Demi was waiting not too far from the exit out of the dungeon; hidden in the shadows as always. Newbies and even experienced adventurers would pass unaware of her existence. She was waiting patiently for Sargon to come back, every time a figure approached, she hoped that it will be her companion. Her stomach grumbled slightly, she was so hungry. Just how long will he make her wait? Cookies were promised a while ago and it shouldn't have taken so long to deliver them.

Finally, she recognised a familiar face of her companion. She got excited for a moment but that lasted only until she realised that he didn't come alone. She became moody and didn't feel like coming out of the shadows anymore. However, a faint smell of fresh cookies reached her nose and she changed her mind. He brought cookies and she had to get them before that lizard-woman or that child decided to take what was rightfully hers.

“Cookies now!” She demanded jumping out of the darkness.

The sudden appearance and tone startled the group.

“Wow, you scared me!” Sargon exclaimed and loosened the grip on his dagger. “Here.” He passed her the fresh batch of cookies which were still warm.

Demi-Ura unwrapped the cloth and began gobbling it up greedily, almost choking on it.

The bearskin child starred at her, or her cookies to be more precise, while swallowing her saliva. Demi-Ura knew what that child was after, there was no way she was sharing it, so instead, she shoveled them in her mouth even faster.

“She really likes them.” Lilith said in wonder trying to ignore Demi-Ura’s barbaric way of eating.

“Mhm… if only they were cheaper, or I knew how to bake.” Sargon liked giving his companion treats but this hobby proved to be costly.

“Demi-Ura, was it?” Lilith tried to get glutton's attention away from the treats. Demi-Ura nodded so Lilith continued. “I'll be joining your party from now on. Despite our differences, I hope we can be friends. Here this is for you.” She passed a cloak to Demi-Ura.

The cloak was simple in design, basically it was just a large piece of black cloth which could be wrapped around one’s body, but it was leagues better to what currently demon girl was wearing.

Demi-Ura wiped the crumbs for her face and looked hesitantly at the offering.

“It’s a gift take it.” Sargon encouraged.

She nodded once more and took the cloak in her hands feeling the fabric with her fingers. It felt nice to the touch and was softer than she expected. She sniffed it and it even smelled nice. Demi-Ura changed her mind about that lizard-woman, deciding that maybe she was not that bad after all.

“I can see you like it.” Sargon commented on the rare sight of Demi-Ura smiling. “Put it on, what are you waiting for?”

Just as he finished saying it Demi-Ura undid her cloak, the party was left in an unexpected bewildered state. She had nothing under it and apparently didn't mind to be seen naked.

“Oww!” Sargon gasped, his face taking a tinge of red.

“What the hell!” Lilith scrambled to shield Sargon’s eyes but was too late.

Tasha just simply laughed, she found the situation and especially Lilith’s reaction amusing.

Demi-Ura finished changing the cloaks, discarding the old one to a side like a piece of trash.

“She looks good in it, doesn’t she Sargon?” Tasha stressed the boy's name.

“Ah, Can I look now?” He pushed Lilith’s hands away from his eyes. “Yes, it suits her very well. This will definitely make her even more sneaky. Oh, and I have this one for you too. I know it does not compare to the dagger you gave to me but I hope you will accept it.” He passed the dagger he bought from Belish.

“No need, I have my tail.” She said with a smile but took it anyways.

“Ok then, why don’t we show Lilith how dungeon works.” He offered

“I am looking forward to it.” Lilith said with a hint of anticipation in her voice.

The party went deeper inside the dungeon. Lilith became accustomed to it in no time, she even began helping to take care of the monster ants. With the supervision of Sargon and Demi she killed the ants using her natural weapons - her clawed arms and feet.

Lilith had long and muscular legs so she kicked and trampled the ants like the incests they were. Her feet had natural armour so it caused her no discomfort. She was at it for two hours or so and she oddly enjoyed dispatching the insects. Lilith even forgot that dungeons were a dangerous place.

“I am jealous of how easy it is for her. It is her first day and it looks like she is already ready for the third floor.” Sargon praised Lilith and complained at the same time.

“This is because she has you guys helping her out. It is a lot easier then you are in the reliable party... I feel safe too, with you guys.” Tasha added.

“I agree. This must be because I can rely on you and Demi-Ura. I can see that this would be very different if I was alone.” Lilith agreed to Tasha’s reasoning.

“Third floor it is then.” Sargon saw no reason why they could not push it harder. Lilith was acing it.

They went to the third floor and then even to the fourth floor, where bigger ants, [Warrior Ants] roamed the place. This was a good time to test Lilith’s ability.

Sargon and Demi-Ura killed all of the ants leaving one for Lilith.

“I will tear it down!” Lilith shouted all pumped up. She herself found it odd how much she liked killing despite being ex temple priestess.

“We will support you but be careful.” Sargon gave Lilith a pat to her back.

At first, Sargon just wanted to see how Lilith handles the superior enemy, he didn't expect her to kill it alone at all. Lilith was a healer. not a fighter, expecting her to kill [Warrior Ant] was unreasonable.

“[Taunt]” Sargon distracted the monster away from Lilith’s attack.

The lizard-woman slashed at the ant with her claws scratching its carapace. It was not much but she did manage to damage it. Then she kicked at one of the ant’s legs, it was super effective and the leg snapped in two.

“Nice! Keep going.” Sargon was surprised that Lilith managed to break it only using her feet.

Lilith kicked at the other leg straight to the joint, the leg snapped with a cracking noise. [Warrior Ant] lost its balance and toppled to the side.

“Kill it! [Confuse].” Demi-Ura cast a spell on ant to completely disable it.

Sargon made a step back encouraging Lilith to kill the ant on her own. If she killed it she would get experience, or at least that’s how the dungeon was supposed to work.

“How should I do it?” Lilith asked her party but there was no response. She was left to figure it out on her own.

“The head?” She questioned before slashing with her sharp claws at it.

She made broad and wide slashes with her left and right, tearing at the ant’s head armour. She was swinging her arms relentlessly. One of her slashes seemed more powerful than the others and her claws split the weakened head armour cracking the head open and tearing at the ant's egg-sized brain.

“It is dead?!” Tasha exclaimed in surprise. She didn't expect Lilith to kill such enemy on her first day.

“I did it! I even got a skill – [Slash]!” Lilith was overjoyed.

Sargon too was out of words. Demi-human abilities were superior to those of humans, he felt cheated by the nature goddess. He too wanted sharp claws like Lilith’s which could be used as weapons.

“Amazing! It looks like you won’t need to get a weapon at all. You can fight with your hands and legs.”

“She could become a monk.” Tasha referred to a fighter class. Monks were both casters and fighters at the same time who used their limbs as weapons.

“That would make a lot of sense.” Sargon agreed.

“Thank you for the praise, but I don't think I'm there yet. I'm just a healer for now.” Lilith was trying to be humble.

“She can fight. Good.” Demi-Ura praised Lilith in her own way.

“It is going well so let's keep going. But from now own Lilith stay at the rear with Demi and only come to help me if it is safe to do so.”

“You don’t need to tell me, I know what I'm doing.” Lilith scooped the core out of the ant, just like Sargon had shown her before. She was keeping it as a trophy for her first proper kill.

The party moved deeper, past the mushroom forest. There they were ambushed by a swarm of [Spitter ants]. Green projectiles of acid flew through the air aiming for the party.

Sargon failed to dodge one and it splashed on his hand. His skin sizzled and the flesh began to melt, he screamed in pain.

“I will heal you!” Lilith rushed to his help, ignoring the projectiles flying at her direction.

Unlike Sargon, she had higher dexterity and was able to avoid it. She reached the screaming boy and dragged him behind the cover of tall mushrooms. She started healing his arm just in time, negating the damage. However, they were not safe, not with the ants trying to flank them from the side.

“I have to kill them before it's too late.” Sargon grasped his dagger with his good arm and tried to stand.

“No! You can’t.” The healing wasn't done and Lilith couldn’t let him go, that is if he wanted to keep the arm.

“I do it, [Blast]!” Demi-Ura fired at the general direction of the ants blowing one of them into a goop of ant chunks and acid.

She could not blow all off them, not without running out of mana.

“You, help!” Demi-Ura shouted at Tasha who was just the observer the whole time they were in the dungeon.

“But I can’t, I am not a fighter. I've never killed a monster!” Tasha panicked, she didn't even have a weapon. She was in a [Burden] class, she was never expected to fight before.

However, Sargon’s party was an unusual one, the party where everyone was expected to pitch in the melee, or it seemed so at least.

“Sargon, Dagger!” Demi-Ura asked for his dagger.

The dagger flew over the mushroom cover, Demi-Ura caught it and pressed the weapon to the small beastkin.

“Eh?!” Tasha grasped the heavy weapon in both of her hands.

“We'll flank ants. You go there and I go there.” Demi-Ura pointed at different directions. This way the ants would have three different targets and the acid barrage would be easier to avoid, but it was still risky never the less.

Demi-Ura didn't wait for Tasha to respond and dashed to the side, circling around to the [Spitter Ants].

Tasha froze but only for a second. Her comrade was relying on her and she will have to do it even if her legs were trembling and being frightened like never before. She turned to the other direction and ran to the oposite flank of the ants. The acid spit flew past her a number of times but it missed her small frame and she reached the ants unharmed.

She thrust a dagger forwards with both of her hands and aimed for the ant hoping to stab it before it spits. Her left leg stepped on a small mushroom and she slipped falling forward.

“Ah!” Tasha yelped out of fear and desperation landing on one of the ants.

The dagger she pressed in her hands pierced the ant killing it and she rolled away so not to get splashed by leaking acid. The ant was dead but she lost the dagger and there were three more ants in the line of her sight. It was bad.

Demi-Ura popped from behind of one of the tall mushrooms, she was dispatching the ants skilfully with her tail. She managed to approach them without being noticed and killed quite a few of the insects, her [Shadow Cloak] skill was detrimental to this.

Even if Demi-Ura was here Tasha felt that she was too far to help her. All it would take was one projectile in her face to and her life. She teared up and prepared to impending doom as best as she could.

“[Confuse]” Demi-Ura cast her spell on the bunch of the ants next to Tasha, disabling them. “Dagger! Fight!” She shouted at Tasha again.

Tasha was a master of her own fate, if she wanted to live she had to get a grip and continue fighting. She did just so. Young beastkin stood on her legs with a roll and pulled the dagger out of the dead ant's carcass. Then she ran towards the confused ants and stabbed at them. One, two and then three, all of the confused ants were killed by Tasha.

It was a turning point of the battle. Even if there were a lot of them the [Spitter ants] had no workers or warriors in their swarm so they ran in retreat.

“You did it!” Demi-Ura congratulated.

“I did?” Tasha could not believe it was over. Her legs and arms were still shaking and her tail was pressed in between her legs.

The two ran back to there the Sargon was to check on him.

The healing was almost done and his arm looked like nothing has happened.

“Thank you. Thank you, everyone!” Sargon reiterated the second sentence with more enthusiasm. “If not for Lilith my arm would have been gone. And if not for you Tasha I would probably be dead. You too Demi.” Sargon sounded happy that everything was okay.

Demi-Ura just nodded to him like it was no big deal.

“We are comrades, and comrades help each other. Here.” Tasha was back to her usual giddy self and gave him his dagger back.

“Sorry for getting you in this mess. I took you here as if it was a walk in a park and not a dangerous dungeon run. You aren’t even in my party, you should not have risked like that for me.” Sargon reflected on his poor judgement.

“I'm not, but… But I wish I was with you guys. Two packers would be too much, you would have no use of me. I can’t even fight like you guys.” Tasha was referring to the misunderstanding where she thought that Sargon was in [Burden] class too.

“You saved my life and I am sure no one would object with you tagging along with us, if it is what you wish. I have never asked because I taught you prefer being in an experienced adventurers’ parties. And not like we could afford paying you properly. If you don’t mind you are more than welcome to join.”

“Realy?! Noone minds?” Tasha asked just to confirm.

Demi-Ura did't respond but didn't look like she was against it. While Lilith had no objections, she two just joined Sargon recently so she did not feel like she had a say in it.

“Then I will!” Tasha said with an energetic tail wag. “Even being as an observer I felt more accepted and more like a part of the party than with my current employer. I'm used to be treated more like an item rather than a party member. You guys are different. I was even trusted to save someone's life!”

Thinking about it Tasha felt amazing at overcoming her fear and actually helping to save someone. The fear she felt was debilitating but the joy and sense of pride at being able to do it made it worth. She never had a lot of sense of self-worth in her current life.

The moment was ruined by distant screams and shouts. By a sound of it, someone else was in trouble.