Giving Uria the stink eye, Unicy snorted coldly before entering the cave.

“Everyone follow what Uria just said. Elrish I’ll leave you in charge over the defenses until I come back. Don’t listen to any more of her commands until the boss deals with her.”

Taking the honor of temporary command Elrish hit his chest. “Understood general, let’s get to work.”

Relieved of command the confused Uria, angry Unicy, and bewildered Vlad they entered the cave together. They walked into the male dormitory to see the medical maker Briana and light mage Adster cleaning, stitching and healing various wounds on Urist.

Adster gave a charming smile, “Come on, give me a scream. I really wanna know what you sound like, boss.”

Pale like a sheet of white paper Urist used whatever strength he had left to grit his teeth as the two dwarfs worked on him.

Vlad gave out a chuckle, “You look like shit boss. Even Adster is making fun of you.”

Uria tried to rush over to Urist’s side but was stopped by the tailor Xasta, “You can’t touch him, those two are doing all they can to get him stitched up.”

“I need to go to him.”

“Don’t worry Uria I’m fine. I trust these two skills to treat me. But I didn’t call you guys for no reason, I have information on the rat king.” Laying on a bloody leaf Urist replied sounding very weak.

Vlad's eyes brightened when Urist said he had information. “Oh? What have you found out near the jaws of death?”

Urist took a breath before replying, “I’ve found out that, that bastard can invade a person's mind. When inside he digs for deepest regrets and tries to amplify them to cause you to lose yourself.

“It almost got me killed when I made a foolish mistake of drinking the untested berserker potion. To combat the side-effects, I looked through the shop for a magic item to resist mind invasion and found a ring recipe. Xasta, would you be so kind as to get the items I bought from the crystal room right now?”

“OK boss I’ll go and get them just don’t move from that spot understood?”

Seeing Xasta’s stern expression Urist could only helplessly nod. “Yes, I won’t move anymore.”

He then turned back to three awaiting him, “Vlad since your team finished making weapons for the wall. I want you to focus on making a few extras and mainly these rings. Unicy, for you I want to heighten guard duty at night in case the rats decide to attack I wanna be ready.

Other than that we will have no more explorations so use them as you see fit for guarding. One last reminder I want you to try to keep our cards hidden for as long as possible and only use one when needed. For Uria I want you to keep command in my steed over everyone’s well being until I am able is that o--”

“I reject Uria’s ability to lead!”

Just as Urist was about to finish talking Uincy interjected his decision.

Urist wasn’t surprised at Unicy’s response to not allow Uria to lead after her attempt to kill the exploration team. His only surprise was that Unicy still rejected Uria after he had just told them of the rat king’s abilities to invade people's minds and pull on their regret. Although he could say it he decided to see what Unicy had on her mind.

“Uria might have been under the control of her regrets, but she lied to us saying she couldn’t remember threatening the lives of the expedition. I also believe her to be too unstable to reliably lead because of such a weakness which is you, boss. If you were too unfortunately di--”

“Do you want him dead? I won’t allow it and I can’t remember what happened.” Uria interrupted.

“Uria. Let Unicy continue.”

“Ugh.”

“As I was saying, although I do not wish for you to die, boss, if you did and Uria led us, I believe all of us would be heading into ruin. I ask you to find someone else to lead in your stead.”

Vlad smirked, “Heh. Our master of war is planning on offering you to be boss after you get your ass kicked by some rats. Boy, how I don’t envy your position, I’d love to stick around but I see Xasta got the materials we’ll be needing. Hey, Xasta follow me with those items.”

With those words, Vlad left the flabbergasted group of dwarfs and headed back to his makeshift workshop.

Urist coughed to break the awkwardness Vlad left in his wake. “I don’t plan on dying anytime soon. Though with that being said, what you say Unicy is correct. Uria as you are now I can’t trust you to carry on if I die. So until I’ve decided who will be my successor, Uria will lead temporarily under the aid of Qrtia. I assume that would be fine for now Unicy?”

“Although it isn’t perfect, I understand your decision boss. I shall bid you farewell and take control of the wall. May you make a speedy recovery boss.”

With Unicy gone all who were left in the cave were the healers, Urist and Uria who stared at each other.

Sighing Urist eyes felt heavy, he just wanted to go to sleep and let his aching body rest. But there was just one thing he had to do before then.

“Uria I’ve come back home alive.”

The currently mopping Uria eyes twitched up to see Urist foolishly smiling from ear to ear. She didn’t care about leading the dwarfs to greatness or their lives for that matter. She didn’t care what people thought about her. For reasons, she couldn’t understand well enough. The only thing she feared was Urist hating her.

But hearing those words and that foolish smile made her almost tear up. Almost. Instead, she walked up to Urist who had been mostly patched up by now and smacked him across the face.

“You’re an idiot!”