“Master…”

“I’m fine,” I grumbled.

“Deek!”

Lord Duran’s voice caused me to look back, only then realizing I was already halfway to the door. Our eyes met for a moment.

“I have things to do,” I responded.

“She warned you not to go, boy,” Pait spoke up, seemingly somewhat relaxed.

“As if I wouldn’t.”

“It’ll be dangerous.”

“I’ve experienced danger before.”

“How will you start?”

I knew what Pait was doing. He was trying to make me think. I was acting on pure impulse, and if I left like that I might act unreasonably. As much as I hated to admit it, he knew me pretty well. I took in a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

“I’ll go to Gram’s Passage. The place runs deep.”

“Not that deep.”

“It’ll be a start.”

“The journey could take weeks, even months. Are you going to leave Chalm unprotected during that time?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. Even if Gram brought me to the bottom of his dungeon, how deep was the Deep anyway? Her imager came up into his Passage after going through an impossible journey. If I ended up spending weeks traveling down there, it could be too late. Although every part of my body burned with impatience, I had to tell myself to relax. I closed my eyes this time and took a few deep breaths.

“Do you have any ideas?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“It’s hard to say. I just know if you’re crawling down caverns like they did, it will take a long time. The Deep is a bit of a strange place.”

“What do you know of it?”

“Only the rumors dwarves pass around. It’s a place so deep that there is no light. It’s a little-known fact, but when someone goes underground, the temperature is cooler for a while, but it starts to warm up again. It’s supposed to become so hot as to be unbearable. For some reason, under about half of this continent is a bubble of cool air. There is no heat, and there reside massive caverns. There is also a type of function that glows for twelve hours a day, creating a night/day cycle. Some parts of the Deep are even known to have weather patterns. Rain, snow, wind… it’s truly a strange place.”

“How can this be? A dungeon?”

“That’s the general belief. The Deep used to be a dungeon. The dungeon had once grown nearly to the size of a continent, but it died and was buried with time. Its husk still protects the Deep, and allows the remnant monster populations of the dungeon to thrive.”

“Terra mentioned sending it up through a thermal vent, right? If the imager can travel up, then can’t we travel down?”

“The temperatures would be molten!” Pait declared. “Those vents are attached to volcanos! You might as well jump into a volcano and swim down.”

“Oh? Is there a volcano nearby that could do this?”

“The closest volcano here is in Esmore. You might have seen it entering Gram’s Passage.” Lord Duran spoke up as Pait seemed to sputter in indignation.

I raised my head thoughtfully, although I was also bringing up my map. I nodded after a second.

“Very well. Then, I will be off.”

“Off? You need someone knowledgeable even to attempt an expedition. What do you think you’re going to do?”

“You’re right, Lord Duran, do you mind if I borrow him?”

“Be my guest.”

“Borrow me, what are you-“ I reached out and stashed him in my soul world. “Ah! Where am I?”

“Welcome.”

“Who are you? Eh… are-aren’t you princess Alysia?”

“Y-yeah… Master took me as well.”

“This is preposterous!”

“Just calm down.” I sighed. “I’m just keeping you around for assistance. I’ll return you once this is all over.”

“What? Where are you? Deek? I don’t even have any of my things!”

“Thank you for all of your assistance.” I bowed to Lord Duran.”

“Are you ignoring me? He’s ignoring me!”

“I apologize.” Alysia tried to smooth things over.

“It’s fine. I’ll be leaving myself.” Lord Duran. “I promise I’ll still take you to the border, when we both return.”

“Yes, I hope you luck with your, um… meet.”

“And good luck in the Deep.”

We shook hands. It was pleasant when everyone wasn’t your enemy.

“Oh, one more thing. There is a maid of Paits. She should pack up his things and meet me…”

A short time later, Dav appeared in the soul world. “Eh? Where did I go?”

Pait didn’t answer. He was too busy pouting in a corner.