Two weeks. Mari had been gone for two whole weeks. After having lost the trail of the serpopard, she’d been driving around with Yeshi as her navigator, and searching for any sign of Cordon or his monsters.

Mari had discovered after a bit of travel that her core provided quite an annoyance for driving. It floated, stationary, in the center of the car, but when she drove, the core didn't move. The car would slam into the shell, and pull it along, and when she turned, the core would not, so the chassis would slam into the shell once more.

She'd paused her adventure after a bit of travel to work on a fix, and eventually come up with building some simple supports to lock her shell in place. Now, her little car resembled some weird cultist worship vehicle. Her mental face reddened with embarrassment as she realized she'd built a temple minivan. Though a bit shinier, it looked like an occultist version of a red MINI Cooper. Not very sleek.

Well, at least nobody in this world had any knowledge of minivans, so she doubted anybody would be making fun of her designs.

And Yeshi, whom Mari had brought along with her to navigate and direct her to Cordon's dungeon, hadn't voiced any complaints on the design.

Rather, he'd merely found that it was an uncomfortable experience to rest on one of the ruby chairs she'd built for him, especially since she hadn't considered what would happen if her car didn't have any shocks.

The Overseers weren't bothered by the constant bouncing and shaking of the ruby cage, but whenever Mari drove over a log or a rock, Yeshi nearly smashed his head into the roof.

Since he hadn't mentioned it, though, she'd never noticed any issues with the driving. Her Overseers were looking out of the car, after all, and not inward.

When she'd halted the car to build the supports around her core, floating in the "trunk", she'd noticed the poor Ratman clutching the sides of his chair for dear life.

That's when he'd told her about the miserable experience, and his near-death adventure as she'd stopped. Mari did a mental facepalm. She hadn't built him a seatbelt either, since bringing him along for navigation had been an afterthought.

The girl looked around, apologizing profusely to the warrior as she did.

"Do not trouble yourself," he'd said, cold fury evident in his voice. "I am just as vengeful as you."

She immediately made a note to create a seat belt and suspension as soon as possible, but since the Ratman was willing to deal with it, she wasn’t going to risk wasting any time to stop and look for materials.

For a while, the only hints to Cordon’s location that had turned up were whatever corpses the party of serpopards left behind as they traveled towards her dungeon. But with Yeshi’s help, Mari had eventually found the entrance to Dungeon Cordon.

A massive obsidian sign hung unmoving from a flawless twirling arch which entered the ground like a burrowing snake. The silvery writing upon it seemed to have been carved by a beast’s claws, and the words issued a challenge to their readers.

Behold the legendary Dungeon Cordon. Brave fools die within, the lucky escape, but the intelligent are they who never enter.

As Mari and Yeshi watched, packs of monsters of all shape and size flowed into and out of the intricate arch. In each group, one monster, larger than the others, would approach the arch, touch its head to the thick base, and after closing its eyes for a moment, would then proceed into the dungeon, with the group of smaller monsters following.

[What are they doing?] Mari asked the Ratman who stood beside the crimson car, stretching his stiff muscles.

He looked towards the arch, nodding as he scratched an ear.

“They’re getting permission to reenter the dungeon. If they don’t, Cordon punishes them.”

[Don’t they live inside? They need permission to enter?]

Yeshi nodded. “If a dweller isn’t as efficient as Cordon wants him to be, he’s denied re-entry, and has to find a new place to live. On occasion, those that are evicted are hunted by those that aren’t.”

Mari frowned. [Is that what happened to you?]

The rat smiled sadly, nodding.

“But at least we found a better place to live, in a place we can proudly call home. A place that treats us well.” He crouched, pinching some dirt on the ground and running it between his fingers suspiciously.

[I would never kick you out.]

“We know,” the rat replied, flicking the rest of the dirt away from his claws and standing back up. “And that’s why you’re something like a mother to us.”

Mari would’ve been shocked to hear that from any of the rats but the rage that boiled within her, refusing to be extinguished, prevented her from feeling too emotional about it. Nevertheless, she was honored.

Yeshi climbed back into the car, sighing as he grasped the ruby handles on each side of the seat. He probably wasn’t looking forward to the ride back to Mari’s dungeon.

“We should be going. If there’s that much activity outside Dungeon Cordon right now, it’s best to give up.”

The car didn’t move, and the warrior glanced back towards the crystal.

“My lady?”

She knew he was right, that one Ratman warrior and a giant crystal wouldn’t be enough to get revenge, but Mari wasn’t pleased with the thought of abandoning everything.

“My lady,” the warrior spoke again, softer. “We can always return with reinforcements.”

[It’s right there!] She shouted. [Everything can be fine if we just--]

“My lady!” Yeshi snapped, interrupting her. “You will be throwing your life away. My people need me, and I refuse to throw mine away with you. If you insist upon this foolishness, I will leave you to it and walk back!”

Mari was speechless. But Yeshi had a point.