While walking towards the entrance we discussed our formation briefly. Because I was wearing heavier armor and carried a tower shield easily I got the role of a tank.

“What’s a tank?”

Oh me.

I had to explain the various roles in the team to her one by one. I was not even that good with the MMORPGs myself. Just knew the basics.

“Would that make me the DPS?” she asked.

Honestly it was not that simple. She would sneak a hit here and there, but would any damage done by her outweigh my own as a tank? I had to refer her the theory or rather a classification of 1st, 2nd and 3rd line fighters.

If there was a vanguard protecting fragile members of 3rd line it could even be considered the 4th line fighter.

Our party of two was much more simpler.

She would simply hide behind my shield and sneak attacks whenever possible. I did not ban the destructive demonflame magic because we were complete beginners with almost no party chemistry. We would worry about material harvesting and earning enough gold later. Though the half-burnt meat might still be edible enough irregardless.

Probably due to it being still early we did not have to travel far and deep to encounter our first Dazed Jackrabbit. Its stats were somewhat lower than the previous one we saw in the cage during training. Especially the agility fell to about 15. Not only in name, but also the status itself described it as ‘dazed’.

When this big hare had finally noticed us we were already in spell range. I lowered my war pick, the top spike facing the monster. Then it charged at me. It went around my weapon, but then slammed directly into my tower shield. I felt that slam, but It was still too light for me to even stagger.

I quickly stabbed it, but I think it might have been already over for it after hitting the shield with its head. There was not even a single dent in the metal. On the other hand DJ’s horn was chipped and blood was flowing from its base.

I waved and put the corpse into storage. In retrospect it was not that fast.

I nodded to Elfin and said:

“Next one is yours.”

“Okay, Lynx!”

We navigated through few more bends and another one charged at me. The fate was exactly the same. It bounced off and my demonic companion covered it with flames.

“It is dead,” I said and the flames disappeared.

It was completely charred though, but I took it nevertheless. Even the legs of a mosquito have some meat on them after all.

DJs proved to be a major disappointment. This is not an isekai I worked hard for! Even if I avoided their chard (which was not that hard, even for Elfin) and they did not slam into the wall, they would not follow up with second attacks. They would stop in place, dazed, and not move unless you attacked them or waited at least a minute.

Elfin got better at minimizing the damage done to their corpses thanks to that sweet inactivity period. Thin demonflame jet would strike their heads one by one. Some still had their horns chipped or were charred, but it was getting visibly better with each encounter.

I would use the word encounter because everything in the dungeon felt like and old school jRPG. Distances between monsters were enough so that we never had to face more than a single enemy. Of course if we ignored a monster and ran forward we might make a whole train of mobs to kill en masse.

In the safe room next to the entrance to the 2nd level of the dungeon we shared water and spoke.

“Would you like to try to evade them next time?” I asked.

She should be able to do that easily even on the first line.

“I can,” she replied, “Lynx, can we eat something?”

I knew I had forgotten about something due to too much excitement.

“Uh, sure. Let me check if the royal kitchens are ready to give out meals.”

They were. In fact the court was just about to start dining.

A mischievous idea popped into my mind.

I prepared a few plates from my inventory and began summoning the illusions of dark rose on each one of them. This would be tricky, but hopefully the Throne is sophisticated enough to actually pull it off.

Just as the dishes were about to arrive before the Queen I have plucked the ones I wanted to eat. They appeared on our plates of course in place of those roses.

Meanwhile servants opened the covers on the dishes in front of the Queen to signify the start of the meal. The astonishment on her face, when instead of tasty fried bacon and eggs (surprisingly common cuisine for a queen) she had only found inedible black roses was precious beyond measure.

Truly the best appetizer one could wish for. Shame I could not show it to Elfin.

I took out a blanket and we started our picnic.

The floor of this dungeon, unlike the name itself implied, was very neat and tidy.

The food was even better than that served by “Under Golden Leaf”. There were also some clearly bourgeoise dishes like white bread and croissants! They even gritted between teeth only a few times per piece! Eh, even the royal flour was contaminated with pieces of sand from mill stone. The commoner’s breads we ate before were even worse in that regard. I considered how to make mill grinding stones less prone to chipping.

“Lynx, this is truly a royal feast!” she said between bites.

If only she knew.

I was pondering how to approach biting into a particularly unusual tart slash pie slash muffin, when a new party spotted us.

“I would be damned. Lad’n’lass eating breakfast inside the freaking cellars!” said the warrior with a spear.

“And what noble dishes do they dine on! Oh my!” continued a wizard with a long staff. That staff had a polished knob at the end, like all stylish magic staves should.

“Are yer folks nobles?” said the shortest of them carrying two long daggers.

Must have been a hobbi.., halflin..? No. His status clearly pointed his race to be ‘Lesser Folk’. He was lanky, but his head and hands were out of proportion. They were simply too big for his frame and height.

The other two were your run of the mill, good old, standard humans.

“No, we are not,” I denied their wild assumptions, “This is a safe room so there is nothing wrong in relaxing, is there? Grabbing a few bites in between fights should be okay.”

They grumbled something and bid us their farewells. Elfin was still eating, while I had already finished. I had some time to kill. I recalled my TO-DO list.

I should send the dress with that locket to my priestess. Maybe scold her, while at it for summoning/kidnapping miss Hero of Thrope. The dress itself was ready.

I searched for her. She was inside the main Church complex in Ythall. Some kind of praying room, perhaps? She was meditating, maybe praying.

Concentrating my divinity on her I could hear a voice chanting a genuine prayer. Something about demons and the failure of the Hero to suppress them. It was kind of a cool ability, yet the contents were completely unfunny. I decided to interrupt her with my best God’s Voice.

“MY CHILD, WHY HAST THOU SUMMONED A HERO? IS IT BECAUSE OF THAT LOCKET WITH YOUR RELATIVE’S IMAGE?” I spoke.

It was a kind of an inner voice so the Elfin was still munching on food blissfully unaware.

“Your Divinity! The Hero failed in subduing a pair of dangerous demons! I beg of thee to send help!” she replied clearly not listening to what I had just said.

“I WAS GOING TO RETURN IT, YOU KNOW. I JUST NEEDED THE DRESS, NOT THE PORTRAIT. IT WAS YOU WHO SACRIFICED IT TO HEAVENS BY MISTAKE, SO THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO GET MAD.”

“I am not mad, my Lord. Has the Era of Strife not began? Can I implore you to send an angel?”

“THEY ARE ALL BUSY, RIGHT NOW,” I spoke and at that moment Elfin finished eating and wanted to leave the room, “no, please wait. I am not ready to leave yet. I have something to finish. Yes, it is magic. I am trying to talk with someone and you are interrupting. No need to be sorry, but please wait a bit,” I spoke to Elfin and returned my attention to the priestess, “SORRY I HAD SOME INTEREFERENCE ON MY SIDE. WHAT WERE YOU SAYING?”

“Nothing, my Lord,” she said and wondered what kind of heavenly being was her new God conversing with.

“OKAY. WHERE WAS I MYSELF?” I asked, “YES, I WAS GOING TO RETURN YOUR HEIRLOOM, INDEED!” I remembered and sent the dress from my storage to slightly above the priestess.

The dress fell to the ground as she did not manage to react fast enough to catch it. She kneeled yet again to pick it up.

“What a beautiful dress and fine fabric. Is there magic woven into it?”

“RATHER THAN MAGICAL I WOULD CALL THESE ROBES DIVINE. BUT YES, TECHNICALLY THERE IS ‘HOLY’ MAGIC WOVEN INTO IT. THE LOCKET IS ALSO ATTACHED. ENJOY YOUR PRESENT, MY CHILD.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” she expressed her gratitude rather flatly, “but I am just your humble servant in need of guidance against demons.”

“WHAT DEMONS? THE DIMENSIONAL WALLS ARE YET TO BE BREACHED. UNLESS YOU COUNT THE HERO SUMMONING OF COURSE.”

“But the Era has started. The two demons in the Palace are super strong!”

“MY CHILD. THERE ARE NO DEMONS IN THE PALACE. I MAY NOT BE OMNISCIENT, BUT I WOULD KNOW ABOUT THAT. THOSE TWO BEINGS YOU REFER TO ARE RATHER CONNECTED TO HEAVENS INSTEAD,” I said and made a pause, “IF THE ERA OF STRIFE CAN BE VIEWED AS INTERREGNUM IN HEAVENS THEN IT IS CORRECT TO SAY IT HAS STARTED. THE DIMENSIONAL WALLS HAVE THINNED CONSIDERABLY, BUT NO INCURSIONS HAVE OCCURRED SO FAR. YOU HAVE SUMMONED THAT HERO FOR NOTHING.”

“Would she not be helpful?”

“DO YOU KNOW NOT FOR WHAT THE HERO SUMMONING SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED BY THE OLDER GODS?” I sighed. When she kept being silent, I continued, “JUST APOLOGIZE TO HER ON MINE AND YOUR BEHALF. TAKE CARE OF HER. MAKE SURE TO EDUCATE HER PROPERLY ABOUT STUFF. I AM OUT. GOODBYE, CHILD,” I said and cut the connection.

Somehow conversing with my worshipper was very exhausting thing to do.

The Hero, that was crucial element of Era of Strife strategies so far, would only hog the resources now. Main issue was the sheer Divinity costs of raising someone to the level of godhood. Normally it was impossible to pull it off at once. I still did not know how Talakhe had pulled it off with me.

I could not simply cut the Hero form the support system. She would die and it would be on me. I only made sure that the System would not summon additional heroes, which would normally occur when the current hero died. There was a possibility of resurrection, but any given hero would have to earn such right with deeds of valor. This one had not yet done so. I decided to give her one free ticket back from death, no more.

“Let’s go,” I told my lonesome party member.

“Where to, Lynx? Do we continue downward?”

“Nah. Let us play on this floor until we are tired,” I decided for us.

She had a puzzled look on her face so I explained why I thought it was better to play safe. We were too fresh to understand each other strengths and weaknesses. I did not intend to waste a resurrection-worth of divinity on some goblins, who inhabited the second floor.

“I know fighting small enemies is not ideal to train your shield skills, but bear it with me for another day or so.”

“Of course, Lynx,” she replied.

The rest of the day went by with us trying different tactics against those monstrous animals. Gradually the rate at which we would encounter other parties grew, bit most of them were headed to much lower floors. They were also not that high in levels and abilities as compared to us, but my will was firm. We would play it safe.

Where do the dungeon denizens come from? Where they bred somewhere?

The dungeon would certainly retrieve any corpses left unattended. It happened to one of our furry (and now charred) victims. It ate the corpse we ignored. How did it procure a fresh and living jackrabbit? Were there some time-loops or teleportation involved?

Also how were they daze? I expressed my experimentation plan to Elfin:

“I want to capture one and take it out of the dungeon!”

She just nodded, not feeling the crushing weight of SCIENCE!

The next one we encountered I caught while it was in a daze after charging. I held it in my arms and we teleported into a rocky plateau.

It was somewhere south-ish from Ythall.

The jackrabbit kicked me with its hind legs. It hurt, but did not damage me through the armor and my double barriers of mana and divinity. Its status had “Dazed (fading)” condition mentioned. Shortly after it disappeared altogether. Its name was now changed to “Jackrabbit” and it started to kick me twice as hard.

“Just stab it. The experiment is over,” I urged my companion.

She took out a long dagger from her hip and clumsily stabbed it in the throat. Blood covered my forearms, but it refused to die. I squeezed it hard until it stopped moving.

I felt disgusted.

Killing rabbits was already nauseating with long-reach weapons.

Make no mistake – I am no vegetarian. I eat plenty of meat, but never had to butcher them myself.

I cleaned myself as much as I could with water, soap and cloth.