The manor blazed behind them as Wik embraced his element. Crackling like a madman as he rained fire down on their enemies as Brees circled about, drawing fresh air in from outside, feeding Wik even further as she forced the plume of smoke he was producing up and away from everyone.

Syl had done a round of the courtyard and made some rapidly constructed barricades across the smaller entrances, forcing their attackers to come at them from directions they favoured.

She was now moving in and out of the mob that surrounded them, picking off anyone that she deemed a potential threat.

The two dragon hatchlings flew over the wall and back, blasting off anyone who tried to come over.

Where barricades were infeasible or the enemy was concentrated to the point, they could dismantle anything in moments, a series of robust barriers funnelled the heavy push into something that was more manageable.

That left Kai, Ester, and Pepple holding the main gate together.

Every time they felled an enemy, the body would disappear as it was looted, and another corrupted dungeon spawn would step forward to meet the three holding the line.

A constant stream of mana flowed from Kai as he fought, the sparkling stars drifting up only to be lost in the blue of the sky.

Only the thin threads of connection between him and his emanations formed a thick invisible rope that unwound and spread out as it reached high above him, a sign to Mira that Kai was working something great above them and not just leaking mana into the dungeon.

Alicia kept to her side, firing arrow after arrow.

Sometimes it was into a target at the gate, but more often than not her arrow flew off to hit something far over the wall. One of the larger marks that Syl made earlier disappeared just moments after she released an arrow.

Mira felt useless as she dismissed the constant kill notification's as to not bother her again until she asked to know more.

It felt like stolen strength.

She didn't know any magic. She didn't know any martial skills. Just about the only thing she knew was she would probably fold in two the moment she tried to help.

She was used to hunting one monster at a time with her friends aiding her all the while. Alway's carefully tracking her prey and striking only when the time was right.

This was different, so very different from everything she had known.

She had never been in a dungeon like this, never witnessed a fight like this.

The dungeons Mountain had let her enter were all so tame compared to this madness.

Yet they were handling it like it was nothing to them, like they were used to fighting overwhelming odds like this.

She found herself wondering how they got their skills, how they got to the point where the mad thousands of foes coming at them all at once seemed like possible odds?

Her personal system, as Syl called it, told her she was at the highest level in the party, and yet she felt useless, the most inexperienced, like she was wasted space.

It had been one thing after another. The weird orb Syl had given her. The weird method of communication and all those marks in her vision. How Kai had just turned to Pepple and acknowledged him.

She had been so happy when Kai had seen Pepple for what he was and even given him that weird floating scribble she couldn't even read.

The next time she looked at Wik, he too had one, and he seemed to burn brighter just for having it.

Then Wik had gone and spoken to them, with Brees happily chastising him a moment later for everyone to hear!

Mira didn't even think that was possible, but somehow, through her, they used the party chat.

People had looked at her so strangely out in the city when she talked to her friends, or tried to introduce them to other people. Her friends had not been much better after that, scorning the people who scorned her, with no concern for the fact that they could either see or hear them.

Now, her friends were happily making suggestions. Even better, as evident from Wik's enthusiastic roar behind them as he turned the manor to mana to fuel his attacks, they listened.

As Chil worked to cool their backs from Wik, Mira had wondered if Mountain was right. If she had stayed, she could have grown strong, but her roots would have been shallow and she would have fallen before her time.

And perhaps more importantly, if her dream was to be believed, the world would be consumed.

The wall to the side thudded and boomed as lines of a spell worked their way through the stone and mortar.

"It's working!" Syl called aloud as she appeared between Alicia and Mira. 'The corruption consumed the essence of those fully corrupted to convert the survivors faster, I'm seeing a significant level drop. It's mostly fodder now. Even better, the bulk of the dungeon spawn is now within the inner walls. Is everyone ready to retreat?'

A portal appeared in the middle of the courtyard, the room beyond the same one they had left by the gatehouse when they came here.

'Pepple, you first. You take hits well, but you're starting to look a little worn down,' Kai prompted.

Pepple looked her way and, knowing she would agree, he fell to pieces, abandoning all that would slow him down as he collapsed his automata core into a ball form and rolled through the portal.

'I will stay and cover your retreat. This fire maybe running low, but with your permission I can spread and raze the foe from wall to wall and beyond,' Wik crackled, his voice deep with the roar of the flame despite him communicating through the party chat.

'No, we all go. You are too young to control such a blaze without losing yourself, you risk fracture and forgetting who you are,' Brees warned.

'Fine.'

'Cas, Fey, into the domain or through the portal now!' Syl called out a command to the two hatchlings.

A white and black streak darted after Pepple and passed through the portal.

Boom.

A wall on the far side of the courtyard blew open.

'Shit, they know we are retreating!' Syl cried as she shifted position to throw up a thick barrier of cyan mana over the breach as blasts of mana flew from her to catch any and all who made it through.

Boom.

The wall Mira had seen the lines of a spell form on blew open.

The dungeon spawn cheered and pressed against the toppling wall to make the hole wider.

There was no one to stop them.

Kai and Ester were still pulling back from the main gate. Syl was on the other side of the courtyard patching the first breach. Alicia was firing of arrow picking off enemies that were taking their chance to scale the walls.

They wouldn't make it in time.

There was no one but her and her friends.

A vision from her dream flashed across her mind.

Looking back over her shoulder, she saw that Kai was so far away she was sure it would be okay.

"I need you," Mira called as she reached out with both hands towards the breach in the wall.

Wik's warmth burned as he leapt from his blaze into her.

Brees encircled her and empowered the fire that leapt from her outstretched hands as she lifted from the ground.

Chil sank into her flesh to protect her from the heat as her clothes began to burn and cinder.

Sip drenched her to form a barrier as Wik and Brees reached into her, using everything she gave them to cut down anyone who tried the hole in the wall.

There were so many, but not a single corrupted enemy would get through.

'Too much, you fools!' Sip called.

'She has control. We can't stop!' Wik whimpered.

"Her mana, she going to kill herself!" someone shouted.

"I've got her, everyone through the portal now!"

Thick, strong, scaled arms wrapped around her, and she was suddenly moving backwards.

Her body weak with mana drain, her bare arms fell from in front of her, her nice new blindfold fell away she looked back on the molten aftermath of everything she had just unleashed.

Things seemed to slow down all at once as her need to fight fled from her.

She was pulled through the portal as the sky fell, stars falling from above, killing anything that remained on the other side as the portal blinked closed.

She heard the roar of distant thunder as she looked up at Kai as he held her tight, his face was raw, charred, blistered and broken, but he just looked down on her with his glowing eyes that said she was ok now.

She looked back in horror as she realised what she had done to him.

Wik fled her the moment she released him and the other spirits from her core.

The vague memory of a charred, unmoving corpse flashed across her mind as she watched Kai's flesh start to grow back as it rapidly healed and regenerated with the blue glow of his mana.

"Damn, you have pretty eyes. I wondered what they looked like under your blindfold. But I was too afraid to ask," he said in a raw, raspy voice.

Mira reached up and touched his soft cheek, checking she wasn't imagining it. This was different from what she thought it would be.

"Yeah, I dont know what was worse, the flesh burning away, or the tingling of the nerves as they reestablished themselves," Kai said with a chuckle, his voice taking on its old warm timbre.

'Are you going to continue your bonding session or help us finish the fight? Kai, you said you figured out a cool way for us to track the corrupted?' Syl said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

…

Bonding session? Kai was just a little caught up in her eyes.

They were so clear, so bright.

She had no pupils, at least not the typical black ones he was used to. Her irises seemed to almost blend into the whites of her sclera. At first glance, it was be easy to assume there was no iris at all. But there was definitely something there, the colours shifting in light pastel shades of pink, blue, purple and green as they adjusted to help focus whatever it was that glowed within in place of her pupils.

Kai uncurled his arms from Mira, making a mental note that his scales were the most heat resistant part of him as his raiment did its job by repairing the parts of his armour that had been burned away.

After giving himself a quick once over, he summoned a towel from the domain and handed it to Mira.

Her clothes were mostly fine, but they were somehow soaking wet.

How she didn't steam herself to death, let alone burn herself to a husk, he didn't know.

The heat she was putting out was intense. The pain had been immense, but it had been worth it.

The only real downside now was that most of his body tingled uncomfortably.

He tried to look on the bright side and decided he had learned a valuable lesson and better understood the limits of his regeneration now.

More importantly, he knew he wouldn't think of walking through any fires lightly in the future.

In hindsight, he could have probably tugged her through the portal with spatial manipulation. But he was still working on that skill, and the outcome could have been unpredictable in the heat of battle.

Syl poked him in the shoulder, the wave of pain that shot through him brought him back.

"You said you had a better way to track the corrupted?"

"Oh yeah," Kai pulled up the mini-map he had discovered when they entered the dungeon and pushed it to everyone.

Castiel chose that moment to appear on his shoulder.

He barely resisted a shudder as a fresh wave of pins and needles washed over him.

Castiel, sensing his discomfort, moved to Mira, nuzzling her bumpy head into her cheek to ask if she was okay.

"Kai… when did you figure this out?" Syl said as Fayriel appeared on her shoulder.

"I managed to bring it up when we entered the dungeon. At the time, it only seemed to track what I was looking at, so I assumed it wouldn't be much use. But when we were clearing the manor, I pulled it up again and realised its been collecting info."

The map he just shared covered a significantly larger area than before. It still only showed his cone of vision, but the scope had expanded to show a slightly duller area of parts of the city they had explored.

What's more was it seemed that while he did not see the others' cone of vision, what they had seen had been systematically integrated into the map. So, with Syl taking advantage of her metaphysical nature and flying high to check out the city, most of the map had actually been filled out.

The best part, and the part that would help them clear the city faster, was that the map also tracked all the marks Syl or anyone else had placed.

The map even showed a growing blind spot of disappearing marks where Kai had released his on their retreat as the bolts currently scoured the area of anything that was marked now that he had triggered their delayed release.

"I was thinking we could keep our distance. That you, Syl, could go high and we could use this map to pick targets that are clustered. Gift, Alicia, do you feel like unleashing some artillery?"

"You have no idea," Gift sang eagerly from on Alicia's hand.

"Anytime they figure out where we have retreated to, we can just portal somewhere else, leaving my mana mines behind. Once the traps are triggered, Gift and Alicia can rein fresh death on what survives. It's just a shame that it's two dimensional. I know we definitely climbed higher as we entered the inner city," Kai said thoughtfully as he looked over the map in the corner of his vision.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Kai," Syl said as she visibly resisted the urge to facepalm.

"What?"

She sighed and gestured.

Kai's round mini map appeared in the middle of the room for everyone to crowd around.

"This, this goes to the top of the list of team secretes," Syl said as she made another gesture and the round border of the map faded away for the map to spread further out from where they were shown in the middle, the buildings taking on three-dimensional forms as the city rose up.

"How was I supposed to know it could do that?" Kai said as the distant thunder of his raining mana bolts finally came to an end.

Syl laughed, "I didn't even know this was possible. At least with the system action we were given."

"To be fair, we weren't exactly given a manual," Alicia said as she glanced over the map once. "Be right back, that cluster looks like it has their current command structure, and if I'm not mistaken, they are coming together for a meeting."

Alicia ran over to one of the windows, looked about, opened it and jumped out.

Kai looked at Syl for a long moment and then mumbled, "You are a terrible system guide, you know that?"

Syl thumped him.

As he rubbed his arm, he noticed a sizable chunk of his mana had disappeared as he heard the snap of Gifts bow string.

Gift flew back in through the window to land next to Syl, "Can you lower the map, I want to see."

Fayriel yipped at him.

"Please?!" he said quickly.

Syl lowered the map just as the marks on the map in the area Alicia had just pointed out just vanished all at once.

The boom came just as Alicia was climbing back through the window.

Gift chuckled, "This is going to be fun."

"You realise if we use this plan. Mira and Ester won't get any more essence. We don't have anyway to share Essence like we do with our bond," Syl said, tapping her lip.

Ester's helmet collapsed to reveal a very hot and sweaty dwarf. "No, I like this plan. How Kai kept going like that at the gate, I'll never know. Clearly, I need endurance training. That, and I know all about you needing extra essence to heal Syl's core. This is a perfect opportunity for me to naturally recover."

Mira took a shaky step forward, "I n-n n-," she growled in frustration and continued what she was trying to say through the mind to mind party chat, 'I need more time to recover… I lost control. I'm sorry, everyone. I am at a higher level, so I don't need essence… it's clear to me I have a lot to learn if… if you'll have me.'

Syl shifted her position to appear at Mira's side and lift her into a hug. "Yes, yes, yes, yes!" she cried as she bounced with the surprised little beast kin stuck in her embrace.

Kai cleared his throat as Mira was set down again. "Mira, if you hadn't made that decision, we could have easily been overwhelmed. We just need to do some training with your friends in a safe place like the domain before you try it again,"

'Thank you,' Kai heard Brees whisper as a warm breeze brushed past him.

He was being honest. That side had collapsed at the worst possible moment, and the dungeon spawn had come flooding in.

Spaced out the way they were, things could have easily turned for the worse in that moment.

But Mira had done something that obliterated the enemy and given everyone time to get to the portal.

"And speaking of essence," Kai turned back to Syl. "I know we worked out all of our essence is being shared through the bond. But are you sure we can't share essence with the advanced party system? You said we didn't have a manual, but what if there's an option hidden away? We can share everything else, marks, maps, health and mana bars. Even our storage. Why not essence?"

Syl looked off to the side and sighed, "I really miss my system access at times like this."

"Terrible system guide," Kai mumbled.

Party member Sylph would like to activate party Essence sharing. Warning, the system already shares essence based upon direct participation, this setting will share essence with those in your party who are deemed to have an indirect contribution, such as participating in the same dungeon as you but not directly involved in actions such as kills.

Kai acknowledged the setting change.

How would you like to set Essence sharing priority? Even split. Priorities contribution. Priorities lower levels. Prioritise the party leader or a particular party member.

Kai looked at Syl.

"If the goal is my core… prioritising lower levels will be the best setting. That way as the others level up, we gain more and more essence," Syl said with a sigh.

Party essence sharing has been activated and will prioritise lower level party members.

"Well, I'm off to sabotage the gates while they are unguarded and the dungeon spawn are gathered in the inner city. Once I'm done, I'll head up high and start marking any new targets I find," she said as she flared into her fiery wisp form. 'You know how to reach me.'

'She has good taste,' Wik voice crackled weakly.

Mira stood up and looked about, "Your b-ball!"

Kai pulled the charred, soot covered core from storage and let it fall to the floor, where it started to singe the floorboard.

"Syl grabbed it. Want me to put it back in the domain until it cools down, you should be able to pull it out at anytime if you focus on it."

Mira shook her head as she gripped the pendant Syl had given her and touched the automata. It disappeared, and she looked up to Kai with a big sharp grin before turning to Pepple in the corner.

His name disappeared, and the automata retracted into a ball as it spat out the last of Pepple's earthen additions.

Tapping the sphere, Mira said, "They're so light in this pendant, and there's so much space for more." She turned to Ester. "Can you really get me more? One for each of my friends to use?"

"Oh, Kitten, I can get tens if not hundreds of them. I'm actually hoping that with your help we can make our own one day. Bigger, better, stronger ones that will empower your friends. Not just hold them."

Mira smiled softly as she nodded along, a glint in her eye caught Kai's attention as a tear slipped down her cheek.

Despite her enthusiasm about joining them, something was clearly wearing on her.

They heard the sound of a gate slamming shut across the street as the thwip of Gift bow string rang out again.

Ignoring the sound and working on a hunch, he said, "You know, Mira, we can still go see Mountain and all your other friends when we get Hope back and have some free time. Joining us, it's not abandoning them."

Mira turned to him and, after a moment, her eyes welled with held back emotion. "Really?"

"I promise."

Mira ran into him, her arms wrapping around his waist as she bawled. "I didn't mean to hurt you! I tried to avoid it," she wailed.

Despite the tingling pins and needles that pulsed through him, he wrapped an arm around her and scratched behind her ear with the other, uncertain if what worked on cats worked on beastkin.

"I would do it again in a heartbeat," Kai said as Mira pressed her ear further into his hand.

Clearing the dungeon took some time.

Taking out what they thought was their command sent the dungeon spawn into chaos, and it took them a while to realise that gathering up made them the next target.

When they realised smaller groups still weren't the solution to avoiding death from above, they went inside. That just made gifts and Alicias strikes more experimental as they practiced demolition and penetration at a distance.

Of course, that made Syl complain about the possibility of lost loot, and she started approving their strikes ahead of time like she was some military commander.

Eventually, the dungeon spawn realised the streaks of golden light were where the attacks were coming from. It took a while for them to break out of the inner city to get to them. Some climbed the low spots in the walls, others managed to reopen the gates, and some even revealed the location of routes through hidden tunnels and sewers that passed under the walls.

At this point, they seemed mindless in their determination to get to the party.

Unfortunately for the dungeon spawn, by the time they had a significant force together to push an attack on the building they were holed up in, they had already moved to one of the vacated city estates.

They sat and had dinner at a stupidly large dining table Syl had recovered from somewhere as the low roar of hundreds of mana bolts rained down on their old location.

The dungeon spawn dispersed after that.

Whether it was to locate them faster or just to avoid the golden strikes that came from above, was up for debate.

It took less time to be discovered as the dungeon spawn had figured out what to look for now. The flash of golden mana moments before an attack landed was an easy way to track them down.

Sadly for the dungeon span, having the job of scout and looking for that golden flash was a quick way to die.

That and their numbers were getting so low that finding a new safe location for the team to move to became easier each time they were discovered.

Syl actually started moving the group simply because she wanted Mira and her friends to check for hidden loot.

Kai would have protested, but Mira actually enjoyed the exercise as she managed to find a few more potion caches, a large supply of what they guessed was illegal booze that Ester gave an eight out of ten, and a skill book on fishing of all things.

At one point they even ended up back at the still smouldering manor Wik had burnt down, where Mira uncovered a ridiculous cache of jewels and jewellery they guessed the cursed Mistress Ophelia had the corrupted gather at some point.

There was nothing of immediate value, but Ester thought she could use most of it for materials in her crafting.

On that point, the city had been replicated with a high level of detail, and Syl explained that those jewels were nothing compared to the other materials she had recovered from the stores and workshops of the city.

Syl explained that the amount of metal stock, rare woods, leathers, cloths and even tools that had made its way into the domain storage was at this point insane, as for most adventurers, looting such things in such quantities was just impossible.

Most adventurers would probably come in for the dungeon rewards unless commissioned to retrieve other items.

It was obvious to all of them that, no matter what, this dungeon was going to be popular. They all agreed they could see people coming in, collecting what they could and retreating if the right risk reward was found.

When it got to the point that Syl had a hard time finding anything to mark and the higher level, more coordinated dungeon spawns were all dead, they took a risk and let Castiel and Fayriel loose on the city under Gifts watchful eye.

The chat that followed was surprisingly coordinated as Castiel and Fayriel sent sights, scents and feelings through the chat for Gift to then give them permission to engage a moment later in an amusing imitation of the coordinated strikes Syl, Alicia and Gift had been engaged not so long ago.

A bell tolled over the dead city once the last corrupted dungeon spawn was killed and the city was empty of all but them.

A portal appeared in the middle of the room as five heavy chests slammed onto the marble floor of the room that was sitting in.

Congratulations. Changes to the dungeon have been validated at the highest risk.

They had been expecting this, and besides the quick glance, no one moved from where they had got comfortable.

Wik roared in the fireplace as Syl worked a thick braid into Mira's hair.

Kai was sitting at a table trying to teach Easter and Alicia a badly remembered version of Switch with an odd deck of cards Syl had found in an abandoned gambling den as they complained the game was just a variation of Uno.

Castiel and Fayriel appeared in the middle of the table, scattering the cards, both of them doing their best impression of a triumphant roar as Gift appeared in his toddler form and slid gracefully into Alicia's lap a moment later. His grin at odds with his dramatic eye roll that Kai couldn't decide came from him, Alicia or Syl.

"I guess it is home time," Kai said as he slid his chair back and pulled on the collar of his shirt.

Castiel ignored the gesture for her to get comfortable, and she looked to her brother. The two hatchlings yawned and stretched like cats, their wings twitching at the apex of the stretch, and two vanished as quickly as they had come.

His bond told Kai that the two had returned to the domain for a well-deserved nap.

"Well, I'm guessing they aren't interested in the rewards. Not yet, anyway… Talious still won't give me a straight answer when I ask her if she has a hoard somewhere."

The chests all seemed identical on first inspection. However, the one on the far left side drew his attention.

"Should I see if I can enhance the rewards?" Kai said as he got up to look at the chests.

"You forget that only works with your own rewards, it is entirely up to you," Syl said as she wandered over to the chest that must have appealed to her most.

Ester already had one of the chests open and was holding a piece of paper and what looked like some kind of etching tool.

"What is it?" Syl asked as she looked over what Ester was holding with interest.

"Its instructions for an enchantment that regulates temperature."

"Is that good?" Kai asked, surprised the reward was so simple.

Ester giggled. "You bet it is. This has so many applications, and it's beautiful in its simplicity."

There was a creak as Alicia opened her chest, she gasped as she pulled out a small pouch that, if it wasn't far too small for any arrows, Kai would have guessed it was some kind of quiver because of its shape.

"Arcane archers quiver of mana drain… this quiver allows for the capture of the mana that is released upon a kill. That mana is then carried back on the natural flow of essence. The greater the distance that the mana has to travel back to you, the less mana you will receive. The mana used to form the attack that makes the killing blow must be channelled through the quiver for this effect to take effect. This is perfect."

"Raiment!" Syl squeaked.

"What, really?" Kai said as he looked over to see Syl holding a book.

"It's a skill book on tailoring and other related skills. Exactly what I wanted! And look," Syl said as she pulled a small bag from the chest. "A sewing kit!"

"So we have a quiver, an enchantment and a tailors sewing kit. Is the dungeon fulfilling needs or desires?" Kai said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Bit of both… the notification did say rewards would be increased."

Kai made up his mind as he crouched down to touch his chest.

Would you like to use some of your available system energy to improve your rewards? YES / NO

Yes.

The lid popped. When Kai lifted the lid, he was reminded of the mana absorbing ear studs he used to have, but Syl had taken back.

On a cushion sat two clean, white, glossy, ceramic, tear-shaped ear earrings.

Earrings of greater mana absorption and storage. ( Growth-Soulbound upon equip ) These earrings passively absorb the mana that exists all around the bearer and store it for later use. The stronger the concentration of mana, the stronger the absorption of mana.

He clicked his tongue.

Apparently, the dungeon thought he could do with more mana at his disposal. Probably due to his constant creation of Mana Bolts during the fighting that had him at less than half his mana total the whole time.

However, Kai didn't exactly think he needed more mana storage, sure he would never turn down the mana absorption, but the earrings weren't exactly his style… And, strangely they weren't actually bound to him yet despite this being his dungeon reward.

Kai looked about, and he got an idea when he saw Mira crouched in front of the fireplace happily talking to Wik, who silently crackled back. Her mana bar was still mostly depleted. A small trickle of mana filled it up slower than it should due to the strain she put on her channels and mana core.

Kai had suggested a mana potion a while ago, but everyone else shut the idea down.

Apparently, chugging a mana potion when your mana was depleted was something only done to stave off death.

The fact that he constantly ran out of mana with no ill effects made him a freak of nature.

The constant exercise of his mana core subtly enhanced his flow and conversion without him even knowing if it wasn't for the regular stat gains.

It was explained to him that forcing a normal person's already strained mana core to convert a mana potion could have lingering effects, and it was best avoided if you had the time to recover naturally.

So Mira had mostly been out of the fight since she rose up and melted their enemies. Wik and Pepple acted as base defence while they cleared the city out from afar.

Mira giggled and glanced back over her shoulder, only to look back into the fireplace and shake her head.

Kai had a feeling she was actually ignoring her reward chest.

His mind was made up. He sent an idea through the bond to just Syl and Alicia as he asked them, 'You know how ear cuffs are a whole thing. If I give my item to Mira, it's not going to cause any misunderstandings?'

Syl stored the sowing kit she had been looking through and walked over to look in his chest.

'You're a big softy.'

Alicia appeared a moment later, her new quiver on her hip. "Mira, you should see what Kai got."

Mira got up, waved a farewell to Wik, and she walked over to peer past Syl's side, "P-pretty. What are they?"

"Earings like they're wearing," Kai said as he pointed to Syl and Alicia's earrings and studs.

Mira glanced at each of the for a moment and her ears flicked. "What do they do?"

"They look pretty as you said, but these also improve how much mana we generate. Got them inside the first dungeon we did together."

Kai picked an earing up in each hand and rolled them in his fingers.

They were heavy and cool to the touch. He was looking to see how they would attach but he saw no needles or pins, just a wide groove near the point of each teardrop, which he guessed was where you put your ear lobe before giving them a little mana to make them stick in place.

"They would be worn on you like this…" he said, lifting them up to the side of her head, slowly in the hopes he wouldn't spook her.

She took Syl's arm, but she didn't move away as Kai positioned them towards the lower edge of her catlike ears.

A quick glance over at Alicia told him he had the right spot.

"Hmm, can you hold them… hard to see what they would look like on you while I have my thick fingers in the way."

Mira's little fingers came up, and she took each of the earrings and held them in place as Kai sat back and made a point of admiring them. "What do you two think?"

"They suit her," Syl said with a disarming smile.

"You're right, they are pretty… Mira, do you know how to add mana? It should make them sparkle," Kai said.

He was surprised at how smoothly this was going.

Mira nodded, and a second later her eyes went wide as she stared at Kai in surprise while she listened to her personal system tell her something.

Her ears twitched back and forth as her hands dropped away and her new growth item swung as it bonded with her.

Wik burst into crackling laughter as Mira jumped forward to punch Kai in his shoulder, crying, "You tricked me!"

Kai grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, her playful punches sending tingles through him. He laughed, "Think of it as a welcome gift from me to you."

"I didn't get a gift," Ester chuckled from when she sat at the table using her new tool to scratch something into a piece of metal.

"Your workshop?" Alicia said.

"Oh, right… I guess that counts."

'Say thank you, Mira, that gift… it's priceless,' Brees' soft voice whispered in the party chat.

Mire settled in Kai's arms as he scratched behind her ear again.

She scowled at him, but she couldn't resist the scratches as her head tilted back and pushed into Kai's hand.

"T-thank you."

Kai chuckled, and he switched to scratching her other ear.

"Good with kids, animals and beast kin apparently," Syl mused to Alicia.

"Does this make Mira my auntie?" Gift said suddenly as he walked over and started helping Kai with his mission to give Mira scratches until she stopped scowling at him or she purred. "Like auntie Ester… Aoife, Niamh, Saorise, Meave and uncles-"

"We can contemplate group dynamics later. Mira, you need to open your chest so we can head home. We have a lot of plans to work out.

Realising that was a cue, Kai released Mira.

She actually pouted the moment the scratching stopped. But at Syl's continued prompting, she walked over to the last remaining chest to look at it suspiciously.

"This is for me?" Mira said as she gingerly touched the lid of her chest, "I barely did anything."

The lid clicked and popped open.

"The dungeon doesn't agree," Syl said as she walked over to look over Mira's shoulder.

Mira lifted out her reward, her disappointment clear as her ears, tail and shoulders all drooped together.

"It's a b-book… you all know I c-can't read," Mira said sadly as she looked about.

Her eyes looked to Kai, she held it out to him. "You should have it."

Syl laid a hand on Mira's shoulder before she could come back over to him. "Mira… that is a skill book, you don't need to read for it to work. And it's a good one, Kai wouldn't dare accept it, and there's no way of tricking him into it like those pretty earings."

"Oh," Mira's ears flicked up, and her tail swished in excitement. "But what is it?"

Syl smiled, "Avatar-"

"Avatar?" Mira said as her head spun around to look up at Syl, "What's that?"

"You would know if you let me finish. The skill book is 'Avatar: empowerment of the physical with the knowledge and power of the beings of the many layered realms.'"

Mira's brow crumpled in confusion.

"Okay, maybe you wouldn't know…"

Kai thought he had it, so he decided to give Mira a hint. "You know, what you did when you protected us from the dungeon spawn that broke through the wall?"

Mira nodded slowly as they all looked at her, waiting to see if it would sink in.

Her eyes went wide as she thrust the book towards Syl, "Show me how I use it!"

'Please…' Brees whispered.

"PLEASE!" Mira pleaded.

"Patience, Mira, you're still recovering from mana strain. Learning that here and now will only have you disappointed that you can't experiment with your new understanding right away. Can I ask you to wait until we are safely back in the domain? We have a lot more than that for you."

Mira's head tilted curiously as her ears focused in on Syl. "More skills? Like you all have?"

Syl grinned.

Mira grinned back as she reached up to touch her storage pendant, the book disappeared for later.

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