Karl reached out and touched the chest, which swung open.
[Rewards are being granted.] The same voice announced.
[Most Damage Dealt: Rae. Bonus Award Granted.]
[Most Healing Done: Lotus. Bonus Award Granted.]
[Under Level Completion: Dana, Darryl, Rose, Remi. Bonus Granted.]
Everyone looked around at each other.
“Whose real name is Remi?” Lotus finally asked, confused.
Nobody seemed to know, but in Karl’s mind, the egg that Hawk had thrown into the fourth space began to tremble and crack.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Karl muttered as the mottled blue egg began to hatch.
[Send it out. Stupid water snake.] Hawk demanded.
[It’s too late, the bonding is complete, and they’ve gotten an award from the Dungeon.] Karl informed him.
Now, he just had to find out exactly what sort of Naga creature he had gained as his fourth companion.
“Remi is a hatchling in my fourth mental space. Hawk threw an egg from the boss platform in, intending to eat it.” Karl explained.
Lotus burst into laughter, which only grew in intensity until she was holding her middle and rolling on the ground, tears of mirth running down her face.
“Hawk picked a Naga as your fourth partner? Oh, that is priceless.” She gasped.
Hawk hurled a fireball at the laughing cleric, but the [Refreshing Lightning] barrier around her stopped it without damage.
“Sorry Hawk. But that really is too funny.” Lotus finally managed to apologize.
They were so distracted by the addition of a team member and Lotus’ response that everyone nearly missed when the Spider Golems began firing spears of wood into the grass.
[I got a new skill. Spear. Look, I can do it with my silk as well.] Rae informed them, then sent out a burst of silk shaped like an arrow that impaled a tree just away from the platform.
“Well, Rae got a new skill as a bonus. What did Lotus get?” Alice asked.
The nature cleric did her best to stop laughing before Hawk came down to attack her in person.
She cast a spell, and her body was surrounded in water, brushing away all the dirt and wounds from the battle.
“I got a new healing spell. Revitalizing waters.” She explained.
Then everyone turned their attention to the other three that the voice had named as getting bonuses. They were still in shock, and hadn’t examined themselves, but to the others it was obvious that they were all freshly Ascended Rank mages, or Spellswords.
A gentle, slightly terrified voice entered Karl’s mind.
[Evil bird can’t get to me here, can he?] Remi whispered.
[No, he can’t get to you. That’s your space.] Karl assured her.
Remi, as the Dungeon had called her, was a small blue snake with shimmering crystalline scales, a black swirling pattern on her back, and golden belly scales. Her head was hooded like a cobra, similar to the Naga, but she was definitely all snake.
[Yes, safe!] She exclaimed, then cast a minor spell that created four tiny water tentacles, which she swung wide in the same motion that a baseball umpire used, and Karl wondered where she had learned that.
A baby Spirit Snake, as Remi appeared to be, wasn’t a humanoid creature, they were a magical water snake that existed in the Golden Dragon Nation. Karl was only vaguely familiar with them from his research, but they were a strong Commander Rank threat, and could grow to ten metres long.
But what Lotus knew was that they were considered one of the Spiritual Beasts, as they were known to develop advanced magic of various sorts, and when they matured after they reached adulthood, they would naturally evolve into one of three directions.
They would either become Naga Warriors, Naga Workers, or Guardian Spirit Snakes. The third sort never gained the humanoid features or extra intelligence, and instead focused on growing its reptilian body.
Karl focused on the new addition, doing his best to see what he could tell about the team’s newest addition
[Pet added: Remi]
[Shaman Princess]
[Rank] Ascended
He hadn’t been expecting that. She was tiny, but apparently, she was born as an Ascended Rank Shaman. The inspection didn’t tell him what skills she had, but they would logically be water related, as she was somehow related to the Naga.
A tiny blue Spirit Snake with black patterns on her back, a pale golden underside and a wedge shaped head.
Corbin reached into the golden treasure chest and got a confused look on his face.
[Member Reward Granted to Corbin.] The voice of the dungeon announced.
“I guess we can’t pick what we want from the box? Well, we could likely trade afterwards, I suppose.” He commented as he looked at the golden bracers in his hands.
They were intricately carved with images of Naga on them, and looked like they should have some sort of worthwhile magic imbued into them. The most powerful stuff was always the coolest looking, in Karl’s experience.
Thor stuck his snout in the box, trying to see what was there, and came back with a necklace on.
“Thor gets bling too? That’s wild.” Lotus laughed as the voice announced that Thor had received his reward.
Hawk took his cue from the Lightning Cerro, and came back out of the chest with a large red gem in his mouth. A gem which he promptly ate, causing himself to flare with magic.
[Come on Commander. You can do it.] He cheered himself on as power surged in his body.
Just when Karl thought he was going to fail, [Flaming Body] surged with power, and Hawk’s eyes flickered to a bright glowing blue that shimmered like a flame.
“That’s a Commander Rank advancement for Hawk.” Karl stated the obvious as the others cheered him on.
One after another, the others reached in to grab their rewards and came back out with gear. Rae got a shadowy gem that she also ate, though it didn’t propel her through an entire Rank.
Karl was last up, and Remi appeared on his hand as he reached into the chest.
[Member Reward Granted to Karl.]
[Member Reward Granted to Remi.]
Hawk screeched in annoyance. [She didn’t even do anything. She wasn’t even born when the fight ended!]
Karl sighed. [Look, you two are going to have to get along. I also know that you ate the other eggs from that nest already, so don’t pretend like you lost something precious.]
He sensed Remi’s smug attitude. Hawk had eliminated the competition for her. Now, she just had to eliminate the Hawk, and she won. Won what, Karl wasn’t certain, but he mentally chastised the baby monster.
[That means you too. Get along with the others.] Karl made it an order and felt the two beasts’ wills bending under his order as they reluctantly came up with ways to do the bare minimum to comply.
Remi now had a spear in two of her four water tentacles, while Karl was looking at a simple golden coin.
[Skill Token] Grants one random Skill.
“What is that? It feels like Holy Magic.” Tessa asked.
“It grants a skill when used.” Karl explained.
“Wow, so like a skill book. What skill?” She replied, eager to see what new power Karl would gain.
“It, uh, doesn’t say? It says it grants a random skill.”
Corbin whistled in appreciation. “That’s quite the find. It could either be the most valuable item you’ll ever hold, or the most disappointing bonus you’ll ever get.
I’ve seen something like that before, and when it says random, it means random. Completely random.”
“In that case, should I hold off?” Karl asked.
“I don’t think it matters when you use it.” Corbin shrugged.
The only problem was that Karl didn’t know how to use the coin. He only knew what it did, the magic of the coin told him that much.
“Flip it.” Tessa suggested.
If it was random, a coin flip made sense, Karl supposed.
He looked at the coin, which had the World Dragon logo on both sides, so there were no heads or tails. He just flipped it, and caught it, then flipped it onto the back of his hand, the way you always did for a coin toss.
[Skill Gained: Silent Movement] The dungeon voice announced.
“Not a bad ability for a scout.” Alice congratulated him.
“Agreed.” Tessa informed him with a satisfied nod.
Prince Corbin looked around at the group, who had long since reverted to their natural human forms.
“I should cast the spell on us all once we get to the entrance, then we will have to find a way out of that city, and the trial that it was in. We did well here, but there will still be challenges ahead of us.” He reminded the others.
Karl put all the beasts away in preparation to head out, and Corbin prepared their disguises.
“Lotus, you’re up at the front again. If they have questions, you’re the only one likely to understand.” Corbin instructed.
With a nod from the Spellblade, the group made their way through the dungeon, retracing their steps. They stopped at the entry platform to check their gear and make certain they hadn’t dropped anything, before stepping through the portal in a group, and directly out onto a snow-covered hillside.
They were out of the mountains, near the edge of the abnormally cold anomaly zone, nearly fifty kilometres from where they had started.
For a moment everyone’s expressions went blank, while [Refreshing Lightning] surged, as if they were under attack, and then they recovered.
Alice looked around them. “How did we get here?”
Karl shrugged. “When we left the Dungeon, this is where it brought us.”
For a second, the others looked confused, and then realization came to their faces as [Refreshing Lightning] fought off whatever status effect was placed on them, and their memories returned.
[Nice save, Thor.] Karl congratulated his partner.
[I told you I was the healer now.] Thor declared, which made Remi giggle.
Prince Corbin snapped his fingers. “I get it now. That’s what happened to the others. They entered an instance, and when they finally escaped it, their memory was wiped. But we were all under the same protective spell when we left the dungeon, and we managed to remember.”
Larry patted him on the back. “Good work, boss, we couldn’t have done without you being mauled by a Naga King for ten straight minutes. But we’ve got more to celebrate. There is a new Commander in the group.”
Corbin turned to Karl. “So there is.”
