I felt my mind and body relax during the kiss. At the same time, I felt the same, pleasant warmth from earlier spread all throughout. When we parted, I found myself smiling back at Cellestra’s own.

“It’s even better than I remember,” She said with a quiet and short giggle.

“Well, this time you actually asked for it,” I whispered. “Last time you weren’t in the best shape.”

“I know,” She whispered back. “But I’m still happy you did it then.”

She smiled as she played with my hair, running her hand through it and over my shoulder, gently caressing my skin in the process.

“I’m happy as well. Knowing that you like it too, it makes me all warm, soft, and fuzzy inside.”

“Yeah, It feels great.” She said with a smile as she closed her eyes and hugged me closer. “Good night, Kealyna.”

I gave her one more quick peck on the lips before wishing her good night as well and closing my eyes, allowing darkness, which was comfortable now that I was in Cellestra’s arms, to take over.

When I woke up the next morning, it appeared that Faerith and Amarys were the ones awake, with the overly active spider just skittering about, and the others sleeping, their legs curled up underneath them.

I let out a soft giggle as I took a mental note I’d been right in that they needed sleep.

I’d hoped it was soft, yet apparently, it wasn’t soft enough to not wake up Cellestra, who was still in my arms and now yawning.

“Morning, Cel,” I whispered before kissing her forehead. “Hope you slept well.”

“Couldn’t be better. You even forgot to cast your spell.”

“I did, but your dreams have been quiet as of late, haven’t they?”

“Very. Feels like my mind is just so much more at ease with you around.”

“That’s never a bad thing,” I said, running a hand through her hair one more time before I forced myself up. “But we still have work to focus on,” I said, undoing the braid in my hair. It had gotten messy and I felt that Cellestra wouldn’t mind redoing it. In fact, I felt like washing it before heading out.

“That’s true, but before we head out, could you make me some new bandages?”

“Sure. I was just gonna take some time to freshen up myself. I imagined you wouldn’t mind helping out with what comes after.”

“I certainly wouldn’t, but I’m going to eat some first. I’m starving… I might also need your help.”

“Hm? With what?”

“The eggs I got are fresh, raw.”

“Oh.”

“And I think my flame alone won’t be enough to cook them in a decent timeframe. Hold on,” She said as she rolled over to reach for her backpack, from which she fished up a small skillet. “Your mom gave me this. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some cooking ware.”

“When did she give you that?” I asked, surprised.

She giggled.

“All those eyes, but you didn’t see that. I guess you were too busy watching Elira, which, to be honest, is understandable.”

“Guess I didn’t, huh?” I said as I watched Elle awaken, her legs finding the web beneath them as they moved from under her body. As soon as she’d found her footing, she darted over to Cellestra to hug her.

“Morning, Elle. Seems you slept well, too.”

The spider nodded with her pedipalps while embracing. The sight was just awfully cute and put a huge smile on my face.

Then, I went to cooking. As in, I created a few flames from my fingertips to heat the skillet while Cellestra broke the eggs and allowed their contents to drop onto the metal. Shayla was forcibly awakened by Amarys at the same time, and within seconds, she skittered over to us to look at what I was doing, captivated by the flames.

I had to push away her far-too-eager pedipalps with my own several times when she reached out to touch the fire. Her curiosity was fun, but she would have to learn to contain it or it could seriously hurt her one day.

While cooking the eggs, I was filling the tub at the same time. Roughly around the time Cellestra started eating, it was ready, and I went on to wash my hair.

Many eyes were on me, making it more awkward than it had been previously, which amused Cellestra as she ate.

“Think you can teach them to braid your hair?” She asked when I started rinsing.

“I’m sure I can, but that would take away your fun, and I wouldn’t want to do that.”

“How nice of you,” Cellestra said with a grin.

She finished breakfast and we went on to work on each other’s hair, after which I made new wrappings for us both, burning the old ones as we stepped outside. I helped Cellestra into her armor as I explained a few things about what we were going to do in the dungeon. We were going to cross through dangerous territory and I wanted the spiderlings to be aware of the dangers we could face, and have them stay safe.

The grey-skinned monstrosities named hippos scared me. I hoped we could avoid them by running around them, in the largest arc we could if necessary.

By the time we decided to move out, there were none of the carpenters in sight yet, but I imagined they’d be here about the same time they started the day before. We’d be back in a couple of hours. Maybe we’d see them work, maybe we’d see their results, either was fine by me.

I swung my halberd onto my shoulder and with Cellestra on my back, and the spiderlings in tow, we headed for the dungeon. Our goal: killing phasing lizards, possibly Firags, to feed to my minions. If they proved to be numerous enough, I wouldn’t mind trying to get some skills from them for myself either.

On the way, I was once more reminded of our morbid find, what it could mean, and whom it had belonged to, but I quickly brushed it off as my thoughts shifted to something that had followed our discovery.

“Hey, Cel?”

“Hm?”

“You heard the soldiers yesterday, right? They keep track of who goes in and who comes out. Do you think they count the spiderlings too?”

“That’s a good question,” She replied, her hand under her chin.

I smiled as we stepped into the clearing that housed the portal. Before we made our way to it, I decided to make a quick stop at the small camp to ask if they had learned anything new.

A few headshakes and an apology later, we left them behind and focused on our new adventure.

The first floor proved to be no match for our team. As much as we tried to avoid running into anything, completely avoiding everything was impossible. A lioness thought it was a great idea to attack, but it was caught, pinned, and killed by the spiderlings before it even knew what had hit it.

I felt pride fill me as we moved on. Soon, we moved through the tunnel that connected the first floor to the second, and I warned the others once more for good measure.

We were able to get past the wolves and Buffalos without issues. Yet, even though we walked around the Hippos with more than generous spacing between us, one separated from the herd seemed aggravated by our presence and charged.

I immediately ordered the spiderlings to run away to the side as I fired off several of my high-rank ice lances, followed by a few bolts of necrotic venom. If I wasn’t able to bring this thing down quickly, the venom would take it out over time. Still, I preferred to finish this fast so we could move on.

Fortunately for me, the skill increase I’d attained from the phasing lizards seemed to at least have some effect on the Hippo, with blood spots showing, next to the small, grey spots that had appeared because of the necrosis.

I threw more ice lances at it, figuring their low cost made it a great tool to use repeatedly, and their accuracy and range were not matched by anything else in my arsenal. Still, I was forced on the run as the colossal animal closed the gap.

A short pursuit followed, during which I tossed more ice at the creature until it collapsed and then died.

You have killed a Caldera Hippo: No experience was awarded.

“Note to self,” I stated as my spiderlings slowly skittered closer. “These things are hellbent on destruction and will go way out of their way to chase you down in an attempt to kill you. Seems next time we’ll have to stay even further away.”

“No kidding. At least you only had to deal with one this time.”

I nodded. “And fortunately for us, the new skill was way more effective this time. Makes me eager to get more. Speaking of, let’s go and do exactly that.”