After their preparations, the group was ready for their first expedition and headed out on foot.

"Phew!" Keily wiped his forehead as they cut through the jungle, going upwards the side of a steep hillside. They were finally out of the thickest part of it and came to a somewhat flattened top, looking at the rolling hills and the mountain range not that far away. "Oh, look!" He said, pointing towards the north.

"That has to be where we are heading!" Raufon added, taking a sip from his water canteen, arriving next to the bunny boy. "You can see the terraces from here! Even though it is rather overgrown, that is clearly man-made!"

"I told you! My intuitions are always right to sniff out if a man lies or not!" Koa giggled as the rest of the group caught up.

"I wanted to argue, but… it checks out!" Lia joked, watching the scenery, tucking loose hair behind her ear while wearing it in a high ponytail. Everyone was sweating hard, especially Rinzen, who was clearly out of her element, quite literally.

"When we stop… I will cast a wide area of effect spell…" she moaned uncharacteristically for her. "I don't like it here."

"Well…" Sion wanted to speak, but a kick from Aurora shut him up real fast and made his eye turn away from the almost transparent white shirt from all her sweat.

"Simbad?" Lia looked to her left, watching the young man holding a binocular, scanning their destination.

"I am not picking up any magical fluctuations nor presence of spells. It is no longer in a working condition if it had any defenses."

"Or it is something ancient," Ceiline warned them, "A formation or spell that our scouting devices won't recognize."

"Could be," Simbad nodded, not refuting her, "But the fact that people previously visited it should be enough proof it is not deadly."

"Okay, Misfits!" Lia shouted, taking a swing from her water bottle, "Let's go! We should reach it before night!"

With their eyes on the finish line, it was much easier to concentrate and reach the foot of the mountainside it was built upon; they found the old stone steps leading upwards after a bit of searching and scaring away the local wildlife. Raufon took on the vanguard role, going first, cleaning the vines away as they started their climb carefully. It led them past the multiple terraces that, even overgrown, were a work of art.

"I read about places like this," Ceiline said, fascinated by them as they clambered on the sometimes knee-high steps. "When the rainy season came, they flooded, so they were the perfect palace to grow rice or taro. These paddy fields must have been beautiful in their time!"

"Couldn't they do that with magic?" Keily asked her, and Ceiline answered with a smile.

"They could, but magically summoned water lacks natural minerals!"

"Wait, water has dirt in it?" Raufon turned back, scratching his head.

"..." Now everybody was looking at him, trying to answer his question.

"Well, we only learned magic in the Academy…" Sion whispered to Aurora, who nodded softly.

"Natural water has much good stuff in it! Summoned water comes from our mana!" Ceiline described patiently, "It is good to drink, yes, but it is filled with the essence of the mage!"

"Kinky." Koa whistled, making Lia giggle and show a thumbs up to her.

"Ceiline is right." Rinzen interjected, missing Koa's joke, "It only works if you are growing plants that require certain magical care. Then, spells become a much better choice than using ordinary water."

"True, I did use spells only when nurturing my peashooters!"

"Should we make something like this back at our fortress?" Lia asked, thinking out loudly.

"I did have the idea come to me seeing it up close…" Ceiline whispered, thinking hard, "I do want to make an upgraded version of my babies... And I need a place to experiment! The current ones had been perfected, and some of my family members started making their own too, so it is time for a new endeavor!"

"What do you have in mind?" Keily asked curiously.

"I want to make one as big as a bear, at least! It could be planted onto our battlements and act as sentry towers! The other thing is… I was thinking of creating a much more intelligent variant. One that does not need to be pre-programmed by magical imprints but can act independently and recognize complex commands! I… I am still in the planning phase, though. I don't know if that is possible."

"Well, we have time, and you are free to use our base as you want!" Lia winked at her, and they slowly reached the top, making them exclaim one by one as they ascended the last step.

"This is truly… old!" Sion gulped, watching the multiple ruined buildings staring back at them.

It wasn't an overly big place, capable of housing a thousand people but not more. Most of the buildings had already collapsed, the rocks were overgrown with grass, moss, and vines, and those still-standing buildings resembled a pinecone.

"Going by their placement," Simbad said as he walked forward, climbing atop a half-collapsed Rockwall, "This had to be a shrine!"

"Why?" Lia asked, not because she doubted him but out of curiosity.

"Their placement! All the standing buildings point towards a specific spot in the sky at night! Towards our seven brightest stars!"

"Oh, you know about them?" Rinzen asked, a bit surprised.

"Um… Excuse me!" Keily raised his hand nervously, "I am… being lost in here!"

"Our night sky has seven stars that are always at the same spot and glow brighter than any other star!" Simbad explained, watching the 15-meter tall buildings. "All the intact structures point towards one! Going by that, this place was either a place of worship-"

"It was an entrance," Lia said suddenly, and everyone turned towards her. "I just felt it!" She rushed forward, stopping in the middle of a rectangle hole that had to be a pool once. The floor was made out of tiny, little tiles that were already faded, but by wiping off the dirt and wild grass, unknown symbols could be identified on it.

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"I can't read that," Rinzen murmured, turning towards Lia, who was still looking around.

"I lost it!" She bit her lower lips, "But I am sure I felt the fluctuations of No-Space! There is a hidden sub-realm here, and this mountaintop is its entrance!"

"Jackpot!" Koa grinned proudly, "This place had to be a place of power, then! From the old era, before the Dark Ages!"

"Let's set up camp!" Aurora wrote, drawing everyone back to reality from the sudden excitement. "And set up our rotation for night duty! We should pitch our tents at the edge if this is truly an entrance… I don't want to be transported into Undead hell while sleeping!"

"Ehehe…" Lia scratched her cheek, "True, true! We don't need another Azurat-like experience!"

"Exactly, Boss!" Keily agreed wholeheartedly.

"Let's go!" Sion slapped Raufon and Keily on the back, "We will go set the camp up!"

"I'll start planting the first sentries and go down the stairs a little; put up more along the way!" Ceiline nodded rapidly.

"You just want to check the terraces~!" Koa teased her, turning her face a bit redder.

"Nobody goes alone anywhere!" Lia reminded her seriously, looking at Simbad, who nodded, accompanying Ceiline without question. "Rinzen, can you conjure some ice that cools us down?"

"On it!" She nodded, going after Sion and the rest so she could do it in a way that their tents would be a safe haven against the heat.

"Let's go, girls!" Lia nodded toward Aurora and Koa to check the ruins before the sky darkened.

The main buildings were mostly empty; only the stone, carved furniture remained, and everything else became one with nature, unable to stand up to time. Looking up towards the sky, Simbad's words were proven correct as there was a small hole at the top, clearly focusing the viewer's gaze towards one point of the sky.

"Do you think this was some kind of… formation?" Koa asked, listening to her words echoing inside the building, bouncing back and forth between the thick walls.

"It most surely was." Lia agreed, having the same feeling.

"They still can be." Aurora wrote, cautioning them, "I don't think they would just build it to study the stars. Even if they did, it had to have another function too. They could have done that without spending the resources and manpower to build something like this."

"It could have been done with magic." While they walked out, Koa tilted her head towards another pinecone-shaped temple.

"It could." Aurora nodded, not arguing, "But that still requires the mage to be at a sufficient level to do it. Do you know any famous mages today who would go and use their spells to build a temple or mansion for someone? Because I think they would refuse on the spot."

"Our castle-" Lia started, but Aurora just shrugged, interrupting her with quick hand signals.

"Our castle was built by the strongest mage we ever knew about! Exceptions are that, exceptions! The majority and I mean 99% of mages, would not do it, not even if paid!"

"It was long ago that they built this!" Lia argued, "Who knows how they thought back then!"

…

….

……

When night had arrived, a campfire was burning at the plateau's edge, surrounded by five tents. Raufon, as the group's appointed chef, was barbecuing some exceptionally tasty-smelling meat and potatoes while the rest was sitting on little logs, waiting, gulping their saliva back like hungry puppies.

"I'll start," Simbad said, going through their night duty rotation, "Then Keily will switch with me after 3 hours."

"Then I'll switch with him!" Ceiline raised her hand, and finally, Lia, who would be the last sentry for the night.

"Then we are going to go to sleep soon!" Koa giggled, rubbing the bunny boy's head with great vigor as the two were sharing a tent.

"What the hell happened between you two?" Sion blurted out, dying to know, but Keily just shrugged, and Koa wasn't saying anything.

"Drop it!" Raufon grumbled, giving the first skewered, sizzling meat to Lia, who couldn't wait to start eating, "She won't tell. I tried paying her, but she flat-out refused me!"

"I promised the little energy bomb here to not tell!" She grinned, continuing to play with Keily's ears. "At least until he gives me an answer!"

"For what?" Keily blurted out, surprised and feeling something bad had happened that night he couldn't recall.

"Opsie~!" Koa stuck her tongue out, "Nothing, nothing! Anyway! Is it ready? It smells fantastic!"

"Yeah, it is!" Raufon shrugged, giving one to her, too, and after everyone was munching on one, he sat down next to Ceiline, who he would share his tent with.

"What will we do tomorrow?" Sion asked in the meanwhile, letting Aurora sit in his lap, and it was not a question that the two would also sleep together.

"Try to open the door!" Lia answered between two big bites, letting Rinzen lean in, cleaning her mouth like a caring older sister. "While we walked in and out of those temples, I sometimes did feel the faint fluctuations of No-Space! I bet that they are the key! We just have to figure out how to turn them in their lock!"

"Blast them with magic." Raufon said simply, "I was just joking…" He added, seeing the weird looks while Ceiline gently patted his arms.

"Mmmhm…" Simbad hummed, raising his head, looking at the clear sky and the thousands of brightly blinking stars above them.

"Oh, yeah! So… which stars are they?" Lia followed his stare and let him point them out one by one.

"They have as many names as many civilizations decided to study them. I only know their positions and their numbers."

"Numbers?" Sion asked, interested in the topic. He had never before bothered to study the night sky before.

"I learned them by numerical order. When it's getting dark, they appear in a sequence, one to seven." He slowly continued his explanation before turning his gaze back towards his dinner… but it was gone. He only held an empty rod dripping with fine-smelling juices. "Did we bring Stumpy?" He asked, glancing at Lia, whose mouth was surprisingly round, full of meat, trying to hastily chew it, acting all innocent.

"Here." Rinzen stretched out her hand, giving hers to Simbad. "I need to diet."

"Why?!" Lia asked, managing to swallow it all, looking at Rinzen with raised eyebrows. "You look sexy! You are even bigger than me!" She exclaimed, pushing her ample chest out, but it was true… even with her sudden growth, she was only around half as big as Rinzen.

"It's about my waist…" She murmured, looking shy and troubled.

"It's fine!" Raufon agreed with Lia, "In my tribe, you would be hailed as the Goddes of Fertility!"

"What about me?" Koa asked with shining eyes.

"You resemble the Night Fairy in our fables, the one that comes to steal children away because their young blood keeps her beautiful," Raufon answered with one breath.

"Err… Well… damn… Now I am flattered and hurt at the same time!" She pouted, making the rest laugh.

"Aaah… this was good!" Lia stretched, climbing into Rinzen's lap, leaning back between her breasts, snuggling up to them like a child, "Raufon, you are still the best cook! I am sleeeepy~."

"Let's go then." Rizen stood up, holding her, heading back into their tent as Lia would have to wake up earlier anyway.

"She is right!" Koa stretched, "Raufon's food always satisfies me, like good sex! I just want to lie down, enjoy the feeling and slip into a pleasing rest! Come on, my fast-firing bunny boy!" She grinned, holding Keily by the hand, dragging him away, and making him yelp for help.

"Hey…" Celine leaned forward, whispering to the rest who remained at the campfire. "Do you… do you all think that Koa has been acting weirdly since that day?"

"She does." Aurora and Sion agreed in unison. "I think Koa has fallen for him."

"I second it." Raufon nodded.

"Me too." Simbad echoed him, finishing Rinzen's portion. "I think she does not realize it because she is too used to fooling around."

"Yeah…" Ceiline hummed, biting her lips, "Should we…?"

"Nah!" Aurora waved her hand, leaning against Sion's chest, letting him tenderly caress her shoulders, "Let her figure it out! Mhm… I think we should go to sleep too…"

“Mhm~ I agree…” Sion murmured, leaning forward and sharing a kiss with her.

"I miss my wives…" Raufon grumbled, watching the two and getting gentle pats on his arm from Ceiline.

"Stay strong. Like me…"

"I don't get it." Simbad shrugged, making their heads turn towards him. "No… I mean, I truly don't get it."

"You never fell in love before?" Ceiline gasped.

"No. You?"

"W-well… um, no, but I did fantasize about it!" She stuttered, turning red.

"I'm out!" Raufon laughed, patting her on the back before standing up, leaving just like Aurora and Sion, and now Ceiline found herself alone with Simbad, who was waiting for her answer.

"I don't get… love," Simbad repeated, trying to clarify it.

“Well… um… how should I explain this…” She fidgeted, feeling weirder and weirder by the minute.

"I have time. I am on guard duty."

"Hauh… O-okay… let me gather my thoughts!" Celine shrugged, deciding to stay up a little more, trying to explain something she had no experience with at all, either.