Monika and her guards stopped in front of the slope leading down the quarry. The quarry was glowing with a purple hue, barely illuminating the ground. “How is it?” Monika asked her guards. “Think you can fight without torches?”

“It’s doable,” one of the guards said. “I’m glad I don’t have to give up my shield.”

The other guards murmured in agreement, and the group descended with the Tribish soldiers following behind them. The slope leading down was uneven, curving back up, dropping suddenly, narrowing and widening without warning. The group traveled slowly, watching their steps, and they made it to the first cave along the walls without an issue.

“This is it,” General Jackson said, his voice hushed. “We lost one of our men in this cave.”

Monika nodded as she strode past the guards to the cave’s entrance. “Charge in after my first spell,” she said as she raised her hands towards the sky. Her eyes closed as her hair rippled, mana surging to her fingertips. The cave was dim, but the outline of a giant lizard curled up into a ball could easily be seen. The lizard stirred and raised its head as Monika opened her eyes and lowered her hands, pointing at it. Ten bolts of lightning, one from each finger, flew from Monika and crashed into the lizard, lifting it off the ground and tossing it to the back of the cave. The ground shuddered as it roared, its limbs twitching.

“Charge!” the guards shouted and rushed into the cave. General Jackson and his men looked at each other before charging as well.

The lizard was twice as tall as a man with an even longer body. Even with the ten guards that Monika brought, they weren’t able to surround it completely, forming a semi-circle near its head instead. Every time the lizard struck with its claws, the guards would attack the protruding limb. The lizard tried to bite once, but a bloody gash was torn open along its neck. Methodically, the men wore it down, chipping away at it little by little until there were more cuts on its limbs than scales. Thanks to Monika’s earlier barrage of lightning, it hadn’t fully regained its motor controls, or the battle wouldn’t have been that easy.

[Monika has slain a giant earth lizard. 5 Achievement Points gained.]

“We could sell its body for a decent amount,” Monika said as she approached the lizard, holding onto Khrx’s hand. She inspected her guards. “Are you tired?”

The guards glanced at each other before shaking their heads. “That was just a warmup. We can keep going.”

Monika nodded. “We’ll retrieve the body on our way back,” she said as she made her way out of the cave. She frowned while peering down the slope. “I was expecting some lizard to come from further in, but it’s understandable, judging by the size of that lizard.” She patted Khrx’s head. “Do you know what I mean?”

“There’s not enough food,” Khrx said. “Maybe there’s only two or three of them living here.”

“That’s right,” Monika said, a smile blossoming on her face. “Let me check your intelligence. Did it increase?”

“It didn’t,” Khrx said with a scowl. Stupid biased system. He wasn’t dumb!

“Shall we proceed?” General Jackson asked after clearing his throat.

“Let’s,” Monika said, and her guards took the lead. The next three caves that they passed were empty, filled with nothing but glowing rocks. By now, they had traveled halfway down the slope and their tension from the earlier fight had dissipated. As the guards stopped in front of another cave, a hissing sound came out, but Khrx heard it differently.

“What? They really came for me too? This isn’t what I was promised!”

Before Monika could ready her spells, the giant lizard charged out of the cave with a roar. It swept its tail at the entrance while turning its body around. The men barely managed to throw themselves out of the wall, one of them falling off the slope with a scream. His body landed on the bottom of the quarry with a crunch, and the scream stopped. After sweeping the guards away, the lizard leapt up onto the walls above its cave and scrambled up and out of the quarry, running off into the distance. A few rocks fell down the quarry’s walls, bouncing along the slope. The group stared at the lines the lizard had left behind on the wall with its claws. “It ran?” Monika asked, furrowing her brow. After waiting a few seconds, she crouched by the slope’s edge and shouted down below. “Are you alright, James?”

“No. I fell on my tailbone! I think I broke my ass. God, why are potions so damn cold!? My children are hiding inside me!”

Monika chuckled. “Let’s go retrieve James,” she said as she stood up. “If it’s just a broken ass, a potion can fix that.” The group traveled down the slope, meeting James halfway. His pants were stained red, but other than that, one couldn’t tell he had fallen down half a quarry. Monika nodded at him. “Did you see anything down there?”

“A giant cave,” James said. “Three times the size of the others. It was on the side we were looking from, so we didn’t see it from up there. I thought I heard someone laughing, but I didn’t dare check it out by myself.”

Monika rubbed her chin. “Should we retreat for today?” she asked. “If there’s another lizard down there, it’d be a tough fight if the one that ran away just now came back.”

“No,” General Jackson said. “We can’t afford to wait another day.”

“The employer has spoken,” Monika said. “And I don’t think that lizard will come back. It’s a cowardly thing; it didn’t even come to help the first one we fought.”

The guards nodded and steeled themselves as they marched down to the bottom of the quarry. Like James had said, there was a giant cave staring them in the face, but it wasn’t lit up by purple runes. Monika squinted and frowned. “Light a torch,” she said. A thin laugh rang throughout the quarry as one of the guards fumbled with a steel and flint.

“Isn’t life great? Food has willingly come to me once again. And there’s an adorable cat-bear chew toy too! Come, just a few more steps…”

“That’s one creepy hiss,” General Jackson said, furrowing his brow. “But it looks like this is the last lizard we’ll have to deal with.”

Orange light flooded the quarry as the guard succeeded in lighting his torch. “Throw it into the cave,” Monika said. The guard complied, and the torch arced through the air, landing in the center of the cave, lighting up a massive boulder.

Monika’s eyes widened as the boulder cracked open and a tongue shot out like an arrow. One of the Tribish soldiers let out a grunt as a pink glob hit him in the stomach. He didn’t even have time to scream as he was yanked towards the cave, flying into the mouth of the lizard. He did have time to scream as the lizard crunched down, tearing apart his body.

“Run!” Monika shouted as she turned around. The lizard’s tongue flew towards her, but a barrier of mana formed just in time. The tongue stuck to the barrier before pulling it away. The lizard chomped on it, swallowing the mana like water.

“Why are we running?” General Jackson shouted. He and his men were the last to react, several steps behind the Golden Crow Merchants on the slope. “What about the contract? I’m your employer!”

“You said giant lizards!” Monika shouted back. The lizard’s tongue flickered again, sticking to one of the Tribish soldiers. “That’s a lesser earth dragon! I don’t care how much money you pay; we’re not fighting a dragon!”

The last Tribish solder let out a scream as he was ensnared by the tongue as well. General Jackson cursed in his heart but continued to run up the slope. Luckily for him, he wasn’t as heavily armored as the guards and managed to run ahead of some of them. The guards let out miserable shouts as they were hit in the backs by the dragon’s tongue. By the time they had made it out of the quarry, only Monika, Khrx, General Jackson, and two of the guards were left.

“If we fought it, we wouldn’t have lost so many men,” General Jackson said, his expression dark. “It was a giant chameleon, not a dragon.”

“If we fought it, none of us would be standing here right now,” Monika said, glaring at the general. “It was playing with us; otherwise, it would’ve used magic.”

[Quest complete!]

[The Sun God is pleased with your offerings! He knows you want to be free from Jax’s curse, but he is limited in what he can do. While under his blessing, the effect of Jax’s curse is halved. Offer more sacrifices to receive greater power!

[Rewards: Lorin has acquired the title Fanatic Nut. 10 Achievement Points gained.]

[Fanatic Nut]

[During the day, the title [Betrayer of Jax] has its effects reduced by 50% (all stats decreased by 45% instead of 90%).]

[Repeating quest acquired!]

[More blood! More sacrifices! More power!

Note: The Sun God swears he’s a peace-loving god; it’s just that, you know, circumstances.]

[Rewards: A blessing from the Sun God.]

[Quest progress: 0/150 players sacrificed.]

“Khrx?” Monika asked, distracting Khrx from his reading.

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry,” Monika said, crouching down to his level and hugging him. “Were you scared?”

“No?”

“It’s alright,” Monika said, patting his back. “You don’t have to pretend to be strong. I saw how dazed you were just now. We won’t be fighting it again, okay?”

“I’m fine though?”

“There, there,” Monika said and reached into her bag. “Have a cookie.”

Khrx tilted his head before accepting the cookie. Monika stood up and held his hand. “Let’s go back to the settlement, so you can have a proper place to sleep.”

Khrx munched on the cookie as he walked alongside her. He’d have to learn how to make these circular bits of heaven in reality.

[Your actions are adorable. Charm has increased by 1.]

***

Awakening Cycle 1,072,362: Day 12.

Dear Diary,

Today, a lesser earth dragon called me an adorable chew toy. I’m going to go to Vsclthkrh’s lair and beat him up! How dare his underlings disrespect me!? Does it count if it was only in a game? Of course it does! I’m going to ask Luke where that block of earth that calls itself a dragon lives.

…

So I asked Luke. Apparently Vsclthkrh died over a thousand years ago to someone called the hero.

…

I need a drink. And Fufu. Sigh.

Love,

Khrx