Friday, April 26th, 2069

“Are you sure we should be following that thing around?” Jarred asked, in a whisper that was easily overheard in the silence of the tunnels. “It could be leading us into the depth of Hell.”

I’d momentarily forgotten that Jarred was a somewhat ‘reformed’ Catholic—his wife being the huge driving force behind it—but this comment brought that little fact back.

Just as I decided to keep quiet, and not exacerbate the issue, Smegma said, “Yes, because my only goal in this quasi-life is to drag the pure into my depravity.”

Jarred didn’t turn around but I did see his shoulders climb up to his ears, even as his fists clenched. Mentally, I scolded Smegma, [Leave him alone. He’s Catholic.]

Smegma gave me a look that said he didn’t care, but he did stop poking the man. I counted that as a win. Soon, we were in front of the pile of Yellow Mana Crystals, and I took a deep steadying breath through my nose. To my surprise the dusky smell of stale mine air, and algae wasn’t as strong. In fact, I thought—

“Do ya smell fresher air?” Willa exclaimed, confirming my thought. I nodded even as the others took testing sniffs. Unfortunately for Dave that set off a round of coughing but he managed to nod along with the others. “Well dat removes one worry. At least we ain’t gonna run out of oxygen down here.”

“Perfect,” Jarred said skeptically while looking at Smegma. Thankfully, my dad interrupted the man from saying anything more with a hand on the shoulder and a pleading look.

Once my father was sure that Jarred wasn’t going to antagonize Smegma, he looked to me and the aforementioned Demon. He gestured at the Crystals scattered across the ground. “Try again to sell those Crystals and see where we’re at after.”

Mentally I crossed my fingers, before bending down. I placed my hand on the nearest full Crystal and willed it to the Demonic Vault Skill. The Crystal didn’t move, and I looked to Smegma. “Still a problem? Any idea what’s going on now that we can do this openly?”

“I don’t know,” Smegma said. “It’s like it doesn’t exist, according to the System. Or like you’re interacting with something that’s… useless?”

Frowning, I tried a few more and then some shards but got the same result. “Well that’s bullshit."

Everyone stared at me, and I could only shrug in response. Smegma had put on his thinking face, and I could tell that he could only speculate as to the reason, but still asked, “Any idea why this isn’t working?”

“Several, but the most likely is that the System doesn’t recognize it. It’s obsolete.”

I checked my total mC and found I was at a hundred and ten thousand—which was both good and bad news. Good because we had a day’s worth of food, and bad for the same reason. We only had a day, unless we got more Crystals, which meant going deeper. Just a glance at Jarred, Willa and my father told me that was going to be an argument.

“We’ve got to go deeper,” Dave said, seeing the problem instantly. “If we don’t have the funds from these Crystals, we have no choice.”

For some reason my dad glared at me, and so I threw up both of my hands in frustration. “We don’t have a choice, dad.”

“There’s always a choice, son,” my dad said. Willa stepped back indicating she was stepping out of this conversation, but Jarred nodded his agreement and actually stepped up beside my father.

“Those are just husking words,” I said heatedly. “Sure, we can choose to go back to the cave-in and wait—count on others to dig us out. But what if they don’t come?”

“God has a plan for us all,” Jarred said, his tone so sanctimonious I felt my eyes roll.

“So, god is going to dig us out of here?”

“Believe in the goodness of man,” Jarred answered.

“Jarred, that’s bullshit. We’ve already seen that Mirage isn’t exactly pure of husking heart. What if God’s plan is that we need to fight to survive and only then he will help us?”

“I can tell you right now, that god’s from higher realms aren’t watching this one. There is only the System, and it only rewards those who push to better themselves,” Smegma said, his voice calm, but morose. His words carried the weight of his people’s failure to Ascend.

Jarred’s head fell and he didn’t open his mouth to retort, but my dad did. “Brodie, if we don’t take the safest route and something happens I’d never forgive myself—even if we survive.”

“If we take the safer route and then are forced to scramble for resources when we’re weak, something will happen. And whatever that something is, it’s bound to be made worse because of our exhaustion,” I countered.

My father and Jarred stood there like walls that couldn’t be reasoned with. Neither had a retort to my words but I could tell neither was willing to stand down. I played a final card. “I’m going deeper, no matter what you say. You’ll have to fight me if you want me to stop. So, would you rather come and keep me safe or stay here?”

My dad’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth multiple times, closing it again like a fish gasping for breath. Jarred’s head snapped up at my words though and he pointed at me. “Do not be deceived by this hellspawn, Brodie. Having finally seen the ‘Demon’ I am now sure that this is a test. If we go back, God will reward us.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going back, Jarred.”

Jarred looked at me sadly, even as my father also studied me. After a time, my father pulled Jarred aside and tried to talk to him. In such a small hallway, I heard everything but tried to ignore it—instead placing the ‘obsolete’ Crystals and shards into my Necklace of Holding. They might be useless to Smegma, but Earth was a different animal.

In the end, even with Willa’s help—Jarred decided to return to the upper caverns. I will admit that his decision did make me rethink mine for a fraction of a moment, but whether it was through personal conviction or Mental Fortitude-assisted logic, I knew I was right. As the group naturally began to separate I turned to Jarred. “Here’s two Mana Apples they’ll—”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Have you never read the bible, Brodie? I will not be tempted by Apples!” Jarred practically shouted. After the ‘confirmation’ dance with Smegma, I had purchased two for him, and was proffering the bright blue fruits in his direction. I let my hand drop and looked around seeing Dave’s lunch box. “Dave, give him your lunchbox, please.”

Dave, who was in the process of slinging it over his shoulder, froze, and then scrunched up his face, before walking it over to Jarred. “There is half a sandwich and a few granolas in there. It isn’t much.”

“Thank you, Dave,” Jarred said. He opened his mouth again to add something but then seemed to think better of it. Instead he just turned away and began walking back up the hallway. Just before he was out of earshot, he did call back, “It’s never too late to make the right decision. God forgives mistakes.”

“He does,” I agreed, trying to meet him on terms that he understood. “Don’t let your pride prevent you from following after us if you’re ever in a position where you feel like you made the wrong decision, and I promise I’ll do the same, okay Uncle Jarred?”

He froze for a moment, his back stiff, before resuming his steady walk.

With that our party was down to four people and Smegma. The looks I got from Willa and my father pleaded with me to change my mind, but I couldn’t. They weren’t thinking rationally as far as I was concerned. We either had to find another exit, or find a way to survive for multiple days until someone did dig us out. Plus, just like my father had told Jarred in their sidebar—the earlier Hunters from Mirage that had gone to scout might still be in front of us.

Not meeting their eyes, I started walking down the tunnel to the next chamber. It was the one that only Smegma and I knew was massive, and out of place in an F-ranked dungeon. It was so big, in fact, that the algae moss stopped effectively lighting the space, and Willa pulled out her Lightstone. As soon as it lit up and everyone saw that this wasn’t a normal small cavern like the earlier one—the arguments resumed.

Well, my father and Willa attempted to restart it, but I rather effectively diffused it by ignoring them and continuing on, with or without them. The floors and much of the walls were covered in Crystals, which meant we could survive quite some time with some work. Still, we needed something more. The Mana Apples may satiate hunger, but what about thirst?

“We need to explore and find water if it’s down here,” I said, looking at Smegma. The Demon nodded and floated off. He soon was out of the range of the light, and I licked my lips. The cavern was definitely larger than any I’d personally been in before. Even as Willa and my father opened their mouths to start another conversation—I pointed to the Crystals nearest our feet. “Let’s mine these while Smegma scouts.”

From the clenched jaws I could tell that they disagreed, but when Dave shouldered his pick and moved to get to work, they grudgingly did as well.

“No sharding, if you can help it!” I commanded as I joined them.

Smegma returned after about ten minutes, shaking his head. “I made a semi-circle from here, but there isn’t anything but more Crystals. Let’s move and I’ll keep going.”

We did so, several more times, and I watched as my mC count climbed to over a hundred and twenty thousand. We had just moved and I was hoping it would get to one-thirty when Smegma rushed back before we could even start mining again.

“Don’t’ make any noise,” he whisper-hissed. “There’s a White Goblin village in a gorge fifty meters from here.”

“What?” My dad hissed.

Smegma just pointed in the direction he’d returned from. “Just over there. Also, they captured at least one of the Hunters.”

“What?!” My dad hissed again and Smegma rolled his eyes.

“I’m starting to see where your son got his intelligence,” Smegma said dryly. My father’s face went red, but whether it was anger or embarrassment I couldn’t tell. Thankfully if it was anger, he kept his outburst contained.

“Wait—does that mean there’s water?” I asked, realizing that if Goblins were surviving down here, then there must be.

“A small stream runs through the town, and there is a cave lake in this direction,” Smegma answered.

“Water bottles,” I ordered and held out my hands. Dave instantly handed his over, and Willa moved to follow suit before my dad held out a hand to stop her.

“I should go,” he said.

“Smegma and I are linked—he can’t guide you like he can—”

“I should go,” my dad said again, his tone brooking no argument. I stared at him helplessly. I knew that he could be stubborn since I had that bone too.

Thankfully Smegma said, “Don’t worry. It’s close enough that I can guide him even if you stay here.”

My mouth fell open and I stared at Smegma, who shrugged in response. In explanation the Demon said, “You literally just thought you couldn’t win this argument…”

* * *

Greb-shak led Gary and his extremely poor-quality Lightstone to the cave lake. It wasn’t far, but he also wasn’t sure if the White Goblins would have patrols. He tried to convince Gary to turn the stupid beacon light off, but Gary said he needed to see. At least he was willing to wait as Greb-shak ranged out ahead before coming back and moving again.

One thing that the Demon had thought, but didn’t give voice to when pushing for Gary to go in Brodie’s stead, was the simple fact that Gary was much more expendable than Brodie himself despite that fact that if things came down to a fight, Greb-shak had no doubt that Brodie would prove the more capable fighter. That had been made clear in the fight against the Golem days ago. None of that mattered, though. Greb-shak was a practical Demon. While there was no meaningful connection between himself and his own spawn-donator, he knew that humans had weird concerns about close relatives, so he’d kept his full motivations to himself. Perhaps more importantly though, he needed to set this ‘dad’ straight on the priorities of survival…

If they had walked the hundred meters straight it would have been a trip that lasted a few minutes at most, but this way—it had already taken ten. Still, they made it to the water without issues. Gary studied the lake, which was white and cloudy. He then combined the leftover water into two of the bottles before filling up the remaining four with the cloudy stuff.

“Why are you doing that?” Greb-shak asked, quietly.

Gary motioned for them to move away and waited about ten steps before whispering, “Water can have contaminants in it. With the white color it could have bacteria or hard minerals harmful to humans.”

Greb-shak narrowed his eyes. “The System does not poison water. The White Goblins could have, I suppose, but this is upstream from their village…”

“Maybe Demons can drink this without boiling it first, but humans aren’t as resilient.” Gary answered even as the others came into view.

“Well, that’s obvious.” Smegma shook his head. “But when was the last time you heard about a human getting sick from water?”

Gary froze for a split second in his walk, and Greb-shak realized that this behavior was a holdover from before the System.

Despite agreeing that Gary was the best fit for the scouting mission, Greb-shak knew that Brodie needed to get stronger. With his Skill Cannibalism and Goblin’s penchant for having a wide variety of Skills along with the fact that they were humanoid, and the tiny issue of survival—he knew that there was a significant chance that Brodie would need to fight. Even if that meant giving the boy a little nudge. He couldn’t have parental sentiment getting in the way. Greb-shak knew that not only Brodie’s survival, but his own, and the rest of the humans in the Dungeon—may well come down to how the holder of Demonic Vault capitalized on his advantages. The Skill his team had created was a force multiplier, and with the shocking foundation of the boy’s Dragon Heart Skill, he knew that Brodie Flacarada was his own, and what remained of his Sect’s best chance of survival. Which means he needed the boy alive, and the best way of remaining alive was becoming strong.

Still out of earshot from the other three, he added, “You need to stop thinking of your son as weak, Gary. He’s stronger than you, and was the best choice for this little mission. Your ideas about your son, like this water, is a mental block and if you don’t start trusting your kid’s decisions, then the chances of everyone’s survival is going to plummet.”

Dave waved to them, likely seeing the Lightstone, but Gary stayed frozen. Finally he looked at Greb-shak.

“I’ll try…”