After their encounter with the dwarven merchant, it only took a day of traveling to reach the dungeon. Night was quickly approaching and they all agreed that they should make camp before entering. They ate a humble meal of dried meat and bread, since they were too close to the dungeon to risk attracting attention with a fire.

The dungeon entrance was grand. A large, ancient-looking, doorway made of stone stood in the center of a circular clearing with both sides of the doorway seemingly guarded by hound statues. The statues had no magic to them, they were simply decorative, but they were so finely crafted that they looked as if they could come to life at any moment. The doorway itself had ancient engravings along the arch and sides, Kara had her suspicions that Rox could tell them what they meant, but she did not want to expose him to the rest of the group. Her burning curiosity would have to wait until she could find time alone with him.

Their camp was located a bit outside of the clearing, close enough that they could see the entrance, but far enough that the foliage would keep them hidden from view.

Rox and Toley sat on the ground to begin deciphering the enchantments on their new weapons. There was no point in them having enchanted weapons if they had no idea how to use or activate them. Otherwise, the weapon's enchantment engravings were just decorative. It did not take long for Rox to decipher his, having plenty of experience.

He stood up and held the blade in front of him, slowly funneling magic power into the handle of the sword. As he did, all of the etchings on the weapon began to crackle with lightning. Flickering to life only momentarily at first, then more frequently until finally the blade was entirely engulfed in blue electricity once he had injected the required amount of magic into it. He wanted to give it a few test swings, but refrained from doing so. According to the inscription, swinging the weapon while activated was a trigger for the primary effect. He would have to wait for combat to test it.

Toley's eyes brimmed with excitement after seeing Rox's display. He stood up and began to funnel his own magic energy into his claws. He was not sure if it was what he was supposed to do, but he had grown bored of trying to decipher magic glyphs. Unlike Kara and Rox, he was not interested in the inner workings of the world and thus had no curiosity for it, instead he simply wanted to use the weapon.

As he gave the weapon mana it began to glow a dark red color. Excited, he put more into it and the glow changed colors, seemingly going up some sort of scale. The next color was orange, then yellow, white, finally a blue color was the last one that showed up before the weapon stopped accepting his mana. Toley picked up a nearby twig and waved the blade near it, thinking that it signified the heat of the weapon, however, nothing seemed to happen. Next he tried touching the branch to it and had a similarly disappointing effect.

Feeling let-down he tossed the twig into the air and swiped at it hard with the blue-glowing claw. Instead of being cut into pieces when the blades made contact, the twig instead disintegrated instantly. As if it had never existed in the first place. It did not take long for him to realize that for the effect of the blades to activate, he had to be striking with the intention to destroy. More than likely this was implemented for the user's safety, something that the Fira family who made it was familiar with needing to be aware of.

Rox raised his eyebrow after seeing the effects of Toley's new claws, as well as the boy's jumping in excitement. He had a feeling the boy was not aware of just how powerful that weapon actually was. Looking at his own new blade before sheathing it, Rox was somewhat fearful of the effect that his sword would have. The engraving described some sort of electric discharge, but he had a feeling that it would be an understatement now that he had seen the claw's effect.

During the time that the two were inspecting and testing their weapon effects, Sheeron was doing his normal evening routine of sparring with imaginary opponents. He deftly swung his giant mythril two-handed axe around at his shadow opponents. Actively dodging blows while trying to counter-attack. Attempting to turn his defense into his offense and evolving his combat to the extent that he could without a real sparring partner.

His fighting style was unique. Sheeron used his axe, that was larger than he was, similar to some sort of hybrid axe-staff. He would attack with brutality, but also take advantage of the length and strike with quick circular motion attacks. Every now and then he would even use his axe as a pole, stabbing the hilt into the ground and vaulting himself forward to deliver a powerful kick.

The girls both watched as they prepared their individual supplies for the dungeon crawl the next day. Kara was making portioned ration meals then putting them back into her storage, as well as preparing numerous one-use rune magics similar to Rox's void barrier from when they were traveling to Fira.

Feera was preparing various pieces of scout equipment. Plenty of smoke bombs as well as vials of poison, throwing knives and much more. She also was checking the knives she kept on her belt, especially the mythril one. She glanced at the engravings along it out of habit, then the blade to make sure it was still razor sharp. After sheathing it she did the same for her steel dagger, but noticed a nick in the blade and began to sharpen it with a whetstone she made with creation magic. All the while with a cheery smile on her face.

After they had all finished their preparations, they decided on an order for keeping watch and went to sleep. They would be entering the dungeon at dawn.

- - - -

During Rox's watch he sat against a tree looking in the general direction of the dungeon entrance. He had mixed feelings about it. Even he and the other Aetherous were kept in the dark about the dungeon completion bonuses for each world dungeon. The only thing they were told is that 'with each completion would come great change to the mortals.'

It was not a lie. The first clear by the elves brought humans and forever changed the biology of the elves that cleared it. Originally, all elves had pointed ears, dark skin and some sort of metallic hair color; such as silver or gold. What the mortals today now referred to as Dark Elves. The participants of the first dungeon clear all exited the dungeon looking like elves do now. Rounded ears, like humans, with a variance of different hair and eye colors.

The rest of the dungeon clears had no effect on the participants of the raids. The second clear simply brought forth the Dwarf race and nothing more. The third created the Eternal Peace Treaty, which was a glorified way of separating the intelligent species like elves from the underdeveloped ones, such as goblins. It also allowed and encouraged the species to intermingle, bringing forth mixed race cities and a civilization boom. Technology and culture advanced very quickly because of it.

However, the most life-changing dungeon clear was the fourth. The most recent dungeon clear, happening over ten-thousand years prior, blessed all of the races signed to the Eternal Peace Treaty. Children born of the races from the treaty started to be born with what was now known as 'physical abilities'. Due to this change, the races associated with the treaty started being called the 'mortal races'. Prior to the fourth dungeon, only gods and Aetherous had physical abilities. It was like the mortals had come one step closer to the gods.

This threw the gods into a frenzy. The change made them begin to fear the growth of worldly beings. What if the next clear granted them domain ownership, immortality or nearly-infinite power like their own? It was after things like this had started to circulate that the gods began to abuse their mortal worshipers.

The gods began to instigate wars, as well as other devious acts. Anything to stall the mortals from attempting more dungeon clears. At several points in time, they had even stormed Chalice themselves, claiming that they were enacting a holy cleansing as they slaughtered countless mortals that believed in them. This, of course, was when the Aetherous would step in. It was their job, after all. What they had been created at the beginning of time for. As if the Primordial gods knew it would all happen, as if it had happened many times before.

“Rox?” Toley's voice came from behind him, interrupting his thoughts and making him realize that he had been dozing off. “I've been wanting to talk about something with you, it's important.”

He replied without taking his gaze away from the dungeon, “I don't mind, Toley. Ask away, but, how come you didn't talk to me about it when we first met up?”

Toley shuffled in embarrassment on the other side of the tree that Rox was sitting against. “I didn't want to talk about it when everyone might listen.”

Rox smiled, such an innocent youth. “Ask away.” He encouraged.

The young man walked around the tree and sat down next to Rox. He then drew the obsidian blade at his belt and offered it to Rox. After a glance, Rox took the blade from Toley's hands. He immediately knew this blade and did his best to hide the horrified shock he felt. It was like a pit in his stomach had formed and started to eat at him from the inside-out.

Dryly swallowing he asked Toley a simple question, “Where did you get this?”

“My master left it behind, along with a note telling me to find her, when she left me alone in my village.” He responded, no clue as to the shock that Rox was going through.

Handing the dagger back to Toley, Rox spoke with a tempered tone. “It belonged to someone I knew. Back before I was the captain of the Fira guards. I traveled with that person and five others around all of Chalice. We were a close-knit group of friends, no, family.” Toley listened to Rox's words like a child hanging off of every word of their favorite story. “One day, my friends and I all embarked on a different sort of adventure together. Something we had never done before, simply out of curiosity. However, our choice led to one of us dying. None of us knew what had happened, or why it had. Only I was able to find out.When I tried to explain what had happened, they thought I was lying to them. Denying the truth in front of them.” Rox did his best to hide the sorrow he felt as he told his story to Toley. He thanked his luck that Toley was far too naive to see the pain through his poker-face. “I did something terrible to make things right, but I saved their lives, even if they don't realize it. So I don't regret it.”

Standing up, Rox patted Toley on the shoulder. “I'm sorry.” He said, his voice now drenched in melancholy.

“For what, Rox?” Toley asked, confusion plain on his face.

“Ah, nothing. I just can't help you find your master, I'm a dead end in your search.” He paused for a moment, “I'm certain you'll find her though. You have her dagger.” He said as he walked back to camp, passing the watch to Toley who watched him until he entered his tent.

The young man stared up at the moon with his hazel eyes for a few minutes, trying to decipher Rox's strange and sudden change of emotion. Eventually giving up, he transformed into an owl and started his watch over the rest of the uneventful night.