The Knightly Elven… Spider?

I was locked in a kiss, and remained like that for a few seconds, not feeling any kind of resistance from Cellestra. When I parted, I saw one last teardrop fall, but no new ones formed. What was left in her eyes was confusion.

“You’re not useless, Cellestra. Whatever that was, I’m sure we can fix it. I’m sorry for having to bite you…”

I placed a hand on her forehead and sent my healing light through her body, trying to heal the wounds that were invisible to the eyes.

“Kealyna,” She finally said as she embraced me. I was expecting more, but she remained quiet after just calling my name.

I patted her back and gave her time, all the time she needed.

“Thank you,” She whispered after a good while. “I… I wasn’t myself I suppose. You’re right that we can fix it.”

“That’s better,” I said, hearing that she’d cheered up, albeit slightly. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay now, I think. What made you do that?”

“You mean the kiss?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know. I just didn’t want to see you cry. It worked in that regard…” I ran a hand through her soft hair and felt Cellestra relax further. “Did you like it?” I asked in pure seriousness.

She nodded again, but her eyes looked away from my face before they closed as I continued stroking her hair.

“I’m happy to hear that,” I whispered. “Want something to drink?”

“Yeah. Thank you,” She whispered back.

I handed her the canteen I fished from her own backpack and watched her visibly improve as she also ate a bit. However, after she finished she looked at me with mild shock. I was about to ask what was wrong but she answered the question for me.

“How do we continue now? I won’t be of much use with no mana…”

“I’ll be honest, I’d like to just go home and try to figure out how this happened, but I don’t feel like that’s a good idea. We should at least get this bison back and collect payment for it. After that… would you mind continuing and trying to get to the third floor again?”

“Yeah, we can do that if you want,” She said with a nod.

I let go of Cellestra’s hair and planted a kiss on her forehead as I stood up and handed her helmet back to her. I then walked to the bison and noticed that some of its pelt was burned, but the leather beneath was still perfectly intact. I believed that was what the request was about, so it shouldn’t matter too much. In fact, I was quite surprised that the damage was so limited. Cellestra’s spell had looked extremely powerful, and just as dangerous.

I fastened the corpse of the creature to my rear with several thick lines of silk and then allowed Cellestra to hop on my back again as I reached for the halberd I’d dropped earlier. Then we started our journey back to the portal, dragging a massive bovine behind us. The sight of it all made me wonder what kind of reaction we’d get on the outside.

I was quite surprised, amused even, by the fact that we didn’t run into a single lioness when we passed through the next area, leaving a trail of flat grass behind us. If nothing else, and if it remained like that, it would make an excellent path for adventurers. Though, I doubted it would as it would make sense that if things remained, there would have already been a path or two like these.

“What do you think it was?” I asked, now that Cellestra had had some time to clear her mind.

“You mean what happened with my spell?”

“Yeah.”

“I lost control. The spell used more mana than I could properly channel, and things got worse from there.”

“So you cannot use more than a certain amount of mana at once?” I asked, carefully analyzing her story. “So all the other spells are fine, then.”

She nodded. “Seems that way.”

“And is there a way to improve your control?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” She admitted in response. “My magic has always been an exception, an outlier. Rose spent many years breaking her head over it, but we just weren’t able to find out everything about me, as you saw.”

“Sounds… frustrating,” I said. “I can’t imagine how that feels.” I let out a long-drawn sigh. “I don’t have any idea how to help you either.”

Sure, I had a skill called ‘mana control’ which might be of use to Cellestra, but I had no way of teaching her. Besides, from what I read about it, it didn’t look like it did what she needed.

“But I’ll try,” I said, resolved to help her in any way I could.

“Thank you, Kealyna,” She said, running a hand over the hair on the back of my lower head. “You’re the sweetest.”

She couldn’t see it, but I smiled from ear to ear as we approached the portal. I took a moment to see if anyone was about to enter it from the other side, and then stepped through when there was nobody to be seen.

I dragged the bison’s corpse through the dungeon exit, and almost immediately after I stepped out the other end, the soldiers, whose lives seemed very boring to me, turned their heads, their eyes growing wide.

“Hey,” I greeted them. “I was told I could sell this here. Is that right?”

Cellestra shook her head, presumably at the nonchalance of my question.

“Uh, yes,” One of them said as he stood up. “Please, hold on for a minute. I’ll get the guild liaison.”

He entered the building and moments later, returned with none other than Felmar. I was surprised to see him still here seeing as he said he had to get going earlier. He wasn’t in armor anymore, though. Instead, he wore the same black robes that he wore the first time I met him. He also carried the clipboard that was getting hard to not see every time I thought about him.

“Well, well, well,” He said as he eyed us and then the bison. “What do we have here. Seems someone wanted to help out the guild in a big way.”

“Hey Felmar,” I said with a smile. “Didn’t expect you to be this ‘guild liaison’.”

“I am, for the day at least. I had to measure this one group, and the scheduler had me stay here for the day to deal with… other business here.”

“Such as buying and selling supplies?” I asked.

He nodded.

“We rotate between the clerks for this job. Today, it’s my turn. Tomorrow, who knows who you run into. Anyway, I’m glad to see you perform duties for the guild.”

He walked up to the dead animal and ran his hand over the beast’s fur, looking at the small burn patch as well before turning back to us.

“This is quite a bit of extra work you brought us.”

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“In this case, no. The animal is almost fully intact. It’s the leather that was commissioned by the guild, but its meat will feed many a mouth too. I’ll get the butcher out here to deal with it as soon as possible.”

He reached for a coin pouch, put it on his clipboard, and scribbled a few words with his quill.

“Because of its condition, and the fact that you brought the entire animal instead of just its hide, I’ll offer you one gold and five silver for it all.”

I was shocked but not surprised. The amount offered wasn’t much in my eyes, but we had been extremely lucky with a rare item before. I still had to adjust to what normal values would be, and if I recalled the words my father said earlier, this wasn’t so bad. He had said that one gold coin was enough to feed them for a month.

It was this adventuring equipment that was just so damn expensive.

“That’s fine,” I said. “Thank you.”

He handed me the coins and I transferred them to Cellestra, who put them away in a dedicated pouch in her backpack.

“Are the creatures further in the dungeon worth more?” I then asked, looking to earn more money. I was certain that my skills, when put to the test, would be enough to earn more coins faster.

“In here?” He asked with a frown. “Not really, until after those trees that you defeated. The water bisons are worth the same price as normal ones, the wolves are useless, and those other creatures in the water are less than useless.”

“What is there after those trees, then?”

“Creatures with magical hides. That’s all I’m going to say about it. They do fetch a much higher price, but they are also pretty dangerous.”

“That much I had accounted for. Thank you once again for the information.”

“Glad I could help.”

I waved at him as I turned around to enter the dungeon for a second time, eager to get to the next part of our plan for the day; finding out if I could obtain more spells from those lizard creatures.