Black oozes hissed and boiled under the onslaught of green flames even as they sought to drown the fire under the weight of their bodies. Twisted creatures howled as they attempted to breach the blazing emerald wall. Regardless of what it tried, the corruption was unable to quench the flames fully, only providing breaches through which its corrupted fingers could move further into the valley.

  It did this slowly but was consumed with the need to extinguish the flames. Again, the corrupted vessel cared not for itself. The flames provided sweet agony, a cleansing that angered it even as it spoke to a deep brokenness. Creatures it threw into the fire were changed as well, oftentimes turning around, reinforcing the wall of cleansing flame, diving into it to nip at its fingers without caring about the ensuing damage.

  Still, while the flames held on it didn’t remain that way forever. Like a rising tide overcoming a strongly built sandcastle, the last of the flames eventually guttered out. The corruption once again began stretching out its fingers. The animals that had been cleansed fought its progression but there was only so much they could do to halt its advance. The corruption hungered and would not stop until the source of the flames was converted or its many fingers were obliterated.

  “What do you mean that Dungeon Core is your daughter?!”

  Gerald stared at the old green creature in shock. A goblin was what he had called himself, and one from another world if the System identified him correctly. There wasn’t an error like in the stories, but the System still identified this “Dug” as a non-system Entity. The “goblin” had walked out of his cave and Gerald had seen the gemstone sitting upon his staff gleam with inner light before the large hyena-gorilla had faded into motes of light and was sucked into its depths.

  Being a D-Rank adventurer and Ranger, Gerald had seen such displays before and knew immediately what the gemstone was. When he confronted Dug about it, the old goblin introduced the stone as his daughter, Obu, which prompted his outburst.

  “Yes-Yes, my daughtah she beez. Why youz hollerin atta me?” The goblin’s gruff voice was cutting in a way he hadn’t used before, and Gerald had to force himself to breathe. Then his eyes picked up movement at the cave entrance, and he rose to his feet, tensing as other figures moved into the mountaintop clearing.

  The first was a small, slow-moving mushroom, but it was followed by three of the most cruel-looking monstrosities he had ever experienced, and he had seen a lot of monsters. His heart only marginally stopped hammering once he noticed their Ranks and levels, but the fact that they had system-registered Names sought to steal his calm.

  Dug had noticed his attention and pointed to the more normal-looking mushroom out in front. “Dat beez my son, Razum, and dose be his childrens. Ignore dem, deys ‘ere tah ‘elp.” Then, as if he hadn’t dumped that massive mess onto his brain, he turned and pointed down the mountainside and toward the valley. “Youz got bigga tings tah worry about.”

  Despite himself, Gerald tore his eyes away from the approaching monsters and looked where Dug was pointing. What he saw chilled him. There was a very evident taint to the land, starting near the beginning of the valley and spreading foul tendrils up toward the mountainside. He gulped audibly before he felt the stirrings of anger. His fellow Rangers were down there somewhere, most likely corrupted by whatever filth was tainting the valley.

  “What are you going to do?” He had to ask the question. Gerald knew he didn’t have the ability to halt such a large corruption.

  Dug just scoffed. “Protect meesa home. Dat whatta Ima do.” His eerie, vibrant eyes locked onto Gerald’s, and the man had to hold back a shiver at the intensity. “Whatta you gonna do, eh? Yousa gonna just trust in me and mine tah do dah fightin, or are yousa gonna fight fah whats yours.”

  Gerald was a little stunned at the blunt statement, and his eyes tightened as his resolve firmed. Dug seemed to see his determination and gave him a firm nod. “Den come an see whatta we ‘ave planned.”

  The whole group descended the mountainside until they arrived at the primitive hovels and dens of the little creatures that had been scurrying about constantly since he and Dug had come up from the valley. Gerald had met their kind before, or at least beings of a similar state. They were often used as servants or, in some other cases, bred for hunting or war. They weren’t quite sapient and were never allowed to grow to a point where they would be, having rituals placed upon the entire bloodline that redirected any growth of intelligence toward more “useful” traits.

  It was a barbaric practice and one that Gerald didn’t approve of, but it was how the current mortal races kept their power intact. Entire wars were fought via proxy using the creatures they had bred for that purpose. After all, low-level classers could only do so much against a couple of thousand such creatures. It was better for them to focus on growing to a point where they could actually contribute in a larger way versus dying on a battlefield.

  Even then, only C and B Rankers fought in wars. A Rankers were elite assets, used sparingly, and demigod-like S Rankers were utilized even more sparingly to hunt rogue monsters that no other could or deal with similar level threats. That was what Toliaro had been up to when he had encountered Dug. Hunting The Hidden, an A-Rank monster that was categorized as an S-Rank potential threat.

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  As Gerald stood looking at all the scurrying little monsters, he had to force his anger at the situation down. Dug had defended himself from an attack and had obeyed the first law of nature: personal survival. Anger served no purpose and wouldn’t serve his mission. There would be the opportunity for reparation later, after his fellow Rangers were saved.

  Dug captured his attention as he pounded his staff on the ground. Deep reverberations like those of a massive drum rang forth, and Gerald saw the little creatures freeze at the sound and look to where it had come from. He, too, looked at the goblin, wondering what he was up to. He didn’t have to wait long.

  The goblin raised his right hand and tossed something into the air. Sparkling motes of light seemed to float on the air before Dug snapped his fingers, and the lights blazed, zipping about until the whole area was saturated in a purplish-blue haze. Startled, Gerald half-drew his sword as images and impressions flooded into his mind. Foreign thoughts bombarded his awareness, and he shuddered at the sudden influx of information.

  A hand clamped down on his sword and shoved it back into its sheath. Gerald flinched at the sudden contact but realized simultaneously that there was no silence within his mind. He looked down and met the burning green eyes of Dug Shardaal and couldn’t stop a reflexive breath at the power present in his gaze.

  The goblin released his hold and lowered his arm from where it gripped Gerald’s. The end of his staff thumped on the ground once more, and Gerald watched as the land shifted and roiled, forming a sloping depression in the ground. Around the edge rose earthen drums, and beside each one stood a goblin formed from stone. Another boom rang out, and a tree splintered into pieces, the lumber drifting on currents of magic to rest in the center of the depression.

  With a whoosh of displaced air, emerald flames leaped to the pyre, sending tendrils of heat and fire up into the sky. No words were spoken, but Gerald still gathered meaning, fed directly into his mind via whatever Dug had released into the air. With a boom, one of the stone goblins moved, striking an earthen drum, the sound somehow rattling Gerald’s bones. The stone goblins moved slowly from drum to drum, sometimes striking the center and sometimes the sides, in a foreign rhythm that held deep significance.

  The Dum-Dum. That was what this ritual was called, and Gerald could find no sense of superiority within himself to scoff at the name. The fire called to him in a way he had never experienced before. He was no priest of the sun, no acolyte of sunlight, but he knew what he felt, and because of the meaning beaming straight into his skull, he also knew what to do.

  His sword was forgotten, laid to the side along with his shirt and leather jerkin. He moved into the depression, finding Dug already there, eyes blazing green and green flesh glistening with sweat. The old goblin had stripped down to only a loincloth, and Gerald knew why as soon as he stepped nearer to the flame. Heat roiled forth from its emerald depths, and the ranger tasted a glimpse of a sun unchained.

  This was no engine, running on borrowed power. This was the might of a true sun, free and full of life-giving heat and light. It burned into him even as he obeyed his borrowed instincts and joined Dug in dancing around the flame, cavorting as the flames flickered around them. A distant part of his mind noticed that the little creatures were doing the same, that their shadows had joined his.

  Gerald ignored it all as the joy of the sun filled him, as it had only ever done once before, back when he was a boy. His mother had brought him to the temple of the sun, and the priest had prayed a benediction over him. The prayer and the man’s kind smile had been a light during a dark time. He had forgotten what the sun felt like since then. The Dum-Dum rekindled those memories and ignited something deep within him.

  His eyes snapped open as his innate ability manifested. He could barely keep them open, but what he saw mesmerized him. Tendrils of sunlight exploded from the bonfire to wrap around individuals dancing. Like a warm caress, the light touched them, and as it did so, little flames flickered to life above their heads. He blinked, and the little flames disappeared along with his power. Only now, as he began to come to his senses, did he realize the System was going mad with notifications. He stumbled out of the circle of earthen drums and collapsed by his gear.

  Released from the fervor of the Dum-Dum, Gerald gasped for air, his body slick with sweat. The heat hadn’t left him. It coursed through his veins like the breath of a forge’s bellows. He could see his veins, standing out green against his skin as if the fire had infected his blood. The System demanded his attention, and he pulled up the latest notification, the sight of which had him laughing hysterically. It really was too much.