Another option would be to ask the goddesses to send something to keep her company. I doubt they know about the driders, once they do I'm sure they will want to keep them contained. I will have to remember to talk to them about it once I have destroyed the temple.

Come to think of it, I haven't taken Kechara into the soulscape yet, I'm sure she would love it. Not to mention in the soulscape I can make opponents for her to fight, including flying ones. That way I can at least train her mind in how to fight against any type of opponent.

Kechara should have been back by now, Bones shouldn't have wandered too far. Just as I am about to go looking I see both of them returning, and Bones is dragging something. When they get closer I can see that it is a drider corpse so I rush over to see what happened.

The drider died from sword cuts, so I'm pretty sure that Bones killed it, the problem is he shouldn't have found it to begin with. Telling Bones to just leave the corpse there I have him lead me to where he found it. He immediately drops the body and turns around to head back the way he came.

Kechara and I follow him to the cliff that is above the tunnel that leads to the city. Worried about what I might find I start climbing down to the tunnel, no time to take the long way around. At least this time I don't have Kechara clinging to my back, it only takes a few minutes to climb down.

As soon as I set foot in the tunnel I am attacked by some skeletons, I don't even bother to draw Blitz. Just a light punch is enough to shatter their skulls and leave them as a pile of bones on the floor. Since Bones can't climb well I dismiss and resummon him in the tunnel, Kechara just flies down easily.

Since the ceiling is a little low for me to wield Blitz I let Bones lead the way down the tunnel. When I spot more driders coming I tell Kechara to go help Bones, while I stay back and watch. There are only four driders, I could kill them in seconds, but I want Kechara to get some experience fighting for real.

True, she killed some in the cavern when I was carrying her, but that was with her wind blades. This time it will be with tooth and claw, and since I am here to make sure nothing bad happens to her this is a good chance for her to experience real combat. As I watch, Bones engages one drider while Kechara attacks the other, the tunnel isn't wide enough to fight more than two at a time.

The lead two are melee types, while the two behind them are casters, who are summoning their undead. They end up summoning more skeletons, it seems they can just keep summoning more if they get destroyed. That could get annoying quickly if there is no limit to the amount of times they can summon them.

Kechara kills her drider first, but the skeletons rush in to keep her busy, these driders are the living type and seem more intelligent. By the time Bones has killed his drider, Kechara has smashed all the skeletons and the two of them rush the driders. They make quick work of the casters and then turn to wait for me to join them.

Bones has gained a level!

Stepping over the driders I continue down the tunnel, I pat the both of them on the head as I pass. When I get to the barrier I see that is has a bunch of tears in it, that must be how the driders gfot out. I quickly send out my power to take a look at the barrier and try to figure out how it failed.

While I am concentrating another drider comes through the barrier but Bones and Kechara deal with it easily. After a fews minutes analyzing the barrier I figure out what went wrong. The barriers are maintained and powered by the guardian, but since the guardian changed they haven't been powered up.

The barrier is already repairing itself, by that I can tell that it is Kechara's presence that is repairing it. From this I figure out that the guardian has to fly around and check the barriers every so often. That actually makes sense, after all if they weren't recharged and repaired they probably would have failed long ago.

Letting go of the barrier I turn and start asking Kechara some questions, she can't talk but she can nod or shake her head to answer. Turns out that she can feel the presence of the barrier and even sense the driders if she is close enough. The barrier only takes a few minutes to repair itself, once it is done I tell Kechara to go out and check the area to make sure no driders escaped.

By the time I have climbed back up to the cliff she is back and I can tell she didn't find anymore. After dismissing Bones we head back to the cave and I start cooking dinner. In the morning I plan to have Kechara fly around the mountain and look for the other entrances to the city.

Since she can fly she will have a much easier time getting around, and since she can sense the barriers it shouldn't be hard for her. While we are eating dinner I explain to her what the soulscape is and as much as I know about how it works. Once she is done eating she comes over and lays down next to me and I put my hand on her head.

'Create Soulscape!'

Once the soulscape opens I invite Kechara in, I want her to come on her own rather than dragging her in. It takes a minute for her to appear, while I am waiting I set the terrain to the normal forest clearing. She is immediately interested in running around as soon as she appears and I let her play for a while.

When she settles down I create a group of humans, I make sure to include an archer and a mage. Once they are created I tell her that they are enemies and she needs to defeat them, but I don't tell her anything else. She shoots into the air and goes to attack them without any preparation, needless to say she gets a rude surprise.

From the look she gives me I can tell she is upset with me, but I tell her it is her own fault for underestimating her opponent. I explain to her that an adventuring group or any group with intelligence will try to have ways of fighting any opponent. Then I start explaining what she should look for to identify different threats, once I am done I create another group for her to fight.