Finding a cave entrance large enough to admit a bat was not an easy task.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to find the specific entrance the bat used; unfortunately, they needed to find one that was big enough for Rissa.

With no better clues than the tracking spell, they ended up standing on the side of a hill directly above the bat. Neither of them was a caver, so the best thing they could think of to do was head downhill and hope they found something.

What they found wasn’t what they expected. As they headed downhill, Serenity found that his attention kept getting pulled by something over to his right. He wasn’t certain what it was until he stopped for a while.

There was a difference in the amount of raw mana he was feeling; it was just a little stronger to his right. “Rissa? I think the nexus is this way.”

“Worth a try. I hope it’s also what we’re looking for. I don’t want to have to do this again.”

Serenity smiled. “I’m sure we’ll have to. We can’t get everything done by sitting in a comfortable office all day, working on a computer.”

“Unfeeling brute.” Rissa’s voice behind him told Serenity that she was enjoying the banter.

He led the way to the higher mana density. It wasn’t very long before they reached a crevice in the side of a hill. It was approximately triangular, about three feet tall and two feet wide at the base. It would be a tight squeeze, but either of them could make it through that if it was wide enough. It’d be very tough because of his wings, but it was still possible. Barely.

If it got tighter, they might not be able to get out easily.

“I’ll go first. I’m bigger, especially with my wings, so if I can fit, you can too. If I have trouble, I can shift and get out.” Serenity was already kneeling at the entrance.

Rissa knelt beside him. “Do you think the nexus is in there? And is that the right direction for the bat?”

Serenity felt his way along the trace to the bat. “It’s the wrong way for the bat, but in a cave system, who knows. As for the nexus, I’m not sure. They don’t usually emit mana outside the ley line unless there’s something else there. There are some dungeon types that emit mana - Aki’s dungeon, for example, if it were confined it’d leak mana. Instanced dungeons won’t, though. It all depends.”

“So many options.” Rissa shook her head. “You go ahead. I’ll give you a little space before I follow. If I need to leave more room let me know. Oh, before you go - open the link?”

“Sure. You want to see what I’m seeing?” Serenity opened the link between the two of them. It made sense.

:That too. Mostly it gives us a way to talk that no one else can hear. You are hearing me, aren’t you?: Rissa’s voice was clear in Serenity’s head.

He’d forgotten about that. It was good that Rissa hadn’t. He’d have to remember to talk to her silently. :Yeah.:

The passageway was filled with mud. Serenity wasn’t certain if he should be grateful - it meant he wasn’t scraping his sensitive wings on rock - or annoyed at how difficult it was going to be to get clean later. He wasn’t confident all of the mud would ever come out of his clothing.

It was also a bit chilly, but Serenity only knew that from Rissa’s complaints. He had a grin plastered on his face as he listened to her silent swearing; he hadn’t realized she had such an extensive vocabulary.

Most of it wasn’t even technically curse words!

The smile disappeared as he got a little deeper and came out of the small muddy tunnel into a much larger, mana-filled room. The mana didn’t bother him; instead, the message did.

[You have entered the Fourth Cave of Enhancement]

[Your Core Tier exceeds the maximum enhancement level for this cave. Only Minor enhancements are available]

[Passive Core enhancement not available]

[Visit the Spire to select your Enhancements]

Serenity stared grimly at the messages. They were undoubtedly there because he had a core; he wondered if they would try to form a core in someone who didn’t have one. :Rissa? I think this is what we were looking for. Did you get a message?:

Instead of answering, Rissa shared the messages she saw with Serenity.

[You have entered the Fourth Cave of Enhancement]

[Core: Present, Active]

[Passive Core enhancement Active]

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

[Enhancements selected based on current growth: Physical Protection (Dragon Scales), Sensory Enhancement (Danger Sense), Agility]

[Visit the Spire to change your Enhancement selection]

:Those are probably not the choices I’d make, but they’re reasonable. Is this something that makes monsters stronger?: Rissa sounded almost as concerned as Serenity felt.

:If that’s all it does, we can deal with it. I’m worried it can turn animals into monsters, and quickly. If that’s why the bats were able to reject being tracked … that would be a big change. It could be why the bats aren’t coming out as much, if they don’t need to eat as often. If that’s all it does, it’s fine, but I doubt it is.:

:That has problems, too. The bats here eat insects over a huge area every night. If they’re not eating the insects, the insects are eating our food.: Rissa sounded grim. :Insecticides work, but only so well. The bats help a lot.:

They looked around; Serenity felt Rissa borrow his Eyeless Sight. :Any idea where the Spire is?:

:No, but I doubt it’s hard to find. Unless whoever set this up doesn’t want anything to be able to change the defaults?: Serenity looked around for clues. If he’d set up something like this, he’d want there to be a clue that was only obvious to someone smart enough to reasonably choose their “enhancements”.

:You think this is something someone set up, then? Not something that just appeared because of the magic?:

Serenity shook his head. He knew Rissa could see it, but he wasn’t sure if she’d understand it immediately; figuring out motion with Eyeless Sight took some practice, if he still remembered correctly. :It says it’s the Fourth Cave of Enhancement. That’s not how I expect location-based dungeons to be named. It’s possible it looks different to us because it’s counting us both as monsters instead of Pathed, but-:

:WHAT? I am not a monster, and neither are you!: Rissa sounded offended.

Serenity tried to calm her down. :It’s just because we have cores, I’m sure. Yours is my fault, you wouldn’t have it if I hadn’t created it. It’s not a value judgement.:

:You’ve mentioned them before. When we’re out of here, I want a better explanation. This has to do with that whole chimera nonsense that almost got you killed in the Tutorial, doesn’t it?: Rissa still sounded upset.

He’d explained that, hadn’t he? Serenity thought back. Yeah, he had. At least once while they were in the Tutorial and then again in a little less detail after he made it back home to Rissa. Maybe he’d downplayed it too much, or maybe he’d just hit her with too much at once. :Yeah. It wasn’t nonsense, but you’re right. It can wait until we’re out of here. Just - the word that gets used is monster, but - your father has a core, so he’s technically a monster too. I don’t know if he’ll get to go to the Tutorial or not, but your brother did, so there’s hope. And yet as a person, your dad’s one of the least monstrous people I’ve met.:

:As long as it’s just semantics.: Rissa sounded grudgingly willing to leave it for later.

Serenity knew it wasn’t just semantics, but they certainly didn’t help - and a muddy cave that was potentially filled with actual monsters wasn’t the place to talk about it.

----------------------------------------

The cave was filled with stalactites and cave ribbons. There were some small lumps in the mud under some of the stalactites that were probably mud-covered stalagmites, but there was simply too much mud to really see the cave floor.

The odd thing was that there was some rubble on some of the mud. When Serenity looked up, he could see where stalactites had been broken off the ceiling in a line. It was the best clue he had, so he followed the line visually in both directions. In one direction, it simply stopped; in the other, it split and both of the new damaged areas went back at an angle.

It was clearly an arrow.

He was about to say something when Rissa commented. :This way. We need to follow the arrow of broken bits in the mud.: She sounded serious, like she was concentrating on their surroundings and nothing else.

:I was going to say the ceiling where it was broken off, but I guess it’s the same thing.: Serenity was sure his amusement came across.

----------------------------------------

They followed a series of arrows through several caves. All of the caves seemed oddly level and were easily large enough for the two of them to walk comfortably, if the thick mud hadn’t stuck to everything and made it more of a gloopy slog than a walk. Both of them were coated in the stuff, making them itch as it dried.

One of the caves held the bat Serenity had traced and he dismissed the tracking spell. Now that he knew where the cave was, the bat couldn’t tell him anything more.

None of the caves held any animals that were more dangerous than the bats, but they did see a frog and some fish in a small pool. The fish seemed like ordinary surface fish, so the pool had to connect to surface water somewhere nearby.

They passed through a couple of rooms that would probably be exceedingly impressive if they were lit, but since both of them were using Serenity’s Eyeless Sight, they could only imagine the difference actual light would make.

After a fairly decent walk that seemed to have led them in a spiral down, they entered the largest room they’d seen yet. Unlike the other cave rooms, it had very few stalactites; instead, it seemed to have flowstone over one wall but it was otherwise just smooth rock. Serenity wasn’t interested in the geology that made it that way; what he was interested in was at the other end: a stalagmite without a matching stalactite above it.

It had to be the “Spire” of the messages.

When they got close enough, Serenity could see that it did indeed look like a stalagmite, but it’d been chopped off smoothly at about waist height; above it floated a very familiar-looking crystal. The pedestal was the same stone as the rest of the cave, but the floating crystal was a brilliant green.

Serenity blinked. He couldn't see color with Eyeless Sight. How was he seeing that it was green?

The color went away when he blinked, then came back. As he looked around, he noticed that he could see other colors as well. The cave seemed to be lit, but there was no source to the light. What was going on?

Existential questions could wait; this had to be the dungeon core. The Fourth Cave of Enhancement was a dungeon. Serenity wasn’t surprised; what else would grow monsters and sit at a nexus?

Still, it was odd that there was nothing to fight. It didn’t seem to be trying to draw in people, simply grow monsters. Even Aki’s dungeon tried to lure in people; she simply did it with the chance to see something new and different instead of the chance to fight things and win prizes.

There was a gecko on the pedestal with the dungeon core. Serenity watched it stretch itself up, then climb onto the core itself. It was far more obvious on the crystal, since it matched the color of the rock, rather than the green of the dungeon core.

He spoke aloud; after all, he wanted the gecko to hear him. “I assume you’re the dungeon master?”