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James stood with his arms crossed at the shore of the molten lake, watching as Tom escorted their charge across the reddish surface. Their charge wasn’t a coward and was willing to brave dangers; James hadn’t decided if that was a positive trait or not, but considering dungeons were dangerous places, it was probably a negative; after all, who wanted to be a bodyguard for a reckless fellow? Luckily, things went smoothly, and the average-looking fellow made it across without a hitch.
“That wasn’t so bad, right?” James asked, patting his charge. For some reason, James thought he touched something furry. “Now, we just have to wait for Tom and Kerry. I know you’re excited to be off and exploring, but It’ll be better for us to stay in place until they arrive.”
“Sure,” Vercedei said. “That’s the best choice, but what are we going to do if they don’t make it across alive?”
“Why would you even say that?” James asked and shook his head. “Our supplies are with them, so we’ll be hungry and probably sleepless until we’re expelled from the dungeon.”
Sam used his All-Seeing Gaze to take stock of the surroundings. The lake of lava wasn’t the only source of molten rock. The whole region seemed to be pockmarked by regions of volcanic activity: rivers of flowing lava, calderas with magma burbling underneath the thin rocky surface, and even geysers of molten rock shooting into the air in the distance. Without the supplies, Sam’s group wouldn’t be able to eat or drink a single thing unless they decided to chew on rocks—if one discounted the candy Raindu had stored away in its fur.
“You’ve entered dungeons before, right?” Vercedei asked. “In your opinion, what’s the most valuable thing we can obtain in a place like this?”
“Probably that thing that ambushed us,” James said. “There doesn’t seem to be much around, no plants or metals or things to gather, so the creatures here should be the main attraction.”
“Is that so?” Vercedei asked. “How do we bring it out of the dungeon?”
“Transport necklace,” James said, gesturing towards the island in the molten lake with his chin. “We have some in our supply bags; basically, you put the necklace on whatever you want to keep, and when the dungeon closes, whatever’s wearing the necklace will be transported out with us.” James glanced down at the molten rock. “There might be stuff worth gathering in the lava, but we don’t have any methods to check.”
Considering Sam’s All-Seeing Gaze couldn’t even gauge how deep the lava was, there really might’ve been something down there, but it wasn’t like he could obtain it.
“I have a question for you,” James said, turning to look at Sam. “Are you a stickler for the rules?”
Vercedei answered before Sam could even formulate a thought. “Rules are meant to be twisted and broken,” the snake’s blue head said. “Their only purpose is to restrain and strip people of their freedoms.”
James raised an eyebrow. “Well,” he said and grinned, “if that’s what you really think, then I believe you should change your goal. Oterra’s natives agreed not to interfere with the development of lower planes by keeping the enlightened individual undisturbed because there’s a chance the lower plane could ascend in the future, becoming a part of Oterra, but … since when have humans cared about long-term gains?”
“You’re suggesting we mess with the enlightened individual?” Vercedei asked. “Will there be great gains?”
“Of course,” James said. “An enlightened individual is easy to communicate with; we can ask them about their world to see if there’s anything of value in this dungeon. If there isn’t anything of value, we can always capture the enlightened monster.”
“Then it’s settled,” Vercedei said. “We’ll aim for the enlightened beast. Where do we find it?”
“Good question,” James said and shrugged. “If we’re lucky, we’ll bump into it, but now we know to confront it instead of avoiding it. It doesn’t seem like anything can survive on this plane other than those metal beasts, so we might not even find it since we can’t explore the lava.”
Sam had to agree with James’ deduction; nothing he knew could survive for long in an environment like this, one with no food or water. Then again, the lava beasts were surviving just fine, so perhaps there really was something else living in this primordial world that didn’t need to eat or drink.
Despite Vercedei’s earlier inauspicious words, Tom and Kerry crossed the lava lake with only a few minor wobbles. The blue-haired man exhaled and sat down upon reaching the shore. “Damn,” Tom said as he took in a deep breath. “That was tiring; let’s hope I don’t have to do that again.”
“You probably will,” James said and took one of the luggage packs from Kerry. James looked up at the sky where a red sun was shining. “Before the sun sets, we have to find a suitable place to make camp.”
“What happens after the sun sets?” Vercedei asked.
“It gets dark as shit, and I’m not a bat,” James said. “Can you navigate in the dark?”
Sam, in fact, could navigate in the dark just fine. He was currently navigating without any light at all thanks to the snake wrapped around his face. Whether it was day or night didn’t affect him, unless the temperature plummeted, but Sam doubted that’d happen considering how hot it currently was. The plane’s tectonic activities would have to cease first for the lava to cool. “Is it just the lighting?” Vercedei asked. “No monsters or ghosts will pop up once the sun goes down?”
“I don’t know,” James said and shrugged. “I’ve never been here before. We don’t even know what kind of dungeon we’re entering before we go inside, so how would we know the contents of said dungeon? Regardless, it’s important to have a basecamp in a defensible position. Sleeping out in the open is a bad idea.”
“Will there even be a good spot to camp?” Kerry asked and scanned the surroundings.
“If there are shitty spots to camp, there’ll also be less shitty spots to camp,” James said. He nodded at Kerry. “Hurry up and scout for us.”
Kerry sighed and handed the pack of luggage on his back to Tom but not before taking a thermos of water for himself. As the fastest member of the group, it was his job to scout the path ahead. Everyone did what they had the capabilities to do, but the red-haired man was still disgruntled since everyone could slack off except for him. Then again, he did push James into the way of an attack earlier, so Kerry managed to cheer himself up. “I’m off.”
“Is it okay to let him go by himself?” Vercedei asked as Kerry ran ahead, turning into a blur that disappeared in the horizon. “You said it yourself: you don’t know what danger lies in this plane.”
“That’s why he’s scouting,” James said. “He’ll be fine … unless he bumps into some natives from Oterra who also happen to be exploring this dungeon.”
“Are there multiple entrances to the dungeon?” Vercedei asked.
“Yeah,” James said. “Have you ever heard of ley line theory? Supposedly, there are invisible lines of power crossing every plane, and where they intersect is where dungeon entrances are likely to be. If reptilians enter from Et Serpentium, they’ll likely end up at another intersection of ley lines.”
Sam thought back to the conversation he had with Ellie last night. After telling her of his plans to enter a dungeon, the yellow reptilian seemed awfully excited for some reason, and she hung up on him to pester her mother for something. What were the odds of her entering the same dungeon as him? There were multiple dungeons in existence, so even if she did enter one—after convincing her mother to let her go—she probably wouldn’t end up in the same plane.
“For someone who hired us to guard you inside a dungeon, you really didn’t do much research beforehand, huh?” Tom asked as he rummaged through the luggage sack. He pulled out a thermos and uncapped it, giving the lip a sniff before drinking from it. “Why bother doing things half-assed? You should develop a clear-cut plan and stick with it. Making things up as you go only serves to slow you down.”
“That’s true,” Vercedei said, “but that’s also not any fun. What’s the point of experiencing new things if you read all about them first? It’s not like I’ll get any points for being good at something I’ve never done before either. Life is long, so one should take their time going through it.”
Tom rolled his eyes. “Life is long as long as you’re not eaten halfway through living,” the blue-haired man said. He looked at the molten lake. “What do you think that slag beast that attacked us eats? It won’t last long as a predator if there isn’t any prey for it to feast on. It seemed comfortable enough attacking things on land too, so there must be some kind of surface-dwelling creature it eats on occasion.”
Sam found Tom’s deduction more reasonable than James’.
“What if it eats ores?” Vercedei asked. “Its body looked like it was made of metal.”
Tom shrugged. “Didn’t seem like a rock eater to me,” he said. “If it ate stationary ores, it’d be like an herbivore, but it’s built like an apex predator.”
“Who cares what it eats?” James asked. “Let’s get away from the shore, and we won’t have to find out whether or not it eats humans.”
The trio set off in the direction Kerry had gone. Sam kept his All-Seeing Gaze active, searching the surroundings for anything of interest, but all he saw was lava and the bare, rocky surface he was walking on, not a single hint of life to be seen. There might not have been anything living, but he did notice smears of various color buried within the ground.
“Did you happen to pack a shovel?” Vercedei asked.
“A shovel?” James asked. He went around to Tom’s back and rummaged through the luggage sack, pulling out three cylinders bound together. “Here.”
Sam grabbed the offered cylinders and focused on it with his All-Seeing Gaze. It was a bit blurry, but he figured out the gist of it with the help of his hands. He untied the cylinders and clicked them together. Then, he pressed on a button, causing a metal shovel’s head to emerge from the bottommost cylinder. Sam walked over one of the colorful smears and smashed the head of the shovel into the rocky surface. Surprisingly, it went in with ease as if he were digging through sand.
“What’s this made out of?” Vercedei asked, the illusion of Sam’s face raising an eyebrow.
“Not sure,” James said. “It’s an alloy created by Carbon Peak, and they’re not too keen on sharing their recipes.”
Sam scooped out a shovelful of rock and tossed it aside before plunging the shovel into the ground once more. After several repeated actions, the colorful smear was revealed—to everyone but him, Sam still only saw it as a red smear.
“A chunk of ruby,” James said. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He looked at Sam. “You’re like a mole or something.”
Tom stared at the ruby ore in his charge’s hand. Then, the blue-haired man’s eyes widened to the size of saucers as the average-looking man’s mouth opened wide, the man’s hand bringing the ore up to his own face like one would raise an apple. It couldn’t be….
Crunch.
James and Tom cringed as their charge munched on the ruby ore as if it were a burger, eating the solid chunk of ore without wasting a single crumb. Tom’s teeth turned numb just thinking about it; sometimes, his scrambled eggs would have a tiny piece of eggshell, and that was enough to make him wince upon biting down on it. If he had to eat a whole piece of ore? His teeth would shatter, and the insides of his mouth would be flayed and bloody. Tom turned towards James and saw a similar expression on his coworker’s face.
“Delicious,” Vercedei said, causing Sam to sigh internally. Luckily, it wasn’t his face being used in Werchbite’s illusion, so he didn’t have to care if people thought of him as someone who ate precious stones. After the dungeon was over, this persona of his would disappear from the world forever. As for the ruby, the snake’s blue head had swallowed it whole. If Sam had seen the twin-headed snake swallow everything Raindu had stolen from Treasured Crystals to recreate a set of respiratory organs for him, he wouldn’t have been surprised by the snake’s actions. Well, it wasn’t like he was expecting to keep any crystal he found anyway; if Vercedei didn’t eat it, Raindu would’ve taken it.
“Is that your talent?” James asked.
“Yes,” Vercedei said.
“Do you benefit from eating crystals?” Tom asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I do,” Vercedei said, “but those benefits are a secret, so please, refrain from asking.”
The snake’s blue head didn’t say it out loud, but Sam knew Vercedei wanted him to dig up more ores, promising him it’d be worth his time. Sam wasn’t sure if he could trust the snake’s words, but it could make his life miserable, so he listened. He walked over to the next smear of color and dug. It was deeper within, but through hard work and persistence, Sam retrieved another piece of ore.
Tom stared at Sam. “You’re going to”—
Crunch.
—“eat that too?” The blue-haired man scratched his head. If Sam’s talent gave him benefits for eating ores, could he be blamed for being a bit weird? Well, it wasn’t like Monarch’s group of three had a claim to anything their charge obtained by himself; they were hired to protect him and teach him the ropes of raiding dungeons.
Sam ignored Tom’s question—not like he could answer the blue-haired man even if he wanted to—and moved on to the next smear of color. It was even deeper than before, but since there wasn’t any lava in between him and the ore, it was merely a matter of working harder to obtain the crystal. He wasn’t sure what kind of crystal it was since he could only see them as vague colors, but it didn’t matter to Vercedei. The snake’s blue head swallowed it whole. It was a bit disturbing for Sam since the twin-headed snake was wrapped around his head; he could feel the ore pressing against his face as it traveled down the reptile like a lemon being squeezed through a thin tube. What did the snake need raw ores for anyway?
Werchbite spoke in Sam’s mind, promising him it’d make something good from the ores as long as enough was gathered. He definitely wouldn’t be disappointed in the final product; after all, he liked his new respiratory system, no? It wasn’t like Sam could say no in response the snake’s purple head’s question; he’d be dead without the crystalline organ it had given him. At least he was benefitting from the labor Vercedei was forcing him to do.
James led Sam and Tom in the direction Kerry had gone, stopping every so often to allow Sam time to dig up ores and eat them. The dungeon seemed to be tailor made for Sam’s skillset, and James couldn’t help but yawn from having nothing to do but walk and wait for Sam to dig. “How are you finding these ores?” James asked as Sam stopped for the umpteenth time. “Is that a part of your talent as well?”
“No,” Vercedei said as Sam stabbed the shovel into the ground. “It’s a chakra technique.”
“Ajna?” Tom asked. The third eye chakra was usually a good guess when it came to spotting things.
“Yes,” Vercedei said, “Ajna and Sahasrara combined.”
“Wow,” Tom said, scanning the illusion of Sam from head to toe. “You look pretty young; I wouldn’t have suspected you unlocked those two chakras.”
“Why is that?” Vercedei asked.
“Well,” Tom said, “most people unlock the lower chakras first. I heard it’s difficult to unlock the higher chakras unless you have the right kind of life experience, and younger people usually don’t have those.”
“What chakras have you unlocked?” Vercedei asked, not caring about the invasiveness of the question.
“Anahata,” Tom said, his face cracking into a smile, “because I’m a coward.”
“So, you’ve developed lots of life preserving techniques, huh?” Vercedei asked before eating the ore Sam dug up.
“Yeah,” Tom said. “There’s no point in anything if you’re dead, so I’m doing my best not to die.”
“Signing up to become a guide for a high-ranked dungeon…?” Vercedei asked, leaving the rest of the question unsaid.
“Like I said,” Tom said with a grimace, “doing my best not to die.”
“Kerry’s coming back,” James said, cutting into Tom and Vercedei’s conversation. He waved at the red-haired man running towards them from the horizon and asked, “Did you find anything?”
“I found a place suitable for spending the night,” Kerry said before looking at the shovel in Sam’s hand. “Did the three of you find anything?”
“This guy”—Tom gestured towards Sam—“is good at finding ores and eating them,” the blue-haired man said.
Kerry stared at Sam. “That’s … impressive,” the red-haired man said before nodding. He turned towards James. “There’s a structure up ahead; it almost looks like an artificial pyramid.”
“Pyramids are usually a good sign of enlightened individuals; it’s hard to create a pyramid without a proper labor force,” James said, a faint smile appearing on his face as he looked at Sam. “Shall we head there?”
“Absolutely,” Vercedei said. ‘Let’s go see if we can communicate with the fellows who built the pyramid.”