Chapter 33

"I've gotten stronger," I said as I entered the dungeon. "You saw everything right?"

"Correct, and over time as you conquer dungeons and your dungeon grows so will you," Daisy said. I remember her telling me about that but this was the first time I had actually felt like I had gotten stronger. I won't say that the fight with the werewolf was easy, this was the first time I had walked away from a fight not feeling exhausted. I looked down at the slashes across my chest which I had treated with my hemostatic saliva.

"I guess I just didn't notice since I was fighting stronger and stronger opponents so far," I said out loud. The werewolf was strong, but definitely not as strong as the demon. "Well, I guess if it wasn't for Ella it would have turned out worse." I stopped walking and thought about all the help Ella had given so far. It was a game-changer having a long-distance fighter on your side. Ella had not only been a part of the last few fights, but she had also been rather instrumental in winning them.

"You could keep her here." Daisy had been reading the thought I had where I wondered if Ella would want to stay in this world.

"The fact that she has been so helpful to us means that I can't force her to stay." I didn't have any feelings toward the elf, but she was a major help to the dungeon and I did not want to lose that.

"Why not ask her to stay?"

"I can't do that. I don't have the right?"

"Why?" I stopped at that question. Why couldn't I ask? I mean nothing was stopping me from doing it. Why did I say that I didn't have the right? Was I just regurgitating things I would have said as a human? It made sense, I didn't have any of the feelings I had back as a human, but I had all of the memories still. I knew what I would have said, or should have said as a human. But I wasn't human, so it did not matter to me.

"You're right. I'll just ask her to stay." I said smiling. I made my way to the throne and sat down on it closing my eyes. I wasn't particularly tired, but sleep was the fastest way for me to heal so I figured it was a good thing to do right now. "Let me know when there are 5 days left here. I want to make sure to get my sword from the dwarf before we leave." I let myself slip into that endless void of sleep.

"5 days remaining." I opened my eyes at Daisy's words and stood up stretching. I winces as the scabs on my chest stretched splitting in a few spots. I felt a few hot streams of blood slide down my chest. I looked down at the wound. It was in much better shape than it should be if I let it heal naturally, but there was a small line of scabs still present. I used my saliva to stop the bleeding and made my way out of the dungeon.

"Good morning," Ella said as I entered the tree room.

"Morning. Walk with me, I'm going to see the dwarf about the sword." Ella stood up and made followed me out of the dungeon. It was late afternoon when we exited the dungeon and the sun was on the decline. "Did you learn anything after the fight when you stayed to talk?"

"Well, we needed to explain to the wife, Fran, where you had come from and why you were there. She didn't seem thrilled Gorp was making a weapon for a monster but got over it very fast when Gorp came out of the forge with the mana crystals. They said they were going to send a letter to the capitol to tell them what had happened, leaving us out of it of course. He told me that it was rare for werewolves to be in this area and this close to the capital, especially with this large of a force."

"How is he going to explain what happened."

"Well since you took all the bodies, he said he would just tell them that he saw a large force of werewolves in the area to keep them on guard."

"Not a bad idea. Hope that we are gone before anything interesting happens here. No need to make an entire dwarven kingdom our enemy." We walked up the hill through the trees on the way to the clearing as we spoke. We exited the treeline into the clearing and froze at the large force in front of us. We had both been too busy talking to even care about what was in the clearing and had accidentally walked into a full battalion of dwarves. We were seen as soon as we exited the trees and were met with a scream from a terrified dwarf and a lot of voices that made my skull explode. All the dwarves reacted to the alarm and swarmed us with short swords, maces, hammers, and axes in hand. We both lifted our hands up in a defenseless manner.

"I thought elves had good hearing," I whispered to Ella.

"Misconception, pointed ears does not mean better hearing."

"So the ears are a fashion statement?"

"Shut up please." She glanced my way. The dwarves were getting increasingly nervous with each word I spoke.

"Please talk to them. Also, I think that's the first time you have ever talked to me like that." I said turning to look at her.

"Don't get used to it." She turned to the dwarves and started to speak to them making my already hurting headache more.

"No I like it, I'm impressed." I laughed through the pain as she talked quickly looking between the dwarves and me. It seemed like whatever she was saying wasn't convincing as the armed dwarves readied themselves for battle. Gorp pushed his way through the horde and came to stand in front of me with his arms out facing the dwarves as if to protect me. I looked down at the small dwarf below me and gave a little chuckle that sounded more like a horrible clicking hiss which made everyone including Grop jump. I shut up fast and let them continue to talk trying my best to ignore the pain of all their voices.

After a few minutes of this, the dwarves lowered their weapons, but not their sharp stares that let me know they did not trust me. I kept my hands up trying to look less intimidating, which was not easy when I was more than twice their size and probably the scariest thing they have seen.

A dwarf stepped forward not taking his eyes off me. His armor was a little fancier than the other dwarves around, I guessed that he was the commander of this little army. Gorp and he spoke a little more, and once they were done the commander turned and ordered his men to go back.

"What's up?" I asked Ella.

"Well, this is the third regiment of the dwarf kingdoms infantry, they were sent here to investigate the information about the werewolves. They set up camp here today and were about to look around when we arrived. Gorp explained that you were instrumental in dealing with the wolves and that you were not a threat to them. Gor looked at Ella and said a few things indicating the forge and walked away. I looked at Ella for an explanation. "He said that he needs to go edit the report he gave them now that they know about you and the dungeon. He also said that your order is complete and in the forge. You can take it anytime."

"Oh yay. Let's go see it." I headed to the forge making my way through the dwarves who were scrambling to get out of my way. They were both terrified and ready for a fight. I did my best to just ignore them since I didn't want to start any unnecessary fighting. The forge was hot and small, I barely managed to squeeze myself through the door into the little room. Hammers hung on the walls at regular intervals, each a different shape and weight. The forge was very organized, I could tell that he cared a lot about his work.

There was a large bundle of cloth leaning against the far wall. I unwrapped to fabric to reveal the shining silver sword and shield I had ordered. I grabbed the handle and lifted the blade inspecting it. It was heavy, but not so much that I couldn't work with it and the craftsmanship was flawless. I looked closer at the blade and rotated it reflecting the light of the forge, the blade had small slivers of black color embedded in the blade giving it the illusion of being wrapped in spiderwebs, there was a small spider carved into the hilt as well. It was perfect. Next was the shield, this time there was a massive spider carved into the face of the shield. I used the cloth to tie the club which had no special engravings on it to my back and held the sword and shield as I pushed my way out of the forge.

The dwarves stepped back in a frenzy as I emerged from the hut armed. Ella shook her head and spoke to the dwarves and they lowered their weapons. I walked past them admiring the work and made my way to the dungeon. Now that I had my stuff there was no reason to stay. We had made it about halfway to the dungeon when I stopped causing Ella to almost walk into me.

"What's up?" She said stepping to the side of me.

"Ella. I know this world isn't bad, but this might be the best place we run into for a while."

"Yeah?"

"I was hoping that you would stay with us in the dungeon instead of staying here. You have helped me on many occasions and have been a big help to me." I turned to face her. "SO please stay with me." She started to laugh.

"Oh god, I thought you were about to kick me out." She covered her mouth chuckling louder.

"Why would I kick you out? Wait you thought I was about to ask you to leave the dungeon?"

"Yeah, I'm not part of your army or a subordinate so there is no reason to keep me around."

"Well, I'm not. So does this mean you are staying?" I asked.

"Yes. I'll gladly stick around. It's nice to know you want me to stay."

"Don't get ahead of yourself." I turned and continued walking.

"Hey you may be cold on the outside, but it's nice to know that you care."

"I never said I cared." I huffed. "Why do you stay?"

"Well, I haven't gone hungry here, and I get to do what I want in the tree room. Besides the occasional fight, I am free." We continued walking in silence after that and entered the dungeon.

Nothing happened over the next few days and I called everyone back into the dungeon as we prepared to separate from the dwarven world.

"I'll definitely miss the fresh air and breeze," Ella said as the dungeon started to shake.

"It was too bright for me." Ella laughed at that as we watched the portal sputter along with the shaking of the dungeon before vanishing.

With that, we were free of the dwarven world and back into the abyss. After bidding Ella a good few weeks I headed back toward the throne and my next blackout.

"I'll wake you if you are needed."

"Thanks, Daisy." I faded away again.