“We’ve found three of the treasures.” Reinne was speaking, her fingers playing with the handle of her sword as they moved past the group of thimps they had just slaughtered. “How many did the professor say there were again, four?”

“Five,” Droon clarified. “Each is worth four percent of our final grade.”

“Right,” Reinne snapped her fingers. “So we’re missing two, which means we’re going to earn at best a ninety-two for the final exam if we were to confront the boss next without finding any of the remaining treasures. I’m not sure about you guys, but I could use those extra points.”

“Pretty sure we all could,” Rowan interjected. “That’s why we’re looking for them.”

“So you want to look for the other treasures?” Droon looked confused. “I thought we were already doing that.”

“No, I’m just saying we should be vigilant. Talk amongst ourselves. Was there anywhere that we passed that looked like it might have contained a treasure? I just don’t want us to lose easy points, is all,” Reinne replied.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve found everything so far,” Rowan said slowly, running through the rooms of the dungeon in his mind. From what he could remember, there had been no obvious hiding places that they had missed. Each of the three treasures they had found had been in rooms with large enemy presences, while the tunnels and passageways that connected them had been the domain of traps and ambushes. So long as the pattern held, it was likely that the remaining treasures were somewhere up ahead, not behind them.

The other thing to consider was the identity of the remaining statues. Droon’s prediction had turned out to be correct. They had found two other statues after the first, one in the shape of a large sea monster with a gaping maw, and the other a stallion with flames on its hooves, the sigils of Hafgufa and Jangar respectively. Since the eagle of Turul had been the first to be found, that left only the chimera of Lykia and the dragon of Draigwyn still out there for them to find.

Unfortunately, the knowledge of what the statues represented had not helped in locating them. The leviathan idol had been inside a chest guarded by a large group of thimps and their pet golem, while the horse had been in a tiny pit whose walls had been inscribed with several flameblast runes. Had Morgana not helped Rowan to disable it, then they might have all been vaporized, or at least badly burned.

But all that did not mean that he didn’t have any idea where the treasures might lie. Locating hidden valuables was his specialty after all.

“So,” Reinne prompted as Rowan fell silent. “If we haven’t missed any, then does anyone have any ideas on where the remaining two could be?”

“There will probably be at least one treasure at the boss,” Rowan responded. “Boss rooms always have loot, so it would make sense for there to be one there. Maybe even two.”

Reinne brightened at this. “Really? That’s good then. How do you know, though?” Before Rowan could answer, she laughed. “Right, you’re a porter. Dumb question.”

“Dumb questioner more like,” Morgana muttered. Rowan’s head whipped around, but fortunately it appeared that Morgana had said it softly enough that Reinne had not overheard. With a frown, Rowan narrowed his eyes in warning at Morgana, but she ignored him.

“Well,” said Reinne. “In that case, we’d better hurry to the boss room. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled, everyone!”

With treasure on the mind, the party moved forward. By Rowan’s estimations, the boss room should not be too far off. They had been in the dungeon for about forty minutes now, and with the speed they were clearing it, there was no way they were making worse time than the parties ahead of them had.

Since the party from Hafgufa had been the fastest at just over fifty minutes spent inside the dungeon, Rowan figured that they must be getting close. Even if they were a little slower, there should not be more than one or two rooms to go before they came face-to-face with the boss.

The thought should have scared Rowan, but he found himself oddly calm about the impending fight. A few days, or even a mere hour ago, he had dreaded the prospect of taking on a boss with just his three party members for backup. After the events of the last forty minutes however, the idea no longer seemed as scary.

They had done it, they had worked together as a team and the results were spectacular. Obviously, most of it was due to the combat prowess of Reinne and Morgana, but Rowan ignored that little fact. What mattered was that they were doing well, and soon they would be done. Just a little more to go.

“Wait.”

It was Morgana who called the group to a halt, her hand raised as she scanned the passageway in front of them. Perplexed, Rowan wanted to ask what was wrong, but he held his tongue, choosing instead to examine the tunnel for oddities. Only once he found nothing did he turn to Morgana with a questioning look on his face.

“Something feels wrong,” Morgana said in response to the curious glances she was getting. “There’s magic ahead, but I can’t detect its origin.”

Droon cocked his head. “I can’t feel anything.”

“Me neither,” said Reinne. “You sure you’re not imagining it?” There was a clear barb in this last sentence, but Morgana ignored it.

“No,” she insisted, a note of frustration in her voice. “There’s definitely something there.”

Rowan frowned. Now that she mentioned it, he could definitely feel something ahead. It was like a small mass of mana that was ebbing in and out of existence somewhere ahead of them. The problem was that he had no idea what it was.

To Rowan, what lay ahead felt like an ordinary dungeon passageway. Dungeons were rife with magic, and this one was no different. But Morgana seemed to think it was a problem which meant that it likely was. The fae girl was many things, but incompetent she was not. If she was worried enough to speak out, then there was reason to take heed.

Something in Rowan’s gaze must have given him away, for Morgana turned to him. “You can sense it too?”

Rowan nodded. “I can sense something. But I don’t know what it is. I just know that it’s there. It could be a trap, a treasure, or even just a quirk of the dungeon. I can’t tell.”

“So do we need to be careful or not?” Reinne demanded, her arms crossed as she stared them down. “Because time’s a wasting. The prof said we need to beat this in an hour, and we’ve got to be getting pretty damn close to that.”

Droon looked uncertain, his gaze flickering between Reinne and Rowan. “Maybe we could advance slowly?” He suggested. “Because I think Reinne’s right, we do need to move if we want a good grade. But I also think Rowan’s right in that we should be careful.”

Way to not pick a side, Droon, Rowan thought as he glanced towards his friend. To be fair to Droon, he had been getting closer to Reinne ever since the dungeoneering finals, but it was still annoying to not have his friend back him up.

Morgana wore a conflicted look as she glanced at the tunnel in front of them. If Rowan had to guess, she was probably agonizing between her desire to get the top grade and her knowledge that something strange and possibly dangerous lay before them.

“We can’t afford to waste time,” Reinne said impatiently. “Let’s just advance, and we can deal with whatever it is when we find it. If we find it.” She stressed the last few syllables, her gaze not leaving Morgana who returned it with a cool look of her own.

“Enough,” Rowan said loudly. “This is getting us nowhere. Those who want to advance, raise your hands.” Reinne immediately raised her hand, followed shortly after by Droon, though his arm went up a little more slowly. Morgana deliberated for a moment, her gaze flickering towards the empty passage, but in the end her hand went up as well, joining the other two and Rowan’ own. Rowan let out a short bark of laughter at this. “Not that there’s much point now, but those who want to examine the passage first, raise your hands.”

No hands were raised, and the decision was made. Realistically, the choice had been obvious. There was no way they could abandon the dungeon here, not with the end so tantalizingly close. The vote had been a way to get the party to agree to do so without causing any bad blood, a trick Rowan had learned from Dillo. Similar to what Verking had told him, it was not necessarily the end result, but the means used to get there that mattered.

Devoid of options, the party advanced cautiously. This time, Morgana took the lead. Her right hand was outstretched and she used it to maintain a conjured earthen sphere which hovered in the air in front of her, ready to trigger any traps that might lay hidden before them.

Behind her trailed Droon, his shield at the ready, followed by Rowan, with Reinne taking up the rear. Five steps in, then ten, twenty-five, thirty… Slowly, they crept along the passage, all keenly aware that a single misstep could mean death.

Rowan’s gaze tracked along the left wall, up the ceiling, down the other wall, looking for any sign of the traps that they had run into so far, but there were no signs of anything wrong. The sensation remained, but no runes sprang to life, no hidden passageways opened, and there were no fluctuations in the mana. For now, everything was fine.

And then it wasn’t.