One of Legion’s bodies stayed to investigate the tournament, more out of curiosity than anything else as far as Serenity could tell. Everyone else, including three more of Legion’s bodies, headed to the Cavern.
When they got there, Serenity could understand why everyone said the word as if it were capitalized. It was a Grand Canyon-sized hole in the ground. It wasn’t really a cavern; if anything, it was more like a crater. Serenity couldn’t really blame them for using the wrong word, however. Bridge had a far smaller vocabulary than English; the word he’d translated to mean “cavern” could just as easily mean “canyon” or “crater,” as long as it was gigantic. There were different words for smaller spaces, but even then they were more limited than English.
It was definitely gigantic.
The sides of the crater looked like they’d been scooped out then melted. There was some variation at a few of the rock layers, but overall it mostly looked like a giant large enough to pick up the planet like a ball had pushed his thumb into the rock like it was liquid mud. Serenity was certain that neither scenario was what actually happened, but that didn’t mean he knew exactly what had happened.
He could probably find out by returning to ask the Eight, since they were the ones who created the Cavern, but Serenity didn’t see any reason to ask. All that mattered now was how they were going to travel to the base, not how it was made in the first place. They had flyers, but the flyers weren’t made for that kind of sharp drop; they could slowly change their altitude, but unless Serenity wanted a multi-day descent that had the chance of flyer failure at any time from the stress on the enchantment, he’d find another method.
Fortunately, there was an obvious method visible right in front of him: teleportation. It wasn’t on a ley line, which meant he had limited mana, and Ita wasn’t around with her far cheaper teleports, but Serenity thought he could still manage it.
He just couldn’t do it with only a spellform. He needed assistance, which in this case meant a full ritual circle. He could adapt some of the Messenger Guild’s ritual spellwork to aid teleportation instead of portals; what they did was barely even a portal anyway. It was definitely unfortunate that he couldn’t prepare a receiving pad on the other end; that would lower the cost even more.
What he could do, however, was take advantage of the biggest advantage of rituals, the one he often ignored because the Final Reaper worked alone: a ritual didn’t have to be powered by one person. It also didn’t all have to be provided at once, and in fact didn’t all have to come from people; in those ways, rituals were like runic inscriptions. The Final Reaper used those two features to their utmost repeatedly.
It wasn’t easy and took over a day and a half to prepare, including creating a small ritual to find an appropriate site to teleport to, but Serenity was able to set up the ritual. He also added “reconnaissance drones” to Aide’s wish list. Being able to fly a drone to the bottom of the Cavern would have saved quite a bit of mana and probably some time. Just as importantly, it would have allowed him to place an anchor at the teleport location. Serenity’s SpaceTime magic wasn’t dependent on connections the way Ita’s was, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take advantage of a beacon.
A day and a half after they arrived really meant that Serenity had the ritual ready in time for bed. Once again, his Tutorial reward of a portable multi-person tent was useful. It was the following morning before they completed the ritual and arrived at the cavern’s bottom.
Oddly enough, the only person who was surprised by Serenity’s ritual instructions of “push your mana in here. Pay at least some attention to what I’m saying; you can think about what it means or not worry about it, that’s up to you” was World Shaman Senkovar. Serenity knew Blaze had done rituals before, while Legion had surely seen movies. They still weren’t surprised at Serenity’s instructions.
The bottom of the Cavern was wet, but Serenity picked one of the dry spots to land. That also meant it was one of the relatively high spots. There were advantages to that, but it seemed unlikely they would immediately spot what they were looking for; it was all too likely that they were a ways away from it.
It was even more likely that what they were looking for was under water.
Serenity turned towards World Shaman Senkovar. “So, can you tell if we’re close to a Near Point?”
Serenity stopped and stared at the depression he could see behind Senkovar. It was almost exactly the same dimensions as the tunnel on Themrys. He knew he’d have seen it before they teleported down if he’d had a drone, but the spell he used to search at a distance hadn’t found it. All it was looking for was a good teleportation destination, after all.
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“We’re close,” Senkovar answered. “I’m not sure how close; as I told you on the surface, it’s not exact unless I have some time to really search. All I could tell from the crater’s wall was that it was probably down here somewhere.”
Serenity gestured with his chin. “Look behind you.”
Senkovar turned around, took one look, then gave a deep sigh. “Is this why Blaze says that he both loves and hates working with you? You’re good at what you do, but there’s no explaining luck like this.”
Serenity shrugged. “What can I say? It had to be down here somewhere. Unless there’s a dungeon nearby, and I don’t feel one, there aren’t likely to be too many dangerous monsters. All it was ever likely to cost us was time. You have to get lucky sometimes?”
Personally, Serenity wanted to blame Tyche, but he had no idea how even the Goddess of Luck could have influenced this. The only way he could think of how this was particularly lucky was that his detection spell happened to decide that the best place to teleport to was a spot close to the depression. “Of course, that assumes that it’s even the same thing. Let’s go find out.”
Serenity headed towards the hole. If it was a tunnel, he’d probably have to admit that his luck was insane. Rissa would make him, after Blaze told her about it.
It was definitely a tunnel. It even seemed to be made fo the same material as the one on Themrys. Worse, or perhaps better, it was even dry on the bottom even though that was well below the level of many of the other puddles. Serenity sighed at the future teasing he was going to get over this one from both Rissa and Blaze. It would be even worse if Senkovar got in on it, and he was beginning to think that was likely, too.
Serenity could hear Blaze mutter something to Senkovar as they walked up to the tunnel behind him. Serenity knew he’d be able to find out what Blaze said if he asked Aide to enhance his heading, but he was fairly certain what it was and he didn’t want to know for sure. There just wasn’t any reason to find out.
He hopped down the low embankment at the side he’d arrived on, then watched the others follow him. “Shall we get started? It’s probably another long walk.”
It wasn’t. In fact, they walked for only about five minutes before a glow appeared. Instead of Themrys’s yellow-orange or Lyka’s green, this one was purple. Serenity knew the colors had to mean something, but they didn’t seem to be tied to mana Affinites, at least not other than Earth’s clear iridescence for all Affinites. He’d like to find out what it meant someday, but this wasn’t that day.
Shortly after they saw the glow, the tunnel let them into a larger chamber that was strongly reminiscent of the one on Themrys except for the color of the glow and the complete lack of a tunnel through the World Core directly in front of Serenity. Instead, there were a number of far smaller areas that seemed to be damaged. None of them were close enough to enter, even for a cub the size of the one they found on Themrys.
“What’s that?” Blaze was apparently not as shocked at the lack of a tunnel as Serenity was, because he was the first to notice that there were objects on the rough floor near the World Core. They were dark and didn’t reflect the light of the World Core at all.
Blaze walked up to one before Serenity could, then flipped it over. It was convex on one side and concave on the other, like a giant bowl or maybe a bathtub.
No, as Serenity got a better look at it, he had to change his opinion: it was shaped like a turtle shell. Or, rather, the shell of a Black Tortoise. The Black Tortoise in question must have once been nearly five feet in length.
Serenity looked around the area and saw eight other empty shells. They ranged in size from half that of the first shell to half again the size. A few dozen yards down, near one of the larger shells, was an odd splotch of purple almost the same color as the World Core. Perhaps that was important?
As he got closer, Serenity realized that it was extremely important and also that it wasn’t purple. It was while, or at least it had been white before its fur was matted with blood. Somehow it still reflected the purple glow of the World Core well enough that he’d been fooled for a moment. He was looking at a dead White Tiger cub that seemed to be similar in size to the one they’d pulled off Themrys.
Serenity muttered the first line of the Dreaming Tree’s prophecy to himself. “The Tiger hunts Tortoises to feed her cubs. Huh. It looks like the tiger lost this time.” He shook his head. “This can’t be the mother. I wonder where she is?”
“Trying to feed her other cubs.” The answer came from the World Core crystal.
Serenity froze and turned to the World Core. He’d never heard one speak before.
The dark head that peeked out of the crystal told him that he still hadn’t. It was very clearly the head of a tortoise larger than any of the ones whose shells surrounded him. The Black Tortoise chuckled at Serenity’s surprise. “You’ve never seen one of us before? I’m only a little surprised. There aren’t many we’ll show ourselves to, even if they reach a point where we could.”
Serenity blinked at that. “Then why now?”
The tortoise chuckled again. “A young dragon and a young phoenix who followed a white tiger down a hole to my nest? Of course I’m interested. If it weren’t for your recognition and your company, I would have followed you without speaking.”
Serenity glanced over at World Shaman Senkovar. He could guess who the “company” was, but what did the Black Tortoise mean by recognition? There was only one thing he could think of. “You can tell that Gaia declared me her friend?”
The tortoise chuckled again. “Youth. Several worlds have, though the one you echo so strongly was the first. So. Tell me, why did you follow the White Tiger?”