Mark didn't know who to trust anymore. "How are you not dead?" he wanted to ask. But he held his tongue. Hinting that he had met Theodore wasn't the best idea if they were working with the Mage-Thief.

"Hi Mark," Elise said. While Mark stared at her, she remained fidgety, eyes on the floor and not meeting his eyes. Their Levels and Classes checked out. A Level 14 Mage, and a Level 13 Rogue.

Hannah had returned to a state of relative calmness, compared to when she fled. She met his look and said, "Sorry for running away earlier. I was scared you might be someone else, so I had to bring Elise here to speak with you for our safety."

It was a good reason, but Mark wasn't so sure. He assumed they had joined the Mage-Thief and were now complying with her demands in order to not explode. To probe their true intentions, he needed to give away some crucial information, and make himself more attractive as bait in their eyes.

"I saw some of her powers," he said. The two of them looked away from the shadowy mass lingering behind him and made a nervous smile. "Fought with her for a bit. I take it she can cast illusions as well?"

Hannah paused for a bit before nodding. "Yes, I thought you were someone else," she repeated. "She's used the looks of other people to try and lure us in."

"What happened to the others? Theodore, Victor?" he asked.

"Theodore's missing. We don't know where he is. Victor joined them to save his life, which is why they were able to win the battle. He helped them make more accurate illusions and gave them enough power over us to win."

Mark frowned. "Then are we just hiding here?"

"We've scattered around the area afterwards and have taken up several hiding spots," Hannah spouted. She looked at Elise. "Hans and Carol are with us, but we only have a general idea about Hector's team."

"Take me to them," Mark said. "I can help." There was a non-negligible chance for this to be an ambush, but he wanted to call their bluff. He had seen a slight glimmer of torchlight in the distance - a signal from Samara. She was willing to follow his decisions.

His bear stomped into full view, a growl emerging from its throat. Elise stumbled backwards, almost falling over but managed to right herself. Even Hannah's eyes widened, but she kept it at that.

The bear continued to bore its eyes into theirs, ready to attack at a moment's notice. Mark didn't think they planned to self-detonate right here, but he didn't know if the Mage-Thief could just do it remotely. He maintained a healthy distance while they walked.

Mark had memorized some of the map, and he knew Hannah and Elise weren't taking him to a dangerous place, but his mind still wandered at what would happen. His body started to tremble. When would an explosion come? His nervousness almost alerted them, but he changed his thoughts to Samara, who would probably come to his aid.

"Is this the place?" he asked.

Hannah nodded. There was a small crevice in the wall and it looked like it could only fit one person at a time. Mark knew something was off, and tried his best to refuse.

"Why don't you go get them outside?" he asked. "Are they badly hurt?"

Hannah nodded her head again, but Mark remained staring at Elise. He repeated his question but received no answer.

"I see what's going on here," he said. "Hannah, you've betrayed me."

Her eyes immediately grew frenzied. A red glow emerged from her body as she stood still, but an arrow put a stop to her detonation. Her body went limp.

Meanwhile, Elise had closed her eyes, struggling to hold something back. Mark could sense her magic thrashing inside her body. "Thank you," he said to her. He didn't know what to do, so he pulled out what he could from his bag - the goblin's divine effigy. Mark quickly shoved it in her hands and stepped away.

Her condition actually seemed to improve. Eventually, after a long struggle, the magic inside her became calm, though she was wheezing on the floor afterwards. With tears in her eyes, Elise mumbled, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"No problem," he said. "I'm glad you were able to defuse the magic all by yourself. What was it anyway?"

Elise looked at the effigy which had fallen onto the floor and returned it to Mark. "It was her." She shuddered. "We weren't lying, you know. She has power over illusions. Explosions appearing everywhere, but you couldn't tell which ones were real. Hans and Carol died right next to me."

A tear ran down her face and she raised her arm, where there was scabbed skin. "That woman carried some kind of ritual dagger. It could brand others, and wanted to seep into my system. But I knew better. I never gave up."

"You did good. So it was an artifact," Mark noted. "Thank you. Where do you plan to go now?"

"I was hoping to be able to follow you?" She looked him in the eyes. "I know about their inner sanctum. That Mage-Thief trusts us a lot more once she got us branded. Bet she didn't expect me to survive," Elise giggled.

"Your information in exchange for your safety." Mark nodded to seal the deal. "You can come out now."

Samara emerged from the darkness, immediately rifling through Hannah's dead body for anything important. She found nothing, then said, "Let's leave. Now," while staring at the cavern Hannah wanted to lead him in.

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

"Are there more explosives in there?" Mark asked once they had retreated a good distance.

Samara nodded her head. "Lots of magic," she said.

They hurried down the tunnels and retraced their path backwards. Now, only Hector's team remained unknown. The part with Victor seemed to have been a lie, because Elise had never seen him after the separation.

"I hope Aria and James are safe," Mark muttered. Though it pained him, he realized there was no way he'd be able to protect everyone at the same time. So he had to focus on what was important: his goal of getting out of the tutorial with enough power to save his mother in the hospital.

"So you met Theodore," Elise said. "How was he?"

"Ashamed," Mark replied. "He decided to leave this place after he saw how badly he lost."

"I never got the chance to tell him I don't blame him. Think it would help?"

"Probably," he said. "I think we should be worrying about this instead, though." They had reached a new cavern not written on the map. "What is that, Samara?"

Deep inside the cavern was an ethereal glow. "Ghosts," she muttered. Her face turned pale.

"Scared of ghosts?" Elise asked. "Have you met one before?"

Samara shook her head. "I don't have magic," she said. "Please take care of it yourselves."

Mark sighed. He went in alone. Elise wanted to follow, but Samara held her back with an iron grip.

As Elise protested, Mark's skeleton mage and undead bear walked alongside him. Though he didn't know if his necromancy had any effects on spirits, he thought the chance was more likely.

Lingering Spirit - Level 15

The spirit in question looked like a humanoid, but its lower body ended in a trail of shimmering light. It made no noises, silent as the grave, as it hovered midair. When Mark drew close enough, it turned towards him, but did not attack.

"Hello?" he tentatively asked. "Are you there?"

It did not reply. Then, Mark asked a series of questions which also received no response. He wondered if this was because of his necromantic abilities, or because the ghost was some kind of an illusion.

He stopped and stared at it. This seemed to be the only ghost around, so he planned to take his time studying this one, especially since it looked friendly at the moment. He directed his skeleton mage to walk closer and touch it. Its bony fingers slipped into the spirit's body and made it shift slightly.

Mark got the physical tests out of the way, confirming his weapons, body, and bear could not touch the ghost in any way. He now had some more tests in mind which might cause an irreversible event: the goblin idol, Magic Missile, and general necromancy. He took out the magical gems and Theodore's golden coin as well, but the spirit didn't even look at these items even as he waved them in its face. They were likely not important here.

He took a deep breath and aimed to find out what he needed to know: a way to kill these monsters. The problem with spirits was that physical items could not damage them. But what about magic?

His question was answered when his swarm of Magic Missiles tore apart the ghost's figure. A wail emerged from its throat, but was cut off by his skeleton mage exerting necromantic energies onto it. The new monster popped just like all the other corpses they experimented on. But its body disappeared, instead.

Mark paused in place, scanning the area for any changes. The fact that the ghost screamed so loudly made him think it was a sentry to warn others of people coming. But there was no place to hide here, so he prepared to fight. Yet nothing moved.

Realizing it was probably safe, Mark walked deeper into the cavern. The area looked like a graveyard. Countless stones jutted out from the floor in various shapes and sizes, and across all of them, text and pictures were drawn. Most were simple with a few scrawls, but the most impressive stones contained a lot more information.

This space took up a huge chunk of the cavern, but something was off. Another large chunk of the cavern went unused. A person with less experience might dismiss it as something normal, but Mark had seen and fought off illusions hiding something special. He believed this space had more secrets.

So when he confirmed the relative safety of these gravestones, he went back and asked Elise and Samara to come with him. "It's safe, I think," he said. "I can kill the ghosts, but there might be more hidden around. I need your help."

"Why? Let's just go," Samara said. "I hate this place." Even Elise seemed averse to going in once she heard there would be more.

"Trust me. Do you want to know how that woman got her powers?" Mark waved his hands. "There are treasures hidden around. I have a feeling some are here."

Though Samara looked very nervous, she still came with him to explore the gravesite. Elise was forced to follow, but she perked up once she saw the scene. Her inquisitive eyes peered at three gravestones next to each other, taking in as much information as she could.

"I think I know this," she said. "I've seen it before."

"Where?" Mark asked.

"In many places," she murmured. "Saw it once while following Theodore, once when I was exploring alone, and once when I got captured by that woman."

"That many times? Can you figure out what it means?"

"Well, I don't understand any of it," she said. "But it should be a part of the dungeon." Which meant she basically knew nothing.

Samara returned from wandering around the cavern and shook her head. Her perception couldn't find anything, meaning the key was likely hidden behind magical means. Mark hadn't given up yet.

He took the chance to explain his thoughts in more detail. "I've experienced a lot in this dungeon," he said. "I think there are three types of factions here: the flora and fauna, the undead, and the greenskins."

"I've seen them too," Elise said. "But I wasn't sure if this was just a part of the tutorial. Like a weird game, instead of a naturally forming pattern."

"I've fought undead in three different caverns before. The key thing about them is that they were all dormant," Mark continued. "I didn't really have to fight them unless I did certain things. I think that's what's happening here. Not sure why the ghost did nothing, though. Maybe I stopped it."

"So there should be something here," Elise realized. "You think it's an illusion?"

"Almost certainly. That's why I need to spend more time here," Mark argued. "We shouldn't leave until we get all the advantages we can, especially since that woman's artifacts are so strong." He glanced over at Samara when he said this. "Elise, do you have anything else for us? Maybe the scripts can help.."

She scrunched up her brows. "Maybe? I dunno. I never went into any of these places myself, but I guess they looked dark and gloomy like this cave," she said.

"You were able to encounter three of these markings. What if that woman could find more?" Mark emphasized. "A Mage-Thief would be best at disarming traps both magical and mundane, while also being able to spot them in the first place. She could have more than just three of these artifacts."

"I see your point," Elise said. She nodded. "I'm in."

"Fine," Samara said. She tiptoed back among the gravestones and examined them further. She was shivering as she did so, but refused to let fear win.