They evacuated the emergency bunker when the all clear was given after the battle. This was a small village with a population no bigger than five hundred. At least one hundred to one hundred-fifty were defenders on the walls against the Goblins. Thanks to the inclusion of the Deep Dwellers in town and the guild members casualties were fairly low. The majority of which came from the archers that were either trapped in the crumbling wall or the subsequent sneak attacks by the roguish Goblins afterward. If the Adventurers weren’t occupying the bulk of the stronger combatants, it could have been much worse.

Deacon gathered all his team members except for Amanda and Ralph. Ralph was still unconscious, and Amanda wouldn’t leave him. They set him up in one of the rooms at the Inn and would transfer him into Alfred proper once he was up and about. In the conference room inside Deacon’s mansion sat Typhus, Tantus, and Sophie. Alfred was lounging in one of the chairs feigning exhaustion from all the dungeon reconfiguration he had to do.

“I first wanted to thank both Tantus and Alfred for an exceptional job in keeping the civilians safe. Order Sixty Nine seems to work as intended,” Deacon said standing up and heading over to the screen wall.

“Where were you?” Sophie asked as she took on a disappointed glare.

“I’m getting to that. Hold your horses. After constructing the wall to block the Goblins passage, I encountered a powerful goblin with a staff. He used some unholy abilities that made short work of my wall. Then he stitched back together an Orc that I killed. I’ve never seen anything like it. I knew at that point I needed to beat feet,” Deacon said displaying his memories on the screen.

At first, he showed images of himself splitting the Orc in two before switching the image to the crumbling weeping wall being lanced with dark energies. Finally he showed the tall Goblin stitching the dead Orc back together.

“That isn’t healing magic. It looks like some kind of demon summoning ritual. Nasty stuff,” Tantus said coming around the table to inspect the screen.

“It doesn’t explain why it took you half a day to get back or how you fought your way through the back line of Goblins,” Typhus blurted out startling Tantus from his musings.

“Half a day? I was gone for over a week,” replied Deacon looking confused.

“No, no. He’s right, we left you a few hours before dawn this morning. Your explosive hair growth did seem odd to me though,” Tantus chimed in poking at Deacon’s long dreadlocks before Deacon smacked his hand.

“Okay then, that dovetails perfectly into my next topic—” Deacon started before being interrupted by Typhus.

“Also, how did you do that thing with the Orc? I’ve never seen you disintegrate someone layer by layer. That was possibly the most evil thing I’ve seen you do,” said Typhus leaning forward slamming his palms on the table.

“I was about to tell you; you’re jumping all over the place. Let’s start after I fled the scene and no interrupting, okay?” Deacon asked looking each one of them in the face for confirmation.

He took them from his idea to have the Goblins chase him to stopping in between the Ravine Stones. Deacon glossed over his showdown with the demon inside the Orcs body to the slate message about the Wode. Then his encounter with the now late Caphida and how it changed the Wode message. After he covered the many biomes inside the prison, Deacon discussed the two prisoners the Wode was created to contain.

“Wait, you’re saying these two prisoners were the cause of the Gnomish homeland being destroyed? You met the monsters responsible for almost wiping out the Gnome race in one night?” Tantus interjected stopping Deacon’s story in its tracks.

“I asked you not to interrupt,” Deacon said facepalming.

“Well that is a huge revelation. You do know we are going to the Shattered Sky, right? That’s where the remaining Gnomes live,” Sophie added.

“Okay folks, do you want me to finish this story or not?” Deacon asked.

They all gave nods of acceptance and Deacon went on. He explained how Sun Wu and he tricked an irate Caphida into getting eaten. Then how Sun Wu tried to pull the same trick to force Deacon to parole him early. Deacon claimed that he outsmarted Sun Wu to get more favorable terms of release from the Wode. That was when Deacon began to shake and shudder in place before light brown energy poured out of his body. That energy coalesced into none other than Sun Wu himself.

“I was not outsmarted by the demon child. He just made a more clear and well thought out counteroffer,” Sun Wu complained crossing his arms and sharply nodding.

Everyone immediately prepared spells and pulled weapons. Alfred stood up looking confused at the sight of Sun Wu. Deacon held his hands out in an effort to calm everyone down as Sun Wu tried to hide behind Deacon peaking his head over his shoulders to look at the others. Sun Wu appeared about a foot shorter than he was in Wode. Still fully armored and his tail was wrapped around his waist like a belt.

“Sun Wu, I thought you couldn’t manifest on the Mortal Plane,” Deacon chided.

“We are not on the Mortal Plane. For all intents and purposes we are in a pocket dimension not unlike the Wode. Only this one doesn’t have the same amount of suppression. Tastier magic as well,” said Sun Wu sniffing the air.

“So you can’t manifest out there, but you can in here. Got it. Sorry guys, this was just as surprising to me. My last passenger didn’t come out unless he was summoned,” Deacon relayed with that last part directly towards Sun Wu.

“Don’t be foolish demon boy. How could I supply the promised training if I couldn’t manifest to teach you. Now where will I be staying? I prefer a high vantage point with room for a small pond and some trees,” Sun Wu said as he made his way to the door passing very nervous onlookers.

“Damn it, sit down for now. We’ll get to all that later,” said Deacon looking ever more frustrated.

“Master Deacon, a word please?” Alfred asked making door appear in a nearby wall and walking through it.

Deacon shrugged, looked over at Typhus and darted his eyes toward Sun Wu. Typhus must have gotten the message, because he nodded and focused his attention purely on Sun Wu. Then Deacon followed Alfred through the new door that sealed behind him.

“Master Deacon, I can not feel your new friend. I do not know where he is within me. That shouldn’t be possible,” explained Alfred who looked concerned.

“Were you able to sense the dragon Zageracks when he was my passenger?” Deacon asked.

“I knew it was there; this one is just a blank space in my perception. I feel I won’t be able to monitor his activity while he’s here. We need to restrict his access to other areas,” Alfred explained with growing concern on his face.

“Fine. I’ll instruct him to stay in specific areas designated by you. One thing you’ll have to note is he’s technically a trickster god from my original world. It will be in his nature to… test the boundaries so to speak. With that said, I think you should search my mind for ancient Asian architecture from my memories and construct a space just above and behind the training grounds. Two birds with one stone,” Deacon relayed.

Deacon and Alfred returned to the conference room to see Tantus trying to pull Typhus off of a screeching Sun Wu’s back as he ran around the conference table. Sophie remained seated rubbing her temples in frustration.

“What the fuck is happening? We leave the room for five minutes and all hell breaks loose?” Deacon admonished.

“He stole my sacrificial dagger. I want it back!” Typhus screamed.

“It’s a cursed object. You shouldn’t have anyway. I’m helping,” Sun Wu challenged.

“You are both hundreds of years old, behave yourselves!” Deacon shot back as Sun Wu jumped atop the table stopping and staring at Deacon surprised by his raised voice, while the other two bounced off the table and then to the floor.

“Sun Wu, I shall show you to your designated area while master Deacon and his friends continue the debrief. This way please,” said Alfred showing Sun Wu out of the room proper.

Everyone took a seat after that, and Deacon decided to give everyone a moment to calm down while he collected his thoughts. It felt like a week or more that he was in that Wode, but his friends made it clear it was only a few hours. His rapid hair growth told him he was there longer than he even perceived.

Once people’s attentions were back on him, Deacon began again. He spoke about using Ralph’s teachings about conserving energy in his three day battle with the rams. Deacon over emphasized the danger that The Unsatiated presented. Going as far as to explain that the Wode was still acting as a prison and some random strength dungeon did not appear in its place.

“You fought enough rams to keep you busy for three whole days? That doesn’t sound possible,” Typhus stated incredulously.

“Well they mostly went down with one attack and they pretty much all had the same exact attack pattern. Run at me with their horns. It wasn’t until the boss versions showed up toward the end that the patterns changed. I mut have killed over two hundred of them, easy. They had these horns that disenchanted my clothes. It took all my concentration to ensure they didn’t hit my bag. Speaking of which,” Deacon explained as he took the head of the final ram out of his bag and dumped it on the floor in front of Tantus.

“What is that? The magic energy in the horns runs inward. I’ve never seen anything like it. Can I have this for study?” Tantus asked.

“Yea that’s why I kept it. I thought you might be able to make something cool out of it. Maybe some anti-magic rings or something. In its regular form they are detrimental to magic items so be careful. I also managed to make these with materials I found in the Wode. I have nine left,” Deacon continued as he put a red vial on the table that pulsated ominously.

“What kind of potion is it?” Typhus said reaching for it.

“My slate tells me its an Infernal Regen potion. I had limited tools to work with, so I just floated the liquid above a hot piece of Infernal glass. It was the only thing I could do without equipment. It was kind of the opposite of that time I created that pill. I should make more of those…” Deacon said as he trailed off.

“I’m not sure you should be making potions with Infernal energy. Were there no trees or bushes around to make a fire?” asked Sophie unwilling to touch the vile of potion.

“Funny, I didn’t even think to look,” said Deacon.

“Now the last thing to bring you up to speed on. Sun Wu mentioned I earned a new halo while I was in the Wode. I don’t know what it is, but I can tell you I felt like I was being hunted during that mountain goat battle royal. Almost like I was a little worm on a big fuckin hook—” Deacon stopped talking as his body began to glow a bright orange. His limbs began to shift, and hair covered his whole body. Purple and black horns curled around his skull as his face began to elongate into a snout.

Deacon’s hooves clattered on the ground as he tried to regain his footing. He turned his head disoriented by the change in visual degrees. He looked over at Tantus and Typhus who kicked their chairs out behind them to stand up. Deacon didn’t understand what was happening. He figured he should ask for help.

“Baaaaa,” He said.