Dance with Death again.

Loki was having a rough couple of weeks. First, her familia has an encounter with new monsters and brings back a child from who knows where then that same child cracks the secrets of falna and excelia. Now she was at this banquet for the gods dealing with other gods.

The event was going well, she spoke to Dionysus and Demeter, spotted shortstack Freya, and Hephestus but just as she was about to get there someone she had never expected to appear did, Chronos.

"OHHH Chronos! To what pleasure do I owe to have you appear here!"Ganesha exclaimed

"I have bad news."Chronos said,"The dungeon has undergone a drastic mutation."

All the gods present were extremely surprised, Chronos rarely if ever left his prayer room. Everyone present immediately turned to listen hoping for more information.

"Although the exact changes are unknown, I have reports of new monsters, and materials appearing in the dungeon."Chronos said

"This is truly worrying when did this information come in?"Ganesha asked

"No more than a few hours ago."Chronos replied

"Well to keep spirits high we have the monster fariae happening tomorrow!"Ganesha tried to keep the mood up.

The night ended pretty soon after with gods and goddesses alike returning to inform their familias. Stella had spent the day making more Alumentum and storing it in her bag in case she needed it. She also went out and bought supplies for a dungeon exploration she was planning after the monster fariae, she had been delaying entering the dungeon but she decided to go and explore it.

She had bought a few weeks of food, some camping supplies, and some tools, like a pickaxe and torches in case she needed it. She had also acquired some potions and other medical supplies.

With that, she spent the rest of her day reading up on monsters and learning some tricks from Ais and Lefiya about the dungeon.

The day of the fariae was new to Stella. She had never been to a festival of any kind before, there were tons of stalls selling food and people walking around, it was really enjoyable till people started screaming.

Stella saw people running away from a monster, it stood at 4 meters tall, its body proportions were all over the place, its legs were different lengths and sizes, one being as thick as a tree and bent at weird angles while the other was as thin as a twig and equally bent. Its arms were not much different being just as thin but they were really long with huge bladed hands at the end. It was wearing a mix of robes and armor with plates covering the torso, the shoulders, and the waist.

The monster did not look like it was used to having a body it stumbled around smashing anything around it. Looking at the monster through the thaum-o-meter gave her a feeling similar to when she read that black book and the symbol on its chest was the same as one in the book as well.

That was till it spoke.

"Ah a thaumaturge, how long has it been since I last saw one of your kind?"It spoke

Stella didn't know the language but she understood what it said nonetheless. She pulled out her hammer readying for a fight in case it attacked.

"Your eye, where did you get it? It is similar to something I once longed for."

"No matter, I will be able to study it after I pry it out of your dead body."

Stella rolled out of the way just as the monster's bladed hands tried to cut her, she quickly swung the hammer upwards, missing as it narrowly dodged her strike.

"Hmm, you are more competent than you look."

Stella dodged another swipe and swung again aiming for one of the arms in an attempt to reduce his attacks.

The monster retreated a fair amount gaining some space, as she tried to catch her breath she saw a dark sphere rapidly approaching her, using the hammer as a vault she jumped over the spell narrowly dodging it.

Moments later she saw the monster upon her and she didn't have time to block it, gritting her teeth she felt herself get thrown into a nearby building crashing into it. Luckily the ring had done its job and blocked the attack.

Just as she stood up she heard a screeching noise like a fork on a chalkboard, and not even a second later she was hit by a beam of dark energy sending her back into another building.

Her ring couldn't block a second attack, everything hurt, she could feel a cool sensation on her skin and saw that she was bleeding pretty badly. Another hit like that would probably kill her, she didn't want to use the taint but dying was worse.

Stella felt the world slow down as she activated the taint, rushing towards the monster swinging the hammer down on one of its arms, shattering its bones.

"You know what? Fuck it, I'll just make a cure!"Stella roared

"Taint!?"

Stella countered a slash by the monster by crushing the hand under her hammer. She moved in closer using the butt of her weapon to push the monster back before dragging her hammer aiming for an uppercut with her hammer.

The monster saw this coming but with both its arms useless it could only watch as the hammer hit his head ripping off his body.

"Get absolutely shit on, ugly bastard!"

Stella dropped the hammer before sitting down next to it. She watched as the taint grew from her palm to the entire hand covering most of the backside. She watched as the body disappeared leaving a mana crystal, some small motes of essentia, and an odd-looking eye, gathering it up as familia members approached her.

"Oh hey guys, why were their monsters in the city?"Stella asked

"Someone let monsters get out, you ok?"Lefiya responded

"No I'm not, some healing would be nice, I nearly died again as well."Stella bluntly said, "Do they know who did it?"

"Not really the guards were all charmed when people got there, most of the monsters were looking for something, although the one we fought was different."Tione responded

"My monster was also different, it dropped some stuff though."Stella said "Any other news?"

"Oh yea the dungeon mutated, and the guild is paying quite a sum for information."Tiona answered

"Just my luck, a day before my dive as well."Stella said with a sigh.

"Are you still going into the dungeon?"Ais asked

"Oh yea, after that fight I realized that I need to get stronger plus I got some questions about these monsters, and if they originated from the dungeon then the answers likely lie inside." Stella explained.

"If I ever find out who let those monsters out I'm going to shove this hammer up their ass."Stella swore her good day was pretty much ruined because of that monster.

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Word Count: 1174

I am really dumb I ended up putting this in the novels section when it very clearly isn't. Just had to move it and got very angry with myself the entire time. Your suggestions and power stones are always welcome!