"N-Nar?"

Nar turned his down at the unexpected voice, and a smile slowly spread across his lips.

"Well, well, well," he said, looking down at a very uncomfortable and embarrassed Cen, still cradled in his arms, but very much awake now. "Good morning!"

"Is she awake?" Mul asked, the sounds of the not-so-distant battle momentarily forgotten.

"W-Why? What happened?" Cen stammered. "And why are you all in armor…"

Grinning, Nar lowered her to the ground, and the party gathered around her, helmets disappearing to expose sweat streaked and harrowed expressions.

"You don't remember?" Mul asked her, rasping a knuckle against her skull.

"Ow!" Cen cried, holding her head. "What was that for… Oh."

"Oh?" Mul shouted. "You brought the whole damned cave down on us! What were you thinking?"

"I-I don't know!" she cried, holding onto the top of her head. "I wasn't really myself! It was just ideas, and-and concepts, and things I couldn't understand… And then, when I thought of using my aura like what it was showing me, I kind of became aware again, and I just…"

"Went with it?" Kur asked, frowning at the caster.

Cen hung her head, lowering her hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't think anything was going to come out of it, I swear!"

Mul hit her again.

"Ow! I said I'm sorry!" Cen said, on the verge of tears.

"Cen, you're really, really strong," Mul said, placing his hands on her shoulders. "And you need to be careful, and you need to respect your aura. Or one day, I'll just find you in bloody bits… Is that what you want?"

"No…" Cen said, sniffling.

"Then be more careful," Mul said, and his tone suddenly shifted as outside of combat, his suppressor kicked in once more to its full power.

Mul took a deep breath.

"I know that enlightenment is going to hit you randomly, but we need to figure out a way to make this work," he said, his tone composed. "Maybe you can show it to your master first, or… Or I don't know, but we need to figure something out. We could've all died, and it's not the first time this happens."

"I'm sorry," Cen whispered. "I'll be more careful next time."

"We're just worried about you, Cen," Kur said. "And while this is something we need to figure out, now's not really the time for it. We need to find out what's happening out there. Viy, Nar, you up for a little run?"

"Anytime!" Viy said, grinning at Nar.

"Do what you think is best," Kur said. "And we'll follow up as fast as we can."

"Why does it feel like there's a threat in there?" Nar asked, frowning.

"Because there is. Don't do anything crazy. Now go!" Kur shooed them away. "So, Cen, for now…"

Nar and Viy dashed off, wind whistling in their ears.

"Is that the fastest you can go?" Viy teased him, her dark eyes glimmering at him.

"I'm just making sure you can keep up!" Nar retorted, and with a burst of speed, he pushed ahead.

"Hey! Not fair!" she shouted from behind him.

Nar grinned to himself. He was still the fastest in the party, and he doubted that would ever change, no matter what gains, skills or twists and turns any of their paths took.

Soon, the trees began spacing out, allowing Nar to glimpse at the sky above once more.

So dark, he thought. It's almost 11AM. Shouldn't it be at least a little bit brighter?

As it stood, the sky looked more akin to twilight than reaching the peak of the dungeon's daylight hours, and there weren't any clouds that could explain that darkness either.

Unless something's happening to… he caught himself and shook his head. Crystal. Something's happening to what? The sky?

And yet, he couldn't fully shake the thought.

They're scared… But not of us, Jul had said. But if not of them, then what? What could have possibly terrified a hundred beast pack to the point of literally jumping into his sword, no regard for anything except attacking them? And what about those massive, lumbering tree guardians? What had the powerful monsters been so scared of as well?

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Nar glanced up again, considering the glimpses of sky in between branches. What had once been bright blue, was now nearly black, with hints of deep dark purple and blue.

Something's really not right with this place, he thought. And it might actually be a lot worse than we thought.

"Can you go any faster?" Nar asked Viy. "We need answers!"

"Just shut up and run!" she threw back at him.

Nar hid a smile as he picked up his pace. His stamina started ticking down, and even his [Sight] kicked into overdrive to keep him from crashing into a tree, or tripping on anything. The forest should've become nothing but a dark green and black blur around him, given the speeds he was going at, but to his eyes, everything looked as though it all stood still.

The leaves hung in the air, and branches held still, frozen mid-sway in the ominous, cold wind that was picking up as they approached the still raging battle.

It's almost like it's everything else that's slowed down, rather than me going faster, he thought, scoffing at himself. He picked the weirdest moments to think about the weirdest of things…

Soon, the sound of the battle was upon them, and Nar signaled for Viy to slow down, and to recall her helmet.

"That… Was incredible," she whispered, breathless, as her helmet covered her face.

Nar nodded, his heartbeat raging with energy.

Costly too, he thought, checking his stamina. 247… I need more [Vigor]. And [Stamina]. I'm not even using my full attributes yet… Crystal And to think I thought [Stamina] was becoming useless after the auramancer class change!

Together, they creeped forward through the bushes, until they came to hide behind a gathering of large, thorny shrubs looking out into another clearing in the forest, a grassy field of muted green under the dark sky.

"Who in the pile are those?" Viy whispered.

"Aren't they… Goblins?"

"Yeah, but they're white!"

Across from them, near the center of the open field, a battle indeed raged. Nar wasn't sure what he had expected to find, but it wasn't to encounter two sides of goblins, one green-brown and the other white-blue, going at it.

And the forest goblins are being massacred, Nar realized. Even with the help of that thing…

That thing was a massive creature, a monster with equal amounts muscle and fat, and which towered over the entire battle. The behemoth swung something that could only be described as a stripped tree with ease, and its brown-gray skin looked tough, even from that distance and in that low light. However, Nar also spotted several bleeding wounds, and more glaringly, that the monster was missing half of an arm! That it could still swing that tree single-handedly was a testament to its brutal [Strength].

"It's even bigger than the tree guardians!" Viy whispered. "Is that one of the trolls?"

"I hope not," Nar muttered. "But what else could it be?"

As they stared at the big brute, a projectile of light blue impacted upon its back, exploding into a large crystal of ice. Nar couldn't tell if it had penetrated the trolls' hide or not, but the monster bellowed in pain.

"They're the ones with the ice skills!" Nar said. "Look, the one's riding those wolf things!"

"I see them!" Viy whispered.

There were three of them, bigger white-blue goblins dressed in thick furs of white, riding circles around the main conflict of forest and ice goblins, and throwing ice projectiles into the fray with impunity. There were some archers amidst the forest goblins, but they were having zero success against the fast-riding ice skill users.

"What do we do?" Viy whispered. "That thing is going to die!"

"What can we do?" Nar asked back. "There's like a hundred of them and three casters!"

"Still… What if they kill the troll?" Viy said. "That's supposed to be the final boss! Our way out of here!"

"I know! I know… It's just! Argh!"

Nar flashed his icon with urgency, hoping that the others would hurry up.

What am I supposed to do here? Nar thought. If we join in, will the forest monsters join us at least? But they're still our enemies… And there's still those riding casters…

Even with his prodigious [Speed], Nar wasn't foolish enough to believe that he was faster than the powerful, muscular, white creatures running around the field. Whenever he took his eyes off of them, moving his [Sight] elsewhere, they even went blurry!

Or maybe if I could use my localized cycling to my legs…

Suddenly, Kur flashed back at them.

"Wait, he says," Viy sighed. "Crystal. I'm happy not to have to make the call but that thing is…"

As she spoke, three ice blue projectiles impacted simultaneously against its ugly, bleeding head, and a 6-feet ice crystal burst into being where its head had been.

"... dead," Viy finished, as the headless monster toppled. "Great. Are we screwed? It feels like we're screwed."

Nar sighed and shook his head. "I don't know anymore…"

The final dungeon boss was down, and unless the other two were still alive and roaring somewhere else in the dungeon, which Nar doubted they were, the dungeon had just been cleared. All he knew was that as a slaying dungeon was cleared, the party leader was supposed to receive a prompt, asking them if they wanted to exit the dungeon, or remain for as long as the party wanted in order to loot and harvest as they pleased. But since Kur wasn't there, there was no way of knowing if that message had prompted or not…

"Let's just wait for them," Nar said, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree.

With the troll down, the remaining forty or so forest goblins didn't stand much of a chance, and one by one, Nar witnessed their inevitable defeat.

Oh, that one fights well, Nar thought. Wait, did that one just throw dirt?

The two goblins he had spotted stood a good two heads taller than the rest of the forest goblins, and now that he looked closer, they were garbed in more advanced clothing than the rest.

The one swinging around the big, thorny, black club, wore an armor that looked like thick, black wood, while the other wore several necklaces of stones and dried leaves over his naked torso, and lobbed projectiles of dirt at the white goblins.

Not dirt. Mud, Nar realized. Must be mud caster.

"Are those two the bosses for the Goblin Camp?" Viy asked, having spotted the powerful duo amidst the forest goblins' last stand.

"I think so," Nar said. "That one's definitely throwing mud projectiles around."

"Yeah… But I don't think it matters, does it?"

"No," Nar said.

The duo of goblin bosses held their ground, but around them, the other forest goblins were falling to the increasingly larger numbers of ice goblins, and Nar also got the distinct feeling that the white-blue goblins were stronger than their forest counterparts.

Which is definitely not a good thing, Nar thought.

Eventually, one of the ice throwing riders urged his mount forward, and the beast landed on the mud slinger, ending its screams with a quick snap of its powerful jaws. The goblin warrior, or chieftain, as Kur had called him, fell soon after, skewed by half a dozen white spears.

"It's over," Nar said.

"Now what?"

Nar shrugged. "Now we ask Kur."

He looked behind them, prompting Viy to do the same, just as the rest of the party creeped towards them.

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