The process continued for another two hours. Unfortunately, the process became more difficult as I progressed, and every time I ran out of magic, I had to stop. When I managed to break the seal in the center, the entire sheet of glass had transformed into a shiny black color. It took me way too long to realize that it was obsidian. I could just barely make out the five people inside, and my heart pounded with anticipation as a new prompt appeared.

An unknown seal has been destroyed. The Mirror of Internment has been unmade.

I stared at the words, expecting something else to happen. My sense of triumph slowly faded as the room grew silent. I was just about to cast a spell when a beam of white light shot out of the glass. Another soon joined the first beam and another until there were five in total. I spun around as five spectral figures assembled in the room. Two of them were warriors bearing swords and a set of bronze armor while the other three were witches. They were long black and green robes with a trio of wands. I half expected the group to start fighting all over again. Instead, the warrior shattered into a cloud of golden dust. My eyes went when two of the women followed suit. I stepped forward, not sure if I should cast something or do something, but the look on the spirit that remained made me freeze. There was an odd serenity to her gaze. It wasn’t happiness, more like the calmness that came with true acceptance.

“You are the one who saved us. My sister and I would like to express our gratitude” The woman’s voice sounded ethereal. It was as if she was speaking from both right in front of me and from very far away.

“I did what anyone would do. I, um, what happened to you all?” I asked.

“An ancient enemy hunted us. An ancient kingdom sought us out for something we took from them. This dungeon was meant to be a refugee and a bulwark. Instead, it became the place where we made our last stand.” I nodded as she continued. “My time here is limited. My sisters sacrificed greatly so that I could request of you. I can feel our matriarch’s soul trapped here. If it is at all possible, we would like for you to end her suffering.” My next question died on my lips when a prompt came into view.

You have received the Quest: Requiem for the departed

You have been asked to end the suffering of the matriarch of a witch's coven. The matriarch is located further inside the dungeon. Will you offer your assistance?

Success Conditions: End the current life of Matriarch Kaafiyo

Optional Conditions: Find a way to rescue the Matriarch's soul

Rewards: Unknown

Penalty for Refusal or Failure: Unknown

Do you accept: Yes or No?

I read the quest over again to make sure that I understood what it wanted. This matriarch most likely did something to help her their attackers. Whatever this is, something has probably transformed into something horrible. Something that I will have to fight. Thankfully, the Aurelion was available, between the magmite, my familiars, Zakia, and Tyrus we should be able to handle it. I selected yes and turned my attention back to the spirit. She was almost transparent now. “How do I help her?”

“I do not know. I was not here to see the results of her battle, nor did I know what had happened to her. The spark of her soul is present but very faint. I am sorry I can’t be of more use to you.” I stared dumbly as she ascended into the air. Just before she reached the ceiling, she, too, shattered into a cloud of gold and white.

“Why did you agree to help her? We might not need to for us to complete your quest.” Tenebris’ question caught me off guard, but I couldn’t argue with him. Based on his tone, he wasn't against my decision, so I couldn’t be angry with him. I opened my mouth to give him an answer, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say.

“I just wanted to, I guess.” The answer felt hollow, but it was the best I had at the moment. The quest was there, so I took it. Thankfully, I was saved from examining it further as the wall to my right began to move. The stone moved to the right, revealing another tunnel. I quickly cast a Sphere of light and sent further down the path. “We should continue.”

Sanaa and Tenebris flew through the doorway while I scanned the room one more time. Outside of the large piece of obsidian, there was nothing of note. I waved my hand over it and was happy to see that I could store it in the ring. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with a piece of obsidian, but that would be a problem for future me to solve. I turned and jogged after my familiars. The hallway was strangely empty. It lacked any carvings or any signs of artistry. I wasn’t sure if that was because they were attacked before they could get to this part or if this was meant to be some kind of emergency pathway. I decided to leave that mystery alone for the time being. The tunnel ended after a minute or two of walking. It opened into a room with three other doors. Two were on either side of me, while the third stood proudly directly across. There was a stone statue of a woman with her arms spread out, a stone in one hand and a staff in the other.

The detail in the statue made it more of a work of art than any of the other things in this dungeon. The woman had long, braided hair that was suspended in the air behind her. The details of the stone made me think that it was soft. I gingerly reached out and touched it. I didn’t get a prompt and despite the detail; it didn’t look like the basilisk statues. Which was wonderful. I would have been screwed if I had to cure that without the eggs or any skill to make it again. I made my way over to the two other doors but couldn’t open them. To be more specific, the doors lacked any kind of handle. Even casting almost every spell I knew at them did nothing. Once I had drained most of my magic points, I decided to give up and take a seat. I wasn’t willing to risk opening the big door. The last thing I needed was to get into a fight and that looked like a boss door. I pulled out more of the food I had on me and settled down. I opened the prompt I had minimized earlier and smiled.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

You have completed the Quest: Mirror of the Soul

You have offered your aid and freed souls lost for millennia. Your efforts have freed their souls to whatever realm their lives earned them.

Reward: 300 Renown, 3,000 Experience Points

Congratulations! Your renown has advanced to level 2 "Curiosity"2. Words of your deeds will spread with contact with more people. New quests and unique opportunities are now available to you.

I let out a low whistle at that. Going up an entire renown rank was always worth it. I wasn't sure what these new quests would be but it should be amazing. I would need to ask Amara about it later or Shaurianna. The experience points were always welcome. I still wasn't sure if a maximum level but numbers going up was always worth it. With all of that done I leaned my head back and reflected on the dungeon.

The first door to open belonged to Zakia. She entered the room with both of her swords raised and a myriad of cuts across her armor. She nearly threw one of her blades at Sanaa, who was arcing through the air back to me before she caught herself.

“How did you get here?” She asked while sheathing her swords.

“I came the same way you did. Though I imagine the things I had to deal with were a bit different from yours. How are you doing? Do you need another potion?” I got to my feet and quickly summoned a spare potion.

“I could use one, yeah.” She made her way over, took the potion, and drained it in seconds. “I fought some kind of skeletal knight creature with four arms. It had to be at least three feet taller than you. The thing had two long swords.”

I nodded and glanced over at the third door. “Did you have some kind of puzzle to solve? A trap to undo specifically?”

She nodded. “It wasn’t a puzzle exactly. It was a hallway with a variety of deadly traps and burning threads. It took a lot of work to deal with, but it wasn’t too hard.”

“Ask her if she found anything about the item the witches stole,” Tenebris said before landing on my left shoulder.

“Did you find any documents? Or anything that mentions why the warriors were here?” I asked while looking her over. She didn’t have anything new on her, so I doubted it.

She shook her head. “No, I found a lot of them dead, though. It looked like some powerful magic had killed them. None of it was pyro, so I can’t tell you much about that.”

I sat down next to her and explained everything I had learned up till now and then I went over the new quest. She wasn’t as upset about it as I thought she would be.

“So we need to get to the dangerous woman and kill her? That’s all I need to know. I will leave the rest of it for you to handle. How long have you been waiting?”

I shrugged. “I haven’t been able to keep a good track of time since I have been here. I can tell that it hasn’t been more than a half hour since we came into this room.”

“And you haven’t heard anything from Tyrus? We might need to go and find him.”

I shook my head. “No, and I can’t go through either of the other doors. I am guessing that we can only go through the door we chose.”

She hesitated. “Have you tried going back the way you came?”

“No, the path back would be well hard for us. There was a bridge and then a tentacle monster. We didn’t defeat the beast, so it wouldn’t be the best idea for us to deal with it.”

She looked as if she wanted to ask something else, but shook her head. “Alright, well, we are going to need to do—” Whatever she was about to say was lost when the third door flew open. A streak of black shot through the door and skipped across the ground like a stone on a pond. I jumped to my feet while Sanaa and Tenebris took their positions above us. I had started casting when I realized what I was looking at. Tyrus was a signed and burned mess of fur. I rushed over while drawing a potion from my ring. Before I could cover half the distance, there was a blur of movement and a dagger was flying toward my head. I threw myself down, narrowly avoiding the blade, before raising both hands above me.

“Hey, hey it’s us” I watched his eyes for any sign of recognition. No one moved for a long moment before he dropped his next dagger. I rushed over and caught him before he could hit the ground. “I got you, I got you. Open your mouth.” I removed the cork from the bottle and placed it against his lips. While he was drinking, I turned my attention to the door he came through. The broken stone was crumbling, but there was no sign of the monster that did this to him. “Do any of you see or hear anything?”

When none of them answered, I cast a sphere of light. I sent the orb forward, intending to pass it through the doorway. Instead, the sphere hit an invisible barrier as soon as it would have passed through the door. I pushed against it as hard as I could, but there was nothing I could do. “I assume that you can’t go through the hole either Zakia?”

She slowly walked forward, keeping both her blades in front of her. Sure enough, as soon as the first of her swords tried to pass through, it was stopped. “No, looks like once we pick our door, we can’t go through any others.” She added before making her way back to us.

“Tenebris, Sanaa, try to pass through if it doesn’t work. Try to pass through the door we came through.” I turned my focus back to Tyrus, who had stopped bleeding. His fur was smoking, which made the already stuffy room incredibly unpleasant. I quickly cast Cyclone in the middle of the room, hoping it would help circulate the air.

“Tyrus, can you hear me?”

“I hope I made enough of an entrance for you.” He started a laugh that turned into a hacking cough. “I beat it. I beat the overgrown lizard.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, but he continued before I could ask. “I need a break. I think we should set up camp.”

I looked around and couldn’t disagree that we were in no shape to continue. The rest of us were physically fine, but the fighting had been intense. I slowly nodded and searched for Tenebris and Sanaa. The pair of them were in the middle of trying Zakia’s door. It was surreal watching them perch against space, but they could do it. It was like watching a person stand in solid air. After a few seconds, they flew over and took their positions on my shoulders.

“Did you try our door?”

“Yes, we could not enter. I do not believe we can exit this chamber unless we go forward.” Tenebris stated with a slightly predatory tone.

“I have to agree with him, Master. Someone has dared to keep us trapped in here.” The indignation in her voice made me chuckle.

“Alright, we are going to set up camp here for now. You two get some sleep. Sanaa, Tenebris, and I are going to keep the first watch.”

I waved off Zakia’s protest before she could voice it. Tyrus laughed and coughed before lying on the ground. The sight was a further reminder to stock up on dungeon survival gear. It was going to be rough sleeping on hard stone. I looked over at Zakia and then gestured for her to pick a spot. Once she had chosen her spot I got up and began pacing around the room.