We managed to escape the ghost city that became flooded with black humanoids. We’re now near the fourth and last objective, the one near the Calamity sitting on the throne surrounded by lava.

“I remember this passage. We’ve been here before.” Balmy states the obvious. “Aren’t we walking in circles?”

“Don’t you remember our first conversation with Calaban’s party? Of course, we’re going back, you dumb flying pest.”

“Don’t call me thaaaat! Kyaaaah!”

Shit. I should stop provoking her when she’s right next to my ear. I feel like my head is about to explode.

Anyway. As I was saying, we’re back to where we found the first Calamity. There are no signs yet of the lava, nor is it getting hot, but we’re close.

“Calaban. I believe it’s time for your group to take the lead.”

“Yes, I know.”

“Also… remember what we talked about? After this, we’re fighting that Calamity.”

“...I know.”

We stop, allowing Calaban’s party to take the lead. As they pass our position, Thunder Thighs and Warpoke nod in my direction, but I pay no attention and instead check my team to make sure they’re ready.

Muribelle looks more excited than usual, possibly because we’re about to meet the player who used, in her own words, ‘that cool and amazing fire spell I’ll surely learn when I reach a higher level’.

Moo too looks excited at the incoming fight. Or maybe it’s because it’s almost guaranteed he’ll take lots of damage.

…I don’t want to have anything to do with that.

Balmy is sticking next to my head as usual. I’ve finally managed to prevent her from sitting on my head, but she’s persistent. She can’t let go of her stupid and completely unwarranted grudge.

I didn’t do anything to her! Why is she so stubborn? Why does she blame me for everything that happened that single time she and her friends came into my dungeon!? It was them who came into my dungeon! I didn’t force them to do it!

I pity her friends for having to deal with her every day.

We start following Calaban and his team. Since we had already explored part of this area, we exchanged maps so they could follow them. It shouldn’t take long until we find where their last objective is.

----------------------------------------

“Are you sure this is the correct path?” I ask. “Doesn’t look like there will be anything interesting here.”

Calaban, tired of my repeated questions, answers without turning back. “Yes. We’re about to arrive at our last objective.”

“If you say so…”

I shrug my shoulders and continue walking.

Why am asking? Because it is weird we’re in such a narrow and lost place, with no signs of civilization at all. The rock is bare, there are no signs or torches, the path is uneven, and I’m sure nobody has taken this path for at least the last hundred years. Not even the monsters.

All other objectives were near the main paths except for the first. And even that one had a stone path leading directly to it for us to find and follow. The room itself was hidden so monsters didn’t find it by accident, but players like us couldn’t miss it.

But not this time.

Have you ever been in an underground cave? Those caves that are open to the public usually have a path you should follow, the ‘main path’, and then there are the side paths that lead to the different parts of the cave, which you shouldn’t explore by yourself.

Finally, there are always dead ends or dangerous branching paths that you don’t know where they go, and which might collapse at any time. If you go inside, you might not return.

Yes… we’re in one of the latter.

Furthermore, there are parts where the ground is slippery. Something that wouldn’t be a big problem if there weren’t cliffs and holes hidden at unexpected places. There’s not enough light to spot them properly.

Navigator, who is leading Calaban’s party, suddenly stops.

“It’s here. A meter or two in front of us. But I don’t see anything.”

Calaban furrows his brows. “It can’t be another dead end, can it?”

“I don’t know.”

Navigator shrugs his shoulders and crosses his arms as if to say ‘My job here is done’. He behaves exactly as you would expect from an orc warrior, hahaha.

Thunder Thighs steps up. “It must be a hidden entrance. The marker is too close, it can’t be on another tunnel, it must be in this one. Let’s look around.”

The rest of the team agrees to her proposal and starts searching the surroundings, except for Navigator. He stands there, with his arms crossed, nodding to whatever they say.

We don’t participate in the search either because we’re guarding the entrance from possible monster attacks. We don’t want them to die when they’re busy with something else.

Calaban’s party tries pushing every wall protrusion and dent for hidden doors. They check behind the big rocks and even try smashing the wall with their weapons. Until, finally…

“I can’t find anything.”

Calaban raises his hands in defeat. Following his example, Thunder Thighs abandons the search, defeated.

“Me neither… But it should be here! I’m sure of it…!”

But right then, Warpoke’s voice awakens them from their defeat. “I think I found it!” He shouts. “Come help me with this!”

Curious, I look in his direction. He’s pointing at a big rock in front of him. A rock that should be too big to be moved by a few people if this were real life. But… that rock is too weird. After all, why would a random rock have indents that look suspiciously similar to handles?

Calaban and Thunder Thighs come close to Warpoke and examine the rock. They then try pulling the rock in different directions, using the indents as handles. At first, it doesn’t move, but then they try pulling upwards and, surprisingly, one side of the rock slips up as if it were a trapdoor. After the rock is lifted, it reveals a set of stairs going deep into the ground.

There’s a complex and ancient mechanism supporting the weight of that rock to make it easy to lift. And from the looks of it, it’s possible to lift and close it from the inside with the same ease as from the outside.

This isn’t some random hiding place… Whoever created this wasn’t a nobody. There must be something important inside.

“Wow! It worked!” Warpoke exclaims. “I didn’t expect it would be hidden like that!”

“Investigation awaits! I’ll be going first.”

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ThunderThighs slithers down the stairs, not waiting for the rest of her team. She’s a bit too excited about exploring the unknown, don’t you agree?

Warpoke and Navigator soon follow after her, but Calaban, acting as the leader, turns to us instead.

“Are you coming?”

“Of course we are.” I nod. “But… taking a closer look at the entrance…”

I don’t know what we will find once we go inside, but the stairs’ ceiling is too low. I assume this was a dwarf’s construction, and since they aren’t that tall, they didn’t need to invest in creating a tall passage, so they didn’t.

The ceiling is just a bit above a meter and a half tall. I’ll have to crouch to go inside. It’s going to be annoying, but I’ll be fine. The problem is Moo, who’s more than two meters tall with his Minotaur Champion. And that’s not accounting for his enormous horns.

“I don’t think you can fit in there,” I say.

“Moooohahaha! I don’t mind, I’m not interested in exploring ruins.”

I already knew. “So… you don’t mind staying outside, alone?” I then remember that Calaban has been waiting for us. “Ah, Calaban. You can go first. We’ll sort this and come after you.”

“Alright.”

He shrugs and goes inside. I can see light coming from inside the previously dark stairs. His teammates must have some skill to light the surroundings.

Moo thinks for a moment before answering my question.

“Waiting here will be as boring as searching inside. Can I go find some monsters to distract myself?”

It’s better to know he will be busy defeating monsters than not knowing what sort of bullshit he’ll pull off because he’s bored. Furthermore, more monsters defeated means more points for our team, so I agree. But I warn him first.

“As long as you don’t go far away or get yourself killed…”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. Such weak mooooooonsters can’t kill me! Mooohahaha!”

In truth, I’m more worried about the Calamities than the monsters… But with his map, he should be able to avoid them. So it should be fine.

“Ah, umm…” Muribelle raises her hand. “I’m not interested in exploring either, so I’ll go with him. Also, he can’t defeat the monsters alone, so I’ll make sure he doesn’t die!”

“I won’t die! I can survive until they kill themselves by attacking me! Mooohahaha!”

Muribelle’s eyes have a dangerous glint. But there’s no reason to deny her, is there?

“...fine. Do whatever you please.” I then look at Balmy, in case I can get rid of her too, but she quickly shakes her head.

“Of course, I’m going inside! It’s exploration time! The Great Fairy Explorer will discover all the hidden mysteries!”

Why did she have to be the only one who sticks up with me? Fuck.

“See you later. And don’t wander too far.” Leaving those words behind, Balmy and I walk down the stairs.

“Yes, mom.” I hear Muribelle mocking me as I lower the ‘trapdoor rock’.

Now that the entrance is closed, there’s no need to worry about monsters coming inside. We can focus all our attention on the mysteries that await us. Muribelle and Moo can go around and fight any monster they find.

But… shit. Why do I feel like a mom leaving their kids alone at home, with a bomb in their hands? A bomb they can activate by pressing a red button they’ve tried to press several times before.

I shake my head to shake off my thoughts and focus on the stairs.

Have you ever tried to climb up or down the stairs when crouching down? It’s hard. And extremely annoying. Furthermore, a single misstep can send you rolling down.

“Weeee! Exploration! It’s the Great Fairy Explorer's time to shine! Hahaha!”

Balmy, on the contrary, has no such troubles. At such a small size and being able to fly, she cheerily rushes ahead of me, excited like a kid with a new toy.

“Tsk! My portable and hands-free lantern just ran away… New gadgets are always so unreliable…” But how am supposed to go down the stairs without any light? Shit! “Balmy! Come back right now!” I wish I never had to say this.

What we find inside isn’t as exciting as I expected. We don’t find a super-secret fortification or laboratory. Truly, a shame.

At the end of the stairs, we find ourselves in a cramped space that reminds me of a bunker. Narrow walls, ceiling so low that forces me to crouch, and even lower doorframes.

There’s a single corridor connecting a bedroom with barely space for a single bed, a tiny kitchen, and an even smaller bathroom. Lastly, at the end of the corridor, there’s another door from which we can hear the voices of Calaban’s team.

“This place isn’t interesting at all!” Balmy points her finger at me. “You tricked me, Koala!”

“Shut up. I didn’t trick you because I didn’t have any idea of what we would find. Also…” I pause to create tension, signaling for her to come closer. When she does, I whisper as if telling a secret. “...are you sure this isn’t your house? Everything is so tiny! Hahaha!”

“I’m not tiny! I’m a proper lady!”

“…yeah, sure. Whatever you say.” I nod while waving my hand around to prevent her from pulling my fur.

‘You’re tiny both in body size and proportions.’ I’m about to say it out loud, but stop myself before I regret it. I’d like my eardrums to survive another day.

“Maybe we’ll find something more interesting in the last room. Let’s go.”

“Let’s goooooo! The Great Fairy Explorer never gives up!”

‘You just did. Less than ten seconds ago, literally.’ I think. But again, I stay silent. Not for her, but for me.

The last room is the largest of them all, but that’s only when you compare it with the others. With no more than five meters by side, the room is filled with racks, tables with drawers, scattered papers and books, and random stuff you could vaguely classify as ‘laboratory equipment’.

There’s barely any space to walk. With just Calaban team’s four members and I, you can say it’s crowded. By the way, Balmy doesn’t count. She’s too tiny.

But what immediately catches my attention is a skeleton resting on one of the chairs. A short humanoid with wide shoulders and a thick skull. Almost guaranteed to be a dwarf.

“Is that a skeleton?” I ask.

“Yeah. We’re thinking the same as you.” Thunder Thighs is the first to answer. “There must be a reason there’s a skeleton here when we didn’t find any previous traces anywhere… As I’m sure you’ve realized already, it’s from a dwarf. But why is this the first one we found?”

The weirdest thing isn’t that we found a skeleton, but that we only found it here. I believe I’ve mentioned before, but there were no signs of corpses anywhere. Since I entered the Mystery Event, this one is the first I’ve seen.

No corpses in the main tunnels, near the Calamity domains, nor in the ghost city. No player corpses or dwarven ones. Not even the corpses of monsters remain, as they disperse into black particles soon after being killed.

This is the first and only corpse we’ve found. Which means it’s a special one. There must be a reason why it’s here.

“Maybe…” I start imagining stuff. “Maybe, it’s a dwarf that sought refuge here for some reason during the destruction of his kingdom and died here, alone but safe from the monsters roaming outside. The reason his corpse remains is that it was never exposed to whatever happened outside….”

“I think so too.” Thunder Thighs nods.

Oh? Do you think so too? I was just spouting whatever bullshit came to mind.

“Khm! I knew you’d agree with me,” I feign I know what’s she talking about and quickly switch the topic. “So… have you found anything interesting?”

This time it’s Calaban who talks in everyone’s name.

“Not really. There are lots of papers written in the same language as the one in the first objective, but we have no idea how to read them.”

But I thought they were random scribbles… Well, maybe they are but the DMA staff wants to trick us into thinking otherwise.

“Do you mind if we take a look too?”

“No, go ahead.”

They make way for me so I can investigate the area. As you might expect, Balmy immediately jumps to action.

“Ooooh, look at this box! It’s sooooo beautiful! I’m sure there’s something good inside! The Great Fairy Explorer is about to make the greatest discovery of the millennium!”

Balmy gets attracted to a black box resting right next to the skeleton. It has golden patterns engraved on the sides and top, which give it a noble and dignified appearance. The box itself looks expensive, so it makes one think there must be something good inside.

“This is the first thing we checked too, but there’s nothing insi–”

“Ooooooooh! It’s glowing!”

Thunder Thighs is forced to swallow her own words as soon as Balmy pulls the cover. From within, light shines for a moment, revealing two objects inside.

But instead of Balmy, the one who loses his sanity first is me. It happens as soon as I read the descriptions of the two items that pop in front of me.

“Oh my god!” I shout. “Are you kidding!? Am I dreaming!? Somebody, slap me so I know I’m not dreaming.”

*Slap!*

Balmy slaps me with everything she’s got. She even speeds up to ensure she can do it as hard as possible.

…Okay. Maybe not that hard next time, please.

image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

The Mystery Event was set with the player’s cooperation in mind. Although the rules didn’t state it directly, even mentioning the possibility of obtaining extra points from defeating other teams, everything was designed for cooperation.

Calamities that were too powerful for a single team to defeat alone. Different quest objectives helped the players avoid danger and know where to go. A labyrinth layout choked with dead ends that naturally drove the players towards the carriage highways, which worked like hubs. Secrets players could only find with the help of other parties.

The whole event was designed to award those teams who cooperated with others.