Every five feet is a sconce in the wall, burning with fire despite the lack of someone coming out to fuel them. The Ancients no doubt based this on the Dungeons with the same thing inside of them, a form of proof that some of the things in the Dungeons can be replicated by man.

Even if they were initially created by dragons. Perhaps the Dungeons were meant to be more than just a training ground for warriors, a way to start building up magical power when we're still dependent on the System, and a way to gain resources? Could it be that they were also intended for us to study and learn from, to construct our own things?

The stairs lead us through a slow spiral, ensuring we stay under the island. As Fang and I are barefoot, our steps aren't that loud, and the stone is cool beneath my feet. However, Drake's boots tap against the stone, echoing through the hall as we walk. His tail smacks the steps a little as we descend, though once he's managed to smack off all of the sand, that stops.

Previously, there were probably traps on the stairs, but over the years, they were probably all either completely disabled, or worn-out from use. According to my research, many traps in Ruins are limited in the number of times they can be completed due to needing resources. Or the mechanisms that cause them to work break or wear-out, resulting in them no longer working

However, there are still many traps that don't suffer from that issue, and Peter did mention some of the ones here are still active, even after this place has been run many times. That means they're likely past the stairs, which would have seen the most use in the entire Ruins here.

Once we've walked down more than two hundred steps, we arrive in the main body of the Ruins themselves, a place that appears to be a temple of some sort. It's a rather large, circular room that's illuminated the same way the path down here was, sconces set into the walls.

In the very center of the large chamber is a stone altar a little less than four feet in height, stretching around three feet wide and five feet long. A pair of large hourglasses sit on either end of the altar, the golden sand within resting in the bottom half. Sitting on top of each hourglass is a metal brazier, inside of which more flames burn, providing additional light. Other than that, there's nothing here.

Even though the only sources of light are on the walls and in the center of the chamber, it's still pretty well-lit. We can see pretty clearly in here, with the only darkness really being up towards the ceiling of the chamber.

"He said twenty or thirty minutes?" Fang asks. "Just to explore this?"

"Part of that was probably the stairs down," I comment as I examine the room, already identifying where the traps probably are. "Though it would have been longer before this place was used up and most of its traps worn out to exhaustion or permanently disabled. There was likely an item originally on the altar. Do you guys want to test if the main challenge of these Ruins are still active?"

"The main challenge?" Drake asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "Something small like this probably had one larger challenge, along with a series of smaller traps. I can make a guess at what the main challenge is."

I've seen a record of something similar to this before, and the Ancients did reuse things from time to time. If it's similar to the ones I've seen records of before, then there's no real danger to us. If there was, Peter probably would have mentioned it, anyway. He'd be too nervous of my father's anger to trick me like that.

"So," I say. "Want to do it with me? It will go faster if you do."

"Maybe?" Drake hesitantly responds.

He's probably remembering all of the traps he's accidentally triggered during Dungeon runs, and so isn't sure of if he wants to help or not. That means I should probably show him that there's no real danger. My sense for it isn't triggering, anyway.

Well, that could be because I'm not about to do something that poses a risk to me, but I'm confident that everything is fine here and that this won't be too difficult.

"Alright," I say, then take a few steps forward.

Suddenly, I find myself elsewhere in the room, and Drake and Fang both jump at that. I wave to them.

"Notice the ground?" I call over to them. "Most of the floor consists of rings of curved tiles roughly the same size all the way down. All of the tiles are equal in size, and there are eight rings of them leading up to the altar, with a solid ring around the border of the room and a solid circular slab for where the altar is.

"The main challenge," I say. "Is reaching the altar itself."

Drake begins to move into a jumping position, taking a step back and crouching slightly.

"And they probably have a defense against people who are strong enough to just jump clear across," I say. "It's probably one of those traps still active, Drake. You'll probably find yourself back on that outer ring, possibly paralyzed for a few minutes, if you try to leap over any tiles. There are similar things in a couple of Ruins I've researched."

I focused most of my research on more difficult Ruins, ones with several stages and areas and which have yet to be fully-explored. That explains why I haven't heard of this one yet, but the knowledge from others still proves useful.

"Oh," he probably says.

I can't hear him from here, but I can see his mouth, and it definitely formed the shape for that.

"Now," I say. "Notice how the tiles, though faded, are different colors? What colors are they?"

Drake says something in response.

"Drake, you'll have to call out to me, just like how I'm calling out to you."

"Red, blue, green, yellow, and brown!" Drake calls out to me.

"I stepped onto a brown tile," I say. "It teleported me here, onto another brown tile. That same brown tile will probably teleport anyone to this brown tile. Don't step on it."

"Why shouldn't we join you?" Drake asks.

"Well," I say. "The tiles can hold two people on them, but that just makes things cramped. However, we can do this two ways. One, I can navigate this by myself, or two, you can both navigate it as well. Step on a tile, calling out the color before you do. I'll check the effects and make a note of which ones teleport us where, and find the path through that way. It will actually be a little easier."

"And this is supposed to be only twenty or thirty minutes?" Drake asks.

"Nah!" I laugh. "He probably said that just to mess with us! Maybe this part will take that long, and he didn't include the stairs for that estimate!"

Drake seems to think things over, deciding if he wants to risk being caught in a trap.

"Green!" Fang calls out, jumping onto a tile.

The outer ring, which we're both on, begins to turn, sliding counter-clockwise. I make sure to note where we were and where we end up, because that could prove useful. This might go faster if I used my sensing power, but I'm not sure how useful it will be here. I want to solve this at least once without using it.

If we stay here a day past tomorrow, maybe we'll come back and do it again. Or we can do it after our Dungeon runs tomorrow.

Deciding to join us, Drake steps onto a red tile, and is immediately teleported back onto the neutral ring that runs all the way around the outer edge of the room. I step onto a green tile and shift the seventh ring, which I'm now standing on. Fang steps onto a blue tile, and becomes soaked with water that bursts from the tile he's on, thoroughly soaking him and the tiles around him.

The pout on his face is cute.

Drake steps onto a yellow tile, only to find himself paralyzed, and Fang and I resume. The paralysis wears off after four minutes, and by that point, Fang and I are both in the third ring from the altar. I step onto a brown ring and find myself shifted back to the fourth ring. Fang steps onto a blue ring and takes the soaking, having given up on not getting soaked. It was that or a red tile for him if he wanted to move forward, we've learned that we can only step onto adjacent tiles.

However, we can move backwards or to the side. The green tiles can shift any ring, not just the one we're on, and the rings always shift so that we're touching at least two brown tiles and one green. The brown tiles can teleport us to any brown tile within two rings to either side of ours.

"Drake!" I call out when he goes to step onto a blue tile, apparently deciding to take the soak. "Step onto the green tile beside you!"

"Why?" He asks.

"Just do it!" I answer. "I've figured out the code for the green and brown tiles, so trust me on this!"

"Okay."

He steps onto a green tile, and the ring I'm on rotates. As I have been doing, I adjust my mental map of the rings. I've seen all of the tiles now, and keeping track of them in my head isn't that difficult, even if I have to adjust them every time a green tile is stepped onto.

Once the tiles stop shifting, I step onto a brown tile in front of me, and am immediately teleported onto a brown tile on the first ring.

"Nobody move!" I call out. "I'm here!"

I step onto the altar tile, and immediately, the sand is sucked up into the top halves of the two hourglasses. Once they're full, they begin pouring down, filling up pretty fast. Other than that, nothing happens.

"Fang, take a step."

Fang steps onto a red tile, probably hoping it will teleport him to the exit, and nothing happens.

"The tile game's disabled!" I tell them. "Let's beat it before the sand fills the bottom again, that's probably the timer for how long it's disabled for!"

The three of us leave the Ruins, making our way back up to the surface.

"Whoo!" I exclaim. "That was actually pretty fun."

"Are they all games like that?" Drake asks.

"Are you asking about Ruins?" I ask as Fang steps off the stairs.

There's a sudden rumbling in the ground, and we look at the stairs to find the ones under the opening rising up, sealing off the entrance to the Ruins. So that just happened, and I don't know why.

"Yes," Drake decides to answer my question instead of think too much on that.

"No," I answer. "Some are mazes, and others are full of traps or golems that attack you."

"Oh."

"Yeah," I say. "They can vary pretty wildly. The rarer and more powerful the artifact, the more difficult the Ruins are. I'd rather be at least Tier III in two Classes before I go after a bigger one. And I'd prefer to have at least one Tier IV Class before I go for the one that will make my name famous as a treasure hunter."

"Do you already have one in mind?" Drake asks.

"No," I answer. "Most Ruins I know are already partially-explored. I want to explore brand-new Ruins. One no one's managed to travel in, or at least, not in recent years."

"Where are you planning on going for that?" Fang asks. "Aren't pretty much all Ruins explored?"

"On the islands in this ocean," I say. "Most of the inhabited area of the western continent, and all over the eastern continent."

"So you'd have to explore," Fang says. "Areas that are less-traveled in the hopes of finding some big Ruins. It could take years, even if you go off of what other treasure hunters have researched and explored."

"No," I smile. "See, there's an entire section of the western continent that's empty. Most people don't travel there because of the difficulty and haven't since the Ancients disappeared. There's got to be plenty of Ruins there. Which means plenty of opportunities for me."

"You mean the Enchanted Forest?" Fang asks in horror. "Nate! That place is impossible! Massive parties have gone in, only to lose their lives before they're even a day into it! It's-"

"No, you dolt," I smack him on the back of his head, cutting off his exclamations. "The Enchanted Forest starts a little less than two hundred miles from the coast, all the way around."

"Yeah," Fang says. "But most of the terrain is still forest, uninhabited, and-oh!"

"Yeah," I smile. "It's uninhabited. Especially if you go to the western side of the continent, where no one's really traveled to, except maybe a few powerful teams of adventurers who went along the southern edge on a journey lasting months. According to the records I managed to find regarding it, there are only twenty Ruins on the entire western side that have been explored, and even fewer on the northern side of the continent. Which means that once I'm powerful and skilled enough, I plan on going there and looking for Ruins of the Ancients, doing them until I find a treasure that's rare beyond rare."

I look at Drake.

"Though it would be much easier," I say. "If I have Mr. Meteor helping me out on that. I could do it sooner. I would navigate, you would deal with any golems or beasts set to attack us. We'd go after your quest is over."

"I know we've only known each other for a short time," Drake says. "But I like you, Nate, and you're helping me with my own quest. I'll help you with yours, and if my feelings for you don't fade, then I'll stay with you even after that. I enjoy being with you, and I like seeing you happy. However long we live, I plan on being with you."

Wow, he actually gave an explanation for something. I suppose he wanted to find a way to admit he likes me as more than just a friend. His face has turned a little redder with that admission.

"Okay," I chuckle. "Thanks, Drake."

"You're welcome," he sounds a little disappointed.

"I feel the same way about you," I tell him, then pull him and Fang in for a hug. "And you, too, Fang, even if we've only known each other a couple of weeks. Let's hope this stays, yeah?"

"Yeah," Drake smiles, and Fang looks happy, too, and I can hear his tail swishing.

They both return the hug, then we all jump as the ground rumbles beneath us, the stairs retreating back down into being stairs.

"Why did it do that?" Drake asks.

"Hm," I think about the possibilities, then come to a conclusion. "Either as a natural delay on someone entering the Ruins, if there were more treasures than just the original, or a way of changing the tiles."

"Changing the tiles?" Drake asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "If they were simply reset, or left as they were, then someone like me could just redo it over and over, claiming the rewards every time until there are no rewards left. It's possible that between runs, the Ruins changes the tile patterns, possibly even swaps different effects in or changes which color tiles do what. Possibly all three. That's what I would do, if I were designing a place that could be done for rewards multiple times, anyway."

"To ensure someone like you can't just complete it once or twice," Fang says. "And then be able to do it every time with ease, knowing the perfect route to go."

"Yep," I say, then stretch. "So. Do we do the Ruins again tonight? Or shall we have some sex? The real reason I wanted to pull us away from camp was because I know all three of us are more than a little horny from not getting off for a week. We've plenty of privacy here."

"No, thanks," Drake looks around. "I'll wait until we're at the Water Shrine."

He doesn't want to do it in the sand.

"Sure," Fang responds, tail swishing. "On the beach?"

"Yeah," I say. "We can rinse off in the creek after."

"Okay!"

We climb over the wall and begin stripping, and Drake sits on the wall, letting his legs dangle over it. He's going to watch us. Maybe I could suggest we move to the rocky shore? But nah, if he wants to wait because of the sand, then we'll wait until we're on the Sacred Isles for him.

Fang and I finish getting naked, then we spend the next half-hour or so enjoying each other's bodies, Drake watching the entire time.

"This was nice," I tell Fang once we finish.. "But until we get to the Sacred Isles, let's limit it a little."

I give him a small wink and a slight tilt of my head towards Drake, and Fang smiles back at me.

"Yeah," he kisses me. "Let's. Now let's go clean up, I wanna play in the creek."