The house was as Mash had left it before. Currently, Jill was looking around and her eyes were glowing. Her eyes had looked like a reflection of space before, but now they seemed like whirlpools. Although ones that drew in stars rather than water. Mash’s job was much easier than hers, and all he really did was stand around and make sure that no one else was using any mana. The lord’s sons, Robert and Edward, were people who Mash couldn’t just trust. They had no reason to do something like this, but he still didn’t want to trust anyone inherently. So, Mash just stood in the room and made sure nothing was amiss with the mana. His domain would detect any mana entering the house, even if the people who made it weren’t present.

The people here didn’t have classes, instead, they received what was known as gifts. They sounded like skills without having the same limitations that the class system created. However, from what he had read, the ‘gifts’ seemed entirely random. Whether that was better or not, he was not sure.

Robert’s gift improved his body, much like a warrior or fighter class might. However, instead of long-term improvements, his gift would fill his body with power when he wanted it to. It was kind of like Mash’s buff skills, but more controllable, and focused on his physical abilities. His brother Edward had the ability to project copies of himself. The copies he made were more real than anything Mash could manage, each being a fully functioning version of the man. Rather than being limited in the power of his copies, he was limited in their duration. Every clone he made was on a timer, so in a way, it was slightly worse than what Priscilla was doing. However, he could make many more clones in an instant.

Mash was a bit surprised to hear that they had trained their bodies on top of the gifts. They had ranks for developing their body, using metals to signify each of their ranks. Mash hadn’t seen much information on that in the journal, and the twins were not nearly as talkative about that matter. However, Mash did learn that they both had golden bodies, whatever that meant. Upon asking them what he thought their ranks were, he was surprised to be placed in silver. These two were strong, but Mash hadn’t realized that they could keep up with him physically.

After learning of the gifts that they received, Mash had believed that their powers would be less impressive than the class system. Although, their claim that their bodies were much stronger was interesting as it was something he might be able to replicate. This was one of the reasons he wanted to travel to other worlds, as they would offer abilities that could be learned outside of the class system.

That didn’t make sense here though. This dungeon was artificial, and he had expected it to be made through the class system. Seeing all this information that clashed with that system was making him reconsider that idea. He knew the dungeon was old and assumed that there could be no other reason. How many of the dungeons in the world were made by foreigners? Were they even foreigners if they came from another world?

Jill eventually finished her search, and clones of Edward had checked the rest of the house. He had offered to let Mash search his own room, but Mash knew that would be pointless. He had already searched his room earlier and doing it again wouldn’t accomplish anything. That didn’t dissuade Edward though, and he had sent two clones to comb over his room. Thankfully, it looked like Jill had a lead. It was unsurprisingly boring to sit around and do nothing.

“I think I know where to go. At the very least I narrowed it down to some locations.”

There was obvious hesitation in her voice, and Mash wondered what she might have seen. But before he could ask about it, Robert spoke first.

“Great, what locations?”

For some reason, he said the words loudly, and Mash jumped a little. Honestly, he sounded weirdly excited, and Mash couldn’t help but grow more suspicious. This situation was reminding him of Leah, and he probably wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. As Mash saw his friends’ faces, it was clear that they were having similar suspicions.

“No, that’s not how the s-gift works. I see strings leading from this place to things outside and can tell which are the newest. There are three or four threads that I should be able to use to determine where Mash’s father was taken. So, I won’t know the place until we see it, but I can follow the threads. “

Other than Jill, everyone was nodding their heads in understanding. Honestly, Mash thought that she would just receive visions of the future or past, and this was a little disappointing. It was not anywhere near as good as what he had in mind. Though it was enough to work with, everyone left the room quickly.

Jill was leading them, although the duty would normally fall to Luke or Mash. However, they should probably consider changing their formations, especially considering how defensive Jill’s class was. Thinking about it, it felt like Mash and Luke had actually received the more offensive-oriented of the class advancements. Jill’s, and to a lesser extent Red’s, classes were more tailored to survivability. Neither of their classes had done much for their damage output, but many of Red’s defensive skills could be used offensively too.

The town was very different in the light of the day, and it had none of the eeriness of the night. Sometimes Mash still felt like the shadows were unusually long, or that he saw a particularly dark patch of shadow. Hopefully, that was his mind playing tricks on him, mixing the image from last night with what was happening now.

[Stop, you are being misguided.]

Receiving Priscilla’s message, Mash stopped in his tracks. His first instinct was to think that Jill’s skill had failed or that they were going to fall for a trap. It took a second to process that she was talking about his speculation of the town. He was right, there was indeed an occasionally odd shadow. Somehow, the town, or someone in the town, had been influencing him to ignore the oddities. Immediately, he checked his domain more thoroughly. He needed to check if the others were already infected by the manipulation or not.

While he couldn’t make any real medicine for their situation, his repetitive prodding at one of the elongated shadows managed to shake some of them from the effects. The twins didn’t seem able to understand the wrongness of the surroundings, though Mash guessed that he could understand why. Assuming that this manipulating effect was active all day, Mash realized what was happening. Mash didn’t know if the strangeness was a result of the world being artificial, or if it was some kind of puzzle for him to resolve.

Even after coming to the city, he still had no idea what needed to be done to clear the dungeon. Honestly, it seemed like every situation they got involved with only increased the puzzle’s complexity. From what he knew about the dungeon, it should have a single concrete goal, and their roles would somehow be involved with it.

“Stop, that’s the place.”

Jill stopped the group, pointing to a building in the distance. They were currently standing in front of a store, and a cursory glance told Mash it was an apothecary. The first location Jill led them to was a temple. That should have been obvious given Luke’s persona, but Mash thought that his job was to heal the daughter. Thinking about it, why didn’t the people in this place heal the girl?

The church itself was made of a plain brown wood, and there were visible signs of decay on some of the walls. There was a symbol plastered on the center of the front. The intersection point of the two lines was even lower on this symbol than the one Luke was wearing. Other than the signs of decay the building seemed very plain, and Mash saw people entering and leaving freely. Nobody looked particularly bothered, and Luke stopped them from proceeding further.

“I will go inside, by myself. I think they will be more forthcoming if they do not know that I am trying to help Mash.”

Luke sounded confident, and it didn’t look like Jill or Red would argue. The twins obviously trusted that Luke would be fine, though Mash couldn’t help but worry. Luke didn’t have great methods to escape a place, but he would trust him. Mash knew that the others weren’t weak, but he still felt anxious leaving someone else to do something on their own. It was hypocritical considering how many things he did alone, but he couldn’t help but be a little worried.

“Meet up at Mash’s place in two hours, we will continue to the remaining locations.”

Robert let Luke go, after telling him how he would find them again. They talked a little more offering some small things here or there. Mash even made a tiny imitation of Priscilla and handed it to Luke. Mash didn’t change into his treant form as he was still unsure of how the people here would take his transformations. A single small imitation wasn’t much of a drain on his energy, and he could easily keep it going for more than two hours. Mash wouldn’t be able to send messages as he could through one of Priscilla’s true bodies, but he would still know if something happened to it. It would work as a simple signaling method. Nodding, Luke headed towards the church. Just in case something happened, the rest of them remained where they stood for a few minutes. They watched the entrance of the church, but nothing happened.

Jill led them to the next place. It was further south than the church. The village was really big, and there were a lot of houses in the place. They passed what looked like the beginning of ordered streets and businesses, although the paths weren’t laid out as Mash would typically find in a town or city. There was clearly some order to the layout of buildings though, as they eventually entered a portion of the village that was mostly homes. The thread that Jill was following led them to one of the houses.

It didn’t look special in the slightest, and Edward said he knew the people that lived there. He obviously trusted the people as he grew a bit defensive when Mash tried questioning him about it. To be fully honest, the building wasn’t very large, and Mash could scope it out by walking around the building while using his draconic domain to look inside. Rather than telling the twins of that fact, Mash offered another solution.

“Why don’t you knock on the door and check if the people inside are suspicious? I will just walk around the building and make sure that no one is hiding around the house. Maybe someone snuck in.”

Edward seemed fine with that, and Mash quickly started walking towards the side of the house. Robert and Red followed him, and Mash led them around the building. Within his domain, he could look into the house easily. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary immediately, but upon getting to the opposite side of the house, Mash saw three dead bodies.

“I see three dead bodies!”

Mash yelled the words, loud enough that the ones at the front of the house could hear him. Running towards the front, Mash was quick enough to watch as the person that Jill and Edward were speaking to turned into a monster and lashed out at them. The monster’s hand turned into a thin needle-like appendage, and it tried plunging it into Edward. Jill looked on lazily and grabbed the needle as it moved. Mash didn’t think he could’ve reacted like that without using one of his forms. She couldn’t stop it completely, but she slowed it down with her armor, and Edward was easily able to dodge the attack. Edward followed the motion with a downward swing of his hand, his face contorting into a rage as he did so. There was a large crunching sound as the half-deformed face of the monster caved in. It crumpled and fell to the ground motionless.