<~> Chapter 36I'm not sure how long I slept but when I woke up I saw Torien sitting in the er sharpening her knives. I woke up feeling a little cramped with Bel holding on to me from the right and Man holding on to me from the left. Looking down at myself I noticed how much taller I was thah of them. I decided I was feeling pretty unfortable now that I was awake so I gently slid out from between them, getting a bit of a grumble from Man in response.

  I quietly stretched out now that I was free from the cuddle pile ooo small mattresses before sitting doworien. "Did you sleep okay?"

  "Eh, not too bad. It looks like I rolled off the mattress and slept mostly on the floor though," she said with a grin.

  "It looks like the girls decided to use me as a Teddy bear st night, I woke up stiff as a board."

  "Teddy bear?"

  "Oh uh, stuffed animal?"

  "Mmm" she nodded. "You say some weird stuff you know."

  "Yeah, I know," I said smiling.

  "While I'm gd yetting along with my sister, I hope you keep some distance. She has a tendency to get heartbrokey easily. And you already have Bel."

  "...So you know then?"

  "Know?"

  "Never mind."

  "That my sister likes girls?"

  "I-... She doesn't think you know."

  "She doesn't? Hmm, it's so obvious to me though. She hides it pretty well from most people but she gets all awkward and fidgety. I even know her type."

  There was a quiet pause. "You two should probably talk about it." I looked over to firm Man was still asleep. "She- She's afraid of you abandoning her over it."

  Torien's smile fell. "You think so?"

  "She told me st night. She opened up to me a lot since she knows that I like girls too."

  "...I see."

  "I told her you wouldn't though. I tell you love your sister a lot, I didn't think something like that would e between you."

  Torien's smile returhough not as strong as before. "Thanks, I'm gd you think so. I promise I'll talk to her about it soon."

  I nodded. "So what about you?"

  "Me?"

  "Do you like girls too?"

  Torien leaned bad looked at the ceiling. "I've never really thought about it much. I'm not like Mori that gets crushes everywhere she goes. I think some girls are pretty and some guys are handsome but I never really pictured myself with any of them. Holy, I'm just trying to do everything I to keep my sister safe. I don't really have time for crushes."

  I ugh, "It's not like anyone ever really has time for a crush, they just sort of happen. Still, I'll tell you the same thing I told Man st night, I'll be here for you whenever you ."

  "Sure, same here. We're a team after all."

  I hold my hand out, "Team?"

  "Team," she says shaking my hand.

  Torien goes back to sharpening her knives for a while before looking back at the bed. "Do you think we should wake them soon?"

  "Mmm, I dunno. It's hard to tell time here so I think maybe we should let them sleep as long as they . I don't really need much sleep in the first pce so it's hard for me to gauge how much other people need."

  She nods. "Sounds good then, we're already gone whe back, probably shouldn't rush too much. I just hope we get out of here in one piece, we're probably he end of the dungeon but the enemies in the courtyard were strong."

  I start practig some light magic while we wait, just trying to draw lines in the air using light manipution. "The enemies in the part of the dungeon are mimics, as far as the stories go, they look like just about anything. We'll o be careful for the stretch. Also, yesterday Man was moving around a lot of fire aspect mana, I'm ed about the fmmability of the area as well."

  "Magical fire behaves a bit differently from traditional fire. It still spread like a normal fire but it's pretty easy for Mori to pull the aspected mana out of the fire ainguish it nearly instantly. The only real would be if there is something like oil or tar around."

  Man sat up so quickly it startled me a little. "Mmm, someoalking about magic," she says groggily while rubbing her eyes.

  "I was just telling Lilith not to worry about you lighting the whole dungeon on fire." Torien had a cheeky grin on her face while looking at me.

  "Mmm maybe I should if she thinks so lowly of my [Magitrol]."

  "Nah it's fiorien was just telling me about how magic fire works, I never knew you could just pull the fire aspected mana out afterwards."

  Man looked at me. "Your skillset seems all over the pce Lilith. You are clearly more than just a sword fighter, but you have weird gaps in your knowledge of magic despite having some skill with it."

  I tap my fingers on my bag. I really want to divulge more about myself but I don't feel safe telling people my secrets if a potential owner orders them to spill it. At this point I'm probably dead set on buying out their sve tracts if I but I don't know if I'll have the resources to do it yet. I'm crossing my fingers I get enough from selling Bitch but I have no idea what'll happen with that.

  "I might tell you more about myself ter, for now lets just focus on the dungeon."

  Man iffly, perhaps she feels like she overstepped her bounds. Maybe she did, but I find it hard to fault someone for notig the weirdness surrounding me. Adding Torien and Man to my party permaly will help me shore up a lot of my gaps in knowledge if I'm able to tell them more about myself ter.

  I decide that I want to keep moving. As much fun as it is to hang out and chat, I'd really like to get out of this dungeon now. It's probably not that time sensitive but I'd like to get back to town shortly after Bitch's au if possible.

  I kneel o my sleeping deer girl and kiss her gently on the forehead. Bel's eyes flick open and she smiles warmly up at me before returning a pey cheek.

  "Good m Lilith."

  "M sleepy doe. It's time to get moving. I think we're going to go crazy if we have to stay in this duoo much longer."

  Bel sits up and stretches before fttening out the wrinkles in her adventuring dress. "I feel pretty well rested, it's probably good to get up."

  "Should we all have breakfast then?"

  Bel and I look at each other before I reply, "You two go ahead. We don't usually eat mu the m."

  Torien frowns but just shrugs and splits up some ratioween her and her sister.

  "Oh hey, we found a fancy bathroom yesterday! We should probably cheimics but it'll beat going in a er," Man proudly mentions.

  "Lets hope the Toilet isn't a mimic," Torien says while tearing off a piece of her salted jerky.

  " they do that?" Man asks looking at me.

  "Uhm, maybe? We should definitely check before we sit down on it though."

  The four of us finish pag away our things and tidy up the little safe room befetting ready to open the door.

  "We probably shouldn't split up this time, and we're going to have to check everything to make sure it's not a mimic. Do you think I should just poke everything with my sword?"

  "I could probably use fire magic, there seems to be a lot of ambient fire magi the mansion-like hallways for some reason."

  "We'll give it a try."

  I opehe door to the hallway and almost directly in front of the door was a table with a very familiar dlestick looking very obviously out of p the dresser covered in knocked over and scattered bottles.

  I point to the dlestick. "Mimic."

  Torien starts to pull together ambient fire magic but before she could cast anything the dlestick starts running down the hall full bore.

  "Shoot, how did they reize me so easily?" said the mimining down the hall.

  The four of us looked at one another in shock. Mas go of all of the fire magic. "Did that monster just speak?"

  "Is that even possible?" Bel asks.

  "Intelligent monsters are extremely rare... They're not always hostile but when they are it's a huge problem. This dungeon just keeps getting worse and worse."

  "We were already pnning oroying this pce, does an intelligent monster ge anything?" I asked.

  "No," Torien said. "Intelligent monsters are so rare that it's more than likely the only one in this dungeon. If the monster is hostile then it's kill on sight."

  "What if it's not?" Bel asked.

  Torien fiddled with the pommel of her dagger in its sheath. "Some people would still kill it on sight but it's okay to reason with it if possible. It living inside a duhat we pn to destroy creates a problem though. It might not want us to kill the dungeon but si has demons in it, this dungeon is absolutely destroy on sight."

  "Sooo, we should try and talk to it then?" I asked.

  Torien sighed. "Gods this dungeon is turning into a headache. I don't know if it's a good idea. If it takes issue with us destroying its home then it could turn hostile immediately. If it doesn't it might go loose into the wilds and who knows what'll happen. But if it's to it might he ambient miasma of the duo survive and it'll have no other choice but to turn hostile. I 't make this kind of decision."

  I bit my lip in thought for a moment. "I think we should try to reason with it. I might have a way to help it leave if it es down to it." Man gives me an ied look but doesn't say anything. Instead she just creates a half-dozen fireballs that slowly circle her staff simir to the icicles from earlier.

  Walking down the hallway is a lot more tehan it was the first time we were here. Before it seemed as if there were no enemies so we just walked casually while looking around. This time everything looked like an enemy. Man had her fireballs flowing around toug anything that looked suspicious to her, which was almost everything. A few things caught fire but to my relief Man pulled the mana out of the fire quickly before anything happened just like Torien said. 15 mier and we hadn't e across any more mimics despite there being clutter all over the pce.

  "Where did they all go? Are there really that few?"

  "Aside from the talking one we only know of two for sure, one was the debra that you fought, the other was the mattress that ran away."

  "Are we sure the mattress wasn't the talking one?"

  "...no."

  As we tinued down the hallway Bel just froze in pce. I turo look at her in but didn't see anything wrong.

  Bel rushed up to me and whispered into my ear, "D-did that dlestick watch us havioo?"

  I also froze. Wait, The first time I saeculiar dlestick was in the room we had sex in. "I- I don't know..."

  Bel's ears turned red and she stomped ahead of us. Well, it seems exhibitionism isn't one of her kinks. ...Though with this series of events it could happen. I'll have to keep an eye on her.

  Saine

  Hello! Not much to talk about this time, chapter is pretty exg for me though! I 't wait to see how people react to it. I hope you enjoyed reading!

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