Come or begone!

For whatever lies beyond,

Thy keys must be found.

"What the—" Roy half-exclaimed.

While we were busy reading and re-reading the hint, because what else could it be. A mana fluctuation caught my attention—the whole property is maybe 40 x 60 meters while the mansion itself is approximately 30 x 25 meters. All are within the range of my Mana Sense—from a distortion in space, seven ghost-like entities manifest. Three ethereal wolf creatures and four ethereal cubs. 'Inspect ' x7.

** DING **

Greater Anima lv 17

Lesser Anima lv 17

3 greater and 4 lesser.

"Incoming!" I warn the others. Instantly, everyone's armor begins gushing out of storage to encompass their user, while at the same time. Roy grins and pulls out a handaxe and a magical shield from the air, while Yuliana and Natasha each prepare a spell and pull out a spear. Meanwhile, Kirana was suddenly barely visible to the naked eye, a scalpel on each hand.

"Be careful," Henry reminds the party. "I'll try to figure out this clue for now."

"I'll help when necessary." I added. Level 17s, better that they get the experience.

They may be outnumbered 7 to 4, but magical gears and great teamwork allowed them to come out on top. Yet, not a second later, the next batch of Animas spawns. Only four this time; three snakes and a python. Then they continued to spawn; 8, 6, 7, 5 enemies, all a mix of small and large animals. I make sure to keep proper watch, less they fall into a dangerous situation. The enemies outlevel them after all.

"I think we're supposed to find a key." Henry said, breaking my focus.

"Wha--oh. You think so?" I replied, still keeping an eye on the battle. And gestured at the garden, "like find them here?"

"Where else, Zen?" He gave me a look that seemed to question my intelligence.

"Hey! Just so you know, I have 496 intelligence!" I replied defensively.

"Guess each point of yours must only be worth a fraction of mine." He replied with a grin. Dammit! "Well, let's start looking."

We divide into two groups, them and me. Also, It did not take us long to notice a pattern; between four to eight new enemies would spawn exactly every five second, a different batch of creature every time, but always level 17.

"You go there," I pointed to the left side of the garden and began walking to the right. Simultaneously a cylinder appears on my left hand, any spawned Animas nearby are easily shot down. Three happened to spawn right in front of me—correction; between three to eight enemies—only to get shot and perish the next instant.

And thus, the search begins!

What felt like 30 minutes has passed and we've still got nothing to show for the effort. Meanwhile the enemies had kept spawning alternatingly between them and I, until about ten minutes ago. No more have spawned since. Which is why we are now searching individually.

"GOT IT!" Roy yelled from the parking lot. Needless to say we all rushed for his location. He is still kneeling on the ground by a car, clearly having just peeked below the seat. His left hand high up in the air, a larger than normal and sturdy looking bronze key held among his thumb and forefinger.

"Nice!"

"Good job"

"Wonder which this one opens"

"Let's find out," Henry said.

We all agree and approach the mansion door. Unfortunately, a glance is all it took to know that; this is not the key we were looking for…

"Your key is in another location." I blurted out, earning me a few nods from everyone and an unamused look from Henry. He's probably the only one who understood the reference.

"Let's keep looking." Kirana told the party, we followed her and separated to continue searching. There has got to be a better way to do this!

I looked around to gauge my position and relocated to what I assume to be the center point of this property. Here, I close my eyes and focus on Mana Sense, all four thoughts of mine. Everything here contains mana; the air is suffused with particles of blue, the ground a little more so. The plants too, albeit with more of a flowing motion, quite like a gentle stream that flows all through them. Humans, instead, have a much more vigorous stream. I methodically comb the garden, beginning with the areas closer to the fence. It did not take me long to feel a distortion within one of the trees, an obstacle that got in the way of its flow. Allowing one mind to lead my movements, and three to continue sensing via Mana Sense.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Unlike the fence key, the key I found inside a tree hollow is more akin to how a standard door key should be in size and shape, albeit one made of gold. While, last but not least, the master key is a silver colored key head that shifts to become one or the other keys depending on where we are in relation to the door or the fence. All keys found, we find ourselves standing before the ornate double door.

"Everyone prepared to enter?" Henry asks the team. "How is your mana and health? Ample preparation is the key to our survival!"

Oh no he didn't…

"I'm good!" Roy replied.

""Me too.""

"Likewise," Kirana answered coolly.

"Me three," I say. "But let's get into position. Roy should take point, to more easily lock the enemy in place. That way, we feel secure and may unleash our whole offensive potential with ease."

All turned to look at me, Henry with an exaggerated squint. "That's taking it too far, kid, even for my standards." Roy quipped.

I shrug, grin, and unlock the door. All three keys dissolved into ambient mana.

A comfy foyer greets our eyes, straight ahead is a lit fireplace, its orange glow creates a warm ambience to the room, two ornate chairs are placed by the fire, each cozily occupied by an ethereal person in hakamas. A guy and a girl that can't be more than 23 years old.

"Welcome guests!" The girl greets us cheerfully while the guy is totally ignoring us, instead choosing to continue relaxing on his seat with both eyes closed. "We would be delighted to have you all join us for tea, if only those pesky, eye-STABBING BULLIES ARE TAUGHT A LESSON THEY WILL NEVER FORGET!"

Her mood, I would say, escalated very quickly. Like, from the bright delightful cutie next door to gloomy evil spirit in a haunted house kinda escalation. From a girl so cute and pretty anyone would date to the monster everyone runs away from.

"We want revenge," the handsome asian guy suddenly interjects. His eyes now looking in our general direction, "an eye for an eye, TWO EYES FOR TWO!"

Together they say, ""we want you to find all fifteen offenders hiding within the first floor of our mansion. Acquire and present to us all fifteen pairs of eyes. LET THEM EXPERIENCE OUR PAINS!!""

** DING **

An eye for an eye

Two eyes for two

Avenge their loss

So dramatic…

We all stood there in stunned silence, while the two stopped caring about our presence and got back to what they were doing before; beauty napping. Our attempts to reply and fish for information were ignored.

"Alright, so the key he---"

"Stop it!" Kirana smacked my head and hissed. Earning her a blank stare from yours truly... Feisty! still don't like it.

"Alrighty. So, we know there are fifteen targets. And we're inside of a mansion, which means~; a library, a study…" Henry began to list a series of rooms, half of which everyone is generally familiar with, while the other half is something not normally found inside of a standard home. The rest of us never actually cared enough to surf the web for a mansion floor plan, so we'll take it, no grain of salt necessary.

We spent ten minutes making plans and playing a guessing game about where fifteen bullies would hide inside of a mansion, questioning why they are even here in the first place... Just Dungeons being Dungeons… Satisfied with a decently solid plan, we depart.

Past the Foyer is an ornate corridor---everything is ornate---that allows passage to both sides, while before us lies another double door. I cant help notice how my Mana Sense fails to penetrate the doors, in fact, I can't feel anything past any doors… not even the Foyer we had just left, with its doors open wide. All that I can Sense are; one, the corridor is rectangle shaped and has a hollow center, and two, there is one hidden enemy. I grin and tell the others, "this'll be quite easy."

Of course a dungeon is never meant to be easy. The moment those words left my mouth, 3 spirits spawned beside us. Then, maybe due to the commotion we made during combat, the hidden bully charged at us, brandishing an Ice Pick!

Slippery or sticky? Hmm~

"Zen, Latent Coating please," someone said. "Adhesives."

Fine… and down it goes.

Guess whose job it is to pull out the eyes while everyone else take care of the spawning ghost monsters? Me and my conjured scalpel, that's who! Unsoil, Unsoil. Into one of my empty pouch the eyes go. There has got to be a faster, easier, and less messy way of doing this. Damn underleveled enemies that justifies anyone else, besides me, being the combatant!

Straight ahead and through the double doors is a high ceiling ballroom that also functions as the main stairs leading up to the second floor. As the quest specifically mentions the first floor, we did not ascend. Back into the corridor, we go left, finding a massive toilet where I snatch our second pair of eyes. Study room, a Bedroom and two pairs of eyes, Library, Kitchen, Pantry, and a lot of other rooms. By the time we found our sixth target, I had found a solution to harvesting the eyes blood-free; Will-o'-Weal! I even used the chance to give the spell an upgrade, a simple dismiss to ambient mana option. Everything thereafter went without a hitch.

We found more bedrooms, several servants-only areas and an awesome treasury filled with any precious thing you can think of. Soon, we had our last pair of eyes and were heading back towards the Foyer, coming in from the opposite side after making our way around the rectangular corridor.

"Here you go, fifteen pairs of eyes!" I drop all 30 eyeballs on the floor between the twin… spirits? And watch their eyes follow the few that rolled away, then just sat there and said nothing for a few minutes. Impatient, I decided to remind them of our presence, "you don't seem at all happy about the eyes."

Both slowly turn to look at me, "we're not." The girl said uncharacteristically gloomy. "I had imagined doing to them what they did to us, making them go blind multiple times. I had always imagined it would make me happy."

She stopped talking. Another moment of silence ensues before the guy perks up, "regardless, you have done well. Thank you."

They are acting hesitant, as though there is more to say, but… "What?" I ask them, they sure like to be dramatic. "If there is noth---"

"Don't listen to him." Kirana shoved me aside, "anything else we can help you with?" At that question their eyes clear up as though they have finally come to a decision.