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James sighed as he stared down at his thermos. It was a nice thermos, one that’d keep a cold drink cool for several hours even in a blazing hot desert, but he wasn’t satisfied with it; after all, as an artificial awakened with a brain-melting device in his mind, he was property of Monarch, and would Monarch allow its soldiers to damage their livers through drinking alcohol? No; he was stuck with drinking watered-down juice. Even his diet was strictly monitored, making him miss his freedom during his time in Et Serpentium. There wasn’t much of it as a human pet, but he was allowed more choices there than here. He didn’t want to be raiding a dungeon, yet here he was, assigned to help some rich prick who could afford Monarch’s services.
“What’s the matter, James?” a man with blue hair asked. “Someone take a piss in your drink?”
Alongside James, there were two other men, both of them artificial awakened as well. Like him, their brains were wired to explode if they disobeyed orders. They had B-ranked talents, incomparable to his A-ranked talent, but they were all treated the same.
“Can’t you tell?” the other man, who had red hair, asked. “It’s obvious he went out last night and didn’t get lucky.”
“How is that obvious?” the blue-haired man asked. “That’s not something someone can see.”
James’ expression darkened. “Shut up,” he said and scowled. “You’re both morons.”
“Told you so,” the red-haired man whispered to the blue-haired man. “He’s got jilted lover written all over him.”
James ignored the two B-ranked awakened as he brought his thermos up to his lips. He was waiting at the entrance of the dungeon, an underdeveloped plane of existence accessible through special doorways in Oterra. Once upon a time, Earth had been a dungeon too, one that reptilians, graylings, and other species native to Oterra could enter to mess around in before leaving, creating all kinds of conspiracy theories in the past.
It didn’t take long for a car to pull up to a halt in front of the trio. The frown on James’ face deepened as someone familiar walked out. Despite the feeling James was getting, he couldn’t identify the man who had walked out of the car. He had a boringly average face, and his vibe was muted to the point where James thought the person might’ve been a wooden dummy lacking any semblance of a personality.
“Hey,” James said, not bothering to stand up. “You’re the one who hired us?”
“Yes,” the man said. “I’ve never entered a dungeon before, so do your jobs properly and take care of me, alright?”
James’ eye twitched. He was irked by the man’s tone and even more bothered by the man’s words and voice. However, as Monarch’s dog, he had to obey the instructions he was given unless he wanted to die an early death, and he was instructed to safely guide this individual through a dungeon. “You got it, boss,” James said. “Out of curiosity, how much did you pay Monarch to hire us?”
“Pay?” the man asked and raised an eyebrow unnaturally high. “I mentioned I wanted to go on a dungeon run, and Monarch scrambled to assist me. I bet you have a hidden agenda to gather information about me, no?”
James blinked at the average-yet-arrogant man. It was true he was supposed to take notes on his charge’s fighting style, but the emphasis of his mission was on making sure the man didn’t get hurt. James shrugged instead of responding to the question and jerked his head to the side, gesturing towards the dungeon’s entrance, which looked startling similar to a building in Et Serpentium: a mono-colored rectangular prism. “Ready?”
“I am,” the man said. “Are you?”
Considering the man’s lack of supplies, which were noticeable from an absence of luggage, James did not think the man was ready, but as a guide, he had brought extra, enough to fend off starvation for their party of four for at least three months. Of course, the victuals were in the form of dense calories: mostly protein bars but a few dehydrated meals were included for special occasions. “Yeah,” James said and glanced at the two B-ranked awakened, who were grabbing the bags of supplies. “Let’s go.”
The average man watched as James and the two colorful-haired awakened approached the dungeon entrance. James placed his hand on the rectangular prism, and the black watch wrapped around his wrist lit up. The rectangular structure swirled with light as a portal appeared on the prism’s surface. James turned to look at the average man. “You might feel a sense of discomfort or nausea while passing through,” James said, “but that’s perfectly normal. Even if you’re dizzy, make sure to keep your guard up. You chose a dangerous dungeon to explore, and it’s not impossible for us to be transported to different starting locations.”
“Got it,” the man said. “The three of you go through first, so I can see how it’s done.”
James exchanged glances with the two B-ranked awakened before nodding at them. He faced the portal and held his hand out in front of himself before walking through, his fingers entering first. The other awakened copied James, walking through one after the other. When they were gone, the average man held up his hand, walked forward, and bumped his fingers against the hard edge of the portal, missing the entrance as if he were blind. He couldn’t be blamed because he really was blind—blinded by a double-headed snake covering his eyes.
“Portals are always a bit fuzzy when viewed through your Ajna,” Vercedei said. “Move to your left.”
Sam shifted to the left and walked forward with his arm held out in front of himself. When his fingers passed through the portal, it was as if he had dunked them into a bowl of hot water. It was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. Sam advanced forward, heat flooding his body as if he had entered a sauna. With his Ajna, he observed his surroundings and discovered a he was on an island surrounded by molten rock with the three awakened from Monarch. There was nothing behind, the entrance evidently not acting as the dungeon’s exit as well.
“How is it?” James asked. “Too hot?”
Sam took in a deep breath through his nose and activated Grounded Self. Although his skin felt like it was roasting under the noon sun in a desert, he separated himself from the sensations he was feeling, taking note of the heat but not reacting to it. “It’s bearable,” Vercedei said for Sam. “Did you know we were entering a volcanic dungeon?”
The three awakened from Monarch were doing just fine in the sweltering heat. There seemed to be a faint layer of shimmering air wrapped around their bodies, keeping them nice and cool despite their skin taking on a red hue from the molten rock’s faint glow. “No,” James said and shook his head. “We knew the rank of the dungeon, but we didn’t know the contents.” He reached into his pocket and retrieved a necklace. “This accessory is almost mandatory for exploring high-ranked dungeons. It regulates your temperature no matter what kind of region you end up in. If you’re interested, I can sell you one.”
“Sure,” Vercedei said. “I can pay you now or after.”
“After,” James said and tossed the necklace to Sam. Sam caught it, but Raindu grabbed it and stuffed it into its fur, clearly forbidding Sam from using it. Despite the ferret’s appearance, James didn’t notice a thing, having seen Sam wear the necklace thanks to Werchbite’s illusion. “Didn’t you do any research about dungeons before entering?”
Sam thought back to the bundle of information the graylings had delivered into his stone tablet. At the time, he wasn’t entering the dungeon right away, so he didn’t bother reading it; after all, he was busy with multiple tutoring sessions for all his unlocked chakras. He figured he could always take a look at the information if he ever got stuck whilst inside the dungeon; after all, it was downloaded into his tablet, and he could look at it whenever he wanted, so why would he memorize so much information?
“I did,” Vercedei said. “How about you tell me what you know about dungeons, so I can make sure the information I gathered was correct?”
James resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was about to speak, but the red-haired awakened answered first. “Absolutely,” he said. “Oterra is a stable, high-vibration plane of existence. Dungeons are planes with lower vibrations, but they happen to intersect with Oterra because of a certain reason: usually, someone within the dungeon is enlightened, raising the vibrations of the dungeon’s plane.”
“Like prophets and philosophers,” the blue-haired awakened said, eager to chime in. “Earth used to exist on a lower plane. Whenever prophets and philosophers were struck by epiphanies and voiced them aloud, Earth temporarily became a dungeon, allowing all sorts of Oterra natives to mess around with our species.”
Sam was confused, and Vercedei let it be known. “Wait,” the snake’s blue head said. “Monster cores come from killing monsters in dungeons, right? Do humans produce cores too since Earth was a dungeon?”
“Some people produce cores,” James said. “We don’t really know how or why, but it’s true. Like monsters, some humans yield a core upon death.”
Through his Ajna, Sam focused on the crystal within his chest that had replaced his lungs and heart. If he died, someone could rip his ribcage open and retrieve the crystal, thinking of it as his core. Of course, it’d be difficult for him to die thanks to the crystal existing in multiple dimensions at once. “How do we exit the dungeon?” Vercedei asked. “If Oterra intersected with this place because there’s an enlightened person, do we have to kill them to go back?”
“No,” James said. “We’ll be expelled naturally once time is up.”
“Also,” the blue-haired man said, sticking one finger up, “the Oterra natives have created a few rules for dealing with dungeons. We’re not supposed to touch, harm, or even alert the enlightened one of our existences.”
“Then, what’s the goal here?” Vercedei asked.
James stared at the average-looking man. Did he really enlist guides without even knowing what a dungeon entailed? Well, if he knew how dungeons worked, then he wouldn’t have needed guides, huh? “Most people go to dungeons to hunt monsters and search for rare treasures,” James said. He scowled. “Lower planes are full of unique things, but this one just seems to be full of lava.”
Sam focused on his third eye chakra and crown chakra, activating them both at the same time. Not only did chakras have their own special techniques, but there were also combination techniques involving multiple chakras. By using his Ajna and Sahasrara at the same time, Sam could see everything in a certain region around himself while highlighting every living creature. Thanks to his new technique, which he named All-Seeing Gaze, he saw dozens of creatures drifting at a snail’s pace through the lava. He couldn’t discern their shape, but they reminded him of fish.
“How long is this dungeon open?” the red-haired awakened asked, looking at James.
James glanced down at his black watch. “Seventy-three hours,” he said before looking at the average man. “What’s your goal? Making money? Recording new discoveries? Killing things for shits and giggles?”
“I’m here for the experience,” Vercedei said for Sam. “Fighting, exploring, looting, I wouldn’t mind taking part in all three.”
James nodded and gestured towards the two B-ranked awakened. “We’ve gone through a lot of dungeons, so as long as you stay by our side and listen to us, nothing bad will happen to you,” he said. “That being said”—James looked around at the lake of lava surrounding their island—“we’ll need a few minutes to figure things out.”
“I don’t think we have a few minutes,” the blue-haired awakened said and pointed at the lava. “Incoming!”
James frowned and turned his head in the direction his coworker had pointed. A human-sized pillar of lava surged upwards as something breached the molten rock surface from below. The lava splashed back down onto the surface of the pool, leaving a floating creature that looked like a mass of shiny slag. The creature slowly rose upwards, standing on four hindlegs while revealing a pair of arms, which may have just been the creature’s front legs. “Stay back,” James said, holding his hand out to block his charge from moving forward. “Let us handle it.”
Sam stared at the creature that had emerged from the lava. Well, the illusion of him stared at it while he focused on his Ajna, observing the creature from all angles. Not only did it have six legs, but it also had four fins on its back that were aligned like the wings of a dragonfly. He might’ve thought they were wings, but the creature seemed too heavy to fly. If it fell into a lake, it’d probably drown. Despite its obvious weakness, Sam had no intention of fighting the creature considering there wasn’t any water nearby; also, he wasn’t immune to lava. Since James had volunteered to fight, Sam would see how the man, whose talent was turning his skin as tough as diamonds and rough like sandpaper, dealt with a lava-borne creature.
The lava beast—a brilliant name Sam came up with himself—wiggled its tail, which was long and shaped like a paddle, sending its body careening forward, splashing lava in every direction. James narrowed his eyes at the beast. “Tom!”
The blue-haired man stepped forward and extended his hands. They shone with a blue light, and a flurry of snowflakes surged out of his palms. Instead of melting upon contact, the flakes stuck to the beast’s body as if they were globs of paint rather than pieces of snow. The flurry intensified as Tom grunted and shoved his arms forward as if he were pushing a boulder up a hill.
The lava beast roared, its cry sounding much like a blender forced to grind up rocks. Its tail swung harder as it swayed from side to side, the beast pushing forward into the miniature blizzard. If it dived underneath the surface of the lava, it could’ve easily avoided the flakes, but it was an apex predator; all its life, things ran away from it, not the other way around, so why would it change that now? As it swam, the beast crouched and dipped its front hand or foot, whichever it was, into the lava and scooped up a handful that it flung at Tom. It might’ve just been a handful, but the beast was quite big, easily ten feet tall, and the glob of lava was like a basketball hurtling towards the blue-haired man.
“I got you!” the red-haired man shouted with a valiant expression on his face. He ran at a speed that startled Sam and arrived in front of James in an instant. The red-haired man let out a cry and pushed James into the way of the flying lava to protect Tom.
“Bastard!” James shouted as he activated his talent and hardened his skin. The lava slapped against him like a clump of mud, clinging to his clothes and bits of exposed flesh. James gritted his teeth as swatted the clumps of lava off his body with the back of his hand, causing his skin to sizzle and turn red, the full extent of his injuries. “You have a shield for a reason!”
“It’s in the luggage,” the red-haired man said and shrugged. “Pushing you was the only way to save him.”
“Asshole,” James said before turning his attention onto the lava beast; it was almost at the shore of the little island. James narrowed his eyes at the patch of frost that had built up on the beast’s chest thanks to Tom’s talent. Then, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it as if he were pitching a baseball. The projectile struck the frozen area dead-on, and upon contact, the grenade exploded, causing the lava beast to roar and reel back.
Sam watched through his Ajna as James threw grenade after grenade at the lava beast, blasting the creature into submission, a stark contrast to the way the man had fought in Et Serpentium. Then again, in Et Serpentium, humans weren’t allowed to have weapons—just like how humans wouldn’t give a dog a knife—so perhaps this was James’ primary way of fighting. “Is this how the awakened hunt?” Vercedei asked. “Anyone can throw grenades.”
“Yeah,” James said and rolled his eyes before throwing another grenade at the retreating beast. “Can anyone freeze lava like Tom? Can anyone block lava with just their body like me?”
“If you had a shield, you wouldn’t have needed to use your body,” Vercedei said, “but I understand your point.” Why wouldn’t guns and grenades work on three-dimensional monsters? Kinetic energy was kinetic energy, and a lot of kinetic energy to one’s face hurt a lot. “Do you have a gun by any chance?”
James confirmed the lava beast had retreated before turning towards the average-looking man. “Do you not have a gun?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. “Unless you have a ranged talent—no, even if you do have one—it’s smart to carry a firearm with you. We’re awakened, but we’re still human, and humans have always ruled the food chain with the help of external tools.”
“Well,” Tom said as he lowered his hands, snow no longer spewing from his palms. “You probably don’t need a gun if you’re proficient in manipulating your Manipura, but it takes several years to learn how to perform ranged attacks with intent.”
Sam wondered if he should’ve gone to a store that sold guns instead of crystals. He probably would’ve gotten more bang for his buck; after all, Phantom Bo had cost him millions of credits to purchase, and he couldn’t even use it without Raindu’s permission because the ferret had stored the smoky quartz staff away—to be fair, Sam had asked the ferret to hold onto the staff for him because it was unwieldy to carry around in public.
“Do you not use crystal weapons?” Vercedei asked.
“Look at my clothes,” James said. His shirt had a hole in it with burnt fabric around the edge. “Do I look rich? Crystal weapons are useful, but they’re fragile as shit, and I can’t afford to keep buying them after they break.”
Sam decided: when he got back to the city, he was going to buy some firearms. He had always wanted a bazooka, mostly because it was a fun word to say.