A young man, who you’ve never seen before, jumps out in front of you to protect you from a scary terrorist. Such an unlikely scenario would shock anyone. Adding a slime on top of it is just asking for more confusion. But all Wangshi had to say to this extremely confusing event was: “Kid, shove it!”

Wangshi?— Like a boat with the wind knocked off its sails, Lark fell back into the bushes with his leg still up in the air.

“Stay down!” roared Wangshi, who released his final trump card. The sharp wind traveled mercilessly, tearing up what was left of Henry’s Mountain Capture, and transformed the terrain into a wide tornado alley. Wangshi hovered above the ground, watching his skill sweep through the forest until the Aquila bypassed the blades effortlessly. Only the Cursed Human got captured inside its unrelenting matrix and flew out of the forest.

“You think wind magic can dispel my astral abilities? My-my, they’ve chosen weaklings for this mission.” Joffrey laughed with a crazed look in his eyes that drew in a desire for destruction. Losing one henchman didn’t matter to him; all that mattered were the results. His head bent low at an odd angle. “The royals are playing a fool’s errand. Bind him, Aquila. We can always use another puppet for the cause.”

Wangshi retrieved the Love Tassel from his waist and tucked it against his heart. The eagle grazed his shoulder with its long talons and started moving in circles around him. Hobbling slightly from the attack, Wangshi reformed his posture and slashed the air once again with his sword.

Argh! That tea-loving old man! Lark grunted, trying to free his legs from the thorny elderberry bushes.

“That was a very bad idea Lark!” Sphinx scolded. “This is someone else’s Mind Space, not yours! Never mind the lasting damage on their mental health, but your well-being will be jeopardy too.”

“So you’ve mentioned,” Lark replied. “But how else am I going to get close to that sword. I have to reveal myself at some point.”

“But not during a battle!” aggravated Sphinx. Lark could hear Sphinx take in several breaths before continuing. “What’s done is done, and your servant has taken your presence quite nonchalantly, which is good for us. I’m slightly worried though about this Joffrey character though as you clearly have his ring.”

“I have some questions about that too, but this ring was given to me by Wangshi after he interrogated a cultist.”

“He interrogated Joffrey?” The incredulous disbelief was evident in Sphinx’s tone. “Impossible…unless.”

“Unless what?”

“I can think of two scenarios, one of which you’re not gonna like,” he mumbled that last part. “If Joffrey had recently come to Earth and was shocked by the lack of organic mana, it would make it easier for Wangshi to capture him. Or…” Sphinx sighed.

“Less hanging and more talking,” Lark retorted as he finally untangled himself from the thorny branches.

“This is a very elaborate setup by the Wishes of the People,” said Sphinx. “In which they allowed Joffrey to be captured.”

Lark let himself fall onto the ground and resumed his crouched position. “You’re right, I liked scenario one better. Any idea why they would let their member to get captured?”

“To learn about you,” Sphinx answered and chills ran down Lark’s spine. Gushi jiggled on the back of his scalp, which helped calm him down.

“Scenario two actually makes sense, considering the state we found your caretaker in and how warped his mental facilities got. Besides Tim’s present, I’m getting traces of other soul and mind manipulations. I believe that once they captured you, Joffrey’s items would return to him. But you’ve performed blood rite and successfully escaped, thus they no longer had that option and had to resort to some other punishment since you’ve thwarted their efforts.”

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“…And because by that time, the agency had been infiltrated.” Lark finished and cracked his knuckles. “Is it possible that Wangshi is being controlled?”

“Possible indeed. But nothing of the sort showed up on the scanner—wait, Lark, head to the door! There’s something coming.”

Emerging from the brambles, Jaime’s lightsword came into a blinding view behind Joffrey’s ear and the lightsword fiercely clashed with the brandished soul dagger. However, the weight of their opposing forces didn’t feel heavy like usual fights in movies. It was almost electric like a duel between two snakes, where one’s waiting to bite off the other’s head.

In unison, the two sneered each other's names—Jamie’s lightsword pushed forward and Joffrey snickered, retracting the dagger back into his chest where a hole appeared.

Unable to comprehend the man’s chest cavity opening and swallowing back in the soul dagger, Lark felt a wave a nausea wash over him.

“Hurry to the abandoned dungeon!” Sphinx urged as the two felt a low hum run up Lark’s arms. Gushi’s antenna began to glow into a blinding white light as Jaime doubled back and recalled his lightsword with a wave of his hand. His snow-white hair seemed to rise slightly once he put one arm in front of the other.

There was also a quick change in Jaime’s face, Lark realized while peering into the depths of the serious light enchanter; his gold eyes turned into an icy bronze tone, darker, yet richer than gold. Sprouting from his fingertips was a trail of sun-glowing thread. Once, Lark spotted the curiously, quiescent string linking together like cat’s cradle, he heard Sphinx’s tongue click not just once, but twice.

“KID!” Wangshi’s clawed up face suddenly appeared in front of them. Before Lark could reply, Wangshi grabbed his collar and took him under his arm as a green glow whipped under his feet.

He’s taking me with him? Lark’s vision of the ground heaved up and down as Wangshi escaped the battle between the two enchanters. However, the Aquila still followed them with its incessant caw-ing. As one talon came close to Lark’s face, Wangshi blocked it with his arm. The Aquila’s talon sheared through the leather sleeve in one sweeping stroke.

“Blasted bird,” Wangshi said as he shook off the attack by coating his arm with green-colored mana. Temporarily, the Aquila retreated back into the trees’ shadows.

“Put me down, I can run—”

“No,” Wangshi abruptly answered. “I can’t let a witness go.”

“Witness?” Lark asked.

“My comrades are from the capital investigating a string of disappearances in these parts,” Wangshi said. “But we’ll talk these points later once we’re away—”

Lark frowned, unable to wriggle out of Wangshi’s grip. The old man was strong as fuck. “Dammit Wangshi, just listen to me.”

“…How do you know me?”

Before Lark could think of an answer, Joffrey’s voice suddenly shrieked from the woods as a ghostly manifestation of himself swooped over them. “Don’t think of escaping, puppet!”

“Astral body…” The shock in Wangshi’s voice matched his blood-drained face. Then Jaime reappeared adjacently to them with several light spears circling around him. One spear flew out to intercept Joffrey’s floating body. The phantom dodged the first strike, but more and more strikes followed, chasing Joffrey’s ghastly image away.

“I lost his original body when he Blinked. Get to the rock quick, while I have him distracted.” Jaime calmly ordered and then whispered, “Dula will meet you there…Go!”

Wangshi quickened his pace and flew towards the rock Jaime mentioned. It was the same one on the map with the door opened, or what Sphinx called, the abandoned dungeon. However, despite the boost in speed from Wind-Walker and the jian’s flying ability, the Aquila managed to catch them in surprise. Wangshi hoisted Lark from his hold as the Aquila took a blow to his head.

Shit, what do I do? Lark rolled onto his sides in front of the door, while Wangshi collapsed next to him, head-bleeding.

“Dula, grab 'em!” Jaime called out, still throwing spears down in a fence-like pattern. Under Lark’s palms, the dirt quaked and piles of grains lifted, forming a log-like arm. Two coal-like eyes looked at him, somewhat coldly before it hugged them into the earth. Hard soil smothered Lark’s nose for a few seconds until it released them into a wide tunnel.

Lark patted down his sides and made sure Gushi made the trip to hell alright. The slime’s antenna was no longer a glaring ball of light, instead, it reverted to its neutral silver color.

“Good slime,” Lark said, rubbing the silver slime’s shiny coat. It squirmed in response and it’s antenna bubble suddenly turned into a blue hue, casting a cool, azuline radiance around the earth.

“You’ve entered the abandoned dungeon. New location added to SIM.”

“Abandoned Mines (Ancient) (Dungeon) (location)

Leafy underground tunnels connected by earthen dwarves before the Astral Apocalypse and hurriedly abandoned during the Centifire plague.

Here, there are many rich ore veins and fallow gardens, which begs the question of why this place was abandoned and forgotten. Careful, there are hints of spirit law at work. The dungeon master must be a high-level being.”

Lark picked a piece of mud out of his nose while basking in the afterglow of his first time in a dungeon. Then he remembered Wangshi and looked over his shoulder to where the golem would’ve dropped him. What he saw next, nearly popped his heart out of his chest. They weren’t alone.