Brother Chin laughed, a squeaky noise from a half metre long dragon whelp.

{But it will be glorious. Think how much more motivated they will be when they've got an outperforming peer to challenge them.}

"You dare call yourself their peer? You're nearly two hundred years old."

{Scan me. That's not what my body age says.}

The healer looked to Karl for assistance, but he just shrugged. "I don't see the issue here. I've got a baby dragon."

Chin laughed hysterically, and a wave of magic that felt like Divine Amusement rumbled through the clouds, making everyone who was caught by surprise put up defensive barriers.

"What did you do? The Gods rarely notice anything we do, but that's the second time since you arrived that they have responded to your actions."

Karl shrugged. "Well, I am an Avatar of the World Dragon. That makes me a bit closer to the Gods than most, right?"

The healer looked skeptical. Karl wasn't even a cleric, how strong could his faith be?

Karl felt a poke on his back, and a young man in black robes handed him a note.

"You know, I don't even have to open this to know what it says." Karl joked.

"Really?"

"Yep. See, it says that I... Wait, I thought that this was a message from the Black Dragon's Avatar. Never mind, carry on."

The boy ran off while Karl read through the letter.

"It seems that the Elders have awarded us Clan Credits for the rescue.

That was faster than expected.

Fifty points, split evenly between the four members of the rescue team, for managing to recover so many of the Immortals from a dire situation without provoking an ongoing conflict.

Apparently, the other Sect's Elders have already been to the battlefield, and have collected their dead." Karl explained to everyone watching.

"Twelve and a half each? That's quite the reward. Not that you haven't earned it. Most of these rescue missions are three to five credits per person, and that's already a fairly significant sum to trade for necessities." One of the young Immortals they had resurrected noted.

Jin nodded. "The goods that we got from the mission, other than the one that got us ambushed, sell for an average of about two credits per person."

"What did you even find that provoked that sort of response, anyhow?"

"Ironically, nothing even as good as what Cara found when you came to rescue us. She is the one that plucked the Chaos Lilly, right? It didn't go to one of the dead Immortals from that Sect?"

"She got it." Karl agreed, with a motion for the dragon to continue.

"We got a Fire Lotus, another elemental flower used in Alchemical creations. It sells to the Clan for fifty credits, so it's certainly a valuable resource. But don't make the mistake of thinking that they would have actually let us leave if we turned it over.

We would just die poor."

"That's the natural order of things. The dead don't need their loot. I'm glad that you made it through. Now, I wonder if there were casualties that I might have known?

I assume that there will be funerals to attend?"

Jin nodded. "They will do a group funeral for those who didn't have enough soul energy left to be resurrected or reborn. Some of the others might be upset about the childish rebirth, but in a way that's actually better than being reborn in a full-sized body with a damaged soul.

It can take centuries to recover a damaged soul in an adult body. But in the body of a child, it will naturally improve as you grow up.

The trade-off is that the body doesn't hold your old power level, so you have to start all over, and not just repair the soul.

Everyone will gather for the funeral ceremony at midnight tonight if you wish to attend. However, I think that the ones you have met are actually all alive. Nyan is over there, as she was resurrected normally by the Elves. Geoff was reborn, I think, and Brother Chin is on your shoulder."

"Where is Argoth?" Dana asked, referring to the Werewolf warrior who was their tank.

"Not with us. He was delayed in the trial ground, so he wasn't involved in the incident, and may still be fine. The Elders have gone looking for him."

Dana let out a sigh of relief. At least they hadn't lost anyone familiar this time. Though that was only because they didn't know more than a half dozen of the nearly fifty members of the group.

Dana went to check on Nyan, who didn't seem like the sort who would do well with this sort of trauma, only to find the catgirl cradling something in her arms, hidden under her coat.

Nyan hissed at her as she approached, and Dana growled back, which seemed to snap Nyan out of her protective instincts.

"Sorry. I got distracted, feeling all maternal."

"One of the reborn was a feline beastkin?"

Nyan shook her head, and opened her coat to reveal a small blue Divine Lightning Dragon, barely more than hatchling sized. Geoff was sleeping in the soft cloth, and she quickly closed the wrap before the light woke him up.

If he had regressed that much, it was an extremely close call for him during the battle. Only the barest scrap of his soul had survived the attack and lingered on his body.

"Well, he might be cranky if we wake him up, but I'm not going to steal your baby dragon from you. It looks like Karl has gained one as well."

Nyan looked up and giggled. "Oh, Brother Chin is going to be insufferable now that he's tiny. He was a healing prodigy as an actual child, and now that he has a second chance to learn skills and rebuild his power, he will be even faster."

Dana winked at her. "Just wait. I have a plan. Now that they're starting from nothing again, we can influence the System to give them an improved Class. We can make a bigger, better Geoff, and an even more proud Chin."

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