"Ha!" with a blow to its leg, I knock a preoccupied golem off its feet, after which Mucky pierces it through the core with his sword.

Mucky gives me a thumbs up, "Good job, little fella!"

"I'm not really a 'fella', though..."

Now that the room is cleared, I walk over to where Mama Bloodcat is and sit down. The dungeon has been getting progressively harder, as is expected, but due to our current lineup it's still no problem. Out of our group of people, although everyone has some skill, the creepy couple and the short old man are especially strong.

Neither of the creepy people use weapons. Instead, they use some strange technique which causes the left and right sides of their bodies to move very differently from each other. But even though both sides of their bodies seem to move independently, they show levels of coordination I have never seen before. The sight is strange to the point of being disturbing, but it seems to work for them, as they have yet to suffer a single blow.

As for the short old man, he likewise fights without a weapon, but that's about where the similarities end. Instead of effortlessly slipping through attacks and defenses alike, he simply brawls with the golems at close range. Whenever he starts fighting, his body glows silver, which seems to allow him to take stronger blows, as well as dish them out.

"This should be the halfway point of the dungeon. We will rest here for the time being. Please recover your qi, everyone." after she finishes talking, Trista sits down and starts meditating. Everyone else soon starts meditating as well, except Mama Bloodcat and the short old man, who just sits down and folds his arms.

'Wait, maybe he's meditating as well?'

My qi recovers pretty quickly on its own, so I don't really feel the need to meditate. Not that I could meditate even if I wanted to.

Mama sits down beside me, and then leans over and whispers, "Is the person still following us?"

I shake my head, "They're still waiting outside of the dungeon."

"They must be following us because of the bounty." Mama sighs.

"Wait, did you see a bounty of us? How much are we worth?"

Reaching into her clothes, Mama pulls out a crumpled piece of paper and stealthily presents it to me.

"Ten thousand spirit stones for both of us! That's probably a lot, huh? So they suspect that I'm mid Qi Manipulation, and that you're... haha, mid Qi Awakening..."

I try to lighten the mood, but Mama just stuffs the bounty paper back into her clothes and lowers her head, sighing again.

"What's wrong, Mama?"

She shakes her head, "I was happy when I met humans. There are so many kind individuals among them, something I am unused to. However, their rules confuse me. I feel I have done nothing wrong, yet this soon after meeting them, they want me dead. Should I have not killed those people? That would go against everything I have ever known; yet killing them seems to have had the opposite effect of what I intended, instead likely causing more people to pursue us."

Mama always seems so sure of herself, so confident in her decisions, no matter how extreme they may be. I never knew she worried so much about these things.

"Honestly, they outright said that they were going to kill us, which is a good enough reason to kill them in my book. I mean, with that attitude, the idiots were practically begging to be killed. Haa, I don't know. Maybe they thought we were begging to be killed as well. Maybe it's normal here to basically get robbed from, and not put up any resistance. But if they think they can do anything they want just because they're strong, they shouldn't complain when someone stronger than them does the same. Speaking of, they wouldn't even want to attack you if they knew how strong you were, right?"

Mama sighs, "When I was in Qi Manipulation, any beast that was near my level in strength could tell how strong I was. Of course, I did have an advantage in a fight. Do you remember the orange fruit that I talked about, the one that changed my fur color after eating it?"

I nod my head.

"It also affected my ability, making it much stronger. The qi needed to use it likewise increased, but it provided a significant advantage when fighting beasts with strength similar to my own, and even more so against beasts stronger than myself. This was very useful, as beasts that wanted to kill me for any reason would often form groups, and the ability to kill a being as strong as myself in a single attack has saved my life on multiple occasions. But now that they cannot accurately judge my strength, even if they were to form a group to attack me, it would likely be ineffective. Because of this, I would prefer to keep my true strength a secret for as long as possible."

I think for a second, "Then, couldn't you just pretend to be strong, just not as strong as you actually are?"

She opens her mouth, and then closes it again. She then furrows her eyebrows and closes her eyes, like she often does while thinking.

"Mama? Hey, Mama?"

I try poking her leg, but she seems to be lost in thought. Even after several seconds of prodding, she doesn't react to me at all. Just as I'm about to lie down and mope, I happen to see Mucky stand up.

"Mucky! What's up?" happy to find another outlet to relieve my boredom, I shout while walking towards him.

He notices me coming and starts laughing, "Is your master ignoring you?"

"She's not my master, though."

I kinda like Mucky. I feel like I can relate to him. I can especially sympathize with that silly nickname of his. And although he acts a bit childish, at least he seems honest.

It's a refreshing trait really, in this world full of cultivators, people who could be thinking anything, and seem to be capable of anything. They might be acting friendly now, but who knows, maybe they're just biding their time, waiting to pounce. Or the other way around, like Poisonclaw, who tried to rob us, and then acted like he was our friend the very next day.

"So, are you bored? Wanna play a game?" Mucky bends down and picks up a cracked golem core.

"Catch!" he shouts, as he tosses the core in my direction.

'What does he think I am, a dog? I mean, I guess I'm a fox, so... still not a dog, though!'

Despite my inner grumblings, I still jump up to catch the core.

"Haha, good catch! Now pass it back!"

'You want me to pass it back? Ok, catch!'

I swing my head sideways, and then jerk it forward again, releasing the core and sending it hurtling towards Mucky.

"Whoa!"

He backs up a couple steps and reaches his right hand out, catching the core. He then tosses the core to his left hand, flicking his right in the air a few times.

"Nice throw. Now, try this!" he winds up and throws the core again, but this time, instead of tossing it over my head, he aims at me.

"Sure!"

As the core nears me, I stand up on my back legs and reach out with my front. Standing like this feels a bit awkward, but the discomfort doesn't prevent me from catching the core.

Mucky looks genuinely shocked, and then turns around and shouts while pointing at me, "Hey sis, look! I think it's trying to be a person!"

The meditating Trista keeps her eyes closed and merely ignores him. Mucky looks slightly disappointed by her reaction, but quickly recovers and looks back in my direction, gesturing for me to throw the core back.

"Heh, you asked for it!"

While still standing, I balance the core on my right paw. I then reach back in preparation to throw it. Yet, before I can successfully throw it, the core rolls off of my paw.

'Gah! Having no opposable thumbs, or hands at all for that matter, is so frustrating.'

After snickering at my failure, Mucky lightly coughs and looks at me encouragingly. Or is that pity? Maybe both?

I bend down and pick the core back up, once more preparing to throw it. But the core yet again starts rolling off of my paw.

"Not this time!"

Before the core can hit the ground, I bend down and swing at it in an attempt to send it over to Mucky. Well, that was the plan. Instead of the situation I imagined, where the core flies in a straight line over to Mucky, it shatters. Shrapnel flies across the room, as Mucky ducks to try avoiding it. The shrapnel proceeds to disrupt several people from their meditation, as they open their eyes and glare at us.

Trista stands up angrily, "Mucky, what did you do this time?!"

Mucky holds his hands up innocently, "It wasn't me! The fox did it!"

"Ah! Traitor!" I sit down and try to look as innocent as possible.

Tight-fit clothes lady also stands up, "The vile beast must be trying to kill us! Why else would it do something like this?"

"Hah! If I was trying to kill you, you'd already be dead! Why, do you really wanna fight?"

Trista glares at Mucky once more, and tight-fit clothes lady huffs, as they both sit back down. Soon, everyone is meditating again, except for Mama Bloodcat and Mucky of course.

Mucky walks over to me, "It's okay little fella, you didn't mean to."

"But I'm not a 'fella'."

He then sits down and starts meditating as well. I start getting bored again, so I decide to just wander around the room. After a few seconds of walking, I come across a piece of the golem core I shattered. I feel somehow resentful towards it, so I kick it.

"Stupid core..."

Slightly amused by my action, I decide to start kicking every piece of golem core that I see, treating it as some sort of petty revenge against an inanimate object that got me in trouble.

"Oh?"

Suddenly, as I'm about to kick a larger piece of a core, I notice something. There, on the hollow inside of the metal core, are numerous tiny, densely packed symbols.