“So…are you here to sign up for the job of sanitation or supplies?”

The supposed recruiter for Zmey’s after-school club also doubled as the combat instructor while the boss was away, and Tonya and Augen had to wait a good while until he came off criticizing the batch of fighters from what they were doing before pairing them up to do drills.

“There are no other jobs around…?” Augen asked when the recruiter picked his nose and leaned in to take an uncomfortably all-emcompassing glance at Tonya.

“You seem suitable for a sanitation job, girly.” The man said before turning curiously to Augen, “And you…blind kid, can you even do anything without tripping over, let alone fight?”

“We are here for fighting jobs,” Tonya said firmly, "We want to learn how to fight!"

“Nope, I decide what you do, not you.” The recruiter leaned back and rested his arms on the chair as he split his legs open, “Unless you are willing to…provide some special service for me…”

Then, he glanced down towards his crouch and gave her a dirty smile.

“Fine.” Tonya said with a forced smile when Augen glanced around to cover her before she stepped forward and knelt down. Then, as her blue eyes pulsated with power once before she commanded, “Send us where fighter recruits go.”

The recruiter’s eyes widened before the light of his will was sniffed out from it, and he rolled his head forward and mumbled out the answer, “Everyone needed to go through the pit of snakes to collect the golden egg without fail. Then, you get to face the boss directly…”

“That sounds ridiculous.” Augen glanced around, “Where do we go?”

With his finger swirling around mechanically, the recruiter pointed down into the ground before tilting his finger to the side. Augen and Tonya followed the direction of the gesture before the two left him alone to ponder what had just happened as the effect of the Queen’s Eye slowly started to wear off, and no recollections of their interactions remained in his mind.

As the two moved casually along the paths between the small practice yards with the trainees briefly glancing at them before focusing back on their drills, Augen couldn’t help but feel a tense tingle right behind his neck, as if countless pairs of eyes were burning their gaze into his already pale skin.

Yet when he expanded his Wave sensing abilities outward, he felt nothing. The trainees didn’t seem to be paying much attention to them, and there was nobody else anywhere near. Whoever or whatever's watching him is skilled, and Augen reminded himself again to be extra careful with how he presented both himself and his Wave.

As they continued moving ahead, Tonya noticed the gradual slope downward until they reached a small circular yard surrounded by a three-sided fence with a small tunnel dug into the ground positioned in the middle. A bearded man with a cageful of caught rats and bugs was grabbing handfuls of them with his bare hand before tossing it into the hole, each batch creating a barrage of hissing sounds that echoed through the tunnel.

He eventually noticed Augen and Tonya as they stopped just in front of him, and he looked back briefly at the hole that barely fit a single person.

“So…new recruits?” He raised his eyebrows, “It’s…been a little while since the last batch.”

“This where we go?” Augen asked, pointing his finger at the bad news hole, “You think we are stupid or something? A literal pit of snakes?”

“That is where you go, and where everyone's been.” The man nodded earnestly, “The pit of snakes revealed the truth about the individual, and only those with the purest hearts can be reborn within and join the ranks of the fighters.”

"There's no way." Augen crossed his arms, "No way all of them did that."

“That is the truth, my friend. If you are to learn the art of battle, you need to possess the soul of a fighter.” A new voice came from behind him before Augen and Tonya turned around only to see Zmey’s gigantic body towering over them with large shiny head over his head, “However, if you are to work in sanitary, you do not have to go through the trial like all the others did, especially if you have no soul of a fighter.”

“You are just sending us to our doom. I don't need eyes to see that.” Augen shook his head, "If you want to see the souls of a fighter, why don't you find it out during a fight."

“Hmm?” Zmey leaned forward and examined Augen's stubborn expressions before chuckling, “…intriguing fellow. Well, why are you here, if you do not follow our rules?”

"Cause I thought you are better than you actually are," Augen said without any hint of holding back as Zmey pressed his lips together and nodded with understanding.

Tonya glanced towards Augen and wondered what his plans of provocation were when Zmey suddenly spun around and shoved her with a surprising amount of force before her body were launched straight into the narrow tunnel behind her. Augen’s entire body tensed up, shocked by the lack of signs shown in Zmey’s Wave signature before he dived straight into the pit after her.

At the same time, as the light of the sun continued to dwindle the deeper Tonya and Augen fell through the caves, he started to feel the tiny pricks from the dozens of small Wave signals in the cave walls around them.

“Boss!” The feeder threw his hands up, “You should have given them the usual talk first!”

“They already knew what they needed to do.” Zmey said, turning around, “Let me now if they return with the egg, and if they do not return, then just skip a feeding slot tomorrow.”

The feeder nodded before he poked his head over the entrance of the tunnel, and shrugged lightly.

“You okay?!” Augen shouted when he heard the thump of her body before he kicked his arms and feet out into the walls to slow himself down, accidentally kicking a handful of snakes in the head in the process before he slammed into her soft body.

“Ouch ouch ouch…” Tonya said when she felt Augen’s hand moving around and grabbing firmly onto her chest, “Hey…watch where you are touching…”

“Huh…?” Augen reoriented his mind and body as the Wave of Tonya became clear in front of him, and he felt for the soft squishy spherical flesh again before he squeaked and leaped back, “Sorry!”

“It’s…okay…” Tonya scratched the side of her face as Augen quickly scanned her Wave for any severe pain and injuries before drawing his Spring Flowers card and healing her bruises while comforting her by holding her hand.

The hole that they fell through was surprisingly deep despite it not being exactly vertical, and it was only illuminated with glowing gemstones that were embedded into the walls at regular intervals.

"Why did you provoke him like that?!" Tonya growled, "Is being here really necessary?!"

"I don't think he would buy it if we just accepted it as is..." Augen said, rubbing the back of his head when Tonya knocked him on the leg with a fist.

"You know I hate snakes..." Tonya mumbled, “What…should we do now?”

Before Augen answered, Tonya rubbed her eyes and turned around as the head of a snake was merely inches away from her nose. She screamed and latched onto Augen, who also screamed at the same time before realizing the Wave signatures of those snakes remained stationary as they were still observing the intruders in their space before they each pulled back and hid inside the darkness once again.

"The golden egg." Augen said firmly, "Do you see anything?"

“I…can't tell…” Tonya said, looking back up at the entrance of the pit of snakes which only looked like a small white circle from where they are before looking far deeper down the dimly lit trails, “But surely we have to keep going deeper and deeper?”

“I honestly can't help but think this is an excuse to kill people that they are suspicious of...” Augen murmured.

“But the recruiter…” Tonya muttered lightly as she tried to be as careful with her footstep as possible, “…That commanded him to speak the truth…”

“It can be the truth as far as he knew,” Augen said. The Wave signatures around them have finally started to move as if the crowd of snakes have completed their initial assessments, and he halted still as Tonya clenched her fist.

Then, a single sliver transitioned to the shadow of a tiny snake lunging at them.

With a playing card in hand, Augen sliced through the air, catching the snake by the neck and beheading it cleanly. Then, he kicked the motionless body to the side and grabbed Tonya’s shaking hands.

“Whatever it is, I promised you this.” Augen said without looking back as the playing cards started hovering around his body, “Whether the golden egg is real or not, I will protect you until the end and kill whatever gets in our way. I just ask you to be brave...for me, and for you.”

Tonya nodded, and Augen smiled lightly. Suddenly, the thin frame of Augen looked larger than anything Tonya has ever seen.

With more and more tiny Wave signatures coming alive around them, he started to lead the two of them to run deeper and deeper through the cave illuminated by the occasional glowing gems. Tonya watched as the multitude of playing cards floating around Augen swirled and swished around, firing off the different attacks and warding off the snakes in all directions both around him and in her own space.

One tried ambushing Tonya from above, and a beam of Wave from the Summer Lotus pulverized half of its body. Another tried biting at Tonya’s ankles, and Augen pierced its skull with an ice spear from the Winter Bark.

Then, as a trio of snakes tried to attack Augen from head-on, he flashed his Forbidden Summer: Rupturing Intensity before dozens of small wounds formed all over the snake's body before blood jetted out onto Augen’s shirt and the snakes dropped dead onto the ground.

However, Tonya just ran and ran with Augen still holding her hand.

The air in the inner caves started to become warmer and warmer, and Augen swiftly activated his Winter Bark to keep Tonya cool as she felt sweat dripping down Augen’s arm and onto her hands.

And eventually, the cave had constricted slightly when it all suddenly opened up as if they had finally made it to the stomach of the beast through its digestive tracks.

A small stone column stood in the middle of the room, and a golden egg sat atop the column, waiting for someone to lay their hands on it. He glanced back at Tonya, once again examining her Wave as she folded over and breathed heavily.

“The egg…I got it…” Tonya said with great difficulty as she straightened up and placed both hands around the egg when everything started shaking all around them, and the stone column started to morph into a monstrous formation as the dirt rolled off its surface, revealing that it was instead formed by a tower of snakes that awoke from it's slumber, “Oh…OHH! SNAKES! SNAKES!”

“Here we go again.” Augen sighed, gesturing for Tonya to run towards him as he prepared himself for more of the same.

Twenty minutes later, Augen and Tonya finally crawled out from the pit of snakes covered in guts and slime, and Tonya slammed the golden egg into the sand while the feeder sprung up to standing with his lunch bowl dropped into the sand.

“Here’s the fucking egg…” Augen growled, spitting out a snake’s head that he somehow bit off at one point, “Also consider the next few days your holiday. There’s not going to be many snakes left over for you to feed.”

The feeder’s jaws dropped, and he stood in place as the pit of snakes behind him slowly started to collapse inward thanks to the stone structures that were heavily damaged during the fight.

“G…get yourselves cleaned up by the buckets over there…” The feeder said nervously as he hurried to what remained of the cave entrance, “And…and the boss will see you in the main tent…hopefully…”