Darkness surrounded Kai, and he felt a hand over his head. He was pretty sure that Lin was just trying to reassure himself that they were not going to die, but it was slowly getting on his nerves.
"I am an SSS ranked adventurer," Kai finally snapped, as Lin petted him for the nth time in the last hour alone. "And I will get us out of here."
"Oh, really," Kai blinked. That was not Lin's voice! "Good, I was beginning to get bored in here."
Kai took his whip off his hip, turning around, and hitting whatever was behind him with the barbed weapon. The whip made a cracking sound, yes, but so, as if it had passed through air!
"There is one thing I can't understand," the wind elemental said, becoming brighter and brighter. "Why do you all say that you have a black belt in air sorcery? I have just a yellow belt, and unlike you, I am actually an SSS ranked adventurer. Sir gnome, please pay for your transgression!"
Kai looked around, only to see Lin tied up under a tree. Wait, since when was the dungeon a forest?
"I humbly beg for your forgiveness," Kai bowed, his eyes locked on Lin. Hoping beyond hope that he could get the fairy out of there.
"And to be honest, just because we wind spirits are so few, it does not mean… wait! You apologized!"
Kai nodded. Wasn't that what the element had wanted?
"Fudge on a biscuit! Darn it all, now I can't eat you!"
Kai nodded. He had played this game before. Knew the rules better than he knew what he had eaten for dinner the previous night.
"Does this happen to you often?" Kai smiled at the elemental. The laws of Give and Take were in place for a reason. It was the elemental's fault that he had chosen to follow them.
"Oh, like you can't believe," the wind elemental snapped his finger, and Lin was let free. "The worst part is that I don't even eat meat. I eat hair. Human hair."
Kai rolled his eyes. Oh, as if he was going to fall for that. Once he agreed to feed the elemental, then there wouldn't be a way back for him. He'd end up eaten, and Lin would end up burned to ashes, so his soul could be eaten.
"Nice try," Kai told the elemental, as he made his way towards Lin. "But that is not my problem."
"It was worth a try," the elemental said; the dungeon lit up like a Yule tree. Kai snorted when he saw that the elemental had eaten everything, he could get his hands on, apart from human hair.
"Kai, when can we leave?" Lin was shaking. Kai had been asleep as the wind elemental had snatched them. He had not seen the red mist with its terrifying golden eyes.
But Lin had.
Lin had prayed and promised to the only God who had been willing to listen that he would try to bring back his brethren with animal sacrifices, even as angry oinking had come from the darkness.
"Well, we bagged the core," Kai became thoughtful then. He was sure that the dungeon was disintegrating as they spoke. They could not leave all the dungeon dwellers here!
Sure, they were all monsters, but the laws of Give and Take were set in stone. If someone killed someone, then Karma would hear and activate.
If the flying pig crashing into trees right before Kai's eyes had given him any hints, then these. If he did not rescue the dungeon dwellers, then he was sure that he would need to pay tenfold!
"Lin, can you create a speech hub? I don't have any mana," Kai asked him, as he sat by him and leaned into the fairy. Oh, those wings of his smelled so good…
"To whom? This place has only mobs in it," Lin had mana, yes, but he was saving it for a teleportation array. Had been for the past five hours, to boot.
If he wasted his mana on something like a speech hub, then they wouldn't be able to get away!
"You have to think long term, Lin," Kai could already imagine how the dungeon dwellers were put to work for the betterment of everyone! Heck, that might even put an end to the Hamster Apocalypse!
"Wait… you don't mean, do you?" Lin had heard about humans being able to bind their souls to dungeon cores, but he had never heard of a gnome doing something like that.
"I promise you forever," Kai said, as his soul began to search for the now dead dungeon core crystal. "Let us bring back the fairies together, Lin! Let us save the world!"
"You are just a gnome, Kai," Lin did not want to watch on as his friend, for he did not want to consider the man as anything but, killed himself. Kai just shrugged.
"As long as there is sun, as long as there is water, as long as my heart beats, there will be no rest for me," Kai turned fully towards Lin, taking his right hand in both of his. "Will you join me on this journey? Will you share my joy, my sorrow, my everything?"
Lin's cheeks were about as heated up as an oven which had been forgotten for two hours.
He blinked.
Kai winked at him.
"Yes," the fairy said, as he used his mana to connect Kai to the dungeon core.
And so, the dungeon dwellers got a new boss.
Kai… Kai had plans.
He had always wanted to have a private army. To be able to crush the adventurer's targets!
Besides, spending an eternity with Lin, who had even sat by him while Kai had been unconscious, sounded like a dream.
The flying pig oinked in joy as it felt the future shifting. The fairy was not going to kill off humanity anymore, but that did not mean that its worries were over.
No, the flying pig told itself, as it finally found a comfortable tree to nest in.
The adventure had just begun, and the gnome Kai had his mafia, while the fairy Lin had his snugly bear.
All was well…
For now.