I ran a hand over the table’s surface, noting the smooth polish. The structure seemed cut from an immensely thick tree as the sides still had bark. Trees of that size were bound to be rare, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this had cost a good deal of the money I’d given them.

“You like it?” My mother asked.

“Definitely. It’s beautiful.”

“And it’s thanks to you. Want some breakfast before heading into the dungeon… I assume that’s where you’re going, right?”

“Yeah. It’s where we will be going every day for the foreseeable future. And yes, some breakfast would be lovely. Thank you.”

“I should be thanking you for allowing us to eat it from such a luxurious piece of furniture.”

“Heh,” I chuckled. “You already have.”

She went indoors with a smile while my father sipped on a cup of tea. From his posture, I noticed that he had something to say, so I put Elira down and asked her to play with the others.

“I have some news I think you’d like to hear,” He started without hesitation. “We’ve already met with Soranir, or well, rather, we bumped into him on the way home and arranged for a talk in the afternoon. I hope that’s okay with you?”

“Sure.”

“As for the farm, we talked to the landowner and he said he'd think about it.”

“Fair. We’ll see what comes of that, I guess.”

“Yep. I’m honestly not sure if he wants to sell, but who knows? I told him the same you told me — that we’d be looking at it somewhere in the future. We will indeed see what comes of it.”

A bit later, we had breakfast, before we separated and made our way to the dungeon, where we would do some good old money-making and skill gathering. We were optimistic about it and, to have some variety, we started by killing some of the bisons, who’d become a minor threat at this point.

Our adventure started out great as the second bovine the spiderlings killed already gave a defensive skill, but then slowed down, considerably so. We slew some more, and then moved on to the third floor where we made quick work of the phasing lizards before finishing the day with Firags.

Unfortunately, no new skill showed up until we were about to call it a day. We had four deer dead, but unfortunately had a little accident with one of them which left its pelt ruined as I had to deliver an emergency blow just before it was about to unleash a torrent of flame at Faerith. Thankfully, I had managed to intervene in time. As luck would have it, my blow wasn’t fatal, but it died seconds afterward when my spiderlings swarmed and finished it.

That was a welcome surprise for this creature happened to give us a new skill only the second of the day despite us killing a fair number of creatures. I supposed it was just an unlucky day and decided to leave it at that.

Their exoskeleton skill had increased to ‘very strong’, and their resistance skill had increased to ‘strong’. I asked my blessing about what exactly the latter entailed and confirmed that it was both magic and physical resistance. It appeared that venom and poison were an outlier, and separated from those two. When I asked why, Elysa said that toxins were neither magic nor physical.

It could consist of a magical element, and be blocked by certain barriers, but its effects, once inside a body, couldn’t be lessened by resistances other than poison, venom, or the combination of the two, toxin resistance.

Despite it not being too much of a fruitful day regarding new skills, we were happy with the ones we did get, and we had three Firags to deliver.

After hauling them out of the dungeon and getting payment our reserves were brought up to a grand total of twelve gold. Hopefully, it would increase from here on out.

Once we neared the farm and its buildings, I could already see Soranir conversing with my parents. As soon as my mother noticed our approach, she headed inside, a smile on her face.

Elira was obviously not of the age where talks would interest her, and she immediately took off with Elle, her trusty steed, to hunt whatever they were playing to hunt.

“Welcome back,” My father said politely, yet warmly as Cellestra hopped off of my back to take a seat. “Hope everything went well.”

“Good afternoon, dad, Mister Soranir. As for our quest, it’s business as usual. Nothing special. How are things here?”

“Quiet for the most part. But hey, let’s have my friend do the talking.”

“Afternoon, Kealyna,” Soranir said, taking over with a nod. “Glad to hear everything’s going well. I understand you wish to hear updates, and things you could do, including financially, to aid us to deal with the obelisk issue, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, good news, the corruption spread has slowed, and although it’s still growing, it’s well under control, as are the monsters it spawns. There are plenty of adventurers who were drawn to the scene as soon as word got out of strange things happening, and it seems that so far, there’s no immediate threat to speak of.”

My mother returned with tea, as expected, and he took a sip before he continued.

“Of course, it was impossible to keep things secret, so I just let nature run its course regarding the spread of information, at least the things that everyone can see with their own eyes. Everything we discuss is purely between us, and the king.”

He paused and took another sip.

“Several guilds are also on location and are literally digging for information. As for things not happening on the scene, well, let’s say the sweep of the capital and surrounding settlements has yielded some… interesting results.”

“Sweep?” I asked, unsure what he meant.

“Libraries, apothecaries, private collections, anything containing literature has been turned upside down and we have been able to find some tomes written in strange languages. We’re now in the process of translating… and finding translators.”

“By the goddess,” I let out. “Just how far did you take things?”

“King’s orders,” He replied with a shrug. “Very little people are going to do about it. Most people know he wouldn’t do it for no reason, though, so they were willing to cooperate without issues. I’d not be surprised if he was willing to initiate correspondence with you sometime soon. I have kept things discreet, of course, but I couldn’t not name you, or well, I didn’t explicitly name you, but you know what I mean.”

“I get it. Don’t worry. Thank you for everything, though.”

“Well, thank you for bringing it to our attention and thank Elysa for me for providing us with information. I went to see her not long ago, and she accepted my audience.”

“She did? What did she say? Anything new?”

“Unfortunately not, but it was nice to hear that all of this is true, and that she is also trying to figure out what is going on. By the way, I never got around to apologizing for what happened to you. It seemed someone slipped through our border defenses and assaulted you. I’m sorry about that.”

“Well, we’re fine, partly thanks to Felmar who was very brave and alert when he heard about what happened before we were attacked.”

“Figures. I’m glad to have him at the guild. I don’t think it comes as a surprise that I’ve sent word to the wall and asked them to be more careful with whom they let pass.”

“I didn’t expect anything less,” I said with a sly smile. “Thanks, once again.”

“So, for the next part,” He picked up where he left off. “Financially… What did you have in mind?”

“I wanted to know if there’s a way to donate money directly to this cause so it goes where it’s needed. That’s basically it.”

“Well, the operations currently ongoing are financed by the dungeon exploration guild for the most part, so donating to the guild would help the cause in general as it’s making sure there are enough supplies for the adventurers out there. That includes supplies for the builders, carpenters, diggers, etcetera. Also, there’s no shortage of money set aside for this, so do not worry about that.”

“I see.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

I turned my head to Cellestra while my other head processed the information.

“Did we forget something?”

“You should be better at remembering than me, you know?” She said with a chuckle.

“Perhaps, but I like to check.” I turned back to the mayor. “I think that’s everything, at least for now. Happy to hear there was some good news. That’s a colossal relief.”

“I heard you’ve been stressing about things,” He said with a calm nod. “Everything is well under control, and if there is even the slightest hint of real danger, you’ll be the first to know, but even then, there are plenty of resources being amassed, ready to be deployed in case it’s necessary. No need to worry.”

“Thanks.”

“So,” My mother said with a friendly smile after we fell silent. “Does anyone want some cookies?”