Enter The Dumbgeon

"..." Everyone was at a loss for words. What words could they possibly say anyways? The scene in front of them was just too weird. Currently they were on route to the Cave of Trials and were a bit uneasy with the way things were going.

Gorum had returned with the ratkin child, having bought her some bread and cheese from a market stall, and now he was walking with her in his arms, feeding her said cheese and bread.

"I'm sorry...I can't stay quiet any longer, why do you have that...thing, on your arm?" Mia said with a deep confusion and disgust in her voice.

"Yes, I too would like to know why you're... aren't you worried you'll catch something?" The Princess asked.

"The 'Thing' you refer to is a child, and her name is Kiibiki. She is capable of dark magic and has a large mana pool for her age so she may come in handy." Gorum said as he fed her a bit of cheese and crackers.

"You know she's capable of such magic...how exactly?" Naina piped up.

Gorum thought for a second on how to answer, he didn't really want to give away that he could use appraisal since even on his original world it was a highly coveted skill. Of course, he didn't really want to lie either...

"I'm much more sensitive to mana than the average person. I can tell someone's rough affinity just by examining the mana within them." He said, eventually landing on a half-truth. Yes, he was capable of doing such a thing, but that was also not how he knew. Although he couldn't say it was a lie he was comfortable with, it was as close as he was going to get.

"Okay, but couldn't we just...why does it have to be a ratkin of all species?" Oliva asked with clear displeasure in her voice.

"I don't know." Gorum said, beginning to grow impatient. Why they were so up in arms about her species, Dark magic affinity was rare amongst all the humanoid races besides demons. Having her around would be...well, it wouldn't be particularly special considering that it was possible to learn the magic without the appropriate affinity. However it would be harder, and the effectiveness wouldn't be nearly the same.

Gorum knew all kinds of magic and maxed them out as much as he could, but because he didn't have the affinities for them his magic would only be half as effective as someone with the correct affinity using the same spells. Infact, the only magic he could use at full efficiency was pure mana and force. Having a rare magic user with matching affinity should be more than enough to have prejudices set aside but...if they were still this adamant he would need to find a more subtle way of finding out why.

"Would you mind explaining why you have sticks up your asses about her being a ratkin?" Gorum asked, causing everyone to stop and look at him in astonishment. Subtlety was not his forte and it's not as if these children were strong enough to warrant him watching his tounge. As if too stunned or afraid to answer, the party just exchanged looks with each other until eventually the princess stepped up.

"Well...I don't appreciate your attitude but I guess it's excusable since you're a foreigner. About 30 years ago when the ratkin sought refuge on the mainland, after their ancestral island was overtaken, they brought serious diseases to the provinces and even now the diseases have yet to fade from our lands." She said with a pretentious tone.

Island fever. That's all Gorum could think of consider the ratkin he was familiar with were known to be neat freaks to the point even the slums of their larger settlements were spotless. To put it shortly, Island fever wasn't exactly as the name suggested. It was just the phenomenon of new diseases being introduced from other land masses.

It happened constantly, refugees who never even knew they were sick because they had already developed perfect immunity to their local diseases would end up spreading said diseases to people who had never encountered the diseases and thus had no resistances.

How he should explain it to them was a mystery though, who knows if they'd accept his explanation or not. Perhaps they would say something like 'If that's true, how come we've never heard of it' in which case Gorum would have no answer. That settled it to him, he would just have to take the loss.

"Well...hm. I suppose that is fair, however this girl doesn't display any signs of sickness and she's fairly clean for a street urchin yes? If anyone gets sick I'll take responsibility for it." Gorum said as he rubbed Kiibiki on the top of her head.

"thank you.." the little ratkin whispered to Gorum, hugging onto him tightly.

"Hrm." He grunted in response. He still wasn't used to those words. 'Thank you.'

Gorum's trauma aside, the group was nearing on the dungeon entrance. It was... lackluster to say the least. A small mound with a stone door placed into the dirt to be specific about it. Gorum wasn't too surprised, he'd seen plenty of dungeons with odd shapes and dimensions that didn't make a lick of sense. Something about this dungeon just seemed particularly shoddy and he couldn't really tell why. Maybe it was his own personal tastes? If so, he was being too harsh. It wasn't his place to judge the asthetic choices of the dungeon makers.

"This place looks like crap.." Evan remarked, staring deflated at the mound.

"Yeah."

"Agreed."

"It sucks."

"It's just so..."

"Well, I've seen worse."

"I think it's...no it's bad.."

"I think it's a bit silly, honestly."

"It's got alot of magic circles on it, though."

"Ugly..."

Just as Gorum was coming to a conclusion on the matter, the whole party let their thoughts be known. Even Kiibiki had commented on it. At this point Gorum was just ready to stop thinking about it.

"So do we just...walk in?" Mia questioned. Prompting everyone to either look at Gorum or Naina.

What the hell were they looking at him for?

"What the hell are you looking at me for?" He asked.

"Well...you two are the mages." Lana said, as if being mages meant being experts about all magical topics.

"I wrote my thesis on the environmental adaptability of magic beasts, I don't know squat about dungeons besides the basics." Naina piped up in defense of her lack of knowledge.

"And I just learned this place existed today, why the hell would I know anything about it?" Gorum added on.

"Well the dwarf didn't tell us anything other than to not to break in so-" Ceidi started to speak.

"Yeah but do you really trust a dwarf?" Olivia interrupted with a bit of venom in her tone.

"HEROES." A booming voice eminated from the door which had now started glowing.

"Oh good it's automatic." Gorum said with quiet surprise as he gestured for everyone to hush up.

"ENTER WHEN YOUR NAME IS CALLED. YOUR TRAILS AWAIT." the voice said as the stone doors opened on their own to reveal some sort of mist wall to pass through.