The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

Three days ago, Hyklan's group should have arrived at their camp. Hygon, who was responsible for operations in the county, was furious. His thugs hauled the supplies for that lazy lizard two days ago. He chewed on some dried rabbit meat and cursed profoundly. When his brother finally...

"Boss?!" a rough voice called him from the main cave chamber.

"What?!" Hygon yelled back into the corridor.

"We have found Xita!"

"Finally... Where are the others?" He threw the rest of the meat into his crocodile-like maw, chewing it quickly while walking toward the voice.

"We don't know. She won't say anything."

"Where is she?!" Hygon roared angrily when he entered the main chamber.

"Dead," one of the scouts replied simply.

"The others?" Hygon asked slowly, his wrath boiling.

"No trace of them..." The Scoutmaster went to the table and pointed at the map. "It must have been a dungeon. But which one?"

"Pfft... This new one. It must be starving by now." Hygon growled in anger. "Prepare..."

Clangs of heavy armour and screams of guards pierced the air. The slavers quickly took their weapons and formed a shield wall. They waited for the guards to fall back, but besides the screams, nothing came from above. Something was coming closer, and the scouts prepared to fire their bows. The main chamber was fairly deep underground, so it was warm and smokeless thanks to the chimneys hanging over the four large fireplaces. The slavers could easily defend it against almost anything.

The minutes passed and each one of the thirty gathered slavers started getting anxious. Whatever was coming at them had suddenly stopped just around the corner. But that wait was working for them better. From the other corridors, more men came running; others who strengthened their defence. Now there were about thirty warriors and thirty pikemen, in addition to the twenty archers. Everyone was aiming at the corridor exit, with arrows notched, though still not drawn to preserve strength. Whatever was there would be killed. Everyone here was level thirty...

*THUMP* *THUD* *THUD* *THUD*

The slavers nervously looked at each other, but at that exact moment, from the corridor came a line of knights, with their shield against shield, though there were only ten of them. The knights were wearing strange full-plate armours in addition to their large, overlapping shields. Their equipment was pristine and shining so much, it looked like it was made from silver decorated with gold and black metal. They wielded short broadswords which looked strange compared to their large shields. The slavers started laughing and their archers fired a volley of arrows, but when their projectiles bounced off harmlessly, their laughs cut abruptly. The knights, without stopping, moved toward the centre of the slavers.

"Crush them from the sides!" Hygon yelled as the slavers' middle line started slowly walking back, their side almost encircled by the stupid knights. But when the slavers were about to crush the weak flanks of the knights' formation, a large pack of wolves emerged from the hallway. The wolf pack divided into two groups that quickly attacked warriors and leapt at archers. With the monsters disrupting the slavers' lines, the knights entered melee range. The slavers broke their formation to engage the knights, but instead of customary duels, the knights held their line.

Hygon tried to rally his mercenaries, but most of them were cut off by the large wolves, who were big enough to bite off limbs or heads in one bite. He barely managed to parry a strike with his shield from one of the knights and his arm was injured now. The large Lizardman doubted he would be able to parry the next strike. With the use of his tail, Hygon managed to gain space, but he wasn't paying enough attention to his surroundings and he collided with something. When he looked up, he saw a giant black wolf covered in shadow, despite being in a fairly lit cave. The wolf caught him swiftly and tossed the big Lizardman on the ground, knocking him out.

It was over quickly. With broken ranks, monsters everywhere, and huge level differences between the fighting forces, the slavers simply were captured and put in chains. When Hygon woke up, he was already chained like a slave; his arms, legs and even collar connected him to the other former slavers. He tried to break free, but after a few moments, he stopped. No one cared about his struggle.

Two knights stayed behind with most of the wolves. There were too many monsters to fight them, but Hygon looked around, hoping to find a way to escape. A sudden cold wind made him look at the chamber entrance. The biggest wolf that the Lizardman ever saw in his life was slowly entering the main chamber. It barely fit in the cave, causing the slavers to shake in fear. But who are these knights? The monsters ignored them, which shouldn't be possible. He noticed that the big wolf was coming his way and even the knights moved away with a bow. That made Hygon very nervous. The wolf glanced at him with a look full of contempt.

"You will tell me everything I want to know," the large wolf promised in a hard voice.

•••

I was whistling merrily, walking towards the kitchen. Behind me, Amber and Irene were introducing Luna to the multitude of incredible dishes that Annika was creating. Well... Now that we had tamed buffalos, Annika was living through a culinary renaissance. Milk, sour and sweet cream, butter and cheese. Oh yeah. We had it all now. And since they were woolly buffalos, we also had their wool from which Wendy was able to produce a very nice material. However, when she mixed it with spider silk, she created an insanely high-grade textile. One that would easily replace the polyester materials she used before. It was an amazing feeling to witness how resourceful my residents were. When we went down to the ground floor, I could already smell the goodies from the nearby kitchen. After crossing the hallway, I opened the testing room’s doors.

"Annika, you are a kitchen wizard!" I exclaimed with pleasure painted on my face, sniffing the wonderful aroma.

"Thank you, my Lord." She smiled proudly.

The degustation room was not exactly a dining hall or a simple mess hall. It was rather too small for this purpose since it was just ten by seven and a half metres, with four round tables. At each table, fourteen or maybe fifteen people could sit comfortably. Over each table hung a medium-sized magic chandelier that brightly lit the table, allowing for the best presentation of Annika's masterworks. The tables and chairs were made by Bjorn. He put great effort into the special woodwork, enchanting the chairs so they would always be the perfect height for a person sitting on them to enjoy the meal. That's a level 83 Master Artisan for you.

Marie, Fiona, Nicole, and Clovis were present as well, already sitting at the table where my Queens and I customarily sat. While the girls were waiting in anticipation, Clovis was a bit scared by the place he was in. But the brightly lit, big and cosy room was hardly intimidating. When I turned my head, I noticed Dahlia, Ruby, Beryl, and Opal sitting at the second table. I was wondering where my dwarf boys could be, but then I heard the commotion in the corridor behind. The Butlers were helping my Queens with their high-back chairs when Ragnar, Verni, and Bjorn ran into the room, making everyone chuckle. It was time to start.

Annika, with the help of Sally and Wendy, brought in all the new dishes she had prepared for today. At first, it was not a dish but a drink, chocolate milk was served, which was excellent. Everyone liked it, but the kids and Luna fell in love with it. Then Annika quickly gave us degustation portions of various kinds of cheese she had managed to make. I would be lying if I said I was not in shock, because I had been sure cheese needed more time to mature. Apparently not when the magic of Culinary Genius was involved. Annika was the first among my residents, who, according to the World System, had maxed her class and obtained a legendary variant of it. So no wonder these were the creamiest and most perfectly tender cheeses I had ever had in my life. Everyone, especially Ragnar, immediately saw the immense potential of cheese.

"Imagine this with a cold beer and crackers!" Ragnar raised his piece in the air, making all the other dwarfs loudly agree with him.

"That will be excellent, Ragnar," Verni replied enthusiastically.

I smiled and looked at Irene and Amber, who ate their pieces with pleasure painted on their faces. One of the ingredients for the main course was salami. To make it, I sent one of the biggest storm eagles on the hunt to find me some kind of wild boar or stag. It would be wasteful to use woolly buffalo like this, plus finding boars might get us to the bacon. Two birds, one stone, baby.

It's pizza time!

•••

"That was AMAZING!" yelled Clovis, unbeknownst to him, that on the highest floor of the Palace, the Queens were yelling the same thing. "Do you think we can get more?"

"You bet!" Nicole was sitting on a giant bean bag cushion, barely able to move after devouring half of a large pizza.

"I want more of that chocolate milk!" Marie raised her hands towards the ceiling, mocking a catching motion, almost falling from her cushion.

"When will Uncle Ian return?" Fiona asked as she started counting something on her fingers. "Tomorrow? Surely he will bring more buffalos! I hope they all can give plenty of milk."

They were resting in their indoor playground. It was full of different obstacle courses that often ended with insane slides they loved. They also had here a place to just sit, relax or play some board games - something they loved and never heard of before they ended up in Avalon. Clovis was at first anxious about playing with humans, who usually despised non-humans, but they gave him no other choice. Marie just summoned her familiar and snatched him away. He must admit it was a good idea because his sister was sent to train with Scion Galahad and he would just be sitting at home alone otherwise.

"I think so... Mr Fluffles?" Marie looked at her shadow, from which the large head of her familiar emerged. "Can you go and ask Uncle Ian when they are going to return?"

"Lord Arani reported to our King that Mr Ian should return tomorrow. But I can go and ask if you wish so."

"Hmm... Maybe not." Marie, at the last moment, managed to cover her face, stifling a massive burp. "Sorry..."

Clovis erupted with laughter so contagious that everyone joined. After all the bad things that happened in his life, he simply was happy. The last two days were just incredible, and he couldn't believe his luck. His sister was alive, and it looked like he would soon have real friends. When he started wondering which obstacle courses he should try first, the sudden silence worried him a bit. When he opened his eyes, he saw above him all three girls who were standing around him. They were looking at him intensely, with friendly, but slightly mysterious smiles.

"W… what?" Ha asked, suddenly scared by their looks.

"You see, Clovis, we were wondering what class you wanted to pick up?" Marie asked him with innocence painted on her face.

"Oh..." He exhaled, relaxed. "When my sister and I were saved from slavers, I briefly met an Elf guy who tended our wounds. I know this is crazy, but I would like to be like Auburn. I thought he was a Tank class, but the other kids in Everlight said he is a Healer! And his class is very rare. That's awesome, don't you think?"

The innocent smiles on the girls' faces changed into mischievous grins. However, this time Clovis felt they not only liked his idea, but they were extremely happy. Nicole outstretched her arm towards him and effortlessly helped him to stand up. He started wondering what levels his new friends were.

"That's an excellent idea and you are right! Apothecary is an awesome class!" Fiona and Marie took his arms and towed him toward the exit.

"Will you join our party?" Marie asked out of the blue.

"But I'm just level one!" He didn’t have the palest idea what they were up to, but... "You know what? With pleasure."

•••

"So you want to help Clovis get a class?" I asked after meeting with Marie's group in the greenhouse.

Mr Fluffles had conveyed to me Marie's request to meet with them in the greenhouse at my earliest convenience. Since I was still at the point where I had no idea if I should expand underground or start thinking about what to do in the spring, you could tell I was so busy that I was bored. So here I am, listening to the excited voices of four kids who "Have A Plan".

"Yes!" all three girls responded, looking at me with puppy eyes. I knew they were up to something, but honestly, I had no idea what they were scheming. Clovis was standing behind them, wagging his wolf-like tail, which almost made me laugh, if not for my Poker Face.

"And what class does Clovis want?" I looked at him, hoping that the girls didn't make him pick some class he would regret.

"I want to be an Apothecary, my Lord! That is an awesome class!" Clovis was almost too excited to tell me this. Honestly, he was too excited to remember about all that bowing and other bullshit that is mandatory outside.

"Apothecary?" Uhum, so that's what's going on. I looked at Marie, tilting my head. "And you asked him to join your party?"

"Well, he is our age, so..." Marie opened her arms wide with a big grin.

"You talked with your sister about this?" I looked at young Wolfkin, but honestly, Apothecary was an incredible class.

"I think she will be happy, my King," Clovis responded, after a while, long enough to assume he double checked his decision.

I asked Dahlia through Galahad if she didn't mind. The fact I would like to have more healers among my residents was no reason for me to force this on anyone. She was surprised at first, but then she quickly told me it was Clovis’s decision. That worked for me.

"Sure!" I snapped my fingers and created a class quest. However, during its creation, a rogue thought crossed my mind, namely; is there a better version of apothecary? Oh, yeah... There was... "Okay, Clovis, I have good and bad news for you. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"The bad one, my Lord." All the kids looked at me with cautious gazes.

"You will not be an Apothecary if you take that quest." I told him with a wide smile, waving the paper, which made them even more curious.

"The good one then?" he asked with hope in his voice.

"Runic Warpriest." I gave him a page with the quest.

He took it with trembling hands and from the corner of my eye I could see Marie and Fiona jumping like crazy, holding their hands. Clovis tried to read, but it was too hard for him. Nicole gently took the paper and started reading out loud what had to be done.

"So this quest is definitely party based..." She looked at Clovis and grinned. "That is awesome! Girls! .... and Clovis! We will start by clearing the labyrinth."

"Na-ah! First, we go to Uncle Ragnar to get him proper gear!" Marie said, catching the happy boy's hand.

"Na-ah! First, he must accept the quest!" Fiona caught Marie to stop her.

"OOOHH! Right..." Clovis and Marie replied at the same time.

I started laughing as they left the greenhouse. Those kids were adorable. Well... Deadly and adorable, but in this world, it's safer for them this way.

•••

As the kids ran towards their indoor playground, or maybe I should call it their base of operations now, I teleported to the living room. My Ladies had gone to take a long bath, so I sat in the armchair near the fireplace. After a moment, I changed my mind, and I lay down on the sofa, closing my eyes. I looked at my domain from above and I was happy. Everlight had started generating nice amounts of mana. Lately, most of the former villagers and liberated slaves joined the ranks of adventurers. They started asking about permissions to settle down in Everlight, and while I was certainly not against it, I would have to employ some loyalty vows to make sure no one compromised the safety of Avalon. However, with almost sixty people regularly exploring the dungeon areas, my income was around a quarter of a million mana.

After a successful raid on the slaver's camp, I received hefty amounts of mana, so taking into account all recent mana gains, I would easily last the entire winter. The captured slavers were also put to good use. I sentenced them to thirty years of forced labour and I trapped them in the special underground prison so they could try to fight their way out, which was impossible, or they could do the mining. Either way, they would generate a lot of mana. So far, six of them tried their luck with escaping the prison, dying in the process. That gave me six hundred and fifty thousand mana, which again was a very nice amount. I ordered they be cremated and entombed in the cemetery, which gave the next sixty thousand mana. I expected much more since they were the highest levels I had seen, except for my residents, but that worked for me as well.

They had been from the biggest slaver camp in the area, so now my raids would bring the local slaver operation to its knees. I knew I was not exactly the greatest person around, but slavers are just the worst and simply had to be eradicated. I will leave a note in my journal right now for the future me or anyone reading this. You can accuse me of hypocrisy, that I hate slavers, but I made them slaves in turn- unfortunately, I'm not perfect. And I'm fully aware that I might be hypocritical, but frankly, I don't care. Self-righteousness at its worst, and I won't even pretend otherwise; I can, they don't- because I said so. The world is not fair and I'm not either.

I was thinking about the things that needed to be done and questions that had to be asked. Where to start now...

1) I should probably ask Sigismund for the full version of the story about that dark empire.

2) I should learn more about other heroes and gods.

3) I should ask Luna if she can get copies of records of the other Kitsunes from the Holy Grove.

4) Expand underground.

5) Find mithril.

6) Find armour sets for Amber and Irene.

7) Gather as much intel as possible.

8) Prepare for spring and inevitable war.

9) Find more residents.

I returned to my body and saw my Queens sitting near the table. It was such a strange but enjoyable sight... Elf, Half-Elf and Kitsune were sitting and laughing in the middle of a dungeon, unbothered by their past anymore. I made peace with my past as well, steeling my resolve to protect them. They trusted me blindly, choosing to live by my side. Was it pity for their past that made me accept them? Maybe their traits and how I liked to talk with them? Maybe it was all the System’s doing? Or simply how good-looking they were? I wasn't sure, but that wasn’t important anymore. For better or worse, I decided to accept this arrangement and find happiness for myself as well. I stood up and went to the bathroom. After the shower, I put on some fresh clothes and joined my Ladies.

"It's been a while since we had time to sit and chat," I tried to smile, and I realised that was not only true but also how much I appreciated the opportunity.

"Winter just started, Theon. We will have a lot of time for chats." Amber looked at me with a warm smile.

"I still can't decide if this forced winter break is convenient or not." I shook my head.

"What do you mean?" Irene tilted her head in consternation.

Luna stood up and went for the teapot. She poured a cup and placed it in front of me with a big smile on her face. She was very quickly adapting to her new life and I think she was happier now. At least she is smiling much more often.

"Thank you, Luna." I smiled and looked at Irene. "Thanks to this forced break, I was able to form an army and prepare myself for war. I don't know what Josla plans, but I have enough time to prepare myself. That's... too convenient."

"Hmm... If you put it this way, I can agree. That sounds too convenient." Irene nodded, gripping her teacup harder. "But I think you are overthinking this matter a bit. You are not the first dungeon to show up recently, and judging by Josla's actions, I think the way the Cridians act is based on some kind of procedure."

She took a sip of tea and gathered her thoughts. Luna, on the other hand, was uncertain what she could say. Amber simply rested her head on my arm, waiting. She seemed to be a bit tired. I drank my tea and waited.

"It was four years ago when the Serpent Chasm Dungeon manifested. But Cridia took action only three years ago, so I guess they thought the dungeon was not ready to be subjugated right away. Josla used about fifty thousand strong army back then and took relatively low casualties because the dungeon was unaware of the danger." She furrowed her brow in thought. "That was intentional, Theon. Over that year, the Serpent Chasm was exposed only to Adventurers and fool-hardy locals. That way, the dungeon would lower its guard, so when the Ciridians attacked, it was defenceless."

"That... Makes sense." I agreed after a moment of thinking. "I hope that's the case, Irene. Thank you."

Amber yawned and took my hand, towing me towards the bedroom. Irene and Luna followed us without a word. I laid in bed while Amber and Irene dropped their bathrobes and fixed their nightgowns. They laid down near me and only Luna was left standing there, looking a little nervous.

"If you want, you can sleep in your room in the Palace, Luna," I said after a moment. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"No... It's not that. I just feel useless," she said, with a hint of tears in her eyes.

"Luna..." I started, but she quickly moved near Irene and looked at me while her ears were moving delicately.

"No, Theon. Not only do you seem to not need my advice, but there is no knowledge I can pass on to you. I'm a useless Fox..." Luna was about to cry.

"There are a lot of things only you can help me with, Luna," I said with confidence in my voice. She sat on the bed with crossed legs, looking at me sceptically.

"Like what?"

"Can you retrieve the Kitsune records for me from the Holy Grove?"

"Hmmm... Perhaps? That will be hard, but I should be able to get them, eventually." She brightened but just a little. “The Holy Grove is almost two months away. I think your Storm Eagles will be able to get me there much faster, but…”

"But you can't leave Avalon for longer than one week, is that right?" I asked calmly.

"Yes... How do you know?" She tilted her head, which made her long platinum hair flow like a river.

"Irene and I can't either." Amber crossed her arms over my chest and laid her head upon them. "It's the price a Queen must pay, Luna. We treat this as an additional bonus."

I felt Amber shiver, and I tried to hug her with one arm. I decided that I would not allow them to go anywhere without an entire legion and at least two scions protecting them. While I could afford the risk when it came to the people of Everlight or even my residents, I would never risk the lives of my Queens. I was an overprotective man, but they were much more important than even my physical body. I would respawn; yes, it would take a huge toll on my mana. Nonetheless, I would respawn. They couldn’t. And that's why they couldn’t take any risks.

"There are many things I need to learn about World Words, skills, statistics, and everything..." I sighed. "As a hero companion, I hope you have knowledge about this stuff."

"In that case, I will be able to help." Luna brightened and wagged her tail like a happy dog.

She quickly pressed the front hem of her dress down to the bed and blushed. We started laughing at this sight. After a while, Luna laughed as well and quickly dived between me and Irene. Irene hugged her as if she was a large teddy bear, which surprised Luna, making her squeal.

I pondered on the future, smiling lightly. There would be issues, hard times and there would be war. But I would do everything to fight it wisely and not endanger the people of Avalon. But right here and now, I just enjoyed this precious moment of laughter and happiness.