The cavern shook. Water splashed everywhere, creating even more slimes. Robert drew his sword and hacked at the puddles of malignant goo before they could get their bearings. Freddy vanished. Amanda grew palm trees around her, budding coconuts and all, with interlaced leaves to keep the slimes away from her. Rocks broke and fell upward into the river whenever the tremors reached a peak.

Then the ground split up and an ominous orange glow died the whole river. Steam and heat wafted from that chthonic hole and soon, bubbling magma erupted forth. Something pushed the magma away from them and toward the writhing mass of slimes. They sizzled and popped, one by one, dozens by dozens. The whole cavern became a sauna, despite its massive size. Trees caught on fire, mushrooms cooked and burned in a second. The smell was awful. Monsters fled the magma, swimming up or down the river as fast as they could. A minute passed since Noah activated his ability and then the magma vanished like a mirage.

What in the bleeding hell was that? Robert asked himself. The answer was obvious. It was a natural disaster, a volcanic eruption. A creation spell. But the sheer volume of magma created was mind-boggling. Amanda would need her entire essence pool ten times over to create that much rock. He believed they were too tired to properly react to a calamity of this magnitude.

Robert took folding chairs from his storage ring and placed them down, one for Amanda, another for himself. They waited, gathered essence, and rested. While they did that, Robert used lavi flows to recover stamina faster. The wind picked up speed and blew the steam away. Fifteen minutes later, the visibility was back to normal but the entire area was still hot. Noah just stood there, probably admiring the results of his work. And deep inside, Robert was also awestruck.

They heard the sound of crystals clacking. Robert opened an eye and saw Noah gathering the cores. It was odd how the magma left the transparent spheres intact but he wouldn't question it.

"So, what happened to your hair?" Amanda asked.

"A slime ate it. During the first fight, a slime jumped on me. I took it to the liminal void and killed it but not before it ate my damn hair."

"It will grow back," Amanda said, barely suppressing a snicker.

"Sure. Maybe I'll keep the crew cut."

"Mmm. There are hair growth potions. I think I have one here, let me see."

"I appreciate the sentiment but don't bother. I might lose it all again in the next fight."

"My star grew by twenty percent," she shared with a grin.

"Awesome. How long until you reach a hundred percent?"

"More than thirty."

"Okay. Are you ascending right away? Did you give up on the plan to hold back and get a stronger evolution?"

"No, and no. I'll hold back for as long as I can."

"Good luck with that," Robert said while tapping his solar plexus. "It's not easy."

"I see."

Noah returned, finally. "So, did you enjoy the show?"

"No," Amanda said with a hostile tone. "What the hell? Didn't you have anything more subtle?"

"No. I only have disasters in my deck. You can pick any of them." Noah said, then changed gears. "I heard about your growth, Amanda. Congratulations."

"Thank you," She said out of practiced courtesy.

"Once you are rested and topped on essence, we can go to the liminal void to set up the tent. I think that flat surface would be fine, don't you agree?"

He pointed at the spot where he caused a mini volcanic eruption. The ground was perfectly flat. The stone wasn't smooth but if Robert's weary eyes weren't lying to him, it was flatter than before. The tent they got had a padded floor that would fix those irregularities in no time.

Robert took his timepiece and checked the time since the last visit. He pressed some buttons and the artifice gadget calculated the stay if he entered that moment. "We have close to three days if we go now."

"Good, good. It will reach a week before we are ready, though. Sit down and gather, you two. Freddy, are you at full essence?" Noah said.

Freddy appeared next to Robert. They all sat down and gathered. Amanda filled her essence first, then Freddy, and last, Robert. His lack of common elements slowed down his essence recovery. Unless he had some special setup, like when Mickey took him to the deep void.

When he reached full essence, they tied a silk rope around all of their waists, tethering everyone to Robert. He then used his talent. Noah set the tent down, a block of fabric and metal tubes with a volume of twenty-five gallons. He pressed a button and the metal tubes began to move and unfold the fabric, creating a tent in less than three minutes.

"Everyone inside. We will attack the metal balls to our tethers, and then untie them from Robert. Remember, nobody should jump or run,' Noah warned.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

They switched from the direct tether to the metal ball tied to their waists. Then they set the furniture and took their assigned bedrooms. Robert and Freddy had the middle one, while Noah and Amanda got the corner rooms. They freshened up and gathered in the living room for a small meal. It didn't need to be big because they wouldn't get hungry in the liminal void but it was a ritual they still needed. Only Robert was used to go for months without food in the liminal void. They decided it was their dinner and everyone went to sleep, even though the clocks said it was two in the afternoon.

*

*

Robert woke up feeling something was wrong. He could tell he was in the liminal void but... he was hearing people around him. For years, he always slept alone, and now... Oh. As the cobwebs of sleep were swept off of his mind, he remembered he brought Noah and Amanda (and Freddy) with him. He wasn't alone. Checking his clockwork... clock, he saw they still had seven days and twenty hours in the current visit. He sat up, noticed Freddy, and grinned. Robert laughed and ruffled the Taulusian's fur.

Freddy woke up and stretched. He looked at Robert and woofed. "Good morning."

"Good Morning," Robert woofed back.

"Did you teach the masked man our language?" Freddy asked.

"No," Robert replied. "Did he learn it?"

"Yes, though you speak better than him."

"Does it bother you?"

"No. I thought it was nice. We need to teach Amanda too."

All of them now had Taulusian names, a series of barks, growls, and yips.

"It will take some time."

"All we have is time."

"True. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat something."

"Then, let's go. Just remember to move slowly so both of your feet... at least one of your paws remains on the ground."

"Yes!"

They went outside and Robert got a light breakfast out of his ring. Then he remembered he had a third ring he needed to check. The cultist's storage ring was a gold band with Celtic knotwork and an oval onyx gem in the center.

While they ate, Noah came out of his room, a metal ball trailing after him.

"Good morning, I guess. I slept very well. How are you?"

"We're good. Want a cracker with a thimble of milk?" Robert offered.

"Sure."

Noah sat at the table with them and ate slowly. He just shoved the food through the mask as if it was intangible.

"Professor, I need your help. I recently found a lost storage ring whose owner I'm sure won't come back looking for it, despite him definitely being alive."

"Yes, I know of him. Heard the guy could teleport, but it was impossible to catch. And he dropped his ring, fancy that!"

"I can't open it."

"It might have some security feature. May I see it?"

"Sure," Robert said.

He took the void cultist's ring and passed it to Noah. The teacher raised the ring in front of the blue eye painted on his mask and stood still for a few seconds.

"There you go. You can put a drop of your blood on the gemstone to lock it to your Ether signature. I didn't take anything out but I checked the items inside. There's nothing dangerous in there but please check back with me before you start consuming weird substances. The guy had quite the selection of alchemical stuff in there."

Robert took the ring. It was a three-quarters cubic meter model and it was half empty. He slid the ring into his finger and then moved everything that was in his first, one-eighth cubic meter one, leaving it empty.

"Can Freddy use rings?" Robert asked Noah.

"Sure but it will take some creativity. What about putting the ring on his tail? What do you say, Freddy?"

Freddy glanced at his tail. "So long it stays away from my butt, I have no problem with that."

Noah laughed. "Sure. We can place it halfway and then lock it in place with another runic ring designed to keep your rings from slipping out of your fingers. It will be good to have a storage item, you will find it helps with moving objects."

They fitted the spare ring on Freddy's tail, and then Noah used the locking ring to keep it from sliding out.

While they waited for Amanda, Robert checked what was in the ring. Potions, some vials of pills, spare clothes, a pile of books, creepy cultist daggers, Some weird reagents, pickled monster parts in jars, and an ornate rod with gemstones. It was too short to be a wizard's staff though.

"Nothing you need right now," Noah said. "Just leave it alone for now. Once we get back to the Academy, you should trade it for a ring with a similar volume. It's very unique and someone might recognize it. Some weirdos like to collect these rings, you might even manage to trade up."

"Sure."

Robert took a book from the ring to read. Eventually, Amanda got up and joined them.

"Good!" Noah said after Amanda finished her breakfast. "Now, we are going to train all day. Since you don't get fatigued in here, we are all going to train our muscle memories!"

That meant their weapon training was ten times as gruesome. Robert was sure his muscles would be on fire if the same exercise happened in the real world. But they got a good fourteen hours of weapon training and sparring with blunt wooden weapons.

They slept and repeated the workout, with some variations on the type of weapon and exercises. This went on until they finally went to bed with nine hours to return.

*

*

"Damn, everything is still unbearably hot," Amanda complained.

"Not a second has passed since we entered. It was to be expected," Robert explained.

Amanda glared at him for a moment, then smiled. "Yes!"

"Let's get moving, then," Noah said. "I want to find a cavern with a suitable lake. it's time to see if the week of weapon training improved your skills or not."

They walked down the tunnel, watching it branch out and discussing where to go. Noah had an idea where the nearest cavern was so they followed him. After a couple of hours of walking, they finally found the cavern.

It was fantastical. Just like the tunnels, what was the floor, the walls, and the roof was entirely subjective. The cavern was irregular enough. But what amazed Robert was the massive lake suspended in the middle of the cavern, around forty feet away from the walls. Tendrils of water shot from the mini-ocean in a constant torrent, entering the many tunnels that connected to this massive cave. Waves flowed and crashed on the lake's surface. Calling it a lake was the same as calling a professional wrestler a baby. it was a mini-ocean, the water so thick he couldn't see the other side through it. The center of the ocean emitted a strong light, which was filtered through the water and cast a wavy pattern on the rocks and trees. It felt like they were underwater and the surface of the ocean above was the air.

"It's so dazzling," Amanda gushed.

"And dangerous too. The aquatic monsters you saw in the rivers were the young of the creatures living in the lake. We shall not stir the waters under any circumstances. Keep an eye on it. If you see something swimming in there, hide. Some monsters have more than forty feet of reach and they are not shy. Jumping out of the lake to grab a meaty snack and then jumping back up is no problem for them. So even if they have no tentacles, don't be stupid. Hide and stay still."

"If it's so dangerous, why bring us here?" Amanda asked.

"We need to gather some Ether-attuned herbs in the cavern," Noah replied.