CHAPTER NINETEEN—WHAT ADVENTURERS DO BEST

“Ha!” Ali shouted, striking the last mummy down with his sword. The power of his strike cut the thing in two and it crumpled to the floor where the other dismembered mummies lay.

Some of them still twitched. One groaned, and Shiro finished it off.

“I’m sweating,” he said.

Ali wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “There’s nothing better than a sword brawl to warm the body.”

Breathing in deeply, Shiro stepped over the twice dead mummies toward the arch he had indicated earlier. He did not put his scimitar away. His preferred sword was the katana of his homeland of Mikuma, but he did not want to use the weapon too often, unsure of whether sword makers in these lands could care properly for his blade. Instead he kept it strapped to his back, his scimitar at his side, his major weapon for most situations.

If Shiro was unsure of a situation, he would use his katana. But practicing with both swords regularly did limit the amount of time he could devote to that. He was still improving with his scimitar but even so, the blade seemed unwieldy to him at times, but probably most likely because he lacked thick arms for swinging so much metal.

“Oh,” Ali said. “There’s cool air coming from this area.

“I feel it.”

“There could be passages out of the dungeon from here.”

“Perhaps,” Shiro said, “this dungeon has been raided before.”

“Let’s find out!”

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They navigated a series of corridors with sand-covered floors until they reached another large chamber.

“What’s that light?” Ali asked.

Shiro stepped forward, making his way to the pattern of light on the floor. Once under it he glanced up in the pale blue light.

“It’s moonlight,” Shiro said. There’s a cavern in the ceiling leading outside.

“Why did we not search about this dungeon first?” Ali asked. “Finding this would have been so much easier. We could have rappelled down here easily. Although it is somewhat high.”

“Yes,” Shiro agreed, noting the pattern of light on the floor the moon created as it shone through the palms above .Water dripped through that cavern and landed on the floor, pattering softly, but constantly.

“It is beautiful,” Ali commented. “The gods, even in their anger give us beauty.”

“Anger?” Shiro asked.

“The dungeons. They’re of the gods.”

“Is this true?”

Ali shrugged. “Some say so. Who can tell? But why else would they be here?”

“Perhaps dark mages created them.”

“Ha! Not likely.”

“Dark gods then.”

“Exactly.”

“Then the gods responsible are not angry, they’re evil,” Shiro argued.

“Yes, yes!” Ali said, waving a dismissive have. “Whatever.” He stepped forward as Shiro sniffed with amusement.

He didn’t like it when his logic was challenged, and Ali was a rather poor sport at times, but at least he recovered from his frustrations quickly. Even so, Shiro and Ali had never been in a very large disagreement as of yet. Perhaps such an event would test their friendship.

Ali fished his glow stone back out of his pocket. The light from the stone seemed to be different now as it absorbed the subtle moonlight from the night’s sky. Instead of a pale blue, the stone now shone with a pale yellow cast.

“This is interesting,” he said. “The stone seems to project a light different to that of what it absorbs.”

“Is that not normal?”

“I’ve never seen this thing before.”

“These stones could be worth far more than we think.”

“Maybe. Let’s move on.”

Shiro nodded. They searched the chamber, finding a walkway with sunken pools beside it and arches leading to another series of doors on the other end of the cavern.

“It seems that the dungeon is becoming more grand,” Shiro said. “More majestic.”

Ali grinned widely. “Yes!”

“That means more monsters await,” Shiro said. His words were not in amusement.