Defeated, prince Aslanbek didn't try to stand up. The ten days spent in this Dungeon wore him out. He had no idea how long it would take to get out of the Dungeon, so he had to ration his use of the Essence infuser to the bare minimum to stay alive. His mana regeneration suffered greatly with that. And spending large amounts of mana would harm him as the drain through his Arbitrium placed to much burden on his lifeforce after his stunt of scorching the whole Dungeon for days.

Aslanbek fought with dregs of his true power. Not that it was an excuse, he accepted the duel and was defeated. That's what mattered. He wouldn't lower himself to weave feeble excuses. A defeat was a defeat. He felt tired. His anger was spent. He felt the desire to close his eyes and sleep but if he did, it would be as if he was giving up on life.

He was a fool to take on that challenge. Now that he couldn't do anything but feel the sharp pain coming from his maimed limbs, he replayed the conflict in his mind. The kid was resourceful, he had to give it to him. His wrath made him ignore everything. The minnid had the advantage of terrain, surprise, and knowledge of Aslanbek's abilities. His fire spells did almost no damage to him even though his Skills granted partial damage on a graze or an almost miss. He didn't even notice that.

For someone allegedly level zero, it was absurd. He didn't doubt the reports. The gnome [Gadgeteer] and the knights confirmed it under a truth-teller. But he could evaluate Nero's abilities and they were real. A thousand Agility and quite a lot of Strength to move as fast as that. Magic resistance. A weapon that shot ice. It was as if he was the perfect counter to Aslanbek's abilities.

Aslanbek suppressed the need to laugh. He was thoroughly defeated by a level zero. Strangely enough, his mind cleared entirely. The rage he felt just vanished before the absurdity of the situation. A forced teleport into a Dungeon out of nowhere. No, not forced. Nero asked him if he wanted to come, twice even.

Now he was honor-bound to his duel pledge. He'd be damned if a leonal prince, the crown prince on top of that, broke his vows. His word once given was law. Such was the leonals' way. One year and a day. And to think Nero reached this level of power a bit less than four months after the activation of his Arbitrium. In a year, he would have no hope for a rematch.

He found that despite the pain, Aslanbek could think clearly than before, the seething anger clouded his judgment more than his frozen and shocked limbs. Nero had Serena on his side. Those portals. A willingness to talk. Instead of an enemy, he might become an ally.

All that he had to do now was to find out what this charade of a person wanted. And he might survive if he played along. Aslanbek vowed to take this humbling lesson to heart.

Nero offered Aslanbek a few of Altia's potions. They weren't high-grade but he didn't care. "If you don't lay the upmost praise to these potions, you're dead. My wife brewed them." He threatened as he sat next to the prince.

Leonals might be the greatest assholes in the whole hundreds of different races that plagued the land, but they had honor. A leonal would never go back on their word once given.

"I will make sure of giving her my thanks once I meet your lovely lady," The prince said. "Can I trouble you with feeding me the potions? My hands are ruined," He groaned, still lying on his stomach.

Nero chuckled then openly chortled. He nudged Aslanbek with his foot and flipped him on his back, then poured the potion on his open mouth. "Servant for a year and a day. Great!" He taunted the prince.

Aslanbek's eyes twisted into a feral snarl but he didn't waste the potions as Nero tapped his rifle with his other hand. A few vials later, the prince stood up.

"You know, for someone that will be King, you really need to work on that anger of yours. Seriously, this country is going to shit and everyone knows it is your family's fault."

"I'll take your advice to heart as if it was the voice of the people," Aslanbek nodded.

The hundred-eighty in the prince's demeanor shocked him, but leonals stuck to their word. Aslanbek was Nero's servant now and would behave as one.

"Look, we like the place. The minnid race was about to leave. The Dean said it would be a repeat of what happened to the rabbit-kin."

"Leveretians," Aslanbek corrected. "And they are not kin, they are folk. But they consider rabbit-folk an insult. Just as we also consider lion-folk an insult."

"Noted. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I would accept that tea now."

Nero snickered. "Too bad the offer is void. I have ale though."

Aslanbek smiled. Leonal smiles were feral and scary even if they didn't mean it. "I'll take it. Better be strong."

Nero shook his head. "I'm weak to booze."

"What's your Vigor score now? And Endurance?"

"Several hundred," Nero answered noncommittally.

"You'll find the alcohol won't have as much an effect. It is a kind of poison, after all," Aslanbek laughed.

Nero went to the prince's cottage and drank with his new friend-of-occasion-slash-servant-slash-enemy. Frervanemy? Better not make up a new, Nero chuckled to himself. He switched to his [Card Trick] build and refilled his mana before going back to the orange [Rogue].

"Can you get me one of these?" Nero slurred as he pointed at the infuser. "The professors at the Lyceum don't want me to have one after I used it to defeat professor Holmes and his half-elf-nereid accomplice."

Aslanbek withdrew the Essence infuser to his dimensional pouch. "You should heed the advice of your teachers."

"Did you?"

"No."

"Did it work for you?"

"No. Some bastard took me to a Dungeon, made me waste millions of Essence, and in the end almost killed me."

"You deserved it."

"Touché. A toast to our stupidity," Aslanbek raised his mug.

"A toast to your stupidity. I am quite smart. You can ask the Dean about that later," Nero spilled some of his drink intentionally, then toasted and bottomed his mug.

"fair enough," Aslanbek finished his drink and poured another.

"So, do you want to see your brother?" Nero proposed.

"Isn't he dead?"

"I have no idea if he will ever be truly alive again, but I can respawn him."

"Yeah, why not? I sometimes wanted to murder Tyre."

"Dude, you are too drunk."

Aslanbek pointed to Nero. "Pot." Then to himself. "Kettle."

"Touché!"

"Right. Let's our drunk boss hunt begin!" Nero opened a portal to the wheat field and retrieved the two [Egress] cards.

Aslanbek stared through the portal. "is that wheat?"

"Yes. Two hundred thousand acres of golden and ripe wheat."

Aslanbek whistled. "Is that real wheat? Not an illusion?"

Nero lifted an arm to point at the portal. "Go ahead. Enter it and taste some for yourself. I won't trap you inside."

Aslanbek did. He picked a few ears of wheat and chewed. "A bit bland."

"Of course it is bland," Nero protested. "It is fake make-believe wheat! You need to infuse it with Essence before it becomes real. It still tastes bland, though."

Aslanbek walked back at least Nero got whimsical and trapped him. "Can you make other things?"

"Probably. I made some funky palm trees with those huge green nuts. No idea what they are."

"Coconuts. Quite a delicacy. You punch a hole in them and drink the water inside. invigorating. They only grow on the south of the continent, though."

Nero shut the wheat portal and opened another. "Damn, let's do it. I want to know how they taste now."

Sometimes life has such twists. Mortal enemies can be born of misunderstandings. And friendship can blossom from where one least expected. A minnid peasant and a leonal prince were oblivious to this truth before their very eyes as they sat on the sands of a beach in a deserted island, savoring some coconut water.

"It helps recover from being drunk too," Aslanbek said as he felt the tip of his paws tingle.

"I can feel it."

"Is that a glacier over there? With waterfalls coming from nowhere?"

"Yes. Better not think too much about it. Make-believe, remember?"

"I'll try but it seems quite real to me. I can see why you are the Guild Master godson. You make as little sense as she does."

Nero pointed a finger at the prince. "Don't badmouth my family. And while we are at it, once you are before my sister, you'll kneel to her and apologize for everything she suffered."

"Your sister?" Aslanbek raised an eyebrow.

"My parents adopted the woman your brother kidnapped and raped," Nero snarled in anger and spat on the sand. "Bastard."

"The princess?"

"Former princess. She renounced."

"Now it makes sense!" Aslanbek's face brightened up with realization.

"What?" Nero slurped his coconut. "There's some good goop in here! Hum, tasty!"

"The edict!" Aslanbek slammed a fist on his palm. "That's why my father issued the edict! To stop us from going after her!" He calmed down and pointed at the coconut. "Crack it open and get a spoon. You can eat the flesh inside."

"Oh, great. Thanks for the tip. You only got half of the problem. I also helped unmask and kill the mastermind behind the loyalist's revolt in the Lyceum, the same ones that instigated the thefts at the military Arbitrium supplies."

"The realm is grateful for your services."

Nero cracked the coconut, scraped the soft white flesh, and tasted. He hummed with approval, then faced Aslanbek. "Fuck you and your realm. I was just protecting my family."

"In any case, you still did us a service," Aslanbek stood up and stretched, yawning and roaring at the same time.

"Yeah. Great way to treat your heroes!" Nero said, oozing sarcasm. "By abusing them and then attempting to murder them."

"I won't deign that with an answer," Aslanbek withdrew.

"Okay. I'm not drunk anymore. Let's murder your brother," Nero proposed.

"That sounds so deliciously wrong!" Aslanbek cooed with a feral grin.

It was already night when they returned to the Dungeon. Nero slotted one of the [Egress] cards and offered his hand to the prince. "Hold it. And if you say we should get to know each other better first, I'm shooting you again."

"You said it."

Aslanbek held Nero's hand and he paid to use [Dungeon Breaker]. Aside from the purring and roaring of the hundreds of homeless cats outside, nothing changed.

"Let's go and kill some cats," Nero proposed.

Aslanbek used his homing firebolt volley a few times and the Dungeon became devoid of life, except for the boss monster. They approached it. The boss wandered around his peninsula next to the lake, without paying attention to anything, as if it was mindless. Its hunched body resembled a cross between a leonal, a werewolf, and a bear.

"Is THAT my brother?" The crown prince asked.

"Or what goes for your brother these days," Nero shrugged.

The shameful prince's attention focused on them. "Ass... Lannn... Beck! You bass-tard! I... Should... be... King!" The boss taunted.

The crown prince's face clenched in a rictus of anger. "No, brother. You were unfit to be King."

Nero held his retort to himself.

"You deserve this. Shameful prince," Aslanbek said with a great weight in his voice. "[Flamethrower]!"

Aslanbek's second-tier channeled spell was enough to kill the boss a fifth of his level. He didn't stop and burned the drops while roaring the whole time. Only after Nero kicked his shin did he notice what he did.

"Damned demons!" He cursed. "We will need another card."

Nero opened a portal to the wheat field. He noticed he forgot to set a day-night cycle for that shelter. "Go inside. I can ferry people out of a Dungeon with me. I hope your Knights don't murder me before I can get you out."

Aslanbek shook his head. "No, they won't. They'll interrogate and torture you first."

Nero pointed a finger at his face. "See? That's why this kingdom is going to shit."

"Point taken. Again." Aslanbek chuckled as he crossed into the wheat fields.

"Asshole," Nero's curse was dismissed by the prince with a handwave as he closed the portal.

Nero popped back on the real world in stealth. He wasn't stupid. The knights were camped around them but didn't notice him. He opened a portal to let Aslanbek out. The sunlight in the pitch-black moonless night awoke all the knights.

"Who goes there!" One of them challenged.

"How many hours does it take for you to forget your master, Sir Botolf?" Aslanbek roared as he walked outside.

"Your Highness! I'm sorry," Botolf knelt. "The light blinded us!"

"Where have you been? Are you hurt?" Another knight knelt and then all of them followed suit.

"I'm hale," he answered. "And I made a new ally. Nero?"

The prince was looking at the wrong spot. Nero closed the portal then turned off his stealth. "Here. And 'ally' might be a bit too much."

"Fair enough. Friend?" Aslanbek offered.

Nero raised an eyebrow. He thought for a moment and then took the hand. "Friend. Okay. I'm going to bring my people here. Make sure your people behave. It is better if we settle this whole fiasco once and for all."

"I couldn't agree more," Aslanbek shook Nero's hand and squeezed. Nero had lost his buffs and now "only" had a bit over two hundred Strength.

"Let me light up this place first," Nero said and went around the knight camp, jumping up and setting portals to each layer of the wheat field at the highest point, at each of the cardinal and ordinal directions, brightening the camp as if it were day.

"I'm getting my sister first," Nero said. "And her knights. Peace."

"Indeed. Peace would be good," Aslanbek replied. "Attention! Fall in! Honor our guests. And do as I do!" he barked and the knights assembled in four rows of eight wide.

Nero nodded along with Aslanbek. He opened a portal to the transition box and saw it empty. The mirrors were still there and were easy to see through the portal with all the diffuse sunlight. He opened another in the middle of the ocean shelter a few dozen feet deep in the water. The water didn't fall through but he could see the currents were dragging everything to that place. It didn't take long before Crystal showed up. Nero spread his arms wide and she crossed through, coming out completely dry.

"Nero!" She shouted and hugged him. She cried, sobbing as she squeezed him. "Oh, brother! I thought you were lost!"

Nero could see the knights from Coriander looking through the portal, suspicious. Then Aslanbek shouted. "Kneel!" He and his knights not only knelt but also bent down their heads.

Crystal looked to the scene with disbelief. "Aslanbek? Prince Aslanbek?"

"Your Highness Princess Serena! As the Crown Prince of Coriander, I offer you my most honest apology. What was done to you was abhorrent and abominable. I beg for your forgiveness!"

Crystal was already crying but now she was shedding another brand of tears. She covered her mouth with both hands and stared with disbelief. One by one, her knights crossed out of the shelter. Nero was holding her with one hand on the small of her back and another firmly grasping her elbow.

"Nero! What is happening? What did you do?" She asked, trembling.

"I beat some sense in this leonal's head," He joked. One of the knights looked up with a snarl.

"Down!" Aslanbek roared to his men. "What Nero says is true. We wagered a duel, and I lost," he revealed.

"You defeated Aslanbek in a duel?" Crystal asked with disbelief. Behind her, the oceanic Kingdom knights were also measuring him. They must've got an earful from the former princess, as they were all behaving quite well.

"I'm awesome," Nero bragged.

"You are! You are!" She covered him with kisses on the cheeks, nose, and forehead. "My brother. The most awesome person in the world!" She said, full of pride and joy. There were still tears rolling down her cheeks but Nero knew it must be some kind of racial ability she had. "My hero!" She finished.

One of the nereid knights laughed.

"Well, we should share the good news, shouldn't we?" Nero suggested and released her.

"Yes, yes! We should!" Crystal clapped her hands and squealed as a little sister should. "You can stand up, prince Aslanbek," She said with another voice. The princess's voice.

Aslanbek and his knights stood. "Peace!" He said looking at the knights from Coriander.

"Peace!" Sir Chalkalon replied and bowed to Aslanbek. The other knights under his command did the same.

Nero opened a portal to the house-tree shelter and took a step inside. "Altia!" He shouted. "Wake up and come here!"

Not a minute passed before his wife rushed out through the door "Nero! Are you okay?"

He waited for her to reach him and took her in a tight hug. "I'm fine. Crystal too. We did our job and now everyone is at peace! We need to gather everyone! Rodther, Moira, the twins. Father and mother too!"

As if summoned by his voice, the other occupants of the house-tree walked outside.

"Nero, what's going on?" Byron asked, worried.

"Come, father! Mother! Come, everyone. I need to show this to you. I'm leaving the portal open. This way, milady," He held Altia's back and led her outside. She squinted to get used to the glaring sunlight coming from the open portals hanging a few dozen feet above.

"Milady Altia!" Aslanbek bowed. "It is an honor to meet you finally. The praise your husband laid at your feet seemed exaggerated at first, but now I see his words don't do you justice!"

"Ah-Ah-Ah..." Altia stammered.

"I'm sorry. I'm prince Aslanbek, heir to the throne of Bast," Aslanbek took her hand and kissed her fingers. "Your most excellent healing concoctions saved my life, milady."

Nero took Altia's hand away from the prince's grip, glared at him, and wiped her fingers. Crystal smiled and shook her head.

Rhynne came outside moments later. "Prince Aslanbek?" She asked. Aslanbek grinned and nodded. "Your Highness," She bowed. "We met not a few days ago in the palace."

"[Magus] Rhynne. Pleased to meet you too," Aslanbek said. "You have the most exceptional son," He smiled and nodded in Nero's direction.

"Damn right we do!" Byron boasted full of pride as he walked out and clasped Rhynne's shoulders. Behind him, the rest of Nero's party looked out through the open portal, afraid.

"You can come out. Any friend of Nero is my friend as well," Aslanbek offered. "No harm will be done to you."

With timid steps, they did. Fotia couldn't hold a nervous bleat as the prince's eyes fell on her. Knazer supported his sister. Moira and Heaflina quickly took a spot behind the knights from Coriander.

And Rodther craned his head from one side to another before fixing his gaze on Nero with disbelief.

"Daamn, dude."