"I know them," Elise said. "They were people who were branded like I was."

Samara went to get them down. Then she closed their eyes and let them rest. "They died in agony," she said.

"This is horrible." Elise stumbled to a corner of the room and closed her eyes. "I need a moment."

Meanwhile, Mark had his minions walk into the room and start ransacking the place. There were a few illusions underneath the dirt, but they weren't as solid as the ones the undead had.He excavated everything he could and discovered a secret tunnel as well.

"Ritual magic," he spat. The foul materials scattered on the floor were used for long-standing necromantic spells. Once they were dug up, the dread chill began to fade away. Warmth returned to their bodies and they rubbed their arms to preserve it.

"She's a necromancer?" Samara asked.

Mark shook his head. "Too amateurish," he said. There was a difference in cohesion between how she wielded her magic compared to him and his skeleton mage. Though the difference in skill was stark, the quality of the spell was unmatched.

Elise stepped towards the corpses and poured light onto them. A vague darkness seemed to disappear from their bodies. "There was a presence left behind," she explained herself. "It's gone now."

"How can she do all this? How?" Samara shouted. She paced around the room in frustration. Her eyes were still wild.

"Let's go grab the loot and leave," Mark said. The good thing was that his minions had already opened up many of the sanctum rooms. Inside were many random objects, but a few bags were left behind. Most notably, they were the dead bodies' belongings.

The three of them split the loot. Samara received more herbal materials which she immediately began to work with. Meanwhile, Elise took the other consumables they found. Other than two unknown potion bottles, there were finally two more mana potions and three health potions available, which she shared with Mark.

"Interesting," Mark said as he Identified the potions to be Fire and Frost Resistance. "Looks like she left these behind for a rainy day. Wherever she went, there probably won't be any fire or ice creatures unless she already has an excess of potions."

"I don't think that's true," Samara said, her voice full of resentment. "It's hard to make potions. Even I can't do that yet."

Elise hesitated to say it, but Mark wasn't as shy. "You might need to learn magic for these," he warned. Her inability to learn Identify was a hurdle to getting better. Though Samara flushed slightly, she nodded. "Still, you might have a point," he continued. "Finding the materials and recipe needed to make these things would be difficult. How did you learn how to make those concoctions?"

Samara took a moment to think. "It didn't take me long," she said. "I just began to mix the things I found in the wild with the knowledge I developed as a forest ranger. Eventually, something worked."

"And you did this without Identify?" he asked.

She nodded. "It was like an instinct," she said.

"You probably have a talent for this," Mark said. "How's progress on your magic training, by the way? I know it's hard, but it's very valuable to your growth."

Samara looked a little ashamed of herself. "Not well," she said with a frustrated tone. "There's something I'm missing."

"Sorry for not being able to help." Elise walked up close and tried to hand over her necklace. "You can borrow this if you want."

"No thanks," Samara mumbled. "I can do this myself."

Mark led them to explore the rest of the place before retreating back into the room with the corpses. It contained one last tunnel. No more undead creatures appeared as they walked towards the final room.

"Well, here we are," he said. A door had appeared at the end. Guarding it was a stone lion which might've turned live had he not grown used to identifying anything weird he saw. "We either need a password to get through safely, or kill that monster."

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Samara threw her hands up. "I can't do anything to that thing with my arrows," she said.

Elise's light spells wouldn't be of much help either unless Mark was able to break through its stony shell. But his minions were more suited to spears and swords. He hadn't been able to find one wielding blunt weapons like his mace. Still, if worse came to worst, he was sure his mace would be able to damage it.

But there was a simpler method. His minions started to dig right next to the stone guardian. Eventually, a makeshift tunnel formed to the final room.

A small cavern opened up before them, enough for a few people. But that was all. The place was bare of anything other than a bed and some cloth. Also, there were a ton of illusion spots.

"Doesn't seem to be much here," Elise said. "She's paranoid. Why put so many illusions around everything she has?"

"Could be that," Mark said. "Or she's practicing her spells every chance she gets." He tried to break a few of the illusions he discovered. Indeed, it took longer than some of the others he had found. It was as if she had spent the most time practicing inside this secret room, then used more basic forms of illusions as a lure to cover some of the items while hiding her true skill. The most powerful illusions were reserved for other things like the one covering the tunnel into this room.

"She's learning," Mark said. "We can assume she's trying to grow as fast as she can. Like us."

"And here I thought this was going to be easy," Elise said. "I guess we just have to work harder. Where to next?"

Mark pulled out a large scroll hidden deep inside the ground and slowly began to unroll it. "Looks like this is information about the center of this floor," he said. "Wow, this floor is huge. Come look at this."

The three of them pored over the gigantic map. It contained details about the entire floor, complete with the locations of some important hidden tunnels, dangerous zones, and landmarks for the finder to gain a huge advantage. Elise's mouth dropped open while she looked. From this, it was easy to see how the Mage-Thief had acquired such a huge advantage.

But she had left it behind anyway. Why? Mark could only think of one reason: it was way too heavy. Even holding it for a few seconds already had his arms trembling. And some of the pathways to the center contained long drops, or extremely long distances.

"You two can digest this information," Mark mumbled. "I'll just be over here, cracking a few more of her illusions." He moved away from the map and began to mull over his plans. The Mage-Thief had probably gone towards the center after memorizing as much of the map as possible. They would have to change their plans.

Loud whispering emerged from his two teammates, but Mark ignored them. He broke three more illusions which were becoming more solid as he neared her makeshift bed. The last illusion, positioned near the wall where she rested her head, gave him an image of a lazy person practicing magic while lying down. He cracked a smile.

Three more items emerged. One of them was a large and heavy book he was unable to open, even heavier than the scroll. Another was a small, glittery, golden potion which he recognized as the healing potion Theodore had given him.

"This is a super-healing potion," Mark said. "It also gives permanent stats." Both of their eyes widened once they heard this fact, and they shifted restlessly. "I don't need it since I drank it already. So you two should make the choice between the both of you."

Samara had the first right to items which Mark didn't want, but then she'd miss out on the next item. Something very helpful for her.

Cauldron of Mixtures (Uncommon) - A metal container well-suited for mixing together materials of all kinds. Automatically channels magic into several different rivers, enabling the user to alter the mixture with a multitude of properties.

Mark told Samara the description and her eyes went wide. It was exactly what she wanted. By providing automatic magic flow, the artifact would allow her to create potions without her having to control her magic perfectly. In other words, it was a beginner's best friend, as long as she gained basic magic manipulation.

But she shook her head. "I don't think I deserve this. You did most of the work," she said. "And it's way too heavy to lug around. I'll give it to you instead. Maybe your orc could carry it?"

"I suppose so." With that, Mark took both the book and the cauldron. He would find an opportune time to place it inside his pocket plane later, but had his orc heave it over its shoulders for now.

Samara also relinquished her rights over the stats potion, letting Elise have her chance. She immediately gasped after drinking it. A flush appeared on her face as she lay down on the bed.

"It's like having the best massage after a rough day," she said with her eyes closed. "Feels so good."

But it was a terrible idea to sleep here. Mark brought them over to another close hidden cavern, already cleared out, and then had them rest for the "night." Almost a week had passed since the tutorial's beginning.

After the much-needed break, their next step was to leave. While his teammates consulted the map, Mark tried various methods to open the book. He gave up after it became clear the item was tightly bound shut. Even his Identify skill only gave vague hints about the object, calling it a Magical Book (Rare). He really needed to upgrade the skill.

Mark walked closer to his teammates, interrupting their whispers. His finger landed on the middle of the map. "We'll head to the center," he proclaimed. "That's where this will all end."