Decision

"What?" Heather asked the Guild assistant who'd approached us to inform us that the dungeon had closed. "What does that mean?"

The assistant retained her composure, even in the face of the way the wind whipped around us as Heather lost control of herself in her agitation. Heather, I warned.

She visibly bit back a retort, nodded, and calmed the winds. "I'm sorry, could you explain what that means?"

The Guild assistant nodded. "A dungeon closure occurs when a dungeon becomes inaccessible. No one can enter, and naturally, no one can exit either." She took a deep breath. "Such incidents occur when a dungeon evolves. In other words, Rainbow Sky Slide’s rank is in the process of changing. Such closures typically last between two weeks and two months. The rank increase corresponds to the length of time the dungeon remains closed."

Two humans and a Fairy Queen clearing a low-C-ranked dungeon was easy at their level. Anything higher, however, would become dangerous.

Justice asked, “What… rank do you… expect it… to become?”

The Guild assistant hesitated. “We cannot be sure, but evolutions rarely involve an increase of more than one letter grade. Sometimes, a dungeon only increases from, for instance, a low-C-ranked dungeon to a high-C-ranked dungeon, but there are instances of greater increases recorded in our archives. Statistically, it will probably become a B-ranked dungeon.”

My blood ran cold. Nero and Alicia weren’t equipped to run a B-ranked dungeon. The difference between a high-C-ranked dungeon and a low-B-ranked dungeon was like night and day.

"Is there any way to open it early?" Heather asked. Her hand had found Justice's, and her knuckles had gone white with how tightly she was gripping his hand.

The Guild assistant shook her head. "Not that we know of, though that isn't to say no such possibility exists." She bowed slightly. "I'm sorry."

A summon whose Master died would also die. I looked at my companions. We had two SRs, and I was an SSR. We'd last a while past our owners' deaths, so we would most likely be made to bind ourselves to another person. Someone like the human Fay, someone whose original summon had died and left them broken.

As the guild assistant moved to speak with the other adventurers, Heather sank to her knees and stared blankly at the ground in front of her. "No..."

My mind had gone just as cold as my blood. Heather. We need to move.

"Why? What's the point? Alicia is - Alicia's going to -"

They have Fay with them. She'll keep them alive.

Justice knelt in front of me. "She can't… heal them of starvation."

Nero will manage! He'll keep Alicia alive! I told them, aware that my ‘voice,’ such as it was, sounded unhinged. I didn’t care. I refused to accept their death. They should have enough food with them to last at least two weeks. We were careful to always keep at least that much. In the best-case scenario, they could eat that, and the dungeon would open up before they starved. In the worst-case scenario... There were other parties in there with them. I knew my Master. Nero might be willing to die if he were alone, but he would do anything to keep Alicia alive. I promise. They'll be alive when it opens. We need to make sure we can rescue them when that happens.

Was it irresponsible of me to promise something like that? Maybe. But I believed.

And also...

Unlike Heather, I could evolve by myself. If I did, there was a chance Nero would be able to evolve again. If he evolved, there was a chance he’d get an ability that would save them. It was nothing but chances, and low ones at that, but I had LUCK UP. I had to believe that it would work out.

Heather slowly gathered herself together. "You're proposing we leave, obtain the Demon cores and Demon Bull horn, and return to rescue them?" She shook her head. "We won't be able to evolve without them."

"I can," I said. Nero and I hadn't shared this, but this wasn't the time to be secretive. "I can evolve on my own. And once we reach them, Alicia will be able to evolve you."

Justice helped Heather to her feet and led us to the Guild assistant, who was negotiating a dispute between one of the bookers and some adventurers. Obviously, people wanted their money back, since all bets about which party would clear the dungeon faster had been made without any expectation of a closure. She saw us waiting and excused herself after ordering the adventurers to give it up and use a proper contract in the future if they didn't like it.

"How may I help you?" she asked.

Heather tried to speak, but her voice broke, and she fell silent. Justice spoke up instead. I could speak, but people just didn't take a cat seriously. I didn’t understand it, really, but this was no time to go about protesting equality for oddly intelligent cats. "We'd like… to request information… on where to find Demon Bull horns…. and cores."

It took several seconds for the Guild assistant to respond. When she did, she seemed to have figured out our plan. "The Guild cannot offer official quests to summons without a Master. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes," Heather said.

The Guild assistant nodded. "Very well. Please follow me. I will accompany you to the Guild to obtain the necessary maps."

We followed her. The city guards were reluctant to allow us in, since we weren't bound to the human accompanying us. However, the rules didn't say we had to be with our Master, only that we had to be accompanied by a human, so they eventually let us through. From there, we went to the Guild. The Guild assistant led us into the library, where she gave us a series of maps. "Demons rarely appear in the wild, and when they do, it is always considered an emergency. We currently have no hunts out for Demons, so I can only tell you the closest dungeons containing them." She spread the maps on a table. "This is the closest dungeon containing Demons, but it is a B-ranked dungeon. On the other hand, this dungeon is an additional week's journey from here, but it is C-ranked."

We looked at each other. We couldn't clear a B-ranked dungeon. Even if we got lucky and miraculously managed, it would take us so long that it wouldn't be worth it. "The C-ranked dungeon, please," Heather said.

Wait.

Everyone looked at me, though it took the Guild assistant a moment to realize where the voice had come from. I studied the maps. What kind of ending do each of these dungeons have? I told Heather to ask, so she did.

A slow smile slid across the assistant's lips. "Very good. The B-ranked dungeon has no guardian at the end, only stairs, while the C-ranked dungeon has a guardian and a teleporter."

We'll take the B-ranked dungeon, then, I decided. Justice and Heather glanced at each other, then agreed and informed the Guild assistant of our decision. We couldn’t clear a B-ranked dungeon, but we could kill at least some monsters within it, and we might be able to run past the rest. Moreover, just as we sometimes dealt with other parties within this dungeon, there was every chance that we’d encounter other parties we could team up with in the B-rank dungeon.

"That is the most logical choice. Good. I'd have had to recommend you avoid this attempt if you'd been incapable of thinking things through properly. Now, these are the monsters you'll encounter within this dungeon..."

She covered everything about the dungeon, giving us maps of its layout and specific information about its monsters. The Demon Bulls would start appearing from the third floor on, and the dungeon was only ten floors altogether. It was one of the easier B-ranked dungeons in Asteria. In fact, the only thing that made it B-rank was the fact that it had traps, which automatically increased a dungeon’s rank. She assured us that most of the traps were easy to bypass, and those that weren’t shouldn’t prove deadly.

By the time we'd covered all of the information we needed, night had fallen. The Guild assistant bowed to us as she put away the original maps, and I stored copies we'd made during the afternoon, prompting an explanation that I had an Inventory. It looked like almost all of my secrets would get exposed because of this incident, but that was better than failing to save my Master. "Although it is late, I'm afraid I cannot allow you to remain within the city. I will escort you to the gate," she told us.

"That is fine," Heather said. She'd calmed down greatly by now. "We'll be heading directly there anyway."

"I wish you luck in your venture," the Guild assistant said.

We had only just exited the Flint City gates to the south when a voice behind us called, “Wait.”

We paused and turned. There stood an absolutely filthy man with bloodshot eyes, long, tangled brown hair, and a thick beard. He was gaunt and pale, and his gait was uneven as he approached us. “Let me help.”

“I apologize, sir, but you don’t appear likely to be very helpful to us,” Heather said politely, even though I knew she had to be just as impatient to be off as I was.

“I can help. I’m - I was - I’m a thief. I overheard you in the library. That dungeon has traps. I can disarm them.” He stumbled even closer. “I’m not bad at - You see, I used to be a - I can fight.”

He barely even seemed coherent, let alone capable of disarming traps or fighting. I sniffed and sneezed. He smelled strongly of alcohol. “Please,” he said. “My kids. My kids’re in there.”

Heather paused. “In the closed dungeon, you mean?”

“Yeah. Please. Let me help, and then you help me save them.”

We looked at each other. At last, Heather decided, “If you can keep up with us, we will cooperate with you. If you cannot, however, we will leave you behind, even if that means abandoning you in the middle of the dungeon.”

“That’s fine.”

We took off running, determined to get as far as we could tonight.