The king remains silent. His stern eyes express the doubt generated by the Dungeon Core's words: Beyond battles, what kind of help could a monster-creating crystal provide to humans?
Jimbo hastens to speak, wanting to win the ruler's favor, while Dowmy translates.
«I can repair the castle! The place must be heavily damaged from the attack. I'll have it fixed in a blink and you'll see how useful and reliable I am.»
Instead of rejoicing, King Marc shakes his head.
"What you did with the wall certainly helped us. But with your feat, you also erased the reliefs of the old monarchs, and the watchtowers, several of them built even before I was born... It would be foolish to allow you to act like that inside the castle. Even if I prefer unshaped stone and wood, my responsibility prevents me from passing down such a thing to the king who will receive my crown."
«Please, reconsider my offer. I won't let you down.»
"I have made my decision. Remain calm, Dungeon Core, until your creator returns and we have your fate resolved."
Jimbo clicks his ethereal tongue, understanding that insisting on the subject won't bring him any good with the monarch; in fact, it will probably just annoy him.
«In that case, can I ask for one last thing?»
Hilda frowns and takes a step forward to reprimand Jimbo for demanding favors from a king, but Marc stops the woman with an extended arm gesture, granting Jimbo permission to communicate.
«Free the Imp. I promise you she won't leave this basement or bother you. It makes me uncomfortable seeing her in a cage.»
Dowmy opens and closes her mouth, not daring to translate that. Especially when the last few times she asked for freedom, all she got was making Arrax angry and suffering fierce magical sparks. The king, noticing the hesitant imp, orders her to translate the core's words.
"I-It wants... It wants you to free me," she says, lowering her gaze.
King Marc narrows his eyes and looks at his knights to ask their opinion. Hilda replies that keeping an imp in the castle is dangerous and that Arrax should never have obtained her. Claus says he sees no problem with it, and if anything bad happens, he will handle it. Lynel is the most hesitant since he's thinking of Arrax.
"Won't he get angry that we freed the creature?"
"If it is my order, Arrax will have to abide by it," the king says.
The order to set the imp free is given. The soldiers guarding the door take the cage away, and the imp follows her little prison with a look somewhere between confusion and longing. The monarch faces the core.
"Do not dare to demand anything else, Dungeon Core. Goodwill without proper limits is stupidity and vulnerability. Whatever the imp does falls under your responsibility, and remember, your influence must not go beyond the cells. Otherwise, my four captains will end you."
Jimbo swallows hard and backs up a few inches. He is used to receiving death threats, but always in online chats or social media. This is the first time it happens face-to-face, and Hilda looks quite motivated by the idea of tearing him to pieces.
«I don't think a skeleton and a caveman are enough to stop these people...»
The king and the knights retreat. Jimbo uses his ethereal capabilities to follow the king and eavesdrop on the conversation.
"What do you think, Claus? Do you believe the core is deceiving us or might lose control?" the king asks.
"For now, I perceive no evil or hostility," the man in the golden helmet replies.
"The First Captain's helmet is never wrong!" Lynel exclaims, letting out a laugh.
They pass between the cells. This time the prisoners do not try to approach the monarch; Claus's presence intimidates them.
"I still do not trust it," Hilda says. "Deep down, that thing must be as twisted as the man who created it, and perhaps its synthetic nature makes it easy for it to hide it."
"Whatever happens, I doubt you will have to worry for too long, Hilda," King Marc says with a dim face. "News flies, and most likely the Mage King will order the core destroyed. I will try to use my authority to protect Arrax and his disciples... But the fruits of this surprising research, knowing how delicate our balance is, have their days numbered."
The group climbs the stairs and disappears. Jimbo does not try to follow them; he remains stunned in mid-air, all too aware that he needs to do something to save his skin.
Maybe in the next life he'll have less luck and be reborn as a shoebox.
Jimbo returns to the core room with his hands on his head. He starts pacing from left to right, thinking about what he will do when that hateful sorcerer heals and returns to treat him like Dowmy. Or worse, when this Mage King points out that it would be better to smash him to pieces.
«I'm screwed!» he exclaims through gritted teeth.
He stops when he notices Dowmy looking at his crystal with big, tender eyes. Jimbo asks the imp what's wrong.
"You did it... You really helped me... Thank you."
The honest gratitude helps calm Jimbo down and gives him a warm little feeling in his ethereal heart. He sketches an invisible smile that turns bitter as he perceives once again how battered the girl's body is. Jimbo wants to help her, and when he thinks about it, new options appear in his field of vision. Two skills are shown.
-Skill: Heal Minion.
Requirement: Contact.
Cost: 10 Ether.
Description: Heals a minion's wounds.
-Skill: Heal Minion 2.
Requirement: Contact.
Cost: 20 Ether.
Description: Heals wounds and reconstructs a minion's body.
He has mixed feelings. A part of him is happy to have the tools to help his allies, but his stingier side thinks it's too expensive. He only has 33 Ether that he hoped to save to level up and get more ways to defend himself. Besides, even if it seems like an understandable expense now, what will happen when he has more than one helper? The ether will slip through his nonexistent fingers like water!
Even so, Jimbo doesn't have a heart of stone...
«Brat, I want to try something. Touch me.»
Dowmy narrows her eyes in suspicion and backs away behind a pillar.
«It's nothing bad, damn it!»
After a minute of insisting, Jim manages to convince her to cooperate. Since Dowmy is incapable of reaching the crystal on her own, she goes out to the laboratory and grabs a stool. The soldiers guarding the door frown and ask her what she is doing.
"Uh, I..." The imp's mind goes blank.
«Tell them you need to clean me.»
"I will clean the crystal..." To prove her point, she grabs the first cloth she finds on a nearby table.
The soldiers let her proceed, though neither looks happy. Understandable when the task they were ordered to do is a real bore. The guards talk to each other to pass the time while waiting for their relief to appear.
Dowmy places the stool at the edge of the well and stands on the seat. Stretching her fingers, she manages to reach the hard surface of the crystal, feeling the heat of the contained magic. Jimbo activates [Heal Minion 2] and watches, covering his mouth in pain, as the ether he worked so hard to get is consumed.
Dowmy's body is enveloped in an aquamarine glow.