"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME! HE TRICKED US!!!!"
(Flora)
"I think you mean he tricked you."
Flora gave me a death glare.
We were in front of a rundown house that had seen better years.
Both him and his brother lived out here when they were younger, but as the years piled on the brother started living in town and the old man couldn't keep up with the upkeep of the place.
When the monster attacks started happening in the woods, the brother wanted to sell the land and for both of them to live full-time in the town, but the old man didn't want to abandon their land.
Both brothers headed out into the woods to hunt down the monster one night, but only one came back out.
And so we were left with an overgrown property.
At least that's what it says in the letter Jolan gave Jurea right before he left for Ironkeep.
Not that I am complaining, we came out ahead in my opinion.
When we were talking about the land, I thought it would be maybe an acre or two.
After all, in my world an average house costs you about a couple hundred grand, and I always assumed that gold coins here were the same.
Imagine my surprise when that two acres turned out to be twenty thousand acres!
Apparently the two brothers saved a local lords life, and was awarded this land as a reward.
Given most of it is still forest, they only cleared a small portion of it to build a house to use as a base for hunting.
"Sniff! Sniff!"
I looked over at Jurea, and noticed her eyes were watery.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Of course it is! It will take a lot more money to get this land ready to be built on, that old coot told me it was in perfect condition and ready for construction."
Flora answered me.
"No, it's perfect."
(Jurea)
"Are you stupid? Didn't you just hear what I said? It will take thousands more gold to start making a profit on this land."
Flora gestured all around us dramatically.
"I never thought I would own a hovel, much less a piece of property this large. My parents would've sold their souls for this land, if they thought their souls were worth that much."
That stunned all of us into silence.
"Yeah, well, we're land owners now, which means we have to pay taxes on it to the local lord."
"How much?"
(Me)
"Depends, I've got a few people in the guild that are or could be susceptible to blackmail, but I'd like to hold on to those options until I really need them."
"Let's hold off on blackmail, it never works out well in the end."
"Fine, then one thing I guess we can do is go back into the dungeon and go deeper than usual."
"Well, we were always going back, I don't see the problem with that."
"Yes, but I was planning on waiting until we had higher levels before going deeper, this expedites things."
"We can handle it."
"Yeah, whatever, I guess the first thing to do is make the immediate area livable, and clear enough space to start building."
"Okay, y'all start on the house and I'll start in the yard."
"No, the first thing you're going to do is make webs to sell, then after you pay off Ethan we'll use the rest of the gold to buy
supplies."
"Emira."
"Huh?"
"Her name is Emira, you have to be doing this on purpose. I mean you know mine and Jurea's names."
She looked out at the forest we came from.
"Yeah, I sure do."
I thought back and realized she's never really said my name either, the only ones she really says are Patty's and Jurea's.
"You do know my name, right?"
She was avoiding my gaze, and started looking at the rundown house.
"..."
"Well...?"
Finally, after realizing I wasn't going to give up, she decided to answer me.
"I'd like to saaay... Julian."
"How can you not know my name! I've told you literally hundreds of times! You know both Patty and Jurea's names!"
"Yeah, but Patty is interesting and Jurea is my arch nemesis, everyone else would just take up space."
"Are you fucking kidding me!"
"Before both of you get into a screaming match, I'd suggest we get started on the work. It will take us the better part of today just to reinforce the fence. And I'm planning on leaving my house as soon as possible, so come on."
Jurea interrupted the budding fight while wiping the remnants of tears from her eyes.
I sigh, and acquiesced.
Flora gave me a smirk and started off towards the house.
"Where are you going?"
(Eric)
"To see if the old coot left anything valuable in the house."
I turned to Eric.
"Go with her and keep an eye on her, if she finds anything valuable..."
"Take it?"
"Yup, thank you."
Eric followed after her.
I turned to Jurea.
"Soooo reinforcing a fence, how do you do that?"
________________________
After a week of hard work we made the house livable - by this world's standards - and the fence able to withstand an attack from a third tier monster or animal.
We even got started on a forge for Emira.
But it's time we headed back into the dungeon, so we left the rest of the gold - after buying supplies for a long dungeon run - with Emira so she could hire people to help build and clear the land.
We are planning on being away for a while, I don't know about any shortcuts past the tenth floor and the floors get bigger the deeper you go down in dungeons.
We brought extra capacity bags and stuffed them with tents and other rations, anything else we needed to eat we'd catch.
Once we got to the dungeon entrance we liked using, Flora cut her hand and dripped her blood on the portal.
The portal turned teal.
When we went through it we were in the antechamber that was after the boss on the tenth floor.
"Hey, it actually worked!"
"What do you mean by that? Of course it worked, I told you that it would."
"I take everything you say with a grain of salt."
"Whatever, let's just go."
We jumped through the purple portal and landed on a floor that looked no different from the first.
I won't lie, I was a little disappointed, I was hoping for something more magical.
Shut up Patty.
Before they started forward I stopped them.
"Let me check if something is up ahead first."
I activated my 'Empath Aura' ability.
That reminds me, in the middle of the week, I absorbed the special mana heart.
Patty told me that it would randomly upgrade on of my abilities.
I was hoping it would update either my
'Peerless Regeneration', 'Dash', 'Spatial Awareness', or 'Adaptation' abilities, instead I got an upgrade to my 'Empath Darts' ability.
This popped up in front of me.
........
Empath Aura : you can produce an aura that can sense and manipulate others emotional state. The farther the target is the mana drainage increases. All benefits of empath darts apply.
Lesser ability Gastron mucus allows you to produce mucus through your skin. The mucus gives you minimal protection and allows you to scale vertical surfaces.
.......
When I finished absorbing the mana heart.
Yeah, it's safe to say I was more than a little disappointed.
But it does have its uses. If I stretch it out as far as it can go, I can detect the killing intent most monsters have. And using
'Spatial Awareness' as well, I'm the perfect monster radar.
After a few seconds I sensed two killing intents, I then focused all of my other senses on that spot.
"Two bogies up ahead towards the left, I think they are some type of insect. Their temp is about the same as the environment, and when they move they make a grinding sound, like plates of armor."
After a while I've gotten real good at my spidey sens... err... I mean my
'Spatial Awareness', I'm the epitome of cool.
"What's a bogey?"
(Eric)
"A monster."
"Then why didn't you just say that?"
(Flora)
"Because bogey sounds better."
They all just stared at me.
"Let's just get a closer look."
(Jurea)
We crept closer until we could get a good look at them.
They looked like monkey beetles, except their mandibles were two chainsaws.
"Carasbs, doesn't look like they've spotted us yet."
(Jurea)
"You know about these monsters?"
"Yes, although I haven't actually fought them yet."
Good, the less energy I waste on asking Patty questions the better.
"Do they have any special abilities we have to be wary of?"
"No, they are purely physical fighters, but their armor is really tough and their jaws can cut through steel."
I would love to just run over there and take them out, but these are Mid-rank monsters. I have to plan this out and minimize risk.
"Okay, so here's the plan..."
"{Ice spear}{Ice spear}{Ice spear}{Ice spear}!"
Four identical ice spears shot out of Flora's staff and stabbed into both of each bug's eyes.
Cleeek!!!
Cleeek!!!
Both carasbs screamed in agony or rage, and started up their jaw chainsaws.
"Flora!"
"What?! A bug is a bug, no matter the size."
Man, that's a great phrase! I wish I thought of it.
Somehow the carasbs knew where we were, because they started to charge in our direction.
"And I know how to kill bugs.
{Godly lightning strike}{ godly lightning strike}."
Two bolts of lightning struck the ice spears in the carasbs heads.
They convulsed for a few seconds, then stopped moving.
< A member of your party has defeated an opponent sixty-three levels her senior. Fifty-four levels gained. Synchronize taking effect. Ten levels for each party member. You divide XP with pet(s). You receive five levels. >
< A member of your party has defeated an opponent fifty-three levels her senior. Twenty-one levels gained. Synchronize taking effect. Four levels for each party member - those above level one hundred exempt. You divide XP with pet(s). You receive two levels. >
This is bullshit! They get fourteen levels, and I only get seven.
< Actually, Jurea only received ten levels. >
Huh, why?
< She broke level one hundred and so will not be included, the amount of XP needed to level her up is too wide a gap for
me to fill. >
Oh, okay.
Patty, show me all of their statuses.
------------------
Name : Eric
Level : 31 points available : N/A
Species : Wolf Wildier
Strength : 521 -1021
Increases the ease to lift and damage objects and opponents
Intelligence : 220
Makes resisting mind control, solving complex problems, reading people, learning magic and skills easier
Durability : 400
Resistance of disease, sleep deprivation, injury of body and soul, temperature, starvation
Energy : 50
Increases pool of energy and energy rate
Health : 600
Increases pool of health and healing rate
Stamina : 734
Increases pool of stamina and stamina rate
Luck : 36
Odds play out in your favor
Speed : 130
Increases reaction time, sensory perception, rate of travel, time perception
Agility : 600
Allows for complex movement's
Special ability : N/A
------------------
------------------
Name : Jurea
Level : 103 points available : N/A
Species : human
Strength : 3000
Increases the ease to lift and damage objects and opponents
Intelligence : 67
Makes resisting mind control, solving complex problems, reading people, learning magic and skills easier
Durability : 2450
Resistance of disease, sleep deprivation, injury of body and soul, temperature, starvation
Energy : 200
Increases pool of energy and energy rate
Health : 5567
Increases pool of health and healing rate
Stamina : 4000
Increases pool of stamina and stamina rate
Luck : 100
Odds play out in your favor
Speed : 85
Increases reaction time, sensory perception, rate of travel, time perception
Agility : 150
Allows for complex movement's
Special ability : Titan's Fury
Titan's Fury: the longer you stay in battle, the stronger you become. After reaching a full fight meter health will start to drain.
Meter increases with level.
Fight meter : 0/ 103.0
------------------
------------------
Name : Flora Dreyas
Level : 63 points available : N/A
Species : human
Strength : 40 Intelligence : 3500
Durability : 134 Mana : 1768
Health : 300 Stamina : 160
Luck : 130 Speed : 100
Agility : 50
Special ability : Obiteration. MC= all mana.
Obliteration : all left over energy will be converted into unrefined mana and used to obliterate anything. Anyone or thing within ten levels will be instantly killed, no magic or defence will help.
Skill list.
Spell list.
------------------
All of Jurea's most used stats increased by a thousand!
Eric also increased a little bit.
And Flora... wait, what?!
Patty, why is Flora's status screen different?
< Because she customized it. >
You never told me the screens are customizable!
< They're customizable. There I told you, happy?>
You're the worst voice in someone's head ever!
< You've had others to compare me to?>
Shut up Patty!
Eric got to work dismantling the carasbs.
"I guess we were overestimating the second set, huh?"
(Me)
"We didn't overestimate shit, before we came here I brought information from adventurers who came here before. These monsters have low lightning immunity, I just exploited that fact. There are many monsters down here that trick won't work on."
"She's right, after going down a little farther we should find a place that's easily defended for rest. I'd say every five floors we should make a fall back point."
(Jurea)
A fall back point is where you make a temporary camp that is easily defended, just in case the hoards of monsters get to be too much.
"I think every floor would be better."
"Okay."
I was expecting more blow back from that.
While Eric is breaking those bugs down I might as well check my stats.
------------------
Name : Jamal Hendricks / no name monster
Level : 59 points available : 810
Pets : 1
Species : Akkedis/ human soul
Strength : 1,000
Increases the ease to lift and damage objects and opponents
Intelligence : 300
Makes resisting mind control, solving complex problems, reading people, learning magic and skills easier
Durability : 700
Resistance of disease, sleep deprivation, injury of body and soul, temperature, starvation
Energy : 1,052
Increases pool of energy and energy rate
Health : 725
Increases pool of health and healing rate
Stamina : 532
Increases pool of stamina and stamina rate
Extra energy : 5000
Luck : 134
Odds play out in your favor
Speed : 500
Increases reaction time, sensory perception, rate of travel, time perception
Agility : 700
Allows for complex movement's
Crafting: 1000
Allows one to craft objects well
Special ability : adaptation
: forced conscription
: perfect mimic
: empath aura
: peerless regeneration
: excess energy
: acid blood
: webs
: spatial awareness
: dash
: polymorph
: thermal absorption
Adaptation : ability to adapt to any situation to survive. Dependent on energy levels.
Forced conscription: Anyone you defeat you can force into your party. Can order them unlimited times, but each order takes energy. All previous benefits from 'Party Leader' apply.
Slots : 4/6
Perfect mimicry: Can perfectly replicate any sound.
Lesser ability perfect recall is a side effect of this ability. Due to this lesser ability you will remember everything.
Empath Aura : you can produce an aura that can sense and manipulate others emotional state. The farther the target the mana drainage increases. All benefits of empath darts apply.
Lesser ability Gastron mucus allows you to produce mucus through your skin. The mucus gives you minimal protection and allows you to scale vertical surfaces.
Peerless Regeneration: you will continuously heal.
Lesser ability Ample Strength doubles strength.
Excess energy : all food eaten will be stored as energy. Can use energy as extra stamina at will.
Acid blood : can turn your blood acidic at will.
Webs : can convert mana into webs. Adhesive and regular are the only options right now.
Every yard of web produced will consume one energy.
Spatial awareness : changes in temperature, air currents, vibrations, and smell will be recorded and used to locate prey. Always on.
Dash : Increases speed by a factor of ten. Quadruple the amount of stamina will be used every second it is active.
Polymorph : can change into the form of those that you have consumed.
Thermal Absorption : You can continuously absorb the thermal energy of your enemies.
------------------
Okay , this is a tougher environment, so I need the stats that'll help me survive.
------------------
Name : Jamal Hendricks / no name monster
Level : 59 points available : 0
Pets : 1
Species : Akkedis/ human soul
Strength : 1,000
Increases the ease to lift and damage objects and opponents
Intelligence : 300
Makes resisting mind control, solving complex problems, reading people, learning magic and skills easier
Durability : 1,000
Resistance of disease, sleep deprivation, injury of body and soul, temperature, starvation
Energy : 1,087
Increases pool of energy and energy rate
Health : 1,000
Increases pool of health and healing rate
Stamina : 532
Increases pool of stamina and stamina rate
Extra energy : 5000
Luck : 134
Odds play out in your favor
Speed : 700
Increases reaction time, sensory perception, rate of travel, time perception
Agility : 700
Allows for complex movement's
Crafting: 1000
Allows one to craft objects well
Special ability : adaptation
: forced conscription
: perfect mimic
: empath aura
: peerless regeneration
: excess energy
: acid blood
: webs
: spatial awareness
: dash
: polymorph
: thermal absorption
Adaptation : ability to adapt to any situation to survive. Dependent on energy levels.
Forced conscription: Anyone you defeat you can force into your party. Can order them unlimited times, but each order takes energy. All previous benefits from 'Party Leader' apply.
Slots : 4/6
Perfect mimicry: Can perfectly replicate any sound.
Lesser ability perfect recall is a side effect of this ability. Due to this lesser ability you will remember everything.
Empath Aura : you can produce an aura that can sense and manipulate others emotional state. The farther the target the mana drainage increases. All benefits of empath darts apply.
Lesser ability Gastron mucus allows you to produce mucus through your skin. The mucus gives you minimal protection and allows you to scale vertical surfaces.
Peerless Regeneration: you will continuously heal.
Lesser ability Ample Strength doubles strength.
Excess energy : all food eaten will be stored as energy. Can use energy as extra stamina at will.
Acid blood : can turn your blood acidic at will.
Webs : can convert mana into webs. Adhesive and regular are the only options right now.
Every yard of web produced will consume one energy.
Spatial awareness : changes in temperature, air currents, vibrations, and smell will be recorded and used to locate prey. Always on.
Dash : Increases speed by a factor of ten. Quadruple the amount of stamina will be used every second it is active.
Polymorph : can change into the form of those that you have consumed.
Thermal Absorption : You can continuously absorb the thermal energy of your enemies.
------------------
That should help keep me alive.
"I'm done, we can get going."
(Eric)
"Good, let's see how far we can make it down today."
_________________________________
Monsters in the second set of the dungeon appeared to be more bug based, we've already run into beetles, worms, and ticks.
We're pretty efficient at taking them down, with Flora knowing most of their weak points and Jurea being well.... Jurea.
Which reminds me.
"Hey Flora, didn't you say the ogres would be a common enemy starting after the tenth floor? Why haven't we ran into any?"
"I said they'd be more likely, and I'm avoiding the places they've been known to spawn."
"Why? I wanted their ability."
She looked at me like I am stupid.
"It took all of us to take down one - albeit not all of them are that strong - and down here they group up. Only one of us has passed Mid-rank, and one slip-up I might die. It's just not worth the risk."
"You mean we might die, right?"
Deciding to ignore my last comment, she pulled out a map.
"We should be hitting the thirteenth floor soon. That's where we'll stop seeing only scout ants, and start running into squads of soldier ants."
(Flora)
Unfortunately for us the monster ants we've seen up till now are just scouts that go to the upper levels to gather food for their colony, which according to Flora's sources are on the fifteenth floor.
Luckily for us the soldier ants only go up to the thirteenth floor.
"Good, we should find a fall back point here just in case."
"Let me see if there are any big monsters around u...."
"Ahhhhh! Help! Someone please help!"
(Random adventurer)
I didn't hesitate, I took off in the direction of the voice.
After running for a couple of minutes, I arrived at the origin of the screams.
What greeted me upon my arrival was the stuff of nightmares, a giant wasp!
As it was standing on the ground try to dig out a crevice to get to the woman adventurer inside, I could roughly gauge how big it was.
It stood around eight feet tall, twelve feet long, its mandibles was strong and sharp enough to leave foot thick gouges in the rock, and it's stinger looked less like a needle and more like a blade.
The crevice must have been curved, because every time the wasp tried stabbing into the crevice with its blade-stinger it came up empty.
But no matter the size it's still a bug, and as Flora says, I know how to kill a bug!
"{Force bubble}."
The spell just reflected off its carapace.
Buzzz!!!
Buzzz!!!!
All four of its wings started to buzz as it lifted itself off the ground.
Maybe... I should've waited for the others before attacking?
< You think?>
It flew at me at blistering speeds.
I activated 'Dash' and side-stepped real quick.
The only thing it bit was air.
Yes, I can beat it out in spee...
Thwak!!!!
It moved faster than a blink of an eye, and used its leg to swipe me in the gut.
Knocking the air out of me, and flinging me backwards.
After I landed, I jumped back up and shot a stream of webs at it.
It dodged them, and flew at me again.
Whoosh!!!!
Whoosh!!!!
Whoosh!!!!
Whoosh!!!!
Whoosh!!!!
I don't know how, but the wasp sensed the arrows and angled its abdomen towards them.
Ting!!!!
Ting!!!!
Ting!!!!
Ting!!!!
Ting!!!!
Arrow after arrow were shot, and arrow after arrow were deflected.
Instead of flying at Eric - who was continuously shooting it - it bent over and aimed its stinger blade at her.
I was thinking, is it waiting for her to come closer or something?
When its stinger - I shit you not - shot out of its abdomen, and almost impaled her.
Eric had rolled to the side, and shot more arrows at it.
The wasp pulled its stinger - which was attached to its abdomen by a stretchy ligament or something - back into its abdomen.
"{Force bubble}{wind blade}{wind blade}{force bubble}."
As I was throwing spells at it, I noticed wind blade - when they hit - actually hurt it.
"{Inertial carry}{force bubble}."
(Flora)
Flora's spell sent it careening away, until it hit the with a thud.
Looks like the rest of the party is here.
Better write your obituary fucker.
< If it's dead, how will it write anything?>
Stop ruining my quips!
Shut up Patty!
After crashing into the ground from Flora's spells we surrounded it.
"Jurea aim for the eyes!"
(Me)
Jurea charged at it, before she connected though we felt a buzz of energy.
Right above the main one, six more wasp monsters appeared.
Maybe they're just illusions?
They started shooting their stingers.
Nope! Definitely not illusions!
"I need a minute!"
(Jurea)
That's one benefit of Jurea breaking into Mid-rank, her meter goes up by one every ten seconds instead of every hundred seconds.
But.....
"I don't think you have a minute!"
(Eric)
I jumped in front of Jurea as two of the wasps were headed towards her.
"{Air shield}"
Both of them bounced off, but were immediately back bashing the shield.
Eric dodged one, and used her bow to cut at the pinched waist of it.
She managed to cut it in half!
It just faded away.
More wasps were appearing above the original wasp.
"They're just constructs! Like Green
Lantern."
"What?"
(Jurea)
"It doesn't matter, just kill the first one!"
"Easier said than done. {Water ball}{water ball}{water ball}"
(Flora)
Each wasp hit with those spells crashed onto the ground hard, unable to fly.
"Nice job!"
"{Godly lightning strike}{godly lightning strike}{godly lightning strike}."
All three disappeared.
"They're weaker than the original."
"I'm ready."
"Are you sure ten times is enough to take that thing down?"
"We'll see."
Jurea dashed past me as I let the air shield fade.
Every wasp construct that came at her was killed in a single blow.
The wasp charged at her.
They met with an audible crash.
Jurea's hammer was wedged between its mandibles.
Before it could swipe at her with its legs or stinger, Jurea let go of her hammer and smashed her fist onto its head.
Then, before it could react, she ripped off both of its antenna with her bare hands.
Reeeeeee!!!!!!
It let go of her hammer from its mandibles, which she promptly caught and swung directly onto its head.
It didn't squash its head like I thought it would, instead it flattened it to the ground - which cracked under the blow.
All of the constructs disappeared.
But it wasn't dead yet.
Jurea tightened her grip and bashed it again and again and again until the body stopped twitching, and there was bug juice covering her from head to toe.
< A member of your party has defeated an opponent sixty-three levels her senior. Synchronize does not apply. Eight levels gained. >
A level one hundred and sixty-four only gave her eight levels!
Jurea stepped back as Eric took out her dagger and started taking it apart.
Luckily the mana barrier was down, and she started at the weakest points in the carapace, otherwise we would be here all day.
While she was doing that, I went over to the crevice, and immediately regretted it when the screaming started.
Of course, I couldn't wait for her to calm down because I could smell the blood from here.
I squeezed in and pulled her out.
"Ahhh!!!"
There was a huge gash in her leg that was leaking like a sieve.
"{Healing palms}."
"Wait, what?!"
(Random adventurer)
"Don't worry he's her tame."
(Flora)
Flora and a still bug juice drenched Jurea came over.
"But how does it know magic?"
"I'm just that good."
"You can really teach a monster how to do magic?!"
"Yup."
I guess that's more or less true, after all I did copy most of my spells from her.
I noticed Flora was nodding like crazy.
I was about to ask her why, when Jurea's fist came down on the adventurer's head knocking her out.
"Why'd you do that?!"
"I told you before, the number one rule in the dungeon is always expect it to be a monster, and check if it's a human later. The only reason we didn't kill her is because you get squeamish."
(Flora)
"She's right, we don't know nothing about her, and unlike before, she's an adult which hayra slimes turn into all the time. She isn't a slime though, because she would've reverted back as soon as I knocked her out. So, so far so good."
Jurea gave me thumbs up.
"She smells like beastfolk."
Eric, who had finished her task and came to join us, said.
"She can't be your kind, she's human."
From head to toe, she was definitely all human.
"Oh, you don't know!"
"Know what?"
"That all beastfolk have human forms."
As she said this she shrunk, her fur fell out leaving just hair in the normal human places, her snout shrunk and turned into a normal face, her ears rotated from the top of her head to the sides and shrunk until they were just a little pointed, her feet stopped being digitigrade, and her eyes went from amber to a deep blue.
All in all, she looked like a Native American girl, whose leather armor was designed for someone four to six sizes bigger than her.
I averted my eyes.
"Hey!"
"What's wrong?"
"Your armor is slipping, I can see your... you know... your chestal area."
"But I've always been like this, you brought me when I had less on."
"Yeah, but this is different. Trust me."
"You didn't care when my clothes was falling apart."
(Flora)
"Yeah because you had nothing to really hide. Ow!"
Flora had swatted me with her staff.
"So, is there any way to tell if she is beastfolk?"
Eric turned around and showed me her butt, which still had a wolf's tail above it.
"No matter what we do, we'll still have a part of our animal nature still. That's why we can never truly hide from slavers."
"So, all we have to do is strip her down?"
(Jurea)
Eric nodded.
"Yeah, I'm not sure we should do that."
They already had started ripping her clothes off.
By the time they were done the only thing left on her body was a ruby necklace, which Flora was reaching for.
"Don't you dare."
I gave her the stink eye.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I was just checking to make sure it didn't have a curse or anything on it."
I could see the disappointment on her face.
We all looked down at her naked body.
There wasn't a tail, animal ears, or scales. So, unless that raven colored hair was actually fur, she was completely human.
"I don't understand, she smelled like beastfolk, and I thought I smelled her scent before?"
I patted her shoulder.
"Mistakes happen."
Jurea spoke up next.
"Now, the only question is what to do with her."
We all stared down at her.