“Lunch or overnight?” Naomi looked around the group. “I know we normally overnight here, but it’s been fast so far, having another person is making things a lot easier.”

“Five would be better,” Daryl stated. There was an edge to his comment that Serenity didn’t understand. History of some sort, maybe? “But yeah, just a break for lunch. I think we can make it through two more levels, unless anyone is wiped?” He turned towards Serenity. “This one is pretty long, usually three or four hours, but the next one’s shorter. We usually break here, but that’s because we only have three people and being tired in Six is dangerous. Back when we had five, we’d push on; I know Gabe and I can manage it.”

“Gabriel,” Gabriel stated. He didn’t comment on the rest of what Daryl said.

Serenity glanced between Naomi and Gabriel. He waited for either of them to comment, but when neither did he turned to Daryl. “I’m not tired yet, but I’m always willing to be cautious. It’s way too easy to get in too deep.” He remembered several times recently where he’d done exactly that. The worst was when he nearly got Rissa killed in the Tutorial by trying to rush; what was he thinking then?

“This level really isn’t the problem,” Gabriel said without looking up. “There are some fire-maddened animals in the forest and fire-rock elementals once we get into the fire mountain, but nothing that’s really difficult to handle. I can stop or kill them with my ice walls, this level is the reason I have that wand. If someone gets to be in bad shape, Daryl or Naomi can carry them to the exit. The problem is the sixth level. The heat here is bad and there’s no place to stop before we get to the seventh level.”

Gabriel looked up; he seemed to examine Serenity closely. “You’ve been fine so far, but we’ve never been through here with you before. I say we stop here, as though it were the three of us. We can move on tomorrow.”

“I really think we can do it.” Daryl looked at the others and sighed. “I hate it when you’re cautious. So boring.”

“The last time we weren’t careful was with Eric,” Gabriel said. “I’m not willing to risk that again. There’s a reason Naomi hasn’t seen the last level at all.”

“There’s no point,” Naomi interjected. “Eric was stronger than I am. Always was. He was Tier Eight when you let him join the Blades, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah.” Daryl stood up and started pulling supplies out of his pack. “If we’re stopping for the day, I want to actually get some hot food. I have the materials for stew or we can have seared chicken. Does anyone have a preference?”

Even Serenity could tell that Daryl didn’t want to talk about Eric.

After lunch, they stayed around the fire. It was a fairly nice fall day on the side of the mountain; they couldn’t go too far from the camp without potentially triggering the level to start, but the dungeon gave a significant amount of room for a rest camp.

Serenity was thinking about his daughter. He hadn’t seen her in months and he still didn’t know why Guildmaster Tirmanak was bringing her to Asihanya. There had to be a reason, but he had no idea what it was. It made him want to hurry and get the attackers dealt with, but that was a situation that was hard to hurry. What he was doing now would help keep Takinat relatively safe; at least, he thought it would help. If they kept treating this like a trip with only three people, it wouldn’t. He needed to either make it something more or not return, but at the same time he needed to see everything before he could be comfortable taking risks.

Gabriel was rubbing wax into one of his wands when he stopped and looked up at Serenity. “The Affinity you used on Naomi in the fight. What was it?”

Serenity shook himself. That wasn’t a question he’d expected. It wasn’t one he really wanted to answer, either; people got strange when they learned he used the Death Affinity. He could understand it, but it didn’t make the fact any less annoying. “Death, but there was no chance it would kill her. Death Affinity weakens long before it kills and I do know what I’m doing.”

Gabiel waved a hand in the air as if he were flicking something away from himself. Maybe a bug? Serenity hadn’t seen any bugs, but he probably didn’t attract the same things as a human. Rissa had complained to Serenity more than once about getting bitten when Serenity wasn’t bothered by insects. “How good is your control? Can you invert it or push it away from others? How well can you protect yourself?”

Did this have something to do with the bottom level of the dungeon? Serenity seemed to vaguely remember Gabriel saying something about that when he healed Naomi. The Silver Blades hadn’t described the level otherwise, unfortunately. They’d said they didn’t plan to take him to it on his first trip.

How was he supposed to answer that question? Well, he’d try to make it a bit less strange, and he certainly wouldn’t mention being Death’s Incarnate, but he’d tell the truth as best he could. “Very good. It’s my best Affinity.” Should he mention an Aspect? It was probably best not to, they weren’t at all common at Tier Eight. “It won’t harm me and I can keep it away or at least significantly reduce the effect on people around me as long as they stay close.”

Gabriel dug in his own pack and pulled out a charm. Serenity thought it looked a lot like the one Gabriel used on Naomi, but he couldn’t be certain. There was something that seemed different about it. “Here, tell me what you can about this.”

He tossed the charm at Serenity.

Serenity caught the charm then had to force himself not to drop it like it was hot. It didn’t like him; it was trying to push something at him that was not at all comfortable. It took Serenity a moment to recognize the sensation; it wasn’t the same as having Life energy pushed at him to disrupt his Vital Affinity when he was undead, but it was very similar.

It wasn’t as bad as he remembered. Serenity guessed that was probably because his Vital Affinity now was magic, both mana and essence, and the charm was definitely magic even if it was attuned to Life. He’d probably have the same reaction to a Fire charm that tried to push the energy at him.

“It’s trying to push energy at me. Life-attuned, I think.” Serenity tossed the charm back at Gabriel, then tried to regain control of his expression. He was pretty sure his distaste for the charm had shown really obviously on his face.

“Are you undead?” Gabriel tilted his head as he asked the question. “You use Death magic and the only person I’ve ever seen react to that charm like you did was undead.”

“Death magic isn’t tied to undeath.” Serenity was tired of explaining that. “Heck, you can raise the dead with Life magic if you want to.”

Gabriel grinned. “I know. I ran into a Necromancer of Life once. Creepiest guy I’ve ever met but an excellent enchanter. He’s actually the one who made that charm; it’s supposed to purge negative influences for anyone alive. You didn’t answer the question; are you undead?”

Serenity shook his head. “No, I’m an elemental. Technically.” He paused, then decided to go for it. He’d been doing research, after all. He might as well take advantage of what he’d found out. “Quite a few dragons are. Not all, but it’s pretty common.” It was especially common among higher-Tier dragons, as if they had to get closer to their natural Affinity to actually reach those higher Tiers. He couldn’t say for certain if that was true or not; Althyr refused to answer that question when he asked. It still seemed like a good guess.

“Surely you’re only dragon-blooded? You don’t look like a dragon to me.” Naomi didn’t even try to hide the fact that she’d been listening. Serenity was pretty sure Daryl was too, even if he was paying more attention to his whittling.

“His card says half-dragon,” Gabriel informed Naomi. “Its readings are always really general, though, so it can’t tell the difference between a normal half-dragon, an undead half-dragon, or an elemental half-dragon.” He paused and looked back at Serenity. “What’s your element? Is it the same as your draconic lineage? That’s how dragons work, isn’t it?”

The guy at the Mercenaries’ Guild wasn’t really supposed to share things like that without Serenity’s permission, since it wasn’t relevant to the mission, but Serenity wasn’t surprised. Locals always helped each other out. It was just the way of the world.

He shouldn’t have admitted he was a dragon, clearly. He didn’t want to answer a lot of questions. He also didn’t really want to admit what his Vital Affinity was; it wasn’t dangerous, since it wasn’t one that was easy to interfere with, but it was one that would attract attention if the wrong people heard about it. He hadn’t even thought about that before, but the people who were once interested in a fully sapient, highly intelligent draugr would probably be interested in a dragon of magic.

The wrong people probably couldn’t hear about it from here. Asihanya was nowhere near Empire territory and these people were only Tier Nine. On top of that, the people he was thinking of weren’t even born yet, were they?

Serenity shook his head at Gabriel. “I don’t like talking about it, but I guess there isn’t really a reason not to say. I’m a magic dragon.”

Serenity winced. That sounded wrong. He knew if he said it that way around Rissa, she’d tease him for weeks. On the other hand, these people weren’t Earthlings; they wouldn’t know the song.

“All dragons are magic,” Gabriel stated. He didn’t sound like he believed Serenity. “What’s your element?”

Serenity sighed to himself. He’d have preferred the jokes. He was literally a magic dragon, with his Vital Affinity made of the duality of mana and essence, but that was too much to explain. There was a better thing to say that was also true. “I’m an Essence dragon. It’s like the other side of mana. It takes both to make something; most mages just use mana, but a lot of spells affect essence for their effects. Mana and essence are closely linked.” That probably wasn’t the best explanation, but how did you explain electromagnetism to someone who only knew electricity?

“That’s too bad. I’d hoped - well, it doesn’t matter, does it?” Gabriel shook his head and seemed to refocus his attention. “So tell me about essence. When you say it’s the other side of mana, what does that mean?”

If Serenity had realized just how interested Gabriel was, he’d never have opened that can of worms. He spent the next three hours trying to come up with a better explanation.

After dinner, Serenity escaped into his tent. Hopefully Gabriel would be less inquisitive in the morning.