– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 1 –

“No trace of him,” muttered Siling with a voice full of anguish. She turned towards the group.

“Neither Grumpy nor I can sense Terry’s life signature. In fact, there is no life signature matching folk aside from us.”

Just like that, the last bit of color vanished from Jorg’s face. Tiana gritted her teeth and looked around without knowing for what.

“Could he have gone back inside?” asked Miguel.

Tiana clenched the leaf-shaped gladius in her hand and looked towards the hidden dungeon entrance.

“No way,” denied Siling. “Why would he do that?”

“He wouldn’t.” said Jorg. “Nor could he. Terry alone would not be able to open the dungeon that quickly.”

Silence fell over the group again.

“Maybe Terry just left,” said Florine.

“Without his tent and bedroll?” questioned Siling.

“He did seem pretty angry,” said Elena.

“So what?” Siling remained incredulous. “Terry would not scare us like that, no matter how angry he may be.”

“The link with the Guardian card has been turned off,” said Florine. “That could only have been done by Terry.”

“Or Terry is in a place in which the links are blocked.” Miguel looked towards the dungeon again.

“If he was in the dungeon, then he would have had to descend beyond the reach of my life sense.” Siling shook her head. “It makes no sense.”

Tiana eyed Florine and Jorg. “I wholeheartedly understand why Terry would be mad at you, but why would Terry be angry with us? Why are the links with our cards disabled as well? That is what I do not understand.”

“No helping it, is there?” remarked Elena. “We are not in any shape to do another dungeon dive.”

Florine shook her head. “No, we will go home. Terry will probably sit there waiting for us in the living room, with our angry parents waiting right next to him to punish us. Perhaps this whole link disablement act is some kind of screwed up way for Ma to teach us a lesson.”

“Hmph.” Siling did not believe it. She turned around and moved to dismantle Terry’s tent.

“We would need to get help in any case,” said Tiana. “Better do it quickly. If we hurry and take the direct route without making any stops, we should arrive in Arcana late afternoon or early evening.”

***

“Don’t you have your own homes to go to?” asked Florine. She was not looking forward to being admonished by her parents in front of Tiana and Siling.

“I believe we had that discussion before,” replied Tiana. “My answer remains unchanged.”

“I am not going anywhere until I have seen that Terry is okay,” insisted Siling. She continued in a murmur: “I hope he is okay.”

A chill ran down Jorg’s back.

The group arrived at the door. Before Florine could fully press the door handle, the door was ripped open.

“WHY IN THE WASTES ARE TERRY’S LINKS TURNED OFF?!” Isille’s roar shook everyone to their bones.

Behind the door stood Isille with a mad look in her eyes that managed to scare even Tiana. Right behind her loomed Bjorln, Samuel, and Brynn.

Isille glanced over everyone. “Where is Terry?!”

Siling’s stomach sunk into the abyss and beyond. Tiana clenched her fists.

“He is-isn’t here?” Lori’s face was ashen. All the soothing self-delusions she had crafted shattered into pieces.

Jorg seemed to have completely lost control of his facial muscles. His stomach did not perform any better. “Blaargh.” Jorg vomited in front of their home.

An oppressive silence suffocated everyone. Isille stopped blinking completely and her mouth opened several times without uttering a sound.

“What do you mean, ‘he isn’t here’?” Isille was still not blinking and now maintained eye contact with Lori. “Where is Terry?”

Lori was too overwhelmed to answer. Fear. Her lips trembled. Regret. Tears started to fall from her eyes. Guilt.

“What the Wastes is going on?” asked Bjorln.

“I-it c-can’t be.“ Jorg was stammering. “P-please no.”

Lori’s mind remained blank. She was unable to take command of her own voice.

“That Alrik discovered an unknown and seemingly new dungeon,” said Tiana. She was surprised to discover that the expressions of Isille and the others could turn even darker. Tiana knew that it was important to quickly list the important parts, but she had to avert her eyes to maintain her composure.

“We all made it out again. We needed to rest. When we woke up, Terry was nowhere to be found anymore. Siling scanned a large area with her soul bird’s life sense. No trace.”

Isille was trying hard to control her breathing. She knew that she was supposed to stay calm, but it was too difficult. All Isille could manage were glares towards the twins. She did not trust herself to speak right now.

“Where?” Samuel was the first to recover. Tiana described the dungeon’s location and the hidden entrance.

“Bjorln?” Samuel laid his hand on Bjorln’s shoulder. “We must hurry.”

This jolted Bjorln out of his daze. “I will assemble the tracking and dungeon squads. We will head over there immediately.” He passed by Tiana and the others and sprinted towards the Guardians’ headquarters.

“I will go to the Academy and ask Ser for assistance,” stated Samuel. “His divination magic and scrying temporal inspection may be of help.”

“I will issue a locating quest at the Guild,” declared Brynn. “Wait for me at the Academy gate.” After addressing Samuel, Brynn left.

“Isille,” started Samuel, “We need to collect all the information that we can get.” Then, Samuel rushed out the door as well.

“…”

After a silence that seemed like eternity, Isille found her voice again.

“Who was present?”

“Everyone from our three groups,” responded Tiana.

“However, Alrik abandoned us in the dungeon,” said Siling. “He departed earlier.” Siling could not help but think that if Isille were to clench her teeth any harder, they would probably burst into pieces.

“Does not matter, we need everyone’s statements.” Isille pondered for a moment.

“Tiana, Siling, thank you. Go home to your families. Eat something. Rest a bit. If you are afraid of forgetting anything important, then please write it down. We will have all of you come back a bit later today so that we can reconstruct what happened.”

Isille moved through the door. “I have to leave now as well. I need to inform Guardian management.”

“C-can we do an-anything?” stammered Jorg.

Isille faced her children. She took a deep breath. “Eat something. Rest a bit. If you are afraid of forgetting anything important, then write it down.” Her voice sounded hollow. Tears were escaping from her glaring eyes.

Without waiting any longer, Isille turned to leave. Jorg and Lori were too choked up to say anything else.

***

Isille was pacing around the room. The spacious room had been prepared by Guardian management. There was a large half-circle of chairs opposite a row of tables.

The left-most chairs were taken by Lori and Jorg. The two were as pale as the bed sheets in which they had spent a sleepless hour before this meeting.

Next to them sat Miguel with his father. The manaless hunter wore a somber expression and had his arm around Miguel’s shoulder. Pity and helplessness flashed through his eyes whenever he glanced at Isille or at Gellath’s parents.

Gellath seemed a proper mess. The Guardians had arranged trauma counseling and had already scheduled therapy sessions for the poor dwarf. However, Gellath still needed to give his testimony. He was seated between his parents. Both of them tried to comfort their son as best as they could.

The door opened and four people stepped in. Isille walked over to greet them.

“Thank you for coming Elena. You must be Elena’s father? My name is Isille.”

“Y-yes? H-hello. I’m Zoltan. I-I’m afraid I don’t have much knowledge about Guardians or anything, I’m just a waiter—”

“No worries, we will explain everything. We are only here to collect information that may be of help in locating a missing Guardian. Elena is a witness. All that is required of you is to be her father and support her.”

Zoltan calmed down noticeably. He was manaless and felt very intimidated from being inside the Guardians headquarter. Isille’s words made him feel more at ease and he nodded.

“That I know how to do.” Zoltan smiled at his daughter. Elena gave a smile in return. Her filial affection was somewhat muffled by the somber overall atmosphere.

“Please take a seat.” Isille pointed towards the chairs before greeting the next group.

“Thank you, Tiana.” Isille examined the man next to Tiana. The man was wearing the uniform of an Arcanian soldier. While there was a clear family resemblance, Isille knew Tiana to be an orphan.

The giant of a man introduced himself of his own accord. “Greetings, my name is Chadwick. I am Tiana’s older brother.”

Isille nodded. “Good, I appreciate you accompanying Tiana. These things can be…” Isille had to remind herself to remain detached – just like all the other times she had hosted such a meeting before. She swallowed and continued. “Stressful. It is good to have some trusted faces and shoulders to lean on with you.”

Chadwick put his hand on Tiana’s shoulder. “My sister is strong.” He looked very proud. “I came at her request mostly to see if I could do anything to help. Anything that I could do personally or request from my superiors.”

“Thank you.” Isille’s voice broke. “Please, take a seat.”

Isille was about to go back to her routine of trying to wear down the floor when voices could be heard from outside.

“But Pa!”

“SILENCE! I have had enough. I suggest you appreciate the sight of the sun now, because I can assure you it may be your last chance to see it during this cycle.”

“D-dear don’t you believe that is excessive? Little Al only—”

“Only NOTHING! Secret dungeon work! Abandoning his companions! A kid is missing for mana’s sake!”

“…”

“Alrik, you are my son. I have always been proud of you. Now… You will always be my son, but never in my life have felt so much shame and anger as I am feeling right now. You will take responsibility and we as a family will take responsibility. We will do everything we can to find that missing kid. If you have to give testimony a thousand times, then so be it. If they want to examine your mind and memories, then so be it. If a wasted shaman comes and claims that drinking urine and doing a handstand would help, then so be it. Are we clear?!”

“…”

“No more pampering until we have found a way to make this right. Hope to mana that there is a way…”

There was a short moment of silence before a group of three dwarves stepped through the door. Alrik immediately felt the gazes of everyone in the room. He tried to avoid the looks from the other groups and quickly searched for eye-contact with Lori. Alrik was certain to find some sympathy from Lori. Unexpectedly, his hopes were dashed. Lori refused to spare him a single glance.

Meanwhile, the adult dwarven man wearing flashy robes hurried over to Isille.

“I’m so sorry. If there is anything we can do – anything at all – please.”

Isille had to bite her tongue to keep her feelings in check. “Thank you for coming. We will inform you if there is anything. Please take a seat.”

Isille tried very hard not to look at Alrik. She knew that he was barely more than a child. She knew that he had not intended anything like this. She knew that it was not his fault alone. However, despite all that knowledge, Isille had to fight the urge to shake the wasted pest beetle until… Until nothing. She knew it would not help one iota. It would not help her mood. It certainly would not help Terry.

“Sorry for being this late.” Siling hurried through the door with two people in tow.

“Thank you for coming, Siling. You as well, Daiyu. Thank you for accompanying your daughter.”

Siling’s mother was also a member of the Guardians. While they were no close associates, Isille and Daiyu at least knew and recognized each other.

“Anything. My daughter speaks highly of Terry as a companion.”

Isille looked behind the two.

“Calam?” Isille was surprised. “What are you doing here? You were not part of the dungeon run, were you?”

Calam opened his mouth without saying anything, but shook his head.

“I went to him,” explained Siling. “I remembered that Terry always kept his link with Calam active even though Calam had set it to off.”

Calam visibly winced at this statement and he carefully examined his own feet.

Siling sighed. “I thought there was a chance that…”

Despite her better judgement, a seed of hope sprouted inside of Isille and her eyes widened a bit… It only lasted a moment. Both Siling and Calam were shaking their heads with sad expressions.

“Thank you for trying.”

“When Calam heard that Terry was missing, he asked to come along.”

“Alright, I will get a chair.”

“It’s fine, Isille. You stay.” Mirabilia patted Isille on the back. “I will get it.”

“Thanks, Mira.”

The door opened again and Khaled stepped in.

“Sorry, Isille. No luck yet.” Khaled shook his head. “We have combed through every inch of that dungeon repeatedly and we have scanned the whole sector with every means available at this time. Nothing.

“The dungeon squad will continue to investigate inside. The tracking squad will start to investigate the closest dimensional gates. Bjorln remains at the dungeon together with those Academy mages. Their temporal inspection is still ongoing. Brynn’s constructs have spread out to do a sweep of the surrounding sectors. Some Guildheads have also started to join our efforts. Given the faces that I could recognize, I can only assume that Brynn has offered a fortune to catch their attention.”

Khaled took a deep breath. “Nothing yet. We have created copies of the linked signaling cubes and they will be placed in an amplifier at different locations. If a signal from Terry’s cube is caught, then we will be able to triangulate it. There are still many other things to try, but it will require time.”

Isille sighed. “Tamar is already in the backroom together with Dwayne. If you go get Javier, then we can start.”

***

“Strange indeed,” mumbled Ser.

“What do you mean?” asked Samuel.

“I can sense the boy entering his tent, but I sense no sign of him leaving it.”

“That’s impossible,” said Bjorln.

“It definitely is improbable. Nevertheless, that is what I sense. The first life sign in the temporal flicker is the tall girl looking into the tent in the morning.”

“Space magic?” surmised Brynn. “Did they somehow get tangled up with a dimensional mage?”

“Unlikely,” said an elven woman walking up to them. “You’re the client? Brynn?”

“Yes, that is me.”

“Greetings. My name is Mia. Going by your outfits you’re Academy mages. Is the missing person an Academy student? If so, that should have been included in the provided intel. It increases the likelihood of this being a kidnapping.”

“No. Terry is not a student at the Academy anymore.”

“‘Anymore’?”

“He was, but I can assure you that Terry does not fit the normal Academy kidnapping profile,” asserted Brynn.

“Terry was at some point technically a member of the Antelius family,” said Samuel. “However, they rescinded his last name and disavowed the family connection when Terry got expelled.”

“Lovely lot.” Mia frowned. “Alright, then I agree with you. The kid would make for a bad target to get at the Antelius family.”

Samuel and Ser jolted and observed an empty spot to Mia’s right. A second later, sand started to rise from the earth and slowly take the shape of folk. After a moment, there stood a wrinkly white-haired elven man.

“Greetings. Hmm. It seems a temporal inspection was already performed.” The elf focused his murky eyes on Ser. “A man of the craft I see. A human at that. My pleasure.”

Ser raised an eyebrow, but he chose to remain polite. It was not an easy task to detect a temporal inspection and it was even harder to accurately trace the source. “Likewise. My name is Ser. Who am I speaking to?”

The elf’s lips curled upward. “This cycle, I go by Roy.” Afterwards, he put his hand on Mia’s shoulder. The two seemed to have a quick – and silent – exchange of information.

“Why did you rule out action by a dimensional mage as unlikely?” inquired Samuel.

“Because the space here is too stable,” replied Mia. “Unanchored dimensional travel is not that clean. Given the area that has been searched without success, the space distortion would have to be quite extensive. Not even the best dimensional mages could cover that up without a trace.”

Roy nodded in agreement. “Anchored dimensional travel can be ruled out as well. I do not sense a dimensional gate and a fresh anchoring would be noticeable in the temporal inspection. Besides, outside the magic sovereigns, there are maybe two dozen mages capable of long-distance dimensional anchoring in Arcana. You are looking at two of them and we are well acquainted with the others.”

“Oh look, Roy,” exclaimed Mia. “Apparently, the mission caught the attention of William and his sniffing pets as well.”

In the background, a man wearing a hooded robe became visible. The robe looked as if it was overgrown with moss. Countless bumblebees of various sizes and colors started to fly out of the man’s sleeves. The insects then started to spread out.

“Mhmh, no idling then. We should split up. I’ll take the dungeon.” Roy transformed into sand which fell to the ground.

“I assume the Guardians are doing an interview with the others from the group?” inquired Mia.

“Yes,” said Bjorln.

“I will amend the information deposited with the Guild as soon as possible,” added Brynn.

“Good. Hope to see you soon.” With those parting words, Mia emitted a light glow before her appearance slowly faded away.

“Exactly how much did you offer as a reward?” asked Ser. It was rare for him to take note of other mages, but these two definitely left an impression.

“However much is needed to find Whaka Terry,” replied Brynn. “I gave my agent at the Guild full authorization over my main account.“

Samuel stepped over, took Brynn’s hand, and raised it to his lips.

***

The first sensation that hit Terry was the unmistakable stench of something rotten. Something very rotten. A cold, hard, and wet floor. Water dripping onto his head.

Huh?

Terry was jolted awake by the realization that none of these sensations made any sense. After all, Terry went to sleep on a bedroll in his rainproof tent which stood outside in the fresh air.

“Am I still dreaming?” mumbled Terry.

Terry looked around, but everything was dark. He used his mana sense and felt terror bubbling up. This felt like a dungeon.

Can’t be.

It certainly looked like a dungeon. The walls were all emitting enough mana for Terry to sense that he was in a cavern that seemed barely big enough for him to fit inside.

Mana signatures of differing strengths and sizes were scurrying all around him in the distance for as far as his mana sense reached. Terry swallowed and tried to get his breathing under control.

Think.

If his mana sense was to be trusted, then Terry was alone in the cavern. He felt his mana and detected the familiar suction force of his mana-crafted items.

Thank mana, I was too exhausted to care about sleeping in my equipment.

Terry summoned one of his cheap mana-crafted light-sources: a small ring that had been charged with light-aspected mana. Its light illuminated the cavern and Terry’s sight confirmed what he had perceived before with his mana sense.

How the Wastes did I end up in a dungeon again?!

Sleepwalking? How would I have gotten out of the tent? Or past the mana reservoir for that matter? Also, the others would have noticed—

The others? Are they here, too? Are they alright?

Terry panicked again. A sound nearby made him flinch and reflexively grab the ring in his hand to hide the light.

And what is this nauseating stench?

Terry put the ring back into his dimensional bag. He took a deep breath and checked his equipment.

Storage items are all there. At least I won’t starve anytime soon. Lucky me.

Terry gave a wry smile and shook his head roughly in order to bring himself to focus again. He summoned his Guardian card and signaling cube.

All links are off. Waste it.

With his mana sense at full alert, Terry sneaked towards the only tunnel leading out of the cavern. The tunnel was not long. After a few steps, there was a cliff blocking his path.

I guess that explains why I got the cavern all to myself. Lucky me.

Strange. How the Wastes did I get up here? Is sleepcasting a thing?

Terry laid flat on the ground and peeked over the ledge. There were lights below. He could see movement.

“Holy—” Terry forced himself to stop his exclamation and crawled back from the ledge.

Undead? Wasted undead? Since when are there undead in Arcana?

Or are those dungeon assimilated? Can undead become assimilated by a dungeon? How did they get into the dungeon in the first place?

Terry concentrated on his mana sense.

I don’t sense a core. Mana, yes. Core, no.

Deep breaths.

This would be a lot easier if it was not for that suffocating stench in the air. I should have bought the scent mask back then instead of renting it.

Undead. Wasted undead. I don’t remember any undead in Alrik’s dungeon. I certainly would have noticed this horrible stench.

Different dungeon then? How? Why?

I hope the others are safe.

Wait, are ALL those mana signatures undead?!

Terry crawled back some more and then hurriedly retreated into the cavern. He sat down at the wall in the back. Terry hugged his knees and buried his face in them.

Memories flashed in Terry’s mind.

Gellath who cracked silly anti-jokes at the training grounds. Gellath who ran over concernedly to check if anyone required healing. Gellath who cried and suffered a mental breakdown in Alrik’s dungeon.

Elena who charged ferociously into battle. Elena who refused to use the Recall spell without a moment’s thought. Elena who seemed so incredibly lonely when opening up to Tiana at camp.

Miguel who looked so excited whenever Grumpy was summoned. Miguel who threatened the bandit with cold fury in his eyes. Miguel who clenched his fists in frustration whenever an archer could offer little help.

Tiana who happily highlighted the objectives for one of her plans. Tiana whose weapon or shield appeared right where it was needed. Tiana’s grimace when she talked about being cast out of her previous groups.

Siling who chatted giddily without pause on the subject of potential new soul spirits. Siling who to his relief already moved to the appropriate position for the situation. Siling with a stream of blood flowing from her eyes.

Jorg who passionately argued for using mana games instead of shaping exercises. Jorg whose expression turned serious during a mission. Jorg who looked crestfallen after Gellath was unable to evacuate with his Recall scroll.

Lori’s mischievous grin whenever she successfully used Liquify Earth against him in their sparring sessions. The happy look of pride Lori got when she learned a new spell. How different Lori seemed when she was around Alrik.

Lori and Jorg on the day they first met. When they suffered together with him through Bjorln’s physical exercise routine. When they read the Veilbinder’s story to each other.

The day Terry learned the Immovable Object spell surrounded by his family.

Whaka.

Subconsciously, Terry changed his posture. He stopped hugging his knees. His legs moved further apart. He leaned back against the wall behind him. His arms were outstretched and resting on his knees.

Actions.

Terry stared at the tunnel.

***

– End of Arc 1, Cultivating Perseverance –