“No one needs to die today,” I said, holding up my hands as the last trickles of mana of life disappeared. “See? I can free you of your slavery.”

As I got a clearer picture of the fairy woman, I could see the distinct slave collar still on her neck. When I mentioned it, she reached up and touched it, as if she forgot it was there.

“Freedom?” She said the word slowly like she had to sound out the words.

“Yes…” I nodded. “I plan to free all of them. I can free you too. Then, you can make a new water of life spring, wherever you want. I’ll even help you build it. We can… we can finally end the lore correctly, okay?”

This seemed to be the right way to end things. Karr had somehow wronged her, but he also loved her.

“You wish… to remove Celeste’s collar. You want… to set her free?” the fairy queen’s words were slow and strange.

I nodded. “I’m not anyone’s Master.”

The woman’s head dropped, but rather than thoughtful or considering, she seemed to be disappointed. I didn’t understand that look in the slightest. Why was she disappointed that I didn’t want a slave? Isn’t that a little backward?

“I see…” The Fairy Queen sighed, her angry miasma seeming to shrink a bit. “Then, I suppose this is an ending too. I had thought that Celeste was in your thrall. Had I known what I know then…”

I breathed easier. The entire atmosphere was growing relaxed. I managed to talk down the dark fairy queen and master of this dungeon. With things going this way, we could end this dungeon without any bloodshed. That was what I wanted more than anything. The fairy pointed and I turned to notice the stairs leading up to the library.

The door wasn’t closed blocking them. That was right, in the last dungeon I was in, the library door closed and the break room was actually part of the boss room. If there was a kiosk, that meant that you could flee the final boss, but doing so would send you back to at least 5 levels. That gave me a thought.

I didn’t really know how strong dungeon final bosses are. I threw everything I had at the Necromancer who would have been the weakest boss, but he only gave up in the end due to various circumstances. What if… while all the bosses down to the bottom were normal, maybe dungeon bosses were closer to raid bosses. In other words, they required a long term, extremely difficult battle. That would explain why the portal was accessible during the battle.

When the Guild Master wanted to defeat this dungeon, he had recruited over ten of us. That should have clued me into how difficult that fight was. After all, once the final boss was dead, the lore would reveal itself and be destroyed, yet many dungeons had existed for decades and had never been defeated, even by people way more powerful than me. In fact, these boss rooms were humungous and easily could fit 30 or 40 people if needed. In fact, dungeon diver would be a more common job if it was easy. If true, I really had defeated my first dungeon on pure luck. Perhaps, this one could be defeated the same way.

I took a breath and started heading for the stairway. This truly had become the best ending possible.

“Watch out!” I heard the shout, and then someone shoved me.

Celeste had shoved me aside, as I fell down, a dark beam shot where my back would have been. Instead of hitting me, it hit Celeste instead. I watched in horror as Celeste was consumed in darkness and blown away.