Leon snarled at the sight. That buttinsky Bright stood at the junction, with Leon's unzipped backpack leaning against the wall.

"Didn't I tell you to stay?" Leon pointed at his bag. "Also, why did you open it?"

Bright dug into the backpack and pulled a fabric pouch out of it.

My potion stash? Leon facepalmed. "Can't you see that I'm perfectly fine?"

Pouch between its jaws, Bright tilted its head and blinked.

"If it's about bringing some potion to a fight, I'm not doing it." Leon folded his arms over his chest. "Many foes, including constructs and undead, often try to steal them from you and use them to their advantage."

Bright walked towards Leon, its bushy tail swishing left and right.

"Yeah, I know some healing potion can harm undead, but mine contains too little Life magic to do so. You know, I can't resist buying discounted stuff." He waved his hand in a shooing gesture. "Leave now." Bright stood still, at which Leon kicked it lightly in the face. "Leave, I say!"

With its ears and tail drooping, Bright turned and limped away. Leon's chest ached as a lump formed in his throat; he'd never had a heart to hurt a wolf, even if it were just an act, but this had to be done. Bright getting hurt or dying would not only put him in a serious trouble with Mr. Marino, but also reopen the wound created by his big bro's death.

"I'll make sure that you aren't following me." Leon stomped the ground hard, and a metal wall erupted in front of him. It stopped right before hitting the ceiling and left behind a small gap.

Bright's howl sneaked through the crevice, causing Leon to wince. Damn. If he hadn't needed some air, he'd have sealed off the entrance completely.

Hearing even more howls, Leon stormed away from the metal wall. The swarm of lux inducens dispersed to avoid him. Not that he cared anyway, since nothing in this world could touch them. Heck, despite being fireballs, they didn't give off any heat.

An ornate carving of a thumbscrew compass - Aedifex's symbol - rested on the wall at the end of the hallway. Quite a small and straightforward dungeon, huh? Leon thought. The dungeons in city areas are never big anyway.

He stopped in front of the wall and held his spear two-handed. White radiance emanated from his body.

"Praised be Aedifex,
The almighty creator.
Open the final gate of thy dungeon
For thy faithful to slay the dungeon master!"

Leon spun his spear and drove the three-pronged head into the center of symbol. As the radiance around his body disappeared, the carved wall faded.

A rectangular chamber, illuminated by clusters of lux inducens on the walls, awaited in front of him. At the center of the room a skeleton stood, slightly taller than a grown-up man. Radiant green orbs rested in its eye sockets.

In its hands a bone greatsword rested, its blade resembling the vertebral column of a human. Unlike real spines, though, they were flat and the bony projections on each side looked more like oversized sawteeth.

A swordsman? How generic. Leon wondered what elemental magic this fiend wielded, though. Nobody could guess a fiend's element until it used magic once, but to Leon, it was never a big deal. His antimagic jacket would protect him, although it only covered his torso and arms.

Leon whistled at the skeleton. Clenching its jaws, the fiend charged with its sword raised overhead.

Got you!

Once the skeleton entered the hallway, Leon's flurry of jabbing spearhead stopped it in its tracks. At first the fiend could still dodge, but the lack of wiggle room eventually forced it to parry everything. Their weapons clashed several times before the wild claws ripped off its arms and the fiend lost its footing.

As Leon thrust his spear, a pair of laser beams shot out of the skeleton's "eyes." Pain jolted from his thighs, but he roared and pressed on.

The spearhead punched through the fiend's skull, and Non-Elemental magic streamed along the weapon. A burst of pure energy blasted the skeleton to pieces and knocked Leon a few feet back.

Leon landed on his backside, and pain akin to having heated metal pressed against his flesh shot up from his quads. He grimaced and grunted, his gaze falling to the fuming, gaping wounds on his thighs.

Not a big deal. Watching Bright getting injured for his sake would hurt much worse.

Amid the stench of burnt flesh, Leon sensed the scent of jasmine. He looked ahead and saw a large mound of gold bars and coins resting at the chamber in front of him. Ah, the dungeon's treasures. According to the spiritualists, once one had slain the dungeon master, Aedifex would give the fragrant gold as a reward for punishing the fiends. Compared to the fiends in the wilderness, the ones in the dungeons committed worse crimes in their past life.

Leon plunged his spear into the ground. Despite the stinging, searing pain from his thighs, he rose to his feet and limped towards the chamber. His heart pounded. Beads of sweat rolled down his temple.

His legs faltered when he stepped into the chamber, and he crashed face-first to the ground. Biting his lips, he pushed himself up with his spear. However, his legs refused to move, and he fell back down. The pain from his thighs forced a scream out of him.

Loud barks came from the hallway, at which Leon rolled to his back and sat up. Bright stood in the distance, digging into his unzipped backpack. He smiled, but only a little bit as the guilt of kicking the wolf earlier tore his heart.

After pulling a fabric pouch out of the bag, Bright rushed to Leon. His eyes widened when he took a closer look at the wolf. Its paws were bruised. Its foreclaws and horns were all broken. Dried blood stained its snout and the sides of its mouth.

"You..." Leon snatched the bloodstained pouch and noticed Bright's broken and missing fangs. "Damn you! You hurt yourself when you destroyed my wall, didn't you?" Tears welled up in his eyes as he took a vial of healing potion, uncorked it, and pushed it to the wolf's snout. "Drink this!"

Bright tilted its head and blinked.

"Drink it already!" Tears trickled down his cheeks as the image of his big bro's bloody corpse flashed in his mind; if Leon had kept fighting with his broken spear instead of crying in fear, his big bro wouldn't have rushed to protect him and died. "Look at your wounds! Mr. Marino won't like them, dammit!"

Bright seized the vial with his mouth and gulped down the green liquid. Within a split-second, the bruises around the paws faded. New foreclaws grew to replace the old, broken ones, while its horns and fangs regrew only a bit. After plugging the empty vial, Leon returned it to the pouch.

Seriously, I hate it when people help me and get hurt.

Leon took another vial from the pouch and drank the potion. The pain from his thighs dissipated as new flesh grew to seal the wounds shut.

As he returned the empty vial to the fabric pouch, Bright rubbed its face against Leon's while wagging its tail. He smiled, but a moment later, he forced his face to be as sour as possible.

"Get off me!" He shoved Bright away, picked up the pouch, and stood up. "I'm only giving you some potion because you're Mr. Marino's trusty guard dog, get it?"

Bright flashed Leon a smile before running towards his backpack, biting the strap, and dragging it towards him.

"It won't be enough to hold all the treasures." After returning the pouch to his backpack, he looked at the heap of gold. "I'll conjure a few metal boxes and maybe a wheelbarrow for-"

Excited barks and incoming footsteps interrupted him. He turned around and smiled at the sight. Mr. Marino walked towards them, accompanied by three muscular men in hard hats.

"When our phone signal was back up, I figured we should check the dungeon, too." Mr. Marino looked at the pile of treasures behind Leon. "Mr. Burke told me that the mercenary who cleared the dungeon takes all the loots. I've brought some men to help you carry all those."

Leon nodded with a smile. "Thank you." He liked how every client never bothered trying to steal the treasures or persuade a mercenary into sharing some of them. Due to the jasmine scent from the gold, only mercenary trading centers would pay for them.

As he reached out his hands to conjure metal boxes, he saw Mr. Marino glare at Bright.

"You damned fiend! Told you not to follow him, but you were so stubborn!" Mr. Marino pointed at Bright's broken horns. "I hope you learn something from those."

Leon looked at Bright, whose ears and tail drooped as it whined. Honestly, if Bright hadn't been that persistent, he might still be lying on the ground with injured thighs... Ah, forget about it. With his job done here, he'd soon be saying goodbye to Bright.

I don't wanna grow fond of anyone. I don't want anyone to grow fond of me either. Leon's eyes grew wet when Bright approached him and nuzzled his legs, but he held back the tears; a professional mercenary shouldn't cry in front of his client. Parting with your loved ones hurts like hell... Damn, I'm about to experience it soon. Bright, you're really annoying!