<~> Chapter 48The sun had just set and we were walking up to the gates iwilight. There wasn't a huge li there were a number of people trying to get ba just before the st of the sunlight went away. The four of us handed uild cards to the gate for iion but we were lead away from the checkpoint uedly.

  We were pulled into a room off to the side that was lit with dlelight and had a couple of guards posted. The guard who led us here opehe door befesturing for us to enter and following in after.

  "You four are all on my list to pull aside should you e back to town. You were all expected back by now so the guild reported you missing two days ago. I sent ruo the Adventures guild and the Svers guild. Please wait here for them to send an escort." He seemed like he was in a hurry and walked off before we could ask anything.

  I looked over to Torien, "Two days ago? Why would they report us missing after only two days?"

  "Is it possible we were in the dungeon lohahought?" Torien asked her sister.

  "It is possible for time to move differently in some dungeons but usually there would be some indication of it. The sky didn't ge at all while we were in there," Man added.

  A tall and slender man walked into the room. At a gnce I reized him as one of the people from the sver's guild. For ohing, no one else iown had parable levels of bad karma.

  "Ah good, Torien and Man. I'm gd you two survived and seem unhurt. We o hurry back to the guild right away now."

  "Wait but we haven't reported to the guild yet, we haven't even gotten paid and we o turn in our quota," Man quickly expined.

  "No need for that anymore. We found a very likely buyer for the two of you together, just like you've wished. You've been gone fht days, it's really important that we have you bad prepared before the t es back to the guild though. We don't have much time."

  "E-eight days? But wait, Lilith, I." Torien stumbled while while looking over to me.

  "o worry, this adventurer take care of the guild paperwork. o yourself with that stuff anymore. I order you to silently follow me back to the guild."

  The effect was immediate. Their colrs started to glow a deep blue and they stared at me with eyes that looked like they were on the verge of tears."

  "Wait, I want to buy them! Is there someone I talk to about this?"

  "Sorry, they already have a prospective buyer lined up. If you e down to the guild you che a few days if they're still reserved. If they're already gone, perhaps we find you other sves that might fit your needs. I'm sorry though, I really o return now." He walked out of the room without allowing us any more time to question him.

  I ched my fist a like I might have boiled over if Bel hadn't chosen that moment to put her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay Lilith, we still have time. If it's really been as long as they said we o go over to the Sver's guild anyway to see about um, bitch. Maybe with that money we work something out with their new owner or buy them out before the buyer es back."

  I took a deep breath. Bel was right. I o calm down and think. It didn't sound like their buyer had shown up yet and even if they had, maybe I could still work something out.

  "You're right. Thank you Bel. Lets get this guild business over with so we go see about the twins. Maybe we still have a ce between the guild mission and the gold from the au."

  We stood around for a little while until a familiar face came to collect us.

  "Oh! I'm so gd you two are alright, where are the twins? Nothing bad happeo them right!?" Mirianna, the guild receptionist that we usually worked with, was hugging me and pressing her fato my breasts. This felt rather awkward but mainly because the touch was making me a little aroused.

  I pushed her bad looked at her. "The twiaken back to the Sver's guild. It seems they have a prospective buyer lined up."

  She smiled at the news which made my stomach turn a little bit. "Oh, that's great to hear. It seems those two will be bought together as a pair after all."

  "Yeah... right..."

  Her face looked puzzled. "Is something wrong? They were w hard so they could be bought together."

  "Well, I was hoping that I could buy them ahem in my party going forward. I'm rather crushed about it to be ho. I want to get through uild business as soon as possible and see if there's anything I do about the situation."

  "Hmm. I see. I'm... not sure you'll have the resources for it but I suppose it 't hurt. Okay, lets do your debriefihen. What deyed your return for so long? It's bee days, you were expected ba three or four."

  "We got trapped in a dungeon. It awning demons, so the four of us pushed forward aroyed it. We didn't even know that much time had passed, for us it felt like only 4 days."

  Her face turned much mrim and serious than I'd ever seen it. "I'm sorry, this is too important to do a quick debrief. I o escort you to the adventure's guild so we talk to the guildmaster and a few specialists."

  The atmosphere in the room had definitely ged. I could tell this was serious now. I nodded. "Of course, lead the way."

  She turned and stepped towards the door before hesitating. "I'm afraid this won't be a quick debrief. I'm sorry." She tiowards the door and led us through it. The jovial happy go lucky receptionist we were used t with was gone. We silently walked through the city towards the guild and even oering were quickly taken to an upstairs meeting room without a word.

  Through the door of the meeting room I could hear two sets of heavy feet take their pce by the door, clearly making sure we don't leave. I think I had uimated how serious our decision to destroy the dungeon had been but I had been reassured that it was the right thing to do si awning demons.

  Bel and I waited for less than fifteen minutes when a tall elven man dressed in flexible green armor entered with aaller, hardened and muscur looking tiger beastfolk dressed in half-pte armor. The beastfolk sat down across from us at the table and the elf sat to their right. One of the first things I noticed was this tiger beastfolk easily had the highest karma I have ever seen on someo was well into the 20,000's. On one hand it garnered some trust from me, but oher, what the hell do you have to do to get that much karma. I also couldn't let myself be tricked. Having a lot of karma meant that you did good things, on average. It didn't mean that the person would be incapable of hurting me, especially if they thought they were making the right choice.

  "I have been told you destroyed a duhat had been spawning demons." The tiger spoke with a beautiful feminine voice that had a sexy husky undercurrent. I was caught pletely off guard, not realizing this t tiger was a woman. I mao recover quickly but I couldn't say that I wasn't a little turned on.

  "Yes, I brought the crystal with me." I picked up the heavy backpack I had been carrying and pulled out the rge crystal fragments and heaved them onto the table.

  The tiger cracked a predatrin that revealed her dangerous lookih. "It seems I had been wrong, I had thought this to be a waste of my time but it appears you aren't lying. Or you're incredibly stupid, we'll see how this shakes out." She turo the elf. "G the artificer here, I didn't want to waste his time if this was some sort of stupid game but we'll need him now."

  "Of course ma'am." He nodded ahe room.

  "I am the guildmaster of Traehall's adventurers guild. My name is Raksha'va Melna. Raksha'va is my family name, I would prefer you call me that. I'm happy to be dealing with beastkin for o gets exhausting dealing with human bigots with sticks up their asses all the time. I'm going to just put this out here first. If that crystal oable wasn't actually summoning demons, you'll probably be executed even if I somehow thought it was a good idea anyway. If it was summoning demons things will actually be more plicated for you. Both in good ways and bad."

  I felt a bit unsure of myself but I didn't want that to e across so I tried to speak fidently. "I was told by my panions that we had to destroy it si was summoning demons. Every area we explored on our way out had demons, including the boss."

  "What enemy names do you remember."

  "Shadow Horror, Dread Knight, Demon Mimic, Demon Vampire Queen."

  The tiger beastfolk let out an exhale of breath. "That could have been a problem if they hadn't been tained. I only reize Dread Knights and the Demon Vampire Queen though. Was the Vampire Queen intelligent?"

  I felt the hairs on the bay neck stand on end, "No, the boss didn't seem intelligent. At the time I even thought it was weird that it didn't seem to react at all until we got a certain distance from it."

  She nodded slightly before looking over at Bel. The look made her shrink down into her seat. She looked back over to me, "Was it just the two of you in there? I find that a little hard to believe."

  "No, two of our party members were sves. Before we came here they were taken back to the Sver's guild, because they have a potential buyer lined up."

  I felt Bel's hand on mine which made me realize I had been tensing my hand so hard I almost drew blood. I rexed them as the Tiger tialking.

  "Oh gods, that's going to be a nightmare, I already know it. As if this situation wasn't bad enough already." She exhaled loudly. Before she could tihe door opened and an old looking human man stepped in with the elf.

  Raksha'va looked over at the door, "Brominn, sorry could you als Mirianna here. Things just got more plicated."

  "Of course, one moment."

  The old man walked over and looked down at the table. "It's a dungeon crystal alright. I get back to work now?"

  Raksha'va looked irritated. "We o firm that this thing awning demons, first check the spawn table to firm the enemy hen make sure they weren't actually pseudodemons."

  The old man sighed, "Fine you oversized cat, don't get your tail twisted over it." If the ent had rubbed her the wrong way she didn't show it, though she did look irritated having to deal with the man at all holy.

  The Tiger looked back at me, "This is normally taboo but it will go a long way in proving that I trust you. I need you to tell me which titles you got from destroying the dungeon."

  Bel was nervously looking at the artificer in the room.

  "I think it's a good idea Bel."

  She nodded, "Okay, in this case yeah."

  I looked back at Raksha'va. "Dungeoroyer, First Explorer, Early Intervention."

  She nodded. "Good. The st one is quite rare but very powerful. I know of oher who has the title." She sighed and leaned ba her seat. "That first title is as much a curse as it is a blessing. That sed title makes you very valuable and the st of those titles multiply your value further. The dungeoroyer title is frankly a problem for you now. There are many groups that will want to kill you just for having that title, the fact that it was a demon dungeon is irrelevant to them. Some may want to kill you more for it holy. You should have e bad told us about it rather tharoying it yourself."

  Bel spoke quickly a little panicked. "We were trapped though! We had to finish the duo escape!"

  Raksha'va held up one of her rge feline hands. "You were trapped but you could have left the dungeon without destroying it. However, we are quite aware that it is important to destroy demon dungeons as soon as possible to avoid escaped monsters. Demon dungeons have a very high rate of spawning intelligent monsters, especially boss monsters. It's one of the main problems with them."

  The giant tiger woman sighed heavily again, "I'm not saying it was a bad idea to destroy the dungeon, quite the opposite actually. The unfortunate part of it is that you just painted a target on your back, apparently without knowing it. I could have sent someone in that already had the title and it wouldn't have made that person any more likely to be targeted than they were before. Why don't you tell me the whole story."

  I summarized the ehing more or less py by py starting from wheered the dungeon. The only things I omitted was Mimi joining us and my iion with Charon. Raksha'va sat there quietly and listeo the story from start to finish without asking any questions.

  Just as I was finishing up the articifer sat up from the crystal. "I've firmed the list. I have eight total monsters, including the boss, and every one of them are true demons. The boss was level 18 acc to this, making it a bronze or steel level threat before taking into at it was unexplored. I go back to work now?" He handed her a small piece of paper he had been taking notes on.

  "Thank you, you're dismissed."

  Without a word the old man hurried to leave the room and passed a grim looking Mirianna who ehe room and sat down. Her eyes lingered ohe crystal before looking at Raksha'va.

  "Well, at the very least I clear you from being an enemy of the kingdom. Let's talk about where things will have to go from here."

  Saine

  Hello! I'm super sorry for the te posting today, it just totally slipped my mind! No fancy excuses I just pletely fot, sorry! Aaaand, after posting te I also posted the wrong chapter. Man, I am really on the ball today aren't I? Sain!

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