"Yep, it was only a level two mob. Alex, you did a perfect job. I never knew you were that good with a sword."
As Katherine complimented, she gently started patting Alex on the shoulder before turning over to the two.
"You two did a good job, too. That orb of light was impressive for only a level one mage."
After gently patting both girls' heads as well, she finally led the three of them back to the end of the dungeon.
To both Katherine and the kids' surprise, there was a chest on the floor that somehow wasn't there when they ran to the end earlier.
"Wait, don't open it yet... I don't remember there ever being a chest at the end here."
All three of them stopped.
They quickly remembered what Katherine said right before they entered the dungeon, about something abnormal about the place.
As Katherine slowly walked up first, she began casting some sort of spell, trying to scan what was inside with her mana.
"Huh, weird... I can't scan what is inside."
Katherine signaled the three to take a few more steps back as she moved back away from the chest as well.
With a small spell chant by Katherine, a shadow figure suddenly appeared out of thin air, opening the chest for them.
"Shit! Don't breathe in the air!"
A pinkish smoke began coming out of the chest as all three of them quickly held their breath. But it was far too late, as all three of them fell unconscious.
Only Katherine remained standing.
"What the hell is that smoke? Why do I want to go to sleep so badly?"
Katherine wondered as she immediately went down to check all three of them, only to find their pulses still normal.
It was some sort of drowsiness inducer, as they clearly were asleep peacefully, with Katherine biting her tongue to stay awake.
As she headed over to the chest to check it herself, she was surprised to find a book sitting inside.
Taking it out, the chest disappeared along with the pink smoke as she read the front cover of the book.
Once again, to her surprise, she couldn't understand a single word of the book at all.
However, she could recognize it enough that it was clearly some sort of written language that had a meaning.
Flipping past the front cover and onto the first page, it was more unknown words with hand-drawn pictures next to them.
"Why would someone put this kind of stuff inside a book?"
Katherine's face blushed as the picture was of a woman having sex with a man, with the next several pages all in different positions.
Not wanting to see more of it, she flipped to the last page of the book, only to find it blank.
However, suddenly, her face appeared on the page, scaring her as she dropped the book onto the floor.
"What the fuck was that?"
As Katherine picked the book back up, she opened the first few pages again, only to find something even more shocking.
The entire book was now blank inside, with the only thing inside being a hand-drawn picture of her on the last page.
"What is this cursed book?"
Katherine tried to put it into her dimensional pocket, only to find it blocked. Scanning the book with her mana, she could feel some sort of life force inside it.
"This thing is alive?"
She quickly put the book onto the floor before throwing all kinds of magic at it, only to cause zero scratches.
Even when she raised it all the way to a level five spell, there was no damage done to the book at all.
"Weird..." Katherine murmured as she picked it back up before putting it away in her backpack.
As she turned her attention toward the three of them sleeping on the ground, her eyelids started to get heavier and heavier.
"Wake up! Stop sleeping on the floor."
Katherine yelled as she slapped each of their faces, but none of them showed any sign of waking up.
Resisting the urge to fall asleep herself, she gathered the three of them before a shroud of dark elements covered them.
When the elements disappeared, all four of them were back at the entrance of the dungeon, with all three of them still unconscious.
She carried all three in her arms before bringing them inside the tent. With the last bit of energy, she dropped them onto the bed before falling unconscious.
---
When Alex woke up, he was a little shocked to find himself in the tent.
But more importantly, he could feel his body feeling different, almost as if he had gone through some sort of surgery.
After sitting up from the bed, he started examining his body. All over him was some sort of dead skin underneath his clothes.
When Alex ran his hand over his arm, he was able to remove a handful, revealing pale skin underneath.
Slowly, he reached over to his face, only to find it to be full of dead skin as well.
"Yuck, what the hell happened? Why is this thing all over me?"
Alex's voice woke Sophia as she slowly opened her eyes, only for her brain to lag for a second as she looked over to Alex.
"Hm? Ah! W-Who the hell are you?" Sophia panicked as the person sitting up on the bed was covered in grey skin.
"I'm Alex... Sophia, take a look at yourself."
As Sophia looked down at her arms, she realized she was in the same situation as Alex. Dead skin all over her body.
"Hm? What are you guys on about?"
As Mary woke up and looked over to the two of them, her eyes widened in disbelief before her brain short-circuited.
"W-Who are you guys?" Mary nervously asked as she instantly moved back away from the two.
"It's me, Alex. It's just dead skin on my body... Calm down, Mary, just take a look at yourself and think..."
Slowly, Mary turned her attention to herself, only to find the same stuff on her skin. Pale skin covered by dead skin over their body.
"W-Why is this on my skin?"
Mary panicked as she tried to scrub all of it off, only to find it even more disgusting now that her hands were full of it.
"I got no clue... Do you guys remember what happened after the chest opened?" Alex asked as he stopped bothering to try to remove it.
Both of the girls shook their heads until Katherine finally woke up from her sleep. She was taken aback for a second before recognizing their voice.
"A-Alex?"
"Mom, what happened inside the dungeon? Do you know what happened to our body?" Alex asked curiously.
Katherine thought for a second before suddenly blasting a stream of water at all three of them.
The dead skin immediately fell onto the bed, revealing the pale skin underneath. Looking down at her hand, she realized she had the same issue.
With another stream of water on herself, the dead skin was now mostly washed off, with some remaining under their wet clothes.
"You guys fell asleep after the chest was opened... I managed to teleport us back to the camp before falling asleep on the bed."
"It has to be the smoke." Alex immediately connected the dots inside his head.
As the other two nodded their head in agreement, Katherine got up from the bed before unzipping the tent.
"Ahem, we all need to go take a shower now. Come on, get up from the bed."
All three of them quickly snapped out of their thoughts as they followed Katherine outside of the tent.
The sun was already setting on the horizon, with the moon rising in the sky.
"Take off your clothes, and I'll pour water on you guys."
They all quickly took off their clothes, revealing the dead skin that was underneath the whole time.
With zero hesitation, Katherine began casting a ball of water above them, letting it drop down as it broke apart on contact.
After repeating it several times, their bodies were mostly clean, with only a few spots that refused to be washed away.
Katherine quickly removed her own clothes, doing the same thing to herself to remove the dead skin from her body next.
Unsatisfied with the small particles that remained on their body, she pulled out the bathtub again and filled it with hot water.
"Come on, get inside."
All three of them quickly followed before Katherine pulled something out of her pocket dimension.
It was a bar of soap similar to the one they used back at home, but it instantly dissolved when she put it in water.
Within seconds, all four of them could feel the water rapidly turning from hot to cold.
At the same time, they could feel their skin being pinched, almost as if it was inside some sort of acid.
"Don't move. It's just a cleaning inducer. It won't hurt your skin," Katherine reassured herself as she submerged herself.
All three quickly copied her, submerging themselves underneath the water as the water began cleaning their faces and hair.
After a while, the temperature of the water suddenly began rapidly climbing again.