Logan stared into the portal to Earth. The nighttime lights were comforting to him, a memory of only having to worry about getting run over by a truck in a thunderstorm. A few steps and he’d no longer have to worry about monsters hunting him, deities playing with him, or others having their lives placed into his hands.

“I’m coming home, Dad”, Logan thought to himself as he took a few steps toward the portal.

“Marcus has run out of MP”, a window alerted Logan.

His head darted behind him, but all he could see was ice and the low-ceiling stairwell. The sounds of combat alerted him that his ally was in danger, but Marcus said he could handle it.

“Was it more than goblins?” Logan thought to himself as Marcus’s health started to drop.

“Time until portal closes 2:26… 2:25”, the timer counted down at the side of his vision.

“Fuck!” Logan cursed in his head.

“Logan, the portal will not stay open long enough for you to aid Marcus”, Fol told Logan.

Turning to look at the portal, Logan was conflicted. Would Marcus survive what was attacking him?

“72/110 HP.”

“Ever since we met, I’ve used your power, used your skills, all to help me get further ahead in my own goals”, Logan thought as images of Marcus healing him over and over flashed through his mind.

“60/110 HP.”

“All I did to make you strong was to make me stronger!” Logan thought as he remembered the times spent reading with Marcus at their inn.

“110/110 HP… 87/110 HP.”

“Just like anyone else, you were a tool I could take advantage of, just like I was”, Logan thought back to the times he and Marcus hunted criminals, and when he was taken advantage of at work.

“2:08.”

“110/110 HP… 67/110 HP.”

Logan’s legs moved on their own, kicking off his platform he darted down the staircase, the ceiling blocking any hopes of teleportation down it.

“I’m not letting someone else die because of my own selfish desires”, images of Logan’s past allies flashing through his eyes.

Steps echoed downwards and upwards as Logan ran the fastest he could down the icy steps, almost leaping down them.

“1:55.”

“You’re not the wood to my flame, you’re my friend!” an image of Marcus’s smiling face as they arrived in Gauntlet together.

“Logan, you can’t go back from this”, Fol spoke in Logan’s head.

“35/110 HP.”

“You’re not a tool, you’re…”

Logan had almost reached the bottom of the stairs, seeing Marcus deflect the gnashing teeth of a hidden frost snake with the dagger entrusted to him. Logan jumped.

“Marcus! Duck!” Logan yelled.

Marcus turned his head around in surprise but ducked nonetheless.

Logan held out his arms as he activated his rings, large flames flowing from his palms and behind him as he lept in the air. Both were sent flying towards Marcus, careening over his head and colliding with invisible foes that were sieging him.

Landing with a slide, Logan grabbed Marcus’s robe and pulled him back, waving his hand across the floor with the other. Large columns of fire flowed upwards, creating a wall of heat.

“But your portal!” Marcus shouted in protest.

“1:41”, the timer continued to count down.

“You’re more important!”

Marcus couldn’t argue further, instead, he drew out more potions to down to bring him back from dangerous damage.

Logan wouldn’t deal much damage with his new artefact, the monsters besetting him now were resistant to the ice damage it would deal. Instead, he pulled a Bowen dagger from his rib sheaths to place in the mouth of another biting frost snake.

Twisting his arm, Logan twirled the flying menace, let go of the blade in its mouth and grabbed its neck.

“Flame Grasp”, he chanted, the frost snake getting engorged instead in dazzling fires.

Darting past him was a renewed Marcus, driving his overpowered blade into a leaping goblin and throwing them to the floor.

The roar of the first ice golem was heard in the chamber, its massive stature made of solid ice painted it to be quite the daunting foe.

Warping out of his previous place, Logan appeared behind the golem, placed a hand on its back and chanted again, “Flame Grasp”, igniting the mass of ice and meltings its frame as it fell to the floor.

Two writhing masses flew through the air as they darted for the Spellthief, one colliding with the thrown dagger of Marcus, the other sinking its teeth deep into Logan’s shoulder.

Grabbing ahold of it he cursed, “Fuck off”, the invisible foe getting shocked to its core as Logan used a Lightning ring.

Throwing the smouldering corpse to the floor, Logan aimed at the other snake in the air, “Flame Shot”, blasting it against the ceiling with another explosion of red danger.

Darting backwards, kicking up the Goblin-Killer blade, Logan handed it back to Marcus as he checked the timer.

“1:08.”

Snapping his fingers alerted him to more oncoming forces. Waving his hand over the entranceway, Logan chanted, “Flame Wall”, six times. Columns of flames emanated and overlapped in front of him in an annoying crackling mess.

Several icicles came through the walls of fire, turning into water as they passed through and splashing the floor, though also dissipating parts of the fiery barriers. Goblins jumped through but were hit with Force micks before they could make any further hassle.

The ultimate foe was another white warg, leaping through the gaps of the fire it landed with a slide across the watery path, lunging again at Logan.

Disappearing and reappearing behind the foe, Logan planted a hand on its back as he chanted once more, “Flame Grasp”, incinerating the last monster that would harm his friend.

“0:36.”

“Shit”, Logan cursed as he began to run away from the floating experience numbers.

“0:25.”

“C’mon”, he pleaded as he ran up the stairs, some of his blood dripping on the steps behind him.

“0:19.”

Warping in and out with his last MP, he even grasped his necklace for more, Logan hastened further. He couldn’t see much ahead of him, and what he could was obscured, making teleports difficult or not worth it for reclaiming his running posture.

“0:08.”

Appearing in front of the portal, Logan saw it begin to close. Jumping forwards with an arm outstretched his fingers almost touched the portal.

“Logan, stop!” Fol screamed in his mind.

Logan clenched his fist as the portal closed a few inches from his knuckles. Whirling into its centrepiece, the display of Earth collapsed and faded away, leaving a blurry purple mist.

Landing on his knee, Logan punched the floor. “Why did you tell me to stop?” he asked Fol in his head.

“If you weren’t all the way through, what was left would be cut off.”

“Damnit”, Logan exclaimed as he punched the floor again, cracks forming across the ice.

A window appeared to his side, but Logan ignored it for now.

“I didn’t want to Bloodcast. What if it left me weak back on Earth? I didn’t know if I could even heal back there. It wouldn’t even have gotten me much closer”, he reconciled in his head. It was true, he’d probably be halfway through the portal with an extra cast or two, with how the stairwell was constructed. He couldn’t teleport through or midway in the portal as explained by Fol.

Footsteps echoed again as Marcus chased after his ally, seeing him still here and with no portal he placed a hand on Logan’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry”, Marcus said quietly.

“It isn’t your fault, it never was”, Logan replied as he stood up. Turning to Marcus with a forced smile he spoke, “There’s always next time.”

“Why did you stay?”

“My Dad has carers for him, you were on your own. Yours was an immediate death, alone. I couldn’t make that choice.”

“Logan, I…”

Logan turned around and began to walk down the stairs, “Let’s go.”

As the pair descended the stairs in silence, Marcus showed a mix of sadness and happiness, while Logan was just as conflicted with other emotions.

Opening the window that had interrupted him, Logan looked over it.

“The ‘portal’ reward was not received, a new reward will now replace it.”

Another window appeared, displaying that a level 16 variant of the Spellthief’s Garb had been added to his inventory.

Logan sighed, “I got a consolation prize in return for missing my portal”, he mentioned aloud.

“Is it any good?” Marcus asked.

Logan was about to answer by summoning it, but was interrupted by Fol again.

“Logan, with my upgrade I can now grant you equipment sets. If you wish, I can set your current one as Flame-Spec, and swap out your armour for this new reward.”

“Sure, do it.”

In a blink of magenta light, Logan’s fire salamander coat was changed out for his new armour, and the familiar colours of dark pink, black, dark blue, and yellow adorned him once again.

Marcus’s eyes widened as he saw the display. “That’s like Cassius’s ring!”

As Logan’s feet hit the floor of the lower area he exclaimed, “Fuck!”, placing his face into his hand. “Why’d this have to happen? Can’t they just let me go?!” he continued.

“What?”

Logan turned to Marcus, “It’s not your fault, because it’s theirs!” he continued as he pointed to the ceiling. “No wonder I heard nothing about any of this on Earth, no one has left!”

“Logan.”

“These numbers, these effects, this fucking magic. It just pisses me off. They give me items as if they are meant to make me feel better about all of this.”

“But even-”

“And you. They’re fucking around with you too. Used you as a doll on strings with scissors snipping over your head.”

“I don’t know what to say, Logan. You have a right to be angry, but there has to be some reason”, Marcus tried to reconcile.

“Would be lovely to hear it”, Logan replied as he ran his hand through his hair.

The pair’s conversation was cut off short though, with several footsteps approaching them from the doorway. Readying themselves for combat, the two stared out into the throne room, but were surprised to see familiar faces.

“You two alright? I found some monsters but they ran past me”, Cassius asked.

“Same here”, Koma added with Patavava at her back.

“Yeah, we just had an ambush when we opened up this chamber”, Logan replied, composing himself.

“Nice find, seems there’s another on the other side too”, Koma informed as she pointed over her shoulder.

Cassius eyed up Logan’s new attire and the dark-blue sheath at his hip. “Looks like you already went through this room, let’s check the other”, the leader spoke as he turned back.

The rest followed him, Marcus giving Logan a look as if to say “You alright?” with Logan giving a slight nod to his friend.

Passing through the throne room, Logan saw another wall had opened up on the other side. The doorway had a hidey-hole on the left and right, possibly hiding some sort of rear-guard that went after Marcus. Further in, the doorway ended in a large treasure room.

Piles of assorted coins, jewels and gems, alongside weapons, armour, and trinkets galore. This room held more than all the previous hoards did, combined.

The party halted behind Koma who was looking over the floor, walls, and ceiling. Her senses were keener when it came to hidden walls but also traps of various kinds. A few moments passed before she gave a thumbs up for the party to move inwards.

Patavava waved his hands over the coins, using a Mick that Logan hadn’t seen thus far.

“There’s 46 gold, 94 silver, and 6 copper here. If we converted it into higher denominations”, the gashriek calculated.

“Plenty more if we sell off this stuff”, Koma mentioned as she picked up an icy bow, “dibs on this though.”

“We can sort through it on the trip back to Gauntlet. Looks like Logan found his own things too”, Cassius put forth, turning to Logan he continued, “I take it that you destroyed the throne?”

“Yeah, fit of anger and all that”, Logan lied.

Cassius sighed as he walked back to the throne room, staring at the remains of the seat. “I would argue that choice heavily, though nothing has come out of it aside from two side rooms opening.”

“How come?” Marcus asked.

“There are many mechanisms at play here, the throne possibly one of them. Who was to say that destroying the throne would bring about an early revival, or collapse the dungeon?”

“Sorry, wasn’t thinking about that”, Logan apologised, though he was sure nothing bad would come of it if it was a system quest task.

Cassius wiped his face with his hand, “It all worked out, so I’ll just warn you for later dungeons. I’ve had two collapse on me because a teammate destroyed a prominent part of it like that.”

“A collapse would have the same effect as destroying it from the outside, right?” Koma asked from far away.

“Yeah, the dungeon leaks out to the surface and isn’t contained any longer.”

“I filled Logan in on a bit of that”, Koma continued as she picked up two bags and brought them out. “Logan, catch”, she said as he flipped a bracelet to the Spellthief.

Catching the bracelet, Logan looked over the window that appeared with it.

“Ah, thanks”, Logan said as he slipped off his old one to replace it with the higher variant.

“Works best for hunters”, Koma mentioned as she returned to the room.

As Logan put on the new cache arm, he could feel a slight wind around his head, Marcus could see that Logan’s headbands and earrings disappeared before his eyes.

“Didn’t hide a whole lot”, the Devout said as he pointed at Logan’s head.

“I don’t have any anti-identification skills yet, so this will be quite handy.”

“That’s a common item for adventurers over rank 12 who have to deal with traitors”, Cassius mentioned as he revealed a similar trinket on his wrist.

“As third in command, you do have to weed out those”, Patavava said off handily as he also brought out bags.

Cassius sighed, “You might not get much more than that, with the spellforce I can sense from the new dagger at your hip”, Cassius said as he moved to help move the items.

“Can they tell it’s an artefact without holding it?” Logan thought to himself as he looked down at the frozen lord’s edge.

Moving to aid in the moving of the equipment, Logan counted several items amongst them that could be of use. Though thinking on it, he wasn’t going to get as many if he kept the dagger for himself. Since he was in a “guild” party, he would get more of an even split, but much of it was assigned to such a powerful weapon.

With the treasure room clear, the party split up once again to explore the rest of the dungeon. Cassius went with Koma, while Patavava joined Marcus and Logan. No more surprises were awaiting either part, as the final wave seemingly held the last of the monsters within this cave.

As they searched, Marcus could feel the temperature in the icy underground rise slightly, though Logan didn’t even notice it was cold with the Ice King’s traits active on him. The season was officially into the “falling” as they left the “heat” season. So temperatures were still relatively high against the coldness of the caverns.

With the Ice King’s rise being halted, the rise in temperature wasn’t surprising, at least for Logan who knew his actions had stopped his revival. But, it would bring questions from the MT and seers who had foreseen the Ice King’s return. His team was the last seen entering, so they would be the first suspects.

He’d have to deal with it later. Previous teams never mentioned the devour rooms, so it is possible previous teams never touched the throne either, sharing the same concerns as Cassius. Facing a threat every ten years was a preferable outcome to releasing a dungeon into the wild.

It reached the end of the day before Logan’s mapmaking showed his team had cleared their side of the dungeon. Completely quiet aside from their footsteps and discussions. Cassius’s side has a similar affair aside from two more traps that Koma dealt with.

After searching, the group spent time ferrying the loot to the entrance chamber. Several devour rooms, component sacks, and the treasure room at the end. With a swift punch into the icicle wall that blocked their exit, Cassius allowed warm air to seep into the chamber. This time the icicles did not reform, showing that the dangers inside had been subjugated.

The team, outside of Logan, all showed signs of slight shock over their faces, unsure as to the change in temperature.

“Isn’t it still meant to be cold out?” Koma asked.

“Yeah, we have two months or so till the Ice King revives. It should feel like the chill”, Patavava replied.

“This is concerning, either the Ice King is not coming back this year, or, his powers have moved elsewhere”, Cassius theorised.

“The G-Hall will probably alert the MT to this. With the dungeon clear they can move inside without worry and investigate”, Koma said.

Turning to face Logan, Patavava continued, “It might have been the newcomer’s destruction of the throne.”

“Possibly. They will see its rubble regardless. If it comes to it, Logan, you may be getting a lot of praise, or a lot of hate”, Cassius said as he looked at the Spellthief.

“I guess I have to take responsibility for my actions”, Logan said off handily.

“It’ll be great if the Ice King didn’t revive, would save the lives of many who would be sent against them”, Marcus added.

“Below, if that quest is already complete before it starts, we may get paid for it anyway”, Cassius thought aloud.

Koma chuckled, “A nice thought.”

Moving around the base of the mountain, the party found the carts and carriages used by previous teams. Finding their previous mounts who had food set aside for them, the team hitched their mounts to the vehicles and started to load them up with goodies. Logan continued to use Clean to make sure no foul smells were present.

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