“A dungeon?” I stared at the woman, confusion evident on my face. “Like, where prisoners are locked up in castles?”

“No, if only it were that simple.” She rubbed at her eyes before straightening up. “You already were aware this place is a meta-space, correct?”

“Yeah, a place that isn’t bound by conventional physical space.” It was something that had seemed par for the course for a Sage to create.

“Well, a dungeon takes that idea and makes it worse. The last dungeon encountered within Haerasong was cleared some thirty years ago, well before my time.”

“So, not common. That explains why I’ve never heard of one before. What’s the problem with a dungeon?”

Iris ignored my comment, continuing as if I hadn’t spoken. “The nizeium adventurers who had come here were chased out shortly after entering, so it makes sense they never figured out it was a dungeon.”

“Okay,” I felt myself growing agitated, my question still unanswered. “But what exactly does this mean for us?”

“Bad news.” She shook her head before fixing me with an intense look. “You said you killed one of these lizards before. Do you feel confident you could do it again?”

“If it’s just one or two?” I looked up before shrugging. “Yeah, probably.”

“Good.” She pointed at the buzz of activity around us with her thumb. “I need you to scout the area for us.”

“Excuse me?”

“Of the eight that died, three were Lancers.” She sagged with exhaustion for a moment before shaking it off. “What that means is we need to use you as efficiently as possible. Since I know you can kill these lizards, you’re the only one I feel confident sending out there, the risk for the others simply not worth it, not when we might need them at any more here.”

“What about the vanguards?”

“Do they look the mobile type to you?”

“Fair point,” I admitted.

“Anyway, the only reason we survived in the first place was that the vanguards managed to hold them off while Adventurer Scarlet was given as much mana from fire-capable mages as we could muster. We would fall without each of those vanguards here if more lizards appeared.”

“Okay, so you what, just want me to go scout?”

“Yes.” She nodded as if it were obvious. “See if you can find anything out of the norm. If this is a dungeon, there will be a clearing condition.”

“Clearing condition?”

She waved a hand at me, dismissing my question. “When you return, and we’ve secured our location, I will explain further, but I need time to think for now.”

“Why don’t we simply retreat?”

She waved a hand about, an annoyed look on her face.

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly see an exit. That’s why I need you to check things out. Either we find the clear condition or find a way out.”

“Anything else?” I questioned, feeling like I’d well and truly made a mistake by letting myself be convinced to join this quest.

“Yes. Take this.” Reaching into a pouch at her side, she handed me a simple steel ring with a ruby inlaid.

“What is it?”

“A communication ring.”

I arched an eyebrow at her before inspecting the ring, the first time I’d seen one.

“A little valuable to just be handing one of these out, isn’t it?”

I knew it was wrong to say the instant I said it, her withering gaze making me feel as if I were shrinking in on myself.

“Now is not the time for glib remarks. We only have one set. My intention was to only hand off the pair when sending scouts out. Now, take it, and report back anything you find.”

I saluted, perhaps unnecessary, but after her biting tone, I figured it was better to hold my tongue.

“Go. Now.” She pointed, and I took off in a jog.

Always a pleasant conversationalist.

-------------------------------------------------------

I spent what felt like the better part of three hours aimlessly wandering about the glades surrounding where our ‘camp’ was located.

Looking for, well, anything really.

The issue was that there was basically nothing. Other than sharp grass and gently rolling hills sporadically rising from the ground, it was plains as far as the eye could see, and trust me, my eyes could see far as I enhanced my vision with mana.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I’d been on the verge of turning back and returning to the impromptu camp, visible far off on the horizon when something caught my attention.

It was a hill, much like the other hills, but for a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of motion near it.

This is probably a terrible idea.

Double checking that nothing was sneaking up on me, from where I had no idea, I, as silently as possible, made my way toward the hill where I’d sworn I’d seen a flicker of motion.

Minutes later, standing before it, I felt the pit of my stomach drop.

It wasn’t a hill.

It was a nest.

Standing at the top of the hill, it had been hallowed out, the mouth of a tunnel-like cavern that led to who knew where far below. It wasn’t hard to figure out what inhabited the tunnel system, with several scales littering the tunnel entrance.

Shit.

While I hadn’t explored as far as I possibly could, I had a sinking suspicion that the underground tunnel system was likely our next step or destination. After all, this wasn’t a natural space; it had been formed.

One could almost think of it as a test.

And chances were that the solution to this test was below our feet.

Raising my left fist to my face, I pressed my thumb against the ruby jewelry on my finger.

“Zero?” I heard Iris’s voice come through the gem, muffled as if spoken through a tube.

“I found something.”

“An exit?”

“Not quite,” I muttered, staring down at the tunnel. “It’s a… hive, I think.”

“A hive.”

“Yeah.”

“Of?”

“Take a guess,” I answered.

The ring was silent for several seconds until Iris’s voice came through, sounding unenthused by what I’d told her. “Alright, good job. I’m not going to ask you to enter the hive alone.”

I held back a sigh of relief; I’d feared the request may have been on the way.

“I want you to return to our camp. We must discuss our next steps considering what you’ve told me.”

“Rodger that.” I saluted before remembering she couldn’t see me.

“Oh, and Zero?”

“Yes?”

“Leave some sort of landmark so we can find it again.”

The slight thrum of mana and the gentle red glow from the ruby faded, the connection cut by Iris. I stared at my immediate surroundings, trying to figure out just what I could leave to mark the hill.

I had nothing on me, nothing that would stand out from a distance, until, still looking around, the swords on my back rustled.

Well…. I guess that counts as something.

Pulling one of the sheathes free, I planted it in the dirt atop the hill.

Sorry, Sangem. It’s just for now.

Down a sword, I made my hurried return to camp.

--------------------------------------------------------

“You’re joking, right? A dungeon? It’s been decades since the last one was found. There shouldn’t be any left.”

“Well, clearly not.” Another voice spoke out, a mocking hint to his tone.

“Oh, well, don’t you just know oh so much, I swear that if it weren’t for-”

“Enough.” Iris swung her arm through the air, silencing the bickering adventures. We had been gathered within a stone hut, raised by one of the mages capable of earthen magic. I’d only been back for a few minutes when Iris had called us together, announcing her hypothesis that we had inadvertently stumbled into a dungeon.

I was about to raise my hand, still unsure what a dungeon even entailed, but someone else beat me to the punch.

“Yes, Scarlet?”

“What even is a dungeon?”

Tez had apparently woken up while I was gone, and now other than her cheeks looking slightly sunken, she looked no worse for wear.

“Dungeons are a sort of… magical network of sorts. Lost troves of magic and history that only the strongest individuals could clear. Meta-spaces that were created by ancient mages, reacting to the presence of those within. In any reading I’ve done on dungeons, it’s just that they never once mentioned changing their difficulty based on who enters, at least not in the way this one has.”

“That’s because you’re still too young.” A man stood up, perhaps the oldest of the adventures here, in his sixties though he didn’t look it.

“Ronin, I take it you know more on the subject?”

“I was still in my early years as an adventurer, barely older than Scarlet.” He nodded to himself as if recollecting memories from long ago. “Three dungeons were still active at the time, Old Pine, The Lost Forge, and Fire Mountain. Old Pine was cleared by a party of nizeiums from my heyday, and the Lost Forge by Steel Star, they were a party of two, the only two ornnax adventures from my youth.”

“What about this Fire Mountain?” Iris questioned.

“It collapsed on itself. Technically, it still exists, but it’s buried within the remains of an active volcano, so unless you can swim to the bottom of a magma lake, no one is touching that.”

I cast a glance at Tez, but she gave me a side-eyed shake of her head.

Guess even her heat tolerance has its limit.

“What can you tell us about these dungeons?”

“Hah, they were known as ‘folly’s tombs.’”

Not exactly the most inviting of nicknames.

“Care to explain more than that?” Iris seemed as if she were growing annoyed by the man’s roundabout way of explaining the dungeons, but if he noticed he sure didn’t show it.

“Dungeons are only possible when connected to a ley line. After construction, you can think of them as parts of the landscape; however, the ancient builders did it. Because of that, they proved to be one of the few places where the growth of a mage’s mana core could be accelerated beyond normal means.”

“So adventurers entered them, attempting to circumvent their natural limits?”

“Mhmm. Hence, they were called ‘folly’s tombs’ because they were the tomb of countless adventures which made the folly of entering them, not understanding dungeons weren’t simply places, they could think, infused with a splinter of their creator's will.”

“You mentioned they were cleared? What did that entail?” Iris followed up her question with another question.

“It’s not like I was part of those parties that managed it. But-” The old veteran adventures scratched at his chin. “They had a logic, an escalation factor, that if you or your party managed to make it to the end, completing each clear condition, you could claim whatever was there. A dungeon was considered active until the prize at the end was claimed, in which case they would shortly disappear.”

“Disappear?”

“Mhmm, they’d disappear as if they never existed. Collapsing and leaving behind the original natural landscape they were built upon.”

That must be why they aren’t talked about more. After the last dungeon was cleared and disappeared, there was nothing to keep them anchored in anyone's active memory.

“Do you know what was found at the end of those two dungeons?” Iris questioned, trying to extract any helpful information she could.

“As far as Old Pine goes, the party that cleared it never publicly announced what they found. But Steel Star made it a point of announcing their deeds to the world. In fact, some of you have probably heard of what they found. It was within Lost Forge that Earth Lore was found.”

An audible choking came from several adventures, and I couldn’t blame them. Primarily a swordsman, swords were sort of my thing, something I took pride in my knowledge of.

And Earth Lore just happened to be one of ten of the most famous swords out there. My swords, made of mana-tempered silver, were second only to blades made of pure nizeium or ornnax, roughly ten of them in the entire world.

And Earth Lore just happened to be one of them, a beast of a great sword made of pure nizeium, currently kept within maximum security at a museum in Songhold.

If something like that was found at the end of a dungeon… what’s at the end of this one?

If a Sage of the past had created this place, I could only imagine the world-shattering importance of what it could be.

Maybe something that could even work against her.

I wasn’t actively hunting for a weapon that could defeat the Sage Above All, but if something like that were here…

Enough daydreaming Rook. Let’s be realistic.

Even if it weren’t some grand weapon like Earth Lore, I could understand why the guild seemed insistent on claiming the artifact and why this quest had been designated Legendary in rank.

Wait, did they know this was a dungeon to start?

No, I shook my head. There was no way the guild had any way of knowing it was a dungeon ahead of time, or else they would have told us.

Wouldn’t they?

“Thank you, Ronin.” Iris nodded toward the old adventures, dragging my attention back to the present. “Now, that wasn’t the only reason I called you together. We have some…news regarding what I believe is the path forward. I sent one of our Lancers out scouting, and they managed to discover something. Zero?”

Oh, great.

I hadn’t expected to be put on the spot, so I awkwardly stood up, relaxing my nerves before addressing the adventurers who held me with steely looks.

“When I was out there-” I gestured vaguely in the direction I’d found the hive. “I found what looked to be an underground tunnel network of sorts. I believe it’s intended that we clear it if we wish to move forward.”

An uneasy murmur passed through the crowd before a single voice called out.

“Did you see what was in there?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Or at least, not directly. But, I have confidence that I know what’s down there.”

I took a breath, knowing what I was about to say would likely be unpopular news.

“I believe this tunnel system is an underground hive, or nest, for the same lizards that attacked us.”

I winced, the shouting beginning already.

“… barely survived as is.”

“… eight dead!”

“… you expect us to go into their home!?”

“Enough!’ Iris shouted, silencing the outcries instantly. “Whether we like it or not, the only path forward is down, it would appear. Given the nature of this as a dungeon, based on what Ronin says, we can reasonably believe that we are expected to undertake trials if we wish to make it through.”

“We barely made it through the first one we encountered.” A voice grumbled.

“Perhaps.” Iris acknowledged the comment without shying away. “But we were also caught unaware of what we were walking into. We knew it would be dangerous, but we hadn’t expected a meta-space to the scale of a dungeon. Now that we know, I believe we can clear it.”

Seems like a lot of unfounded optimism.

I bit back the thought, shooing it away as I continued watching Iris bring the group together.

“We know the weakness of the lizards. We know what to expect. Using that, we can proceed. There is a chance that we have already dealt a severe blow to their numbers as is.”

You mean Tez did.

“And, while I’d rather not say this point.” She cast a look of cold certainty at us, speaking through pure logic. “Knowing that they have a tunnel system underneath the ground, what says that if we don’t make the first move, they won’t? There is nowhere safe here if they can come up from beneath us.”

That did the trick, as the few adventurers who still seemed reluctant instead shifted to realizing that it was an inevitably rather than a risk being taken for no reason.

“There is no point in stalling. All of you, gather what you need to, after which we will march on this hive and take the fight to them.”

Or die trying.

Once more biting back the pessimistic thought, I joined in on the cheer that erupted after Iris concluded her speech with mock enthusiasm, no doubt much of the cheer born from a place of desperation rather than true genuine excitement.

When did I become so jaded?

Now wasn’t the time to participate in introspective exercises, but the thought bothered me, floating around in my mind.

Just focus on the task at hand.

The temporary camp came alive with a buzz of activity, people running to re-lace up pauldrons they had taken off or ensuring they had grabbed everything they may need, even a few who I noticed saying silent prayers under their breath to whatever god they personally followed.

Me? My mother had kept an idol of the God of Mischief around; she had told me when I was young that she felt obligated to, considering her magic was illusions. Aside from the small statuette within my home, I’d never found myself basking in the presence or even the thought of the gods. Perhaps if I met an actual god, I’d change my mind, but I didn’t see that happening.

“Rook!”

I turned around; I’d been wandering the encampment aimlessly when the unmistakable voice called out.

“Tez.” I smiled, relieved that she was doing well. Sure, I’d seen her during the debriefing, but I’d lost track of her shortly after.

“You ready for this?”

“Frankly?” I looked up at the sky, a fake sky presumably, sighing afterward. “No, not really. In my opinion, our best option would be to cook the tunnels from the outside, but then, what are the chances you can pull that off?”

“None.” She scratched at her neck, looking slightly deflated. “What you saw before was an anomaly from me in the first place; something pulled off in desperation. I’ve never tried taking in that much mana before. I wasn’t even sure if it would work as we hoped.”

“Speaking of which,” I leaned in closer, making sure no one could overhear us. “How does that work? You don’t even have a mana core, so where does it, like, go?”

“When I consume magic, it’s stored here.” She pointed at her heart. “I have to use it immediately; otherwise, it makes me feel like I ate something bad.”

“Right.” I paused before smiling at her slyly. “You know, technically speaking, that makes you a dragon.”

“Yeah, it sure looks that way with my big, scaly wings.”

“Nah, I’m serious,” I eyed our surroundings again, everyone far too distracted to be paying us attention. “-the guild leader even mentioned this recently to me, and part of me is wondering if he did it on purpose. Maybe you aren’t a dragon dragon, but, by definition, a dragon is anything that doesn’t follow the normal rules of magic or mana. That’s you.”

Tez seemed pensive for a moment, a reaction I hadn’t expected. I lightly jabbed her in the ribs with my elbow, cracking a forced smile.

“C’mon, I was just trying to lighten the mood a bit. Don’t be getting gloomy on me now.”

“I wasn’t.” She crossed her arms defensively before shooting me a sly smile. “I was just thinking that I’m going to be the one leaving you behind at this rate.”

“Hah.” I rubbed at my right arm, thinking of the rings inked upon my skin and hidden beneath the cloth wrap covering my forearm. “You know, considering that little pyrotechnic show you gave, I can’t even argue with that.”

I laughed outwardly, Tez smiling alongside me, but I couldn’t deny what she had said struck a chord.

She was right.

I’d come a long way in three years, from a magicless kid to having formed two entire Sage rings.

But that was the extent of it. Two rings in three years. Two rings that should have by and large been the easiest of the rings to obtain. Everything I knew about being a Sage came from my short exposure to the Living Tome of my master’s, but it only covered so much in the short bit I managed to get through. I knew the basics of the principles behind each of the rings, and that was it.

I was stretching the limit of that knowledge for all it was worth, but my progress on my third ring over the last six months had stalled to a near halt.

She really will leave me behind.

I’d hoped, I’d prayed, that my journey into the realms of the Sages would allow me to overcome my limitations, my inability to form a mana core or utilize mana as more than a superficial element at best.

But.

“Hey, earth to Rook?”

I snapped out of my thoughts, Tez looking at me with a concerned expression.

“Sorry.” I coughed awkwardly into my fist, unsure what the proper response should have been. “I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Don’t we all right now.” She huffed, apparently thinking I was referring to the circumstances at hand. “Anyway, I think my party will want to meet before we split back into our assignments.”

It was a clear sign that our conversation had ended, so not trying to drag it out, I gave her a simple wave before I watched her leave to meet with her party, all of them still alive after the initial lizard attack.

Alone, the smile, or attempt at a smile, dropped entirely from my face.

This is not good.

Not long from now, we would be marching directly into the beasts’ den, and I wasn’t sure we were ready.

No, that wasn’t the problem.

I wasn’t sure I was ready.

Seeing nothing to do for at least ten minutes while the camp mobilized, I found where a boulder had been raised and sat down.

Eyes closed, I reached out toward the mana I knew would be all around. It had been months since I last tried to actively draw it in after the progress on my third ring had stalled out to a halt.

Come to me.

Instantly I sensed the mana all around, surprised at how thickly it hung around us. Had it not been for my experience within a literal dimension of mana, it would have been the most concentrated mana I’d ever seen in one place.

I could use this, I was sure. Each ring was formed through a different process of manipulation of mana. The first ring was about the crystallization of the fundamental aspects of mana. The second sage ring was a two-step process. First required was splitting composite mana into its base components, mana fission, ordinarily done automatically within one’s mana core during the purification of external mana. Not having a mana core myself made understanding the process significantly more manageable, coming from a standpoint where I wasn’t attempting to understand something that had always been automatic. Only after mana fission had been achieved through purposeful intent, could the second ring be created by taking the remaining subsistent mana and forming a foundation, much as one had done during the creation of their first ring.

The third ring, the ring which I had stalled out upon, rather than being formed through the fission of composite mana, was the fusion of elemental mana into composite mana. Because the process required a more intricate manipulation than mere fission, a forced binding of different aspects of mana together, it had proven nearly impossible for me to achieve.

Nearly impossible was different from entirely impossible.

Setting my mind to what was sure to be difficult work, I settled in, keen on taking advantage of my environment while I still could.

Maybe I’ll be left behind, but not for the sake of not trying.

------------------------------------------------------

“We’ll keep the formation tight this time around. Vanguards, you take the front as usual. Casters with earth magic, I want you second in ranks. If things get hairy, you bring the tunnel down, just don’t bring it down on us, or I’ll haunt you from the beyond. Fire and Water mages, you’ll have to take the back pedal here since we’re going into an enclosed space. Too much fire and we burn up all our air. Too much water and we threaten the structural integrity of these tunnels. Towers, keep the lights on and do what you can to keep us going. Finally, Lancers, with how heavily armored these things are, I’m not sure how much you can do for us, but at the very least protect the rear.”

We were standing before the mouth of the tunnel system I had discovered, gathered in full force. Iris was standing to the side, issuing commands, and one by one, the vanguards began to descend the steep tunnel, their massive tower shields nearly scrapping the tunnel’s roof. Waiting for our turn to head in, I looked toward the other Lancers. Our numbers had dwindled, three of the Lancers dead after the events of appearing within the metal glades, the name I’d heard some of the adventurers throwing around. If we entered those tunnels and the armored monitors managed to wrap around us at any point, we’d be slaughtered.

How comforting.

Watching as Iris finally entered the tunnel, she looked back at us once before waving us forward.

Our turn.

Entering the dank tunnel, we slowly descended the depths, reminding me eerily of the stone staircase that we had descended that had eventually led to us entering the dungeon to start with. I carefully watched my step, not wanting to fall on my face and risk the earth beneath me being as sharp as the grass above.

It was unlikely, but I didn’t want to risk it on the off chance.

Our descent continued for another ten, twenty minutes, only stalling occasionally when an off-shoot tunnel was located, which our mages capable of earth magic would collapse shortly after.

At last, we came to a final halt. The downward angling tunnel we had been descending leveled out, opening into what looked to be ample, cavernous space.

“Towers, get us some more light.”

Two of the Towers stepped forward, one pointing at several points throughout the cavern with quiet whispers.

“Auzar.”

I was initially intrigued, recognizing the word as the composite form of force and water magic.

What was it again? Reflection? No, that’s not right.

I got my answer a second later when the second Tower pointed at one of the points upon which the first Tower had cast their magic, a bloom of light appearing without a spoken word.

Some sort of light-based Kin magic. He must be the one creating the mage lights, then.

Mage light blooming into existence, the light from it was bent by the refraction points-

Refraction, that’s what it was!

-which the first Tower had cast into existence, the single mage light capable of lighting up the entirety of the cavern with the aid of the refraction points.

Oh.

At the very center of the large cavern, a massive lizard the size of a building was curled in on itself, currently asleep.

Or, it had been sleeping, but as the light spread through the cave, the gigantic, armored lizard began to stir.

“Well, folks,” Iris spoke loudly enough so that everyone heard her, her expression hard. “Looks like we found our clear condition.”