It took them roughly two hours to walk back at a sedated pace and Luna alerted the guards at the fires that they were coming through. They received some curious looks and were stopped by one of the Hunters, Oswald.

“Everything okay Luna? You got some blood over your armor.” He asked her concerned.

Luna looked down on herself and realized that he was right, she hadn't even noticed before. “Not really. You can come with us if you want, I need to wake up William and the council.”

Oswald led the way back towards the tents and then went about to find the council. Luna, Evelyn, and Fiona had sat down at a low burning fire and waited for them. It took a while, but eventually, they all arrived, grumbling about being woken up.

Luna had been reading through the notebook and had found a full copy of the settler list in the back. She was now fully convinced that parts of the Pathfinder Guild had violated the neutrality and now she had no way to send back the news.

Every person who had arrived had requested an immediate answer to why they had been summoned, but Evelyn had told them to wait until everyone had arrived. “Good morning everyone.” William started. “It seems everyone except Christoph is here, who we cannot find right now. Care to tell us what this is about?”

Luna snorted. “You cannot find him because he was a Zollan spy, here to take over the settlement for their kingdom. He and six of his friends are very much dead and I expect that Alfred knows exactly what I am talking about.”

For the second time in one night, pandemonium broke out when everyone demanded answers at once. Some from Luna, some from Alfred. Luna waited for it to settle down a bit before she lifted the leather-clad book and when Alfred saw it his complexion suddenly turned chalk white.

“I have here a notebook that belonged to Christoph. It contains a copy of the list of settlers that Parrot gave to William. I do not know how he got it, but it has detailed plans on how to undermine this settlement and pressure people into working for him. I expect some of you might have already started to be intimidated by his goons over the safety of your family.”

Willam retrieved the book and flipped through it, verifying the contents. “Yes, what she says is true. This notebook contains a lot of information nobody should know about us. I would like to keep it to myself for now, as there are details in here nobody should know about their neighbors if we want to work together. Everyone agreed?” His suggestion was received with some grumbling and he promised they would talk it over the next day.

“What do you mean when you say that he and six of his friends are dead? Did you kill them all by yourself?” William asked Luna next.

That question got the attention of everyone, but it was not Luna who replied, but Evelyn. “As you will eventually find out from that notebook, I and Fiona left Zollan and they had kept track of us. We had planned on leaving the settlement because we feared discovery by Zollan agents once the news about the experience multiplier gets around.” Evelyn told them. “They followed us tonight, threatened us and we had to defend ourselves.”

“That is preposterous.” Alfred finally decided to speak up. “You couldn't fight him and his group even if you tried to.”

“I don’t care if you believe me or not. You can just wait for him to come back, which he will not. I can promise you that.” Luna told him. “He also tried railing up the settlement against the Pathfinder Guild in general. Yesterday he, Egon, and Roman followed me when I went hunting. Which is why I decided to just leave with Evelyn and Fiona.”

“You can’t just leave, you are supposed to protect the settlement.” another council member complained.

“A whole lot of good that has done me so far. I've been running through the forests and finding out things, reporting them to you and I was received with hostility every time I came back. You can manage from here on, I read the list. You have enough people with Combat Classes as their second one to hold your own if you have to. You can manage without me.” Luna responded without remorse.

William nodded. “I think you are right, there hasn’t been an attack on us so far and when the wall is ready I don’t see animal monsters bothering us. Please check in with us when you are in the area and tell us what you found. You as well Evelyn, Fiona.”

“So that is it? You just believe her and let her go?” Alfred demanded.

“Oh shut it, Alfred. We'll be talking to you next, this notebook is all the proof I need to understand what is going on here. We left the kingdoms for a reason and you idiots bring the politics not only with you, you were planning on making this a Zollan outpost all along.” William shut him up quickly. “Luna has been doing what she promised us to do, but if those three managed to take out Christoph and his goons then I don’t think we could do anything to them even if we tried.”

Luna was doubting that very much. If they had piled on there would not have been anything she could have done, other than run. Luna looked over to Evelyn at her side. “Want to leave now or sleep here for the night?”

Evelyn shook her head. “Leave now. I don’t want to give them the time to change their mind. They could try to detain us, which would be a problem, for both me and them. I could not let that happen and there is only one way that confrontation could end.”

Luna stood up, Evelyn and Fiona following alongside. “William. We're going to leave. I don’t think there is anything to gain from us staying here. Can you give me the Class Tablet, please? I want to take a last look before we leave. I have no idea when we might get the chance again.”

William looked conflicted. “I really don’t want to drive you out, but if you left that would make things a lot easier for us to handle. While I hate to see you go, I don’t blame you. If I had the skills to explore this continent I would not have stayed a single day. Let me get the Class Tablet for you.”

William returned a minute or so later and held the tablet out to Luna.

Greetings Emiluna

Your gains since your last visit at a Class Tablet.

Mana Rich Zone: Multiplier x10

Only applied to XP gained from Class actions and achievements.

General Experience [Experience gained by performing Class actions]

Pathfinder: 438 XP

Stalker: 629 XP

Additional Experience [Noteworthy Achievements]

Survive Combat: 5000 XP

For killing 9 enemies Nature’s Bounty grants you 139647 Experience.

Name: Emilia Lunare Sylvanlake

Level: 25

Race: Sylvan

Age: 16

Class 1: Sylvan Pathfinder - Level 13

Experience: 471/33800

Class 2: Sylvan Stalker - Level 12

Experience: 28294/28800

Class 3: N/A (Requires a total level of 45)

Health: 260/275

Stamina: 103/286

Mana: 89/195

Regeneration - Per Minute

1.97% Stamina

0.61% Mana

1.1% Life

Stats - Body

Strength: 16

Vitality: 16

Dexterity: 20

Stats - Mind

Wisdom: 14

Intelligence: 8

Charisma: 7

Available Points

Stats: 0

Skills: 0

Skills - Personal

[Athleticism] - Level 18

[Languages] - Level 7

[Dodge] - Level 6 (Level Up)

Skills - Race

[Dryad's Body]

[Natural Insight]

[Ancestral Memories]

[Nature’s Bounty]

[Young Roots] - Physical Trait

[Dryad Eyes] - Physical Trait

Skills - Crafting

[Cooking] - Level 4

[Sewing] - Level 2

[Field Dressing] - Level 6

Skills - Combat

[Bows] - Level 17 (Level Up)

[Crossbows] - Level 3

[Thrown Weapons] - Level 4

[Small Weapons] - Level 9 (Level Up)

[Small Shields] - Level 8 (Level Up)

Skills - Utility

[Tracking] - Level 8

[Stealth] - Level 8 (Level Up)

[Survival] - Level 5

[Field Craft] - Level 6

[First Aid] - Level 4

[Lock Picking] - Level 5

[Traps Disarmament] - Level 4

Skill - Magic

[Purify Water] - Level N/A

[Spark] - Level N/A

[Conceal Presence] - Level 8 (Level Up)

[Seal Wound] - Level 2

Skills - Class

[First]

[At home in the wilds]

[Silent Observer]

[Stalker's Precision]

[Sneak Attack]

[Windwalk]

[Silent Shot]

[Double Jump]

[Safe Haven]

[Vine Shot]

Luna quickly finished checking her status, noticing the hefty amount of experience she gained for killing nine people, despite not being directly involved in killing several of them. “I hope we meet again William.” She handed back the Class Tablet and turned to leave once more.

Oswald had overheard the whole conversation and escorted them back, thanking Luna for the effort she had put in and promising to keep the settlers safe. They left the camp again and picked up the pace once they left the campfires behind. They had no interest in being close to the camp when people woke up the next day.

They swerved around the hills coming in range on their right side and kept closer to the cliffs. The ground stayed relatively flat and they made good time, but Luna could see the other two were starting to get tired. She started looking for a good spot to set up a camp and decided to use a large boulder to shield their fire from view.

“Let's camp here so you can get some sleep. I took a nap when I was waiting for you, so I will keep watch. Let me gather some wood for a fire.” Luna told them but was stopped by Evelyn. “No need for the wood. Now that nobody is around I can take care of that.”

Evelyn suddenly held a bundle of firewood in her arms and simply dumped it on the ground. Then with the wave of a hand, a bright flame sparked in the bundle and it caught fire. “Time for some more talk I’d say. Luna, can you identify the other shards we found?”

Fiona and Evelyn handed over the shards to Luna and when they got into contact with each other, they simply dissolved into each other, until Luna only one shard left.

[Dungeon Shard]

Fragments: 6 of 10

Luna wanted to know it was, but Fiona was quicker. “What is it?”

Evelyn waved for them to sit down, then put three small ceramic jars into the fire. “Now while our late dinner and early breakfast are heating up, let me explain a few things. First, as should have been obvious, both Fiona and I are not just alchemists, we also hold a Magic Class. I can cast fire magic and Fiona can cast ice magic. It's the perfect combination for our craft. I can heat up and Fiona cools down.”

Luna nodded. “I figured as much. You weren’t subtle about it. That was impressive, how often can you cast those spells?”

Fiona giggled. “That blew through my full Mana Pool. Casting Spells that quickly costs a lot of Mana.”

Luna looked at Fiona critically. “You aren’t even phased by what just happened. This wasn’t your first time killing someone?”

Fiona shook her head. “No. Growing up there was a son of an influential merchant who did not take it well at all when I rejected his very public marriage proposal. He and his friends set out to get revenge on us when we went out to gather ingredients. They did not expect any resistance.”

Evelyn interrupted them. “Enough of that. Luna, what happened back there after we killed them? I felt some mana around us and then it all disappeared into you.”

Luna shifted uncomfortably. “Class Skill that helps with combat, some kind of replenishing effect.” She lied.

Evelyn looked suspicious but then just shrugged and moved on to the next topic. “Now these shards we found are interesting. Many items come from dungeons, but the most common ones are these shards. Every dungeon has at least one location with some kind of shrine and if you place the full shard on it, it will get absorbed and a reward appears in its place.

Sometimes it is a weapon, but sometimes you can even get legendary grade magic tokens that can be used for much grander things. If you visited the capital of Laven you must have seen the huge walls around the city. That was built using a legendary token, but I have no idea who used it back then.”

“How is that possible?” Luna asked. “

“That isn’t really important right now. How can this be a dungeon? Aren’t they supposed to be underground crypts, caves, weird castles, or some such?” Fiona wanted to know.

Evelyn shook her head while retrieving the now hot food from the fire. “I have no idea. I don’t believe this is a dungeon at all, it feels wrong somehow. It is like I should know what it is, but I can’t put my finger on it. I have never heard of a dungeon with sunshine like this, not to mention of this size. But more later, dinner is ready.”

They each poured the contents of their ceramic jar into a bowl and started eating. The food tasted nothing like what Luna had eaten the past days. “What is this food? It is delicious!” She exclaimed after the third mouth full.

“Oh, this is one of Fiona’s creations. Why don’t you explain?” Evelyn said.

Between chewing, Fiona started to explain. “It is a chicken broth with crab meat, caramelized carrots, and onions, finely sliced chicken meat. All tossed together in a pan and then cooked inside until finished in the chicken broth.”

“But how do you have that here?” Luna demanded. “I have not seen chicken, crab, or carrots in weeks!”

Evelyn snorted. “Didn’t you see me storing all the stuff from the tent? Did you think that was all? I am carrying around half a kitchen and our alchemy lab. The Dungeon Shards can give you some wondrous things.” She said while holding up the small shard. “On rare occasions, you can get an Inventory Bag as a reward. It’s a weird little bag, just as big as your hand and when you inject mana into it, it just disappears, but grants you a Magic Skill called Inventory. You can store items in there, just like you saw me store your trunk.”

Fiona added. “Grandma said it is super rare and only very few people have one these days since when the person having the Skill dies it is just gone and it only comes from dungeons.”

“I never heard about any of this before. I’ve got some books on dungeons in my trunk and when browsing through them I never found anything about loot. Only theories about monsters, their behavior, and such. I never expected to find myself in such a weird situation.” Luna said.

Silence descended as they focused on eating while thinking about their current situation. Luna realized that when other Humans arrived here it would only take so long for people to kill each other. Once that happened someone would figure out what the small shard is that dropped and it would spread like a wildfire. Once the kings learned that the whole continent might be some outdoor dungeon zone, they would try even harder to establish themselves and if killing your enemies even gave you dungeon loot, all the better.

“Let’s talk more tomorrow. We can set a slower pace. Catch some sleep.” Luna told them and both Evelyn and Fion quickly agreed. Evelyn pulled out their bedrolls and blankets and it did not take long for them to fall asleep. Luna decided that looking into the fire was not the proper way of keeping watch and climbed up on the boulder they were camping beneath. She sat down cross-legged on a blanket and stared into the night.