When I wake up early the next morning there is little in the way of any news on how things are going with Madam Erin. I send a message to Dyson asking for a update, but either he is ignoring me or he is under the effects of one of the traitor’s items and didn’t receive my message.

I use the [Archjusticar Menu] to look in on Madam Erin, but it is still displaying the same empty room in her dungeon. It is showing she is still alive however, so maybe that is a good sign. The meeting we set up for Aaron and Belinda’s father is still a few days away as well, so it looks like I have nothing to do but wait…

Like most of Logan’s visits we ended the last night at the tavern, but with everything going on with Madam Erin I made sure to pace myself, but Logan more than made up for my fair share, as it has been a while since he got to visit with Kline and Doug.

Even Exavier and Quinn joined us, but Quinn’s presence wasn’t exactly voluntary. He didn’t seem to want to be there, but he didn’t have any reservations about drinking either. Exavier seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit, being able to visit with Tanya’s brothers, but the poor guy holds his liquor even worse than Doug.

Needless to say, I don’t expect to see any of them too early this morning, but I decide to make breakfast anyway. I give Belinda a quick kiss, roll out of bed, get dressed, and then head down to the kitchen. After starting the cooking, the smell starts to waft through the air and before long I feel a light tug on the edge of my shirt.

Rory is still much too little for it to be her, and the bunnies have grown too much for it to be any of them, so to say I am a bit startled at first is an understatement. I quickly look down to find a young boy that can’t be more than 10 years old pulling on my shirt with one hand while sleepily rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his pajamas with the other.

His pajamas are too big for him, but they are a pair I recognize. Not only the pajamas, but the boy’s general appearance gives away who he might be. He seems to be a rabbit beastkin with long grey ears, but instead of standing straight up on top of his head like the others his are drooping to the sides of his head.

His facial features are predominantly more animalistic as well. His face, backs of his hand, and his neck is all I can see, but they are all covered in short grey hair. His face is elongated with a rabbit like nose. All the third tier beastkin are of a much larger size so even young boy like this should be taller, so perhaps he is some kind of demi-human?

“Well… Who are you?”

The boy’s rabbit-like nose twitches and he says. “Big sister Lilah named me Leveret.”

“It’s nice to meet you Leveret.” –I say scratching him behind the ears.- “So, what can I do for you this morning?”

Leveret’s nose twitches again, but he seems to be enjoying me scratching him behind the ears. “Big sister Lilah said this was part of my training. She wanted me to ask Master if it is ok to make breakfast for all of us in the dungeon core room.”

“How about you give me a hand, and we make breakfast for everyone, together?”

Leveret doesn’t seem to know how to respond so he stands there while his nose twitches for a few seconds before he finally nods, and we begin making breakfast together.

Leveret was born in the dungeon, so he takes to the kitchen like he has made breakfast a million times before, but I only told Lilah to summon more bunnies a few days ago, so he can’t be more than a few days old to start with.

Monsters born in the dungeon know what the dungeon knows, and that is common, but the details in which Leveret knows, down to where the utensils are at, to the amount of ingredients to use, he takes to like it is second nature.

Lilah must have focused really hard on making him as knowledgeable as possible…Or summoned him for the specific task of making food for them, but I hope that isn’t the case.

“Lilah is training you how to take care of the dungeon, right?”

Leveret: “Yes, but it is quite hard. I don’t only have to make sure I can do it, but do it well enough that I can teach others as well.”

“She was supposed to summon a few of you, were you the only one?”

Leveret: “No, Lilah summoned me along with another brother and another sister.”

“And yet she only sent you to make breakfast this morning?”

Leveret: “Lily and Levi are both still asleep, so big sister Lilah asked me to do it.”

“Well alright then, the training she is having you do is quite important, but don’t let it get to the point that she is overworking you either. If you stay with my dungeon or join Ceres’s all of the monsters summoned from my dungeon are not to be mistreated, so if she asks too much of you, all you have to do is let me know, alright?”

Leveret’s nose twitches as he seems to be thinking about what I just said, but he then just nods and continues helping with breakfast. It isn’t long until Vetala arrives in the kitchen after smelling the food cooking and hearing the racket, so I ask her to go check on our guests.

Belinda enters the kitchen soon after with a look of confusion on her face after seeing Leveret. I explain the situation to her and she makes him go sit down while helping me with breakfast. Leveret’s feet don’t even reach the ground as he sits in the chair rocking them back and forth while drinking on some juice that Belinda gave him.

We have [Menu] set up to warn us when Rory crawls out of bed, and as soon as we get the notification I'm left to fix everyone’s breakfast alone when Belinda has leaves to make sure she doesn’t try coming down the stairs on her own.

Those who went with us to the tavern last night show up to breakfast a little worse for wear, but Logan arrives with a small jug of green liquid that he distributes to the others. He offers me some, but I took it easy last night, so I decline.

Exavier on the other hand is looking at the cup with a curious look on his face. “Is this even safe to drink?”

Logan: “It may help to pinch your nose, and drink it in a single go. It will cause your stomach to flip flop a bit, but by the time breakfast is served your stomach will have recovered and your hangover will be gone.”

Doug pinches his nose and throws his cup back, afterwards he shakes his head while making a disgusted face. “After all these years you would think you would have found a way to improve the taste…”

Logan drinks his without even the slightest change in facial expressions. “I guess you just get used to it after a while. It beats the hangover, which reminds me. Don’t let me forget to take some to Kline after breakfast.”

Quinn arrives at the table looking horrid, but he turns his nose up to the green liquid that Logan offers him, and orders someone to bring him some coffee.

Logan: “There are no servants here, Two-Twelve is making breakfast himself, so if you want something to drink. Make it yourself!”

Quinn grabs his head as Logan raises his voice, and I slide a cup of coffee to Vetala and she takes it to Quinn.

“If you need some help while staying here Vetala can help you, but keep in mind she has lots of things to take care of, so don’t expect her to be available all the time.”

Quinn looks at Vetala questionably for a few seconds before taking the cup and turning his head. He does it quick enough though that he winces a bit from the sudden movement, and Vetala just curtsies and comes to help me in the kitchen.

By the time everyone begins eating breakfast the mood has shifted and everyone is talking and having a good time, that is all except Quinn, he is holding his head as Logan seems to be getting a kick of it and makes a point of being louder than he needs to be.

When breakfast is over, everyone goes about their daily routines, and Logan goes to pay Kline a visit, leaving Belinda, Rory, Vetala, Quinn, and me left. We leave the dishes to Vetala, while Belinda bounces Rory on her knee while trying to talk with Quinn.

Belinda: “I’m sorry to hear about Princess Rose. I know being in Tobes isn’t exactly where you want to be right now, but as long as you are here, we will do our best to see you enjoy you time here.”

Quinn: “Just leave me alone…” –He says while turning his back to Belinda hunching over his cup of coffee.-

Belinda: “We are here, whenever you decide to quit feeling sorry for yourself.”

We leave Quinn to finish his breakfast in peace and I spend a bit of time with Belinda and Rory, before Logan returns to make sure Quinn heads to the university. I can’t continue to do nothing while Madam Erin’s life is in danger, so I decide to go with them and speak with Ceres.

When we arrive at the university Quinn finally seems to perk up a bit when he sees Ceres heading our way. Instead of her usual greeting, she bows to Logan and Quinn, and then turns to me greeting me politely.

Ceres: “Welcome to my university! I received your letter just this morning, and will be happy to show you around, personally.”

Logan: “Well as much as I appreciate it, I believe Two-Twelve only tagged along because he had something he wished to discuss with you, so Quinn and I will just have to make due with one of your staff members.”

Ceres: “In that case, I apologize for being unable to show you around myself.” –She quickly flags down one of the other staff members, calling them over to us.- “This I Gowen’s very own Prince Logan, and his brother Prince Quinn, so I expect you to treat them as such as you show them around.”

University staff member: “Yes ma’am! Right this way gentlemen. I will give you the royal tour.”

Ceres shakes her head as the staff member leads Logan and Quinn away. She then turns to me and asks. “Has there been any news? Should we go somewhere a bit quieter?”

“No, unfortunately there hasn’t been any new developments I am aware of, but I can’t sit around while doing nothing any longer.”

Ceres: “What do you intend to do?”

“I thought you and I could go have another little chat with Akil, but this time I say we don’t take no for an answer.”

Ceres: “I’m sure he wouldn’t hurt us if pressed, but that doesn’t mean he might not just leave your dungeon instead of helping us.”

“I thought of that, but I just can’t take doing nothing, and he is the only one that I know that would be equal to Dyson.”

Ceres: “Well, as long as you know the risks, then I will go with you.”

Ceres and I then make our way back to my dungeon, and after we transfer down to Akil’s room, it doesn’t come as a surprise that he is not only awake, but waiting on us.

Akil: “I would say what a surprise to see you tow, but we all know that would be dishonest of me.”

“If you knew that, then you should also know why we are here.”

Akil: “Of course, and I believe we already addressed this matter?”

“The situation has changed. Madam Erin could be in grave danger, and we can’t do anything without your help.”

Akil: “The situation hasn’t changed, I said I needed to rest until the other dungeon cores were dealt with, but here you are anyway waking me up again.”

Ceres: “Akil, please…”

Akil: “This isn’t the kind of affair I need to get myself wrapped up in or surely my hiding spot will be discovered.”

Ceres: “If you don’t help us, I will tell her where you are myself!”

Akil: “I would know if you did, and all you would be doing is depriving Two-Twelve here from the xp he gathers from me, as I will be long gone before she has the chance to arrive.”

“Surely there is something you can do…?”

Akil: “How about a bit of information? I give it to you and you let me go back to bed.”

Ceres: “That depends on the information.”

Akil: “It is quite simple really. You were once a powerful goddess, you still have the same abilities, just not the power to use them. You just need to get your powers back, or at least some of them. Now, if you excuse me.” –He says as he starts to cover his head back up with his wing.-

Ceres: “Wait! How are we supposed to do that?”

Akil sighs and heavy sigh and says. “You gods and goddess’s were all born from the same pool of magic. Once that pool was empty that was it, but that kind of magic doesn’t just go away. When you died, and the other gods and goddess that died before you, your magic returned to the pool, unless your killer took it for himself, of course.”

“So you are saying we need to get to this pool and Ceres can recover her powers?”

Akil laughs a deep laugh and says. “Of course not! Even the most powerful of Ceres’s kind would be unable to enter that place again.”

“Then what’s the point of telling us about the pool?”

Ceres: “It was to state the fact that the source of my powers is transferable, isn't that right? If that is the case, we should be able to borrow some from another deity.”

Akil: “In a manner of speaking.”

Ceres: “I can’t even contact any of them anymore, how am I going to ask one of them to borrow some of their powers?”

“What about Inari? The god Inari doesn’t exactly talk to her, but she can talk to Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. If you could borrow a little power from each of them it might be enough.”

Akil: “Well it looks like you have everything all figured out now, so I am going back to bed…”

Ceres: “I don’t know if it is going to be as simple as all that, but it is at least something, so thank you Akil.”

Akil just yawns a big yawn and covers his head back up with his wings.

I wanted to speak to Inari about making her a justicar anyway, so I send a message to Inari to see if she will talk with us, while I transfer Ceres and myself back to the house. It takes a little while before she responds to me, but when she does she says she is busy right now.

I send her another message apologizing, but stating that it is really important that I have a chance to speak with her. This time she messages me back saying that she is in one of the corrupt dungeons.

“Ceres, do you have any combat gear?”

Ceres: “I can make do…”

“Alright, Inari is busy working to destroy another one of those corrupt dungeons, but this important, so I am going to teleport to her anyway, and we might see some combat.” –I say while equipping my own gear from [Menu].-

Ceres: “What if we get trapped in there? You were stuck for months last time, and I know Madam Erin doesn’t have that long.”

“That was Tsukuyomi’s doing, and the messages went though fine, so we are just going to have to risk it. Besides the justicar teleport seems to have worked to leave Madam Erin’s dungeon.”

Ceres: “That is only if the power is weaker than the ability, so don’t trust it too much.”

“Regardless, this is something we need to do.”

Ceres nods, and after looking up Inari’s location with the [Archjusticar Menu] I cast [Gate] to reach her.

When Ceres and I arrive at Inari’s location we find ourselves in the depths of a natural looking cave. There are several dead monsters nearby that are quite strange in appearance, but nothing like the monstrosities that we faced in the last corrupt dungeon.

Inari seems to have brought all of her fox beastkin along with her this time, I even see Bell’s boyfriend, among the group. It looks like the only one that isn’t here is Akane, but even though she is still part of Inari’s dungeon, I think it is fair to count her as part of Kenta’s.

Inari: “You really came… This must be important then.”

“It is, and there is actually two things I would like to talk to you about, but first, how is the corrupt dungeon?”

Inari: “This one is rather straight forward, nowhere near like the last, but I guess we don’t have Tsukuyomi sticking his nose into it this time.”

“That is actually one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, you said you were able to speak to Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu, right?”

Inari: “Well they have come to me several times since we saw them in the last corrupt dungeon, but I can’t exactly call them to me… What is this about?”

Ceres: “It is actually me, now that I am a dungeon core I can’t contact any of my siblings either, and I was in need of asking them a favor, so we were hoping you’d be able to help.”

Inari: “I mean, I can ask, but I don’t know how closely they are watching me, so I don’t know if they hear me or not…”

“All we are asking is you give it a shot.”

Inari: “You said there was something else as well, is that right?”

“The other is far more simple, but could also benefit you as well. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to become one of my justicar. I told you about the point system that my Archjusticar abilities are based around, and I got a new ability that allows you to spend one of those points to teleport to any other the other justicars. It doesn’t sound like much when I have use of [Gate], but I have already used it to escape from inside one of the influence of one of the traitor’s items.”

Inari: “That one is simple, even if there wasn’t a perk tied to it, I would be happy to be one of your justicars. To be honest I was a bit jealous that you made Ceres one of your justicars before me, but I didn’t think it was my place to say anything.”

“If you would have asked I would have taken you on any time… I just haven’t seen the need to have any more justicars until now.”

Inari: “I take it you aren’t only asking me then, right? You are going to ask Dawn, Twilight, and Maeve as well?”

“I knew you were busy, so I already did. I meant to ask you immediately afterwards, but then Madam Erin disappeared…”

Inari: “What do you mean Madam Erin disappeared?!”

“Just as it sounds… I can’t even find her with the [Archjusticar Menu] it just displays the same room inside her dungeon. The thing is” according to her boss monster, that room shouldn’t exist, and when Dyson and I went there to check it out we got teleported to another location like when we thought we were entering Barry’s dungeon. That was when I got the chance to test out the teleport ability that uses the justicar points. The only drawback is you can only teleport justicars, so I was forced to make Dyson one as well.”

Inari: “What about Madam Erin?”

“We still don’t know, Dyson is working on a lead to find her, but I couldn’t sit by and do nothing, so that was why Ceres wants to ask her siblings for help.”

Inari calls out into the room for Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. She then looks to me and says. “I’m sorry, that is all I know to do…”

Ceres: “I’ll admit I don’t know Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi as well as some of my other siblings, but I do know when any of us show a interest in someone, we keep a close eye on them, so I am sure they got your message.”

Inari: “I have called for them that way before, but they did say it wasn’t something they would make a habit of answering…”

Ceres: “There could be any number of reasons they didn’t show, but I doubt any of them include them not hearing you.”

Inari apologizes for not being able to help, and we go through the process of adding her as a justicar. I receive the message about receiving 5 justicar points for taking on a new justicar, and Inari asks if we have any idea on what we are going to do now.

Ceres: “That was our best bet… I guess we can only hope Dyson pulls through.”

Inari: “I know I wasn’t as helpful as you would have liked, but perhaps you can do me a favor?”

“It isn’t like we have another plan, so sure, what do you need?”

Inari: This dungeon is much like the one we entered the first time, and we have already found several rooms full of items. Now, so far none of them have been of note, and would probably take more work to get back home than we would get out of them for breaking them down, but as we go deeper, if we come across a good pile again, do you think we could borrow you and your [Gate] spell to take as much as we can? I would be willing to split it with you of course.”

“Of course, and even if I am busy, I am sure I could spare Belinda, or one of my boss monsters to help you when you do find something worthwhile,”

Inari: “Thanks, Daddy.” –She says as she gives me a hug.- “I’m just sorry I couldn’t of been more help. I would hate to see something happen to Madam Erin, but if I don’t deal with this corrupt dungeon, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi will show up, but it won’t be a good thing…”

“We will figure something out, just be careful ok?”

Inari: “You too, Daddy…”

Ceres and I could talk to Akil again, but I think that would be pushing our luck with him, so without any other plan Ceres and I decide to head back home. We spend the rest of the day trying to come up with another plan to help out, but we eventually have to give it up.