"We'll be staying here for three days." Nico said.

"Yeah." Jason said, facing the giant portal in front of them. The portal shimmered a transparent blur, blue in color as if a mirror was floating mid-air in the middle of the woods. It was early morning, with the sun just starting to rise and wet dew was still apparent in the leaves, glistening against the sunlight. "Ready to enter the dungeon?"

"Hold up, I'm rechecking the foods and supplies." Nico said, rummaging through the leather bags behind them. "I don't want to starve to death in there because Kai forgot to bring the seasoned meat."

"Where's the trust bro?"

Nico gave him a deadpan look as he rummaged through the bags. "Aight, we're good to go."

"See?"

Nico wrapped a bag behind him, with the others doing the same. "Three days right?"

"More or less." Jason said. "There are two ways to reopen the portal once we get inside: either we wait for three days to pass or we take care of the boss in the dungeon, in which case the portal will open immediately."

"These three days are gonna be wild." Kai said, wrapping an arm around Nico.

"I'm going in first." Jason said, stepping through the portal like he was passing through a clear waterfall.

"Let's go." Kai said, nudging Nico to follow. Nico stepped through the portal, feeling his skin tingle like he was passing through a magic barrier, with the rest following after.

The group found themselves inside a giant cavern, stalactites and stone columns dotting the world around them, along with glowing blue mushrooms sprouting from the ground. The cavern imitated a giant hallway, with a dead-end wall and portal behind them and a long winding path up front obscured by a darkened mist.

"So this is a dungeon." Jason said, examining the walls like he was possessed by a geologist. The floors and walls were made of azul stone, with glowing shrooms and algae patches dotting the crevices and cracks in the rocks, acting as their only guiding light in the dim cave.

"Dungeons come in many shapes and forms." Hena said, examining a patch of mushrooms. "I'm glad it's a fairly normal biome."

"So, what's the plan?" Nico said, crouching beside Hena to look at the glowing shrooms.

"For now, Hena and I will survey what's ahead." Jason said, rummaging through the bags to bring out a lantern. Inside the lantern was an orange orb illuminating the darkness like a lone fire. "We'll be back in a bit."

"Aight."

Hena and Jason went deeper ahead, carrying with them the bright orange lantern. Their silhouettes merged with the dark mist as they went in deeper and deeper until only a single speck of light could be seen.

"Hey Nico," Kai said.

"What?"

"Look at this." Kai poked a mushroom, prompting it to release glowing blue spores into the air like small fireworks. Kai breathed in the particles, causing him to sneeze a mouthful.

"Stop that, we don't even know what that thing does." Nico said, smacking away Kai's hand from the mushroom patch. "It might be poisonous for all we know."

"Don't scare me like that, I accidentally just inhaled some of it."

Kai then went on to sniff some more of the particles floating in the air as if he was asking for more.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know why, but my body feels better after inhaling it."

With a sigh, Nico pulled Kai away from the mushrooms. "That's enough weed for today."

The portal behind them started to shimmer and shrink, its ethereal glow dimming and dimming until it finally vanished into thin air, leaving the group in the cavern with no other way to go back outside.

"Guess there goes our last chance to back out." Kristine said.

. . .

"This place is the Forest of Beginnings?" Nico said.

"A lost piece of it, yeah." Hena said. The group was huddling in a circle with the lantern at the center. "A dungeon is a coined term for an instanced maze formed by many lost pieces of the Forest of Beginnings."

Jason laid out a paper on the stone-cold floor- a map showing a maze with winding passageways.

"The portal took us here." Jason pointed to the center of the maze marked by an X. He then pointed to another X mark a bit further north from the center. "The only passageway out and into the wider maze is through north. We scouted ahead and found a goblin camp, so get ready- we're busting through the front door."

Jason then conjured his gray mote and held a piece of paper next to it, showing the pixie screen to the group.

Goblin Kingdom (E-) [Quest]

A dungeon has formed to the east of the Selsine woods. Enter the dungeon and defeat the boss reigning the dungeon to claim the reward. Recommended party size of twenty.

Reward: 30 silver coins

"Once we root out the boss, the dungeon will eventually collapse and return to the Forest of Beginnings along with the monsters left inside." Jason said, glancing to Nico. "Failing that, the monsters here will eventually grow rampant and start wandering outside the dungeons- and we don't want that."

"So we just have to destroy the source." Nico said with a determined look.

"We first need to find the lair though. It's a huge maze, and we're going to encounter camps of goblins sooner rather than later."

"Aight, let's get on it." Nico said with a quick glance to the map on the ground.

. . .

One goblin was patrolling back and forth the goblin camp entrance, carrying with it a torch and a wooden club, lighting up the dark as he moved through the cavern.

"You sure you can do this Nico?" Kai whispered.

They were hiding behind a giant stone, with glowing mushrooms cropping out from crevices.

"I'm the most agile one here." Nico said. "Don't worry. I'll grab the keys, slip by unnoticed, and open the wooden gates. Easy."

"There's a lot of goblins in there, you know." Saira said, grasping his hand.

"Don't worry." Nico said, giving Saira a dry punch to the shoulder. "If anything were to happen I'd be running faster than Usain Bolt."

"Bless me with living armor."

Nico's skin turned greenwood as he put on the spartan helmet Jason gave him. He eyed the goblin, starting to move towards it through the shadows.

He picked up the pace, hiding behind the cover of darkness as he crept closer and closer, careful not to draw attention. He paused, waiting for a chance. That chance came when the goblin turned its back to him. He then pounced with his claws, delivering a quick and clean death with a stab to the chest.

Nico carried the corpse over shadows to a nearby rock.

"Wait." Nico paused, rummaging through the goblin's ragged clothes and pockets. "There's no keys. I thought they said this goblin had the keys. I don't see any keys."

Nico then glanced to the goblin camp ahead, seeing no other goblins patrolling other than the one he just took care of. "Great, how are we gonna get in now?"

"Right." Nico then remembered the glowing green fruits hanging on his back. "So much for the stealth mission."

Nico scuttled back to the group waiting farther out, leaving the vanishing goblin corpse behind.

"That was quick." Saira said.

"Hey." Nico turned to Kai.

"Yeah?" Kai said.

"What if we just- you know, blow up the gates and walls?"

"Because I can't use my fireballs."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Kai gestured to conjure his mote on his hand, however it didn't appear. "Whenever I try, my magic fails. Hena said it might've been because of the mushroom spores I inhaled earlier."

"I told you you shouldn't have messed with those." Nico said.

"That's the situation." Jason said. "That's why we need you to open the gates for us. Weren't you listening earlier?"

"He was, but to the wrong person." Kristine pointed to Saira, giving them an innocent smile in turn.

"Anyways, I can destroy the gates." Nico plucked a clump of fruits behind his back and showed them off to the group. They pulsed with a yellow-green color. "Here."

"Nice." Kai said, poking the fruit in Nico's hand. "But you know, you could've saved yourself the trouble if you were actually listening earlier."

"Sorry." Nico and Saira said in unison.