“Never catch a break, can I?”

I stood still, waiting for several seconds as my hand rested on the pommel of my sword, half expecting some sort of monstrosity to lunge out from the darkness of the lab. Still, when nothing happened after nearly a minute of stillness, I finally relaxed.

“Now then,” I muttered, looking around. “Where the hell am I?”

The dungeon, duh.

“No shit,” I whispered, slowly walking between tables strewn with vials and other such… lab-y stuff. “But what part of this screams dungeon?”

My rather snark-castic subconscious remained quiet, and so left to myself, I did what any person would do.

I started picking up junk.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was what looked to be a folder of…

Paper?

Picking the folder up, I opened it, inspecting the papers within. While there were signs of aging and fading in the script written upon the report, they were far from looking thousands of years old.

“Interesting,” I murmured. “But not exactly useful.”

I was about to put the papers down when I felt something akin to a shock pass through me; a moment later, a breeze of cold wind through my hand, making the symbols before me swirl, rearranging themselves into the letters I was familiar with.

“What the-?”

I scanned the page over, trying to make sense of the ancient document.

Experiment 8862: Human Throne Compatibility

Result: Failure

Once more, it appears as if my question remains elusive as always. All attempts at bridging the gap between living things and the Throne appear to result in total failure. Initial tests suggested the issue was simply a matter of mana resiliency. Still, as my experiments have continued resulting in inevitable failure, I believe there is more to understand than initially suspected. I will likely have to start over from scratch, re-teaching myself the basics as my current understanding of mana principles. All our understandings of mana principles appear inadequate, only masquerading as a partial truth. What this may mean in totality, even I cannot fathom fully.

I looked toward the bottom of the page of the report I was reading, but it was a jumble of images and graphs I could make neither heads nor tails of. I set it down, instead flipping several pages ahead.

Experiment 15491: Mana Matrix Calculation

Result: Feasible

I believe I’ve begun to understand what I, what we, have been missing for so long. Mana, which we know as cosmic energy, is a force of creation and makes up the underlying fabric of reality.

It’s wrong. All of it.

Instead, mana ‘acts’ as a force of such, but it is not the fundamental force we thought it was. From what I have discovered, I believe mana is instead a resulting runoff of sorts. It would have been the greater, ‘original’ force that was the fundamental source of all creation that mana was derived from. What this ‘greater’ force is, I have but the faintest of ideas, and while I would love to further delve into such subjects and theories, even for the lifespan of a sage, it may be something that would take tens of lifetimes to decipher. Instead, I believe what I have taken away is enough to resume my true research purpose, my research into completing the Throne. A Mana Matrix is my next step, the key I have been missing for so long.

“Fundamental creation? Mana is but isn’t a force?” I stared down at the paper in confusion. I could understand the individual words on the report, but coming together the meaning behind it eluded me; written by someone far more brilliant than I. Still curious, though, I thumbed through several more papers before finally flipping to the last page entirely.

Experiment 22101: Practical Throne Construction and Usability

Result: Success

It is done. The Throne has been completed.

Or, at least, in theory. The Throne waits for me, yet I find myself unwilling to take my spot upon it.

Is it a practical issue, a lack of foresight, or perhaps a vague sense of missing something?

No, in fact, the issue is something far more… human than I expected.

I cannot take my spot on the Throne for the simple reason that I no longer see the point. My goal for the Throne was never for power, as I have power enough. With the rest of the Great Sages gone and the True Dragons slumbering, I stand atop the world as it. To see through cause and effect, while alluring, again provides me nothing from which I do not already benefit. What is the point of rising from near-omnipotence to true omnipotence when there is nothing to gain?

No. I simply wanted to succeed, to best her. And yet, now that she is gone, what is the point? With the aid of the Throne, I am confident I could reverse the foreseeable tide of history. It is obvious what will happen if no action is taken; the time of the Sages has all but effectively ended already.

With the aid of the Throne, I could prevent it, I am certain.

But why should I?

When you find yourself standing at the precept, power, status, and wealth are all trivial things. Perhaps, this is what she meant. In this world, she was perhaps the greatest enigma, as were her motivations, but with her gone, with myself as the last of the remaining Greats, I am the pinnacle of creation. I can, at last, understand some of her curiosities.

Recently, the Key Bearer visited me, and while his temporary companionship was enjoyed, it is not the same as being able to share in the joys and mysteries of the world with a peer.

For that, I do wonder, why?

To this day, her death mystifies me. Of all things, a stab wound to the neck to claim the life of a Great seems almost comical. Perhaps if I could make my way to Elvermarzon, I would be able to commune with her, but alas, it is well guarded at this point.

As I write this, I find myself staring at my completed Throne.

Why? What is the point?

Perhaps I write this report now, not as a report, but as a journal, an entry of my thoughts on my creation, and more.

I have decided.

With nothing left to search for and share, I shall head onto the final destination, the mystery that awaits us all. At the very least, I look forward to meeting once more with my old friend.

I shall seal my lab, but I will leave my belonging, my creations, behind. Perhaps one day, one who can find use for them will come, for I no longer care.

If these words are indeed being read, I foresee long into the future, then to you in the future, do not take what lies both before and behind for granted.

-Sage of Wisdom

I tore my eyes away from the final words, cold sweat running down my neck.

Sage of Wisdom.

That settled that. Without a doubt, this dungeon was the creation of a Sage, and this ‘artifact’ that the guild intended us to retrieve was likely this ‘Throne’ that the Sage made repeated mention of.

The question was, what was so important about this ‘Throne’ that a sage, a Great one at that, would view it so highly?

Also, who were these others mentioned?

Too many questions at one time.

Part of me wanted to investigate further, but I had stayed here long enough, and the fact hadn’t changed that I was still alone. Cycling mana from my sage ring to my eyes, the darkness stretching out as far as I could see suddenly lifted.

No, not lifted. Rather, my eyes were peering through the darkness with little more difficulty than looking through a slightly foggy day, mana guiding light into my eyes so I could see.

There!

At the very end of the large lab, there appeared to be a stone doorway leading to… somewhere else at the very least. I quickly began to pick my way between the lab clutter until I froze only a few paces away from the exit.

To my left was a diagram drawn on what appeared to be a blackboard. Usually, I wouldn’t have even noticed it, but something scribbled upon it jumped out at me, stealing my attention.

It was a data crystal; that much was obvious, covered with an intricate lattice network of black crystal, notes sketched off to the side. At the top of the blackboard was a bold script of the same strange symbols that quickly reformed into familiar letters I could read.

Mana Matrix.

Staring at the board, I reached into a pocket of my pants before pulling out my own data crystal, still clear like a pool of undisturbed water

Now, what are the chances of that?

Considering the data crystal was obtained from the prior ‘floor’ of the dungeon, it likely wasn’t by accident; that much was for sure.

I held the data crystal up, one eye closed as I compared it to the sketch. Other than the lattice covering the diagram, the crystal within the mana matrix and the data crystal I held were identical.

Does that mean that the lizard nest was just some convoluted way of gathering more data crystals?

I lacked information, but I wasn’t even sure I wanted to know more in the first place. The further I could distance myself from any Great Sages, the better off I was.

Shoving my curiosity aside, I pocketed my data crystal once more before leaving the lab behind. Stepping out of the stone doorway, I was met with a neatly carved tunnel, unlike the armored lizards’ dirt tunnels. Looking around for a moment, I jumped as I heard a sudden crashing of stone. Whirling around, I turned to look at the entrance to the lab.

It was gone. It was as if it had never existed, the doorway now an uninterrupted patch of smooth stone. I pressed one hand against the seam of where the entrance should have been, but there was nothing.

It was gone.

Creeped out but trying to keep it from getting to me, I slowly turned away from the wall, looking down the dark tunnel.

“Well, time to see what horrors this inevitably leads me to.”

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

When I finally stumbled upon our party, I was thankfully not greeted by the sight of them fighting for their lives.

Instead, after an hour of rather… uneventful walking through the endless tunnel, I found the tunnel turning downward at a nearly vertical angle. I half slid, half shambled down the angled descent until, at last, I was dropped into a relatively… cozy stone cave, with no monsters or horrid creatures to be seen. Immediately I was greeted by several people standing in front of the depositing tunnel, shields raised in front of them.

“Oh, hi.” I coughed awkwardly as the vanguards realized who and not what I was, lowering their shields after only a second or two.

“Zero.”

I looked past the vanguards, where Iris stood staring at me with her unreadable expression, arms folded over her chest.

“Why is it that once again, you have ended up split away from the rest of us?”

Nice to see you too, Iris. Yeah, aren’t I happy that I’m not dead or something? Glad to see you feel the same.

Rather than give voice to my actual thoughts, I gave her a slight incline of my head in acknowledgment.

“If I knew, I would tell you. My best guess is my lack of mana compared to the rest of you results in me ending up somewhere else every time we’re transported.”

Not exactly a lie, it was a theory I had considered, but I was beginning to believe it had more to do with the two rings hidden beneath the cloth wrap covering my right arm.

“Hmm,” Iris grunted before surrendering the point, jerking her head over. “Might as well bring you up to speed with everything that’s happened since we ended here. Perhaps you can share your own experiences.”

I nodded before awkwardly pushing past the vanguards, standing next to Iris as she led me toward the ‘front’ of the rocky cave, three tunnels splitting into separate directions.

“When the light faded, we found ourselves within a cave system.”

“And?” I questioned, looking at her for continued elaboration.

“That’s it.” She said plainly.

“Wait, that’s it?”

“That’s what I said,” Iris confirmed.

“So what, you’ve all just been wandering this entire time?”

“Mhmm.”

“Oh,” I stared ahead, trying not to show any more of a reaction.

“What about you?”

“I-” I paused, stopping myself from telling her what had happened. I had no reason not to inform her.

But.

But something told me to keep my mouth shut.

“Same.” I lied. “I appeared in a dark cave, found a tunnel, and wandered down it for an hour.”

Iris looked at me as if she didn’t believe me, but rather than interrogate me, she instead pointed at the open tunnels.

“You’ve been plenty knowledgeable already. No one has a better idea which one we should take.”

“Have you sent scouts down them?”

“Yes,” Iris confirmed. “The issue is all three lead to their own further branching tunnels. Better to travel together, send scouts ahead again when we reach the next fork in the… tunnel than split up and potentially end up cut off from the group.”

I frowned, unsure what she expected from me. It wasn’t a hunting dog; I didn’t have some superhuman nose to mark the path forward.

Well, that’s not actually true.

I closed my eyes, sage mana circulating through me as my senses sharpened. My frown deepened. Even with sage mana enhancing my senses, the tunnels didn’t appear any different from one another.

Wait!

Opening my eyes, I pointed at the left-most tunnel.

“That one.”

“What makes you say that?” Iris questioned with a raised brow.

“It’s slight, but there is a minor disturbance in the airflow that way.”

Rather than look pleased, Iris frowned at me as if she had secretly hoped I wouldn’t have an answer to the conundrum. Whether she wanted to refute it or not, she eventually nodded.

“Not as if we have anything better to go with.” Turning away from me, she looked at the group in varying states of standby. “All of you, up. We’re moving on.”

There were grumbles of acknowledgment, but soon the group was on their feet once more, at the ready as we began our march down the tunnel, the minutes passing in dead silence, the only sound our combined footsteps and jangles of armor and muffled rustles of clothing rubbing on clothing.

“Just how long do these damn tunnels go.” The murmur of irritation came after an hour of traversal through the dark tunnels. Occasionally we would find ourselves in a cavern with several forking roads, where I would look for the slight stir of the air currents, following whichever path they took.

“They can’t go forever.” Iris chided the man who had spoken. “Now, don’t get complacent.”

Pretty sure it can go on forever. I bit back the temptation to voice my thoughts, shaking my head instead. Iris was aware that a meta-space wasn’t bound by conventional rules.

She’s just trying to keep morale up, I guess.

“Hey, I think I see something.”

Caught up in my thoughts, I wasn’t paying attention, bumping into the back of Fey, who had been walking several paces in front of me, looking for any potential traps.

“Sorry,” I murmured before looking at what Fey had stopped to point out, which wasn’t exactly difficult to do. Directly before us, something I had missed from the darkness, was a slab of what looked to be granite.

“Zero, I thought you said there was an airflow coming from this direction.” Iris turned to look at me; I could feel the accusation in her eyes even without seeing her clearly.

“It is.” I raised my hand defensively. “That’s what’s strange.”

I could see the granite slab before us, blocking our route forward, but to my mana perception, there wasn’t anything there.

“Let me try something.” Fey cut us off before any more words could be exchanged. The woman stepped forward, a soft flame flickering to life in the palm of her hand. Motioning like she was sliding something forward, the flame gently floated toward the granite slab before us.

“Well, damn.” I mouthed as the granite slab suddenly exploded into a fire curtain at contact with her tiny ghost flame.

“Thought so.” Fey turned to look at us, now brightly lit from the backlight of the fire behind her. “That’s some serious Illusion magic.”

“I’ve seen illusion magic before.” I chimed in, frowning. “It’s never been like that. That wasn’t an illusion.”

“I’ve seen it once or twice before.” Fey nodded toward the still burning granite. “In places with serious magical concentration, usually old places from one of the prior eras, illusion magic, unlike other forms of magic, when sustained for long enough form a physical presence, physically there while never actually existing.”

Learn something new every day.

“Whether it is real or not, I want everybody ready the moment it goes down.” Iris lifted a hand, and as she did, I could make out grainy-looking smoke appearing around her before floating before us, dividing the burning granite from where we were standing.

I wonder what mom would think seeing illusions like that.

As the thought drifted through my mind, I felt a bitter pit form in the center of my stomach. If it wasn’t for her leaving me behind, I would have never set out and ended up on this damn quest.

Whatever. I forcibly put the bitter feelings aside. It’s not like she’s at fault.

I knew that it wasn’t my mother that upset me; it was the fact that every moment I spent within this dungeon made me anxious, and adding thoughts of my mother into the mix wasn’t helping.

Let’s just focus on the now.

I watched the burning granite, the mana forming it fueling the fire. For thirty more seconds, the granite burned before it disappeared, no dwindling flames, no slowly dying fires or crumbling granite. One moment it was there; the next, it was just gone.

Guess it really was an illusion.

With the fire gone, I was surprised that the tunnel turned even brighter rather than being swallowed up by the darkness again. Behind where the illusion had been, a cavern lay before us, illuminated as if the sun were shining from within the confines of the stone walls. Rather than another simple cave with branching tunnels, it appeared nearly as large as the den of the giant armored salamander.

Thankfully there was no monster lying in wait.

Instead, within the cave appeared to be five alters upon raised platforms, each one with eight to ten ascending levels, standing about as tall as I. Four of the five were situated near the corners of the square looking cavern, with the final fifth alter site being the center of the room. Instead of an altar atop it like the other four, floating above it as high as the treetops of the pine forest of my home was a marble obelisk surrounded by two barriers of golden light.

“Looks like we found our next Gate Stone.” Iris nodded toward the obelisk floating in the air. “Question is, how do we get to it?”

“It probably has to do with the alters.” Gramm stepped forward, pointing between them. “Why else would they be here?”

“Fey, Zero, you two have any input?”

Fey, after a second, shook her head, to which Iris looked at me, eyebrows cocked.

“This seems to be the source of the air current fluctuations.” I pointed toward the obelisk ahead. “And that seems to be the center of it.”

“Hmm.” Iris folded her arms, staring ahead as if she could determine the cave’s secrets before we stepped inside. Finally exhaling, her arms unfolded as she looked back at us all. “We’re going in. If there are no obvious signs of trap, it should be safe enough that we won’t likely all die instantly.”

I heard a few chuckles, but even with my limited interactions with the woman, I knew it hadn’t been said in jest or humor.

She really meant it.

Passing through where the granite slab had been, we cautiously entered the large room. Aside from the alters, there wasn’t much to look at, the rock walls marked only by cracks here and there.

“You think we need to hit it with mana again?” Fey was standing next to me, looking up at the floating obelisk.

I shook my head. “No, I doubt it would be the same answer twice in a row.”

“So then what?”

Don’t we all want to know?

Saying nothing, I went directly to the central platform, climbing the ascending levels two layers at a time until I stood beneath the floating obelisk.

“Any ideas?”

I looked back down the platform, Tez watching me from the base.

Why does everyone seem to think I have the answers?

“Nothing,” I admitted, shaking my head. “I was hoping to find a sign of something up here, but… well, nothing up here.”

“Well, if you really think about it, perhaps it’s a matter of….”

Watching her lips move as she spoke, it was as if the world suddenly was slipped into a veil of silence, lips moving but no words coming from them. I suddenly felt light-headed and concern growing, I looked around, but no sound came from anyone, and yet, it appeared as if no one had noticed. I could even see groups talking amongst themselves.

Why just me?

I stared down at my hands, clapping them once.

Still no sound.

What’s going-

My head whipped toward where we had entered the large cavern, where, with what sounded like a resounding snap, our exit out was sealed by a barrier of golden light. The disorienting silence and lightheadedness vanished, much to my confusion.

“- you hear me? Rook?”

I looked back at Tez, who had a look of concern on her face.

“Yeah, I can hear you,” I answered. Able to hear again, I realized what had changed. For the duration of the brief silence, it was as if the ability to feel the mana around me had vanished, and for whatever reason, my sense of sound with it.

“Oh, you just went silent, and your face was all tense and-”

“Look at the exit.” I interrupted.

Tez tilted her head at me in questioning, but when I said nothing, she turned around, taking in the same sight I had.

“Oh.” She huffed. “That’s never a good sign.”

As if on her queue, a black liquid began to flow from the cracks in the wall, oozing into the trapped room.

“No.” I agreed. “It isn’t.”