Ronan, I let my emotions take over, and I didn't realize that you weren't comfortable with my orders. In fact, I've taken advantage of you being my vassal, something I told myself I wouldn't do. I'm sorry."

I feel awful. Poor guy. And he's the one with a dark magic affinity, not me.

"It is alright. It is your role as leader."

He doesn't seem disappointed or anything. It's as though he's accepted his role as a sergeant before his superior.

"But I don't think you felt it was right."

"My lady, I did not feel it was right because he has a higher rank than me. Perhaps in the future, if I manage to become your general and be on par with the divine beast, it might be possible to make him my vassal."

"I understand."

I don't say anything else, good thing he doesn't have a bad opinion of me for this. As usual, I'm overthinking. Ugh, but Ronan helps me so much, and I don't want to take advantage of him.

And by the way… general?

I don't even have a clear idea about having an army, and my good sergeant already sees himself as a general, I think sarcastically to myself.

"There must be a purpose for what he did," Ronan says after a few seconds of silence. "It does not make sense that he risked his life and yours if it was not important. Maybe we should get closer to the lake."

I go completely on the defensive.

More of those wraiths?

No, thank you.

"My lady," he continues, noticing my firm rejection, "we could just get closer without touching the ice, just to see if we spot anything. The divine beast in its wolf form should be able to handle the specters."

It should… But if they attack in droves and steal the mana... Hmm, what abilities did he have?

I mentally smack myself when I realize I'm actually considering it. Sigh. Ronan looks at me, puzzled. I sigh again. He's right, though.

So far, all that the damn seed of evil has done is help me level up. Well, to get his lord demon, sure, but still, he helped me. It makes no sense that this near-suicide and attempted murder was for nothing.

Let's see. First of all, he has grandmaster-level magical resistance, so I imagine he's immune to the ice touch. Also, he jumps in the shadows, so he can also play the "I disappear" game. He also has a grandmaster-level shadow howl, which paralyzes all creatures that hear it and don't have magical resistance for ten seconds; this time is shorter if they have it, decreasing based on the level of resistance. So, the wolf howls, and all the specters stand still. His grandmaster-level shadow aura is going to reduce their defense and attack. With the darkness ball, which explodes, he kills them in an area. And, as if that weren't enough, he also has grandmaster-level shadow claws. I'd say if he catches them with a howl in a tangible state, they're dead. And, if not, he can jump from shadow to shadow, attacking those that appear to immobilize the rest of us.

Alright, I can see it working. The divine beast can take on hundreds of them with no problem—as long as I have mana, that is. So if I channel fire into the quiver and the bow, and the salamander also protects me, I can see this ending in an easy win.

By the way, I imagine I was able to channel fire into the quiver because, along with the arrows, it can be considered part of a weapon. It's not something I could channel into myself, armor, or a structure. Otherwise, I'd just make a hollow stone cage with breathing holes, coat it in flames, and hide inside.

"My lady?"

"Alright, we can get closer. But no touching the lake. And you," I add, turning again to the pup, getting angry all over again just remembering what he did, "you'd better have had a damn good reason for doing what you did."

He gives me that heartbreakingly pitiful look, and I roll my eyes. I shove him back into the backpack pocket—though this time, I feel like sealing it shut.

We continue forward, constantly on alert in case more wraiths appear, using the golems to avoid and get past any pit traps.

When we finally exit the labyrinth, a massive cave opens up before us. The walls are far apart. The terrain slopes gently downward toward the frozen lake on our left. In the center and off to the right, snow-covered trees grow increasingly dense, forming a forest. I notice something soft under my boots as I step out of the maze. Snow. I have no idea how it's possible for it to snow inside a dungeon, but here it is—just a light layer, maybe a finger or two thick, carpeting the ground. I crouch down. Beneath the snow, there seems to be dirt instead of rock.

I hear a sound to my right and turn. It's a fox. White. I almost didn't see it, its color blending in perfectly.

The dungeon's creatures—the ones that will attack us—are trolls, wolves, worms, and now, apparently, wraiths. But here, there's a whole ecosystem. Dungeon cores can include plants and animals in their dungeons. Like that water-based one from the exam. Those octopuses that mutated because of the dark seed were originally just harmless animals that wouldn't attack you.

I look straight ahead and take a cold breath of air. I've just come to terms with the idea of being in an underground forest. Actually, unlike in the maze, we don't need any light orb in this cavern, since there's already a natural light—similar to early morning. However, I can't see any sun or skylight in the ceiling. Maybe it's a magical effect created by the dungeon.

Without turning around, I say to Ronan:

"I am ready."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.