Althos was the first to notice the creature that came shambling at him and his companions as soon as the door was open enough for it to fit through it. It emerged from the partial cover of a dense cloud of dust that had filled the room waiting for Althos's party.

The monster was wrapped in ancient-looking linen bandages, that had long since started to look withered with age. It smelled of the same musky scent as the room it emerged from. It was about a meter and a half tall and had sharp looking claws that had partially sliced through the linen bandages that had once wrapped around its arms. Those same claws were outstretched towards Althos's party members, specifically the soul orbs who had floated eagerly towards their new master after they had opened the door.

Althos watched its body language in the split seconds he had to make a decision about how to respond to it. He wasn't sure if it was hostile and knew from experience that not everything that looked not like him was hostile. He didn't want to start a fight, but he sensed power leaking from the creature's unpleasant looking claws and each instant that passed was an instant that it drew closer to him and his familiars.

Althos recognized that the creature was going to strike in the second it rose its claws high and reacted to that without any hesitation. He physically grabbed his soul orbs, an act which to anyone but their master would have been unpleasant. They were shocked that he suddenly grabbed them but had an unusual trust in their new master and didn't resist as he manhandled them.

Althos quickly and physically pulled the orbs back out of the range of the mummy's first attack just in time to help them avoid the swift assault as the creature's claws cut through the air where the orbs had been moments ago. His motions were coordinated and swift. He had been shocked by the sudden emergence of the new foe but he hadn't been stunned by it.

This sudden strike by the monster gave Althos proper cause to recognize it as a hostile entity. He was no longer indecisive in reacting to the entity and he felt entitled to respond to its force in kind.

The mummy remained close to the group and was eyeing them to see which it should strike next. Althos was the closest person to it, but it was unnerved by his swift reflexes and response time. Althos wasn't scared by it though and he moved to attack.

"What the heck is that thing?" Althos asked, even as he moved to counterstrike.

The godling's motions were surprisingly casual as he stepped in close to the creature and pushed it back with a single heavy push. It was sent staggering back and judging from its reaction to Althos's strike the push contained a significant amount of force. It eventually collapsed in a heap beyond the door it had charged at them from, possibly tripping over something tiny.

Althos's movements were casual but retained the nonchalant force he had used on the mummy as he waited to see if it would get up. From behind him, Tristan remarked as to the nature of the creature that had attacked him.

"That is a mummy. It's a type of undead creature that dwells in tombs. They can arise naturally from ambient unholy energy, or they can forcibly arise as hateful and powerful undead creatures."

Her voice was calm as she waited, like Althos, to see if the creature would get back up. Althos contemplated what he had just been told, wondering what an "undead" creature was, and the godling wanted to ask more questions but that was when the mummy began to slowly rise to its feet again.

Althos leaped forward, going beyond the door to pursue the creature. His companions quickly began to follow behind him but allowed him to take the lead. Within moments Althos was almost directly on top of the creature and his fists were clenched.

The mummy reacted as quickly as it could to the threat the deity posed and tried to move back to avoid his next strike. Althos wasn't about to allow it to escape his deadly attacks and followed, which wasn't exactly an accomplishment given the circumstances of the mummy.

When the mummy realized that the godling would just keep up with it, it decided to take a "the best defense is a good offense" approach and slashed at the deity with its claws.

As the claws neared the deity Althos noticed that the claws were even more grotesque than he had thought they were. The claws were the color of pus and exuded a strong scent of gore and other bodily fluids. They were vicious instruments and from behind him, Althos's companions guessed that if a creature not immune to disease got slashed by them they'd receive a nasty sickness.

Althos dodged them by moving close to the mummy, throwing himself into the creature's abdomen. Instead of getting slashed by the mummy he merely got hit by the creature's thin outstretched arms and bumped the creature's chest. Althos shrugged off the attack and grinned at the creature.

"Hey Althos, that's an untamed and uncontrolled mummy. It's not a very smart creature. But if you kill it you'll probably gain some experience!"

This time the voice belonged to Salifinos. Althos didn't need to know that killing the creature would grant him experience to have a reason to do so but it definitely reinforced his decision.

Althos's philosophy was simple and hadn't ever been explicitly stated: as a rule he wouldn't attack things that didn't attack first. But the creature had attempted to slice through his newly awakened soul orbs. Creatures that made him their master. He wouldn't take that sitting down. To him, that counted as attacking him first.

Althos killed something using his own hands for the second time in his life with his next move. Althos launched a single powerful strike using his fist to smash the mummy's head. His hand was stretched at an awkward angle to reach the creature's head and then penetrate the skull of the mummy. His power not only cracked the creature's skull it also obliterated the brain of the undead being.

It was dead the second Althos's clenched fist touched its brain.

[ALERT: MUMMY HAS DIED... BEEN MADE REDEAD. DOUBLY DEAD. YOU'VE GAINED EXPERIENCE. CONGRATULATIONS!]

After that Althos also received a knowledge notification about mummies.

Althos retracted his hand from the pulverized head of the creature. He did it quickly as his hand was covered in fragments of bone, slick blood, and other fresh fluids. He grimaced when he began to get up and saw his pristine white hand stained with the remains of the undead creature.

He turned to the half-devil and shook his hand to get some of the remains off of it. "What is an 'undead creature'?" He asked, his voice filled with curiosity and calmness as if he hadn't just murdered something. The one who responded wasn't Tristan, but rather the group's sole imp.

"Undead creatures are reanimated dead things. If magic or unholy energy suffuses a corpse it's possible for the dead thing to come back to life. There are also souls that have been overwhelmed by negative energy, or even lifeforms that are always undead that come from certain planes of existence. Once we've taken over this dungeon I'll teach you more about undead things."

Salifinos casually summarized undeath to Althos and made the promise of providing him with more knowledge later. This was sufficiently persuasive to the deity who nodded at the imp and began to move further into the next part of the dungeon.

Moments later Althos and his allies had stepped past the doubly-dead corpse and were now truly in the second part of the dungeon. Outstretched before them lay a fork in the road, and behind them, the strange floating skull opened its mouth to speak.

"HELLO ONCE AGAIN CHALLENGERS! HOW GOOD TO SEE HOW SWIFTLY YOU DEALT WITH THAT DASTARDLY MUMMY. YOU HAVE MY THANKS FOR THAT, AS IT WAS AN INTRUDER INTO THE DUNGEON FROM LONG AGO. NOW THE NEXT PART OF THE DUNGEON IS A BIT DIFFERENT THAN WHERE YOU JUST WERE."

The creature's voice boomed and it startled Salifinos who hadn't realized that the skull had followed them through the open door.

The fork that laid out before them was in the form of two tunnels separated by a thick wall. The tunnels were odd because they were filled with the same sort of darkness as the pool the adventurer's had leaped into to enter the dungeon in the first place.

"TO ADVANCE FORWARD YOU MUST SEPARATE YOUR PARTY. AT THE END OF THIS SECTION YOU WILL BE REUNITED, BUT THE TWO DOORS UP AHEAD REQUIRE ONE SOUL ORB EACH TO OPEN UP AND THEY MUST BE OPENED AT THE SAME TIME TO ACTUALLY OPEN FOR YOU."

Althos listened to the skull for a moment. And then he thought about what it had told them. But the curious deity wasn't sure that was what they "had" to do so much as the instructions were what they "should" do. And so he decided to test out if the tunnels actually had to be kept separate.

At the worst Althos knew that he could just say this was him cashing in on his apparent good deed in defeating the mummy from earlier.

Althos stepped into one of the tunnels, quickly pushing past the darkness that obscured what laid beyond the tunnel's mouth. Once on the other side of the darkness, he found himself in a narrow space that led directly ahead as far as he could see. This space was narrowly lit by a row of the same ancient torches as the first part of the dungeon.

The only difference was that the flames that lit these torches were a different color, specifically, they weren't the low red of the other torches, but bright green instead. This made the tunnel look distorted and ghostly, which was an appropriate vibe for a tomb.

His companions had yet to follow him through the tunnel, and so he knew he had time to enact his mischievous idea. He faced the wall that separated the two tunnels and took a deep breath.

He spent a few seconds gathering strength and force in his fists and then clenched them tightly. When he felt ready, he reeled his fist back and swung a single powerful blow at the wall in front of him.

His fist moved wickedly fast and rammed into the wall hard enough to cause the tiniest of cracks to appear. Althos smoothly retracted his arm and bent back so that he could make the next strike even faster and more force-filled than the first.

He launched his second strike and the blow smashed into the wall. His fist now left an imprint on the wall in front of him. He grinned at it and waited to see if it was enough to cause the barrier to crumble in front of him.

After nearly half a minute passed, the godling grew impatient, and right as his allies charged in behind him he launched a third punch at the wall. This one may have had the least force of any of the blows he aimed at the wall, but it was the one that brought the obstacle crumbling down.

Althos's friends and familiars eyes went wide with shock as they watched the deity lash out at the artificial obstacle that he apparently viewed as being in his way. His familiars rushed over to him, even as the wall in front of him began to fall apart in the wake of his trio of attacks.

Althos was grinning even as his two allies moved towards him. When he acknowledged them it was with a grin and a smirk, as he pointed to the wall in front of him.

"I guess we don't have to split up after all huh?" He said arrogance in his voice as he felt that his curiosity was rewarded.

The skull emerged from behind the darkness that obscured the path behind them and spoke.

"ACTUALLY MY YOUNG STRONG FRIEND... GUESS AGAIN!"

At the end of its loud declaration, the creature's mouth stayed opened and mist flooded out of it. The mist was the same sickly shade of green as the light from which the skull had originally formed.

The sickly shaded fog went in the direction of the wall, and the godling was shocked as the mist filled in the gap created by his unusual creativity.

The deity, curious as to if that would actually stop him, went to the mist and attempted to put his hand through it. He was annoyed to feel resistance to his hand, and to find that the mist was solid enough to resist mild effort by him to push through it.

He turned and looked at the skull. He appraised it and considered what to do. After thinking about the situation for a second the godling shrugged and decided to merely go along with its initial instructions, but he made a mental note to wait for a chance to get back at the creature if he could do so later on.

A few minutes later Althos was at the end of the passageway in front of him. He was accompanied by a single soul orb. He was waiting for his companions to reach the end of the other tunnel.

In deciding to obey the whims of the skull Althos had ordered his allies to go back out of the soul and head towards the other door. They were accompanied by the other soul orb that the godling had awakened.

Althos looked at the soul orb and found that the creature was doing its version of "looking" back at him. Althos smiled at this, relating to the creature's apparent sense of curiosity, and felt an emotion akin to giddiness radiate off of the orb.

After the two oddities looked at each other Althos felt the other orb arrive in front of the door at the end of its tunnel. He wasn't sure how he received that sensation, but he felt it clearly through the shared mental connection the godling and the orbs shared.

At this point, the deity received an unexpected mental message.

[HELLO ALTHOS. I AM AGOWRAITH, THE DEVIL WHOSE TOMB YOU ARE IN. I AM QUITE ENJOYING YOUR ESCAPADES. SINCE YOU DECIDED TO OBEY MY COMPANION WHO IS FOLLOWING YOU WITHOUT ANY FIGHTING AND WITHOUT ANY PROMISE OF REWARD, I HAVE DECIDED TO REWARD YOU. I'LL BE TEACHING YOU A NEW POWER: REMOTE VIEWING. IT ENABLES YOU TO SEE THINGS THAT ARE NOT HAPPENING IN FRONT OF YOU. USE IT TO HELP SPEED YOUR TRIP THROUGH THE DUNGEON.]

The voice was aware of Althos's name, a name that the skull hadn't heard during its time with the adventuring party. It spoke with a similarly loud voice and a voice that even in its tone and timber sounded similar to that of the skull. But before Althos could spell out the obvious the deity received a new notification.

[NEW POWER EXPLANATION: REMOTE VIEWING

BY FOCUSING ON A TARGET OR LOCATION USERS OF REMOTE VIEWING CAN SEE THROUGH THEIR EYES OR GAIN A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF A LOCATION. THIS POWER ALLOWS USERS TO SEE NEW LOCATIONS AND WITNESS THINGS IN REAL TIME.

AS THIS POWER BECOMES STRONGER AND AS THE USER OF THE SKILL GAINS MORE FAMILIARITY WITH IT USERS CAN EVENTUALLY BEGIN TO USE OTHER SKILLS IN CONJUNCTION WITH IT. AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS USERS OF REMOTE VIEWING CAN CAST SPELLS AND USE PSYCHIC ABILITIES EVEN ACROSS VAST DISTANCES.

CURRENT MAXIMUM RANGE: 500 METERS.

COOLDOWN TIME: 15 SECONDS.]

Althos took a deep breath and concentrated. Once he felt sufficiently in sync with the other orb, the one that was with his peers, he closed his eyes and focused on his mind's eye.

He silently activated his new power and waited for it to take effect.

The darkness he was seeing from his closed eyes was quickly replaced. Instead, what laid before his mind's eye was what the other orb saw.

The orb saw the imp flying back down the tunnel, possibly to inform Althos that they had arrived at the end of the other tunnel. Then the orb turned and faced the door that had just been behind it. They had actually arrived!

Althos retracted his vision from the orb and quickly triggered the mental connection between the three creatures. He sent them a mental picture of the doors each of them could see and willed them into the metal barriers.

The tiny orbs didn't hesitate to obey his commands and threw themselves into the doors that obstructed Althos and his allies. Within seconds the doors began to open up and Althos stepped through one of them. He waited a moment for the orbs to emerge from the doors and rejoin him and had to wait longer for Tristan and Salifinos.

The path before them was a straight hallway like the one they had walked through while in the first part of the dungeon. The godling wondered why a dungeon would be designed so simplistic and in such a straight-forward manner. It struck him as odd.

After the three devils of various types were reunited they wordlessly continued their journey deeper into the tomb. Althos pondered the identity of the voice from earlier, while Tristan reflected on the nature of the deity she was traveling with. Salifinos's mind was filled with a hope that he may one day return to Bastille.

The orbs rested themselves on Althos's shoulders as the crew traversed the inside of the dangerous dungeon and gave the odd-looking deity even odder looking ethereal shoulder lights. The sight of it was comical, and when it first happened Althos's companions laughed at the sight of the god with glowing shoulders.

Eventually, the gaggle of devils stumbled across the native inhabitants of the dungeon.

The group was walking forward when Althos spotted a single scorpion a few meters ahead of them walk into the dim illumination offered by a nearby torch. Its dark natural armor made it look like a dot of darkness fighting against the illumination of the torch.

He wasn't bothered by the tiny creature and kept walking in its general direction. As his crew got closer and closer to the creature, Althos watched it with a level of curiosity and admiration for its unusual form.

In his short life, he had never seen anything that traveled like it did. It crawled on a variety of legs, and Althos found its anatomy quite interesting. From the venomous stinger that it swung over its head in an attempt to ward them away, to its tiny pincers.

It was strafing from side to side, its incredibly tiny red eyes locked on the approaching group, and it snapped its pincers menacingly at them. Althos found the creature's attempt at intimidation amusing and delighted in seeing the tiny creature refuse to back down as they neared.

His companions hadn't noticed the tiny arachnid, and he wondered what they'd do if they did notice the creature. He wouldn't have to wait long to find out. When they were fairly close to the tiny and poisonous critter Althos's impish follower Salifinos reacted to the creature's presence.

Salifinos noticed the creature and hissed at it, the imp angered by the sight of the tiny arachnid. This was confusing to Althos, but Althos didn't hesitate to intervene when Salifinos neared the creature and prepared to strike by moving close to the skittering arachnid and raising his hand threateningly. The imp swung his hand towards the scorpion.

Althos rushed towards the imp and grabbed his hand as it fell towards the scorpion. The imp roared in anger as his moves to eliminate the tiny creature were thwarted by something that viewed him as a tiny creature.

Althos's reaction to his ally was both inquisitive and annoyed. "What are you doing? Why are you attacking a random critter?" His tone was filled with judgemental curiosity.

Salifinos was angered by the god but also confused as to why Althos would intervene. Althos himself wasn't entirely sure why he had intervened, but he wanted to understand the basic logic behind the imp's furious reaction to a scorpion merely defending what it probably viewed as its own territory.

When Salifinos regained a bit of self-control the imp furiously glared at the deity. "Scorpions are awful! They are the children of creatures that took imp's poison!" The imp shouted at the deity, and the deity took a second to react to that answer.

This answer stunned Althos. After replaying what he said in his head, Salifinos clarified and corrected his statement.

"Verminlords, the creators of scorpions and a variety of other little poisonous critters, stole poison from some of the first imps. They stole the poison from an ancient imp, messing up our tails and making us weaker."

Salifinos punctured this statement by showing Althos his tail, a tiny thing that ended in a hammer-like nub. Althos visually explored the tail, and noticed that it did look odd.

The red extremity on the end of the imp's body was tiny and weak looking. It didn't seem like a naturally evolved body part, more like the result of a bodily modification or a vicious curse.

The imp began to speak again, speaking with a fervor that the creature didn't possess even when demanding that Althos not leap out of the tower of Paimon, over half of a day ago.

"I hate verminlords and their creations. I'd love to tear that scorpion apart!" The imp declared, his passionate hatred for the critters evident even in his voice.

Althos was still confused about something. He knew that this would likely result in more yelling and shouting from the imp, so he looked past the creature and at Tristan.

"What are verminlords?" He asked, curious about the nature of the creatures that Salifinos had a wild hatred for. Tristan had been watching this idly, and quickly responded to what Althos asked.

"Verminlords are a type of devil. They aren't common and are one of the sorts of devils that Paimon hates. They are quadrupedal creators who are responsible for a variety of nuisances that plague mortal worlds and other planes of existence."

Her answer was casual but the information it revealed was fascinating. Althos kept Salifinos's arm contained and waited for the scorpion to walk away.

The scorpion assessed the situation in front of it for a few moments. It glared at the imp and swung its minuscule tail as if the tiny stinger it had posed a threat to an imp, creatures who had absolute immunity to injected venom.

Althos kept the scorpion-hating creature away from the critter long enough for it to make the choice to walk towards the wall further away from them and eventually vanish from sight altogether.

Althos was alarmed to receive a notification.

[FEAT GAINED: ALLY TO VERMIN.

BENEFIT: VERMIN NO LONGER REACT HOSTILITY TO YOU. CREATURES LIKE MICE, SCORPIONS, COCKROACHES, WORMS, AND MORE ARE NO LONGER AGGRESSIVE TO YOU.

METHOD OF ACQUISITION: EITHER BEFRIEND MULTIPLE VERMIN OR SAVE A SINGLE VERMIN FROM CERTAIN DEATH.

NOTES: STRONGER VERSIONS OF THIS FEAT EXIST THAT REQUIRE BEFRIENDING MORE VERMIN OR SAVING MORE VERMIN. THE FINAL VERSION OF THIS FEAT CAUSES ALL VERMIN WHO ENCOUNTER YOU TO PROVIDE YOU WITH FAITH-POWER AS IF THEY WORSHIPPED YOU LIKE A SAPIENT CREATURE. ACQUISITION OF STRONGER FORMS OF THIS FEAT ALSO GRANT YOU POWERS RELATED TO VERMIN.]

After Althos blinked the notification away he ordered his followers to continue their march towards the deepest parts of the dungeon.

The silence that overtook the group in the wake of their encounter with the scorpion was awkward as hell. Althos could tell that Salifinos was doing his best to contain his rage but at best it was only a matter of time before the creature exploded.

Althos had spent the last few minutes considering what the imp had told him about the nature of the poison that was once a weapon imps could use. He had spent several minutes pondering it when he realized that there was a chance he could do something about it that may enable the imp to get over his hatred of the scorpions. Or at least something that would empower the imp.

"Hey Salifinos... do you want your poison back?" The deity, grinning at the imp, as he searched through his mental repertoire of restoration spells.

Althos suspected that he may have had the ability to restore one of the imp's long lost abilities and as the imp turned to speak, Althos realized that he did in fact have the power to restore what was taken from the imps. His ability to do so came in the form of a powerful and costly spell. Fortunately limitless magical energy made that price meaningless.

[SPELL TYPE: HEALING

SPELL NAME: VESTIGIAL RESURRECTION

EFFECT: USES MAGICAL ENERGY AS FUEL TO FIND AND RESTORE OR FIND AND EMPOWER A SPECIFIC VESTIGIAL TRAIT IN A SPECIFIC CREATURE. SOME EXAMPLES: TAILS IN HUMANS, SIGHT IN SOME TYPES OF CAVE-DWELLING CREATURES,

COST: 10,000 MAGICAL ENERGY PER TRAIT.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY POWERFUL HEALING SPELL. MANY ARE UNAWARE OF ITS EXISTENCE.]

Salifinos spent a few moments pondering how to react, before turning slowly around and looking at Althos. The look on his face was a stoic one but the emotion in his eyes was intense.

"Althos, imps who choose to remain imps have long hunted for a way to regain the poison that was stolen from us. If you have a method to restore it... there are a lot of imps who'd do a lot for that. If you have a real method of restoring what was taken from us, I'd... honestly I don't know what I'd do."

Salifinos's response was surprisingly heartfelt. The emotion in it was real and Salifinos looked at the deity with a hopeful gaze. Althos smiled at the imp and quietly spoke. His voice was serious as he met the imp's gaze.

"Well Salifinos, you aided me greatly in giving me directions to the Cathedral. So as a way to reward you why don't I restore your long lost poison?"

Salifinos looked at the godling. He carefully appraised the deity's face and replayed what he heard in his mind. It seemed that the imp was thinking about how seriously to take the deity's words.

The imp didn't want to get his hopes up if in a few moments the deity either didn't or couldn't follow through with that statement. But after thoughtful consideration and minutes of applied skepticism, the imp solemnly nodded at the deity.

"If you can restore my lost poison... please do."

The imp gulped as he waited to see what the deity would do.