Marian

The giant spider only seemed to grow bigger and scarier the closer Marian got to it as she ran. It was disgusting and a million times creepier than any spider she’d seen before. No arachnid should ever be allowed to grow this big.

It scuttled around to face her with a body the size of a horse on long, hairy legs tipped with talons. It had been dead a while and the decaying abdomen now dragged on the ground, leaking fluids of rot. Two of the eight eyes were missing but both mandibles still functioned.

Trying to overcome her rising fear and her pounding heart with bravado, she laughed in the face of mortal danger and pointed both hands, sending a fan of fire at the target. Flames engulfed the brown creature yet it showed no signs of pain.

Eight creepy legs crept forward and the remaining eyes, cloudy with death, somehow still seemed to focus on her. With that hatred for life that reanimated dead have, it instinctively sought to destroy her.

Dashing to the side to stay out of range, she sent one long blast after another at it. To her relief, while it moved unerringly towards her, she was faster than the undead thing, if just barely, given how long its legs were and with eight of them. Eight legs became seven soon enough when one superheated and cracked, falling apart under the strain of the body above. Seeing more cracks appear in the zombie spider’s body, she knew that it was only a matter of time before she brought it down. And she seemed to have more than enough mana for the job, thanks to her new earrings.

Grinning a bit like a madwoman, thrilled at the danger and her own magical power and at being able to run and do things like this for the first time in her life, she shouted at the zombie. “Die, putrid thing!”

She was so wrapped up in the battle that it didn’t occur to her for a while that the others hadn’t followed. And when it did, she just put them out of her mind because it was probably safer for the lot of them to stay back while she handled this herself. As such, she didn’t hear someone shouting her name until they were almost on top of her.

“Marian!” cried a female voice.

“Huh?” She paused her attack and looked over her shoulder.

Jax was barreling right for her, his sword in hand, looking over his own shoulder as a very large zombie owlbear chased after him, looking fresher and moving much faster than the spider. It had the body of a bear and the head of an owl, thick wings for arms and bear paws for hands. Running upright and flapping the flightless wings for balance, the hooked beak looked ready to rend Jax’s flesh from his bones.

Her eyes flew open. “What are you—?“ She tried to dodge but he clumsily ran right into her. His arm hit her in the face and knocked her head back and the two of them spilled into the long grass. She groaned, feeling the armoured weight of him crushing her from above. “Get off—!“ She felt hands squeeze her breasts.

Jax blinked down at her. “Uh, sorry.”

Her face screwed up in anger. “What the—? This isn’t some anime you dumb brute. Get off me!” She punched him in the face and sent him rolling to the side.

A shadow fell over her.

Screaming, she threw herself into a wild roll and the descending leg of the zombie spider barely missed impaling her. Clawing her way out of reach and to her feet, she pulled up short as the owlbear bore down on her next. The monster took a swipe at her.

She screamed again and ducked, then ran. And nearly tripped over Jax, who hadn’t gotten out of the way yet himself. “Move!” she shouted at him in tense frustration, stumbling past.

He grunted and picked up his sword, which he must have dropped. He lashed out at the owlbear to no effect, not even connecting. Then he back-peddled fast, trying to escape the oncoming spider.

His uselessness wasn’t, sadly, a surprise. Then again, he was a rookie too. She planted herself and shouted for him to get out of the way before blasting both undead creatures with the full might of her magic, pouring as much as she could into the attack, enveloping both huge zombies.

The young man yelped and scampered away, flames shooting over the top of his lowered head.

She backed up as both monsters continued to press her, though more slowly now that both were becoming raging infernos. The spider’s thick hair and the flesh under the insectile skin had finally caught flame. The owlbear, covered in fur and feathers, had gone up quickly. Which meant that she wasn’t just being chased by oversized zombies, but by oversized zombies who were cloaked in fireballs that were setting the entire area ablaze.

Actually, she might have been doing that with her magic too. Her fright and anxiousness intensified.

Looking to escape, she whirled, intent on putting some distance between her and the monsters, but she came up short as she realized that she’d somehow become surrounded by burning grass and bushes.

Jax, with no regard for her whatsoever, leaped alone through the last clear gap to safety before the fire there closed the avenue off. She’d have to remember to get Ravellis to put at least a half dozen curses on him after this. Bad ones. If she survived.

The rest of the party stood just outside the flames, frantic with worry and looking helpless.

Marian, panicking and cursing her own foolishness, had no choice but to fight. These things weren’t dead yet and were still lumbering at her, too big, perhaps, to go down easily. Or her fire wasn’t yet hot enough because she was too low level. She ran about trying to burn them even more but she was both running out of mana at last and the enclosure of fire was rapidly shrinking. She was going to go up in flames with the undead!

“Jump here!” Rave faintly screamed over the roar of the burning…everything. Marian was about the only thing not on fire at this point.

She saw the sword-witch cupping her mouth and shouting. Glaxis was waving a small potion with one hand. Red? A healing potion?

Seeing no alternative, Marian ran towards the others, arms crossed over her face, eyes closed and holding her breath. Though her dragon origins gave her slight heat protection, at her level, it was not enough to prevent the bite on her exposed skin, nor could it stop her clothes from lighting up as well.

Feeling the temperature change and realizing that she was out of the blaze, she went a few more strides, eyes closed, before dropping to the ground and rolling. She felt her skin burning. It hurt!

“It’s out! It’s out!” Glaxis shouted, grabbing her and stuffing a healing potion in her hands.

Marian gulped it down and felt nothing. The pain continued. She tore her backpack open and grabbed one of her own healing potions. Guzzling it, the burnt skin eased as it healed. She gasped for air and looked up.

The two creatures were still in the fire but weakening and starting to crumble, unable to give chase anymore. They’d lose animation entirely in a minute or so.

A deep sickness and a smell like burnt ozone took hold of her. She gagged. “Ugh. I feel terrible.” Was it from the healing potion?

“Mana sickness,” Rave informed her quickly. “You’re completely drained. It’ll pass once your mana is restored.”

She’d used up that much magic already? She shook herself in disbelief. Then she thought about just how much fire she’d been throwing around and with how much intensity.

Logrin seemed to be thinking the same. “Young lady, that was a very impressive display of magic for someone your level. It’s no wonder you’ve worn yourself out. Rest now.”

She nodded, too exhausted and pained to speak.

“Another one!” Jax shouted.

They all looked up.

Marian groaned.

This one was human, male. It wore a leather jerkin and carried a cheap sword. Eye sockets glowed red and the rotting corpse moved with purpose, a chunk of flesh and maggots falling off its cheek at the effort, exposing glistening bone.

Ravellis drew her blade. “Let’s go!” she shouted at Jax.

The young man hesitated and followed, but only after the sword-witch had taken the lead. Though the two managed to hold the zombie off, it proved surprisingly resilient and was somehow able to take on both foes at the same time.

Seeing how clumsy the two were with their weapons, Marian knew that she couldn’t leave things to them alone and groaned a second time. She felt around in her pack and pulled out a green mana potion. If she’d thought the healing potion had tasted bad, this was truly awful. It was an effort not to vomit the liquid up and waste it. Yet near-instant relief flooded her to the core as the potion restored her mana. She’d freak out about the expense later.

Standing, she took a deep breath and circled around to the side of the battle. The zombie skillfully forced back both foes wielding steel with his own weapon. It was remarkable how much skill it had in reanimation. “Back off!” she shouted at the others, waving them away.

Rave and Jax put some distance between them and the monster.

This time, her magic set the zombie on fire immediately and a single blast was enough to destroy the much smaller human target. It coughed dust and weakened in moments before falling to the ground.

“Crap,” she muttered as the grass around the corpse blackened. “I guess I can’t use fire all the time.”

“Let’s head to the forest,” Logrin suggested to the party. “It looks damper over there and we’ll get away from this brush fire.”

They hurriedly moved that way, everyone feeling on edge and expecting more zombies to pop out from just about anywhere. Lucky for them, the area inside the trees seemed devoid of further trouble.

That gave Marian ample opportunity to safely catch her breath. She did so and then angrily rounded on Jax and gave him a hard shove. Which didn’t do much given their size and weight difference, but she followed it up with some good ol’ shouting. “What is wrong with you, you idiot brain-dead moron? You almost killed me out there! Almost killed both of us!”

“Now, now, Marian…” Logrin diplomatically tried to intervene.

Jax frowned at her in defensive confusion. “I saw another. I was just trying to lead it towards you. If you’re burning one, you can burn two, right? What’s the problem?”

“And you didn’t think to maybe let me know you were doing that? Instead of sneaking up behind me and then knocking me over?”

He crossed his arms and his frown deepened. “That was an accident.” Apparently, he didn’t like being criticized.

She was appalled by his complete lack of awareness and that there wasn’t a hint of apology or remorse in him. “Was it also an accident, when you fell on top of me, that you groped my tits?”

He scowled at her. “It’s how I fell.”

“Really?” She spoke in mock understanding. “Do you normally take the time to squeeze a person like that when you fall on them?” Orange flames appeared on her hands and she reached for him, causing him to yelp and dart back.

“Marian, stop!” Rave urged, sounding worried, perhaps not wanting to see party members fighting. “I’m not defending what Jax did. But I think perhaps it was a bad encounter for all of us. We didn’t work together as a team. I mean, you ran right in there alone at the start, didn’t you?”

Marian paused in her outrage. “Yes. But I figured it was safer that way anyway. I mean, Logrin and Glaxis aren’t fighting at all, right?”

The other woman bowed her head in acknowledgement. “All I’m saying is that perhaps it would be better if we approached any encounters as a group and talked through things first, before charging in. And work on better communication during the event as well. Right, everyone?” She nervously smiled at the group.

Rave was simply too nice and caring to get mad at. Marian calmed a bit more. “Yes, I suppose. And it was a little hard to hear in the heat of battle sometimes.”

“That’s because you set the whole area on fire,” Jax argued. “Look!” He waved at the large swatch of burning plain surrounding the three defeated undead.

The fire was dying though and, with luck, the damage would stay contained to the immediate area. Probably wouldn’t look good on anyone’s adventuring resume to have started a forest fire on their first quest.

But hearing his voice only re-inspired Marian’s ire. She balled a fist. “And I’ll set you on fire if you touch my breasts like that again. Or anyone else’s! Accident my ass, you creep!”

“Marian, I know you’re angry. And you have a right to be.” Rave glared sternly at Jax, who rolled his eyes and turned his head away in defiance. “But let’s not fight about what’s happened. Let’s try to focus on what we can do better in the future, hmm? Please?”

Marian fumed but felt her anger growing weaker in the face of her own mistakes. She nodded her acquiescence.

Rave pointed at the fighter, her own brows creasing like a mother scolding a willfully stupid child. “Jax, we’re all new to this adventuring thing. So it’s understandable that things might go wrong sometimes. We’ve all screwed up before, haven’t we? But that is that. Molesting women is something else entirely. If you can’t control yourself, you shouldn’t be in a party with members of the opposite sex.”

“It was an accident!” he stubbornly insisted, huffing and looking offended, as if he wasn’t totally guilty of doing it on purpose, or at least of taking advantage of the situation when it had happened. You could read it on his face because he was that bad at hiding his true emotions.

Marian wanted to punch him in the face again. Knowing they still had more of a job to do though, she tried to put her mind on that instead. She sighed with loss. “I just drank like how many gold in potions?” She sank to her knees. The financial hit hurt almost as much as the fire had.

“Sorry,” Glaxis apologized. “The one I gave you wasn’t strong enough. I haven’t learned to make better ones yet.” She looked sheepish.

Marian hastily waved away the goblin girl’s guilt. “It’s not your fault. I should have been more careful with what I was setting on fire. And a lot more efficient with my mana.”

Logrin chipped in with a thought. “Perhaps it might have been more effective to simply set the zombies on fire and then run, allowing them to slowly burn up on their own, rather than continuously applying more fire.”

She lowered her head in shame and muttered. “It’s because my fire isn’t hot enough to really damage it. Too low level.”

Glaxis tried to cheer her up. “It was enough to kill two huge monster zombies and a human one. I wish I could do that. I was useless for the fight.”

“A human.” The gnome frowned. “And by the looks of him, a former adventurer or mercenary. Either this necromancer is experimenting on humans after all, or something else is going on. Could be even more trouble ahead.”

“Oh dear,” Rave worried, her face pinched. “Do you think maybe we should call it a day and report this to the guild?”

Marian stubbornly shook her head. “I already took a very expensive mana potion, so I’m good to go again. I don’t want to waste all that gold. Let’s keep going. But carefully this time. I’ll…try not to get ahead of myself this time. You’re right, Rave, we should talk more. Work as a team. I’m sorry I didn’t before.” She felt her cheeks heat up a bit.

Rave stepped over and hugged her. “I’m just glad everyone’s ok.” Her good cheer returned. “Right. So, to the necromancer’s, uh, lair? Hideout? Laboratory? Um, home, maybe? It’s up ahead in this forest.”

“We don’t want to set the forest on fire though,” Jax muttered with a sour tone.

Marian shot him a glare.

“Do you have a more focused spell?” Glaxis asked in a much more polite tone. “That fan you make is really wide.”

“I can create a firebolt as well,” she admitted. “It’s not as powerful, but much more specific.” To her mortification, she’d utterly forgotten that she had that ability during the battle.

“Let’s try that then,” Rave suggested. “And Jax and I will try to create openings for you. Hold off the zombies as you focus on one at a time.”

“I can help direct things from the rear,” Logrin offered. “If need be. Be our eyes on the big picture.”

“Jax can be on point,” Marian said overly sweetly.

He looked affronted. “Why should I have to go first?”

“Because you’re a fighter,” she explained as if to a simpleton. “It’s literally your job to stand on the front line and fight monsters or hold them off for the rest of us. If you didn’t know that, why did choose to be a fighter?”

He huffed. “I plan on being a DPS fighter, not a tank.”

“A what and a what?” The gnome looked mystified.

“I want to deal damage, not take damage,” Jax clarified.

Glaxis raised one brow. “That’s nice. But that’s not what we need, is it? And it’s not the way you talked when you first teamed up with us.”

“Yeah, well. I can’t stand up to a giant spider or owlbear on my own.”

“Hopefully we won’t run into anything like that again,” Rave interjected in a forcefully calm manner. “But still, Jax, it would be a great help if you could be the front line. You have armour. I’ll back you up and that will leave Marian free to deal damage from behind or the side. I think that makes sense for now, hmm?”

He looked resentful. “Fine. Whatever.”

Marian sighed with mild disgust.

Hadiin appeared in her mind. How did they compare to Jax? Well, Hadiin was no fighter and not exactly the macho type. But neither did he seem as…weak and spineless as Jax. Or he hadn’t until the assassination attempt. He’d seemed pretty pathetic afterwards, just as bad as Jax. But she found herself wondering now if he’d actually been showing his true colours at the time, or if there was more to him and it had just been a bad time for him too.

Ugh. Why did she keep thinking about him?

Grumbling, Jax took the lead and the others followed. The party stealthily made their way through the trees towards their goal. Less than a hundred meters later, having seen no other monsters, they emerged from the copse and appeared at the edge of a small, overgrown cemetery that probably hadn’t been in regular use in a century. Tombstones were hidden by tall grass and the oldest had half crumbled. The barest remains of a wooden fence jutted up around the edge of the area. Two young trees grew in the center of the graveyard as if birthed from graves themselves. A crude, wooden shack stood on the other side of the cemetery.

Multiple zombies stood, swaying and staring at nothing: squirrels, black raccoons, four more humans, a trio of goblins, several birds, a silverback deer, and a smaller giant spider about the size of a large dog.

“Back,” Logrin hissed under his breath. He waved them back into the trees. When they were half-hidden, he spoke again. “Looks to me like that necromancer’s magic has gotten out of control somehow. Too many random creatures; I doubt all of them were made purposely.”

Glaxis peeked through the bushes. “Maybe we should watch for a while and see if the necromancer is around?”

“That is a lot of zombies to face at once,” Rave agreed.

Jax rolled his eyes. “Racoons and squirrels. We’ll be fine.”

“And multiple humans,” Marian countered, irritated by the young man. “Remember how you sucked so bad holding just one off earlier?”

“Whatever. None of them are carrying weapons.” He half sneered at her. “Maybe you should just set the whole graveyard on fire.”

Rave frowned. Even she was growing increasingly annoyed by him. Her voice firmed. “Let’s play it safe, shall we?”

“Pfft. Whatever.” He drew his sword and strode out. “I’m gonna level off this easy crap. Maybe I’ll even get an anti-undead skill. That would be sweet. Come on, zombies!” He ran at the nearest target, a zombie partridge.

The other undead heard and saw the disturbance, or sensed Jax’s life force, however zombies worked. From all over, they slowly shuffled towards him.

“Gah!” Marian burst out in frustration. She gave Jax’s back a flat stare. “I say we leave him to it. Alone. Then I don’t have to kill him myself.”

“Oh!” Rave fretted. “I was going to try casting a couple of spells on the area first!”

“I second Marian’s idea,” Glaxis said, unimpressed. “Let him kill himself before he gets the rest of us slaughtered from his stupidity.”

“If we don’t back him up, someone very well might die,” Logrin pointed out. “We can bicker later. Fight now!” He pushed them towards the graveyard.

Grinding her teeth, Marian stalked out into the open, Rave by her side.

Jax was having the time of his life slashing at raccoons and stomping smaller creatures to death with his boots. Even he had no trouble hacking the silverback deer, despite it standing as tall as he was, for it was in very poor shape, was missing one set of antlers and all of its guts hung out a gaping hole in its decaying belly. The stench was rancid. It didn’t look like he would actually need much help.

Marian, puzzled, looked around. “Where did the humans go?”

Rave also gazed about the cemetery. “Huh. That’s odd.”

“There!” Logrin shouted. “Watch out! One of them is evolving!”

To their disgust, one of the zombie people, a former female, had turned on the other three and dragged them to the ground in order to cannibalize them. She ripped the head off of one of them and stared into the eyes of the skull. The victim’s magical light faded. And the female’s eyes somehow grew more intelligent.

“Stop it!” Logrin shouted. “Before it becomes stronger!”

The two women ran past Jax, who was hacking the deer apart on the ground. The young man completely ignored the human zombies in order to continue crushing the lesser animals. He even found the courage to strike out at the large spider. He had a wild grin and while he had poor form, the sword was doing lots of damage.

The female zombie consumed the third skull. Dropping it, she turned two, baleful eyes on the women rushing her. The light in those sockets was brighter than before. She growled.

Marian raised a hand and shot a firebolt at the zombie. Her jaw dropped as she watched the zombie dodge.

Rave skidded to a halt. “Hold it off. I’ll try something with magic!” She immediately began chanting.

Not bothering to answer, Marian positioned herself in front of the other woman and shot two more firebolts. One landed and set the zombie’s belly on fire but the zombie lurched out of the way of the next.

Screaming silently, the zombie burst forwards and actually ran!

Zombies are supposed to shuffle! Freaking out at the sudden speed, Marian used a fan of flames and watched as the zombie leapt through it, fingers like claws.

She threw herself to the side and landed on the ground. From on her back, she fired another firebolt and hit the zombie in the side, distracting it before it could go after Ravellis.

The sword-witch finished her spell. Black flames lit the zombie’s body.

The undead thing twisted sharply, snarling without sound, and tried to turn on Rave.

But Rave skillfully slashed her sword through the monster’s neck, decapitating it.

Marian jumped to her feet and blasted the skull with about four fire bolts. Then she stomped on the charred and weakened bone, crushing it to dust. Panting, she looked up at her teammate. “That sucked. We’d better not find any more like that.”

“Agreed,” Rave said, her face pale. She adjusted her glasses, then searched for more monsters.

Jax nonchalantly strode about, sword on his shoulder, looking satisfied with himself. “Think we got ‘em all!” he called out from the other side of the cemetery. “I didn’t level though. This is crap.”

Marian didn’t bother to lower her voice as she spoke to Ravellis, genuinely puzzled. “Why in the name of all that is good in life did you party with that guy?”

The sword-witch did look a touch embarrassed but spoke defensively, and quietly so that Jax wouldn’t hear. “He’s not that bad. Or wasn’t. He’s been helpful on other quests. Easier ones. And not many were willing to join up with a weak female fighter, a gnome sage, and a goblin alchemist.”

Marian gave Rave a knowing look. “How many times has he tried to sleep with you? Or your daughter?”

Rave snorted and half smiled. “Only once. I gave him warts in the last place he wanted them until he begged and promised not to make such forward advances again.”

Logrin and Glaxis joined them. Then the party advanced very cautiously on the shack, finally acting like the experienced and wise adventurers they wanted to become.

Not really.

Jax carelessly strode up to the door and booted it open, poking his head inside. “Anyone home?”

Logrin facepalmed.

Jax pulled his head back out. “No one here. Place is a mess. Food rotting. Don’t think anyone’s been living here for a while.”

“Hey. Look.” Glaxis pointed to a section of the cemetery next to the shack. “That tomb is open.”

A narrow, stone staircase led down about three meters into the ground, ending at a stone door that was cracked open.

Marian lit her hand on fire and descended, not trusting Jax to take the lead anymore because he was an idiot. She could understand making mistakes as a novice, but he just wasn’t using his head and didn’t seem to care about repercussions at all.

She sincerely liked everyone else in the party. Would it be fair to ask Rave to kick Jax out if Marian were to join full time? The idea seemed selfish. On the other hand, the guy was a definite liability. If he got kicked out though, there was a risk he might get vindictive and tell others about the gnome and goblin. So they might be stuck with him no matter what.

The door led to a short passage that took a right turn and opened into a small, chilled room about ten paces long and ten wide, the floors, walls and ceiling all made of rough granite blocks. A single lantern hung from overhead, giving dim yellow light.

Rave gasped at what lay in the room.

On the far side was a sizeable wooden chest. Three or four male corpses had been haphazardly tossed into one corner; it was hard to tell because they’d been dismembered. Two naked female ones had been nicely laid on the floor, skin pale but relatively fresh, indicating their death had been recent. They looked groomed, as if pulled right out of their coffins after their funerals. A man of about thirty, his body gaunt, was doing something unspeakable.

And this was why so many people hated necromancers.

Logrin gagged and turned away.

Jax stepped forward for a closer look.

Rave and Marian looked at each other. Marian made a cutting motion across her throat. Rave hesitated, then awkwardly nodded and drew her sword. They advanced.

Marian announced them. “Maggot Pimpledick? Or whatever your name was. Hey. Hey you!” She had to shout to get his attention.

The necromancer slowed and turned to look at them. While he didn’t seem undead, it was unclear if he was alive either. Red pinpricks glowed in his eyes but the eyes seemed to be living tissue still. Then, in the creepiest way possible, his gray-blue lips split into a grotesque smile. “More ladies come to join my eternal harem. Welcome.”

Glaxis made a sound of disgust. “We’re killing him, right?”

Marian stopped and raised her hands. “You guys might want to step back. It’s going to get hot in here.”

“It’s going to get hot in here?” The necromancer frowned, then smiled again, showing dirty teeth. “Then you’d better take off all your clothes.”

Fire engulfed the necromancer and the poor dead woman he’d been defiling.

The mage rose, his face twisting in rage. Somehow, he was resisting the fire, at least to a degree. His skin turned red and then black but he only snarled as he cast a spell instead of screaming in pain.

“My turn!” Rave shouted and Marian stopped the torrent of fire, allowing the sword-witch to lunge forward and slash the necromancer’s hand and face, interrupting the spell.

Jax rushed in from the side, running his sword through the other man’s belly.

Now the necromancer did scream. But not for long. He collapsed in a bloody heap.

“Better cut the head off,” Logrin advised. “Just in case. I’m not entirely sure what kind of magic was going on but that lad wasn’t fully alive, I think. He might have cast spells on himself that kick in after death.”

Rave nervously swallowed but stepped forward and clumsily chopped at the dead man’s neck.

Jax, however, was already distracted. His face lit up at the sight of the chest. “Everybody loves large chests!” he shouted, racing towards it and even dropping his sword in order to reach for the lock. “I wonder what kind of loot—“

The top of the chest lifted of its own accord, lifted wide, revealing huge teeth. A thick tongue snaked out and wrapped around Jax’s waist. He had only a moment to look horrified before the mimic’s tongue dragged him into the gaping maw. Then the lid slammed shut and only wet crunching could be heard.

Marian and the others just stood there in slack-jawed surprise. It had all happened in an instant, too suddenly for anyone to react.

“He…he…” Ravellis babbled in shock.

“Holy,” Glaxis muttered.

“Huh,” was the best Marian could come up with. She took a step forward, as if to help but stopped because what would have been the point? The adventurer was undoubtedly dead.

Silence descended. Except for the crunching. And even that died out after about thirty seconds of chewing.

“Oh my gosh!” Rave stepped back, shaking. She looked in danger of losing her mind. “It killed him!”

Marian rushed to her side and hugged her around the shoulders. “Hey. It’s ok. Everyone else is safe.”

“But he died!”

“Yeah,” Marian admitted. “I guess that’s disappointing. I mean, I didn’t like him. It would have been enough if he’d just lost an arm or something and retired so that he never, ever went on an adventure again. But I didn’t wish him dead. Well, not all that seriously.”

The sword-witch looked bewildered and was starting to anger, disengaging from the hug. “How can you say that? He died!”

Marian kept her voice calm and placed a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Yes. He did. And it was his fault for rushing in like that. I’m just glad that he didn’t get anyone else killed with his carelessness. Which he almost did more than once. Aren’t you glad you’re still alive? And your daughter?”

Ravellis seemed to reflect on that. “Yes, of course.”

“How do we kill that thing?” Glaxis asked, staring at the mimic. She’d come to stand next to her mother, staying well out of reach of the monster’s tongue.

“Actually,” Logrin piped up, “we might not want to.”

“Why’s that?” the girl asked, genuinely curious.

“Not to be uncaring of the recently departed,” he began, seemingly as unbothered by Jax’s demise as Marian was, “but the mimic is likely sating itself at the moment and relatively unlikely to try to eat any of us. We might capture it.”

Marian looked at him in surprise. “What? Really?”

“Mm-hm. We could chain it up and cart it back to town to sell it. Some rich person might buy it as a trap for their own vault or merely as a novelty.”

“People do that?” Glaxis asked.

“I have a sage skill, a kind of appraisal ability similar to the one used by thieves and merchants. It doesn’t work on fine art or commercial goods, but it does on stranger and more uncommon things, like this. I don’t know exactly how much we could sell it for, but my skill is telling me that it’s mildly valuable.”

“Cool. Because I’ve got potion costs to make up for.” Marian looked about the room. “Maybe he’s got a spellbook or some artifacts laying around too.”

“We…we’ll have to tell the guild about this,” Rave stammered, still slightly shaken but recovering. “Not just about Jax but these other people as well. There will probably be an investigation. Some of these people must be villagers or adventurers.”

Together, they searched the small room, keeping well away from the mimic, then returned to the surface. A quick examination of the disgusting shack revealed some notes and journals but nothing obviously valuable beyond a gold ring that probably wouldn’t fetch much more than a few silver.

Mysteries solved and bodies accounted for, it was time to head back to the guild to make their report. And to figure out what they were going to do with the mimic monster that they planned to become loot.