The morning after I woke up groggy, uncertain of the time and felt a weight on my chest. As I tried to roll over I was stuck in place and cracking open my eye I found the culprit. Lin was sleeping on me with her gear still on, with the bed mat under us and the blankets stacked on top of us. She had also removed my cloak at some point and was using it as a sheet under us.

“Lin?” I asked. Trying to free myself from under her.

The cat girl groaned and refused to budge, instead opting to keep sleeping. It took several more tries to rouse her from her slumber. She rolled off me and stole the blankets with her leaving me without any covers.

“You're lucky you are so warm, otherwise I would have let you sleep on the floor for the next week.” Lin grumbled. She looked at me with an unfocused gaze, barely awake. Her head fell on the thin pillow and she yawned, mumbling to me. “Wake me up when it’s time for breakfast.”

I ruffled her hair making her bed head even worse. Lin hissed and bit at my hand, her sharp fangs missing by only an inch. After reading the room I made myself scarce. With the ranks of stealth I had gained my footfalls barely made a sound letting the feisty woman return to her beauty sleep.

The dungeon had the smell of cooking meat, wafting in from the mess hall. My feet brought me to the source of the hot meal on their own will and I found Rolada behind the stove. The minions ran around her feet, grabbing her utensils or plates as she needed them. Despite the limited food choice we had she had managed to make quite the nice looking meal.

“Wild bird eggs, fish and hare meat for proteins. Berries, root vegetables for taste and some wild grain flour. It’s going to taste rather gamey and bland but it should be filling,” Rolada said, flipping a flat bread into the air from a frying pan. “Hope that’s alright.”

I stood half dazed beside her looking at the array of sizzling pots and pans. The sight of the adorable fox girl making the best meal I had probably since I had been home for the holidays brought a tear to my eye. I pulled her in a hug and fought to keep myself from crying.

“God bless you.” I whispered.

“Uh, Josh. I do love hugs but the meat is starting to char,” Rolada said.

She wiggled free of me and returned to the stove managing the array of pans with speed and grace. It would certainly be a far greater meal than what the minions had whipped up the other day. I ultimately couldn’t blame them, since they still relied on my abilities and I wasn’t exactly a cook.

I slumped down at one of the tables and asked my minion to fetch my bag. Drone 2 reluctantly left Rolada’s side and sprinted off to complete his task. He returned in a few seconds and before I could even thank him he was back to helping the fox girl.

“They seem to like you a lot,” I said.

“Well I promised them a plate too if they helped and now I almost can’t get rid of them.” Rolada laughed. “Definitely less scary than I had always been told to believe.”

“Why do keepers have such a bad reputation?” I asked.

Rolada hummed to herself for a moment. Focusing more on the cooking than the conversation. Scout 1 arrived on the scene unloading a sheet full of nuts and random plants. Rolada then picked through them taking a few stalks of a thin grass and finely chopping it up to add to the meal.

A strange earthy scent rose off the pans and I could only guess it was some herb to add to the meal. I narrowed my eyes and focused on her, watching her toss the food around wondering if I could learn what it was.

Knowledge World : Success!

Sprite grass is a common herb found around water ways. It adds a sharp tone to meals and it has the benefit of increasing circulation and the natural recovery of the body. It is a common ingredient in cooking as well as low skill alchemy for medicines.

+1XP gained.

“I suppose in some areas they are considered to just be more intense barons or landowners. Here in the Haldrog valley keepers have been pretty aggressive, fighting each other in an attempt to gain power. People got tired of being dragged into conflicts or having their farms burnt so the king put a hit on all keepers,” Rolada said.

Her voice broke my concentration and I pushed the pop up of information away, history was a bit more interesting over the flavouring of my morning breakfast. Rolada’s focus was still mostly on the meal so she only talked over her shoulder when the stove didn’t need her attention.

“Raddagar the Black however was a tyrant keeper that cemented the idea of keepers being power hungry madmen and women. Blood sacrifices, enslavement and pushing the goals of his dark god. Actually the catacombs we raided praised the same god,” Rolada said.

Knowledge Divine : Failure!

“What is this evil god? Or is it if you say their name bad things happen?” I asked.

“The gods interact with us every day, helping us or hindering us. Acknowledging one can increase the effects they have around you. Blood and war gods can make people irrationally angry, while gods of love can cause two rivals to put aside their differences,” Rolada siad.

I clenched my hands, remembering the burning anger that boiled my blood in the tower. “Like sudden flaring anger causing someone to act out?”

Rolada nodded and started to fill up plates with the now completed breakfast. She set down four large plates for our little team. On each plate was the flat bread on the bottom, the eggs and meat over them and the berries off to the side. The minions took over another table with smaller plates for themselves filled up with tiny portions of what we had.

A very sleepy dwarf dragged himself into the mess hall, his wild hair spilling out like a black lion's mane hiding his face. Sten started to let out a string of dark curses as he fought to get his beard to stay down and plopped himself into the bench beside me.

“Morning keeper,” Sten said. He picked up a clay mug and shook it. “What do we have on tap here?”

“Sorry Sten, just water. I could probably ask a minion to crush some berries to make you a cup of juice if you want,” I said.

“So I could bury it and hope to have wine in a month? I’ll be dead of thirst by the end of day,” Sten scoffed. “Worst dungeon ever.”

“Speaking of that, we need supplies,” Lin said, from the doorway. She still looked exhausted and was wearing my cloak, bundling herself up in its cozy embrace. “God’s above Josh, this thing is divine.”

“Am I going to get it back?” I asked, raising my eyebrow.

Lin neglected to reply to me, instead sitting beside Rolada and smelling the morning meal. She let out a satisfied purr and one of her hands reached out to grab a battered fork to start eating. With her still wrapped up tightly it looked like a purple burrito was sitting down for breakfast.

“I take it back, Rolada’s cooking is divine. Hire her as the cook or something Josh,” Lin said.

“Where can we even get supplies?” I asked. “You guys make it sound like Dastow isn’t an option.”

“Tisk. For you maybe, but you're too green to shop in the markets on your own. I have a contact we can talk to, give him the money and send him off. We just need to plan what our goal is,” Lin said.

I scratched at my chin completely lost. I was never the one to plan for any camping trips, that was usually my mom's job. I didn’t even know how to live off the grid which meant what I might look over could be crucial. The only positive I had right now was everyone seemed like they were happy to stay here. I broke off a chunk of bread filling it up with meat and berries and took a bite.

“Lord, that is good. No offence Lin, but I think she's the best here,” I said around the morsel.

“Don’t have to tell me twice. Hey minions, can one of you get me some water please?” Lin asked, shaking her mug.

Guard 1 launched himself out of his seat and face planted onto the ground sending his cooking pot helmet rolling away. Scout 1 nimbly leapt over him and took the mug from Lin fetching her the water. Guard 1 brushed himself off and sighed in defeat.

“Hey cute little guy, can I have some water please?” Rolada asked.

Guard 1 took her mug like it was a sacred relic and got in line at the water barrel. The two taller minions could barely reach the spout and filled the mugs with clear water returning them to the girls. They then took Sten’s mug and mine, getting us a drink too.

“Thanks guys,” I said, scratching Scout 1 behind the ear.

“Aye thanks little lad, it ain't beer but it will do,” Sten said. Raising his glass, Sten cleared his throat and got our attention. “Well then I say we have a toast, we lived through that undead hell and we can make it through winter too.”

We clinked our mugs together, splashing a bit of water onto the table and all took a drink. The faint mineral taste of the freshwater quenched my thirst and gave me some hope. We had safe drinking water and could cross that worry out of our minds.

“Well what do we need, I only have one thing in mind to build and I’m not sure if it’s even worth it,” I said.

Rolada tapped my leg with her foot and smiled as if to ask me to continue. Her green eyes had a bright cheerful edge to them and I found myself wanting to speak.

“I have a quest to build a shrine to Ishaka, I was told I would get a priestess but it has a lot of requirements.” I said.

“I don’t like the sound of a demon shrine, but I’m not passing up on a priestess if we are going to have an undead problem,” Lin said.

I brought up the quest page and showed them the long list of needed materials, gold and special rooms needed to accommodate this priestess. With my recent minion crafting skill going up some of the rooms had more detailed material cost breakdown.

Shrine requires…

Bathing room (not made) - 100 wood, 100 stone, 25 metal, heating crystal and cooling crystal worth approximately 50 gold

Mess hall (made) - subpar mess hall, upgrades recommended

Keeper bedroom (made) - subpar bedroom, bed upgrade recommended

Empty bedroom of moderate value (not made) 100 wood, 50 stone, 5 metal, silk sheets and pillows worth 50 gold

Training room (not made) - 125 wood, 25 stone, 10 metal

Armoury (not made) - 125 wood, 25 stone, 10 metal

Shrine room (not made) - 50 wood, 50 stone, silk sheets and pillows worth 50 gold

Current cost of all items is, 500 wood, 250 stone, 50 metal, 150 gold worth of items. Minion crafting level is too low to create silk items and crystal items.

They were all dead silent with only the slosh of Sten’s food falling back down onto his plate making a sound. The minions had stopped eating and twisted around to watch us. The dwarf pursed his lips and let out a strangled cry. Lin started to count off her fingers and went wide eyed. Rolada however looked interested.

“Lad, that is the kind of set up for a noble. I will agree with Lin, a priestess would be the best thing to have against the dead but this…this is a bit excessive,” Sten said.

“Ishaka is a great goddess for Josh to have on his side, and her priestess can provide training for magic. I also would love to have a hot bath, so can we at least get the bathing room,” Rolada said.

“A training room would be good to teach him about fighting.” Lin said, looking at the list closely. “What’s our resource situation now?”

Current resources. 50 wood, 100 stone, 1 metal, 5 poor quality cloth, 20 gold and 11 silver.

“Listen I took a walk around those caves and there's some good metal in there. I can probably whip up a makeshift furnace that can get some of that metal. I’m no clan craftsman but my father beat into my skull enough of the trade I can make it passable,” Sten said.

Lin growled, sinking deeper into my cloak. “So you get to stay here where it’s dry while we walk in the freezing rain.”

Sten chuckled, smoothing out his beard and breaking into a grin. “I'll add a few things to your shopping list.”

…

As much as I loved my new cloak I was still hesitant to try and pry it from Lin’s grasp. We instead did a bit of a trade, with Rolada getting her cloak and I put on the wool blanket once more. Sten stayed behind using the minion’s tunnelling ability to get close to the ore and prying it out of the earth himself.

The wool blanket however was a far cry from the magical cloak and I was soon left freezing. The rain beat down in a steady stream of absolute misery and I wondered if there would ever be an end in sight. Lin kept close to the river for some time and didn’t say a word about where we were headed. Rolada and her were on high alert, keeping an ear out for danger so I kept to myself rather than disturb them.

“We are going to come across a woodcutter’s shack just off the road. I don’t care if you detect anyone hidden, don’t point it out. Just let me do all the talking, ok?” Lin asked, checking our faces to ensure we absolutely understood.

With both Rolada and I confirming we were ready we fell into line behind Lin and broke out of the brush. A smooth stone road broke up the forest and made a clear straight line in both directions for miles. The forest had been clear cut on either side of the road by about fifteen feet, with drainage ditches for any of the runoff. It reminded me of a highway, except this one looked like it was purpose built and didn’t need to be fixed every year.

Just across on the other side of the road clearing was the aforementioned shack, a raised wooden hut on stilts. Beside it was a small storage shed packed to the brim with kindling and firewood ready for use. The hut had a small brick chimney and smoke rose out of it while the shutters had a bit of firelight behind them.

Lin crossed the road with us in tow and we went right up the steps. She paused at the door and let out a series of short knocks, waiting a second before slapping her palm on the frame. The door creaked open and in the dim light a hooded man looked us over before opening up, letting us inside.

We shuffled awkwardly inside, finding a space to lean against the wall in the crowded room. The hooded stranger limped into a chair, letting himself fall into it causing the chair to buckle under his weight. He picked up his smoking pipe off the table and coldly looked at us with dark brown eyes. In the firelight I was finally able to see he was a human, with tanned leather like skin from working his whole life out in the sun. A jagged scar ran over his nose tipping me off to the fact this man had experience in a fight.

“So the little cat burglar of seventh street came back to haunt my door. What do you want, Linetta?” he growled, his voice wheezing. “Thought you said you would never work with us again.”

Lin’s nostrils flared as she stomped her foot down like a bull ready to charge. The man seemed unconcerned with her attitude and blew out a lazy smoke ring. His dismissive stance made me wonder about his strength and I tried to take a closer look at him.

Marty Koss, Human , Level 10 Thief

Holy hell. This guy was a higher level than all of us combined and I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his wrath. Something about him gave me the vibes that the limp was just for show and a fight could only go one way. He didn’t even try to hide his class from us.

“Marty, my name is Lin, remember? I’d rather not be here either but I need a fence to flip some old jewellery and buy some supplies to last the winter. So are you going to do your job or will I have to go talk to your ex-wife for help?” Lin asked.

“You keep her out of this!” Marty snarled, rising in his seat. “That bitch is a backstabbing snake and you know it. But of course you know that. That’s why you came here to the honest thief.”

Rolada and I stood back awkwardly as Marty stood up and Lin balled her fists looking at him eye to eye. Then the two of them hugged, with Lin’s tail flailing behind her wildly. Over the din of the rain on the roof I could hear and feel her purr rumble the floorboards.

“Aye, that’s my girl alright. How’s the business been Lin?” Marty asked, patting her on the back. “Oh that’s genuine mage gear, where on earth did you get that?”

“As you can see quite well. Came across this wizard here. Don’t worry he's tougher than he looks and we just had a rather successful expedition. Uncovering the past and all that,” Lin said, flourishing a few looted bracelets.

“Nothing to do with the undead horde that Dastow had to beat back to ruined lands?” Marty asked.

“Well, there might have been a miscalculation there,” Lin said, going bright red.

“Hey you are actually making those guards work for their pay for once, that’s a positive in my books. Let us have a bit of a run about the place so if anything the big shots owe you one,” Marty said, winking to her.

Marty took one look at me and I saw he was trying to read my character page. I let him see the basic information and even a bit of my stats and the man grabbed my hand shaking it.

“Well if you can keep this one out of trouble you have my thanks wizard. Stick with Lin and she will do right by you, always a sucker for the undercat as she puts it.” Marty said.

“We are glad to have her, she saved my life on more than one occasion,” I said, shifting awkwardly on my feet. “Hate to be a problem but about getting those supplies.”

“Just mostly food for the winter. But if you happen to know where we can get in contact with some mage craftsmen we need some heating crystals too,” Rolada said.

Marty snapped his fingers and his expression dimmed. I didn’t like the look of that at all. He pulled Rolada and Lin together while wearing the expression of a father about to tell them some heartbreaking news.

“Let’s say it’s not safe for you two in Dastow right now. The guild has managed to set up a secondary site for…other people and you should be able to find anything you need there to last you quite a while. Not saying the prices are going to be good, but it is what it is,” Marty said.

“You can’t be serious Marty. All beast-kin now?” Lin hissed.

“Don’t shoot the messenger sweetheart, now you and your friends come along,” Marty said.

Marty reached past me to grab his heavy cape and walking stick. He led the way back into the cold and dipped into the tree line talking us on a thin game trail. As the woodcutter shack vanished from view I felt like we were being watched and looked to Lin for guidance.

A flicker of fury crossed her eyes as she stared straight ahead while Rolada looked dejected. I would have to ask them what was going on when the time was right but I felt it was going to be rough.

The short hike brought us towards a small pond filled with lazy fish and a great willow tree stretching over it. Vines and wilting leaves filled the massive branches and blocked out most of the overcast light in the area. Marty went up to the trunk of the tree and repeated the same knock Lin had done.

The vines at his feet shifted, uncoiling and moving like snakes to reveal a passageway. Little lights like the ones in my dungeon filled the tunnel showing a well trodden path. At the entrance popped out a small green face with two small prominent fangs and two long ears on either side of their head. She pulled off her hood letting her dark hair spill free and showing off her smiling face.

“Howdy Marty. Brought us some new customers?” she asked.

“I can vouch for Lin here, a member of the guild since she was a wee lass. Her friends are my friends,” Marty said.

“Hey as long as their coin is good we can take them. Come along friends, I hope you have deep pockets because I doubt you're going to walk away empty handed,” the strange upbeat girl said.

“Goblins? We are working hand in hand with goblins now Marty?” Lin asked.

“They got all the old keeper tunnels down there to work with, and the best underground road we ever had. You might find the guild is a lot different than you remember it, Lin,” Marty said. “Now get out of here before some patrolman swings by.”

Marty and her shared one more hug before Lin led the way jumping down into the hole. Rolada and I followed suit and before I could thank Marty the man had vanished without a trace.

“Hi, I’m Rolada,” the cheerful fox girl said, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”

The goblin girl took her hand and shook it so fast she might have dislocated Rolada’s shoulder. “Call me Tiff, welcome to the underways and to the wonderful little town of Wyrmbreath.”

Our goblin guide then spun around and started to march her way down the tunnel. Her light spirited whistling bounced off the walls and we had to jog to catch up to her brisk pace.

The tunnel turned down heading deeper underground. If I had to guess we might have been more than five hundred feet under the surface and despite the well made tunnel I was starting to feel the oppression of all the dirt above us. The tunnels gradually shifted to old worked stone and Tiff stopped in front of a simple wooden door.

“Hold onto your hats, you haven't seen a real city until you see Wyrmbreath,” Tiff said, bowing and pushing the door.

Walking out onto a stone rise the three of us gasped looking out over the open vast cavern and the entire hidden city below the earth.