Chapter 48

The sun had just set and we were walking up to the gates in the twilight. There wasn't a huge line but there were a number of people trying to get back in just before the last of the sunlight went away. The four of us handed our guild cards to the gate for inspection but we were lead away from the checkpoint unexpectedly.

We were pulled into a room off to the side that was lit with candlelight and had a couple of guards posted. The guard who led us here opened the door before gesturing for us to enter and following in after.

"You four are all on my list to pull aside should you come back to town. You were all expected back by now so the guild reported you missing two days ago. I sent runners to the Adventures guild and the Slavers guild. Please wait here for them to send an escort." He seemed like he was in a hurry and walked off before we could ask anything.

I looked over to Torien, "Two days ago? Why would they report us missing after only two days?"

"Is it possible we were in the dungeon longer than we thought?" Torien asked her sister.

"It is possible for time to move differently in some dungeons but usually there would be some indication of it. The sky didn't change at all while we were in there," Morrigan added.

A tall and slender man walked into the room. At a glance I recognized him as one of the people from the slaver's guild. For one thing, no one else in the town had comparable levels of bad karma.

"Ah good, Torien and Morrigan. I'm glad you two survived and seem unhurt. We need to hurry back to the guild right away now."

"Wait but we haven't reported to the guild yet, we haven't even gotten paid and we need to turn in our quota," Morrigan quickly explained.

"No need for that anymore. We found a very likely buyer for the two of you together, just like you've wished. You've been gone for eight days, it's really important that we have you back and prepared before the client comes back to the guild though. We don't have much time."

"E-eight days? But wait, Lilith, I." Torien stumbled while while looking over to me.

"No need to worry, this adventurer can take care of the guild paperwork. No need to concern yourself with that stuff anymore. I order you to silently follow me back to the guild."

The effect was immediate. Their collars started to glow a deep blue and they stared at me with eyes that looked like they were on the verge of tears."

"Wait, I want to buy them! Is there someone I can talk to about this?"

"Sorry, they already have a prospective buyer lined up. If you come down to the guild you can check in a few days if they're still reserved. If they're already gone, perhaps we can find you other slaves that might fit your needs. I'm sorry though, I really need to return now." He walked out of the room without allowing us any more time to question him.

I clenched my fist and felt like I might have boiled over if Bella hadn't chosen that moment to put her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay Lilith, we still have time. If it's really been as long as they said we need to go over to the Slaver's guild anyway to see about um, bitch. Maybe with that money we can work something out with their new owner or buy them out before the buyer comes back."

I took a deep breath. Bella was right. I needed to calm down and think. It didn't sound like their buyer had shown up yet and even if they had, maybe I could still work something out.

"You're right. Thank you Bella. Lets get this guild business over with so we can go see about the twins. Maybe we still have a chance between the guild mission and the gold from the auction."

We stood around for a little while until a familiar face came to collect us.

"Oh! I'm so glad you two are alright, where are the twins? Nothing bad happened to them right!?" Mirianna, the guild receptionist that we usually worked with, was hugging me and pressing her face into my breasts. This felt rather awkward but mainly because the touch was making me a little aroused.

I pushed her back and looked at her. "The twins were taken back to the Slaver's guild. It seems they have a prospective buyer lined up."

She smiled at the news which made my stomach turn a little bit. "Oh, that's great to hear. It seems those two will be bought together as a pair after all."

"Yeah... right..."

Her face looked puzzled. "Is something wrong? They were working hard so they could be bought together."

"Well, I was hoping that I could buy them and keep them in my party going forward. I'm rather crushed about it to be honest. I want to get through our guild business as soon as possible and see if there's anything I can do about the situation."

"Hmm. I see. I'm... not sure you'll have the resources for it but I suppose it can't hurt. Okay, lets do your debriefing here then. What delayed your return for so long? It's been Eight days, you were expected back in three or four."

"We got trapped in a dungeon. It was spawning demons, so the four of us pushed forward and destroyed it. We didn't even know that much time had passed, for us it felt like only 4 days."

Her face turned much more grim and serious than I'd ever seen it. "I'm sorry, this is too important to do a quick debrief. I need to escort you to the adventure's guild so we can talk to the guildmaster and a few specialists."

The atmosphere in the room had definitely changed. I could tell this was serious now. I nodded. "Of course, lead the way."

She turned and stepped towards the door before hesitating. "I'm afraid this won't be a quick debrief. I'm sorry." She continued towards the door and led us through it. The jovial happy go lucky receptionist we were used to working with was gone. We silently walked through the city towards the guild and even once entering were quickly taken to an upstairs meeting room without a word.

Through the door of the meeting room I could hear two sets of heavy feet take their place by the door, clearly making sure we don't leave. I think I had underestimated how serious our decision to destroy the dungeon had been but I had been reassured that it was the right thing to do since it was spawning demons.

Bella and I waited for less than fifteen minutes when a tall elven man dressed in flexible green armor entered with an even taller, hardened and muscular looking tiger beastfolk dressed in half-plate armor. The beastfolk sat down across from us at the table and the elf sat to their right. One of the first things I noticed was this tiger beastfolk easily had the highest karma I have ever seen on someone. It was well into the 20,000's. On one hand it garnered some trust from me, but on the other, what the hell do you have to do to get that much karma. I also couldn't let myself be tricked. Having a lot of karma meant that you did good things, on average. It didn't mean that the person would be incapable of hurting me, especially if they thought they were making the right choice.

"I have been told you destroyed a dungeon that had been spawning demons." The tiger spoke with a beautiful feminine voice that had a sexy husky undercurrent. I was caught completely off guard, not realizing this towering tiger was a woman. I managed to recover quickly but I couldn't say that I wasn't a little turned on.

"Yes, I brought the crystal with me." I picked up the heavy backpack I had been carrying and pulled out the large crystal fragments and heaved them onto the table.

The tiger cracked a predatory grin that revealed her dangerous looking teeth. "It seems I had been wrong, I had thought this to be a waste of my time but it appears you aren't lying. Or you're incredibly stupid, we'll see how this shakes out." She turned to the elf. "Go bring the artificer here, I didn't want to waste his time if this was some sort of stupid game but we'll need him now."

"Of course ma'am." He nodded and left the room.

"I am the guildmaster of Traehall's adventurers guild. My name is Raksha'va Mellana. Raksha'va is my family name, I would prefer you call me that. I'm happy to be dealing with beastkin for once, it gets exhausting dealing with human bigots with sticks up their asses all the time. I'm going to just put this out here first. If that crystal on the table wasn't actually summoning demons, you'll probably be executed even if I somehow thought it was a good idea anyway. If it was summoning demons things will actually be more complicated for you. Both in good ways and bad."

I felt a bit unsure of myself but I didn't want that to come across so I tried to speak confidently. "I was told by my companions that we had to destroy it since it was summoning demons. Every area we explored on our way out had demons, including the boss."

"What enemy names do you remember."

"Shadow Horror, Dread Knight, Demon Mimic, Demon Vampire Queen."

The tiger beastfolk let out an exhale of breath. "That could have been a problem if they hadn't been contained. I only recognize Dread Knights and the Demon Vampire Queen though. Was the Vampire Queen intelligent?"

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, "No, the boss didn't seem intelligent. At the time I even thought it was weird that it didn't seem to react at all until we got a certain distance from it."

She nodded slightly before looking over at Bella. The look made her shrink down into her seat. She looked back over to me, "Was it just the two of you in there? I find that a little hard to believe."

"No, two of our party members were slaves. Before we came here they were taken back to the Slaver's guild, because they have a potential buyer lined up."

I felt Bella's hand on mine which made me realize I had been tensing my hand so hard I almost drew blood. I relaxed them as the Tiger continued talking.

"Oh gods, that's going to be a nightmare, I already know it. As if this situation wasn't bad enough already." She exhaled loudly. Before she could continue the door opened and an old looking human man stepped in with the elf.

Raksha'va looked over at the door, "Brominn, sorry could you also bring Mirianna here. Things just got more complicated."

"Of course, one moment."

The old man walked over and looked down at the table. "It's a dungeon crystal alright. Can I get back to work now?"

Raksha'va looked irritated. "We need to confirm that this thing was spawning demons, first check the spawn table to confirm the enemy names, then make sure they weren't actually pseudodemons."

The old man sighed, "Fine you oversized cat, don't get your tail twisted over it." If the comment had rubbed her the wrong way she didn't show it, though she did look irritated having to deal with the man at all honestly.

The Tiger looked back at me, "This is normally taboo but it will go a long way in proving that I can trust you. I need you to tell me which titles you got from destroying the dungeon."

Bella was nervously looking at the artificer in the room.

"I think it's a good idea Bella."

She nodded, "Okay, in this case yeah."

I looked back at Raksha'va. "Dungeon Destroyer, First Explorer, Early Intervention."

She nodded. "Good. The last one is quite rare but very powerful. I know of one other who has the title." She sighed and leaned back in her seat. "That first title is as much a curse as it is a blessing. That second title makes you very valuable and the last of those titles multiply your value further. The dungeon destroyer title is frankly a problem for you now. There are many groups that will want to kill you just for having that title, the fact that it was a demon dungeon is irrelevant to them. Some may want to kill you more for it honestly. You should have come back and told us about it rather than destroying it yourself."

Bella spoke quickly a little panicked. "We were trapped though! We had to finish the dungeon to escape!"

Raksha'va held up one of her large feline hands. "You were trapped but you could have left the dungeon without destroying it. However, we are quite aware that it is important to destroy demon dungeons as soon as possible to avoid escaped monsters. Demon dungeons have a very high rate of spawning intelligent monsters, especially boss monsters. It's one of the main problems with them."

The giant tiger woman sighed heavily again, "I'm not saying it was a bad idea to destroy the dungeon, quite the opposite actually. The unfortunate part of it is that you just painted a target on your back, apparently without knowing it. I could have sent someone in that already had the title and it wouldn't have made that person any more likely to be targeted than they were before. Why don't you tell me the whole story."

I summarized the entire thing more or less play by play starting from when we entered the dungeon. The only things I omitted was Mimi joining us and my interaction with Charon. Raksha'va sat there quietly and listened to the story from start to finish without asking any questions.

Just as I was finishing up the articifer sat up from the crystal. "I've confirmed the list. I have eight total monsters, including the boss, and every one of them are true demons. The boss was level 18 according to this, making it a bronze or steel level threat before taking into account it was unexplored. Can I go back to work now?" He handed her a small piece of paper he had been taking notes on.

"Thank you, you're dismissed."

Without a word the old man hurried to leave the room and passed a grim looking Mirianna who entered the room and sat down. Her eyes lingered on the the crystal before looking at Raksha'va.

"Well, at the very least I can clear you from being an enemy of the kingdom. Let's talk about where things will have to go from here."