– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 215, Season of the Setting Sun, Day 1 –

The group was slowly walking towards a passageway into the next room. Elena continued to carry the silent Gellath on her back. Fortunately, the rooms after their face-off with the inscribed earth giant had been familiar again. The layouts were the same as on their way down. The creatures were roughly the same as well.

“So, what are those items?” asked Siling.

The group had split up the dungeon reward before – eight identical inscribed rings and eight identical inscribed daggers with scabbards. However, none of them had checked the use yet.

“They don’t seem like self-sustaining or permanently active items.” Siling curiously examined the inscribed ring in her palm.

Terry sunk his mana into his own inscribed ring – an inscribed item suggested its own use when mana was channeled into it.

“Hey, careful! What if they’re fiendish items?!” exclaimed Siling. Her exclamation made Gellath tremble on Elena’s back.

“Don’t fiendish items have an aura? These do not.” Terry checked out the sheathed dagger.

“They’re called ‘fiendish’ for a reason. Who is to say that auras can’t be cloaked, too?”

“Uhh…” Terry had not considered that possibility. “Fair point. Luckily, these items carry regular activation inscriptions.”

“And?”

“The ring allows me to place markers – up to five. It then allows me to visualize the markers in relation to each other.”

“Could be the five-point inscription,” remarked Jorg without turning around. In the past, Jorg would have excitedly jumped around Terry and checked out the ring. Now, however, he was not in any mood for such things. “They’re frequently recommended for dungeon divers to deal with labyrinths. You can mark your entrance location, relevant waypoints, and the last fork. Then you can compare your current location and always find the path back.”

“Mine goes to the sell pile,” murmured Siling.

“The scabbard requires a touch of mana in order to release the dagger,” said Terry.

“That’s a common safety inscription,” commented Lori. “Prevents losing your dagger or accidentally stabbing yourself when rolling around.”

“The dagger is weird,” continued Terry. “It only suggests infusing mana into it. I don’t notice any effect except that the dagger appears slightly bigger – but only in mana sight.”

“Oh?” exclaimed Lori, and checked out her own dagger. “That’s the keen inscription! The injected mana forms a mana blade to extend the actual blade.”

“And another one for the sell pile,” mumbled Siling flatly.

“Alright, detailed inspections for later,” said Terry. “Let’s get out of this dungeon first.”

***

“Clear,” said Terry.

“Clear,” echoed Siling.

Tiana nodded and raised her hand to signal everyone to enter the room.

Terry, Tiana, and Miguel went first.

Siling, Elena, and Gellath followed next. Elena was still carrying Gellath. Aside from a few whimpers, the dwarf was completely silent. He trembled from time to time and always hid behind the barrier shield.

Lori and Jorg stuck close to them and spread further out to cover their flanks.

Siling’s wiremoss tarantula soul spirit brought up the rear. Its tremor sense, sticky fluid, and needle-hair ranged attack had proven valuable in that position.

Lori used Raise Wall and Harden Earth to block the exit leading deeper into the dungeon. Afterwards, the wiremoss tarantula reinforced the structure with its metal-aspect-reinforced wire threads and its sticky liquid.

Of course, the dungeon could inject its own mana to take control of the wall and tear it down – if it so wished. So far, however, the dungeon core demonstrated no further intention to interfere with their ascendance.

Despite all appearances, they could not help but steal anxious glances at the earthen wall. Even though these impromptu barricades were far from indestructible, they eased everyone’s nerves. Every wall emphasized the group had progressed further on their path to safety.

They were making steady progress, but everyone was exhausted and remained on edge. Fortunately, the pressure had already fallen a lot. They had cleared the previous two rooms with ranged attacks coordinated through Terry’s mana sense and Siling’s life sense.

They continued up towards the next floor.

“Emphasized-aspect creatures back left,” said Terry. “Some cores immediately after the corner on the right. Smaller cores around the walls.”

“Life signatures from the back on the left – so probably slimes,” added Siling. “Small life signatures from the walls – probably flash geckos again. No life from the others.”

“Dungeon constructs,” muttered Terry.

Siling nodded. “Not very large, according to Pricklybum’s tremor estimate. We are getting close to the surface. Should be the goblin lookalikes.”

“I hate these blinding lizards,” grumbled Miguel.

“At least they’re weak,” said Siling. “Terry, any of the slimes seem the lightning type?”

Terry closed his eyes and focused on his mana sense. “Don’t think so, no. Weak fire, weak poison, ice, but no lightning.”

“The fire one is annoying, but…” Siling pondered loudly. “If we don’t mind damaging the cores, then Pricklybum can be the vanguard. The flash does not affect it and its urticating hairs should be enough for the geckos.”

“I doubt anyone could care less about monster cores at this point,” said Terry.

“Hear, hear!” exclaimed Miguel, and the others nodded.

Tiana exchanged places with the wiremoss tarantula soul spirit and took position next to the barricaded exit.

The soul spirit activated its metal coating, crawled up to the corner, and then charged into the next room. Inside, it kicked off the barbed needle-like hairs from its back in all directions.

The geckos were quickly dealt with. Even a few of the dungeon constructs and slimes had their cores shattered.

A few small ice spikes impacted on the wiremoss tarantula’s metal coating with little effect.

“Geckos are down,” declared Terry.

“Perfect,” exclaimed Miguel. He nocked an aspected arrow and activated the barrier imprint in his bracer. He followed the wiremoss tarantula and dealt with the remaining creatures.

Eventually, the group reached the inner mana reservoir dam room. The passage door provided a secure wall for their backs and they only had to watch the entrance leading deeper into the dungeon.

Once they had fortified their position, everyone harvested mana in order to hasten the door’s opening. While Siling and Jorg, as the main healers, had to restrain themselves somewhat, Terry could make good use of his mana foundation. To further hasten the process, Terry even retrieved some mana containers from his dimensional bag and dumped the stored naturalized mana into the room.

The seconds ticked by…

After a few minutes, the passage door finally moved.

“Clear.”

Even though there should be no dungeon creatures beyond the reservoir door, checking had become a reflex by now.

Terry and Siling stood aside in order to let Miguel, Jorg, and Elena’s group through first. They had grown very wary. It was better to evacuate Gellath first and they should have some support per moving group as well as one healer. Siling as the main healer remained on the side of the dungeon. Just to be prepared. Just in case.

To everyone’s relief, nothing happened. Terry and the others followed without further incidents.

They were out.

Thank mana!

The sky was dark. Despite the barrier’s background illumination, some stars remained visible.

Siling let herself fall to the ground. “Let’s not do that again.”

Elena let Gellath down. Her eyes were full of concern.

“Th-thank y-you.” The poor dwarf was still extremely pale, damp with sweat, and trembling uncontrollably.

“Anytime.” Elena wanted to say some comforting words, but she felt at a loss. Seeing the pitiful dwarf’s complexion made her stomach drop.

Jorg and Miguel hurried over to Gellath’s side.

Tiana stepped to Elena and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Good job! Thank you.” This jolted Jorg as well. He and Miguel, too, expressed their gratitude to Elena.

“It would take us several hours to get to an inn,” said Tiana. “How about we set up camp instead? Rest a bit and then we depart in the morning.”

The group agreed and soon there were several tents, summoned seats, blankets, as well as a fire for them to gather around. Bjorln had always nagged Terry and the twins to carry supplies for a proper campfire in their dimensional bags – a shovel to dig a hole, some stones to line the hole, and dry wood.

Terry joined the others at the fire.

Miguel and Jorg were sitting with Gellath between them. Occasionally, they put their arm around Gellath’s shoulders to soothe him. Gellath seemed better, but still far from good.

“If I see that little pest beetle again, I am going to light an arrow up his arse,” growled Miguel.

“I’ll add one of Grumpy’s bowel movements to that,” said Siling.

“Come on, Alrik could not know what would happen,” protested Lori weakly.

“So WHAT?!” roared Miguel. He noticed Gellath wince next to him and he lowered his voice again. “I do not give a hoot what he knew. It’s what the little pus pellet did.”

“He abandoned his group in the dungeon,” said Tiana. “That is inexcusable.”

“He probably thought we would follow immediately afterwards,” retorted Lori. “Why wouldn’t we? We all had the scrolls. He couldn’t have known that one would fail.”

“Nah, Alrik probably hoped we would take our sweet time so that he can quickly get away with his beloved purple mana crystal,” sneered Siling. “That thing seemed more valuable to him than us.”

“Th-that’s not fair!”

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“Then why isn’t Alrik here?” questioned Terry. “If he thought we would follow right after him, why wasn’t he here waiting for us? Why did it not worry him when we did not come out? Why aren’t there people here looking for us?”

“Because we wanted to keep this a secret!”

“Funny,” snarled Miguel. “Alrik did not seem to care very much about what we wanted when he left us in the dungeon. How considerate of him to conveniently remember only the parts that benefit himself.”

“Alrik wasn’t the only one who wanted to enter the dungeon!”

“No, but he was the only one that wanted to leave without the rest of the group,” retorted Tiana.

Lori wore a conflicted expression and shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Suit yourself,” grumbled Miguel.

Silence followed. Eventually, Tiana turned to Elena, who was sitting next to her. “You did a good job there dodging with Gellath.”

“Th-thanks Elena,” muttered Gellath. His shaky voice inspired a fresh wave of pity and concern among the group.

“I realize it may not be my place to say, but…” Tiana considered her words. “Elena, you seem to do better without bursting.”

Elena grimaced.

“I agree,” said Miguel. “Your situational awareness is excellent as long as you keep your wits. I doubt—”

“Stop it!” snapped Elena. “You have no idea! None of you does!”

“Please, explain it to us,” insisted Tiana calmly.

Elena seemed close to tears. “Do you know how people look at me when they hear that I have blood-aspected mana? No matter what I do, people only think of me as a berserker!”

Jorg cringed.

“If I burst, then people treat me as a berserker. If I don’t burst, then people treat me as a weak berserker! In their minds, I always go berserk.”

“Elena,” said Lori softly. “That—”

“I don’t have any neat abilities like life sense. My mana control is still insufficient for spellwork. I have nothing else! Bursting is all I got!” Elena took a deep breath and shook her head. She looked into Lori’s eyes. “If I had not relied on bursts, I would not have won the duel against you, Lori.”

This time, it was Lori’s turn to cringe and wince. She had often regretted holding try-outs to find their third companion. Mostly because it had left Lori feeling weak after her loss. She had always identified herself with her strength and ability. The loss had lowered not only her own opinion of herself but also the opinion of her first chosen companion. It had placed her as the weakest member of her own group, which had naturally made her feel insecure and increasingly miserable.

However, there was one thing that Lori felt would feel even more miserable: The thought of admitting that her first attempt to form her own group had ended in a failure, especially the thought of admitting it to her mother.

“I need the increase in combat power,” stressed Elena. “Combat power is the only reason I even found a group, especially a competent and comparatively nice group, even with a mage proper for healing. Lori, you are the first companion that did not treat me as a ticking time bomb. Alrik may be a pus weasel, but he is also an excellent healer and if I am to burst, then I need a healer around.”

Elena grimaced and shook her head again. “Without my combat power, I would never have found a way into— What am I supposed to do?!”

“Elena,” started Lori. “You’re my best friend. I love having you in the group. Waste the bursts. I do not care.” She truly did not. Whenever Lori had felt down and disappointed with her own relative weakness, Elena had been there to cheer her up.

Lori hated her past self, because she knew she might not have given Elena a chance as a companion without the try-outs. Just another reason she felt miserable. She didn’t feel deserving of Elena’s comfort. Elena’s comforting words hurt. Alrik’s harsh words, by contrast, resonated with her. Not only was he their group’s leader, his words mirrored how she felt about herself.

Elena smiled at Lori, but the smile was bitter. “I know you don’t, Lori, but Alrik does. And when it comes down to it, you always seem to follow Alrik’s lead.”

The words were like a bucket of ice water for Lori. They smacked the words right out of her mouth and made her feel ashamed. She had felt frustrated for a long time and had worried about being too weak for her group – worried that Alrik would see her as a burden.

All this time, she had been afraid of being cast out.

All this time, she had gone to Elena for comfort.

Never had she realized that Elena was suffering from the same pressure as herself.

“There are people willing to give one a chance regardless of the stereotypes,” murmured Siling to herself.

“It is undeniable that combat power helps, true,” acknowledged Tiana. “However, combat power alone would not have others group up with you for this long, no matter how powerful you may be.”

Lori nodded.

“You can take my word on that,” added Tiana in a mumble.

Lori moved closer to Elena and gave her a hug. “I’m so sorry, Elena. Forgive me. I did not realize. I never meant for you to feel this way.” She still resented the idea of having her first group end in failure, but with Elena at her side, it did not feel that terrible a possibility anymore.

“Bursting is only a preview of the combat power you can attain anyway,” said Tiana with a shrug. “Continue training and your baseline power in the future will be more powerful than your bursts are now. Paired with your judgement, you would be a valuable companion for any group with brains enough to work with you.”

“You’re not as alone as you might think,” muttered Miguel. “There may not be many blood-aspected cultivators, but you could visit the fire-aspected trainees in the Guardians. Bursting with fire-aspected mana can be—”

Miguel grimaced. “…let’s just say it does not lose out to the blood aspect in terms of suicidal or involuntary homicidal results. It does not affect the cultivator’s mind as much, but it is extremely difficult to control a fire-aspected burst. Once started, you may not be able to stop. None of the fire-aspected trainees are allowed to burst their mana. Myself included.

“Honestly, Elena, I believe you’re comparing yourself to the wrong crowd.” Miguel glanced around. “Seriously, our groups are mostly abnormal to begin with.

“Lori? Single-aspected, sure, but she’s a beast in combat. Heck, even knuckle-brain Jorg is. They practically had private tutoring from two Guardian instructors every day of their lives. That’s hardly normal.

“Terry? Former Academy mage and mana foundation freak extraordinaire.”

“Student, not mage,” interjected Terry.

“Tomato potato,” retorted Miguel. “Siling? Spirit-gifted mage proper. Collector of mana abilities. Comes with a carefully curated assortment of pets. I’m willing to bet that she was already memorizing mana-corrupted creatures when I was still learning to count my toes.”

“My mom is a Guardian, too,” muttered Siling.

“Tiana?” Miguel looked over and paused. “I can only imagine a doctor trying to slap the buttocks of baby Tiana on the day she was born. Legend has it that baby Tiana dodged. Because of course she did.”

Terry snorted and chuckled.

“I’ve heard that baby Tiana wrestled the doctor to the ground,” interjected Siling. “Then she led the rest of the nursery to take control of the hospital. Because of course she did.”

Tiana squinted at Siling and stuck out her tongue.

“Totally normal, right?” Miguel moved his eyes back to Elena. “You, Gellath, and I may be the only normal folks here.” He glanced at Gellath. “As long as we’re ignoring Gellath’s abnormal sense of humor, that is.”

Gellath smiled weakly in response.

“My mana control is barely sufficient for a coldfire variant of the Flickering Candle spell,” continued Miguel. “My coldfire resistance is enough to handle aspected items, but it is far from enough to use bursts safely. If I were to burst, I would freeze myself to a crisp in less than a minute.” He sighed and added in a murmur: “Probably others of the group as well.”

Tiana sympathized. “I remember my older brother going through his lightning-resistance practice every day. I will never forget his pained expression when zapping himself. Every day. For years.”

“Exactly! It will be a long time before I can consider incorporating bursts.” Miguel shrugged. “No spellwork. No bursts.” He paused and looked at Tiana. “And I would give a talented toddler equal odds to beat me in melee.”

“Odds on the toddler,” muttered Gellath.

“Oh good! You’re getting back to normal.” Miguel patted Gellath on the shoulder. Miguel had to force himself to smile. Gellath still seemed far from his usual self. The contrast was painful.

Miguel swallowed and reordered his thoughts. “Whenever my pa and I get the chance, we cook dinner together and talk about our hunts. When he tells me about the pheasants, the rabbits, or the occasional wolf, it reminds me of how much of an advantage I already have.”

Miguel made eye contact with Elena. “You’re a brilliant companion as long as you keep your head. Can’t speak for others, but I would be happy to team up with you anytime. We can form a no-bursts-allowed squad.” He scrunched up his face. “Although I could not even heal a paper-cut if my life depended on it. So we may want to keep Gellath and Jorg around to cheer us on.”

Jorg snorted. “Sure, let me fetch my pom-poms.”

Lori clung to Elena’s arm. “No snatching companions. Elena is with me.”

Elena smiled and wiped some tears away.

“Then make sure she gets treated right,” mumbled Miguel quietly before continuing in a louder voice. “Anyway, sorry for using the b-word before. I apologize if it made you feel as if I was not willing to give you a chance.”

“I’m sorry, too.” Jorg spoke up. He glanced around – Elena, Terry, Miguel. “For many things.”

Jorg was afraid to look at Gellath, because he felt helpless when faced with his friend’s pitiful appearance. Jorg recoiled from the knowledge that he himself had led Gellath to this pitiful state. A moment later, Jorg felt ashamed at his cowardice – ashamed of not even bearing to see the consequences of his own actions.

“Dungeon work was a terrible idea. Gellath, I—” Jorg tightened his arm that rested around Gellath’s shoulders. Finally, he mustered up the resolve to look at his friend’s face. “I should have never dragged you here. Nama. It’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s not,” objected Terry, who was staring into the fire. “It was our fault. Just like with the bounty hunt. We worked as a group. Not even Alrik, the little pest beetle, is solely responsible. Our fault. All of us. I should have refused. I should have blocked your path. I should have contacted Ma and Pa as soon as Alrik brought up the secret dungeon. It was my fault that I did not.”

Jorg sighed and stared into the fire.

“At least now that we’re out again, we don’t have to tell them,” remarked Lori. She could already hear her mother’s disapproving reprimands. Her stomach turned when she imagined Isille’s disappointed look reserved for lecturing a foolish child. If Isille heard about the secret dungeon work, Lori would not be able to live this down for a long time – or at least, that was what Lori feared.

“What?!” exclaimed Terry. “Of course we do!”

Jorg paled and became wide-eyed. He had not thought about that yet. He could deal with his mother’s disapproval or disappointment. Jorg was used to it from his lackadaisical spellwork training. He also understood that his mother’s words often seemed much harsher than her feelings. No, for him, it was something else that he feared.

Jorg balked at the image of his father when he would hear about dungeon work – secret dungeon work, no less. Memories from their talks on the introduction class flashed through his mind: His father’s look when they told him. The smile that disappeared. The voice when he refused. The clenched teeth when they insisted. His trembling voice when he implored them to change their choice. His teary eyes. Oh mana, the eyes…

“Wastes…” whispered Jorg.

“B-but why?” asked Lori. “What’s done is done. What good will telling them do?”

“Have you forgotten about Gellath?” growled Miguel. “He will need help.”

“O-of course, but that—”

“But nothing,” interrupted Miguel.

Jorg clenched his teeth and nodded.

“I agree,” muttered Terry.

“The dungeon squad may also need the information on the spatial anomaly,” interjected Tiana. “Or whatever caused the spell failures for the Recall spell. They should be made aware of that.”

“I would also like to prevent Alrik from leading another unsuspecting group into his secret dungeon,” said Siling. “From how he has acted, I would not put it past him. That dungeon should not stay secret.”

“Couldn’t we—” started Lori.

“NO!” Terry interrupted with a shout. “I could not. Not a good liar, remember? ‘Honest face’? And you know what?! After everything that happened, I think I prefer it that way. Nothing good has ever come from lying to the people that care about me.” He shook his head and frowned. “And I hate lying to the people that I care about. I’ve had enough of this.”

Terry rarely got angry, and this loud outburst took the group by surprise.

Lori grimaced and shook her head, but she offered no rebuttal.

Shocked by his own tone of voice, Terry lowered his gaze to his own feet. “And I want to know what I could have done better. I want their advice. I want to hear their ideas.”

“On the bright side,” interjected Jorg, “When Ma Isille hears the story, she may take the initiative to feed Alrik to a vortex hamster. There is that, at least.”

Siling and Miguel snorted and laughed.

“I can take some comfort in that while I am being grounded for life.” Jorg smiled wryly.

“Let’s hope we get visiting rights,” joked Miguel. “I want to check on your spellwork progress now that you will finally have the time to practice.”

“Hmph.” Jorg looked unamused. He shrugged. “Could be worse. I’ll accept whatever they come up with.” He glanced at Gellath and murmured: “Whatever punishment they come up with, it pales to what could have happened.”

Like this, the group sat for a while. They chatted, ate a bit, and tried to expel the remnant adrenaline so that they could rest. Eventually, they slowly separated and moved towards their tents.

They had set up some wards that would alert them if anyone was approaching their camp. Siling had also assigned her bloody frogmouth soul spirit to look out for new life signatures in the area and wake her in case of anything large.

When Terry was about to enter his tent, he was held back by Siling grabbing onto his arm.

“Sorry,” said Siling.

“What for?” Terry scrunched up his face.

“For voting to go into the dungeon.”

“Like I said, that was not any individual’s fault. We acted as a group.”

“I know, but I still wanted to say it.”

Terry raised his eyebrows. “If anything, it is I who should be sorry. I asked you. I chose to follow my whaka. I dragged you into this. I am sorry.”

“‘Not any individual’s fault. We acted as a group,’” echoed Siling. She smirked with self-satisfaction.

As if she had planned for me to say this.

Terry smiled back at her. “‘I know, but I still wanted to say it.’”

They wished each other a good night, and Terry entered his tent. He was too exhausted to care about his armor or other equipment. He simply laid down on his bedroll and went to sleep.

Not long after everyone had gone to sleep, one mana signature disappeared from the camp…

***