Duane had been searching near the edge of the pyramid, and everyone hurried over to his location after he called them, huddling around him in a circle. Duane still barely spoke, so Levi was partially expecting him to continue to remain silent and just point at what he found, but contrary to his expectations Duane didn’t hesitate to speak up.

“Right here,” Duane said, gesturing to the inscriptions on the ground below him. “I think this might be what we are looking for.”

The group inspected the ground, poring over the details, searching for some clue.

“I give up,” Alex said. “What are we supposed to be looking for?”

Duane pointed to a particular section. “Here. See this person? I wasn’t sure at first, but take a look at what they are holding.”

“You mean the bag?” Alex asked. “Is that relevant?”

Duane nodded. “I believe so.” He then launched into a full-blown explanation of his thoughts.

“At first, I also thought it was just a bag someone was holding, but after looking at the surroundings, I noticed that all the figures in this area for from one of the factions. Most other areas have an intermingling, or people who could be from any of the three factions, but this area only had the one. Then I saw the scene over here.”

The group shuffled after Duane as he led them a short distance away to show them another scene.

“It’s the commander,” Levi said, inspecting the scene closely. “He seems to be making a final stand of some sort. And he doesn’t have the orb.”

“That’s what clued me in,” Duane said. “He doesn’t have the orb. Which got me thinking, what if the orb were something precious, and knowing he was about to fight in a battle that he could lose, the commander sent the orb away to be hidden somewhere?”

“So that’s why you think that bag is the orb?” Sam asked, skepticism heavy in her voice. “That seems like a long shot to me.”

“No, what he says makes sense,” Mia said. “But I agree that it is kind of a long shot.”

“You have other reasons though, right?” Levi asked. He didn’t know Duane all that well, but he didn’t think Duane was the kind of person to spout things off randomly. There was likely another piece to the puzzle.

Sure enough, Duane led them along a path, running from the scene of the final stand by the commander to the person fleeing with the bag. It clearly showed a progression, each scene relating to the others and forming a picture that heavily backed up what Duane said. Of course, it was impossible to know for sure, but based on how the commander didn’t have the orb and then following the trail of breadcrumbs it appeared that the person fleeing with the bag was certainly protecting something, and without any better ideas, the orb seemed to be it.

“Now feel the bag,” Duane said, after they came back to the original scene.

Levi was the first to kneel down and run his hands over the carving. Despite it being made out of the same stone as the rest of the pyramid, the bag almost felt like it was truly a piece of cloth. And that it contained a sphere inside.

“He’s right,” Levi said. “You guys should feel it too. I know it’s just a sculpture, but something tells me that is supposed to be the orb that the leader was holding on the roof.”

After everyone else did the same as Levi they were also convinced. The orb was in the bag.

“Okay, so assuming this is one of the orbs we need, what next?” Sam said. “It’s clear this is just another depiction of the orb and not the real thing. Assuming this orb is even what we are looking for how does this help us find it? I don’t mean to be a downer, but why can’t this just be another scene of the orb? It certainly doesn’t look like directions to me.”

“Sam brings up a good point,” Alex said, “but why don’t we call it a night and sleep on it. It’s getting too dark now to really inspect the sculptures anymore.”

“I agree,” Levi said. “There might be something we are missing. Of course, it’s possible this doesn’t have anything to do with clearing the dungeon, but I have a feeling it does.”

“Fine,” Sam said. “Let’s regroup tomorrow.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Sam and Mia then went off to the side of the pyramid that was designated as the women’s bathroom while the other three set up camp. Dinner was a quiet affair, everyone lost in their own thoughts, no one wanted to break the illusion of progress in the dungeon. Levi was trying to hold his excitement down at the possibility that they were finally making headway. It was possible they were going on a wild goose chase, but at this point anything was better than what they had been doing before, which was basically wandering around a forest and hoping they stumbled on something. At least now they had a lead to follow.

The next morning everyone gathered back in the same area they had been in the previous night.

“So what next?” Sam asked. “If we assume that this is the orb, what does that mean?”

Everyone turned to Duane, since he had been the one to find the clue.

He frowned, before opening his mouth. “If we are supposed to be looking for the orbs, then this should be a clue for that.”

“Right.” Alex said. “Let’s spread out and try and see if there’s anything else here. We can’t let Duane do all the work.”

Everyone nodded, Alex’s words making sense, before spreading out and searching for any follow up clues. It wasn’t long before Levi found something.

“Guys, over here.”

Levi pointed to something on the ground. “I think this might be what we are looking for.”

The group flocked over, looking in the direction of Levi’s finger. He had found a picture of a tree, although it could almost be considered two trees, as it was two trunks squeezed together. There was a shadowy figure sneaking away from the tree, and while not much could be seen about it, there was one things that stood out, and that was an empty bag hanging at its waist.

“See the bag?” Levi said. “I think that this must be the same person as before, except that now their bag is empty and they hid the orb in the tree. It also makes sense if you try and meta-game it. I think that the dungeons are made to be solved, and if you are hiding something in a forest, you have to do it in an easily recognizable place if you want it to be found. It’s not like we are geocaching or something.”

“But what makes you so sure the dungeons are made to be solved?” Sam asked, frowning. “I mean, I agree that your logic is sound, but I’m not convinced this asshole System has our well-being in mind.”

“Does it matter?” Mia said, chiming in. “You said it yourself, the logic is sound. And besides, do you have anyone else to ask about dungeons? Levi is our resident expert, and if he says dungeons are solvable, I believe him. Or else what are we even doing here if the dungeon is impossible to complete?”

“I guess…” Sam said, clearly not sounding convinced. While she thought what Levi said made sense, it also sounded like a recipe for more traipsing around the woodlands, something she wasn’t looking forward to.

“Great!” Alex said. “It sounds like we are all in agreement then. Without any better ideas we search for this tree. And I think even if we had other ideas this one seems right.”

“Um, we still need to find the tree,” Levi said. “We spent weeks searching before, and we didn’t see it. I think if we are going to find it we need a better plan than searching blindly.”

“It’s probably in that direction,” Duane said, gesturing out into the forest. “All the scenes seem to make a line going that way.”

“You can just find it, right Sam?” Mia said sounding hopeful. “You’re the lookout, so it should be easy, right? I don’t want to wander around the forest again.”

“I should be able to, but it might take a little while.” Sam thought she should be able to see that far with her skill, but finding one tree in a forest was no small task.

Alex clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention. “Okay, the plan is for Sam to search for the tree, while everyone else should continue searching the pyramid. Even if we are on the right track this is only one orb, so we still need two more.”

Everyone set about their tasks, although Levi thought he wasn’t the only one stealing glances at Sam, waiting for her to find something. It was one thing to think you were on the right track, but after weeks of being in the dungeon Levi wouldn’t be fully certain until they had an orb in their hands. Assuming they were even looking for orbs. There was still that tiny voice in the back of his head saying the dungeon was screwing with them and there was just some secret door somewhere they had yet to find. But he did his best to shut that voice out. At least they had a plan, even if it didn’t end up working out.

Hours later and they were all still searching. They broke for lunch, but the conversation felt forced, and they quickly finished eating, letting Sam get back to her search. It was obvious that except for Duane the others were just waiting on Sam to find something. They were still better off than when they were wandering blindly around in the woods, but waiting was waiting. Unlike normal forests, the trees here were uniform, and because this was a deciduous forest they had been unable to find a tree taller than the rest to climb to scout out the surroundings, partly why it had taken them so long to find the pyramid. They had tried, but the branches at the top of the trees were too small to support their weight.

Levi never thought he would think it, but he was beginning to hope the dungeon would suddenly throw a horde of monsters at them. He was pretty useless in the current situation. Or at least as useless as his other party members. It was frustrating. He knew he had valuable skills, but right now it didn’t feel like it, and he didn’t like the feeling of helplessness he had.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Sam called them over, alleviating Levi’s circular thoughts.

“Did you find it?” Levi asked. He had been waiting impatiently the whole time, and almost as soon as Sam had opened her mouth he had ran over.

“Maybe,” she said. “I don’t actually see it, but there is a tightly knit group of trees that I can’t see through. I wouldn’t think anything of it, except that it seems to be a perfect circle. Maybe that could happen naturally, but it seems suspicious.”

“That’s it,” Levi said. “I’m sure of it.”

“How sure is sure?” Sam asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“100% positive.” He wasn’t really, but at worst they would make the trip out there for nothing. It couldn’t hurt to at least check it out.