For the wo days, everything remained retively dull. With the threat of the serpent removed, nothing ended up leaving the forest, making the guard shifts feel pointless. Eventually, however, they had to return, leaving more than half of the corpse untouched, hopefully to be dealt with by the vilge.

  In the end, Lisryn’s guardians had mao remove enough scales to pletely fill up all the empty spa the wagons. When asked about it, Morris remarked, “This is a lot of material we are bringing baormally, we get, at most, a few smaller creatures’ meat, bones, and skin. That be useful, but these will make very impressive armor, as well as work nicely for several forms of magical tools. Given how much assistahey were, I’m going to reend at least half go to the Church of flict, but that will still give us quite a bit to work with.”

  Aside from that inquiry, everyone simply remained focused on what had occurred and how they had nearly lost several members despite having much more experienced and powerful mages there to protect them. In the end, however, they had mao survive thanks to the help of those who would have been sidered enemies not long ago.

  While Richard had expressed his thanks, he had been around Lisryn and her guards for a while now. One of the others who had been swallowed expressing their thanks was quite a surprise, oher hand. The third was more along what they had all expected, keeping to their own group and pining about being saved, for some insane reason or another.

  Niphru simply couldn’t uand it. He had the most reason to distrust the Church of flict, after all, and he had no problems admitting that he was thankful for their help. It seemed rather clear from his point of view that they only avoided multiple deaths because of their assistance, and it was even possible they were to thank for being able to defeat it to begin with.

  While it would have suffocated eventually, the question was if they would be able to keep it from managing to breathe again, especially as it ate more people. Instead, it was forced to exert itself, using up air much more quickly. Simirly, Raelis had done signifit damage to the inside of the ser being swallowed, havihe cause of much of its thrashing about.

  In the end, it just seemed crazy to try to act like they were not worthy of thanking, at least to him.

  Regardless, they moved on, splitting up shortly into their journey back, the other three groups taking their own routes to the spires they came from. Niphru supposed they might be going to some vilge or town along their way, even though it sounded like they were inteo avoid them.

  Simir to how the prior few days had beeful, their erip back was quite b, though it was impressive to see how many mana crystals were ed by the two guardians. Morris was much less impressive, as he was draining much rger crystals and not f huge piles of drained ones like they were.

  Niphru spoke with the others a bit, and everyone seemed quite gd that they were not at a point where they had to take ira ma. Apparently, both he and Dawn were likely to avoid it the lo, sihey both were fog at least somewhat on strengthening their bodies, which would allow them to produce more of their own mana. Lisryn’s guards had done so as well, but beyond a certain point, even that did not prevent them from using more than they produced.

  Part of the way through their journey back, however, Morris spped his head and muttered under his breath befoing to speak with Dawn. Sihey were nearby, everyone heard as he brought up that he had fotten to give her a seal to allow her to access the prison and attached testing grounds. When she had expressed i in using steam magic, it had been important to deal with quickly, but wheopped to instead focus on other things, he had no longer sidered it so vital and then fot.

  As the others expressed their disbelief at fetting su important thing, Morris handed Dawn his own seal, mentioning that he would get another one for himself when they made it back; this way, he wouldn’t fet again.

  A day ter, Miana asked if they could stop by the town on the way back, but Morris remarked that they had spent all the extra time that they had on desg the serpent as best as they could, and instead o hurry straight babsp; While this obviously disappointed several people, it did make sense, so no one pioo much.

  Shortly before reag the city, the wagon that Lisryn’s guards had brought was again hooked up to the magically-powered one from the spire before they tinued onward. Oddly enough, they were actually stopped at the gate on the way in. While the others worried for a moment, Morris simply spoke with the guards for a moment before they tinued on their way, with a new addition. It turned out that the guards had caught a thief nearby and wao skip delivering him to the spire after their shift ended, and Morris saw o force them to make the trip when they were already passing through.

  The thief they had picked up was pletely urained, which seemed somewhat odd in su easy pce to escape and hide, but he didn’t mind discussing what was going on. Apparently, he had been caught stealing food for his daughter, and when informed that while he would be imprisoned for a while, his daughter would bee the responsibility of the spire and thus be taken care of. Due to this, he had no reason to try to escape, especially since he had to tell them where his only remaining family was staying.

  While Niphru was curious about what would happen to him, Daw pale and was quite upset, remembering her enter with the man before who had beeeo death. Morris noticed her rea and came over to assure her, “You need not worry, I tell what you are thinking, and he will be fine. He has not itted any unfivable crimes. For minor ones like this, there is simply a short stay in the dungeon while we arrange for proper punishment. From what I was told, he openly admitted to stealing from several different stores, so it will be easy to resolve.”

  The man himself joined in, “I was told that I’ll either be put to work by the people I stole from until I earn what I stole from them, or work for the guards es with the money being given to them instead. I’ve heard of what happens if you do something really bad, not that many would ever dare to do so. The person who suggested I try stealing had been caught themselves and said it wasn’t too bad, and he even got a job out of being caught, so I took what little I needed.”

  He shook his head for a moment before tinuing, “All I care about is keeping my daughter safe ahy, and I’ve been told that will be taken care of, so I have no reason to oppose being caught.”

  After a moment of thought, Morris spoke up again, “In fact, how about we have you take him down yourself, Dawn? It would give you experieh the way down, and you could meet with the guard down there, in addition to seeing the practis. Meanwhile, I will begin the process ing things for his punishment and seeing to his daughter’s well-being.”

  Dawn looked around, unsure, but, seeing the others nodding in approval, agreed to his proposal as they arrived back at the spire. The thief simply stared i the immensity of the building rising far into the sky, having obviously never gotteo seeing it from up close. Perhaps he had just retly arrived from one of the towns, however, leading to him beio the area.