Flashbacks of Dallion’s encounter with the chainling passed through his mind. That had been the first time he had gone into the wilderness, and the first time he had seen actual death. One thing about awakened battles was that despite the hardships and danger of having one’s abilities sealed, they were still too much like a video game. Death wasn’t real death, especially when emblems were involved. Fighting in the wilderness was just that. The hunting party Dallion was in had come across a whole caravan of corpses, not to mention lost a substantial number of soldiers when facing the beast. It was mostly through luck that Dallion hadn’t joined them.

The creature that was in the chamber brought all those memories back, along with the corresponding fear. It appeared far smaller than the chainling Dallion had seen—no bigger than a standard wolf—semi-merged to the body of a much larger creature. If Dallion was to guess, he’d say that the real guardian had attempted to fight the chainling and had lost. Chainlings, as Dallion had seen, had the ability to merge with and transform both living and non-living matter; that’s what made them such a threat.

No wonder the shelfeys kept growing until they filled up the level—the chainling compelled them to.

Janna and Kallan didn’t seem in the least worried. Rather the opposite, they dashed at the black silhouette like hawks at a rat. A series of red walls zigzagged from their blades through the creature several times.

Seeing that it was outnumbered, the creature attempted to scurry towards the nearest wall, but it was already too late. Before it could take a step, Kellan had landed half a dozen hits. Moments later, he was joined by his sister.

Stacks of red rectangles emerged in the air, each indicating a five percent health reduction. It all seemed so effortless. Three passes were all it took for the wolf silhouette to go out of existence, as if it were a common item creature.

Dallion could barely believe what he had just seen. The nest of cracks had been tougher. Even he would have managed to defeat the guardian alone. For several seconds, he held his breath in disbelief that the battle had ended. A blue rectangle soon confirmed it.

KALEIDERVISTO Level 2 has been cleared!

Continue on to fulfill the KALEIDERVISTO’s destiny.

The entire level lit up. There was no denying it now, the guardian had been destroyed and just as easily as Kallan had said. No question, they had been lucky, and yet something weighed on Dallion’s mind.

“That was a shelfey?” he asked.

“Annoying creatures. Very easy to get rid of, though,” the boy replied.

That’s because they’re locked inside a realm, Dallion thought.

Was that how his grandfather had made one during the war? Possibly, it also meant why the Order of the Seven Moons considered the practice dangerous. The bigger question, though, was how had the creature entered the item in the first place. There had been a previous guardian that was plainly visible, and even so, the chainling had entered and gotten trapped inside. Or maybe it hadn’t become trapped, but was just resting? Growing, perhaps? For all Dallion knew, maybe this was how they were born—they would infect an item, and slowly mature inside until the moment they emerged in the real world again and started causing chaos. They were awakened creatures too, after all.

“What’s wrong?” Kallan asked.

“Just thinking.” Dallion tried to get the images out of his head. “You say you meet these things often?”

“Just sometimes,” Janna shrugged.

“Would have been great if it was often.” Kallan went to the chamber’s exit. The gate leading to the third level had disappeared, but it didn’t look like he was interested in it for the moment. “Exploring would be a lot faster.”

“And a lot more disgusting,” his sister added.

Only in sphere items, Dallion thought. He was definitely going to have a word with Nil about this once the mission was over.

True to their word, the siblings went with Dallion to explore the rest of the level. It was slightly bigger than the one above, suggesting that the next one would be larger still. To everyone’s disappointment, there was nothing but empty corridors to be found. All tunnels and chambers were in perfect condition, glowing in a warm white light now that the level had been cleared. Even Nox wasn’t able to sense any cracks about. In all likelihood, the chainling had killed them off as well.

Kallan was a bit annoyed that no achievement appeared as a result of the exploration, although both he and Janna seemed to enjoy the relaxing of pace. To a degree, so did Dallion. After a while, the troubling thoughts of the chainling gave way to troubling thoughts of what might be expecting them on the last level. Going by established logic, the guardian there had to be the strongest of any so far. Just to be certain, Dallion inquired how likely it was to stumble upon another shelfey. So far there had been no such other instance.

The sweep over, the three descended to the last level. Dallion was quiet the entire way.

As expected, the entrance chamber was the largest of the ones so far. Made completely of blue crystal, held seven exits. Two of the connecting tunnels were full with slight tapping sounds, so it came as little surprise that one of them was chosen as a start of the final exploration. Apparently, when dealing with monsters, the siblings preferred to secure their backs in case they had to escape. Heading into battle straight on was one way to increase the odds of that happening.

The enemies were once again goblins, though this time there was more than one type. If the Cave Goblins were to be considered the basic sub-species, the Grey Goblins were definitely the clever agile ones. Unlike the rest of their kind, they were both fast and agile enough to defend against Kallan and Janna’s zigzag attacks. Not only that, but they also landed an attack or two as well. It was only thanks to the sibling’s synched fighting style that they managed to ultimately end up victorious. Looking at them in action only made Dallion see the difference between a group of individuals and a group, and that only made him want to pass his selection trial even more. Once he got a mentor, he could become part of a group, and not just as a simple packrat.

The third type of goblins were the Granite Goblins. As the name implied, they were large, massive, and extremely strong. Far less in number than any of the other types, they were as fierce as the well guardian Dallion had fought back in his village. The siblings had probably faced them before, because they quickly changed their way of fighting.

Janna summoned her crossbow, then quickly proceeded to shoot indiscriminately further down the tunnel, time after time. The sound of blasts echoed, combined with the noise of shattering crystals. After the fifth shot, she tossed the weapon on the floor and summed a pair of swords.

Meanwhile, her brother dashed forward armed, for the first time, with a pair of dartbows. Running at the edge of the darkness, he picked off the remaining goblins one by one. Only when the granite monster was alone, did the focus fall on it.

Music, Dallion thought.

Seven feet tall, and with the consistency of a mountain, the creature had next to no emotions. The only blue spot was in its head, pulsing with anger and rage. If Dallion’s fingers weren’t so badly hurt, he could have tried to freeze it for a moment, although speed wasn’t the issue here. While the goblin wasn’t overly slow, it was nowhere as fast as the siblings. The real problem was the stone skin that covered it like a shell. Attacks, even those from a crossbow bolt, tended to bounce off, creating little more than a chip on the goblin’s skin. There didn’t seem to be any weak spots or other weaknesses it had. The only solution was persistence—striking as many times as needed to form a crack in its skin, then strike the final blow there.

On the whole the method was good, however, it was costly both in time and health. Neither Kallan nor Janna complained, but each Granite Goblin encounter reduced their health roughly by fifteen percent. By the time they had reached the guardian chamber, both were at less than a third of their original health. That did not bode well at all.

“I take it we won’t be exploring the whole of this level.” Dallion tried to lighten the mood as the rest of his party had taken a short break at the chamber’s entrance.

“We won’t have to. All creatures will be killed once the item’s destiny is restored,” Janna said. “That goes for cracks as well.”

“Good to know. What happens then?”

“Then we leave and get paid.”

“And also get to have some guild food,” Kallan added.

“Right. I meant what happens with the artefact?” Dallion clarified.

“Oh, that. It goes to the crafters who determine what it does, then it’s kept or sold off. Usually sold off. There’s no point in keeping things just for the sake of them. Of course, everyone in the guild can buy them out before they hit the market. The captains have first choice, but after that anyone can bid. Even you.”

That sounded like a nice perk. It also meant that the least equipped members could take advantage of the work of others. Granted, they had to have earned the funds to actually buy the item.

“Even gotten anything good?”

“Yes.” Kallan didn’t go into details. “Let’s go.”

To Dallion’s surprise, the siblings put the weapons they were carrying on his pack.

“This is the last one, so once in the chamber, you can drop everything on the ground and join in,” Janna said. “Just don’t get in the way. If you can pull off some music, do it, but otherwise wait till we’re done or killed and then have a go. It takes one of us to win for everyone to get paid.”

“We’ll still get paid for the first two levels, right?”

“Yeah, but the big money is for the fulfilling. Everyone can do a few levels. The trick is getting it all done.”

There was no arguing that. Adjusting the gear he was carrying, Dallion then nodded.

The three entered the chamber slowly and cautiously. Kallan was first, followed by his sister a few steps later. Dallion was last, carrying all the lanterns with him. Light covered half of the chamber, but there was no guardian in sight.

Do they have to hide? Dallion wondered. Things were much simpler in the dagger.

Kallan made a sign for his sister to move along the right section of the chamber while he continued along the left. That left Dallion in the awkward position of having to continue straight forward. So much for playing it safe. Whatever the guardian was, chances were it would attack the light source in the middle of the chamber.

“Do you feel anything, Nox?” Dallion whispered. He could feel crackling’s unease. “Yea, I know what you mean.”

A few hundred steps in, most of the chamber was lit up, and still there was no guardian to behold. Dallion glanced over his shoulder to the tunnel through which they had gotten here. It was barely visible.

Dallion removed one of the lanterns from him and put it on the floor. After a pause, he continued forward. Options raced through his mind. The first level had a firebird, the second remained a big unknown—not much information to speculate on. Looking at the structure of the levels, though, the second one was made entirely of mother-of-pearl, and which was of crystal. Assuming each level was somehow an embodiment of its guardian, that would suggest that this guardian was linked to… crystal?

“Get back!” Kallan shouted.