Opening her eyes Mia found herself back in the dungeon, back where she was three months ago before she handed over control of her body to Assist Mode. Instantly the difference hit her, her limbs shook, and she felt like she had just hit by a runaway carriage. She fell to her knees, landing on the hard dungeon ground.

“Mia?! Are you ok!?”

Mia felt the cat’s paw on her shoulder “I… am fine…” she choked out, finding it hard to speak. She heard the others speak but ignored them, this load was pretty scuffed, she’d have to get used to this change and then start over to avoid freaking them out too much. She raised her shaky arm in front of her face, flexing her fingers before feeling a sudden rush “Urp- maybe no-“She vomited, releasing what little she had eaten.

“Kid?!”

“Mia! La! Quick, cast healing on her!”

“Got it.“

“This is… too much…” Mia gasped, trying to remain as calm as she could. It seemed too much of a reaction for just 200 stat points, maybe not having a body for three months had a part in it? There was also all those skills that technically leveled up all at once “O-oh no-“ She could not hold it back, vomiting again. “W-why…”

She suffered for about 15 minutes, now feeling a bit better as she gulped down some water from a flask that La had pulled from her inventory.

“There there~ got it all out?” La said, patting her back while applying more healing magic, a gentle glow emanating from her paws.

“Yeah, thanks.” Mia said, clearing her throat. That was something she did not want to experience again, sickness from a sudden stat increase was no joke, and that was only 200, she dares not think of what 1000 stat points would do to her.

“What was that all about anyways? You eat something foul?” Ra asked.

“Yeah, you were just staring off into space for one second, and then in the next you are on the floor vomiting.” Si added.

“Hrm…” How to answer that. Now that she had calmed down, the guilt over what happened over the past three months started to set in. She was well aware that to them it never happened but to her… “I’m sorry.” She didn’t want to just say nothing, hanging her head low she repeated herself “I’m sorry…”

“Eh? Hey it isn’t your fault!” Ra said, taken aback by the sudden apology.

“Yeah, these things happen sometimes, food goes bad, its ok.” Si nodded, joining La in patting her back.

“No problems.” La added, continuing to pat her back.

Mia kept her head hung low, slowly nodding. This felt worse… apologizing through a misunderstanding, but it wasn’t like she could say ‘Hey, my skill just spent the last three months brutally murdering all of you, sowwy~’ now could she?

She looked back at the two cats patting her back, giving them a small smile before standing up “I am fine now.”

“Good.”

“Now let’s get out of here and get you some real food, yeah?” Ra said, fixing to take up the lead again.

“out we go~” La cheered.

“wait.” Mia stopped them, if she let them go now, they would end up dead, wasting the three months of sacrifice. “We have to talk.”

“hrm? About what Mia?” Si was the first to stop, motioning for the others to wait.

“Well…” Mia felt a tugging in her heart, should she say anything? She doubted they would believe her, but this load was pretty messed up anyways, no, she might as well try. She just had to keep it believable, nothing too insane or farfetched. “Up ahead is trouble, have to be extra careful.” She said, deciding to start with that.

Si stared at her for a moment, her head slowly turning to the side in confusion “What? Trouble?”

“that goes without saying, we are in a dungeon after all.” Ra nodded to himself.

“Ah right, that’s what you meant.” Si said, agreeing with Ra “Thanks for the warning Mia, we will be careful.”

“No, uh…” perhaps that was too simple. “No, I have a skill, it tells me when there is extreme danger.” She said, technically not lying. Not including danger sense, dying because something dangerous happens in the future and going back to try again also worked, but they wouldn’t believe that.

“…” All three stared at her, trying to discern if she was lying or not. La stepped forward, putting her paw on Mia’s clothes “No lying? Lying about danger is bad.”

“Yeah, doing that is almost as dangerous as actual danger.” Ra added “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“Did, is the skill I used to survive here.” While it wasn’t necessarily the skill she was referring to at the time, it still fit.

They continued to stare, before Si spoke up “Does this skill tell us what kind of danger is ahead?”

Mia shook her head “No, just that it is dangerous. Is vague, maybe two really strong people.” She lied, of course she knew exactly what was ahead, but she wanted to test if remaining vague, instead of flat out saying what would happen would make it more believable.

“What is this skill called?” Ra asked.

She paused, she could just say danger sense, but she knew that wouldn’t cut it. While the skill description did say it sensed danger before it happened, it probably didn’t extend to she was trying to tell them. She decided to sprinkle in a bit of truth, hoping it would work without losing them “Danger sense, combined with one of my titles.” Well, it was caused by her hidden skill, but maybe a title would be more believable because of how unique they could be.

“Ah.” Ra seemed like he realized something, turning away from her.

“Oh, you had something like that?” Si asked, exchanging looks between her companions, they all nodded “Ok, well then let’s proceed with a bit more caution, wouldn’t hurt and we are almost out anyways… agreed everyone?”

“Agreed.” “Yes~”

“Good, lead the way Ra.”

“Got it.” Ra proceeded down the dungeon hall, shield and sword at the ready with Si following closely behind.

Mia took her spot behind them, with La behind her. ‘So far so good…I hope.’ She thought to herself, with this, and including the time delay due to her being sick, hopefully they will be more on guard if they met the spider, or if they skipped it, they will not be completely exposed when their skills and magic are cut off.

Even with this preparation, she still planned on taking on the thugs alone, not wanting to risk one of the cats dying. She had watched AM fight them for a few months, so she hoped she could do the same but… well that was the reason why she didn’t load yet, wanting to see how good her chances are, and if she did manage to beat them without the cats dying then all the better, she’d sacrifice her breakfast.

That moment was coming up fast, however. And Mia couldn’t help but feel a tad bit nervous, but she choked it down, readying herself to face these hired thugs.