After making sure that my clothes contain no green colors, I take a quick stroll through my town, couldn't really do that previously while the sun was still a threat. That's at least one of the rare upsides of this current dungeon disaster.

Well, I need to clear my head and order my thoughts. Too much happened in the last couple of hours. I have once again given in to the temptation of glitch-granted powers, and "blessed" the world with some new, weird skills in doing so. Not that we really had a choice in that. And the less the world knows about what happened in our bedroom afterwards the better.

At least, that I'd have to clear my head was what I told Lucia and Eclaire. But in truth, it was just a pretext. I need to hear Elly's testimony on things, the sooner the better.

I make my way over to the west gate, the place where I used to sling rain spells from not too long ago. It wasn't that long ago, yet it feels like years have passed.

However, on my way to my old hunting grounds, I spot someone in the distance who is supposed to be dead. The church head who pushed the then-Holy Maiden Lucia unto me. I'm pretty sure he was supposed to have received a death penalty for that, why is he still alive?

I try to be sneaky and follow him. My [Stealth] skill needs some workout, haven't used it in a while. While following him, I try to sneak a peek at his status.

ACCESS DENIED

What the hell? Why can he block [Appraise]? I thought that was impossible for my version of the skill. Suspicious.

It doesn't seem like he notices me nor does he really check if anyone takes offense to his presence. In fact, no one else seems to bat an eye at his presence - or rather notices him. As if he was just dead air to the general populace.

The elderly man leisurely walks into a side road and I follow. This chase continues for a while but ends when he eventually turns around a corner which leads to a dead end. He's just gone without a trace.

Did I just imagine him? [Appraise] didn't pick him up after all. Wait, it said "access denied" and not "no target", something was definitely there.

Yeah, I did not imagine this. There are again those strange footprints on the ground, and they are exactly where the should-be-ex-priest walked. But they look way too big for the supposed dead guy. Like 5 shoe sizes too big and steep enough to be considered a hazard.

So where did he go? I was close enough behind him, he didn't have the five seconds needed to cast a teleportation spell if he can even do that. Maybe a non-magical skill like Lucy's [Shadow Walk]? Hard to imagine, he was supposedly a regular clergyman, non-magical movement skills would feel out of place for someone like that.

Maybe an illusionary wall? I try to interact with the surrounding walls in any way I can think of but nothing budges, they are just regular walls.

While I futilely ponder about this encounter, the footprints are swallowed by the ground again. As if they never existed, the ground becomes mostly flat again.

No idea what to make of that but something fishy is going on here and I'm in no position to get to the ground of it.

Full of new questions and without any leads, I finally start walking towards my original goal again. My fateful reunion with Elly awaits.

Maybe I should reconsider that? I have a bad feeling about it, and this strange encounter might've been fate's way of telling me that I'm on the wrong track. ...which is all the more reason to go through with it. Fate or some nonsense hasn't been on my side so far.

I arrive at the gate, and there really are fewer guards than before. Compared to the mass of soldiers fighting for dear life before, it almost seems abandoned, only half a dozen soldiers are standing around and barely paying attention to their surroundings. But can you really fault them? After all this time, the primary threat of the monster flood is gone and they can finally relax a bit. No more 24/7 fighting for everyone's lives.

I quickly wave the guards hello and step into the side tower to make my way up the wall. On top of the wall, I look around. The flood is indeed gone, just a few of our guys are walking around outside, patrolling it seems, enjoying a little bit of false freedom outside the confinement of the walls.

The environment below looks about as you could expect. The damage to trees is minimal, most are intact, just junglified and slightly recolored like our fortress. I hope those plants have the same taste for the color green as ours, wouldn't want to have to change colors every five steps to avoid becoming a reverse vegan meal.

And up here, is no one else besides me. Honestly, that should be changed. If not archers or the like, at a minimum some watchers are needed, who knows what else is out there? If this operates like a regular dungeon we could make surprise contact with a flock of bird boss monsters any moment.

But that can wait, for now, this is a decent place to interrogate Elly without my wives interrupting us, or anyone else for that matter. It feels a bit wrong to leave my family out of this but they wanted it this way.

This can only end well...

I gather all of my courage and open my menu. Spirit settings. There she is. The sealed-away spirit valkyrie Elly.

Last chance to turn back, me. Last chance to avoid learning something that might ruin my mood. No? Yeah, thought so.

I press the button to release Elly.