“…How deep do you think it goes?” asked Elena as she gingerly stooped down at the edge.

“I don’t think we should be trying to find out,” murmured back Milo.

Daisuke pinched and pulled Rexar’s garb as he attempted to test the integrity of the flooring with a daring leg. “That may not be such a good idea,” he warned.

Crouching beside Elena, Milo cautiously lowered his index finger toward the flooring. But instead of touching the light blue… phenomenon, his finger went right through.

“Huh?” Elena exclaimed with a frown. “What exactly is happening right now?”

Milo looked to Daisuke questioningly.

“…Maybe some kind of barrier that rejects organic matter?” he replied as he tried to conjure up another theory. But nothing else came to mind.

“Is that even possible?” queried Milo.

“Shouldn’t our focus right now be finding a way around it?” argued Rexar with evident impatience. “I’m really sick of this place.”

“That makes two of us,” agreed Daisuke while pointing at the eastern wall. “Elena, I want you to use your Wind Cutter to rip down those two tapestries.”

Elena didn’t ask any questions; Daisuke’s brilliance during the guild assessment and his performance in the dungeon was enough for her to confide in his judgement without hesitation.

“You haven’t steered us wrong yet,” she said as she aimed a crescent moon-shaped gust of wind toward the upper threshold of the tapestry.

The carefully measured projectile sliced through the embroidery with ease, sending them pooling to the ground without a sound. On the gray cobblestone wall where they once hung, two intricate circles roughly a meter in width were inscribed in black ink.

“Are those… magic circles?” Elena asked with a frown.

“It seems like they have something to do with the chamber,” guessed Milo. “The question is, which one do we trigger?”

Through the Eye of Verity, Daisuke noted that one of the circles radiated a grayish-silver glow while the other—the one on the right—exuded a pale light blue.

Employing a simple method of visual matchmaking, Daisuke deduced that the circle on the right radiated the same blue color as the tightly-knitted flooring.

His other assumption was that mana needed to be remotely injected into the magic circle to activate its effects, but all four of them were amateurs at that level of mana manipulation.

But Daisuke had a theory.

When he was younger, his father used to have him sleep in the dark whenever he had been a bad boy. Instead of getting out of bed and risk being pulled underneath it by the boogeyman or worse—that one clown from a scary movie, Daisuke would hurl his stuffed animals at the light switch until one of them hit its mark.

“Milo,” Daisuke called, shifting his attention. “Being a healer demands pretty delicate control, so I’m pretty sure you have a better grip on your mana than the rest of us.”

“…I-I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Milo murmured back.

Daisuke frowned, conveying the criticality of the imminent request. “I want you to land a Magic Missile in the center of that magic circle without damaging the inscription.”

Milo turned toward his objective, measuring its feasibility. “W-Wouldn’t Elena be better suited for the task?”

“He’s right,” the pouting Rexar agreed. “Mages are always firing off spells, so her aim will be way better.”

“And why do you think a mage has excellent marksmanship?” asked Daisuke. “It’s because the spell’s velocity also plays a vital role in power and accuracy. But if there’s too much power behind the Magic Missile, it may damage the circle.”

Milo shifted his gaze to the mage, and Elena nodded in a reluctant confirmation. With a sigh, the healer turned toward his target. Gripping his staff with a stance reminiscent of a soldier wielding a rifle and peering down the sights, he closed one eye and swallowed nervously.

“Breathe,” encouraged Daisuke. “Just remember that you’re not launching an attack—you’re merely feeding the magic circle some mana.”

Easy for you to say, thought Milo, but he took a deep breath and held it in his chest. In his ears, he could vividly hear the erratic beating of his heart, but his hands had steadied.

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Like a surgeon seeking a vein, he focused his senses and launched a single projectile that resembled a fluffy cloud rather than a pointed blade. It found its mark with incredible accuracy, and the magic circle hummed in response.

Milo finally breathed, and Elena and Rexar looked on in anticipation as the light in the blue magic circle faded while the light in the other one intensified.

Systematically, the meshed flooring gradually disappeared while cobblestones materialized to completely fill the gaping hole in the floor.

Milo stood in stunned silence until Daisuke flicked his forehead. “Ouch!” he cried out in pain, rapidly rubbing the swollen and steaming spot.

“Well done,” Daisuke praised with a smile.

Rexar roughly tousled the healer’s head like an older brother while Elena clutched his arm and jerked his body in excitement.

Without a word, Daisuke approached the glittering heap and touched his fingertip to a large cut of Mana Crystal. With a single glance, he noted that the loot was hoarded together in a disorganized clump; everything was pooled together and touching one another.

Testing a new theory, he laid his palm flat on the chunk of crystal and willed his inventory to store everything that was in contact with it. To his surprise, it worked flawlessly—every piece of gold, silver, crystal, and other materials were pulled into his possession. All except for a piece of coiled parchment.

“Show off,” murmured Rexar.

"What is it?" Elena asked, curiosity flickering in her eyes as Daisuke reached for the length of papyrus and began unfurling it.

The trio huddled close, craning their necks to get a better look.

"It's a map," Daisuke informed them, his eyes scanning over the details before it vanished into his inventory. "Let's head back. We'll decide what to do with all this stuff once we're back in the village."

“So, in the end, we didn’t really learn anything conclusive,” uttered Milo dejectedly.

Rexar’s expression hardened, his fingers clenching into tight fists, and Elena’s lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes becoming glum.

“…Not necessarily,” replied Daisuke, his words rekindling a sliver of hope within the trio. “Do you remember how frantic Vernie was to stop those two girls from escaping?”

Their eyes widened in recollection.

***

The girls in question were being comforted by the laborers in the mining shaft when Daisuke and the others returned.

“Did you… really take care of the ones responsible for taking us hostage?” queried one of the Beastfolk.

“That’s unbelievable!” uttered another.

“Thank you,” said Whindel, resting a large callused hand on Milo’s shoulder. “You’ve all done us a great service.”

The grandson and the elderly man who was nearly cast into the pit shared a gleeful glance before turning their grateful gazes toward their rescuers.

While Elena, Rexar, and Milo were being endlessly praised for their monumental feat, Daisuke approached the women who were partaking of food given to them by the others.

“I’m sorry to ask while you’re both still visibly shaken up by this ordeal, but is there anything you can tell us about this place?”

Stirred by curiosity, everyone quieted down at the import of the question. The Beastfolk had interrogated the two girls the moment they had joined their ranks, but they were too perturbed to answer.

Daisuke got down on one knee before them, his eyes patient and sincere. “Don’t worry, you’re both safe now. Whether you answer my questions or not, we’ll be escorting you and the others back to Elmridge village.”

Elmridge village.

Just voicing the name of their home was soothing therapy; it made them feel relaxed, secure, and a strong sense of longing.

The girls took a moment to assess Daisuke—despite the horrors in the cavern that they were instructed to flee from, the young boy was entirely unscathed, his countenance cool and collected. His physical, mental, and emotional state of being was obviously due to his overwhelming power, and it was incredibly reassuring.

The females exchanged glances and nodded, then one of them—a girl with short-cropped hair and daring eyes—turned to Daisuke and parted her lips.

“Um… I’m sorry but those guards didn’t really talk about highly secret stuff while we were around.”

Daisuke frowned. “Guards? You mean Vernie and that other guy?”

“Keith, yes,” the other girl chimed in. “They were… ordered by their boss to safeguard the mountain.”

“The Mhaledictus?”

The girls’ ears perked up at the name, and the female with the short-cropped hair spoke. “Yes, that’s the name.”

“Any idea why they were ordered to protect this place?”

The girls thought about that for a while, sieving through the trauma that clouded their memory. And it was the long-haired girl, the introvert, who was able to trigger the memory.

“Fail-safe!” she blurted out awkwardly.

“Ah! Th-That’s right!” the other girl exclaimed, the words evoking her own memories. “Fail-safe is the word Keith used when he said the mountain was being used to store a percentage of the Mhaledictus’ funds, just in case anything bad happened.”

Whispers rose amongst the onlookers, and Daisuke cupped his chin in thought. “So, essentially, this place is like the equivalent of an offshore Swiss bank account.”

Confusion permeated throughout the crowd, and it wasn’t until the two girls voiced their befuddlement did Daisuke realize that he was thinking out loud.

“Oh, sorry about that,” he said, sheepishly running his hand through his hair. “Based on what I've gathered, the Mhaledictus is an organization of sorts. Their exact activities remain a mystery, but it seems they stashed some of their wealth here as a safety net in case of their downfall.”

“And what about us?” asked Whindel. “Why were we captured and imprisoned here?”

“They probably noticed that the mountain was rich with materials and figured they could expand their wealth if they mined it.”

Anger and sorrow flared amongst the crowd, but Daisuke knew there was no possible way to quell the storm within that moment, so he turned his attention back to the girls.

“Is there anything else you can tell us?” he asked. “Like where the Mhaledictus has their base of operations, or where the demons originated from?”

Regrettably, the girls shook their heads in denial, and grief finally extinguished the flames that had fueled the anger and hate within the people, casting a somber atmosphere over the crowd.

For an instant, Daisuke’s expression crumbled, but for the sake of the people who had confided in him, he maintained the perfectly smooth mask he had molded. “Don’t beat yourselves up,” he reassured the girls with a measured smile. “Vernie and Keith were just too careful, that’s all.”

He got on his feet and turned to the people. “Those two men got what they deserved, and I have no doubt that the Mhaledictus will face their reckoning in due time. But for now, let's make our way back to the village. I'm sure you're all anxious to be reunited with your friends and loved ones.”