"I'm bored," Mirn pined as they fidgeted.

  "Hey, I see someone in a green jacket," Nameless said brightly.

  "We've been pying that game since we got here," Mirn said.

  "Aname then!" Nameless said.

  Mirn shook their head. "I don't feel like pying any mames."

  "Alright. Oh, look, it's nearly our turn." Nameless poi the line which the two of them were nearly at the head of.

  Mirn looked ahead then said, "But eae takes a long time."

  "...Hug time!" And Nameless promptly hugged Mirn.

  That at least quieted down Mirn.

  Soon enough, by a certain sense of bureaucratic time, it was Nameless and Mirn's turn.

  "What're your business?" the clerk asked.

  "I'd like tister as Mirn's guardian." Nameless poio the slug child.

  The clerk said in a bored voice, "Uood. Mirn, do you swear that this person is not f you to this, that there is nument over your custody, and that you want this person as yuardian?"

  "She found me in the byrinth and adopted me," Mirn said.

  The clerk nodded. "I see. I do still need you to swear that what I asked you are all true."

  "I swear that all those things are true," Mirn said.

  "Hmm. I've firmed your oath as true." The clerk took out a form and began writing on it. "May I have the guardian's name?"

  Crap. Thinking quickly, Nameless shoved hard at her namelessness curse. And it gave way more easily than she expected. Not b to check the curse's new form, she thought of the name she'd been wanting for a while and decred proudly, "My name is Camity!"

  The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Very well. I'll check against yistration."

  Crap, again. "There was an issue registering my name," Camity said.

  "You don't seem to be lying, though I sehat isn't the full story," the clerk said.

  Camity blinked. "Okay, I was uo have a name up until just now. I just forcefully resolved the issue."

  "That would expin the surge of Word power just now," the clerk said, "Very well, you'll have tister your new oo. Do you swear that you are not ging yistered name for criminal reasons, that you are doing so of your own will without any coer, and that you will from now onward use this name for all official business?"

  "But I didn't have a registered name," Camity replied.

  The clerk nodded. "I uand, but going through the name ge procedure is the most expediehod that I think of for handling this strauation."

  "Okay, I do so swear!" Camity put her hand over her heart.

  "Very well, here's a form for the name ge, too. Please check over any and all information in both forms and fill in any bnk fields." The clerk handed over the forms.

  As Camity filled out the forms she hat the field for her old name was filled in as Unnamed, which made sense. Finally, she handed over those forms after getting Mirn's signature on the one field that required it. "Done!"

  The clerk took the forms and tossed them behind herself, to nd perfectly in an inbox bin. "Thank you, the usual processing time is a couple or so days. I must say, Camity is an iing name."

  Camity grinned. "Yeah, I picked it because it's cute and deadly!"

  "I was w," Mirn said.

  To add extra cherry on top of Camity's good mood, she finally felt her weakness curse give way to her prodding, resulting in a feeling of strength filling her. Cheg, she now saw that she now had the Curse of Names which made any name given to her known by anyone who met her and the Curse of Lost Strength, which made her former strength unavaible to her. Frowning, she ied that a bit more. Ah, it just meant that all strength gained after being cursed was hers to keep, but all strength befetting cursed was go least for now.

  Not ideal, but they wouldn't be curses if they were ideal!

  ~~~

  Camity stood staring at the ued people waitio the byrirance, one of which Grad three of which were adult crocodile people like Grace, though one was covered with purple fur, the yellow one had spikes in a few spots including their tail whided in a deadly bde, and the pink one had glowing eyes, teeth, and cws. Notably, all of them except Grace had the regur two arms. Apanying them were four children, two of which were crocodile-like and one which was wolf-like and the st one was fal-like.

  Grace blinked upon seeing Nameless. "Oh, going byrinth diving too?"

  Camity nodded. "Yeah, I need money plus it's good for Mirn here's growth."

  "Why not join us? Giving the children enrit for better growth and evolutions." Grace offered.

  That gave Camity pause. "Wait, aren't we on kinda bad terms?"

  Grace shrugged. "Eh, ice is thin, but not that thin. Did some thinking about the situation and what you said. Decided it's likely not your fault, at least not 100%. And that's all I'll say oter with present pany."

  "Ah, sounds like a spiiicy situation." Glowy-Eyes leaned forward.

  Grace poi Glowy-Eyes. "Kindness, my brother. Obsessed with gossip. One of the reasons why I'm not saying any more than that about our versation. He pys a support role with his healing and strengthening Words. Lives up to his name, sometimes." Her grin suggested she was teasing Kindness a little.

  "Whaaat, no juicy details?" Kindness pined, "And of course I live up to my name."

  "Introduce me ," said Spiky in a quiet voice.

  Grace did so. "Ce, my sister. Lives up to her name, one hundred pert. She takes the hits and es out of them stronger."

  "Yeah," Ce said.

  Furry looked like they were waiting their turn, so Grace moved on to introduce them too. "Wisdom, my sibling. Failed to live up to their name, but still a very good person. They shred hostiles fast and also specialize iraints."

  "Haha, yeah, I'm kinda foolish sometimes," Wisdom said sheepishly.

  Graodded. "Oried riding an Aggrosaurus. Is why Kindness picked up the Restore Word. Anyways, I'm Grace as you know. More brutish than graceful, but I set everything on fire and enhance your equipment."

  Camity noticed Mirn looking at Wisdom curiously. "You don't have a gender like me?" the slug child asked.

  "Kinda," Wisdom answered cheerily, "My gender situation is plicated, but I'm nonbinary, yeah."

  "Cool," Mirn said.

  Grace tinued, "Kindness's kids Humility and Pride," she indicated the two crocodile children, " biheir attacks to create deadlier electricity. Now to Wisdom's kids. Hannau," she poi the hawk child, " unch her feathers to impale foes. Yanna," this time pointing at the wolf child who seemed a little older, " paralyze and harm with his gaze and strengthen us with his howls."

  Humility and Pride struck a pose, their hands f a circle together. "We're a good team!" they said, having clearly practiced speaking that line in unison.

  Hannau just nodded while Yanna waved shyly.

  Grace gestured toward Camity and Mirn. "You two introduce yourselves. Don't know your capabilities fully. guess from what you bought from me, but not fully. And unusual name, Camity. Also unusual that I know it without asking"

  Camity did a victory pose. "I'm Camity, yeah! And I poison, si, and curse foes! Plus I keep going no matter what, even lessening any harm I suffer and proteg others! So, yeah, I'm awesome! Plus I have a cute and deadly name!"

  "Humility isn't one of your strengths, I see," said Kindness with an amused smile.

  "I'm a mimic with the ability to adapt my strengths to the situation. Also I use a spear Grace made." Mirn said.

  "Together, we're an awesome team!" Camity said with a fident pose, her hands on her hips.

  "Usable strengths," Ce said.

  Kindness cleared his thought. "Yeah, okay, let's talk tactics. Camity, sounds like you'd work well as a frontliner with your durability. Ce, you'll also be on the front as usual. Grad Wisdom will be midliners, ranging in and out to strike at opportunity. The children will be behind the midline, and I'll take up the back to best keep a view on who needs healing and also to protect from rear ambushes. If Wisdom mao restrain a foe and says 'Clear', everyone including the children approach to tear up the foe. If Wisdom says, 'Back', you better go back or we'll have a talking, kids. By the way, we're gonna stay in the shallow end of the byrinth."

  "I'm from the deep byrinth. I ha," Mirn pointed out.

  Kindness shrugged. "But the other kids 't."

  "Oh." Mir quiet after that.

  Camity looked at Mirn. "I wasn't pnning on a deep dive anyways. Too time-ing and holy kinda dangerous even for us. How many times did I almost die after I found you?"

  "...A lot," Mirn said thoughtfully.

  Camity nodded. "Yeah, for deep dives you want a really solid team. Even most experieeams only do mid-depth dives."

  "Okay." Mirn looked at Kindness. "So when're we starting?"

  "Just as soon as the team ahead of us has gotten some way in," Kindness answered.

  Soon enough, their group of monster adults and kids were in motion, using the formation Kindness had decided on, with Grace using a strengthening Sigil on their equipment and Kindness strengthening everyone overall. After a few rooms, they ran into their first prey, a wall of muscle in the form of an three-headed thing vaguely shaped like an ht away, Ce unched herself at the ox, with Camity following right after. The ox smmed into Ce, resulting in the spiky crocodile monster's muscles budging even more as she smashed her fist into one of the ox's heads.

  Oher side, Camity began raking the foe monster with her cursed cws while biting with both her mouth aentacles' snake mouths. The monstrous ox shuddered, even as multiple attacks smmed into it from the rear guard who had spread enough to get clearer shots at the ox. Sharp lengthened fur from Wisdom, a wave of fire from Grace, flying razor feathers from Hannau, acidic spittle from Mirn, a frighteningly rge ball of lightning from the Humility-Pride duo, all while Yanna's eyes bore into the foe and his howling strengthehe whole pack.

  There weren't mu the way of mishaps other than Camity getting smmed into the wall (which she quickly got up from) and ice c Ce from the ox's breaths (which didn't stop her from pounding away even harder at the beast's heads). Soon enough, the ox monster colpsed as it was ed by furry ropes produced by Wisdom, who shouted "Clear!", after which the team all clustered around the fallen foe for the finishing blows, after which they begaing.

  The rest of the byrinth trip went much like that, with the team tearing through the hostile monsters with an irresistible momentum. There were only three occasions that gave them pause. A drake from the middle depths who had wandered into the shallows, which Camity sensed with her st ahe others to avoid. The non-hostile mohat had politely asked them to please go around his room, which they obliged. And the really gross sludge mohat they decided to skip, fortunately slow enough for them to outrun.

  "And that's the power of a good team," Camity told Mirn while they were ting the divided money from the sold byrinth loot.

  "Yeah, I get it now," Mirn said.

  Grace leaned in to Camity's ear and whispered, "Sexpuppy, you're a good person, Saw how much you threw yourself in harm's way for the children. Not everyone would do that."

  "...Agh. Now that name'll stid everyone'll know it," Camity replied, "But thanks for the rest of what you said."

  Grace blinked. "Whoops. Didn't know that would happen. Your curses are weird, woman."

  "Yeah. They are." Camity agreed.

  "Anyways, gonna go a that drake. Looking forward to seeing you again." Grace waved.

  Camity grinned, her tail wagging. "See you... sexgator?"

  "Doesn't really work," Grace said with a chuckle.