Dan felt the ripples before he saw their effects. His mana, though ambient and still somewhat nauseating to view the world through, was still in the air. The mana Dan had left nearest the door was being rammed into by an outside mana. The thumping was steady, consistent.

“Something is happening.” It felt ridiculously short of an explanation, but it was all Dan knew. He stood, slower this time to avoid a headrush. Or was it a manarush? That is hardly important right now, Dan admonished himself. “We need to go. Now. Right now, to the doors.”

Dan’s vision was still swimming when he looked around, the various items around the room seemed to shimmer. The floor moved like a wave beneath their feet, causing everyone to notice that something was wrong.

“What’s going on?” Xiaomei asked while keeping an eye fixed on the ceiling like it might fall on her. It was more likely that the floor would disappear and they would all fall forever, but Dan didn’t think telling her that would be helpful.

Dummm.

The entire vault seemed to shake as the reverberations grew in intensity.

“Someone’s breaking in.” Fa Lian was quick to start moving, not waiting for the rest of them. Dan was keeping his eyes down to avoid the headache he felt looking into the room right now.

“Can you help me? I can’t see properly.” Dan asked, putting his hand on Hyun Soon’s shoulder.

“Of course,” his friend huffed, seemingly upset at the idea he wouldn’t. Dan smiled despite the situation, very glad to have met Xiaomei and Hyun Soon that day on the field. Hyun Soon put his arm around Dan and the two picked up their speed. Xiaomei had been keeping pace ahead, and directed the two towards the doors.

Dan could not keep his eyes averted to this masterpiece. He was enamoured with the artistry and the tale woven into the stone. Containing a destructive power and using it for good? Dan liked that thought.

Dummm.

“Okay, so how do we open it?” Dan found that he could look at the door without the same pain behind his eyes, so he wasn’t looking far from it. There were two handles on the door, but they were like the handles of a standard size door. Given the nearly flat angle of the massive pieces of stone, no one could hope to throw one of these open, could they? Dan definitely felt more power within himself than ever before, but that didn’t mean he could suddenly throw a whole hill’s worth of stone over his shoulder.

Panic was rising in Dan’s throat with each heavy thud that made the vault shudder. “We need to grab whatever we can, and figure out a way to open the door.” Dan spoke aloud, simply to the air, hoping that someone else would have an idea that he could latch on to, so he could get them out of this situation. They needed something, anything that could be used to help them move the door.

“Calm, brother.” Hyun Soon blocked Dan’s view of the closed entrance to the labyrinth, a bulwark from the angst that was taking over. “You aren’t the only one here thinking, look.” Though she had slipped into silent, gentle chewing of her lower lip, Xiaomei was deep in thought. Dan saw her eyes bouncing around from place to place, an excited energy forming alongside a growing smile.

“I think we can do this.” Her voice was peppered with the promise of laughter, surprised at her own idea. “Fa Lian,” Xiaomei’s eyes continued to look from the door to the ceiling and back again, “take Dan and find anything useful. Hyun, hold this.” From the sleeve of her robes, Xiaomei pulled a small length of ribbon. When it was in Hyun Soon’s hand, Xiaomei started to move, the ribbon getting longer and longer.

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She looked at Dan and Fa Lian, who were standing still watching her. “Quickly! We don’t have time, right?”

She was right, they were losing their chance to escape. Dan didn’t need to worry, if Xiaomei was sure that their time would be better spent looting the Guan family vault then she must know what she’s doing. “Come, there must be something in here that you can think would be helpful.”

Dan chanced a look at the room, and the objects within, when he started moving with Fa Lian. “What’s happening to my eyes?” He complained, desperately wishing he hadn’t needed to. To his surprise, Guan Fa Lian cursed loudly. Perhaps more surprising, she then apologised.

“I’m sorry. There was probably no worse place to absorb a soul stone, it’s my fault. Your eyes are trying to see the history behind the items now, like mine do. It takes time to get used to, but we don’t have that.” Her words were emphasised by two thuds, which Dan wasn’t sure actually sounded louder or if his panic made them that way. Dan was just relieved to know that the problem would go away. He had become paranoid about his vision now, knowing how easily one could lose it.

“Okay, so what do I do?”

“Hold these,” Fa Lian said, putting a flask and a warm pouch into Dan’s hands, “look at them until your brain doesn’t sting any more. I’ll be back in a moment.” Without another word, she vanished. Suddenly alone and unable to see where he was going, Dan was left with little choice but to do as he was told.

As he focused on the flask, the warmth of the pouch making Dan slightly uncomfortable, Dan felt the same buzz in his head as before, but lessened. Perhaps when he looked into the room, he was trying to see too much at once. That made sense to Dan. Sometimes if he wasn’t careful, he would try to listen to multiple conversations at once and not be able to speak correctly himself. Now that whatever effect was happening in his brain was localised on one item, it had an easier time.

In a way that Dan would never be able to explain to someone else, words appeared in the air. “Never-ending Flask”. Floating in Dan’s vision, even when he blinked. In smaller writing below that, a description began to form. “Connected to a different plane of existence, this canteen refills whenever the cap is returned.” Dan’s natural reaction to blink in surprise did not help, the golden letters floating in his vision like sunspots from seeing a bright light.

The pouch was similar in nature. “Knapsack snack pack”. Each morning, the description went on to say, the small purse would fill with edible pastries of different types. If they were left in the bag, they would stay warm.

Guan Fa Lian had placed these items into his hands as though they were simple trinkets, but Dan thought of nights he sat hungry in the orphanage. Drinking water was rarely a problem, but this flask was a marvel unlike any Dan had seen. He couldn’t even conceptualise how the pouch worked, or what the description had meant by a different plane of existence.

There was a lot of information flowing into Dan’s mind right now. A more natural headache seemed to start, but Dan pinched the bridge of his nose and ignored it. Like being outside in bright sunlight, Dan squinted at the vault and made his way over to a nearby display case. Making sure he stood mostly above it, so that he could look at whatever it was and nothing else, Dan opened his eyes.

Another beautiful display case, white and green wood with black metal, held a ring. “Hinder Ring.” Cute, Dan thought, that’s a name like Park Man-Shik might come up with. The description did interest Dan though, as much as he was against the pun in the name. The ring stopped mana from leaving the wearer. The design of the display case had a figure throwing lightning from their hands, before the ring is put onto their fingers and they are captured, disarmed.

That wouldn’t necessarily be true for Dan, though. He often had an issue with collecting his own mana due to his lack of control. He shrugged as he pocketed the ring, hoping that even if it did help, he might find something a little more useful.

DUMMMMM.

“No,” Dan said out loud, “definitely no more time left. Fa Lian!” Calling out, Dan hoped she would appear quickly, maybe poke her head around a particularly tall display. No such luck, though. The crashing noise of someone breaking into the vault was reaching impossibly loud levels, any hit could be the final one.

It had to be Po Shang, Dan reasoned. If this was the vault of the main family, and you needed a soul stone to be allowed entry, then he would not have a key. That would anger the man immensely, Dan felt, so it made the most sense. No one else would or could be brazen enough to break into the Patriarch’s vault.

“Seriously, Fa Lian! We have to-” CAADUMMMMMM.

Dan fell to his knees at that one, both his ears and his mana perceiving a shattering within the room. It was too late, the door had been broken.

Po Shang was coming.

————————————————————

Far away, miles and miles below the surface of the planet of Jaia, a powerful warrior was panting. They had reached their destination, though they didn’t know that yet. Sweat dripped from their every pore, and they wanted nothing more than to go home.

But they knew that they were the hero of this story.

They couldn’t go home without commanding this power.