Yawnnn.

Glenn stretched lazily while looking at the departing twin moons, soon replaced by an orange sun flooding the quarry of its light. The young man quietly enjoyed the sunrise, his mind and body at peace in a rare instance. Returning to the Third Circle took a load off his mind, filling him with excitement for what would follow.

"Shit..."

Well, moderate excitement. Glenn rubbed the corner of his eyes, grumbling annoyingly.

'Why didn't I use my time to rest, instead of testing my fucking magic? I'm exhausted...' Glenn's muscles protested as he pushed himself up, watching the camp's awakening. Lefeivre and Reed, respectively the leaders of the working force and the mercenary troupe were the first awake, soon followed by their subordinates. Maron stayed in his carriage, safely hidden behind thick curtains. It had been a while since anyone saw a hint of the merchant's existence since he was eating in his cabin, refusing to see anyone.

The corner of Glenn's lips rose as he suddenly thought of a good idea. He jumped down from his perch, reflexively trying to summon a magic platform to slow his fall, only to fail miserably. He crashed on the floor ridiculously, rolling for a few meters in a mix of curses and grunts. The young man rose back up to his feet, quickly verifying that no one saw the spectacle he inadvertently gave, before dusting off his shoulders and walking off as if everything was fine.

'Wait...I think I just figured all that censored shit in your brain...' Diamanes suddenly said, startling his host. A cold bead of sweat slid down Glenn's back when he heard those words.

'Crap...' The young man gulped.

'You've somehow managed to censor out the fact that you...' Diamanes paused gravely, his tone extremely serious, '...That you were a clown in the past!'

Glenn's stress died out as fast as it appeared, his eyes widening in surprise. He blinked, chuckling in confusion.

"What...?"

Diamanes passed his tongue over his teeth, before smacking his lips.

'I mean, there can only be one explanation as to why you're just a constant running gag of failure,' Diamanes explained in a detached tone, not noticing the strange glint in his host's eyes when he pronounced that last word. Glenn rubbed his chin, before sighing loudly, tragedy drawing over his face.

"Oh no! You've uncovered this terrible truth about my hidden past! Oh, dear sarcastic hand, may you accept this servant's plea and not reveal this horrible secret to my peers?" Glenn performed the best act of his life, succeeding in making Diamanes lose his tongue. The entity fazed out for a few minutes, before coming to his senses.

'...Damn, where the hell did you hide the Oscar?' Diamanes scoffed, only earning a gaze filled with pity from his host.

"Poor soul...He is unable to understand the magnificence and beauty of the art of acting!" Glenn shook his head with obviously faked sadness, a rictus hanging at his lips. Diamanes was so dumbfounded he gave up on their little bickers, an event so rare Glenn felt it right to write it down for history to remember. Diamanes snorted but didn't continue, truly leaving Glenn alone with his thoughts. The young man concentrated back on the main task at hand, which concerned Maron's carriage.

The young man casually jumped on top of said carriage, expecting angry ramblings, but nothing happened. Disappointed, he sat down on the ledge of the carriage, wondering how he could surprise this traumatized merchant.

"Oh, but I know just the trick. I needed to test out something, anyway..." Glenn smiled evilly as he rubbed his hands, Mana twirling over him as he prepared his most recently created spell. The carriage's wheels slowly rose above the ground, floating gently into the air. The young man carefully manipulated gravity as he made the carriage fly into the sky, doing so as gently as possible. He wasn't too worried about Maron jumping off, since he could just catch him with Gravity Manipulation anyway.

Lefeivre chomped on a sausage mindlessly, when a nasty cloud began to block the rising light from hitting his face. He didn't think much about it and only changed spot to enjoy the light, but was soon forced to look at the sky in the exact manner his colleagues were doing. His eyes widened, almost dropping his sausage down from the shock.

Sahro rubbed his eyes as he got out of his tent sleepily when he saw a carriage slowly float above him.

"...What...?" The Black Heir blinked confusedly, rubbing his eyes frenetically until he noticed the familiar figure sitting on the carriage. Sahro snorted as he shook his head, unable to believe his co-worker's foolishness. Glenn continued to make the carriage in the sky, before stopping at a reasonably scary distance. He sighed in satisfaction, before politely knocking on Maron's window.

"Monsieur Maron, breakfast has been served," He said loudly, trying to wake up the lazy merchant. Seeing there were no movements whatsoever, Glenn knocked on the window a little louder, before frowning.

"Shit, is he dead or something? Wait..." The young man hurriedly took out a handful of coins from his dimensional pouch, making them clink and rustle in his hands. The sound of money was the best bait for the kind of animal Maron was.

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But that failed as well. Glenn grumbled as he shoved his coins back in his pouch, angrily tapping his feet against the side of the carriage, hoping to disturb the merchant enough to force him out. After a few minutes without even a single grunt of displeasure coming from the carriage's interior, Glenn decided that he was bored and climbed on the side of the carriage, twisting it in the air at the same time so he could stand right on top of it.

He grabbed the door's handle and forced it open, the flimsy lock unable to block him from doing much. A heavy scent of mud assaulted his nostrils, catching him off guard. Glenn squinted while climbing inside the carriage, whispering a quick Lux to illuminate the interior. It was quite the comfortable-looking carriage, with a wide two-person bed on one side and books lining up on the other. Sheets were piled over and over messily, and cushions had been placed in the most ambiguous places possible.

Nonetheless, the main piece of interest was seemingly not in the carriage. Glenn pulled on the sheets, looking under them, but failed at finding what he searched for.

Maron was not in the carriage anymore. A vein popped up on the young man's forehead as he frantically looked through the carriage, the vehicle trembling in the air for its nervous spectators watching from the ground.

"Shit, shit, how the fuck did this stupid merchant disappear right from under our nose...?!?" Glenn pulled on his hair, unable to believe his eyes. A gust of wind pushed violently on the floating carriage, forcing him to hold himself on the side of the bed to avoid losing his balance. His foot tripped on a loose plank, and a portion of the carriage's floor suddenly fell into the sky. Glenn stared through the wide hole in shock, the workers and mercenaries staring back at him in an equally surprised manner.

A few seconds of silence passed until Glenn hurriedly landed the carriage on the ground, avoiding the spot where it was previously parked. He jumped out of the vehicle, rushing to where the carriage had remained until now. The ground there was seemingly the same as it was in the quarry, flat marble that would warm up with the sun's presence. Glenn frowned and charged his right hand in Mana, thrusting it against the cold marble. The ground shook and carved inward, revealing an expertly dug tunnel that led straight into the depths of Earth, large enough to let one grown man climb through it.

Glenn took a deep breath and looked back at the workers and mercenaries watching nervously. Sahro hurriedly rushed up to him, stopping right beside the hole in confusion.

"Wait...Don't tell me...?" He pointed at the tunnel and then at the now abandoned carriage while pinching his lips. Glenn nodded silently, not even reacting when Javier arrived out of nowhere to stare into the hole alongside them. Finally, after a long minute of silence, Glenn sighed loudly and rolled up his sleeves.

"Lux," A small round ball of light appeared above his palm, gently descending into the hole. The tunnel twisted abruptly at some point, letting him guess that they dug vertically for approximately a dozen meters. There had to be a horizontal one past that descent.

'Geez, this is Prison Break level of kidnapping here. Who would even think of doing that?' Diamanes whistled in amazement inside Glenn's mind, not helping with how irritated he felt. The young man cracked his neck and fists, before glancing at Javier.

"Alright, you stay there and watch over the convoy. I'll go down the hole with Sahro and try to bring back the god damned merchant. In the meantime, keep the operations on here. With a bit of luck, by the time we come back, the workers will have dug up enough Blumar for us to pay our debts off," Glenn ordered. Javier nodded silently, before staring blankly at the mercenaries and workers watching. The onlookers soon busied themselves with whatever they could think of, Javier's dead fish's eyes disturbing them too much.

Sahro rubbed the pommel of his curved sword, before leaning above the hole, trying to peer into it.

"...Alright, you go first then—oh shittttt" Sahro screamed as he fell down the tunnel. Glenn dusted his hands off, smiling with satisfaction.

"Hole in one!" He made a celebratory pose, before jumping down the hole, using the walls to slow down. He soon landed beside a grumbling Sahro who was doing his best to dust off his clothes covered in mud with only one hand. Glenn patted him on the shoulder before looking at the tunnel they were now in. It wasn't large, still only enough for a man to walk through it while standing at all his height.

"Don't fucking do that again!!" Sahro swore, vexed. Glenn ignored him, willing his magical light to guide them in the dark tunnel.

"Perhaps it was the doing of only one man, given the narrowness of the place. A skilled Earth mage could have done it alone easily," the young man surmised, oblivious to the fact that Sahro was staring at the back of his neck with stabbing glances. Glenn carefully proceeded through the tunnel, closely followed by a grumbling Sahro. A sudden noise from the direction they initially came from made the both of them stop. Sahro squinted as he looked back at the tunnel. Suddenly his face paled, and he hurriedly pushed Glenn forward, not letting him see what scared him.

"...What did you see?!?" asked Glenn, but Sahro only persisted in pushing him through the tunnel, forcing him to run as best he could.

"The damn tunnel is—" A loud explosion cut the Black Heir off, encouraging Glenn to run as fast as he could. He was suddenly shoved to the side as a blue streak of electricity shot past him. Glenn swore as he spat off a bit of mud that entered his mouth, trying his best to follow Sahro into the tunnel. The magical light in front of him suddenly dimmed, hinting at a larger space. Glenn huffed as hope ignited in his heart, and he infused his legs with Mana to give himself one last push.

He jumped out of the tunnel, the latter crumbling behind him. Dust and rocks fell on his head, making him lose a heartbeat in fear that wherever they were standing might collapse as well, but after a long minute of waiting, nothing happened. Glenn sighed in relief, before searching for the Black Heir. Sahro was casually drinking from a leather flask, unbothered. Glenn bit down on his lips, before flicking his fingers.

The leather flask suddenly compressed itself as its contents splashed on Sahro's face, startling him.

'I don't know which use of Gravity Manipulation was the silliest, this one or the flying carriage,' Diamanes scoffed in Glenn's mind. Sahro wiped the water off his face, sighing, before looking around at his surroundings. Glenn soon followed his example, casting multiple Lux to help them see better in the darkness.

Glenn's eyes widened and he took a step back in shock. In front of them was a gigantic reservoir where countless Blumar giants were sleeping, rolled into balls. The young man only understood they were giants thanks to the profusion of red crystals shining in the darkness like countless eyes staring at them.

"Shit..." Sahro whispered, his hand tightly wrapped over the hilt of his sword.

Glenn gulped, staring at this terrifying scenery.

He couldn't have said it better.