Micro’s feet left the warm sand a final time before making contact with the cool water of the ocean, his foot creating the only ripples for as far as he could see. He kept walking until he was waist deep, at which point an unforgettable chill went up his spine, but he continued on and the discomfort quickly gave way to a refreshing feeling. He thought he heard somebody shouting behind him, but he continued into the water.

He took a moment to examine his core, and was pleasantly surprised to see no sign of engine flooding at all, although he was unsure what the signs would be. When his head dipped below the surface for the first time, he was struck by the beauty of the light that danced along the sea floor according to the ripples that refracted the sun’s powerful light.

“Wait-” He spoke as his lungs filled with water.

“Don’t humans need air?”

He looked at the turtle he had placed on his shoulder, only to find it floating nearby with a look of amusement still written on its tiny face.

“The life force of the first immortal sustains all in this dungeon… You need not worry about such trivial things as food and air…” The turtle explained.

“Okay.” Micro replied.

As the buoyancy of his feet started making it harder to walk along the sea floor, he noticed it had become easier to mimic the technique of the turtle swimming alongside him. Although he enjoyed swimming, he soon returned his attention to the trial at hand, and he scoured the ocean floor for any sign of a greenish piece of metal.

The turtle watched him without a sound as he swam leisurely along the ocean floor as it grew deeper and deeper, darker and darker, until it was impossible to see.

“I think it’s night time.” Micro suddenly announced.

“I wonder how the others are doing.”

Micro turned around and followed the sea floor back the way he came, until he was once again able to walk on the ground without issue, and the moon in a starless sky became visible to him.

“Most people get lost…” The turtle remarked as he walked slowly beside him.

“I’m a truck…” Micro replied while coughing the water out of his lungs.

“Oh, good evening!”

Sitting on the beach beneath the pale moonlight were Kel and Tae. Their faces were full of anguish, as they conversed, but Kel’s face lit up when he caught sight of Micro. Micro picked up the turtle and returned it to his shoulder, and waved to Kel.

“You’re alive!” Kel cried out, running to meet Micro halfway.

“But how?!”

“Oh, you can breathe in there.” Micro replied pointing behind him with his thumb.

“Have you ever been swimming before? It feels amazing. I’ve hydroplaned over a big puddle after the rain before, and I’ve had water up to my headlights, but being underwater is-”

“It’s good to see you.” Kel grabbed Micro’s free shoulder and pulled him along back to where Tae was still seated, but her eyes filled with shame when they met Micro’s, and she looked away.

“We’ve been discussing what you said before you left…”

“What did I say this afternoon?” Micro thought back to the last time he’d been on the surface with them.

“This afternoon…?” Tae mumbled.

“You’ve been gone at least a year.”

“Oh, that’s a long time.” Micro replied with his eyebrows slightly arched.

“We thought you’d given up in despair and…” Kel paused.

“Anyways… We tried looking for the pieces for months after you left. We tried meditating on the problem for a month as well… We were sure your words held the secret to completing the trial. We started writing out the ancient teachings of our sect in the sand, trying to make some kind of connection… But we just…”

Micro looked past Tae, and saw what Kel was referring to. As far as he could see, the sand was filled with all sorts of writing, pictures, diagrams, symbols, and other things he couldn’t understand.

“Hmm…” Micro frowned upon hearing of his friends’ dilemma. He noticed the turtle shaking its head as well.

“My ancestors recorded their own experiences… They all said their trials took a long time to complete, but none of them wrote the method to complete it… So how did you…” Kel spoke much more calmly than the last time Micro had heard his voice, but he still looked lost and helpless.

“It’s hard to explain, after all.” Micro shrugged.

“This turtle’s brother said I had to disregard time, or something like that… Disregard my place somewhere? In time…?”

Micro scratched his head, then shrugged, but Kel was not satisfied.

“That doesn’t make sense, Micro.” He sounded more agitated now.

“No matter how patient you are, you can’t wait forever…”

“Again, with patience…” The turtle yawned.

“You defeat yourself by seeking to understand the trial… before you have completed it…”

“But it’s impos-”

“Kel, follow me.” Micro interjected, fearing Kel was about to spiral into another long monologue.

“What?” Kel asked absentmindedly.

“Where?”

“Tae!” Micro waved to Tae in the distance.

“Let’s go!”

She slowly picked herself up off the sand and walked over to Kel, Micro, and the turtle on Micro’s shoulder. Her eyes still refused to meet Micro’s, but she seemed interested in whatever the boy was suggesting.

“But if finding is them isn’t the goal…” She muttered in a low voice.

“Let’s start looking.” Micro replied, and he started walking.

Kel and Tae were frozen with surprise for a moment, but soon walked after him, wondering where he was going. He led them along the moonlit shoreline for hours without a word, occasionally stopping to take a closer look at any slightly elevated mounds of sand that caught his eye. He walked, dug up a bit of sand, walked, dug up a bit of sand, and walked… When the sun rose once again, Kel and Tae grew agitated.

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“Micro… we’re getting farther from the notes we wrote in the sand…” Kel protested.

“We should go back and-”

“Notes weren’t part of the trial.” Micro corrected him.

“Our destination is the dungeon’s entrance. Our way there is looking for the cards.”

“But just walking like this won’t-” Tae argued.

“You’ll run out of gas if you keep taking unnecessary detours.” Micro went on, unphased by their lack of enthusiasm for his plan.

“That’s common sense.”

“How can you be so calm right now?!” Tae snapped.

“Don’t you know how long we could be trapped in here?”

“He does…” The turtle on Micro’s shoulder raised its little voice.

Tae could only turn away as she continued to walk, still ashamed to face the turtle or the person it was riding.

“Tell us clearly, Micro. Please.” Kel pleaded with an apologetic tone, sharing in some of Tae’s shame.

“How did you pass your first trial? How long did it take you?”

“It’s hard to explain…” Micro replied.

“Time is weird… I don’t have a speedometer… I don’t have an odometer… I don’t have a fuel gauge… I don’t even have a clock!”

Micro raised his voice as though he were frustrated, but his face was still as calm as before.

“You’re saying not to measure… things?” Kel strained his imagination to account for the strange words Micro brought up.

“Sure, I guess.” Micro shrugged.

“Listen, Kel. Tae. I came here to bring you back.”

“Yes, but-”

“Just enjoy the ride, please.” Micro turned to face them with a wide smile.

“You sound like a couple of old fan belts…”

“Like what?”

“Never mind that. Just look for the cards.” Micro smiled, and gave the two people behind him a thumbs up with both hands.

“You-” Tae began to shout, but Kel held his hand in front of her and interjected.

“Doesn’t he remind you of my grandfather?” He asked with a heavy tone.

“I think… I think we can trust him…”

Tae’s frustration immediately subsided when she saw a glint of optimism in Kel’s eyes for the first time in the many months they had been trapped there. She glanced at Micro, whose full attention was on the sand in front of him as he walked, then back at Kel.

“I will follow you, young master Kel.” She replied with a bow.

And so the three walked onward, overseen by the turtle on Micro’s shoulder, free of hunger and fatigue, along the endless coast. During the day, Micro would stop occasionally to dig up a few handfuls of sand, letting it run through his fingers with pleasure before continuing on. During the night, he would look up at the moon without blinking for long periods of time, as if he were following it across the sky.

Sometimes Micro happened to look behind him and noticed the faces worn by Kel and Tae who followed closely behind. They were noisy at first, talking to each other for long stretches at times. Sometimes they seemed to want his attention too, but he was content as long as they followed him. The first time he looked back was about a week after they had started walking. They noticed him looking back, and their faces lit up with hope, waiting for him to say something, but he quickly returned to his walking.

The second time he looked back was after the moon had come and gone at least a hundred times. Again, they looked hopeful that he had something to say, but their faces reflected their disappointment when he only silently waved, and he returned to his walking.

The third time he looked back, he noticed that they had fallen far behind him. He stood and waited for half a day until they had caught up with him, but there was no hope on their faces anymore. They barely took note of him when they reached him, their eyes staring through him into the horizon.

After that, he didn’t look back for a long time. He kept them at the back of his mind, determined to guide them home somehow, but his goal every day remained the same, and he never stopped looking for his key to leaving the dungeon.

The sun continued to rise and set, the moon always following shortly after. At first, the heat of the sun felt distinct from the cool of night, but in time he stopped noticing a difference. Sometimes he would blink, and the moon would be where the sun was just a moment before. Sometimes he would kneel down to inspect a pile of sand in the morning, and the moon would greet him when he rose to his feet again.

“Ouch!” His eternal walk was interrupted one day, however, by the sound of Tae calling out in surprise.

“Huh?” Micro turned to see Tae crawling out of a large hole he’d dug in the sand.

“Oh, sorry about that!”

“It’s fine…” Kel helped her up and brushed some of the sand out of her hair.

“I feel like I just woke up from a strange dream…”

“Let’s look in the ocean now.” Micro called out as he wandered back into the water.

Kel and Tae followed him without a word into the ocean. Though at first they hesitated to allow themselves to breathe once submerged in the calm waters, they eventually gave into the urge to take a breath, and their fears of drowning were replaced by the pleasure of swimming weightlessly through the water after Micro. They took note of the way Micro continued to scan the ocean floor for any sign of the items they sought, and did the same.

Though Micro was unable to see in the dark, and simply felt his way along the ocean floor, Tae was able to keep track of him with her Spirit Vision Skill, and she guided Kel along wherever Micro went.

Not being able to see the sun and moon trading places made it even harder to estimate how much time was passing them by on their futile quest, but they gradually stopped noticing the absence of a time keeper in their lives.

One day, Kel was surprised to find himself walking next to Tae on the sandy beach, so far away from the water that he couldn’t see it anymore. He was about to ask what happened, but then he noticed Micro walking a short distance ahead of him, and he blinked.

He blinked, and he found himself swimming in the ocean again, scanning the barely visible sea floor for any trace of something that wasn’t sand or water. He looked intently at the ground he swam above until he blinked.

He blinked, and found himself walking beneath the sun behind Micro. He blinked again…

The ocean…

Again…

The sand…

Again…

Again…

Until one day it occurred to him that he wasn’t sure whether he was walking or swimming. He looked up and couldn’t tell if it was night or day. He looked beside him and-

“Well done…” The giant stone turtle’s voice echoed throughout the dungeon.

“You surprised me… Especially you…”

Kel turned around in confusion and saw both Micro and Tae sitting on the floor near him. Then he looked up at the turtle, who was staring at him with an intense aura burning in its eyes.

“You were so blinded by your own thoughts…” The turtle declared.

“But you followed the boy… into eternity…”

The turtle glanced at Micro and nodded slowly.

“His soul inspires such confidence…” It continued with humility in its voice.

“I am not its equal…”

“I see now…” Kel whispered mostly to himself.

“I see why patience alone couldn’t prepare me for this… My grandfather told me he couldn’t remember completing the trial, only the eternity it took him to overcome it… I see why my uncle…”

“The way of the turtle is not to stare bravely into the face of time…” The great turtle replied.

“It is to look beyond it… This cannot be taught… Only learned…”

Kel bowed to the giant creature with tears in his eyes, but the turtle remained silent. He then looked at Tae, who looked back at him with watery eyes and a bittersweet smile.

“Ancient texts warned against misunderstanding the purpose of each trial… I was so-”

“Hah…” A grunt from Micro suddenly drew their attention. He stood up with the energy of an old man and stretched out his back and arms.

“I feel like I’ve been parked in a block of ice all winter…”

Kel and Tae looked at Micro in awe. Their own expressions bore the weight of an eternity spent wandering a barren world, their eyes filled with countless years of losing sight of reality step by step. But Micro looked refreshed and impatient.

“How did you accomplish such a feat twice…?” Kel asked in reverence.

“What kind of master must you have been in a past life for your spirit not to bend even slightly in the face of such a trial…”

“Hmm?” Micro chuckled as he walked over to the snoring Blue.

“Have you ever seen a truck that complains after a long trip?”

“I’ve… I’ve never seen a truck… I don’t think…” Kel replied as he attempted to decipher each word Micro spoke, clinging to them as though they were sacred teachings.

“Are they all such powerful beings as you?”

“Powerful? Most are more powerful than me.” Micro smiled as Blue began to stir from her slumber, her wings twitching as she stretched. He then looked back to Kel with a look of confidence.

“I’m efficient and reliable.”