Nyle and Raia jumped to their feet. Blue Hair took a moment to stand and while she was busy fighting off her grogginess, Nyle and I rushed the entrance to fend off the howling washir. It was already enlarged and snarled as we approached. Nyle shuffled ahead of me, using the reach of his sword to keep the monster back.

“Kill it and run,” Raia said.

“Easier said than done,” Nyle responded.

Without taking my eyes off the monster, I shouted, “Cast an ice bolt!”

“Here? A-Are you sure?”

“Hurry!”

We’d already gone over this, but I should have expected as much.

The washir lunged and our combined efforts kept it back. It snapped and swiped, testing our defenses and growing more confident. If I wasn’t injured and still had my sword, I would’ve already jumped it, maybe even killed it by now. As things were, it edged toward me because of my shorter weapon.

“I-I cast it,” Blue Hair said.

I grabbed onto Nyle as he tried to move. He yanked his arm but I held firm.

“What are you doing?”

“Not yet.”

Blue Hair’s magic took a few seconds to activate. I didn’t know how long the delay was, it probably wasn’t even consistent. The washir seized the opening, landing a glancing swipe at me while it bit into Nyle’s arm.

“R-Rainen!” Blue Hair’s voice was a shrill cry. The ice bolt materialized and grew larger and larger as Nyle wrestled with the monster.

I rammed my blade into the washir’s side and it released Nyle with a yelp. In the corner of my eye, I saw the spell fly. I let go of my knife and rolled away. Nyle also dodged but it still grazed his shoulder before slamming into the washir’s head. I rushed in and finished the monster off.

Raia came over and kicked it once to check if it was dead. “So that’s how you killed it last time?” She crossed her arms as she suppressed a smile. I’m actually a bit impressed. Let’s get moving before its friends come… Nyle?”

“I-I’m… I’m so sorry…” Blue Hair said, shaking her head and backing away. “I-I didn’t mean to.”

It took me a second, past the blood in my hands and the stink of the monster, to realize how bad that ‘graze’ was. His clothes were torn open along with his skin and muscle. Raia ran to him, pulling bandages from her pack.

“I’m sorry…” Blue Hair apologized again.

Nyle grimaced everytime the bandages wrapped around his wound. His words were shallow and pained.“No… no, it’s okay. Without you we wouldn’t have killed it.”

Blue Hair muttered another apology as we hurried into the dark halls. She trailed behind us, almost completely out of sight. The crystals the two adventurers used for light were dimming, though not dead yet so I took the front because of my fire, and the impending horde of monsters stopped me from slowing down for her.

Distant howls echoed through the dungeon. Their noses, by virtue of being dog-like, must’ve been somewhat decent. Because of that, we didn’t have time to discuss which way to go or draw our maps. I turned and they followed. The dungeon was more of a labyrinth than the actual labyrinth.

We carried on for ten minutes straight when another split in the path appeared. I almost jumped back when I turned the corner. Blocking our way was one of those statutes. It held a polearm in one hand while the other rested at its side. It was tall, about a head taller than me.

I stumbled a step as Nyle failed to stop. He muttered a startled apology as he was thrown back into reality. His eyes were partially glazed for a moment and it took him a second to realize the statue was there. “Woah, what the fuck?”

Raia glanced at Nyle and then to me. I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to mean, but I guessed that she wanted us to rest soon. She likely wanted to check on his bandages. “What do you think moved it here?” she asked.

“You don’t think they built it here?” I said, sarcastically.

“D-Don’t take your eyes off it!” Blue Hair stared at the sculpture with fearful and quivering eyes. Her hushed voice was the loudest I’d ever heard her.

“Why?” Raia asked.

“I-It’ll move.”

She’s still scared of these things?

Raia gave her an uncertain nod and we continued. Blue Hair kept glancing back, even as the statue disappeared from view. She stared into the darkness when we stopped to rest and flicked her eyes everywhere we weren’t watching. She was going to tire herself out at this rate.

“Is she going to be okay?” Raia asked. She had finished changing out Nyle’s bandages and was in the process of trying to figure out a way to clean the old ones.

“She’s just paranoid. Probably the lack of sleep,” I said.

And all the stress. I guess it’s finally getting to her.

Nyle forced himself up. Raia tried to stop him but he brushed her off. In other circumstances I might’ve helped her. A moment after he stood, a howl sent us off again.

Barely a minute out from our rest, we came across another statue. This time, it blocked the only path. Blue Hair called out in that whisper of hers. I ignored it and snuck through the gap between the sculpture and the wall. The others followed, and it took nearly another minute to convince the roluk to do the same.

“A-Are you still watching it?”

“Yes,” Nyle and Raia responded, both in much gentler tones than I could’ve managed.

I wasn’t mad at her, annoyed, maybe. That fitted better. It felt strange having to tiptoe around literal statues when monsters nearly twice our size were chasing after us.

She quickly slid past the statue while closing her eyes. It was something I didn’t expect and at the same time, completely in line with my distorted, hazy image of her. She kept it in her sight after getting past, and Raia’s pull kept her at a decent pace.

The hall opened up to a new room filled with everburning torches. We stood at an elevated area, much higher than the one we found the washir in. Seeing the big room, the oddly placed statue made more sense, if I thought of it like a guard or some kind of ward against adventurers. A set of steps led down to a-

A major core?!

I sprinted down to the center of the room where it sat on a pedestal. I called out for their backpacks as I made sure of the core’s class. They ranged in a variety of colors, from red to the goblin’s blue, and while purple and blueish colors were more common among minor cores, like reddish and orange were to majors, it was the size and energy emitted that differentiated them. My mana sensing skills were underdeveloped to say the least, or as Master liked to put it, ‘pathetic’. But, the size left no doubt. A minor core could fit in someone’s hand while major cores were twice that.

And I wasn’t sure it would fit in the backpack.

We’ll make it fit.

The others stood beside me, gawking at the discovery.

Raia seemed the most stunned. “That’s…”

“We’re gonna be rich,” Nyle said. The injury didn’t seem to bother him as much anymore.

“I don’t plan on selling it,” I said. That prompted the two adventurers to snap their attention to me.

“Why not? There’s no way you’re convincing me that the academy taught first years how to use major cores,” Raia said.

The only people able to use major cores were high level mages, the government, or other powerful and influential organizations. Mine were a mix of the latter two, but I wasn’t just going to tell them that. Well, I assumed The Twelve were some kind of secret government organization, though I wasn’t sure.

“Think about it, Rainen. If we sell this and the minor core, we’ll be set for life. Your family wouldn’t have to worry a single day in their lives. Think about your parents and how hard they worked to raise you,” Nyle added.

“They’re dead,” I said.

They stiffened and averted their eyes. It was like I was in a room with three Blue Hairs, except Blue Hair was the only one looking at me. The info must’ve shocked her enough to forget about the statue for a moment. I shrugged and held up a hand to stop them from apologizing.

“It happened a long time ago. Don’t worry about it. I need the core. If it ends up getting sold sometime later, I’ll give you three all the gold from it.”

Nyle and Raia wrestled with my words in their heads and it showed in the way they struggled to come up with responses. It was selfish and unfair to be so direct in taking it for myself. It was also incredibly suspicious, but if I didn’t, my whole reason to come to Aurora City would be put on hold more than it already was. If I wanted to find Kharss, I had no time to play nice.

“Alright, fine. How about we put it to a vote then?” Nyle said, straight-faced.

Irritation clawed at the back of my thoughts. I dug my fingers into my skin and told myself he wasn’t trying to pick a fight. We had clashing opinions and instead of dismissing me, he went with the diplomatic route.

A route he knew the conclusion of.

“Those in favor of selling the major core,” he said. Both he and Raia raised their hands.

“Those in favor of giving the major core to Rainen?”

Blue Hair had her eyes on the ground. I begrudgingly raised my hand.

“That’s two for selling it and one for giving it to you. It looks like things are settled.”

“W-Wait…” Blue Hair meekly raised her hand. “I-I vote for giving it to Rainen.”

That was unexpected.

“Well, we’re tied now. Two for two and the longer we stay here, the closer the washir are going to get,” Raia said.

“Let’s take it then and decide what to do with it later.” I reached for the core as Raia opened her pack.

“D-Don’t! What if it’s trapped? I-Isn’t it suspicious that-that it’s in the middle of the room without protection? We-We can come back… Th-The academy can send someone here to collect it.”

“Those in favor of taking it?” Nyle asked without hesitation.

The three of us raised our hands. Fear flashed across Blue Hair’s face. Her concerns were valid. Certain labyrinths, and the dungeons within them especially, were known for their traps, some of which rearmed themselves after a certain amount of time. Though, If this was a trap, then the payout would be worth it. I could easily avoid a few darts or whatever might come.

I told Blue Hair to conjure a barrier, and once it was up, Raia grabbed the core. We paused. Despite our casual attitudes, the three of us were on guard the moment she had mentioned it. Raia placed the core in her backpack and we all made for a hall at floor level.

As soon as Raia stepped away from the pedestal, bright circles appeared at each corner and from those, rose the same tall, impish statues. Recalling all of Blue Hair’s worrying, I called out to the group.

“Watch them!”

We each kept an eye on our own statues. Nyle and Raia discreetly drew their weapons and I plucked two knives from storage. The statues stood frozen like we’d always seen them. If a person walked in on us right now, they’d think we were crazy. And as the seconds passed, I was beginning to think we were too. It was late, according to the last time Nyle checked his pocket watch, and all of us were in a half-awakened state, driven forward by the threat of monsters.

A howl broke the tension and silence.

Nyle sighed, “You guys got me worried for nothing. These things aren’t-”

I hadn’t taken my eyes off mine just yet. “What’s wrong?”

“Why’d you-”

“Don’t look over here!” Nyle shouted, stopping Raia. “‘Mine moved.”

“A-And try not to blink,” Blue Hair added.

Fuck.

The second she said that I felt a dryness in my eyes. I shook off the feeling. “How far did it move?”

“Three feet maybe? Its arms moved too.”

Well shit.

“Okay. Not a big deal. If we keep our eyes on them then they won’t move, right?” Raia asked. Blue Hair probably nodded since there was a long second of silence, before realizing we couldn’t look at her and answering with a meek ‘I think’. “Good enough. Let’s shimmy over to the hallway. When we’re in there, we can have one of us keep an eye on our rear.”

We began edging toward the hall, all the while fighting the urge to look away. Then, the ground shook and I heard the rumble of stone against stone.

“What’s going on?” Raia asked.

“I don’t know,” Nyle said.

“I’m going to look,” I said. I tore my eyes away from the statue and felt my blood pump at the sight. A stone door was slowly closing our escape.

“R-Rainen?”

I quickly turned back to the statue, and all that pumping blood went cold. In the few seconds I had looked away, the stone creature had covered half the distance. Its weapon was raised and ready to strike. A few more seconds and I’d have been either dead or dying.

“What did you see?” Nyle prompted.

“The hallway’s closing.”

“What? Can we make it?”

“No,” I said. I could make it. I could take the backpack from Raia and blink through the shrinking gap, but I’d have to leave them to die.

“Fine, back up the stairs it is,” Nyle said.

As we took our first step toward them, we heard a distinctive thud and knew that it was our only choice now.

After a few more feet, Raia gasped. “By the gods. Your statue came really close.” We were on the same side of the room and had traveled far enough to see each other’s mark from the corner of our eyes. Her statue was still in the corner, but I could tell it had moved a few times.

“Yours moved too,” I said.

“Shit, I thought so but I wasn’t sure. Just blinking lets them move too?” As she said that, all the torches flickered at once.

Then, the room went dark.