“Ahh!” a refreshed sigh burst from Jon’s lips. He wiped his mouth and slapped a jug down onto the table. Dan looked at the jug and then back up at Jon. “Did you just drink an entire jug of milk?”

“Yup” Jon smiled.

“Why?” Dan asked puzzled.

“Can’t be bothered eating, and its just easier to swig a bit of milk”

“You might look plain face but you are a total weirdo”

“Hey! Who are you calling plain faced?!”

“You obviously”

“C’mon man, don’t do me like that, I know I’m not dashing or anything but I have my charms”

“Ha! Like what? That tiny grimoire of yours”

“Hey, I told you, it isn’t tiny, it is practically sized”

Dan turned his head towards the sound of footsteps coming up behind him through the cafeteria. Cat looked at him out the side of her eyes and then wrinkled her forehead “Ew, what is that smell?”.

“Jon’s milk”

“Ugh, disgusting”

Jon pulled out his grimoire and flicked through the pages. Dan turned back to Jon and started to laugh “Hahaha, it is smaller than your hand, how can you even turn those tiny pages”.

Cat sighed loudly and planted her face on her hand in wait for Rem to arrive.

Dan turned to Cat, “So, how’s things?”

“Ugh, don’t talk to me”

Dan’s smile cracked at the corners of his lips, “Why do you have to be like that all the time! I’m just trying to be nice to you, give me a break”

“And when do I get a break from you yelling all the time?”

Dan’s eyes became white and bloodshot as he lost all hope of controlling his temper. Jon quickly grabbed his arm “Hey, Dan, calm down, she’s just like that, let it go”

Dan grumbled and turned back towards Jon and pulled out his spiked grimoire and opened it up.

“I don’t need to talk to you anyway, why waste my time when I can use it to make my augments stronger, ha!” he said as he slammed his spiked grimoire down on the table. He flicked it open to reveal anatomic pictures covered in colored glyphs and energy lines.

Cat looked around impatiently, “Where is she?”

…

Clive threw on a jacket and slipped his feet into some thick boots.

“What are you doing? Just come study with us at the cafeteria”

“I can’t just sit around studying forever Rem, I don’t know how long I have, I have to start doing something”

“But where are you going?”

“I’m going to the dungeon, something about it has been on my mind ever since I talked with Subi”

“Are you crazy! What about the monsters still there!”

“Look I am not acting on a whim, I overheard some of the townspeople talking, they said that the guards from the capital came a couple of days ago. So the only monsters I need to worry about is the ones in the forest, and you go hunting all the time, it isn’t any different, I just have to know something”.

Rem looked down, stuck in her thoughts. Clive picked up his bag and swung it over his shoulder and went out the door. Rem bit her lip nervously for a moment and then went down the stairs shortly after him. She watched him go out through the hole in the wall in the back courtyard and then looked around and saw Cat and the boys in the cafeteria.

“Bout time Rem, what took you so long” Cat complained.

“I uh, Clive, he’s going to the dungeon”

“That idiot, and I’m guessing you told him not to go and he went anyway”

“Yeah”

Dan turned, “Clive went to the dungeon? Why”

Cat sighed, “its none of your business”

Dan was struck with an instant migraine and began grumbling to himself “just trying to know what is going on”.

Jon turned to Rem “Hey Rem, so what is up? Clives going dungeon diving yeah? Why don’t we just follow him?”

“No no, we can’t, he wants to go alone to figure something out, if I go, I will just seem like I’m being nosey”

“It doesn’t have to be about that, we all have a bit of cabin fever, getting out will do us all some good. Right?”

Jon nudged Dan and widened his eyes “back me up bro”

“Ah, uh, yeah, like Jon said, we do what we want!”

Rem looked at Cat, who rolled her eyes. “Ugh, are you serious? What about studying, and I’m not dressed for hiking through the woods”.

Jon spoke up “studying theory is great and all, but we also need to push ourselves and get experience”

Rem continued to look at Cat until she let out a sigh and relented, “Fine…”.

…

Clive arrived by the riverside and looked over towards the guard camp just over the other side. “Hrmm, they really are here”.

He walked over and saw two guards playing cards, “Uh, hi guys” he said weakly.

“Huh?”, “Go away kid, can’t you see we are busy?” “Ha, got you now you sucker” “Oh really…”

“I um, was wondering, if?”

“Hey kid, you deaf? Get outta here”

Clive felt a strange combination of emotions, on the surface was a feeling of humiliation and just below it the unrelenting resolve to keep moving forwards. While he could move forwards directly, he could tell that the guards would only grow irritated.

“Uh guys I just wanted to ask a question, because you are new to town and all”

“Okay okay, just give us a second kid”

The other guard slapped down a card and leaned back. “No, no, it can’t be!”, “ha ha” the other guard chuckled, “you are cheating, gotta be, nobody is that lucky”, “what can I say, I have a gift”, “Gift my ass, I’m not playing you anymore, I’ll just lose this months wages”

The other guard nodded his head towards Clive, “why are you still here, didn’t my friend here tell you to get lost, its serious business here”. The loser guard was too busy scratching his head to notice much of anything anymore.

“I noticed you guys are new to this town, I just wanted to ask a question”

“Alright alright, shoot kid, give it to me”

“Are you aware that this town has a magus academy?”

“Yeah yeah kid, everyone knows Velka is the home of the academy kid, what of it?”

“Have the magisters come to speak to you yet”

“No, not yet kid, we just got here and were setting up the palisades up until a few hours ago, we expect them in the next few days I guess”

The other guard stopped scratching his head, “honestly kid the mages should be handling this damn dungeon, but they act like their time is too damn important for grunt work like this, pisses me off”

“Have you guys guarded many dungeons before?”

“All the time kid, but usually we have twice the number of men”

“Why aren’t there as many men as normal”

“Dungeons are popping up more often now for some reason. I even hear that some are growing, and have become more than just the handful of caverns we normally deal with. Giant labyrinths. Some with even multiple entrances. Some say there are even dungeons that reach down further than the highest mountains”

The other guard spoke up “Oh, yeah, like in Strogart, but those are further north, down close to the capital they seem to be smaller, probably due to the arch magus and his circle of magisters in the capital”

“A mage can affect which dungeons appear?” Clive asked

“They’ve always cast protection spells for a few hundred miles around the capital, so far it has kept things from getting too bad”

The other guard spoke up “yeah, but now the dungeons are getting out of hand anyway”

Clive nodded, and considered the information he had just gained.

“Do you think a larger dungeon could open up here?”

“No way kid”

…

Cat pulled her high heels out of some mud. “Ugh, I told you, I am not dressed for this”

Dan “so where is the Dungeon anyway”

Rem “I don’t know, I have never been to it before”

Jon “wait, so we don’t know where it is? How are we supposed to find it?”

“I-I didn’t think of it, I just thought it would be obvious”

Cat screeched, “ah! It tore my dress!”

“Bahaha!” Dan laughed “serves you right”

A strip of cloth from Cat’s dress hung on a barbed vine from a bush nearby.

…

Subi pulled a few coins from his bag, handed them to the carriage driver and grumbled a single word, “Velka”.

“Geez kid, you look beat. Just jump in the back I’ll sort out the rest”

The carriage rider loaded up the rest of the carriage with trade goods and a couple of other people and then whipped the reigns.

The carriage rocked gently from side to side as it drove along the road. Subi hadn’t really slept well in weeks. He let the sway of the carriage lull him off into deep slumber.

…

Clive had kept the conversation going with the guards for a while.

“Hey kid, you are alright, come sit”

Clive nodded and sat beside the guards and introduced himself “My name is Clive”

“I’m Stitch and the sore loser over here is Freddy”

“Ah, nice to meet you Stitch and Freddy. How’d they rope you guys into this line of work?”

Stitch smiled “citizenship… I was born in the outskirts, one of the ways to get a pass to live and work in the city is to serve”.

Freddy nodded “was the same for a few other guys I’ve worked with too. I am here cuz I’m not good for much else and it pays my way. I hate farming and the like, and I could always fight, so I just joined up”.

Clive smiled “then they shoved you here ey?”

Both of the guards laughed, “what about you Clive, why you here?”

“Ah, I’m at the academy”

“You come from a wealthy family kid?”

“No no, I made my own way, I’m actually from a really small village near the outskirts, further northwest”

“You aren’t here on family money? Damn kid, how’d you swing that? You fall ass backwards into a pot of gold or something”

Clive smiled “something like that I guess”

“So what is it like in that fancy academy”

“Honestly?” Clive looked at the guards and thought about whether he should tell them his real feelings or if he should just cut his answer short.

“Yeah kid, honest thoughts, let’s hear em”

“Okay, so, it is just a pain in the ass. At first it seemed like there was a lot of opportunity there, but now it feels a bit suffocating, I just want to get out and adventure or something”

“Adventuring is fools work kid, everyone knows the royal halls monthly dues and licensing fees are bullshit, better off with a real job like you’ll get after the academy”

“Yeah, I know… I guess I just don’t like it there lately after the grimoire ceremony”

“Aren’t grimoires really expensive, like the price of a couple of farms, why would you be sour about getting something worth a fortune kid?”

“Well, that is the thing, the spell that creates the grimoires went wrong somehow, so I ended up not getting one”

“Oh ho!” Stitch laughed out loud “I would be so pissed! This kid paid all those fees to get enrolled and they just leave him high and dry without a grimoire, so cold blooded”

“Those damn uppity magisters, doesn’t surprise me, can’t trust folk like them I reckon” Freddy said while slapping the table.

Clive rubbed at the glove that covered his right hand. The crystal in his hand was vibrating ever so faintly.

“Nah, it is okay, I get to study like anyone else, but things just haven’t gone smoothly for me so far”

“Ah, I’m sorry mate, want a drink?”

“Hey, Stitch, he’s still a kid”

“Yeah but he has real man problems, I say that has earned a drink”

“Fair enough, alright kid, here’s a drink to you, and your luck” Freddy grabbed a couple of mugs and poured some ale and then slid one over to Clive.

Clive held up the mug, and Freddy and Stitch clinked. “Cheers!”

…

“By the gods!” the carriage driver screamed out and the carriage suddenly stopped.

“Danger ahead!” he yelled into the back, “have to turn back, sorry folks!”. The carriage bumped and rocked violently as the driver turned to head back in the opposite direction. The other two passengers gasped “what are those!”, “I don’t know!”.

Subi drowsily lifted one of his eyelids. He didn’t care what the commotion was, but it had gotten so loud he was thrust out of his slumber and his eye was in search of who to blame. He saw a man and a woman in straw hats staring out the back of the carriage and making a fuss about something in the distance.

He sighed heavily and then forcefully opened his other eyelid and let his eyes adjust to the light of the day. He rubbed his eyes and cheeks and then joined the couple to have a look at what was going on.

Giant plant limbs were in the valley beyond reaching into the sky about 5 stories high. They were flailing and smashing through the trees all around. A plume of dust was enshrouding the forest below.

Subi’s eyes sharpened and his senses grew sharp in an instant. He jumped out of the back of the carriage.

“Where are you going!” the woman screamed out, “Don’t kid!” the man followed.

Subi raised his hand back towards them as if to silence them so he could concentrate.

As much as subi wanted to just go back into the carriage and sleep he could sense by instinct that any smooth path back to Velka was no longer on the table. Instead a giant beast had appeared in the valley beyond.

“No way this is a coincidence…”

Subi grit his teeth for a moment and then broke into a sprint into the woodland.

...

Rem felt tremors shake violently from below her feet. A cloud of dust and steam shot from cracks opening in the earth. And before she had any time to react the ground opened up below her. She smacked violently against a pile of debris and then plunged into a pool of water. Sounds around her were amplified until her sudden descent slowed and she opened her eyes from within the murky depths and saw only darkness. She frantically began reaching around her and looking around for anything that could reveal to her where she was.

Clive and the guards heard a large crash out in the woods along with sudden tremors that shook the table their empty mugs sat upon.

Freddy “what the hell is that?”

Stitch “something is coming out from the trees look”

A man with a scar across his left eye and black hair pulled back into a ponytail grumbled “drowner vines”.

Stitch “impossible they never grow that large”

The man with the scar “they do, in the deeper caves up north, looks like a larger dungeon is here than we thought”

Clive’s hand was buzzing in a strange set of chirps and beeps. It was like some kind of language that he somehow understood just by gut instinct.

“Rem!” he cried out and began running towards the dust plume further out into the woods.

Stitch screamed out “Hey where are you going kid!”

Freddy “Kid, you’ll die!”

The man with the scar looked at the boy with a stoic expression as he ran off into the woods. He whispered under his breath “got some guts kid”. And pulled an arrow from his quiver and spun it onto his bow and smoothly moved ahead towards the vines.

Stitch “Hey Cassius, where you going”

Freddy “Don’t leave us here”

Cassius “Mmph” grumbled as he disappeared into the woods.

Stitch “Great, what do we do now”

Freddy “Lets get the captain, report it to the capital and the magisters, you know send the birds”

Stitch “Yeah”

Subi’s paws pounded like heavy rain upon a rooftop. His body shot like a dart through the woods. A lone rabbit chewing on some wild cabbage quickly turned its head and froze in place as Subi’s figure suddenly pounded right over his head and zoomed past. It jumped in a delayed reaction and then as if embarrassed by its slow reaction time shook it off and cautiously went back to the cabbage and sniffed it before continuing to munch.

Clive was running so fast that he barely had time to look up at the vines towering above like giant green serpents. He slid through down the slope that had opened up into the dungeon below and reached a cliff that hovered over a dark sea below. Without hesitation he dived in off of the cliff’s edge.

It was dark as he plunged into the water, but the orb in his hand began glowing brightly.

Rem felt lost, she was out of air, starting to gag and convulse in the darkness but just before her eyes closed she saw a light, shining like a single star in the night sky. She reached out towards it with her last bit of strength, and a hand grasped around hers. Clive tugged at her hand and then gripped at her body and kicked hard back towards the surface. His hand shining even brighter and illuminating the way.

His mind couldn’t help but flashback to the memory he had as a child being swept away by the river. He had always since that moment had an instinctive fear of the water, but now was swimming in the darkness, surrounded on all sides by a murky sea of what he feared. He just kept on kicking and pulling upon Rem. And then at last suddenly burst from the surface of the water. He pulled Rem’s head out and began dragging her out towards a rock column nearby. There was precious little room on the rocks nearby the column but just enough to pull Rem up onto.

She had grabbed his hand before passing out so he knew she was alive. He tried what he could to clear the airway and then put his ear to her mouth and a hand on her chest to see if she was breathing. Nothing, just an uneasy stillness. “C’mon Rem” he said as a tear rushed down his cheek. “C’mon!”

“Ah fuck, how is this supposed to work, argh”, he muddled around “okay okay, hold the nose”. He sealed his lips around her mouth as it hung open limp and blew gently. “Its not working, it's not inflating her chest”. He lifted her chin and tried again, her chest rising as he blew. He turned his head and took in another large breath and breathed again.

Rem started convulsing, and coughing. Clive held her so she wouldn’t fall “Oh thank you thank you, you are back”. Rem took a moment to suck in as many breaths as she could and then sat against the pillar, her legs dangling into the water where Clive was standing on a submerged rock.

After a moment she looked at Clive and in a monotone voice asked “Did I druel on you?”

“Ha, what, why would you care about that? Um I dunno, there is a lot of water, so I don’t think so. Rem you almost died”

“I know… I just…” tears began streaming from her eyes, “I was just so scared and then I saw a light”

“You must be in shock, it is okay, just rest for a bit okay?”

Rem nodded “Mhm, okay”.

Clive began talking to himself “where is everyone else?”

Cassius dodged out of the way of the thud of one of the drowner vines as it crashed through the trees. He ran over to yet another one of the kids and hurriedly dragged them into a natural trench where a small stream flowed and had eroded away sediment over time. Cat and Dan were already lumped there and he threw Jon right in on top.

“Damn, the vines must’ve hit them as it came outta the ground” he then scanned the surrounding woods “that is the last of em”, he kneeled down and placed two fingers to their throats “still alive” and looked at their chests “and breathing, just knocked out”.

He looked back at the vines as they flailed and smashed through the woods “no way my sword can cut through those, need a magister or some damn powerful explosives, this is bad”

He looked towards the hole that had opened up, “the kid jumped in there” he pulled out cord from his satchel and crept towards the opening and slid down the side to the edge of a cliff that opened up into a giant sea below. A single light shone in the distance.

“KID! THAT YOU!”

Clive turned around as the man’s voice echoed through the cave “Yes, we are down here!”

“We?” he whispered to himself, “that little son of a bitch saved someone?” he looked over the edge of the cliff “dived off this ledge too, crazy bastard”.

“Oi! I am going to toss down some rope”

“Okay”

Cassius looped the rope around a large stone pillar and tossed it down. “Ah crap, its too deep, doesn’t reach down far enough” he mumbled to himself.

“Hey Kid! Rope doesn’t reach, so I’m coming down okay? Just stay where you are”

He shuffled off the cliff edge and descended slowly down the rope and dropped the last of the way into the water and swam over to Clive and Rem.

“Hey guys, so you just hanging out in here for the fun of it, or do you wanna get outta here”

Clive “yeah lets get outta here, but how, there isn’t enough rope and you jumped down”

“Bah, that exit is busted anyway, got damn vines”

Clive “true… did you see any others? I don’t think she came out here alone”

Rem spoke up “Cat, Dan, Jon, they were with me”

“Ah, those must be the three kids I found in the woods. They were knocked out when the vines burst up through the ground, I got them somewhere safe, they should wake up and be fine, given they aren’t stupid and don’t jump down this hole like us or piss off the vines. Looks to me you got the worst of it little lady”

Clive “I’m glad”

Rem nodded.

“Geez kid, you have some brass balls jumping in here like that, haven’t seen something like that in quite a while. Reminds me of myself when I was younger... and stupider”.

Clive “wait, you are eagle squadron aren’t you?”

“Nothin gets past you kid does it… But err, why is you hand glowing that some academy trick?”

“Something like that”

“Well can you shine it out over those walls over there in the distance”

“Can’t really control it sorry”

“Alright” Cassius said before pulling out an arrow wadded in fabric. He sparked a flint and lit it up. He then twirled it onto his bow and launched it out at the wall.

“Yeah like I thought, there is a passage over there”

“How could you tell?”

“There was a sound of rushing air, echoes, tunnels give them off. Lets go”

“Okay, Rem are you okay to swim?”

“Yes, lets go” she smiled.