Granny Golden was shaking violently at the edge of the room. Her beak letting out all kinds of sad sobs as she clasped the mug of hot chocolate in clawed, bird-like fingers.

"I didn't want this!" She wept. "You have to believe me! I never wanted this! I just! Oh Gozo I just wanted to run my shop in my little underground meadow with all my sweets and tea! What did I do to deserve this!?"

"I did say I was sorry." I commented from the side.

Granny Golden shrieked again and leapt out of her sitting position. Dropping the hot mug and leaping into mom's arms.

"Please don't let him hurt me! Please! Please! I'll be your slave! I'll do anything you want! Just don't let him hurt me! PLEAAASE!"

I rolled my eyes even as mom's eyes widened in shocked horror. Her still weak arms trying to keep Granny Golden in place with the strength of a normal human being.

Dusty stepped in and dragged Granny Golden away. Making sure to hold her avian claws tightly so that mom wasn't hurt.

Puffin stared at this in silence. Her eyes piercing through Dusty's own arms in silence. To pierce my own eyes in turn.

I stared back at her for a single second, before then looking away to where Deketer was eating next to me.

She was holding her bowl nervously. Or rather, she had been holding her bowl nervously.

Now, she was beginning to regain some measure of confidence. Staring imperiously at the rest of us as if she hadn't just been tortured for hours due to her own stupidity.

"I must say, you primates do make a lot of noise when you eat."

I didn't even pause to look at her. I already knew this was bound to happen after all. Others might have expected Deketer to change her ways after being de-clawed with red hot pincers, but they did not know Deketer as well as I did.

In actuality, this was her being nice. Or rather, relatively nice. The Deketer from last month would have outright demanded that we all shut our mouths until she herself was done eating because we were grossing her out. The Deketer from a few years ago would have simply told us to drop our food and massage her while she ate. Because she was obviously that much better than the rest of us.

Puffin's eyes shifted to her form. As did grandpa's and everyone else's.

'I wonder if Deketer realizes that some of the people here take pleasure in gutting rich privileged (Gnome)holes. I wonder if she ever gave any thought to what some of my friends went through.'

No. Of course not. If she had given any thought to that, then she obviously wouldn't have been tied to a post.

'Just goes to show you that my approach is the correct one. Generally coming across as humble is a great conversation opener.'

If a tougher approach was needed later on, well, that was always on the table anyways. But being pleasant was never a bad first step.

'Come to think of it, even the Dragon didn't act all haughty and over the top when we first met. I mean sure, he did grind my body into mush first, but he was more or less calm and collected after the fact. (Gnome). Even the Drake behaved like an actual person when we met. The actual Seeking Drake, who turns people into furniture for (Gnome)s and giggles, knew how to tone down the crazy when talking to someone for the first time.'

Sky Heart flinched. No doubt expecting another attack.

But Deketer, being as… simple, as she was; barreled on regardless.

"How is it that you can stomach to chew with those, large teeth and that thick tongue."

She made a face.

"Aren't you worried that the teeth will bite your tongue? Or the insides of your mouth?"

"It does happen sometimes." I mentioned in response. "But it's not much of a bother."

"What about when you're speaking to each other? Doesn't the smell get to you?"

Sky Heart whirled. Looking at Deketer in the same manner as a nurse in a retirement home, helplessly watching an elderly vet backhanding a dementia ridden granny. A train crash unfolding in slow motion before one's eyes. All while all the bystanders knew full well it was out of their hands.

Deketer noted the look and spoke casually.

"What? They open their mouths so wide to speak all the time. It must smell bad from the food being digested. I'm just asking."

And she said it in the same manner as that very same vet. Turning to the nurse with an easy smile and informing her that it was ok, because the other person had dementia and they wouldn't remember any of it tomorrow.

"It's fine." I lied through my teeth. Getting ahead of the discussion before Puffin finished formulating her plan. "We clean our mouths regularly. We use a chemical called tooth paste. And other minty-smelling chemicals depending on where you are and what you have access to. I for one flossed on the regular."

Deketer stared at me some more. Narrowing her eyes.

"Now that you mention it, your teeth seem whiter than the rest."

She looked over at Vince.

"But why are his sharper than yours?"

Then she looked at Charlie.

"And why are his so yellowed?"

Charlie ignored her question and kept eating. A good thing because despite not having received his second boosting blast yet, he could have easily ripped Deketer's limbs off in the span of a few seconds.

'Thank you.' I messaged him.

Now turning to Sky Heart, whose namesake was beating ferociously in his chest.

"This is fine." I lied again. Looking at all the people present for good measure.

"Mittens knows. Mittens grows. Mittens is here. Princess is clueless. Princess is toothless. Mittens is here!"

Deketer reared back in surprise, so of course I had to step in.

"And what Mittens means by that is that we are ever so sorry for what grandpa did to you miss Deketer. This was all some great misunderstanding, and I was very pleased that I could make it right."

Mittens giggled to himself and brought up his bone sword. Thumbing the edge until his finger bled. Never taking his eyes off of Deketer as he did so.

Deketer recovered at that and straightened her back. Going so far as to use [Fog Memory] on herself to keep her hands from shaking as the recent incident sprung up in her mind.

"I'm glad we could put this behind us as well. And I am glad you know your place, mister Solomon Carter. I do not know how things might have gone for your species as a whole if you did not have the foresight to stop your kin from making any more mistakes."

"My pleasure." I said with a smile. "Why, my dear master Hazimon has been nothing but an inspiration to me. And his help has meant the world to me many times over. I cannot imagine what I would do if there was any conflict between us."

"Die, I should think." Deketer answered immediately. With all the grace and subtlety of Mittens after finding a fresh gnome inside a wardrobe.

"But let us not speak on such things any further Solomon Carter. The past is behind us. No matter how painful it might be. I believe we must now look towards the future." She paused to let us absorb her words. "Towards the things you may or may not do once you are all out of here and among the enlightened races of the Labyrinth. Among those who have known a level of power and influence you all couldn't dream of. Naturally, you could try and navigate this brave new world yourselves. But I do believe that advice from certain enlightened individuals could make the transition that much easier for you and your kind."

"I couldn't agree more." I said with cheer. "What kind of topics did you have in mind?"

She nodded quickly.

"I see that you picked up on my cues. Well done sir. I must say I quite despise people who are airheaded and don't know their place."

She somehow said this without the least bit of irony or sarcasm. Somehow. Sky Heart cringed and Granny Golden burst into another round of sobbing, but Deketer somehow contrived to keep a straight face.

In all honesty, I doubted even [Social Hunter IV] could have managed that.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I believe the first thing you all should do would be to join the Kenari's empire as an allied species. Placing yourselves under the tutelage, care and influence of one of the palace ministers that my mother appoints."

By which she of course meant one of the ministers whom she had personally seen as subservient enough to her own person. Her mother's approval being secondary in her own mind.

The thought that these masters might have been humoring her to her face and laughing behind her back had apparently never occurred to her. Again, somehow.

"Is that a smart choice?" Henry asked from the side.

"Honestly, yeah." I said truthfully. "The Dragon is many things, but he isn't a traitor."

By which I meant that he didn't enjoy treason and would generally try and keep his promises. Generally. Also, this assessment was based on all the folks around the Dragon that I could actually read using [Omniscience] so the truth could be anyone's guess.

"Someone like him won't get involved if, say, some gnomes show up above Dusty and Slab's planet to steal kids away, but he will get involved if anyone who's stronger than me shows up and tries to do something like that. Namely, he will show up and try to kill rogue masters like the Seeking Drake if they show up to kidnap people."

The mention of the Drake made Sky Heart choke on his food. His tubular mouth organ huffing and puffing as it struggled to pass in his meal.

The topic also made Vince and Thunder Fist perk up. With all the others save Puffin leaning in to hear better. Despite them not really needing to.

"Naturally, joining any faction comes with the inherent expectation of tribute. By which I mean, the exchanging of goods and services for protection and solidarity. Some alliances are built on common weaknesses. Such as two groups of newcomers who know they need to stick together in order to fend off probing attacks from larger factions. Others are built around resources, such as one species being spread across a wide array of planets with lots of natural goodies to mine and harvest. Yet others are built around a single person or groups of individuals. One side having a prodigy so strong that their mere life earns their species a seat at the big boys' table."

I nodded to myself. Making sure to copy Deketer's own movements.

"The first cases rarely last, because they're more of a bluff than anything else. If one group is too weak to defend themselves, then they are most certainly not going to go on the defence for another equally weak group if they get obliterated. Generally, those kinds of agreements will only be honored if the attacking party is weak enough that either group would stand some kind of chance by themselves. At which point it becomes a war to reduce the damage each ally takes while driving off the attackers."

"Quite an astute observation mister Solomon Carter." Deketer said with some surprise. As if she were a zookeeper who just saw one of her warthogs getting up on two legs and demanding coffee.

"Indeed. It is as you say. Those kinds of coalitions and agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on and are generally signed by new arrivals to the Labyrinth. The kind who doesn't have a single Tier 2 or else only have nascent Tier 2 individuals. A single warlord of the third or fourth Tier usually comes in and conquers them unless the species has been wise enough to obtain assurances from the major players."

She sat up even straighter. Her tone growing haughtier than before.

"Players like my own faction. Led by my own mother. Rest assured that no one would even think of conquering you people if you were under our wing."

She nodded to herself again.

"Of course, such assurances would normally be beyond your species, but the fact that mister Solomon Carter is grandfather's student should mitigate most of the backlash and negate most of the expectations regarding tithes."

Thunder Fist raised his hand.

"Sorry, but I was under the impression that we didn't have to worry about that sort of thing happening."

Deketer looked at him as if he were stupid.

"What could possibly lead you to believe that?"

The older hero pointed at me.

"Because we have young Sully here to protect us. And Vince. And myself for that matter."

Deketer scoffed.

"A Savant is one thing, but he's only a Telepath. He'll die eventually. From old age if nothing else. Not to mention that he's still vulnerable to things like assassinations from rival Savants. What makes you think the rest of you stand any sort of chance?"

"Um. Because I'm on Tier 5?"

Sky Heart spat out his food.

Deketer laughed out loud.

Grany Golden only wailed more loudly than before. Shaking so hard that most of her remaining feathers came off.

Mittens was laughing too, though not with Deketer, but rather, at her.

Thunder Fist, for his part, only craned his neck to the right and then proceeded to charge up a bolt of lightning. Sending it out towards the sea with a punch.

The pillar of crackling energy made the darkened world turn bright for three full seconds. Landing on the waves with all the force of a meteor and evaporating all the water it touched. Then it kept going and going and going. Courtesy of the utterly ludicrous amount of Psy the blow had been charged with.

A few seconds later, we were all struck with the sound of thunder. Popping Deketer and mom's ears as they felt the whole dimension shaking around like a snow-globe.

Deketer stared at the scene of dissipating electricity. At the way the waves had been dyed red and yellow for just a moment and at how pillars of steam still crackling with static electricity rose up into the air.

"And I'm not even the strongest around here." Thunder Fist said.

"Young Luigi here is Tier 6 with two Tier 6 abilities I believe. And Randall is a Savant. Just like Sully. I can't imagine either of them losing to any common warlord. Certainly not one on the third Tier."

Deketer didn't speak for some time after that, and when she did speak, it was all ums and ahs and slight pauses where she'd leave her mouth open to drool.

In the end, Vince was the one who broke the silence.

"Vince has been wondering for some time. But who is this Seeking Drake?"

"A fool." Deketer snorted. Regaining her composure.

"The greatest monster the multiverse has ever seen." Sky Heart whispered.

'An old acquaintance.' I thought sullenly. 'Perhaps a friend. In retrospect, the one who understood me best. Better than my parents. Better than the Dragon. Better than myself.'

As of late, the more I trained, the more that truth stood out to me.

Was the Seeking Drake a monster? Absolutely.

Was he the physical amalgamation of a couple trillion tortured souls? Plainly.

Was he as bad as everyone said he was? Without a doubt.

But was he the worst thing in the Labyrinth?

No. Not even close.

The Drake knew exactly who and what he was and he was loud and proud about it. Showcasing a level of honesty that was genuinely refreshing out there in the Labyrinth. Everyone knew that to come too close was to risk getting your body taken over and having it added as another screaming brick to his collection of walls.

Therefore, not a lot of people went to him in the first place.

Even if you were clinically insane, you'd still usually have the presence of mind to not go there, as there were many easier, less painful ways to kill yourself. Ways that, as a bonus, would actually let you kill yourself. A way where the pain would eventually end.

In contrast, most masters I'd read would lie, cheat and backstab their way into whatever advantages they could. And they would all do so with a smile of their face and a song in their hearts.

I'd actually seen a fair few of them cultivating a whole host of disciples to reach some kind of goal together, only to butcher them all after finding out a new way to merge abilities into a Fourth or Fifth Tier combination.

Even the Dragon, for all his self righteousness, had placed himself in a position where I was basically dead no matter what I did. Where the only path to survival was to do exactly as he said and hope that he was in a good mood by the end of the contract's term.

Now, was it possible that this uber being that I could in no-way read would choose to follow through and leave humanity and myself relatively alone after he got everything he ever wanted and hopped onto the path of divinity?

Sure.

Was I willing to bet on it?

No.

Because, were I in his shoes, I wouldn't trust me either.

More importantly, Sarcophagus Sully was also in a very similar situation with the Drake and he got (Gnome)ed up and down the street before realizing his timeline was an elaborate prediction merged with my realm.

The only difference was, the Seeking Drake was the Seeking Drake and he practically had the words, Untrustworthy (Gnome)hole tattooed on his forehead in big, bold letters.

At least he was honest about who and what he was.

At least he'd been honest about who and what I was.

The Dragon had told me that I was prodigious as a Telepath and that I had an incredible degree of self-control for someone so young. That being a Shifter was very much like being a Telepath. All about flexibility in the end.

'And he was more right than he was wrong.' I mused. 'Now that I've had a taste of the Shifter life, he really was on to something.'

The Drake had told me I was an insane masochist. Constantly denying that I was just as big a monster as he was. That my powers were not all that different from his. That we could be something greater together if only I'd stop handicapping myself so much all the time. That I and everyone I loved would die if I didn't stop holding myself back.

'But it was all true. Yes he was a monster, but he was right more often than not. Can't say all that much about Hazimon.'

"Is this Seeking Drake stronger than Sully?"

"Oh certainly." Deketer confirmed.

"I fear that is the case." Sky Heart added.

'Not a chance.'

The Seeking Drake has his strong points and his weak points. But what he does not have is a shred of humility. Which narrows his thinking.

Oddly enough, the exact same kind of problem that plagues Hazimon. And to a lesser extent, his granddaughter.

'But not me!' I cheered internally. 'I'm constantly shifting between depressive states where I think about all the horrible (Gnome) I've done and either tell myself it's the only course of action or tell myself that I deserve to die for the crimes I've commited. I don't think I'm the greatest thing that ever happened to the multiverse. I think I'm a piece of (Gnome) who absolutely needs to stick to some kind of standard so as to have any standards at all. I know I'm a monster and at the same time, I know a single mistake means that everyone I've ever loved or cared about is completely and utterly (Gnome)ed up the (Gnome). I don't have to worry about pride, because I hate myself. I don't have to worry about hubris, because nobody else could possibly imagine all the ways in which I've predicted myself (Gnome)ing up. Nor all the ways I know I will (Gnome) up without me being able to predict it. I keep an open mind!'

Which was why I knew I was making it out of this. One way, or the other.

I may have to die and Randall may have to be psychically flayed open for it to happen. For my little surprise to count. But all the pieces were now in place.

Hazimon pulling a fast one on me wouldn't stop me. On the contrary, it would mean the endgame happened earlier than I would have liked.

'But still, let's hope it doesn't get to that.' I told myself.

"The Drake is not going to be an issue." I assured the group in front of me. "Master Hazimon and I have all our bases covered."

Deketer huffed.

"You think you're going to have anything to do with stopping the Drake?" She asked in a mocking tone.

'I've already killed him once.' I thought to myself.

But to her, I said:

"Yes."

She snorted again.

"And what makes you think that?"

"I gave your grandfather his second Type."

She shut up at that.

"And then I single-handedly sent him from the very bottom of Telepathy, into the later stages of Tier 2. He had several combined abilities by the time I was done with him and that was only the beginning. I myself have two Types, if you recall how I healed you. And I remain a Savant in both."

I let her stew on that for a second, before I spoke up again.

"Now, normally I am rather hands-off when it comes to my friends and their progress." I lied through my teeth.

"But given that you are master Hazimon's kin, I could help you out as well. If you wanted."

"How would you help me?" She asked at once.

"Well, I could give you a boost. Give you visions that would acclimate your body and mind to Psy. Giving you as many levels in seconds as you'd gain in decades. Maybe even giving you new Types if you haven't yet unlocked all of them. It would maybe give you another Tier."

I pretended to sigh.

"But of course, that's just the way everyone does it. The easy, cheap way commoners do it. The Dragon, your esteemed grandfather, did it a whole other way. One that gave him many more benefits."

She practically leapt out of her seat.

"What is this way you mentioned?"

"Well, it involves an Instance Crystal your grandfather was kind enough to give me."

I showed her the gem after taking it out of my ring.

"Tell me, what do you know about the DMV?"

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