Idris let out a primal, “Eana!” when he got home and heard her mumble a quiet “Go away.”

That was good. She was here. He checked the countdown:

Time until opening: 58 minutes, 19 seconds

Perfect. Time for the hard part. He went straight to Eana’s door, excitement building in him and feeling like it might just burst out.

He started knocking. Softly at first, then more insistently. Of course Eana seemed determined to wait him out so he tried the door.

Locked.

“Eana!” he called, still knocking, “If you don’t open the door I’m going to break it down.”

“You won’t!” she called back, “Dad will be so angry with you!”

“Going to be worth it, I promise. And Dad is already angry with me so what’s a door on top of all that? You’ve got to the count of three,” he said, still knocking, “One.”

The door swung open and there was his sister. Clean, short, but looking more tired than he was despite having spent the whole day in her room while he was training.

“I don’t want to go back out there Idris,” Eana said.

“You will,” Idris said and launched into it. He explained the dungeon, the quest, the map, his training, and how he didn’t want to risk exploring without his Healer.

She tried to hide a smile at that last part, and Idris knew he was making progress, but he wasn’t done yet.

“But here’s the thing I really took from training today,” he said, “Everything can be learned. Trained. Mastered. And I might just be a little hopeful here, but there’s shortcuts to most of that - like the Skill Books.”

“So what?” Eana said.

Now was the crucial moment. The time for honesty. He looked his sister in the eye

“I understand why you’ve locked yourself in here. I’ve always suspected there’s more to how people treat you, and that you were hiding the worst of it, but now that I’ve seen it I need to be honest with you.

“I was talking to Conrad about it and I can’t hide from it or pretend it doesn’t happen. I feel something when you use magic.”

Eana flinched back as he said it, face darkening. Idris hurried on, “Everybody does. This is just the truth, but I don’t want us to just live with it and accept it. The thing I thought of when I was training today is that we barely know the first thing about how Order works, how this world works, and how your… challenge, fits into it.”

She was listening now. He was reaching her.

“I went down to the seekers today knowing nothing about fighting and in one day and with the help of a magical item, I’ve gotten several months worth of training. Would you have even thought something like that was possible?”

She shook her head no.

“Now here’s what I’m getting at. I don’t lash out or get angry at you when you heal me, right?” he asked.

His sister gave a small shrug, “That’s right. I thought, but you just said-”

“I know what I just said, but I don’t lash out do I? I feel something, that’s just the truth, but do I do anything to you? Treat you worse because of it?”

“No. But everybody else does and there’s more to the world than the two of us,” Eana shot back, frustrated.

“Right, and even Conrad thinks it’s just chance or luck or the fact that I’m your brother that keeps me from being like everybody else. But when I think about it and look at how much I learned from training today I had an idea. What if it’s a matter of training? What if I trained myself to not be bothered by your magic?”

“So what if you did? I mean thanks? I guess. We can’t train everybody we meet to not be terrible,” Eana said, not yet seeing where he was going.

“What if that means that you can also train? Train to control how your power affects people?”

She looked thoughtful. He had her now.

“Or what if there’s a magic item? I read a skill book today, something I never even heard of and suddenly I know how to fight. What if there’s something like that out there for you?”

“Look at it this way - you know you’re safe with me. I know I’m safe with you. With your help I can get even stronger, take on more dangerous things, more risk - like the Shimmering Rocks. And with my help, maybe you can learn to master whatever it is that makes people act how they do when you use your magic. And with a whole new dungeon to explore and grow with, who knows what kind of items and treasure we’ll find. Maybe there’s something in all this that can help you grow into your power the way the skill book helped me grow into mine.”

She was quiet for a full minute but Idris waited her out.

“So,” she asked, “You’ve been feeling it the whole time?”

“It took Conrad forcing me to admit it but I confirmed it this morning when you healed my soreness,” Idris said. It wasn’t comfortable admitting this to his sister but, well, that was a big part of what an older brother had to do right?

“Now that I really know about it, I can pay attention to it, see where it comes from. We can do it. And together in the dungeon I’ve got a feeling we’ll have plenty of chances to work on it,” he finished.

He could see her mulling it over, so he added one final flourish, “Also did I mention there will be treasure? And we’re the first? And nobody else knows about the dungeon but us?”

She giggled, nodded, and walked back into her room. Out from under her bed she pulled her Ironwood Staff of the Monk.

“How much time do we have?” she asked.

“Plenty,” Idris replied, “Close to an hour.”

“Then how about you dump out your inventory and we bring along some food this time?” she said.

Always practical, his sister.

They geared up, stocked up, and headed out for the dungeon, Idris leading the way. By the time they got there,only a couple of minutes remained on the countdown timer.

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Eana gasped in pleased astonishment.

“Pretty cool, right?” Idris said, indicating the entrance.

“It’s not that,” she said, “I mean, yes, it’s great but I just got a quest!”

“Yeah? Any good?” he asked.

“Surprisingly? Yes. Sometimes I feel like Order is trying to get me killed with the quests it gives me but check this one out.” She put her hand on his shoulder and they locked eyes briefly, allowing him to see her prompt:

Quest

Party Healer

Healer’s are often the keystone of longevity and survival for an adventuring band. Form a party with another adventurer and fulfill the role of healer.

Reward: 100XP

Accept Quest?

Yes / No

She accepted and the prompt updated:

Conditions:

Perform 1000 points of healing on adventurers in your party

Progress:

0/1000

“That’s pretty intense,” Idris said, “I’ve got 120 health so I’ll have to die like…almost ten times for you to get there?”

“Or I heal like a bajillion scrapes, but yeah, basically,” Eana said cheerfully, “It’s probably meant for a larger party. Can we form one?”

Idris decided not to point out to Eana how morbid the thought of needing to get hurt enough to die ten times was. Not to mention her reaction. Now was the time for a confident, brave face. So he just nodded and entered a party with Eana when her request popped up.

By now the shadows were long and the sun was only a dim glow behind the mountain. There wasn’t much left to do but wait. Then Idris was struck with an idea.

“Hey Yahn, think I could borrow your charoite bracelet while we’re in there? You’ve got more mana than me even without it and I was hoping to level up Detect,” he said.

She took it off without question and handed it to him, “Better relax and fill your pool then. How long?”

He slipped the bracelet on and watched his mana pool capacity increase from five to twenty five, the little bar that represented it in his vision expanding smoothly to accommodate the new space.

He sat down and checked his quest log:

Time until opening: 2 minutes, 39 seconds

“Just a few minutes,” he said, closing his eyes and concentrating on doing as little as possible.

His pool was nearly finished when he glanced at the timer reaching its final few seconds.

Standing, he retrieved his hammer from his inventory and gave Eana a nod. She readied her staff.

Where the offering point had been, fiery light like the sparks on the end of a smoldering log started glowed into life at the center of the shimmery surface. It stretched outward, slowly at first, then quickly until the entirety of what was now unmistakably a door was covered in glowing embers.

Then, as quickly as it began, the light disappeared and a closed set of double doors, made of the same shimmering material as the rocks always had been, appeared in the boulder.

Seeing no other indication of what to do, Idris stepped up to the door, Eana right behind him. When he got close, the doors opened on their own with a rumbling slowness that only added to the anticipation Idris was feeling.

As the maw of the Shimmering Rocks Dungeon opened before them, Idris peered into the darkness.

“Here we go?” Eana asked.

“Here we go,” Idris said.

He cast Radiance and lofted the ball through the doorway ahead of them and they entered. As soon as Idris crossed the threshold words appeared before him:

The Shimmering Rocks Dungeon

“Wow!” Eana said, echoing Idris’ thoughts.

In front of them the dungeon opened up into a massive cavern. Stalactites of the shimmering material that was the namesake of the dungeon hung in what, to Idris’ eyes, looked like natural growth of hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Stalagmites, boulders, running water and outcroppings of glittering crystal formed a complex landscape that made the first section of the dungeon.

A quest notification chimed and Idris opened it up eagerly. It was an update to his questline!

Questline

The Shimmering Rocks III - Dungeon Dominance

A dungeon can never be tamed. But it can be dominated. Prove you’re the most dangerous thing in the dungeon by being the first to defeat the dungeon boss.

Reward: Dungeon Specific Weapon Upgrade

Bonus Reward: Available if quest conditions are met after the dungeon reaches level two

Now that was the kind of reward Idris had imagined when he fantasized about adventuring. He dismissed the prompt. If he wanted to get it he was going to have to focus. It had only taken a few months of the Hive Dungeon growing in power before adventurers began to arrive. With so many of them in Irondale it was likely somebody, maybe even Conrad, had a skill for detecting the growth of a dungeon.

He might not have a countdown, but he could feel the press of an invisible time limit to finish this quest.

In the far corners, outside what Radiance illuminated, the edges of the cave were still visible, and so Idris tried extinguishing the light.

Bioluminescent moss, algae, and what looked to be some small insects all suddenly came into soft clarity. Even the crystals that jutted out of the stone here and there emitted a soft glow.

The dungeon had its own means for lighting, apparently. Not as clear as with Radiance, but they wouldn’t be fumbling around in the dark if Idris ran out of mana.

Remembering the dungeon map, Idris checked the now available tab in his interface. The map unrolled in his vision, showing a small scale replica in black ink of the room he looked at. It was an irregular square shape with jagged edges and carried a small label that said, “Main Hall”.

There were other icons on the map that carried no information. Small boxes, a crown on a skull, and a sword. He guessed that as they explored, the paths to these and the rooms around them would fill in.

At the edge of his vision there was another icon that, when he focused on it said, “Share to Party”. He mentally selected it and heard Eana make a noise as she registered the notification in her own interface.

“Oh wow!” she said, holding her hand out as if she meant to touch the map, “How about we play it safe and head for the least sinister looking icon - boxes first?”

Idris laughed. It was a good thought, but the best way to learn what the dungeon had in store wouldn’t be to play it safe. He said, “Compromise? We skip the skull, but I really wanna know what we’ll find at the sword. Maybe it’s treasure?”

Eana thought for a moment before replying, “Double compromise? Say we’ll eventually get there and just start slow?”

“Ugh, fine. Deal” Idris said, “But let’s explore the main hall first.”

They stuck together at first, but after several minutes of exploring it became clear that the main hall was completely safe. At least for now.

Roughly corresponding to the cardinal directions there was a door on each of the cave walls, much like the entrance outside. Large stone double doors that, when they approached, would rumble open.

“Think these will close on monsters if we’re being chased?” Eana asked.

“Good question. Guess that’s part of figuring out the rules of a dungeon,” Idris said.

He peered at the map again and said, “Looks like if we take the eastern door that’s going to be the best route to that box nearest to the sword.”

They approached the east door and stepped through.