“What do you mean I’ve reached the maximum threshold?” asked an irritated Shunya. “It means you can no longer increase your strength significantly with mana potions,” Alice said, keeping her eyes on a skydiving magazine. “If all you had to do to become a powerful mage was drink mana potions, then every noble would be one”

“Then how do I get stronger?” Shunya asked. “For starters, you could clear a few dungeons” Alice said “Killing monsters raises your physical stats and some of them drop items that can increase your mana levels.” Shunya sighed “Well, I suppose it won’t be a total waste of time. Oh also, I need a stealth spell book and a gas mask.”

“Why would you need that?” Alice asked “Well, if people were to see someone as young as me clearing a dungeon, they would spread rumours,” Shunya explained “Having too much attention on me would be detrimental to my mission.” Alice nodded “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“Well, I’ll be on my way then” Shunya got up, clutching a hefty spellbook “I’ll ask Drusus for directions”. Alice wordlessly waved him away, refocusing her attention on her magazine.

Shunya walked through the empty corridors. After Drusus had removed most of the workers, there was hardly anyone left in the brewery. Shunya passed by the courtyard, which used to be bustling with workers drawing water from wells, now only housing a short, blonde boy pulling a lever repeatedly. “How’s it going Trevor?” Shunya called out. Trevor wiped the sweat from his forehead “Its been good, Shunya!” Trevor called back “I should be done in about half an hour”. “Don’t wear yourself out.” Shunya said as he walked past him. After a few more minutes of walking, he reached Drusus’s office. He knocked three times and stepped in. Drusus was focused on a book. “Wow, this is a surprise” Shunya chuckled as he pulled up a chair to sit on “Didn’t know you were much of a reader, Drusus.”

Drusus put his book down “I was just going through the accounts, We’ve earned more in the past two days than we have in the last week!”. “That’s good to hear, could you give me the directions to the nearest dungeon?” Shunta asked. “Do I not pay yeh enough?” Drusus grunted. “Nothing personal, I just need to become stronger” “Are yeh trying out to be a royal mage? Forget it, they have a heavy bias against commoners.”

“Just give me a map or something,” Shunya said, annoyed. Drusus sighed, “I’ll have one of my assistants draw one up for yeh, just be careful, people go missing in dungeons.” “Yeah, got it.” Shunya got up from his chair and exited the office.

He went to his room and found his spell book and his gas mask on his table. He took out his teleportation scroll and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with an empty field, the surrounding grass was still black from his previous practice sessions. “Status,” he said out loud. A blue screen popped up in front of him. Shunya put his Spellbook in his inventory. A dialogue box popped up ‘Would you like to activate assisted learning?’. He selected the ‘yes’ option. ‘Extracting Information…’ ‘Successful’. Shunya selected the book and saw a few spells listed under it. Invisibility and Silent Step would be the most useful ones, and the mana cost isn’t too dire he thought as he selected the two. ‘Spells successfully learnt’. Shunya tried his invisibility spell, and sure enough, he turned invisible. If I could learn teleportation this way, I could save a lot of gold he thought to himself.

Shunya teleported back to his room, seeing a map on his table. Grabbing another teleportation scroll, his mask and his gun ,he vanished again.

……………………

“Hurry up, will you?” a tall, blonde girl snapped, annoyed. Two people followed her, a short, bearded man, and a youthful-looking man with blue hair. “I have short legs!” the bearded man complained in a gruff voice “Couldn’t you just walk a little slower, Euphemia?”. “What if someone else gets to dungeon before us? We can’t risk any competition, ” she replied without turning back. “Why are you this worried about it, anyway?” The blue-haired man asked in a low, lazy voice, “Its just a stupid artifact”. Euphemia glared at him “The reward for this quest is 10000 gold , Louis!”. “And I still don’t know how you’re sure of that,” interjected the bearded man.

“Is my lord’s word not enough for you? He even gave us a map.” She said, brandishing a piece of paper. She noticed a cave’s entrance and a man sitting in front of it with a notepad and a quill. “Look, we’ve reached the dungeon.”

The man in front of the cave stood up, dipping his quill in a pot of ink. “Names?” he asked.

“Euphemia”

“Louis”

“Stefan”

“You may enter, make sure to come back before your time runs out,” he said, as he scribbled onto his notepad. The trio entered the dungeon.

As they walked in, they were greeted with damp walls and puddles of green liquid. “Those are traps set by goblins” The dwarf Stefan explained “If you step in one, you get stuck and alert a horde of goblins, so make sure you don’t…” he looked towards Louis to see him stuck in a green puddle, smiling timidly at him. “You Idiot!” Euphemia snapped at Louis as she drew her battle axe “So much for not alerting anyone” Stefan chuckled. Louis drew his bow, and Stefan got his staff ready.

A horde of goblins emerged from the darkness in front of them. “Stun!” Stefan yelled, knocking the goblins off balance. Louis shot a barrage of fire arrows behind the horde, blocking off their path of escape. “All yours Euph!” He called out. Euphemia raised her battle axe and charged through the horde. A goblin lunged at her , drawing a dagger to attack her. Euphemia punched its head off in retaliation. “Furorem Ignis!” she yelled, spinning her axe around. An intense wave of heat radiated from her, roasting the rest of the goblins to a crisp. Stefan walked up to the wreckage. “Thanks for burning all the half decent loot Euphemia,” he remarked, sarcastically. “Oh shut up, its not like it compares to what we will get for the artifact anyway,” she said, dusting the ashes off her armor. “Can we go now?” Louis said “This place is giving me the creeps”. Euphemia rolled her eyes at him “Well, it’s a dungeon. Did you expect flower-beds and chamomile tea?”

“I’ll light a torch if it bothers you that much,” Stefan relented “Lets get moving now”.

They continued to venture down into the dungeon, occasionally running into a few stray monsters that were dispatched with a few swings of Euphemia’s axe. “This is the one” Euphemia said, facing an elaborate insignia drawn on the dark wall. “Looks like plain old cave art to me,” Louis said, looking it up and down. Ignoring him, Euphemia drew a dagger and stabbed him. Louis howled in pain, “What was that for?” he screamed, holding his bleeding hand. “I needed someone’s blood for opening the gate, and you were the best option.” Euphemia said, hiding the smile on her face. “Why not cut your hand? Or even Stefans?” he protested “Well, I need my hands for the ritual, and we need Stefan for healing. You were the only sensible option, ” she explained. ‘Also, you’re the most annoying person here,’ she wanted to add, but she restrained herself. “Aren’t you 20? “Stefan said, as he healed his hand “Quit crying about a flesh wound.“

Euphemia dripped Louis’s blood on the floor near the insignia and muttered an unintelligible chant. The insignia glowed red and the wall it was on opened up.

Inside was a chest with a lock. Euphemia took a key out from her pocket and inserted it into the lock, opening the chest and revealing a glowing red necklace. “Is that the artifact?” Louis asked, disappointed “It just looks like a regular ruby necklace”. “I recognize that” Louis and Euphemia turned to Stefan “You do?” Euphemia asked, also curious about the identity of this mysterious artifact.

“It contains the spirit of a powerful demon. It is said that whoever wears the locket will have to face his trials to come back alive,” Stefan said, white faced.

“Why would anyone wear it then?” Euphemia asked, “If you prove your worth to the demon, he will reward you immensely,” Stefan said. “The lord may start a coup against the king with this.” “So?” Louis interrupted “We’re still going to get the gold right?” “Whats the point of having all that money if you won’t be able to spend it? The country will be plunged into anarchy!” Stefan snapped, “Euphemia talk some sense into him!” he said, turning over to Euphemia who was now holding the locket. He looked at her in disbelief “Not you too..” She clutched the locket “I believe in the Lord, he would never do something like that.”

Stefan raised his staff. Euphemia raised her axe. They both stared at each other, as if daring the other to strike first. Then, suddenly, a loud noise was heard, and Euphemia fell to the ground, grabbing her wrist in pain. She looked towards Stefan in anger, but saw that he hadn’t attacked yet.

“Look out!” Louis yelled as a short, hooded figure swooped from the ceiling of the cave and snatched up the locket.

“Hand over the locket,” Stefan told the masked intruder, calmly as he cast healing magic on Euphemia’s hand.The intruder simply dropped his hood and grinned.

“Isn’t this the perfect place to test my strength.” Shunya said, smiling ,as he took off his mask, his voice dripping with malice.