The party stood and stared at a wall in the tunnel. Unlike the other walls before it, which had been uniform in their conformity, this one had a unique feature.

Long gouges had been taken out of the wall, the path of a monster’s claw or talon leaving their mark upon the stone bricks. Each imperfection was as long as Orion was tall, and the thought of what could have done this to the rock and mortar made him cringe.

“Femera, can you smell anything on those gouges?” He ran his finger along one of the rents, feeling the smooth stone of the scar.

Femera scampered out of Arika’s pocket, walking carefully over to the scratches on the wall, her small nose twitching rapidly as she sniffed.

She ran back to Arika with her ears pinned back and scurried into the pocket she came from. She didn’t reemerge.

“It smells vaguely similar to the room with the containers.” Arika stroked Femera through her pocket, trying to reassure the small vulpine.

“I thought so.” Orion let out a sigh. “Probably the mantis, then.”

“The mantis?” Shadow asked.

“Unless it’s a different creature entirely. Imagine if that tiny mantis was, say, the size of you, Shadow. I bet its scythe-like forelimbs could do some serious damage…”

“Oh, good.” Arika stared at the slashes on the wall. “An eight-legged monster the size of a car that can cut through stone with scythe-arms. I was worried I’d be something terrifying.”

“Technically, it’s only six-legged,” Honeypot said. “The scythe-arms are, well, arms.”

“Oh, that’s so much better.” Arika rolled her eyes. “Thank you so much, Honeypot.”

Occupied with his own internal emotions, Orion missed the stiffness to Arika’s posture and the anger in her voice that betrayed just how agitated she was. All that he could focus on was the building anxiety in his own chest.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to deal with it.”

He started walking further down the tunnel, following the direction of the cuts. The rest of the party followed, everyone gravitating towards each other without noticing. Not long later, they came to another split in the maze-like tunnel. Again, one path had the wall gouged by whatever had previously scarred the tunnel.

“So…” Honeypot said. “It’s big, can cut through stone, and it wants us to find it?”

“Maybe,” Orion responded. “But even if it’s leading us into a trap, what choice do we have?”

They continued, eventually finding another split in the path. This split also had similar marks marring the walls—but there was something else, too.

In the center of the floor lay the hollow exoskeleton of a scorpion’s stinger. It looked exactly the same as the smaller version that had been seen in the containers, except this one was as wide as Shadow’s arm.

Orion bent down to pick up the lifeless limb. It was surprisingly light considering its size, the carapace weighing not much at all by itself. He inspected the end where it had been cut. The limb had been severed in a single blow, there wasn’t a blemish or notch otherwise. He tried to bend the carapace, but despite the insignificant weight, it was impossible to move—the keratin composing the exoskeleton was impressively tough.

Honeypot giggled behind, at first softly, but it swelled into a cackle he tried to muffle.

Orion turned to see the Priest trying to control his laughter. When Honeypot noticed Orion looking, he pointed at Arika, who had a look of sheer terror plastered on her face.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, Honeypot. I’m really not in the mood.”

“Woah! Language, missy!” Honeypot took two of the dangling tentacles of his hat and put them in his ears like earplugs. “This is a Christian party, thank-you-very-much! I shan’t be listening to your foul mouth.”

Ignoring Honeypot, she turned to Orion. “Can we go back to when the big baddie was the mantis?”

“You might have nothing to worry about.” Orion held up the empty stinger. “They might both be dead.”

“Both?” Shadow asked. “What do you mean?”

“This was cut by whatever has been slicing into the walls.” Orion held it up before them, displaying how cleanly the hardened limb had been severed. “I think the mantis and the scorpion were attacking each other.”

“Hmmmmm.” Gizmo hummed. “So it is a possibility that there is nothing left to fight? I find that—”

“Disappointing. We know, Gizmo.” Arika rolled her eyes. “I never thought I’d say this, but if either of them lived, I hope the mantis won.”

“We’ll see…” Orion said, not wanting to worry her with his suspicions.

Arika hugged Femera in her arms, who had come out of the pocket to sit in her master’s arms. As they continued moving, Arika walked closer to Orion, falling in beside him. He took comfort in her presence, but still fixated on the path ahead.

They continued following the marks in the wall, finding several severed legs and another stinger along the way. Orion put all of them into his inventory, as he did with the first stinger they found. Eventually, the tunnel opened up into a spacious room.

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The room was lit by sunlight from above, and a winding stairwell lead up to a door. A giant glass dome covered the roof, and the greenery of trees from above peeked through the translucent roof. The movement of the trees drew his attention, and he longed to be out of the tunnels and beneath the sky again.

The room itself was littered with different alchemy equipment, along with other contraptions and devices he didn’t recognize that were likely to do with different professions. They seemed technical, but all were worn down by time to a point of disrepair.

Workspaces that had previously been laid out neatly had been thrown to the side, piling up against each other on either side of the room. They’d likely been thrown askew by what lay in the middle of the room.

Beneath the glass dome above, and sprawled in the sunlight beaming down, lay the remains of what had been the scorpion.

Orion approached cautiously, keeping his eyes peeled for any movement or threats, but he reached the giant pile of remains without issue. The scorpion had been even bigger than he assumed, the length of its body twice as long as Shadow.

The last remaining stinger was still attached, but the body of the scorpion had been scored countless times by its attacker. The top of it was laced with cuts that were fatally deep, given how wide the tracks were in the exoskeleton.

Caught in one of the giant pincers was the scythe-like arm of the mantis that had killed it. It was lodged deep between the eyes of the scorpion, the dead creature unable to stop the severed limb of its attacker from delivering the killing blow.

“Great news, Arika!” Honeypot said, oozing glee. “The mantis lived!”

Arika hugged Femera tighter, ignoring Honeypot’s words.

“Can you put that body in your inventory, Shadow? We might be able to use it…” Orion bent down in front of the head of the scorpion, seeing the scythe-like appendage going all the way through and piercing the floor below. “The mantis’ scythe, too.”

“I can certainly try…” Shadow bent down, touching the carapace. It disappeared into his inventory, followed closely by the scythe.

The party explored the room cautiously, looking for any clues that could be the proof needed to complete the bonus objective. Any paper that remained was crumbling after being exposed to the air for so long, and the ink or graphite that was once scribbled on it had long since faded.

They pulled the room apart and combed through every item, but couldn’t find anything of use. They were just about to take the stairs up to the surface when Orion checked his map—there was a hallway that lead off to the north, opposite the direction they’d come from. It appeared to lead to a dead-end.

Following a hunch, he led them toward it.

They quietly moved all the scattered workstations out of the way in order to pass, with Shadow doing the bulk of the lifting. They walked down the hallway, stepping through two large stone doors to get into the room that awaited. In the next room, they found a scene entirely unlike anything they had seen so far in the underground structure. Where the rest of the building depicted scenes of emptiness or destruction, the room they entered was opulent and untouched.

On one wall there was a giant map, depicting both above-ground topography and the below-ground layout. On another wall, crates piled atop each other. Some crates had been cracked open and strewn aside in a rush. On the wood-panel-lined wall directly opposite the entrance appeared to be some sort of refreshment station. There was a massive teapot, a handful of colorful little containers, and what definitely looked like a kettle with a magical heating element.

In the middle of the room, there was a wooden, circular table with seven plush seats sitting around it. They appeared untouched by time; the still, humidity-controlled room they were in left them looking almost new.

Honeypot walked over and sat in one of the chairs, reclining in comfort.

“Ahhhh, that’s what I’m talking about. Just what my back needed after that metal contraption I slept on last night.”

The room appeared to serve two functions. First was as a meeting room. The large, round table—complete with seven chairs—made that clear. Second was storage. Orion walked over, cracking open one box to find the withered remains of what had once probably been an ingredient required for the long-gone occupant’s experiments. He inspected the remains, just in-case it was something still usable.

Unidentifiable Plant Matter

Junk

Perhaps this was once useful. It is now good for one thing: compost.

Why do you waste my time with this garbage? You have eyes. This is trash, idiot.

Orion raised his eyebrows in surprise at the System’s additional message to him, the aggression of it throwing him off even after all the comments he’d already received.

Does that mean the System has to individually query an item every single time we inspect it?

He smiled to himself and inspected it ten more times in rapid succession with malicious joy.

They all joined him by the crates, cracking open each of them quietly—as quietly as you can crack open wood, anyway—and inspecting the contents. Every single box contained the same withered material.

“It’s such a shame it’s all withered.” Arika ground some of the plant matter to dust in her hand. “I wonder what you could have created with it, or how much money a horde of this size would have been worth?”

“I know.” Orion winced. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“What kind of underground dungeon doesn’t come with any loot?” Shadow asked. “I feel ripped off.”

“That’s not true at all, my man!” Honeypot said from across the room. “Look at how pretty these rings are. I’m utterly fabulous.”

Orion turned and looked at his friend, who was wiggling his digits. Each finger and the thumb of his left hand were adorned with a shiny ring of turquoise or onyx—three of the former, two of the latter.

“Loot implies that the item is good, Honeypot.” Arika rolled her eyes. “Though I’ll admit, they do bring out your eyes.”

“Just because they make me look stunning doesn’t mean they’re not loot.” Honeypot took one of the onyx rings off of his index-finger and tossed it to Shadow.

Shadow’s eyes went distant as he inspected the ring. As clarity returned to his face, it was accompanied by an expression of awe.

“Holy shit…”

Honeypot pulled the ring off of his middle-finger, leaving it extended for longer than necessary as he held it up to Arika before throwing her the ring. She returned the gesture as she caught the ring with her other hand. Honeypot pulled one of the turquoise rings off for Orion, which he then threw to him. Orion caught it, looking at the ring with apprehension before inspecting it.

Sapphire Ring of Cloud Storage

Epic

Capacity: 981/1000kg

A delicate ring that allows the safe storage of volatile and unstable ingredients. All items placed in this ring will have their weight reduced by 10%. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to store this in an inventory or any other storage device.

It’s a glorified bag, dumb-ass.

Orion opened the bag, finding it completely filled with alchemy components and completed potions—hundreds of different stacks, all with varying amounts. There were entirely too many to go through, so he minimized the list.

“Are they all at capacity?” Orion asked, unable to keep the awe from his voice.

“Every. Single. One.” Honeypot wiggled his eyebrows. “Either at or near capacity.”

“What are in the onyx rings?”