As Sylver walked through the half-empty street, he could almost see the path the invading monsters had taken 3 years ago. The bricks on the ground were as clean as usual, but the ones that had been repaired and replaced had a slightly different color from the ones that hadn’t been touched in the last 20 years.

Apart from giant holes, there were also giant strips that were likely the result of long claws slashing through the stone. Another obvious change was that a lot of shops-

Sylver didn’t react as a small black-haired creature landed directly in his path, and with its tail raised high into the air, while it stared him in the eye.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

Spring went to kick the small feline, but it effortlessly jumped up into the air and avoided Spring’s follow-up kick. It landed 10 steps away from Sylver and Spring and continued to stare at the two while cocking its head.

“You look well,” Sylver said with his head turned towards Spring, who also turned to face him as if they were talking to each other.

Now that he got a good look at the cat, the tail wasn’t crooked anymore, and that instead of appearing as something wild and feral, the small cat looked… like a slightly underfed housecat.

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

[A skill similar to [Appraisal] has been successfully blocked!]

“Stop it, just how many black-eyed albinos do you know?” Sylver asked, as Whiskers just continued silently staring at him.

“So that’s why the rabbits have been up in arms,” the cat responded, as its tail swished around in an odd pattern, and in the time it took Sylver to blink, the small black cat was replaced by a short man, with a pitch-black head of hair.

His face was scratched up to shit, and his forearms were covered in so many scars that it made the skin as a whole look darker than it actually was.

“You look different; did you do something with your hair?” Whiskers said and after a brief pause, Sylver lightly laughed at the joke.

“Complete and total makeover, inside and out. If you thought I was hard to kill before, now even I couldn’t kill me,” Sylver boasted, and Whiskers lifted his left hand up to his mouth but put it down without doing anything.

“Glad to hear it… You should know there are 2 priests following you,” Whiskers said without breaking eye contact with Sylver.

“I’m aware, but thank you. How have you been?” Sylver asked, and for a brief moment Whiskers’ smile vanished. It returned a moment later but didn’t look as genuine as it was before.

“I mean this as a compliment. She fought like a cornered rat. And while some don’t consider her victory genuine, Wuss and I were one of the first to side with her,” Whiskers said in a slightly quieter voice.

“She told me. You two made the right choice,” Sylver said, as he continued to walk towards Salgok’s workshop and placed his arm around Whiskers’ shoulder to bring him along.

“Did she tell you what exactly she did?” Whiskers asked.

“Not the specifics, but I’m aware of all the big moves she made,” Sylver said.

“Even when she threatened to-”

“No offense, but I don’t care. Just be happy all of this occurred while I was away. Just between us, I wouldn’t have been as forgiving or gentle as Lola was. But, she knows what she’s doing, so don’t tell her I said that” Sylver said.

He could tell he had soured the mood.

But Sylver wasn’t about to apologize for Lola doing what she thought was necessary to defeat the cats. He liked Whiskers well enough, even if he still held a grudge towards the cat for letting Yeva and Ciege get kidnapped. But now that he knew who and what Poppy was, Sylver’s grudge wasn’t as justified.

“Where is Kitty right now?” Sylver asked as he remembered another blunder he still hadn’t confirmed wasn’t intentional.

“She is currently on holiday in Medera. With Lola being the King of Cats, Kitty has taken on an advisory role. She has-”

“Wait, what? Lola is the King Of Cats?” Sylver asked, and the look on Whiskers’ face was a near-perfect blank.

“The class and perks will be passed down to her when Kitty dies. In the meantime, Kitty is the “official” King Of Cats, but everyone working under her is well aware of Lola being the “real” king,” Whiskers explained.

Sylver, Spring, and Whiskers stopped walking as they turned the corner, and Salgok’s workshop was in full view.

Previously it occupied a small space between two adjacent buildings.

Now it appeared to have expanded into them, as well as a fourth building on the right. And then expanded upwards, by 3 floors. Inside he could see and feel at least 60 souls moving around, and could hear the sound of metal striking metal, and shouting and swearing in dwarvish.

Sylver wasn’t sure when exactly Whiskers left, but he was gone by the time Sylver reached the entrance, which was essentially a small sign hanging above a giant hole where a wall used to be.

“You won’t be allowed inside without this,” Ging said.

Sylver didn’t react to the rabbit’s somewhat unexpected appearance, but Spring all but literally jumped out of his skin.

“Thank you. Sucks to rely on just your eyesight, doesn’t it?” Sylver asked, as he took the small gold-plated rectangle from Ging, and inspected it.

“Please don’t do that again,” Spring asked Ging, who nodded very politely before he disappeared in a barely visible blur of green and white.

Sylver brought the rectangle up to his ear, and very lightly shook it.

“Yeva made this,” Sylver said, mostly to himself, as he placed the rectangle in his pocket, and began to walk towards the giant dwarven workshop.

As he had somewhat expected, two human-sized metallic golems stepped out of the illusion hiding them and stood on either side of the large hole that was being used as an entrance.

Once Sylver and Spring safely passed the threshold, the two golems returned to hiding underneath the invisibility enchantment Yeva had made.

Sylver walked maybe 5 steps, before a small, but exceptionally strong hand, lightly gripped him by the wrist and did its best to get his attention without yanking.

The dwarf said something in a dialect Sylver couldn’t understand.

“I’m looking for Salgok or Ciege,” Sylver said at the dwarf.

The dwarf held up one finger at Sylver and shouted towards another group working in the corner.

A dwarf with gold thread braided into his beard walked over to them, and he and the dwarf holding Sylver’s wrist spoke to one another in their odd dialect for a couple of sentences.

“What business do you have with them?” the dwarf with the gold threads asked.

His accent was so heavy that Spring understood him before Sylver did and responded.

“We’re old friends. We came to say hello,” Spring said, and Sylver nodded along.

The dwarf with the gold thread said something to the one holding Sylver’s wrist, who then gestured at the pocket in which Sylver was keeping Yeva’s enchanted card. Sylver pulled it out and gave it to the dwarf, who closed his left eye, and angled the card until he was holding it against one of the floating magical lights.

He murmured something towards the dwarf with the gold threads, who said something back before he said something back.

Their conversation continued for a solid 2 minutes, up until Sylver felt a familiar soul in the distance, and then felt the aforementioned soul feel his soul.

Yeva appeared out of thin air, a mere step away from where Sylver and Spring were standing and waiting for the dwarves to finish their conversation. She said 4 words in their dialect, that Sylver understood to mean “thank you, he’s safe.”

The moment the dwarf holding Sylver’s wrist let go, Sylver and Spring were teleported up 2 floors and found themselves standing face to face with Salgok, Ciege, another dwarf that had Salgok’s nose, and a young boy that Sylver could only guess was Benjamin.

“Took you long enough,” Salgok said before anyone else so much as moved.

“You look…” Ciege tried to say, but couldn’t decide on a word, as he stared at the unnaturally pale and unnaturally tall, seemingly human, man.

“I had some work done. This is Spring, by the way. You all look well. Except you Salgok, you got fat,” Sylver said and pointed a finger at the slightly wider dwarf.

There was a very odd couple of seconds of silence.

That was broken by the small human boy pointing a finger at the slightly wider dwarf, and very quietly saying “fat.”

Salgok was the first to start laughing, and who Sylver would later learn was his brother, joined in and started laughing too, and within the span of 5 minutes, everyone was sitting at a table that Salgok materialized out of thin air.

Once Sylver confirmed that the room was soundproof and spy proof, and he had a very tall mug of beer, he started to once again retell the tale of the necromancer, and the realm full of ice and bullets.