Certainly, here''s the passage with proper paragraph breaks:


    "Son of a bitch is still alive." That is what I thought when I saw Duncan''s bloodied and exhausted state. Considering how many days had passed, he should be dead. But he was alive. Even though I wasn''t happy that he survived, I had to applaud his resilience.


    Did he have some kind of skill to prevent starvation and dehydration? Or maybe a hidden bag of holding? Or maybe he was just that tough? It didn''t matter now. He stumbled towards us before sitting down. Or maybe falling down on his ass would describe it better. He had a thousand-yard stare, looking at nothing. He just sat there without saying anything. Everyone else looked at me, expecting some kind of reaction. Why me, though?


    They probably felt awkward since all of us were ready to leave him behind just a second ago. Or maybe they were scared of his eyes. His eyes were sunken, filled with pure terror. It felt like his skin was stretched to cover his face, causing him to look like a skeleton. I have seen those eyes before. Soldiers who saw the horrors of war had eyes like those. Past. What was in his past so bad that it turned him into a walking corpse?


    "Madam Agatha, could you heal him?" Blanche looked at me with eyes waiting for answers.


    "He is in shock. I don''t think he is lucid enough to realize his wounds. We may have to force him to eat and drink, but he may get... Violent. It is up to you."


    It wasn''t rare for those soldiers to think they were on a battlefield and attack when they were being helped. If someone as strong as Duncan tried to fight... I already had enough of Blanche nearly killing me when I tried to help her.


    Thankfully, after a day (or at least I think it was a day since this place didn''t have a sun), Duncan came to his senses. Good. I seriously didn''t want to fight another battle. My body ached all around even after all this time. Duncan was still shaken and didn''t talk much. Not that I am complaining.


    We moved out of the dungeon with another portal. This one gave out a grey light. It was opened when Interitus disappeared, but I was too busy with other things to inspect it. With previous dungeons, we had to track back to get out, but this one was different. When we stepped into the grey portal, we found ourselves at the entrance of the dungeon. Even the remains of the Gate Guardians were still there.


    G?kb?rü sniffed them curiously. But after that, he lost interest and came back to me. Agatha looked weirded out by him, but he wasn''t really interested in her, so it wasn''t a big problem.


    "Umm, Poyraz, I''ve been wanting to ask you: What is that?" Percavel asked.


    "A friend." I answered without skipping a beat.


    "I see." Hearing my direct answer, Percavel didn''t pursue further. Duncan looked at G?kb?rü with suspicion in his eyes.


    "You adopted a monster, brat." I noted the fact that his voice was weaker than before.


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    "I see that you recovered enough to talk shit." I said as I looked directly into his eyes. For some reason, that made him jump. Was he that affected by what he saw on the last floor?


    "All I am saying is if it bares its fangs to me I will chop its head off."


    "If you do so much as touch his fur, I will chop your hand off."


    He stopped walking, causing others to stop as well. He walked closer to me.


    "Duncan, it is friendly. Do you think I''ll let a hostile monster travel with us? Are you questioning my intelligence?" Blanche got between us. She talked down to Duncan with a cold voice.


    "It is a monster. You must kill it before it grows up!"


    I let out a chuckle. "Why didn''t you say that when you first saw him then? Oh, I forgot. You couldn''t even speak after barely clearing the last floor!"


    Duncan grabbed his axe off his back. I shook my hand, my long sword appearing in my hand. G?kb?rü climbed to my back in a blink of an eye. But before Duncan could pull his axe off his back, Blanche grabbed his hand, covering it with ice.


    "I told you before, Duncan. I told you to listen to my orders and not move without them."


    She looked back at me. No. She looked at G?kb?rü who was on my shoulders.


    "Come here."


    G?kb?rü jumped off my shoulders to Blanche''s side.


    "Roll."


    G?kb?rü looked back at me. I nodded. He rolled on the ground. Blanche threw her rapier.


    "Bring it back."


    He looked back at me, waiting for approval. I nodded again. He ran and brought her rapier back. Blanche looked at Duncan.


    "Only one of you has enough intelligence to follow my orders. And it isn''t you."


    Damn. Burned. Blanche let Duncan''s hand go. He recoiled back.


    "G?kb?rü will stay."


    I shook my hand, my sword returning back to the shadows.


    I thought Duncan''s eyes couldn''t open more after Blanche''s reaction but seeing me resummon my sword made his eyes open with surprise wider. He broke the ice with a flick of his wrist and started to stomp forward like a teenager who just got scolded by their parent.


    I sighed and noticed Percavel and Agatha looking at me with weird eyes. They were probably surprised by me summoning and resummoning a sword out of nowhere.


    "We will be able to teleport after we get slightly further away." Blanche said after inspecting the air for a minute. Or maybe she was inspecting the mana around since it made teleporting harder.


    "Won''t it be too tiring for you?" Percavel asked. Blanche shook her head.


    "No. Some of the accumulated mana is gone because we cleared the dungeon. Also, I don''t need to save my strength anyways."


    Hearing that made me realize the temperature and weather. It was warmer, and that cold wind was no longer biting my flesh.


    (Your partner wants to share the passive skill "Greater Ice Resistance" with you. Do you accept?)


    "There is no need." I said, petting his head. Hmm. Maybe I should accept it just to see how it works. But resistance isn''t required now.


    Wait. He had a skill called Enhanced Senses, right? Maybe he can share with me.


    (Your partner accepts your request.)


    (You can use the passive skill Enhanced Senses temporarily.)


    (Effectiveness of Enhanced Senses is 27 percent.)


    Hmm. Change was basically nonexistent. Maybe I should be thankful for that. If my senses increased suddenly, I may not be able to keep up with it. It also wasn''t surprising that it wasn''t too effective. It was an E-ranked skill, and I only could use it with a quarter of the effectiveness.


    G?kb?rü looked at me, his blue eyes widened with anticipation.


    "Thank you."


    Just saying that gave him the zoomies, and he started to spin around. That dork.


    Returning was surprisingly easier than arriving at the dungeon even though we were tired and wounded. It probably got with a lack of


    wind and not having to climb upwards.


    We walked without speaking. Maybe it was because of Duncan''s behavior or maybe because everyone was very tired. After we got far enough from the dungeon, we formed a circle.


    I felt the space twisting as Blanche focused. This time I didn''t get nauseous, an improvement I appreciated. I closed my eyes and opened them to burned-down barracks.