There are a few surviving records of the War of the Gods, though no civilisations from that era still survive. It was a time of great turmoil. Civilisations rose quickly, buoyed by the direct support of one or more Gods, clashed against another supported by different Gods, and fell, usually at the instigation of yet another God.

The problem was that the Gods could rarely come to an agreement on anything. Confrontations between Gods were common during this era but normally ended in stalemates. When they formed alliances with each other, progress could be made, but these alliances never lasted for long.

The powers of the Gods were so overwhelming in both magnitude and scope, that nothing was beyond their whim - when it was not opposed. Races were destroyed, and may have been created. Cultures could be developed in days, and then erased even more easily.

Things only stabilised when the Gods finally agreed to cease large-scale interference in mortal affairs. The mortal races were not a party to the agreement or informed of its terms. It seems to allow for some interventions, but exactly what the new rules are can only be inferred.

- Heresies of Kaval

“I wasn’t aware that it was a race,” I said cautiously. Cerise wasn’t approaching, so this still seemed like a friendly interaction. The rest of her crew was just behind her, but they weren’t holding weapons or anything.

“Best way to win one,” she returned, grinning. “It’s first-come, first fought for the boss, of course it’s a race.”

“Right.” I looked back at our fresh-slain corpse. “You’ve got a use for that? How are you going to carry it?” I looked over at her group. For a party that must have harvested seven rooms of monsters and that pack of hawk-wolves, their packs were nowhere near as full as they should have been.

“I’ve got a storage ring,” Cerise said. Her grin turned smug. “We’ll have to make some room for it, but it's nothing we can’t handle.” She pointed at her feet and a large bundle of tightly tied furs appeared with a shimmer in front of her.

“You lucky…” I trailed off before I could give offence. ‘Bastard’ however it got translated, might not go down well with strangers. “Where did you get that?”

“From my mentor, when he retired,” she said. “It’s one of the better random prizes on Level Five.”

That meant… a Threat 30 monster if I remembered how the levels went. I whistled. “Your mentor must have been quite the fighter.”

“That he was,” she agreed. “So how’s about I give you five gold to take that monster off your hands?”

“Oh, I couldn’t let it go for less than fifty,” I said, the words coming automatically out of my mouth. I was actually paying more attention to the fact that she made the offer. Since we were planning on leaving it, she could have gotten what she wanted just by letting us leave. Offering us money did seem like she was trying to make friends.

“Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “You were just going to leave it there. No way I can go more than ten.”

She was right, but [Bargain] was feeding me information now, based on her reaction. At least I hoped that’s where it was getting from. The possibility that [Skills] could read minds to get the results that the effect totals called for couldn’t be dismissed.

“That was before you offered us money,” I informed her. “You know something about this corpse that makes it worth something.”

She started to protest, but I quelled her with just a look. I wasn’t finished. “It’s valuable… but you’re not sure it applies. Based on the risk it won’t pan out, and the transportation hassle - I notice that you weren’t planning on harvesting it here - I figure you’re willing to go as high as 35 gold.”

She tried to hide it, but I could see that I was dead on. I continued.

“But since we’re just getting to know each other, how about we settle for 25? And you tell us what you’re planning to do with it.”

Judging by her face, she went from surprise, regret, and finally resignation all in the space of a second.

“Phadan’s Mercy, lady, just how high is your [Charisma]?”

“That’s confidential,” I said. “Do we have a deal?”

“Fine, fine, I know when I’m beat,” she said. “With chimeras that have a snail-type, you can generally boil them down to get an elixir base that works for a lot of potions.”

I looked at the massive beast. “You’re going to put the whole thing in a pot?”

“I’m not,” she snorted. “But I know a guy who will.” She handed me a small stack of coins.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” I said.

“I’m sure it was,” she said wryly, “I guess I just found out how a support class became the leader of this crew.”

“Well, it’s more of a democracy-“ I stopped as I noticed the others all nodding. “What the- I’ve just been deferring to you two these last fights!” I said accusingly to Kyle.

“You take advice,” Cloridan said. “And that’s welcome. But you’re definitely the leader.”

Cerise laughed. “You guys seem like you might be going places. Are you continuing down?”

“About that…” I said. “Do you think the group that took the other track are doing alright?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well they went through before we did, and they haven’t shown up.”

“They were probably just too weak to continue and turned back,” she said, shrugging.

“Maybe. Did you guys run into a trap that blocked your way back?”

“You too?” She started looking thoughtful. “We thought that was just a fluke… do you think it's a new feature?”

“I do but… it seems odd,” I said. “I’ve seen a few dungeons now, and this doesn’t mesh with what I’ve seen so far. Dungeons like to trap the unwary, but this seems unfair.”

“There’s probably a way to open the way back,” Ildas, the dwarven cleric put in. “We didn’t look for it, because we were headed on.”

“So what I’m getting is, you want to go back and see if they need rescuing,” Cerise said. “And-“

“If if all three entrances are cleared and someone goes to the second level, this level resets, right?”

“Right. That might have changed along with the new traps though.”

“It might,” I agreed. “But it's a bit of a risk to take if someone's trapped in there, isn’t it?”

“Fine,” Cerise groaned. “We’ll wait and give you a chance to play hero.”

I cleared my throat. “As long as you’re just going to be sitting around…”

“Oh come on, the rewards are going to be crap with eight people!”

I shrugged, “It’s not about the reward? And the risk will be less as well.”

She looked back at her party and sighed at what she saw. “Fine.”

“Actually,” Ildas spoke up again. “If the young lady is up to healing for the group, I’ll stay here and ask any other parties that come through to wait.”

“I should be fine,” Felicia said. “I’ve got almost half my Faith left.”

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Spider Jaguar - your experience share is 186 XP

Many hands made light work of killing Spider Jaguars. These were not really insectile in appearance, looking like regular giant cats only with eight legs and eyes. They scuttled around on the walls and ceiling, and they were agile enough that Cloridan couldn’t hit them with his crossbow. Oadi could though, and they became a lot less agile when [Blinded]. Ralin, the Druid, also had some luck dropping them with a stone to mud spell. Hard to cling to mud.

I made sure to chant when casting, I didn’t want them to know all my secrets.

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

Your party has killed a Pteroshrew - your experience share is 186 XP

I wasn’t sure why these annoying guys got the name they did - as far as I could tell they were just really large bats. Both these monsters would have done a number on our one-man shield wall tactic, so I was glad to have the others along.

Two rooms were all we had to clear. In the third room, we found the body of a massive worm, half-buried, and two survivors from that fight.

[Identification]: - Whaleworm Corpse - Quality: Good

I didn’t think Cerise would be fitting that one in her store. Felicia was not distracted by the worm and ran forward to offer healing. Both adventurers were quite badly wounded and were clearly out of healing potions.

“Thank… you…” the human said. “Door blocked… healer died… trapped.”

“Just relax now,” Felicia said, splitting her healing between the two of them. It took a few moments, but eventually she stopped, out of the healer equivalent of mana. “That’s all I can do for you for now. How do you feel?”

“I’m about halfway healed,” the man informed her. That was enough for him to get up and shake his buddy, who had been unconscious but was now stirring. “Come on Vasidi, we’ve been rescued.”

Vasidi was a monkey type beast-kin, I was pretty sure. That often got shortened to Monkin when people talked, but I wasn’t sure if it was derogatory or not. He was wearing robes, so it looked like they were a mage/fighter/healer party.

“Ah… my thanks to all of you,” Vasidi said, taking in the crowd around him. “As you may have heard, my name is Vasidi, and this is Channing.”

We started exchanging names, but I’m pretty sure few of them would be remembered. I caught Cerise’s eye and we moved aside to talk.

“They’ll need escorting back, especially if they’re carrying their party member,” I said. “We’ll take them, and you can get back to Level Two.”

She was suspicious that I had an ulterior motive, but I knew that was what she wanted to do. “Sure, I guess you’ll want your half of the harvest.”

“How about you sell it, and then just give us our share in coin?” I suggested.

“You’re far too trusting - unless you’re that eager to not have to carry the load.”

I laughed. “Actually, how about you look us up before you sell it, and I’ll do the negotiating for you.”

“… am I going to end up in debt over this?”

I clapped her on the arm. “Trust me.”

We went our separate ways, and we led Vasidi and Channing back to the previous chamber. It was littered with winged cats.

[Identification]: - Storking Puma Corpse - Quality: Mediocre

Channing stumbled over to the side, where the body had been laid out.

“Fleurette,” he said. “I thought we were going to join you soon.”

He knelt down and carefully picked her up.

Vasidi joined us in silence as Channing paid his respects, but then he noticed that the door was open.

“Hey!” he said, “The slab’s gone!”

We all looked over. “I guess now that the way is clear forward, it's not needed anymore?” I said.

Channing and Vasidi both looked pissed. “You mean we didn’t have to fight that worm? We could have just waited?”

“Well, keep in mind that if you didn’t, we would have had to fight it, so it did make rescuing you easier.”

“I suppose. Again, thanks for rescuing us.”

“You are welcome.”

With the monsters cleared, the way up was easy enough, although Cloridan did have to disable one reset trap. It wasn’t long before we were back in the forest.