While Varei’s state of mind gradually recovered, Tepo’s thoughts moved quickly.

“We need to take another look at the jewelry.”

“YES! This time, let’s take them all away.”

Immediately the spirit’s eyes brightened again, ideas forming in his mind. But Tepo only shook his head:

“Maybe later. But first we need to experiment.”

“Oh…”

Tepo chuckled as he led the way. He was prepared to choose random mirrors until they were back in the portal room, but the duo was lucky and soon ended up in another room with jewelry.

Tepo had to hold Varei back as he approached a small white make-up table, explaining his thoughts:

“We now know that all reflective surfaces can transport us to other rooms. But we haven’t figured out the exact rules yet.”

“Judging from your voice, you have a guess?”

“Yes. Many rooms show certain patterns. I assume the transportation depends on what the mirrors show. For example, if a mostly green painting is reflected in them, the next room will have a lot of green as well.”

“Ahh! I get it! And white returns us to the portal room, right?!”

Tepo was somewhat surprised, praising Varei:

“Good job. Yes, this should be true.

Now we only need to figure out how to find the Lord of the Eternal Shore and complete the quest.”

“Great! But don’t forget to take the jewelry away!”

Tepo chuckled as he studied the small table before him. He took out some clothes from his storage bag, carefully covering up some bright earrings.

“Let’s see…”

The young man bundled the cloth and used it to throw one earring below the desk, where it couldn’t reflect the white ceiling.

Understanding Tepo’s actions, Varei also felt eager, wrapping up the other jewelry as well and letting it quickly vanish in his spatial ring.

Subsequently the duo touched the only earring left upon Tepo’s signal and vanished immediately.

Varei and Tepo reappeared, looking around in confusion. They were still brought back to the portal room.

Tepo frowned, contemplating where they might have made a mistake.

But a single experiment never delivered many answers. Therefore, the two warriors tried a few more times, causing Varei considerable heartache.

However, their efforts weren’t in vain, and they soon figured out the solution.

“That’s it, Tepo! The location changed!”

“Yes. Obviously, the earring needs to be expose to something new for a while to influence the teleportation!”

The duo felt elated, as if the dungeon would be cleared any second now. But suddenly Tepo’s mood fell as he thought about another problem.

“But… doesn’t this mean that the possibilities are nearly endless now?”

Instantly Varei’s smile froze. Tepo was right! Now they had to try and endless combination of reflections, paintings, carpets, walls, statutes…

Wouldn’t they die of old age before they found the target of their quest?

Tepo and Varei looked at each other, seeing the bitterness in each other’s eyes.

There wasn’t any need to communicate as they came up with the same conclusion. They had to tell everyone about their findings!

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Returning to the portal room in frustration, the duo cursed the church for making them work for free and trapping them in the dungeon.

Their feelings were shared among all the voluntary helpers. Thus, even after Tepo and Varei revealed their discovery, there wasn’t much enthusiasm in the room.

Only after a while did the warriors convince themselves to continue searching for clues, everyone hoping to leave this place as soon as possible.

But it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Even until now the dungeon hadn’t been fully mapped out, showing its vastness.

As everyone scattered, Tepo and Varei concentrated on experimenting with everything blue. Since their target was called Lord of the Eternal Shore, this was their best bet.

But for hours they weren’t able to make any significant discoveries, eventually spinning in circles.

“We can’t go on like this!”, spoke Tepo with an annoyed voice.

“Right. We haven’t found anything.”

“Let’s think… did we miss anything?”

“I don’t think so… We are just lacking the right combination.”

“Ok. But there needs to be a clue. Which combination is the correct one?”

The duo fell silent, racking their brains to find the last piece of the puzzle.

Suddenly Tepo’s eyes lit up. He remembered a small scene which happened in the portal room.

On of the students tried to use her own earring for transportation, but it didn’t work. However, the young woman didn’t give up and found out that after removing the accessory form her body, it indeed gained the ability to teleport people.

A few minutes later the woman returned. She was quite flustered, fearing to lose her precious spell-infused artifact.

But luckily Tepo had witnessed the scene, picking up the piece of jewelry and handing it back to its owner.

However, now that he thought about it, didn’t this short interlude reveal a lot?

Ideas were emerging in Tepo’s head one after another.

Suddenly he let out a deep breath, turning towards Varei.

The spirit noticed a movement besides him, looking at Tepo curiously:

“What is it? Did you think of something?”

“Yes. I might’ve found the solution.”

“So confident?”

“After everything else failed, there aren’t many possibilities left. If my guess is wrong, we might as well unite everyone and demand the church let us go…”

“Then I hope you are correct…”

Tepo showed a confident smile. Realization gradually dawned on Varei as he watched his partner take out a bottle of water and placing it on the ground.

Next, the young man grabbed a bright ring covered in cloth, revealing a small part of it and letting it reflect the bottle for a while.

Not able to suppress the anticipation in his heart Tepo looked at Varei:

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

Full of hope the two warriors grinned at each other before touching the ring.

The next moment Tepo and Varei appeared in another room. After a short gaze their expressions immediately turned excited.

They felt a soft breeze caressing their skins, long grass beneath their feet. Around them stood a few scattered trees and various precious flowers.

The air smelled sweet and refreshing, carrying the smell of the large ocean surrounding their small island.

Within the vast body of water were multiple other islands, but Tepo and Varei weren’t interested in them as their eyes fell on the enormous shoreline circling the water.

The fine yellow sand lined the circular room’s walls, with a circumference of kilometers, seemingly endless in this unrealistically large room.

And on the shore, right in Tepo’s and Varei’s line of sight stood a massively tall statue. It depicted a man with long unkempt hair and tight armor. The man looked like he just went through a harsh battle, a beast lying to his feet.

The trident in the man’s hand aimed for the beast’s head. Multiple other tridents formed a circle around the beast’s body, connected with mysterious lines, obviously suppressing it.

Tepo and Varei felt relief and excitement. Immediately Tepo brought his hand to his head. Varei hesitated for a moment, the proud dragon spirit not ready to salute a puny human.

But noticing Tepo’s movement, the spirit knew he could relax, as the dungeon should be solved any second now.

However, the two warriors’ faces fell. Tepo let out a deep sigh, his shoulders dropping. Despite his salute they were still in the dungeon…

Varei asked Tepo with confusion in his voice:

“What’s going on? This has to be the target, right? Why are we still here?!”

“This is definitely the target! Just look at this environment! I can only guess that we need to reach the statue…”

“Makes sense…

So, do we have to build a boat?”

“No need. I have a ship in my stor…”

Right at this moment a commotion interrupted Tepo.

The water churned. Waves formed, threatening to drown the island.

An enormous head suddenly shot out of the ocean. Its maw was wide open, with teeth like daggers, growing in two rows, able to rip any prey apart. Sharp narrow eyes stood out on its grey scaled skin, which showed scars from thousands of battles.

A deafening roar echoed in the entire room, shaking Tepo and Varei to their cores.

The duo went through all kinds of emotions in milliseconds as their survival instincts kicked in.

Varei instantly shook of the pressure, flapping his wings. He grabbed Tepo, about to carry him over the wave as tall as a house.

Tepo also reacted hastily. He used his [Time Dilation: Target], hoping to slow down the wave. Put this proved to be a mistake. The enormous power of this mass of water was difficult to stop, leaving Tepo dizzy despite only slowing down slightly.

Still, this move bought a valuable second which Varei used to heave them into the air.

Glinting eyes followed their movements. The beast sank back into water. But the attack wasn’t over yet.

Suddenly an enormous fountain shot out of the ocean. It traveled at least twice as fast as the earlier wave, leaving the dizzy Tepo no time to react.

“NO!”

Varei let out a desprate scream as the duo was engulfed in water.