“I thank you again, Lord Roughtuff.” Deathbinger bowed, his tail hiking up over his head as he did. “We would certainly ‘ave lost many kits if not for yourr intervention.”

I shuffled uncomfortably. “I had nothing to do with it, it was my brother and his companions that slew the Goooose.”

“Yes, but you were the one who could summon them.” Deathbringer reached out a paw and patted my hand. “That makes it yourr power.”

Beside me, Balin snorted. He and the rest of Brightstar were spread throughout the beaven encampment, helping to set up buildings and equipment. Contrary to what we’d originally believed, the beaven didn’t only live in the big den. They mostly lived in big teepees made of beer skins.

In the distance, Flowerpott was in the middle of critiquing some of the beaven kits as they painted on the side of their teepee. It was a group of stick figures attacking a big stick-Goooose. Raysdotter was helping set up what looked like a totem pole with a long-bearded dwarf on the top.

It was all very BC first nations feeling, and I felt a twinge of mild discomfort. Was it cultural appropriation if a GOD caused it?

“They’re really quite interesting,” I admitted, waving my hand over the area. “And they can't do any harm locked in here.”

“You see why Yearn did it?” Val said, smiling maternally. “All the monster cultures are so unique.”

I frowned. “Sure, but they're still a problem. And I don't trust Yearn. I'm gonna have ta tell tha Dukes about this. I don't care what agreements you have with Kirk and co. This is way bigger than me.”

Val sighed. “At this point it's mostly out in the open anyway.”

“I suspect so. But, I am confused. Why didn’t my quest to save the tribes complete?” I murmured, looking at my notifications.

Starshine approached, her face grave. “Because the Goooose will be back. As all bosses are creatures spawned by the flux of Mana in the region, the dungeon will respawn it in about a week.”

I frowned. “I always wondered how that worked. So no matter what we do, we’ll be knee deep in Goooose in another week?”

Starshine nodded grimly. “Aye. The only things that can stop a boss from spawning are changing the Mana of the locale, or having another monster take over as the spawn. That usually involves a fight, with the challenger killing the boss and absorbing its core. It happened in Greentree while you were there, Pete.”

Val, who’d been standing nearby to keep an eye on things, piped up. “Yes! That was the mushfolk. They ended up killing Treebeard so many times that another big monster just moved in and took the area over. It’s really a shame they never fully took. I’m interested to see if the dungeon will continue to spontaneously create first generation sentients as well; I suspect it will.”

I gave Starshine a curious look. “If you knew that, why did you agree to fight the Goooose in the first place? Won’t we need to move the beaven anyway?”

Starshine grinned, holding up a glowing blue and brown gem. “We’ve been wanting to fight that beast for ages. And it’ll only come back if we can’t find a monster to absorb this and become the new boss.”

Val twigged faster than me. “The beaven!”

I looked askance at Deathbringer. Other than the name, nothing about the fuzzy little tyke looked like a monster. But a quick glance at my [Map] showed the telltale red dot of a monster on him and some of the other beaven around the camp.

Val was growing more and more excited. “They’re beings spawned by Mana within the dungeon – at least the first generation are. I’m a little less certain about the biology of second and third generation beaven, but first generation like Deathbringer are absolutely monsters. You’re a genius, Starshine!”

I grumbled, “Why not just a beer or somethin’? Or a timbit? Seems like that would be easier to deal with… ooh, or a punkey! The literal final boss of puns!”

“Because I would sooner die than fight a boss punkey? And I’ve fought Tentaclio,” Balin huffed.

“For science?” Val asked, his eyes pleading. “Imagine! A sentient boss! We could learn so much about dungeons!!!”

I groaned. “I can’t believe I’m actually seriously considering this. What guarantees do I even have?”

Deathbringer brought himself up to his maximum height and placed his paws on his heart. “We will always be honest in our dealings with you, Lord of the Dungeon. We beaven owe our lives to you!”

“I dunnoooo.” I tossed a [Flash of Insight] at it, but came up with a blank. Nothing I knew indicated it would be good or bad, but my heart and soul…

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Putting aside the other monsters, the beaven were directly created by my actions. They were pretty much ripped straight from my subconscious, so in a weird way, I was practically their parent. And what parent didn't want to see their children succeed?

A couple kits ran by, chasing a little house hippo. And it helped that they were so goddam cute!

“I'm… leaning towards yes,” I admitted. “But I’m still not completely comfortable with it.”

Starshine rubbed the back of her helmet. “Keep in mind that we’ll need to be paid a pretty penny too. A first boss monster core is practically invaluable, from a historical perspective. You’ll also be losing the ability to farm materials from the Goooose. And adventurers will wonder where the first boss is and go searching. If they find the tribe here before everything is ready…”

“It’s fine.” I waved my hand. “Nobody can get in here until I let them anyway. We’ll cross that river when we come to it, and dam the consequences. Nyuck.”

Deathbringer was quiet throughout this, and held up a little paw. “May I speak? You say that if I… ingest that stone, I will become like the Goooose? Will I be driven mad as it was? Will other longshanks come to slay me?”

The four of us ‘longshanks’ gave each other wary looks. That was… a good question.

“The Gods are all about choice…” Val hazarded. “They’re pretty good about making it clear what the ups and downs of God granted power are.”

“Sure they are,” I snorted. “But I’ll tell you what. I have a single use of [Karmic Reversal] available. Let's give it a try, and if things go badly, we reverse it. Maybe.”

Or have Brightstar kill him and feed the core to a Timbit. Which I very carefully did not say.

“Is everyone okay with that?” Val asked, looking around.

Balin grumbled. “It’s Pete’s dungeon.”

“And I say yes,” I said firmly. “Give ‘im tha core.”

“Work, everyone! Formation one around Pete!” Starshine commanded, and her party burst into motion, quickly surrounding me much like they had when I’d first opened the door to Cascadia.

Val took the blue gem from Starshine and passed it over to Deathbringer. The squat beaven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He motioned over a pair of beavettes – a much better pronoun than beavesses – and held them tight. They worried over his fur and their squeaks translated into worried questioning. He explained everything and they stepped back to join us as more and more of the beaven began to gather to watch, their black beady eyes full of curiousity.

Deathbringer held the gem with his fist aloft and declared, “For the tribe!”

There was a pause.

Nothing happened.

A few minutes passed with Deathbringer just… standing there.

Raysdotter coughed.

“So, uh. What’s the holdup?” I asked.

“There is much to understand.” Deathbringer frowned. “This… is much morre than when I received my Title. What is this…? Rresponsibilities… rrights and obligations…benefits… vacation days??”

Vacation days?

Balin mouthed at me, wide eyed. I shrugged.

“Does it say anything about going crazy?” I called.

Deathbringer made a shushing motion. “No. I will tell you if there is anything strange.”

After a few minutes passed Deathbringer finally said, “It all looks good. I’m rready.”

There was a flash of blue and brown light, and Deathbringer rose into the air on a cushion of air. The wind suddenly picked up and roared through the camp, spinning off in tiny dust devils and whipping around Deathbringer in a miniature cyclone. The beaven all gasped, and tears leaked from the eyes of the two beavettes.

I turned on my [Manasight] and looked around. I could only see a short distance around me, but what I could see was impressive. Mana flowed around us in a virtual river, streams of it in nearly every colour of the rainbow – plus colours I couldn’t even begin to describe. And they were all heading directly towards Deathbringer.

I really, really, hoped I wasn’t making a mistake here. I held my hand ready to command the team to attack.

Deathbringer floated there – with appropriate fanfare – seeming to swell, both with power and in size. After a minute or so he slowly fell back to the ground as the lightshow faded away. He landed gently on his feet, head bowed, tail drooping.

The two beavettes ran up to him, dodging Balin and Starshine’s protective grabs. They squeaked his name over and over, but he didn’t answer. He now towered over them, at least twice their height. He was as big as Kirk now!

“Is he dead?” Flowerpott asked. Aishablue smacked the back of his head.

Finally, Deathbringer looked up, his face drawn and grave. He took a single wobbling exploratory step, like a foal learning to walk for the first time, then firmly walked up to us.

“It worrrked,” He declared. “I am now the boss of the Rrredwood.” His eyes flashed as he looked down at me. “I have gained many Milestones, and a unique Specialization. I am now a [First Boss of Yearn].”

We gaped.

“A Godly Specialization on your first Specialization?? That’s unheard of!” Starshine gasped.

Val and I shuffled uncomfortably, then looked at each other and chuckled.

“I guess we know how the System is handling sentients as boss monsters then,” Val said, running over to Deathbringer. “A Specialization! Tell me more!”

Aishablue and Flowerpott rushed forward to join him, and they buried poor Deathbringer under a million questions while the rest of us gave them some space.

“So… now what?” Balin asked.

I looked around the busy camp, at all my syrup equipment and the dozens of happy beaven.

“Now what indeed…”

*Bing!*

Quest Complete: A Settlement Needs Your Help!

So… are you going to let them into the bar?

Rewards: [Friend to Monsters]