The rest of us dismount or get off the cart and follow Vincent, under the gaze of the two guides who tie the horses to a post near the entrance.

That dark entrance is the mouth of a central corridor that leads into the pyramid. As soon as we enter, I observe how the torches placed on both sides, on the limestone walls, light up all at once. As we advance, I notice how the temperature drops. The desert heat was overwhelming, but inside the pyramid, despite having moved only a few meters, a pleasant coolness is already noticeable.

As for who goes in front, it's simple. During the journey here, the guides warned us about the usual creatures we would encounter. That's why we almost unanimously decided that Ronan's skeletons would go first. Ronan wasn't too happy about it, something about using Joe, Tom, and Bob as cannon fodder, but he agreed.

Tom, the skeleton with the shield, opens the way, on guard inspecting the ground with his gaze. He is followed by Bob, the one carrying a spear, guiding Tom forward with a hand on his shoulder. Behind them is Joe, the archer, watching the walls and ceiling.

A few meters behind, Darius and Alistair follow, whispering excitedly to each other. It seems they're struggling with how slowly we're advancing. They are two of a kind, two strong warriors, fire affinity, and redheads. Behind them are Vincent and Ronan, who occasionally glances back to check on me. As if I would do something stupid or impulsive... Or didn't know how to protect myself.

Mary and I follow them closely. The girl is delighted looking at the hieroglyphs on the walls; she must be interested in the subject. I, for my part, also look at them at first. They remind me of the ones in the pyramids on Earth. But then I focus more on Ronan, raising an eyebrow every time I catch him looking at me, while also trying to listen in on the conversation of the two redheads. I feel like joining them, but as a mage, I've been placed in the rearguard. If they really think I'm not going to join the fray when there's a fight, they're in for a surprise.

I casually rest my hands on the straps of my backpack, where the little wolf is sleeping comfortably in his usual pocket. He's there instead of in my jacket pocket because neither I nor anyone in the group is wearing the academy uniform, but rather clothes more suitable for combat. And I love that he's sleeping, I consider it a good sign. This dungeon is earth and fire, nothing to do with darkness. The seed of evil won't be able to mess with me again.

Finally, closing the march, walks Theodore, who at first looked with some distrust at the dungeon entrance that is being left behind.

The corridor, much wider than I would expect from a pyramid and well-lit by the large number of torches, stretches into the distance. This pyramid is truly gigantic. We reach a large white stone slab that is placed from the ceiling to the floor on the right wall. The hieroglyphs are then interrupted, with the change of material in the passage. Undoubtedly, this catches my attention because it doesn't seem like that slab is part of the corridor as such.

Suddenly, about fifty meters from the entrance, the attack begins. A swarm of scorpions drops onto the first two skeletons, relentlessly stinging them with their tails. They aren’t giant but rather small, the typical size of a scorpion on Earth. The skeletons halt their advance, standing motionless while still monitoring their assigned areas. Ronan's undead are composed entirely of bone. Although the scorpions relentlessly sting them, their efforts only result in venom staining the skeletons' clothing. The archer skeleton calmly draws a dagger and begins dispatching the scorpions one by one, while Darius laughs and tells Vincent it was a brilliant idea. Ronan, however, appears concerned. Sensing this, Vincent places a reassuring hand on his shoulder and thanks him for bringing the skeletons.

Once all the scorpions are dead, we start hearing a clacking sound that makes us all focus our gazes down the corridor. We see several skeleton warriors running towards us. Joe starts shooting arrows at them, but Ronan tells him it's useless, that they won't be very effective. Darius stands next to Tom, along with Vincent, blocking the width of the corridor with their shields ready.

"We will hold them back, finish them off," the prince tells us.

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If we can, I think to myself, because there's no way I can reach with my sword.

Bob, who is right behind, attacks the heads of the enemies with his spear, over the shields. Joe starts pushing Tom so he doesn't back down from the onslaught of the enemies. Alistair, with his two-handed mace, can't reach the skeletons. It's the same for me.

"I'm saving my magic for healing as I was told, right?" Mary asks me hesitantly.

"What else do you have?"

"Heals and some blessings."

A couple of months ago, this girl had no less than 10 in intelligence and 9 in wisdom while being level 1. I hope she's at least level 2 by now, but come on, she must have 9 or 10 mana points at most.

"Better wait, your mana could be vital to save the lives of the wounded."

I don't think Mary carries mana potions, but the prince and his two noble friends surely do. If things get ugly, she should cast some blessings.

For now, we just watch. I imagine Theodore is in the same situation as me: a fire arrow, the equivalent of water in his case, will do little damage and only to a single target. Better to save our mana for area spells when our allies are not in the middle. Time passes and more and more skeletons keep coming. At first, they could hold them back without problems, but now with each minute, it becomes more difficult. The number of skeletons is very high. The prince and Darius must be feeling overwhelmed.

I imagine so, because suddenly Vincent shouts:

"Theodore, on the count of three, we drop to the ground, and you finish them off!"

You can tell they’re friends and are used to exploring dungeons together.

Darius and Vincent look at each other as they gather courage, and the countdown begins. Theodore moves ahead of Mary and me. Alistair steps aside.

"One!"

The skeletons are starting to drag them back, their heels sliding across the ground centimeter by centimeter.

"Two!"

They hold tightly to their shields.

"Three!"

Before Vincent finishes pronouncing the word, Darius, Tom, Joe, and Bob crouch abruptly, dropping to the ground along with the prince.

Wow. The skeletons too. These are not summoned, but reanimated from their corpses. Aren't they supposed to be mere puppets? Did Ronan clearly order them to obey the prince? A shiver runs down my spine. Or is it something more?

The moment they fall and the horde begins to advance on them, a huge high-pressure jet of water destroys all the skeletons that were in the corridor. It's a jet that only lasts a few seconds but has an overwhelming force, enough to tear off and split the bones of the skeletons, even bending some of their shields.

Darius starts laughing as he gets up.

"Well done, friend," Vincent congratulates the mage.

Meanwhile, the three skeletons get up and recover their initial positions. Both Mary and I join in congratulating Theodore.

"It was nothing," he tells us, but you can see on his face that he feels satisfied.

I imagine that spell must be the one you get when you fully master the splash or the basic water spell you start with. Skeletons don't have many hit points, so the spell didn't have to do too much damage to defeat them all.

As a side effect of the flood of water, the corridor that opens before us is now dark; it's only slightly illuminated by the torches we have behind us. However, we can make out that in the distance, quite far away, there is light. It possibly comes from more torches, those that the water has not reached.

Ronan tries to grab one of the nearest torches from the wall unsuccessfully.

"Should I use a light spell?" Mary asks.

"Yes, please," Vincent replies.

One thing that had me worried was that Ronan, as he did with the goblins, would try to take the lead. I saw him so set in his role in the forest that I already cataloged him as a natural leader. However, here he limits himself to staying in the background. He doesn't realize it, but I look at him and mentally thank him.

After a few seconds, during which Mary extends her staff forward and murmurs some words, the tip of the staff begins to glow brightly, emitting a powerful light that dispels much of the gloom in the corridor.

We continue advancing without further problems until we reach the entrance of a large room. During the journey, we have passed more of those strange white slabs, on one or both sides of the walls.

From where we stand, we can see that inside there are two rows of large, tall columns that divide the chamber into three connected sections, forming a central hallway that leads to the raised part of the room. This is a podium, accessed by three wide steps. There waits a naga warrior with a sword in each hand.

Half-man, half-snake, we can appreciate that his human part, uncovered, is very muscular. He would put the most doped bodybuilders on Earth to shame. And that’s not all: at a glance, he stands about two and a half to three meters tall. If we include the tail, which is green and covered in scales, it could reach up to six or eight meters long. His humanoid head reminds me of a cobra, with golden eyes that have vertical pupils, a forked tongue, and crests that start where his ears should be, running down both sides of his muscular neck.

Evidently, we stop when we see him.