Orrin wasn’t sure if the Twin Book of Sending worked in the dungeon. He waited until Iona fell asleep against Rhys before taking it out of his [Dimension Hole] and scribbling a quick message to Annabella.

Orrin woke both Rhys and Iona up after two hours. By his best guess, they were a few hours late for a normal check-in after the dungeon run. The school administration would wait a few more hours before worrying about them. Orrin didn’t know if Annabella would read his note or be able to react in time.

He also hoped that Graem might attempt a rescue earlier given his prediction of an attack on Rhys but decided to not trust in either of them. He was going to do this on his own.

Rhys groaned as he woke from his short nap. His age and privilege showed the longer he was inconvenienced. He demanded they wait and eat before heading out, which Orrin didn’t mind. He made Orrin and Iona leave the hidey-hole first so he could go to the bathroom in it, which Orrin found disgusting.

When he told Iona to close up the newly-dubbed bathroom with her magic, Orrin stepped in. “That’s enough. She shouldn’t waste her mana on something so trivial. Go outside like everyone else next time.”

Rhys might have argued but Orrin used his magic and everyone disappeared from view.

The Skylight Anglers decreased in number and patrols as they got closer to their target. After the [Camouflage Ward] wore off the fifth time, Orrin crouched and tugged the rope they all held. Iona ducked down as well but Rhys stood over them, one hand in his pocket and the other holding his glaive like a walking stick.

“There aren’t any Anglers nearby so I’m going to save some mana for now,” Orrin explained. He ripped some grass from a thinned-out area and used his hand to smooth a portion of the ground out. Drawing a rough map on the ground, he marked where the entrance had been before it was destroyed and their current location. “Rhys, do you know if we’re still going in the right direction? I think it’s been about two hours.”

Rhys’s robe was dirtied with Angler blood from the Anglers, grass stain, and the dirt he’d napped on, but standing there over him, Orrin admitted he was regal. As if it was a favor to Orrin, Rhys sighed and dropped to his eye level. Keeping ahold of his glaive with one hand, he took his other hand out of his pocket and pointed at the map.

“There is supposed to be a small pond in this direction. From there, we should be able to see a lantern to the north. Sometimes a variant of the Skylight Angler will spawn near the lantern. Regular Anglers are stronger under its light. The exit to the saferoom and the seventh floor is there.”

“Would it be safer to go back the way we came?” Orrin asked. “We could try making our way back to the fifth floor and climb back up those stairs on the cliff.”

Rhys shook his head. “Even if we wanted to, the shortcuts are one way. Something about the magic of the dungeons lets us go down through the cracks we find but not back up. I’ll admit that your [Map] skill is more useful than I ever thought it could be. I’ve never heard of making a trek over an entire floor like this without multiple fights.”

Orrin’s [Map] zoomed out as he searched for the pond. “I think there’s some water a few miles to the east. There are a few Anglers around it.”

Rhys stood up. “I’m going to suggest having a member with [Map] in all my future parties. The time saved not wandering around offsets the lack of attack power you bring.”

Orrin wiped the dirt off his hand using his pants as he straightened up. “I do fine on attack power but I agree. There is too much emphasis on taking down monsters fast instead of smart.”

“Explain that,” Rhys demanded as they began to walk.

Orrin ignored the way he asked and launched into the same argument he brought up with Madi multiple times. Current parties were usually built around having five damage dealers. Taking down monsters quickly worked well… until it the monsters were too strong. Specialized teams made more sense in Orrin’s opinion. If a [Healer] was around, fatalities would decrease. Having someone specialized in crowd control would take the pressure off of the damage dealers, letting them take their time killing monsters in waves. A [Cartographer] could avoid groups too large.

“Of course, knowing what you’re walking into is the most important thing. Take this floor for example. The fish are mostly light and water magic. A group of fire users should never come here. Sharing the knowledge about what each floor contains and using waves of our own specialized teams, I don’t see why Odrana couldn’t destroy the entire dungeon.” Orrin waved his arms in a wide gesture. “As pretty as this is, imagine how bad it would be if there was ever a dungeon break. It’s not worth keeping this so near the city. Three Anglers coming from the south.”

They lay down in the grass and waited for Orrin to give the all-clear again.

“The longer it takes to kill a beast, the more stamina or mana a person would use,” Iona whispered, giving the same argument Madi routinely did. “When one person isn’t attacking, the others have to pick up the slack.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Orrin smiled at her through the grass. “Give a [Healer] a spear and let them poke holes in the target. I’m not saying they need to stay away from battle.”

“Do we have an extra spear to give Casimir?” Rhys grumbled. He didn’t like how much sense Orrin was making.

Orrin ignored the barb. He didn’t need to prove anything to Rhys. The fish swam through the air a couple of hundred feet away, not catching sight of them and moving out of range a few minutes later. “Let’s go.”

Orrin angled their path so they’d overshot the pond. After another twenty minutes, Iona pointed to the ceiling.

“Lantern.”

Orrin squinted against the light. The entire ‘sky’ was bright but an intense haze in one spot was obvious once pointed out.

“That’s a lantern?”

“Some floors have more,” Rhys explained as they walked. He looked better after his rest. “The monsters travel to them daily.”

“Why?”

Rhys rolled his eyes. “Who knows? Does it matter?”

Orrin could think of a few reasons it might. If the lantern was a source of nourishment or refreshment and he destroyed it, would the monsters of the entire floor become weak? Would they all die immediately? Maybe destroying it would make all the Anglers stronger.

Another question nobody seems to care to know the answer to.

Orrin could see the pond to their south without his [Map] now. It was far enough away that the few Anglers circling in the air were out of range to attack them but close enough that Orrin could see the water moving. That’s weird. I wonder why a pond has waves?

He also realized the lantern they were approaching created a wide dome. It didn’t seem that large from a distance but as they entered its range, Orrin peered left and right. It covered a large area of the dungeon floor.

“Has anyone tried to attack a lantern before…” Orrin trailed off as something caught his eye. “Get down!”

Orrin kept [Map] up to the side for most of their trek and had only seen the red dots of the Skylight Anglers until now. A blue dot now stood out on the edge of his screen.

“Sloane or Hamish is near the door,” Orrin whispered when Rhys and Iona army crawled to him. “Wait here, I’m going to go and check who it is.”

“We can all go,” Iona said with a raging fury in voice. “I have some questions for whoever survived.”

Orrin knew a dead party member would remain in the party until the leader removed them. The names Hamish and Sloane continued to sit above his own on the party tab of his Status box. “I can escape if I need to. If they attack, you need to get Rhys through to the next floor and then escape. Find Professor Graem.”

“We are not going to let you fight alone,” Rhys said as Iona nodded along. “You saved us. Either we all go or none of us go.”

Orrin wanted to sneak up and incapacitate whoever was waiting by the door. Rhys and Iona couldn’t know how often he could cast his debuff spells or they might start asking questions. His execution wasn’t that long ago and the wrong rumors going about could tip off Lord Sanerris that his mother was not doing as requested. He was about to argue more when Iona reached out and put her hand on his in the grass.

“Casimir, I don’t know you well. Lady Tonsa told us to join this dungeon raid. She received information that someone with powerful connections would be here.”

“Iona!”

“Shut up, Rhys. It’s obviously him,” Iona said as she squeezed Orrin’s hand. “We’re here for you. I don’t know who you know or why it was important to Lady Tonsa that we connect with you but you saved my life. You saved Rhys’s life, even if he won’t admit it. Even after the attack, you stuck with us. I don’t care about your connections. Rhys and his mother do but at this point, with more danger in front of us, let me be the one to stand in front. If you get the chance, push Rhys through the door and go back to Goldenhall with him.”

Orrin tried to process the information Iona just dropped on him. He felt the cold creep of his skill trying to turn back on and pushed it down. Annabella said she set up an opportunity at great cost. I thought she meant getting me into the dungeon but what if she put Rhys in my party for us to get closer?

He rubbed his temples. This is why Daniel hated riddles. What cost would she pay to get Rhys and him in the same group? Was he just supposed to fight alongside Rhys? Annabella knew Orrin had fought against her son and survived. She knew a little about his skills and spells. Did she know that an assassination attempt was coming too? Maybe I was sent to keep Rhys alive.

“We will not leave you behind,” Rhys said passionately. “The three of us can take down one person.”

“Enough,” Orrin said holding up a hand. “I’m thinking.”

Orrin waited for them to argue and felt silly when they both stood quietly waiting. “Damn, now I lost my train of thought. It doesn’t matter. We all get through this. We can sneak by whoever it is. We don’t need to take down anyone.”

“Leaving an enemy behind us is asking for death,” Iona pointed out. “Can you use that slow-down spell you used on the Anglers?”

Orrin ignored her probe and asked a question in return. “What did you learn about that coin, Rhys?”

The young man had spent the walk with one hand in his pocket. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he was holding on to the silver coin that tracked them.

“I’ve been able to interpret the receiving magic.”

Orrin raised an eyebrow. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Iona blew a short chuckle of air through her nose.

“The coin is a tracker. Another item is keyed to receive the signal sent from the coin. When the two get close, I should be able to exchange the magic in both so the coin becomes the receiver. Then whoever is holding the original receiver will have a very bad day.”

Orrin’s mouth went dry at the depth of hatred in Rhys’s eyes. Someone had come after him and Iona and the young man was ready for revenge.

“It’s not here in the dungeon, though?” Orrin confirmed. Rhys shook his head. “Good. Here’s the plan. We move forward until we see who it is. I’m guessing Iona will see them first. We’ll backtrack and figure out what to do from there. The last thing we need is to attack someone who might be a friend. Even if it turns out one of them was the one who set this up, they might have another spell that could take out the gate. We need to avoid that at all costs. I don’t want to live here for days.”

Rhys grumbled but agreed. Orrin cast [Camouflage Ward] and made sure his stats were still buffed. They didn’t know what they were walking into.

Hamish or Sloane?

Friend or enemy?