– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 99 –

Terry half hoped that the Mark-and-Recall spell scrolls would turn out to be faulty products. Alas, no such luck. All Mark spells were successful.

Terry felt that the mana suppression inside was noticeably different. When he voiced his concerns, Alrik shut him down and blamed his nerves. Most of the others were too excited to pay attention to begin with. Terry did not press the matter.

The first few floors were as expected – some slimes, some fake goblin constructs, some flash geckos. The only trouble sparked from the dungeon combinations. This dungeon had a penchant for using the gecko’s blinding flash to mask long-range attacks. The spells were still visible in mana sight, but the projectiles thrown by the fake goblins did not contain any mana.

Tiana had a pair of darkened goggles prepared. She had purchased them as a cheap counter to Terry’s annoying glove. However, walking through the dungeon with darkened goggles also proved less than satisfactory. In the end, they mostly forced their way through with barriers, earthen walls, and shields.

The next floors introduced brighter mana illumination coming from the walls. Additionally, they brought a large increase in the number of dungeon constructs. In most of the rooms, the group had to battle a number of fake goblin parties that were equipped with simple weaponry.

“Something larger is coming from the next room,” warned Siling. “No life signature, but Pricklybum’s tremor sense is tingling. I’ll let it place a tripwire.”

The wiremoss tarantula soul rapidly dashed towards the room entrance and fastened a wire thread to the entrance walls with sticky liquid. Afterwards, it crawled to the ceiling and backed off from the entrance.

Everyone else readied their weapons.

“I can sense a core,” informed Terry. “Wait, more than one? I believe there are smaller ones around it.”

A construct that was roughly the size of Tiana approached slowly through the tunnel. When it reached the entrance, it tripped over the wire thread and fell forward into the room.

“I think that’s an earth warrior construct,” said Jorg.

Tiana rushed forward with a huge war hammer – one of her recent equipment additions. The hammer had already crushed many constructs in this dungeon.

Before Tiana could reach the construct, the construct’s skin scuttled off. It looked as if the construct was shedding large scales – only these scales had legs. More of these flat crab-like constructs swarmed in from the tunnel. They rapidly gathered in front of the fallen earth warrior. They extended some of their legs and formed a many-scaled wall.

Tiana’s war hammer smashed against them, but to no effect. The constructs had formed a proper shield wall and the force of Tiana’s attack was distributed among too many construct legs to have much impact.

“Damn, those are shield leggers!” exclaimed Jorg. He had read about them when researching dungeon work. They had never encountered them in any of the introduction dungeons.

Miguel frowned. These constructs displayed a remarkable sense of coordination. If they were smart enough, then his coldfire-aspected arrows would be countered. He could not risk one of these things charging at his companions while being ignited with coldfire.

“I got it,” declared Alrik. He cast Raise Icicles beneath the shield leggers.

Once the shield wall had been broken, Siling followed up with Kinetic Push to scatter the constructs.

Immediately afterwards, Tiana charged forward again. She aimed her war hammer at the sluggish earth warrior’s head.

The half downed construct blocked with one of its arms. The arm cracked, but protected it from further harm.

“Don’t go for the head!” commanded Alrik. “That’s where the core is located.”

“I know,” replied Tiana. “That’s precisely why I aimed at the head.” She looked at him sternly.

“The core’s the most valuable part,” rebuked Alrik.

“Our lives are more valuable,” retorted Terry. “That thing is a construct we have not encountered before.”

“All the more reason to learn what it can do, no? Tse. Lori, that thing is mostly formed from earth. You do it. Siling, clear the way from these annoying things.”

Siling’s eyelid twitched. Despite her irritation, she threw another Kinetic Push. The spell also supported the earth warrior in standing up.

Lori dashed forward. Without explicit coordination, Elena and Terry moved to cover her flanks.

Lori dodged the construct’s punches and quickly darted towards its torso. She pushed out her palm and infused it with her ignited Rockspall Touch spell. A layer of the construct’s back broke apart.

The construct aimed another fist at Lori. Elena rushed forward and blocked the hit with her dueling shield. Then, she burst her mana and pushed the construct into a wall. She frenziedly rammed the shield into the construct again and again.

Terry summoned two metal short spears and chased after them. The spears had been imprinted with the Immovable Object spell.

The construct angled one of its arms to deflect Elena’s dueling shield. It swung the second arm at Elena whose attention was still elsewhere.

Terry jumped in and activated the Immovable Object spell in his bracer to block the arm. Simultaneously, he placed and angled the imprinted spears across the construct’s torso in order to pin it against the wall. Afterwards, Terry activated the Immovable Object imprints.

“Elena, it’s trapped,” informed Terry. “Go!”

“Hrm.” Elena turned to Terry with a glare. She gave no indication of acknowledging the information.

“Elena, back!” yelled Lori. Elena’s eyes recovered some sanity and she retreated.

Terry summoned a shield and used a burst of his own to pin one of the construct’s arms against the wall. He channeled mana into the imprint in the shield’s handle attachment. The Immovable Object imprint activated successfully. Terry used two more shields to repeat the procedure for the second arm and the legs.

“All yours, Sis,” muttered Terry and jumped to the side.

Lori relied on another Rockspall Touch to damage the construct’s torso. She tentatively tested a Liquify Earth spell at the construct’s neck, but the spell failed to activate. The mana from the construct’s core was still blocking her. One more Rockspall Touch to the area where the neck connected to the torso and the construct was down.

The construct partially dissipated into dust. A mana core remained behind. This core was different from the ones they had collected before. Florine picked it up and offered it to Alrik.

“What are those?” asked Siling and pointed towards several parts of darker material.

“First time that one of the dungeon constructs left more than a core,” remarked Jorg.

“That construct was different,” said Terry. “I could sense mana lines inside of it.”

“Bah, hooey,” scoffed Alrik. “You were probably confused by the light effects from the walls. Lori, did you notice any mana lines?”

“N-no.”

Terry did not pursue the topic further. No point. He picked up one of the pieces from the floor. “So what are these?”

“Perhaps some reinforcing structures?” speculated Siling. “You know, like bones or exoskeletons for normal creatures?”

“It looks as if they could have been part of the arms,” said Tiana.

“Are dungeon constructs supposed to be that way?” Terry picked up a different piece. “Could have been a head plate to protect the core. I have looked into many different materials, but I don’t recognize this one.”

“I don’t recognize it either,” said Alrik. “Which means it’s definitely not very valuable. Just leave it here. No need to waste space in our storage items.”

Terry pictured how Alrik would react if he knew that Terry was carrying around normal rock boulders in his crafter’s pendant.

“I would at least show them to Aunt Brynn. Perhaps they have some use after all.”

“Suit yourself.”

Terry collected the pieces into his crafter’s pendant.

***

Terry frowned. Something was off about this floor. They had been walking for nearly an hour without encountering anything…

“HUuaah,” yawned Gellath. Other – more silent – yawns followed.

“Stop,” exclaimed Siling. “Something does not seem right.”

“You mean that this floor is unusually boring?” offered Gellath.

“No, I mean that we are going in circles.”

“What?” Jorg blurted out.

“How so?” inquired Tiana.

“I mean that literally. Up, left, down, right, repeat.”

“Nonsense,” denied Alrik. “I paid attention to our path.”

“It varies a bit, true. The pattern gets changed on occasion. However, the figurative needle on my north sense tells me that this is what it boils down to.”

“True North spell?” asked Miguel.

“Mana ability of the wiremoss tarantula,” replied Siling.

Miguel nodded and looked with suspicion towards the path they came from.

“Maybe it’s some kind of labyrinth floor?” surmised Gellath.

“What kind of labyrinth only has a single path to follow, though?” retorted Miguel. “While we did change direction, we never encountered a fork. I don’t like this.”

“Me neither,” agreed Jorg. “If this is truly a labyrinth floor, then this dungeon is on a different level than those of the introduction class.”

“Tse. Didn’t we already poke a hole in that theory?” rebuked Alrik. “Not a single fork, remember?”

“I take Siling’s word that something is wrong,” declared Miguel. “There must be something that we are missing.”

Gellath yawned again.

“What’s with you?” asked Jorg.

“Missed your nap time today?” teased Miguel.

Gellath stuck out his tongue in response.

“I… I think I am getting tired as well,” muttered Elena.

“Can’t blame you,” replied Alrik. “This floor does not offer much excitement.”

“What if it’s the dungeon?” interjected Terry. “Or one of its creatures?”

“Bit paranoid, are we?” replied Alrik.

“Could anyone cast Cure Poison on me?” asked Miguel.

“You got bit by something?” blurted Jorg.

“I got it,” said Siling and cast the spell. “And? Feel any different?”

Miguel closed his eyes and examined himself. “No. Not really. Still unusually tired.”

“Hmm… Let me try another one.”

Terry recognized the spell structure as belonging to Banish Fatigue.

“How about now?”

“Still no change.”

Siling’s and Terry’s facial expressions instantly turned grave.

“Then, I’m afraid we have a wasted problem,” said Siling. “Gellath, Elena, let’s try with you as well.”

“What’s going on?” inquired Tiana.

“Banish Fatigue does not help either,” explained Siling. “Which means this is not normal tiredness.”

Gellath and Elena showed the same results as Miguel.

“We ruled out poison. That leaves spells or mana abilities from other aspects,” summarized Miguel.

“Comparatively weak ability,” added Terry. “I’m not feeling too different.”

“Or short exposure,” said Tiana. “Speaking of which, did you notice any life or mana signatures?”

“Many weak life signatures are close, but…” Siling looked up and pondered.

“…but there is only the ceiling, right?” Terry finished her thought. “I can sense some small mana cores, but there is only the ceiling.”

“Camouflage?” Jorg and looked up warily.

“I had Pricklybum check out the ceiling before,” replied Siling. “There was nothing.”

“Hmm.” Terry jumped and then relied on his imprinted boots to walk up to the ceiling himself. He examined it closely.

After refraining from blinking for about ten seconds, Terry noticed slight movement. “Something is crawling around in there.”

Terry summoned a cheap dagger from his storage bracelet. Then, he started to poke at the ceiling. Rubble fell down. It became apparent that the ceiling was not made from solid stone. Instead, it was porous. A proper ceiling only appeared after a several inch wide gap. The gap was sufficient for small creatures to reside in.

Pricklybum moved next to Terry and he made some space for the soul spirit. The wiremoss tarantula rammed one of its clawed legs into the ceiling and excreted some sticky liquid.

It pulled back its leg and Terry could see a slightly fluorescent butterfly creature glued to the soul spirit’s limb.

“Siling have a look at Pricklybum’s catch. Do you know what that is?”

The wiremoss tarantula webbed the caught creature and lowered it on a thread to Siling.

“Attacus sleepmoth,” exclaimed Siling. “We’ve probably been hit by its dream-aspected drowsy ability. Thankfully, they’re only minor corrupted. Nevertheless, we should avoid exposing ourselves even longer.”

“How to best deal with them?”

“Does a Fireball fit into the gap?” asked Alrik. “Don’t think so. Let me try something.” Terry summoned two items he had received as part of his mana crafting exchanges.

The first was a short spear he received from Tiana. The spear tip had been aspected with lightning by Tiana’s brother. Terry aimed the spear at one of the creatures through the opening. The creature died quickly and fell down.

The second spear’s tip had been aspected with coldfire by Miguel. Terry carefully used the spear to attack one of the sleepmoths. The creature caught the coldfire. Before it died, the sleepmoth managed to take flight and thereby spread the coldfire to other victims.

“Works somewhat, but this would still take forever.” Terry placed the spears back into his storage bracelet.

“I could try Cone of Cold,” suggested Gellath.

“Better, but…” Terry shook his head. “There are too many around here and we still have to move. I don’t think it’s workable to eliminate them wherever we go.” He added in a mumble, “This would have been perfect for Calam’s Kinetic Pull.”

Tiana exchanged her shield and gladius with her war hammer again.

“What are you up to?” asked Jorg.

“Siling said we’re going in circles. Now, we find an assimilated mana-corrupted creature with a weak drowsy ability,” recapped Tiana. “To me that strengthens the case for a labyrinth. However, Miguel was right in that we have never reached a fork.”

Tiana moved to one of the walls and swung the war hammer against it with her full might. The wall cracked, but nothing more.

Jorg tried to follow the thought. “You think the walls are moving?”

Terry let himself fall down to the floor again. “Some of the walls could be dungeon constructs. Then, there should be a core.” He examined the floor around the walls. “Perhaps it’s hidden in the floor or ceiling again? Problem is we do not know how far away the core might be. Nor how big the construct core of a moving wall would be.”

“So no way to easily distinguish the moving walls from the proper walls?” asked Lori. “Nothing to do, but try then. I don’t want to stay around the wasted moths.” She started to cast Rockspall Touch.

Terry summoned the war hammer from their cloud badger hunting days and joined the two in testing the walls.

Siling considered joining in with an empowered Kinetic Push, but thought better of it. This dungeon started to make her feel uncomfortable. It was better for the people with healing spells to preserve mana when they could.

*Crack* Lori’s spell broke through one wall.

Something jumped through the following dust cloud at Lori.

Lori quickly activated the barrier imprint in her short spear. Her spear became heavier. She could see a construct clinging to the tower shield barrier with its extended legs.

The underside of the construct had one thick spike in the middle. Inside the construct, there was a screw mechanism for thrusting the spike forward an inch as well as pulling it back into its body.

The creature’s legs tightened and a moment later, Lori heard the sound of her barrier shattering.

The creature fell and jumped again at Lori. This time, Lori used a prepared Raise Wall spell to block the construct.

“Spike creeper,” shouted Jorg. “Don’t let it wrap its legs around you! That spike can’t extend very far, but it can muster a lot of pressure!”

Lori nodded and cast Liquify Earth on the ground in front of the wall.

The spike creeper crawled over the earthen wall and jumped at Lori. Lori used her short spear to bat the construct into the prepared mud. She followed up with Harden Earth. The spike creeper was trapped in the ground.

“Good job,” praised Jorg.

“Except for the fact that we can’t get at its core,” complained Alrik with a frown.

Florine was taken aback. “I-I could liquify the earth partly and then we can try to extract it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” muttered Jorg and shot a glare at Alrik.

“It’s getting uppity,” said Siling. “Pricklybum’s tremor sense is going haywire. That spike packs a punch. It will probably escape soon.”

Lori and Jorg stepped back from the area.

“Oh good, then we can recover the core after all,” exclaimed Alrik.

The spike creeper broke through the floor and crawled up.

“Bang.” Tiana crushed the whole construct with her war hammer.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” demanded Alrik.

“Hoopsie,” replied Tiana with a scowl towards Alrik. “How clumsy of me.” There was no sincerity in her voice.

Terry’s lip curled upwards. He also saw similar reactions from others in the group. Miguel made no attempt to hide his thumbs-up to Tiana.

“Hmph,” grunted Alrik.

“Anyway,” started Tiana. “Now that we have confirmed our suspicions, how do we proceed?”

“I still remember the direction from which we entered,” said Siling.

“We don’t want to leave,” objected Alrik.

“This dungeon is way beyond the introductory dungeons,” retorted Terry. “Screw your measurements!”

“I have to agree,” said Jorg. “These spike creepers could be lethal, especially if your reflexes have been dulled by the sleepmoth.”

“We have the scrolls,” reminded Alrik. “We can return anytime. We might as well see how far we can get. We have come all this way. What is the point in turning back when we could move forward instead?”

***

After the labyrinth, they passed through two more floors that contained mostly normal rooms – some familiar enemies and nothing too far out of the ordinary.

There was one weird room that was completely devoid of anything remotely threatening at first glance. This caused the group to fear a potential trap. However, if there was one, then they did not trigger it.

In contrast, the first room on this new floor was far from peaceful.

“Waste it,” cursed Miguel. “Bad kitty! Piss off already!” He fired an aspected arrow at the purplemist lynx.

The arrow found its target. Unfortunately, it was blocked by the creature’s arcane shield. Nevertheless, it managed to draw the attention of the mana-corrupted feline.

Gellath used the chance to put some distance between himself and the purplemist lynx.

The eyes of the purplemist lynx started to glow in a bright magenta.

Miguel nocked another arrow. However, before he could fire it, shrubbery grew right in his line of sight. He barely managed to stop himself from releasing the arrow and having the coldfire ignite the shrubbery directly in front of him.

“Someone do something about these wasted trash pandas!”

The purplemist lynx released two arcane bolts directed at Gellath. They collided with an earthen wall instead.

Miguel moved from behind the shrubbery in order to take aim again.

Siling’s wiremoss tarantula soul spirit rushed past him and sunk its fangs into one of the escaping shrub raccoons.

“Thanks, Princess,” murmured Miguel and looked around. He was tempted to aim for the corrupted raccoons as well. However, his past attempts taught him two things. First, these creatures were too quick with their mana ability. Second, he hated them with a passion.

“Ugh, this is taking forever,” complained Alrik. “Elena, hurry it up!”

Elena frowned. Then, she burst her mana and charged at the lynx again.

“What?!” exclaimed Tiana. “No— Wait!” She glanced at the purplemist lynx whose eyes were already glowing. Tiana dashed forward without hesitation and exchanged her weapon with a tower shield from her storage bracelet.

Shrubs grew right in Elena’s path and entangled her legs.

“HAA.” Elena ripped through the shrubbery and was immediately faced with two arcane bolts in her path.

One was blocked by an earthen wall. Tiana blocked the second with her tower shield.

Elena jumped over the wall.

“No! CONSTRUCTS OVER THERE!” shouted Tiana. She burst her own mana and tried to grab Elena. Unfortunately, Elena dodged on instinct.

Terry was hunting down shrub raccoons when he heard Tiana’s shout. He cursed and changed direction.

Siling finished off the nature-aspected raccoon with a Rock Spear instead. She observed the battlefield and instructed her soul spirit.

A spike creeper jumped towards Elena. It was hit by a bolt fired from Tiana’s crossbow.

Elena smashed a large fake goblin construct into smithereens.

A second spike creeper appeared. It changed direction in mid-air and was pulled towards Terry.

A third spike creeper did not jump. Instead, it scurried along the floor.

“ARRHHG!” a horrid scream echoed through the room.

The spike creeper had latched onto Elena’s leg. The extendable spike had maimed her calf.

In a fury, Elena ripped the construct apart. Blood poured out of the wound. Fortunately, Elena’s blood-aspected mana supported her own health regeneration and wound closure. The effect was amplified when bursting. Unfortunately, the pain drove Elena’s sanity further into the back of her mind.

“Quick!” exclaimed Gellath. “The wound must not close like this!” He and Lori took off towards Elena. When a shrub raccoon tried to entangle them, Lori used an earthen wall to propel the creature into the air.

Tiana ran in front of Elena to prevent any other constructs from getting closer.

“Hissss!” The purplemist lynx dodged Alrik’s Raise Icicles spell. Two incensed eyes with vertical slits searched for the source. The eyes started to glow.

“ARGH!” Elena punched the ground.

“Someone hold her down!” ordered Gellath. He cast Healing Waters on Elena.

“Do what now?” blurted Terry. He looked at the berserk woman fighting with the floor.

“I can stabilize her condition from here. The water spells will also disinfect the wound. However, we need to make sure that there are no foreign objects in the wound before it closes. She is still bursting her blood-aspected mana. We don’t have time for her to come back to her senses.”

Lori’s lower lip trembled when she saw all the blood. “I—”

“I’ll do it,” said Tiana. “My size is more up to the task.”

Lori nodded and switched positions with Tiana.

“Terry, once I have her down, use your Immovable Object items.”

“Understood,” replied Terry. He continued in a mumble, “Next time, we ought to prepare a way to cast the Calm spell.”

The purplemist lynx stalked around the group. Then, it broke out into a sprint and charged towards Alrik.

Alrik cast Raise Icicles. The corrupted lynx simply sped up and evaded the spell without breaking its stride.

Alrik threw a Fireball. The creature dodged to the side and pressed forward.

An aspected arrow impacted on the arcane shield of the purplemist lynx. The shield broke, but the lynx continued its charge.

The oversized lynx reached Alrik and shattered his barrier with its paw.

Alrik gulped and stumbled backward.

The purplemist lynx pounced on Alrik and was greeted by a barrier spear right to its flank. Jorg had arrived in time.

Before Jorg could follow up, the creature instinctively activated its repulsion mana ability. Jorg and Alrik were pushed away.

A shrub raccoon appeared to entangle Alrik on the ground. Unexpectedly, the purplemist lynx attacked the raccoon and tore it apart. In its wounded state the assimilated lynx’s instincts overruled the dungeon’s guidance.

“Hisss!”

Pricklybum had arrived and rained a barrage of barbed needle hairs down on the purplemist lynx.

The purplemist lynx pounced at the wiremoss tarantula. Pricklybum used its burst speed to lure the lynx to a different place.

While the tarantula’s burst speed was high, it lost out to the lynx over the long run. The purplemist lynx’s teeth were about to sink into one of Pricklybum’s legs when the wiremoss tarantula spirit vanished into thin air. It reappeared next to Siling, who was casting Heal on Elena from a distance.

The purplemist lynx sniffed the air and looked around. Its arcane shield reappeared and it dashed towards the wounded Elena.

After the corrupted creature had traversed half the distance, it was greeted by a throwing needle. As with the arrows, the purplemist lynx ignored the little object and relied on its arcane shield. The lynx did not notice that shortly before the arcane shield made contact with the needle, the needle stopped moving forward and was transfixed in the air.

The arcane shield shattered. The needle entered the lynx’s shoulder and caused the creature to come to a sudden halt. It howled and hissed.

Earthen walls appeared around the lynx. The creature’s pupils dilated at what it saw.

Tiana jumped and swung the lightning-aspected version of her giant war hammer. The creature’s head got crushed and lightning sizzled through its body.

Tiana retreated quickly. She generally avoided the lightning-aspected hammer for a reason. In contrast to her brother, her own lightning resistance was not that pronounced yet. Tiana shook her numb hand and observed the purplemist lynx.

“It’s dead,” yelled Siling. Tiana exhaled sharply.

Terry dropped down from the air next to Siling. “If you want this soul, you need to hurry.”

“The spells are neat, but not worth the risk. My soul needs to become stronger before I can collect and strengthen a creature like that.”

“What about the shrub raccoons?”

“Too much overlap with my Entangling Roots. Besides…” Siling looked over to Elena. “No non-essential casting while a companion is out on the ground.”

With the main threat gone, they quickly eradicated the rest of the dungeon beings in the room.

“You feeling alright?” asked Lori.

“Y-yes, thank you,” replied Elena. “Only a bit tired.”

“One Banish Fatigue, at your service,” announced Siling.

Elena smiled in response. “Sorry for moving too far ahead and…” She looked at Tiana and Terry. “And for punching you.”

Terry nodded.

“I can take a punch,” replied Tiana. “But the biting was uncalled for.”

Elene averted her eyes and flushed from embarrassment.

“Nevertheless, while I don’t bruise easily, I do prefer not being punched. There was no need for you to burst. You were doing fine before. We had control of the situation.”

Elena bit her lip and clenched her fists.

“Your leg should be fine again,” declared Gellath. He cast one last round of Curing Waters. “Although the fresh tissue will feel a bit tingly for a while. Tell me if you notice any cramping.”

“Thanks, Gellath.” Elena was truly grateful.

The water-aspected variants of the fundamental healing spells brought several disadvantages for the caster. First, their range was shorter – Gellath had to come close and run around all the time. Second, the variants required more time to cast. Third, the caster had to actively control the spell. All of these took a toll on the caster. In exchange, the water-aspected variants brought a benefit to the spell target. They entailed a soothing cooling effect and alleviated the pain immensely.

“HAHA, YES!” Alrik’s happy exclamations resounded through the room.

The repulsion ability of the purplemist lynx had thrown Jorg and Alrik into different directions. While lying there on the ground, Alrik had noticed a reflection. He had walked over to investigate immediately. The result was a fist-sized purple mana crystal in his hand.

Jorg was already half across the room towards Elena’s group and turned around. “What’s up with you?”

“A purple mana crystal! A purple mana crystal!”

Jorg shrugged and then looked around for any straggling mana corrupted.

Eventually, everyone gathered together again.

“You okay, Elena?” asked Jorg.

“Fine, thanks.”

“Haha.” Alrik could not stop laughing happily.

“Can we stop already?” exclaimed Terry. “We have covered twice the number of floors than there were in any of the introduction dungeons. It is not getting better, is it? No way that the dungeon core is still exposed.”

“I agree,” said Siling. “This dungeon is beginning to make my skin crawl. I don’t like it.”

“Even I’ve had my fill for today,” said Jorg. “Good timing, too. Apparently, Alrik discovered something good. Purple mana crystal or something.”

Siling’s eyes popped wide open. “Waow, really?”

“Oh yes.” Alrik smirked. He proudly displayed the crystal.

“What’s that good for?” whispered Miguel to Terry.

“Incredibly useful for casting devices. Traditional mage staves and the like. Aside from amplifying certain mana aspects, it can act as the foundation for powerful mana-crafted items, because any imprint would develop its own spell control and improve with use.”

Miguel whistled. “Sounds valuable.”

“Good,” exclaimed Jorg. “If we sell that with the other cores and items we picked up, the trip was worthwhile for everyone.”

“What do you mean ‘sell’?!” demanded Alrik. “No way am I going to sell the purple mana crystal. Are you out of your mind?!”

“I would love a purple mana crystal as much as the next mage, but we only have one,” said Siling.

“Yeah, and?” retorted Alrik. “It’s mine. I found it.”

The others looked at Alrik as if he was a terror grizzly that started a tap dance.

“What is wrong with you?!” exclaimed Miguel and shook his head.

“You found it, yes,” said Jorg. “And everyone else protected you on the way here. Putting aside all the other floors. If it was not for Elena, you would have been turned into meat paste several times on this floor alone. I also distinctly remember saving your hairy bum from the purple fleabag once.”

“Pff.” scoffed Alrik. “I found it. It’s mine.”

“Alright, then you can buy out everyone else’s share,” suggested Tiana.

“Are you mad? It’s mine. You have no share.”

Gellath looked from side to side. “Is he for real?”

“H-he did find it, though,” muttered Florine.

Jorg looked at his sister in exasperation.

“Tse.” Alrik displayed a sneer. “You want to stop the dungeon dive? Your call. However, the purple mana crystal is mine.” He ripped apart a scroll and vanished.

“The little—” Miguel stopped mid-sentence and gestured wildly. “How has no one fed him to a terror grizzly yet? Is it the dimples? The glossy curls? The big fireballs?” His hand gestures morphed into choking an imaginary neck. “Kcchhh.”

Miguel’s reaction jolted everyone else from their disbelieving daze.

“What the wasted—” Jorg was flabbergasted.

“Pest beetle,” growled Siling.

Tiana and Terry only scowled. Gellath seemed less than surprised. Elena sighed.

“M-maybe— I m-mean— We wanted to stop the dive, anyway, right?” stammered Florine.

Elena drew a sharp breath, gnashed her teeth, and shook her head.

“Seriously, Lori?!” exclaimed Jorg. “Just stop it.”

“I don’t take orders from you, Jorg!” barked Florine. “I won’t stay quiet just because someone tells me to.”

Miguel snorted and averted his eyes. Siling raised her eyebrows.

“I wish,” mumbled Terry.

“Why don’t you reserve some of that temper for the pest beetle once in a while?” Jorg shook his head. “Nevermind that now. However, once we are out, we need to talk.”

“Whatever.” Florine frowned. “Are we going or not?”

“Sure,” replied Jorg. His tone was bitter.

All of them summoned the leftover half of their Mark-and-Recall scrolls from their storage items.

“Then I don’t see what the fuss is about,” murmured Florine. “Someone has to go first. What does it matter if it was Alrik?”

Florine ripped her scroll apart. The scroll crumbled into dust… Lori’s body remained where it was. Lori’s brain tried to process what just happened.

“Everyone WAIT!” Terry was quicker.

He walked over to Lori and then everyone turned to the dumbstruck dwarf.

***