Monday, April 29th, 2069 or Thereabouts

It took my eyes quite a while to recognize that there were still low levels of light in the large Lake Cavern. The shore was illuminated by the Metallic Yellow fixtures after all, and a few tiny pieces of moss clung to what little remained of the island of bones. Still, by the time my eyes adjusted, and I found the courage to peek around the corner—the screaming had stopped.

More terrifying, the shore was devoid of all White Goblins—bodies, weapons, campfire; everything! Eerily, there was no sign of the massive snake’s body either. Unless you counted the shape of the cavern now. I wasn’t entirely positive, but the shoreline looked distinctly larger—taller, deeper and wider. Almost like a Snake’s mouth had bitten out a piece of the stone the way I might take a bite out of a cake!

I heard it, then. Or I guess what I ‘heard’ was an utter lack of sounds. Till that moment, I could hear the increased tempo of everyone’s breathing, shuffling feet—the scratch of mining gear rubbing itself over outdoor clothing. The creak of work boots. Or just under the breath fearful prayers to any god that would listen.

All of that was gone. All that remained was the steady lapping of waves in what should have been a still Cave Lake. My mind picked up on the disparity in that wave pattern. There were waves hitting the walls under our little ledge, but there were also waves crashing against another surface very nearly atop of those walls.

My head turned slowly, hoping I wouldn’t find what I expected.

The Metallic Yellow light from the shore bounced back to me, even as my body convulsed. Close enough to me that I could touch it. I found an amber tinted glass-lens of an eye, with a vertical, slivered pupil.

My brain froze, making it hard to look away, for two reasons. First, the pupil of the eye was larger than I was tall, and wider. The eye itself was at least five to ten times bigger than me stacked atop myself. Second, and the far more pressing reason—if an eye for a snake was that close to me—so was the massive World Destroying creature.

“Etu dea vas?” The non-existent wind in the chamber seemed to hiss at me.

“Elan evan cos, tua don,” Smegma responded, making me realize that someone had actually said something, but it was just in a language I didn’t know.

The Snake’s pupil, eye, and body pulled back and away for a moment, making me realize I had been staring into the ‘smallest’ eye in the center of the things forehead. I could still see two other eyes on each side of its head like a normal snake as well. That entire head, easily as large as four of the ATV’s tilted, seeming to regard the hovering Smegma.

Then all of its eyes closed and its entire body vibrated, causing the wavy water to ripple, then undulate, creating highs and lows that crashed against each other so quickly and furiously I involuntarily stepped backwards, before discovering I was already pressed into the wall.

Was it preparing some sort of attack?

“Bow you morons! Even among the highest echelons of S-rankers, this thing would be considered a Monarch,” Smegma whispered, angrily. I managed to peel my eyes off the creature, and looked around the shelf. All of the group was likewise pressed up against the wall, in some cases still attempting to back up further into it.

Smegma’s words hadn’t registered with everyone—so he quickly sped toward each person in turn. Ending with me. “Bow your husking head or become an appetizer for this thing!”

The nearness and the urgency of his words made me fall to my knees in a full on yoga Child’s Pose. As I descended I took in the others, and found each one in various different bows. My father was bent fully at the waste to almost ninety degrees, with his hands held above his head.

Jarred was holding a necklace and only bowing his head, while his legs and body shook with uncontrolled fear. Willa had gone so far as to lay face down on the floor, not even in a semblance of a bow—maybe she had passed out and face-planted?

Dave, had chosen a similar position to myself, but was leaned far more forward. I didn’t dare look up to see what Smegma was doing after he’d given us all ‘instructions.” I just stayed bent and staring at a small watermark on the rock ledge.

“Isss thisss the language they ssspeak,” that same whispered windy hiss said. My body twitched, at the familiar voice suddenly speaking words I could understand. I wasn’t sure if that made this situation better or worse?

“Yes, Great One,” Smegma’s voice answered, a strange deferential reverence in the tone that I’d never heard from him before.

“Good. Are thessse the creaturesss going through the Trialsss of Assscendance?”

“Yes, Great One.”

“Then perhapsss one of them can be of ussse to me. Which one of them isss your master, little fly?”

“This one, Great Being,” Smegma said, and I felt my heart attempt to stop beating as it clenched hard enough to cause my chest to bloom in physical pain. Thankfully, after a very short pause, Smegma continued in a deferent whisper, “However, this entire group is related. If you kill any of them—none will help you willingly.”

“Do not presssume, little fly. If thisss bunch will not help me, then they all die, and I make the sssame offer to the sssurface dwellersss. The sssurface dwellersss that abandoned thessse sssimiansss here.”

“Forgive me,” Smegma bowed. “I only meant to inform the Great One of the most ideal lever for coercing these primitives. I have spent some time with them and have learned that they possess a baffling level of concern for the wellbeing of relations. I understand that the Great One was the deity of those who once called this place home, and that the Great Being is well aware of ideal applications of power—that often destruction or the threat of such are not always the best methods of motivation over his subjects.”

“Indeed?” The snake seemed pleased. “Well sssaid. Yesss it has been sssome time, but I do remember quite well my role and overssseeing my domain.”

I was somewhat put out by Smegma’s words, but understood that he was trying to keep us alive. Did he have to sound like he believed what he was saying so much, though? Also, how did the Snake know that the Mirage Guild had abandoned them in the cave? I didn’t know, and probably shouldn’t care. Either way, I still felt a gong of confirmation ring through my chest at the pronouncement. Like I could somehow tell it knew what it said was the truth.

The situation or perhaps my Mental Fortitude allowed me to assess the situation. First, we were going to be abandoned down here by the Mirage Guild forever—which, in the current situation, didn't mean much—but put the entire last two days into a new perspective. We were already dead down here since that cave-in.

It had just been a question of how we were going to die. Somehow, that freed my terrified mind from the grips of whatever power held it in place. I lifted my head just enough to see the Snake regarding the respectfully bowed Smegma.

Coughing to unclench my throat, I got the thing’s attention, and instantly felt my already dry mouth get filled with sand. I swallowed, once, twice and a third time before I managed to croak, “The Demon is right. We would be nothing more than grains of sand in your stomach, Great One. Please allow my group to cook you Mirror Fish, while me and my summon perform whatever task you desire.”

“Cooked Mirror Fisssh?” The Snake said. It then closed its eyes and stuck out a forked tongue that was easily the width of all five of us humans laid side-to-side. Even the length of the slithering tongue seemed absurd as it crossed a good distance back to the shore. “Isss that what I sssmell? I have not tasssted cooked Mirror Fisssh in many eonsss. Not sssincsse the Naga fled.”

Smegma twitched, and I felt something from our connection. Thanks to my clarity of mind, I finally felt it. Just out of my conscious awareness there was a ball of feelings coming from the Demonic Vault Skill Planet in my Mental Universe. Smegma was… hopeful?

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“Then Great One—allow this one to Fish from shore—“ Smegma motioned at Dave, the only other one in the group who had attempted to learn to touch his Mana Pool. “Allow one of the others to cook atop the forge—and as my Summoner suggests, we will complete whatever task you desire. But, as I spoke before, I believe that you will find that the best service will be gained by keeping everyone alive. From my study of these people, I believe that the threat of harm to any of the others will serve as excellent motivation for any of them to work faithfully and hard toward any desires you have.”

The Snake’s eyes remained closed for seconds, that stretched to minutes—and longer. No one spoke, even though I felt the need to ask multiple questions—I held them tight.

Surely, the Snake hadn’t fallen back asleep?

“Very well. You.” The creature looked directly at me. “Will catch and cook for me one hundred Fisssh,” the Snake hissed contentedly.

My face paled. I had maybe four in my Necklace of Holding—and Dave could maybe catch one before waiting for his Mana to recharge.

“My apologies, Great One,” Smegma said. “None of these simple simians have the Mana Pool to catch that many Fish. If you wish to give us a few days—“

“No. You will have twenty-four hoursss.” The Snake hissed over the Demon’s words. “But, I will let you ussse the Naga’s baublesss…”

In a motion too quick to follow, the Snake vanished. I jerked back onto my heels as the massive head of the Snake was suddenly missing. I heard the water of the lake sloshing violently, and then simultaneously heard the sound of clattering glass, stones and metal from around the corner, and back on shore.

Then all in a blink the Snake’s head was back. What in the hell had just happened?

“You two will alssso need what isss assshore. You may move there.” When no one instantly stood up, the snake barked in a sharp hiss, “Now!”

I jumped to my feet and began scrambling around the corner. I discovered that the ledge back to shore was not the same as it was when I climbed out here. Thankfully, it wasn’t narrower, and instead was deeper but sloped in the exact shape of a Snake’s bite.

This forced me to do somewhat of a bear crawl, or forward-leaning-push-up shuffle along the edge back toward the now-deeper shore. Only when I arrived did I scan the shore and discover that there was a pile of shining sphere’s, orbs, and metallic items.

Slowly, I moved toward the pile—hoping it was what the Snake had called ‘baubles’ that we could use. I definitely didn’t want to try and take something that wasn’t granted us by the massive creature.

“Yesss, thossse,” the Snake hissed disdainfully, seeming to respond to my slow shuffling steps. “The coresss encasssed in metal are Mana Batteriesss. The other Coresss you will need to take with you to the Goblin Village.”

I looked at the Monster Cores, the ones on display quite different from the ones I’d seen in the Malls. The colors specifically. There were just too many Greens, Yellows, and Blues…

“Sorry Great One. Why would we need to take these Monster Cores to the White Goblin Village?” Smegma asked, even as I made the connections to what ‘Cores’ the creature was talking about. He was giving us Monster Cores? From the pile in front of me, it wasn’t just a few. There were hundreds—if not a thousand unadorned Monster Cores in the pile.

“You must close the Portal, stupid fly.” The Snake said. “You. Fisher Boy. Take that blue bauble with the purple metal. It was one of the Naga’s favorites.” Dave had moved as far as to stand shoulder to shoulder with me, so I felt him jump beside me at the Snake’s words.

I scanned the pile with my friend trying to find the item that Dave was intended to use. Thankfully, while there was quite a bit of purple, it wasn't an overly abundant color in the pile, so we found it after a few seconds that felt like minutes. I breathed a sigh even as I pointed it out to the already moving Dave. He’d jumped forward, his reaching hand already tracking the same orb I’d found.

Once he picked it up, he spun and looked at me with wide confused eyes. I started to sputter at his unspoken question. I didn’t know how to use the thing either—thankfully Smegma either read my thoughts or Dave’s paling, terrified face. “Use the same trick you used with the Rod. Simply grow a connection from the Orb, to your Pool and then from your Pool to the rod.”

I pulled a rod out of my Necklace of Holding and hurriedly handed it to my friend.

Willa shuffled her feet behind me, and at my glance, held up a shaky hand, clearly wanting me to give her something. I pulled out the other Rod, and passed it over.

As her shaking hand and fingers closed around the Rod, I whispered, “Get Dave to help you feel it out.”

My father and Jarred moved forward as well, and I realized that one would need to cook for the Snake while the other likely cleaned and gutted the Fish that Dave hopefully caught. “Okay. Uncle Jarred, you filet the fish.” I handed him the better repaired filleting knife. “Dad, you come with me and we’ll get the Frying Pan heating up.”

“Oh Great One,” Smegma said deferentially. “Do you have any Mana Crystals we can use to cook?”

The Snake scoffed and vanished again. Then out of the water a great deal of F-Rank Mana Crystal shot out. Probably a couple thousand. The group ducked and covered as the Crystals flew over their heads, bounced off the walls and then clattered to the shore all around them.

I got stuck by at least four dozen, but thankfully they weren’t traveling fast. I heard a few of the Crystals crack, but thankfully as I raised my head, I discovered that the vast majority hadn’t. I moved around the shore collecting as many of the Crystals as my Necklace of Holding could contain.

Once it was full, my father and I moved to the furnace room. As soon as we exited the pens, my father grabbed my arm hard. “Don’t do this, son. Surely we can es—“

“No, you heard Smegma and saw that thing. Not to mention that it knows what’s happening on the surface. It can likely hear this conversation even now. We do what it asks, and we do it to the best of our ability. Or we all die.”

“Why does it need us though?” My dad whispered even as his grip slackened on my shoulder. I turned, dislodging his hand and moved to the furnace indent in the Smithy Room.

I first dumped some Crystals into the depression, and then placed the Frying Pan atop them. The rest of the crystals became a pile beside the raised apparatus. The cooked and uncooked FIsh steaks, as well as the Yellow Crystals I dropped on a nearby floor—clearing out everything in my inventory other than the Mining Picks.

Then I stepped down hard on the foot pedal, and instantly rushed to my dad with the second Filleting Knife in hand. “In case you need to help Jarred clean more Fish. Three minutes a side, when cooking. I’ll finish whatever task I must to get us all out of here. I’m going back—don’t do anything stupid!”

His arms closed around me, and pulled me into a hug. I was forced to cradle the filleting knife between us, so I didn’t stab myself or him. The hug grew tighter, and tighter but eventually I pushed back, dislodging my father. “I need to go back. Or risk everything.”

Seeing unshed tears in my father’s eyes, I spun and rushed out of the Smithy and back toward the Lake shore. Smegma was looking at me, as I ran through the archway and back onto shore.

“Good thing you talked him out of that,” the Snake hissed. “I wasss about to eat one or two of these onesss, if you two attempted to leave.”

I swallowed—so, the Snake could hear or somehow sense what was going on even outside of its immediate vicinity. While that didn’t confirm it knew what was happening on the Portal’s surface, it sure seemed to point that way.

“We are just scared, Great One,” I answered softly with a bow. “But we will all do our best to do as you ask.” I looked meaningfully at Willa, Jarred and Dave’s back. I guess my pointed reminder wasn’t needed as my friend was already fighting against a hooked Mirror Fish on the line.

“Umm—“ I stuttered for a moment after making that realization. Then caught myself and spat out, “What exactly should we do at the Goblin Village, Great One?”

“Clossse the Portal, idiot.”

“Great One?” Smegma questioned. “These here are simply Crafters and Laborers. They cannot defeat a Boss.”

“The Bosssss of thisss Cave System is already in my ssstomach. Justicssse hasss been sssserved upon that pathetic ‘king’, who woke me from my sssslumber. You will need to dissspatch some Worker Goblinsss, but no bossss. No, thisss Portal is closssed by Ssskill Ritual.”

“Skill what?” I said before I could think better of it. Then started as my brain whirred to life and added, “Great One,” deferentially.

“Ssskill Ritual—Endowment. Whatever you wisssh to call it. Place nine of the Coresss upon the bossssesss Altar.”

“May I ask why you need our help to do that, Great One?” Smegma asked. Sounding as confused as I felt. “You’ve clearly got enough undigested Cores here…”

“Undigesssted?” The Snake hissed a rhetorical question to itself, and then slithered its tongue out. “We do not consssume thisss energy. No matter the age. Thisss energy is under the purview of the Sssyssstem. It isss not meant for usss.”

I blinked even as the tongue slithered into and out of the mouth a few more times. “We Assscend if we complete a Sssyssstem given tasssk or if the Planet we were born upon Assscendsss. Only the Sssyssstemsss’ Chosssen can ussse itsss direct energy.”

“So, these Cores are like Skill Cards?” Smegma asked. Seeming to interpret something in the Snakes words that I couldn’t have even hoped to comprehend.

“Ahh yesss the Cardsss. That bringsss back memoriesss from an era long passst. For the Naga, it was Papyrusss. These Coresss are the sssame energy yesss.”

“So, we just have to place them on an Altar and the Dungeon will close, Great One?” Smegma asked.

“Yesss, and the actor of the accomplishment will be granted a Ssskill.”