As we walked over to inspect the magnificent items the moonotaur had deigned to leave for us, my gaze flitted over to the notifications. My face curled into a wide grin when I read through them.

You have cleared the Dungeon Dark Slaughterhouse. For clearing a Dungeon under the effect of the Dungeon Traveller-Buff you gain Bonus EXP. The Dungeon Traveller-Buff expires. You reached level 31. Title gained You gained a Title:: Dungeon Explorer For clearing a Dungeon while under the effect of the Dungeon Traveller-Buff, you gain the Title Dungeon Explorer. While exploring a Dungeon for the first time, you gain bonus EXP. Skill increased You increased your skill: Ice Rune-Mastery [25/100]

Almost an entire level, from a single boss-fight was quite impressive. The biggest part came from the clearing while under the effect of the Dungeon Traveller Buff, but that was par for the course. Clearing an unknown dungeon, while under a time limit was no mean feat, but one that I wanted to repeat. In addition, knowing that the dungeon was actually over was a huge relief, I was incredibly exhausted. Even travelling back to the lair sounded like a huge chore, but I wasn’t about to just camp somewhere nearby, not when we had a comfortable base within somewhat easy walking distance.

But first, there was loot to take.

As before, there were three items waiting for us. Just from looking at them, I was somewhat certain they’d be as weird as the rest of the dungeon had been. The first was a rather large cowbell, apparently designed to be held in hand, not worn around the neck, the second a helmet, possibly inspired by bad Viking images, somewhat shaped like a bull’s skull with horns sticking almost ten centimetres out on either side and the last was a thick bone, possibly from a cow’s leg. Just the bone was bigger than my forearm, including meat and muscles, about twenty-five centimetres long and thick enough that I wouldn’t be able to wrap one of my hands around it.

After a brief check with my magic sight, trying to make sure that the items didn’t radiate dangerous magic or some sort of curse, I picked them up and inspected them one by one. The helmet was relatively simple, giving a bonus to endurance and strength, and when channelling Astral Power into it, the person wearing it could let out an empowered warcry. What that meant, I wasn’t quite sure, but my guess was that it might be similar to the loud moo the moonotaur had used in battle against us.

The cowbell was curious. It came with an increase in vitality and courage, both nice to have, but the important part was that magic could be spread out by channelling it into the bell and ringing it. The description wasn’t overly informative, but it certainly sounded like something I would want to experiment with. If I was lucky, it might become something akin to the bride’s dress we had found in the swamp, which ultimately gave Lenore the inspiration to channel her magic through her calls, allowing her to affect a wide area with her Death Magic.

Lastly, there was the bone. Inspect simply called it a ‘thick soup bone’, with no additional information. The only thing I truly knew about it was that Silva had started to drool just from looking at it and was occasionally whimpering in an attempt to make us feed it to her. I was considering it, but as of now, she hadn’t convinced me.

The distribution of the items was pretty obvious, even if we briefly tested just how far the adaptability of items dropped in dungeons went. Sadly, while we managed to put the helm on Silva, it didn’t really fit her, or adjust in any way that made us think it would work. Her rather sad whine at the attempt sealed the attempt as a failure, the helmet simply didn’t work for her.

So it went to Lia and while she didn’t look nearly as adorable as our small calf when wearing a horned, cow-skull-shaped helmet, there was a certain flair to it. Not a flair of practicality, but a certain wildness that fit her quite well. It made me think of some mediocre advertisements I had seen in the past for weird fantasy western crossovers. Maybe we’d find her some tight black leather clothes at some point to round out the look, likely with far too many spiky adornments. Thinking of clothes for Lia, we had to get her some decent light armour at some point, either trying to process leather or looking for some police-grade body armour. So far, we hadn’t come across anything suitable, let alone anything fitting, but we might at some point. Similarly, I should try to find something that we could adapt for Silva, both of them had taken far too much damage in the dungeon for me to be comfortable. Sure, they had managed to avoid major wounds, but each minor wound was only minor because they had managed to dodge in time. At some point, chance would strike against them, and the wound might be one I wouldn’t be able to heal.

Lastly, the bell went to me. I wasn’t about to experiment when I was close to fainting from exhaustion, but I wanted to find out how it worked and what I could do with it. I had a few ideas I wanted to try out, but only once we were back home and rested.

With the loot distributed, we walked through the exit tunnel and, after walking around a corner, I was staring with disbelief. I was nearly certain we were looking at the door we had entered through, almost three hours ago, coming from a direction I would have sworn was blocked by a solid wall.

Walking forward, I even noticed a few traces on the ground, looking as if the wall had simply disappeared in this area, causing me to shake my head at the strangeness of this dungeon. It was far less natural and seamless in comparison to the dungeons I had seen on Mundus, and both enemies and loot had simply been odd. A part of me wanted to stick around, trying to figure out just how this dungeon worked, maybe recruit some of the locals as testers, even if I knew they’d get slaughtered in here. Even the three of us had some trouble, despite our high levels and my experience.

Walking through the door, we were back in the cool night outside, a cool drizzle trying to wake me back up. Not that the cool shower really helped, I was just too exhausted. However, there was something I wanted to try.

After walking out of the dungeon proper, I immediately turned around, curious how it would look when the others emerged. To my disappointment, there was nothing to indicate that they had been outside of our reality, as the label instanced dungeon would imply, but it might simply be because I had been in the same dungeon as they had been.

Once they were outside and the door to the building closed behind them, I tried to walk back in, only for the door to be stuck. A blue box informed me that we had completed this Dungeon and wouldn’t be able to enter for twenty-two hours, forty-seven minutes, meaning the time counted since our initial entrance. Intrigued, I made a mental note to return the next day, just to see how much EXP and loot we’d be able to milk from the dungeon.

But before we could do that, we needed to head back to our lair and get some rest.

The way back was far more exciting than I would have ever wanted. Where before, we had been aware and awake enough to easily circumvent the few groups of enemies we spotted but now, all three of us were exhausted and at least somewhat caked in blood, making that far harder.

And yet, it was even more necessary, as none of us was in any real shape to fight. Lia and I had even started to support each other, holding onto the other for balance and stability, as we staggered our way back. If there had been anyone watching us, their initial assumption would likely be that we were completely smashed. Certainly not in any way fit to drive, let alone wield deadly weapons or magic.

Maybe by providence, maybe by skill, either way, we managed to make our way back, without getting into any more trouble. Once we were underground, Lia and I simply staggered into our respective sleeping areas, sadly not yet turned into actual chambers, and dropped off. I somehow managed to strip out of my gear before falling into bed, but how I accomplished that feat, I had no idea.

The moment my head hit my pillow, I was embraced by the darkness and fell asleep, dreaming of my beloved. One day, hopefully soon, I would have her with me in my bed, no matter the cost. But I needed to be powerful enough to pay the price needed, I doubted any entity that could help me revive Sigmir would take an IOU.