Yinon crept invisibly through the plains in complete stealth, close on the heels of the person-shaped shadow that was Rion. After using Xyborg for so long, he'd forgotten how it felt to be properly sneaking. He quite liked it. Xyborg was useless for stealth.

Having Yinon back felt like a familiar old cloak, comfortable and perfectly fitted. He’d put a lot of tinkering into this build. It was, if he said so himself, a thing of beauty. No switch penalty, no ability cooldown, and still over a thousand energy to play with.

Int builds were so inefficient in the long run. Who needed ability slots unlocked when you could hot-swap them at will? Sure, it took extreme concentration and expert timing, but Yinon had spent years building up his build with this end in mind.

He didn’t have anything against Xyborg, but the build he was trying out on that character was less streamlined, more experimental. He'd never planned on using Xyborg as a main.

It felt so good to be back.

The only thing that marred his return was his inability to use magic. As with everyone who'd done a stint in Domitius's weird prison, he had obtained an unknown energy debuff that blocked off his entire energy pool. Like everyone else’s, the penalty reduced by 5 the first day and exactly 2 every day since.

After most of a week, he could use a mere 15 energy now. At this rate, it'd be over a year before he was back to full fighting shape.

Still, you had to hand it to Domitius. He may be ruthless and underhanded, but he was effective. If Yinon hadn’t put so much work into this character, he may have given up entirely even after being released. It was one thing to hear about the crippling aftereffects of being captured by Domitius, but another entirely to have to live with them for over a year.

Theoretically, if he tore apart his perfectly balanced build in favor of just being able to cast, he could buy energy-focused equipment and push his energy cap up well beyond the -1007 debuff.

Alas, he’d begged, borrowed, traded, bargained, and sold everything else of value he ever got in order to collect the perfect set of equipment for his planned build. None of the backup equipment in his stash came close to what he already wore. And recently the market value of any energy-boosting equipment had gone absolutely insane. It would take as long to afford new fifth-tier gear as to just wait out the debuff.

“Hsst,” Rion whispered, and Yinon stopped moving to listen. Something rustled nearby, something big.

They stayed still, Rion blending in a bit more thoroughly now he wasn’t moving, Yinon utterly invisible.

The large something continued on its way without so much as pausing in their vicinity. After all sound of its passage faded into the distance, Rion started moving again. Yinon silently followed.

Yinon pulled the Diviner’s Orb from his inventory and held it between his hands. “Are we getting close?” he whispered.

An impression of a hilltop filled his mind in answer, of ruined stones in a circle, of desolation and abandonment. He shivered at the strength of the emotion that accompanied the image, and had to double check that Rion was still present, that he hadn’t been left behind.

Of course he hadn’t. Rion had stopped the moment Yinon spoke, the dark elf waiting patiently. Yinon dropped out of stealth long enough to point, a bit more eastward of their original course. The Rion-shaped blur nodded, then shifted his route.

It took another three hours, but they arrived safely to the hill from the orb’s vision. Yinon felt it emitting an ache, yearning for something long forgotten, and the feeling only grew stronger as they climbed up toward the ruined structure at its summit.

Not that it could really be called a structure anymore. A few huge stones, mostly buried, and a few lumps that could be ruined walls hidden by decades of growth. Yinon climbed onto the largest stone to survey the area, determined that the nearest threat was a herd of giant boars at least twenty minutes run away, and slipped out of stealth to free up his concentration.

Rion had already deactivated his own stealth and was peeling moss away to reveal the stones beneath. Yinon began doing the same on his side. For a time, they worked in silence, then Rion spoke up.

“I think this was a shrine.”

Yinon nodded. “Makes sense.” He’d been thinking something similar himself.

The fact that they’d come all this way and still had no idea what their task was should have been frustrating, but Yinon didn’t mind. He’d watched the same few dozen quests cycle through for each zone time and again. He had all the best spots for wildlife plotted in his mind, could immediately point to the entrances of all but a handful of the dungeons, and found very little to truly surprise him.

Fights could still be a challenge, but they were a test of perfect execution of an existing plan, or of waiting until the enemy made a mistake. Not the chaotic uncertainty that they’d once been.

But this? Finding a forgotten, abandoned shrine, deep in the most boring zone where no one cared to wander? The sheer novelty of it was exhilarating.

Rion was still a bit less comfortable in the fifth zone than Yinon. Though it was on-level for him, he had only visited it occasionally in the past. In truth, he’d barely left the academy. But even he seemed to understand the gravity of this task, and he made no complaint.

Once they’d cleared the walls, they started digging down to reach the floor. Yinon had still received no instructions as to what to do next, but clearing away the dirt and grass seemed a logical step.

He paused occasionally to recheck the progress of the local wildlife, but this was a tame area and nothing dangerous came anywhere near them.

The floor, when they reached it, was carved with deep curved lines that spiraled out from the center.

By the time they finally cleared the entire pattern, evening was falling.

“Does that indent look just the right size for that orb of yours?” Rion asked, pointing to the center of the spiral.

“Yes, indeed it does,” Yinon replied, holding up the orb he’d already removed from his inventory. He grinned, and so did Rion. Then he set the orb into the depression in the stone.

Blue light began flowing outward sluggishly, more like the flow of magma than anything, slowly tracing the spiral that branched and doubled and branched again until the liquid flow of light had a dozen different lines to follow, filling them all in a mesmerizing gradient of colour.

Then the light reached the walls, and all but two of the lines stopped, going immediately dark. The other two continued for a moment up the broken pieces of wall, then reached the end and sizzled to darkness as well.

New mission: Restore the Temple of the Oracle to its former glory to summon the goddess.

A blueprint appeared in Yinon’s mind, a dazzling vision of what the shrine should look like. He wordlessly collected his orb, slipping it back into his inventory, then looked over at Rion.

“You got it too?”

“Yeah,” Rion said, eyes focused on his own interface. “A lot of the materials are going to be pretty expensive. This could take a long time.”

Yinon grinned. “Well, we are in a great place to grind. Those giant boar tusks are valuable enough to be worth the fight. Who knows, we may even level you a bit in the process.”

Rion swapped in his combat gear and nodded. “No time like the present. Let’s get started.”

Together, they slipped into stealth to begin the hunt.