The side effect of using my ability was worse than I thought. My body felt on the verge of collapsing with each step. When we reached a room, Blue Hair suggested a short rest and I knew from running that the moment I stopped, I’d be bombarded with pain.

We made it back into the main hall of the dungeon and Blue Hair took out the map as I kept the statues in check. They stood there, vigilant as they ever were. They weren't immediate threats, but eventually, neither of us would be able to stay awake.

“We walked this way in those halls… I think,” she said, running her finger down the map. “We should be around here?”

By her guess, we were somewhere between the pyre room where we obtained the minor core and the room where we slept after escaping the orcs.

“Sh-Should we leave the dungeon? Wh-What do you think?”

“Let’s go right,” I said, knowing how odd the reasoning was.

She paused. "A-Are you loo-”

“The second pyre room. There was a blue light at the end of the hall. It might be a portal.”

It was a guess made from desperation. My magic was fading faster than I thought. The flame wouldn’t last much longer, and if we did make it out of the dungeon in that time, I wasn’t in any condition to outrun a halora, and neither was Blue Hair.

I snuffed out my fire when we made it. Blue Hair gasped, and I saw her shadow spinning around. The statues in the room were gone, likely either wandering around or part of the group chasing us. Either way, that made things easier. I was right about the portal.

Suddenly, we were in a large circular room filled with bright, ever-burning torches. Blue Hair and I watched the portal but nothing came through. We both let out a breath as we took in our surroundings. Two chests caught her eye, while I steadied myself using a column.

“S-Someone was already here…” she said, staring at the empty containers.

“It’s recent,” I said.

“What?”

“There,” I pointed to the open top half. It was a handprint, crystal clear among all the dust. “Maybe Nyle and Raia opened these.”

“W-What if it was another adventuring team?”

“Who knows.”

She looked at the chests again with a complicated expression. “I hope it was them…”

While we rested, safe from the statues, we explored the room a bit more. It was easily the largest we'd been in and fit the description of many tales given by adventurers of their discoveries.

Strangely, small crystals floated in square cutouts in the wall. The room was empty except for those crystals, the chests, and the still swirling portal. What reason was there for the crystals when there were enough torches to completely light the shifting halls we wandered through?

The portal isn't against the wall?

At the very back of the room, a thin space enough for a person to slide through on their side was another square cutout in the stone. Unlike the others, it was empty.

"W-What is it?" Blue Hair asked.

"There's something behind the portal," I said. She rounded from the other side. "This one's empty."

She kinda froze? It was hard to tell, especially since that was how she usually was. She pointed to it with a shaky, closely held hand, “I-I think it’s a pedestal… L-Like the one before.”

I held out my hand for the core. She shot me a look like I was crazy.

“Y-You want to put it there?”

“The only other options involve us wandering into more unknown, or going back through the portal. My mana is only going to last so much longer.”

She hesitated, glancing at the portal. “O-Ok,” she said as she put the core in place. She flinched when the wall shook and immediately got closer to me. Rather than shifting walls, the crystals pulsated in unison. It was a cruel trick considering all we’d gone through already, but we were glad.

I palmed a knife as the crystals continued to pour their power into a ball at the center of the room. The core also sent mana, ballooning the sphere into something the size of a head. The crystals flickered and fell with hollow clinks. The major core stopped sending mana and I picked it up as the wall opened, revealing another chamber.

In it was no treasure or anything of worth. Rather than some grand reward, it was a tablet twice my size. The faded words were impossible to make out even with my flared fire.

The ball of energy swirled around and around until a stream flowed toward the tablet, lighting up the words and restoring the shape and depth of what was carved.

What in the veil?

It was in another language. I’d seen snippets of Elven and the more common Aremshai-ir languages, especially when we went to the east and north for a bit, but it didn’t seem to be any of those. Blue Hair was also staring at the strange text, but as I understood, the language of the roluks was either non-existent or closely related to the empire’s.

“Great Cities…” Blue Hair whispered.

“Great cities?” I repeated. “Can you read this?”

She jumped. “N-No. Not really. I only know it because it was in one of the journals I read…”

I motioned for her to keep going.

“S-Skychaser and his party were attempting a rescue mission in the Estalia Labyrinth up north when they found it. It was part of a tablet like this. I-It took the guild a while to decipher it but it said something about the Great Cities…”

“That’s it?”

“H-He didn’t mention anything else…”

“Congrats then, I guess.”

“Huh?”

“Remember what Nyle said about finding this place on a map? If the prints on those chests are as recent as I think, and no one’s reported anything about this tablet, then I think we’ve just made a discovery.”

Her eyes widened and sparkled with new life. She turned back to the tablet, hand over her mouth.

We both got what we wanted.

A growl set us on alert. From the portal, four washir crawled through. The monsters blocked the only way out with their freakishly large bodies. They were ready to fight and we had to be too. I gripped the core as hard as I gripped my knife.

I spotted a streak of blue out of the corner of my eye. Blue Hair took a step back and stumbled. She fell against the tablet with a startled cry. The washir took the chance. It leaped through the air, jaws wide open. I had to do something. I shifted my weight to throw myself at the monster but the other three lunged at the same time.

Time slowed. My eyes shot from beast to beast and my mind ran through all the things I could do. I could use a lighting bolt- No, my mana was too low. I can throw a knife and roll away- Would a knife stop it? What about what would happen after? If I use unison magic- Same problem as the first, I might just kill myself from mana exhaustion.

I didn’t have time to think. I’d tackle Blue Hair and go from there. Yeah, that was right. I just needed to act.

Suddenly, my body went cold. A voice echoed from the shadows, “Use me,” it said. I saw a vision of the washir lying at my feet and I felt the vestiges of its power welling up, giving me strength not only to kill the monsters here but everything. If I took its offer, if I just called out to it, I could save both of us. I’d be strong enough to tear through the city and find Kharss on my own. There was no need to waste my time with the Twelve or the academy. I’d have my revenge and more.

I’d be strong.

Blue Hair’s cry and the sight of my breath snapped me out of it. She somehow barely avoided the washir’s attack and froze part of its body at the same time. I rolled away as the other three monsters missed me by a hair. “Dodge!” I yelled. But Blue Hair was too slow. The partly-frozen washir went for her neck.

Cages of translucent light trapped the monsters and their bodies stiffened inside the spell. Four people dashed in and in a single stroke, cut off their heads. Dozens of adventurers flooded the room and among them was one I recognized. Mr. Argant sheathed his sword and gestured for the adventurers to remove the bodies.

Ms. Ein closed her book. “Treat them immediately,” she ordered. We were sat down and had our wounds tended to. Ms. Ein knelt next to us, “I’m sorry it took us so long to rescue you.”

I held back on the knee-jerk reaction. We were fine now, and I had other things to worry about than someone apologizing. I went a whole year without hearing anything and now, three times. It's spoken to me three times since coming to the city. If I wrote to Master about this, would he take me away?

I’ll tell him after I get Kharss.

“I didn’t have much hope,” Mr. Argant said after he’d finished securing the area. “Even experienced adventurers who prepare for Labyrinth Shifts do not often return.”

“We were lucky. It also helped that we knew the academy would come looking for us,” I said.

“Luck and hope? Those aren’t uncommon for adventurers to have.” Mr. Argant studied me, probably wondering why I didn’t take credit or try to make myself look good. Maybe he expected me to ask for our adventuring tags, but I already got what I came for.

His eyes and that of others wandered to the core.

“Here, I’ll take that,” said one of the adventurers as he reached for it.

I pulled back. “No.”

The man frowned.

“We found it, so it’s ours.”

“Only registered adventurers are allowed to keep treasures from labyrinths and dungeons,” Mr. Argant said.

Ms. Ein held a neutral expression. Blue Hair simply looked down.

“What?” I felt my anger boiling. “We survived all of this just to have what we earned taken from us?”

“The guild will decide what to do with it,” the adventurer said as he tried to take it.

I swatted his hand away. “Don’t touch it.”

“Kid, rules are rules. If I wasn’t officially hired through the guild to save you, I’d let you keep it, but I can’t do that.”

As I was about to retort, a voice called out from behind them.

“Actually, we found that.”

“R-Raia? Nyle?”

Ms. Ein nodded, “Yes, I forgot to mention. We found them outside of the dungeon. They were the ones who informed us of your location. Other teams are currently searching other areas. I’ll contact them now.”

“W-Wait! T-Tell them not to look away from the statues…”

Ms. Ein’s stone-faced demeanor cracked the slightest bit. She and Mr. Argant exchanged looks. “Haloras, washir, and now guardian statues. I’ll start on the report to the guild,” Mr. Argant said as he turned to the large glowing tablet. “I’m sure this will be of interest to them as well.”

After Raia and Blue Hair were separated, she had the idea to turn off her light and use Nyle’s blood-soaked bandages to paint a target on one of the washir. Not long after, they met up and used the smoke bombs I gave him to escape from the monsters once and for all. The path they went down led back to the double pedestal room and from there, they remembered where the portal was.

It was a miracle that we all survived.

The other adventurers caught up in the Labyrinth Shift were much more fortunate. They were together when the Shift happened and kept a fire going to attract the attention of rescuers and others.

Raia, Nyle, and Blue Hair agreed to give me the major core. I was worried for a moment that they’d try to take everything for themselves but I was wrong. “I’d like to keep it, it’d be nice. But, if we didn’t run into you two, we would’ve died for sure,” Raia said.

We parted ways with them when Ms. Ein and Mr. Argant took us back to Aurora City. There, we got properly examined and treated. From what I heard, Blue Hair managed to escape without any injuries, only a recommendation from the healer to stay off her feet as much as possible. On the other hand, I was stuck with a nasty gash on my arm. It’d close up in a few days, but it still hurt.

I knocked on the door of a run-down two-story building.

Carlyle opened the door and pulled me in. “I told you not to come here unless you had a major core. The old man told me the academy was in an uproar looking for you in the labyrinth.”

I unfurled the pouch.

Carlyle snorted and paced along the creaking boards. “So you did get it.”

“Tell me about Kharss.”

“That’s not how it works. I said I’d give you a chance, and that’s what you’ll get. The next meeting is tomorrow at eight. Don’t miss it.”

“Here?” I asked.

He took the core from my hand and replaced it with a scroll. “That’ll show you where it is. Burn it after you’ve got it down.”

“Good.”

“No, not good. It would’ve been better if you just did what Reinhard wanted. Being part of the Twelve isn’t a kids’ game. Whatever fantasies you have going on up there, kill them, now. We don’t fight criminals unless ordered to. We don’t save people unless ordered to. We don’t do anything unless ordered to. When acting as a member of the Twelve, you will follow the same orders.

I wanted to retort but rather than waiting for me to respond, he pushed me out the door and shut it.

That was fine. Whatever I felt like saying wasn't worth it.

Finally, I could go back to looking for Kharss.