The Cavern Prowler screeched as it dove from the ceiling. It swiped at his face with long claws and Micah leaned aside in his run, but still got a slap of water across his mouth for his efforts.

He flinched and sputtered, telling himself it was just water at least. His Path insisted otherwise.

The translucent blue tentacle coiling around the beast missed his helmet by a hair’s breadth. It passed him by and hit the ground all at once, tumbling down the tracks. Streaks of grey and blue smoke shot off it, but the octopus spirit puffed up around its fur to cushion the fall.

It picked itself back up and bounded after the nearest target, leaving wet footprints and sprays on the ground.

“Incoming!” he yelled back because he couldn’t finish it off. He had more immediate concerns.

Freaking Prowlers.

They’d just crawled out of a hole in the ceiling where Ryan had scouted ahead, like spiders from an egg. Jason’s warning had come late. Another floor? No time to consider.

Micah sprinted for the cart and grabbed one of the ropes trailing off it with his shield arm. He stuffed it through a hole in the back and twisted it around like a cord as he worked his way forward. It stretched awkwardly in places, but that was good. Otherwise, this would hurt.

He missed his good armor.

He set his feet on the tracks, braced himself, and pulled. The cart almost yanked him off his feet but he kept his balance and let his boots skid along the rails as he pulled back.

Something flew overhead and struck another Cavern Prowler on the cavern side. It scrambled to keep its grip and fell. Alex, he almost thought. He wasn’t here. Lea or Jason, then.

The others had to fight off the ambush and manage the monsters they had herded toward themselves, but someone had to get the cart. They couldn’t just let it run off on its own.

Not for the first time, he glanced down at the marbles and wondered if he could do something there. But their essence had already been consumed. The ‘glass’ itself was falling apart. The only thing he could do was break those apart and put new ones in to speed it up even more, but that was the opposite of what he needed.

Maybe if he glued up the wheels …?

Wasteful.

A broad and shallow puddle ahead reflected the crystal veins in the walls, a dark pit in its center. The surface rippled whenever a chain of water trickled down, then splashed when he ran through.

Ryan fought off a swarm of insects and Prowlers to the side, but he’d held his ground until now. Micah’s eyes were drawn up.

The hole was about three meters up. The next floor above that about another meter or two, which seemed low to him. Dim and damp, it was clearly not the Salamander’s Den. It reminded him of the floors they would see through the grates in the Sewers, actually, a year ago.

Some of the breaks had cracks spread from them in a way that made him think they weren’t natural. Other climbers; a spell gone wrong, he would have thought, but where was the rubble?

He’d barely passed him by when Ryan swept his spear out and cast, “[Swathe of Flames].”

Fire bloomed like a blanket in the wind and incinerated the insects. The Prowlers and their spirits leaned back and hissed.

Micah leaned back from the heat himself and almost lost his balance. The cart had almost reached the other side of the giant hole when, in the shadow of the fire’s passing, something dropped down into it.

He looked up and found a snarling maw, exposed blue gums, and a wild, shaggy face staring back at him, a few inches from his own. Its two paws were set against the back of the cart—

Which had slowed down.

Micah broke into a grin and slugged it with his shield. The rope pulled taut, he jerked and dropped his sword, grabbed the other end of the cart for support, and shoved the beast inside.

It fell, flailing, and he leaned in to grab the ends of the larger sack and pulled them into a bundle.

The prowler threw a tantrum inside, kicking and screaming.

He tried his best to keep it closed, but he hung halfway over the cart by his waist and it was hitting him. He began to tie the ropes together: the perfect solution, he thought, until there came an almighty tear and a clawed hand pushed out through the fabric. It struck at everything like a cat hiding under the furniture.

Uh, oh.

There were holes in the sack for the ropes to pass through, but an additional one was not in the plan.

He leaned back and let go. The Prowler shot out fighting tooth and nail, but Micah just grabbed the other rope, set his feet against the back of the cart and heaved.

Three-fourths of the fabric tried to form into a bundle and shot up. The beast climbing up the side was catapulted out. It hit the ground tumbling like its predecessor.

Lea’s sack with her bedroll almost fell out, too, and the other sacks tipped, but Micah managed to snatch the first and shove it atop the others. “Incoming number two!” he called back.

“Fuck you, Stranya!” came Kyle’s response. “Kill them yourself!”

He found his footing again, glanced around to assess any threats, and stared at the tear.

His smile slipped. Kyle was right. This was useless.

Micah sheathed his sword, put the slingshot away, and freed the rope. He pulled both ends up and away. The ropes ran along the fabric and bundled the contents of the cart up into one sack like he was some kind of a hunchback sneak thief out of a children’s book.

He hopped off and checked around to make sure nothing had fallen out before going back to the others. The cart moved on its lonesome in the other direction and tipped around the bend.

“What about the cart?” Ryan grunted and thrust his spear through a Prowler caught underneath his boot.

“We can catch up to it. Our objective is behind us.”

Finding out how this all related. Getting a good grade. He needed to do good if he wanted to dance at that party … do poorly if he wanted to hang out with Ryan and his family …

He shoved the thought aside, scowled, and drew his blade. First things first: clearing these pests out.

It wasn’t long before they were picking up blue crystals and kept an eye out for dangers. Slowly, they worked their way toward the giant patch of wet under the other floor.

“Ryan, give me a boost?” Lisa asked and leaned her staff against the cavern wall.

He laced his hands together and crouched under one end, met her eyes, and swayed up and down as if counting to three.

“I think we would need a triple boost to get up there—” Lea mumbled, staring at the darkness.

Lisa ran, planted her foot in his gloves, and together, they flung her up. Her push-off made Ryan stumble back and windmill his arms to stand upright. She dug one foot into the rock to kick herself higher and hit the edge hard.

Micah winced. It sounded like the type of hit to knock the wind out of your lungs, but she just scrambled to hold on. With every move of her arms, more waves slipped over the edge and made the water chains run thicker.

Lea stared in open awe. “Or you could do that.”

“Uhm,” Lisa said, though. “Uhm.” There was a low panic in her voice that made him look twice. Was there something up there? A monster? Threat?

He had his slingshot ready. But no, she was just beginning to slip on the wet. She scrambled to find a grip but didn’t stop sliding back.

“Summon something!” Micah called. “Do a Saga! Can’t your Salamanders run up walls?”

“It’s all muddy!” she barked back down. Rather than try something, she flailed for a moment and thrust a hand in her pocket just as she reached the tipping point. Something glinted in the light as she threw it inside—more marbles—and she fell over the edge with a curse.

All of them ran forward to catch her. Ryan did a little jump to be the first one there and they had to dodge out the way. He hit the rock, his legs buckled, and he stumbled in the other direction this time.

Lisa let out of heave of relief and patted his cheek, mud dripping from her arm. “Thanks.”

“Saga wouldn’t have fallen,” Micah mumbled. He tried to ignore how much his heart was racing. Even if Ryan had caught her, hadn’t that hurt?

She flicked her hand at him. Half the mud flew in his direction. Brine-slap fresh in his memory, Micah hastily covered up and dodged, chuckling to himself because she seemed fine.

“Do we want to try again?” Jason asked with a somewhat animated voice. He looked like he would volunteer if only someone asked.

Crazy person, Micah thought, then glanced up and wondered if he would have made it. He was more agile …?

“We only need to make a map, right?” Lisa asked and got her paper out. “I can make that from down here.”

“And we could use a break,” Lea said. She seemed slightly out of breath even after collecting the crystals. Then again, they all did.

Kyle scoffed, “You, maybe.”

She turned on him and popped a vitality gummy in her mouth. “You look worse than one of those Prowlers.”

“Oh, snap,” Micah said with a grin.

Really, they were all caked in sweat. Any hair that stuck out from under their helmets was plastered to their skin. Most of them heaved every now and then. A vitality gummy did sound nice, even if they would ‘technically’ do less for him this time around.

Micah had [Lesser Resilience] but it only gave him vitality in reaction to wounds and heavy exertions. It helped him bounce back in the moment and helped a bit with recovering over time, but it could be hard to notice. [Lesser Constitution], on the other hand, always gave him a tiny bit of vitality, so like Jason or Ryan, eating a gummy that gave him vitality when he had up to two Stats that could both give him a little might have been a waste.

On the other hand, Brent had also made himself some last time, something was better than nothing, and they just tasted good ...

He popped one in and smiled.

They were doing what their team had pushed themselves to do near the end of the last exam but from the get-go … if not as successfully. Even without the Kobold runaways, they were doing good on collecting crystals in a short time. He just didn’t know if that slight increase would be better than the information they’d gathered on Day One, back then.

Maybe with the new grading scheme?

He glanced down the tunnel—it stretched on forever toward the curve—and felt an itch in his leg.

“So are we going to go up or what?” He turned to the others. Stay or go, they needed to do something. Move, move, move. That might have been the gummy speaking. Hey, maybe it's doing something after all.

Lisa shrugged.

“Like— look. There’s a gap there,” Jason said and pointed. “I bet if you used that, I could pull myself up.”

Micah squinted. There was a gap between some of the stones. It almost looked like there had been a tiny hollow area between the upper floor and theirs, only half a meter or so tall.

Interesting. Why would … “OH!” he shouted. “What if there’s a treasure chest?” It would be their first.

“I can—” Lisa started.

“I can give you a boost?” Micah said.

“Or I can send Spike up?” Lea offered.

He turned to her with wide eyes and asked in a high-pitched voice, “You named your summon Spike?”

Jason hesitated, looking at them, but glanced at Lisa. “Don’t you want to save your mana? And I don’t think …” He turned back to Micah.

“Oh, wait. No, I meant you could stand on my shoulders?“ He tapped them to show him.

“Yeah …?”

“Yeah!” He headed toward him, bent his knee, and held his hands out. “Okay, so take my hands and put your right foot on my leg. One my knee, here. Then push off and spin to put your left leg on my left shoulder—”

“Uhm.”

“Uh, Micah?” Kyle asked.

He glanced over, worried that there was a monster because of his tone, but the coast was clear. Kyle still looked concerned. What, just because he was the smallest member of their group?

He turned back to Jason. “Trust me?”

“I’m not sure that’s how you’re supposed to do it.”

“Yeah, but I saw Lang do it like this once.” He gave him his best puppy-dog eyes until he conceded.

Micah wobbled a bit as the guy half again his height stepped up on his shoulders, but he was sturdy and resilient. He could do this. He held Jason’s ankles and managed to slowly stand up.

The others watched them dubiously.

Micah smiled with a heavy breath. See? he thought because he couldn't speak just yet. I dd it. He wobbled a little every step, but it was working. “Can you reach?”

“Almost. Yeah. I need— Oh, right.” There was a brushing sound and Micah tried to look up, but couldn’t see. Had he summoned a light? Or fire?

He grit his teeth, took a steady breath, and slowly, they walked a ring around the floor to inspect the break. Lisa began to draw a map once the novelty had worn off. The others kept watch.

Well, most of them.

“Who’s Lang?” Kyle asked. He sounded bored.

“Ryan’s best friend,” Micah answered. “He goes to another school, though. He’s an [Athlete].”

From above, Jason asked, “I thought you were Ryan’s best friend?”

Kyle snorted.

Micah shot him a dirty glance and said, “Lang is Ryan’s best friend. Ryan is my best friend.”

“Oh.” Jason’s voice was high. Awkward. There was a moment of silence and it took Micah that long to catch on. That’s sad, the silence seemed to say.

He couldn’t turn around with Jason on his shoulders, couldn’t see Ryan, so he shot Kyle another dirty glance out of habit.

The guy gave him a look of derision. Or maybe even disappointment? What was his problem?

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“What? No, say it.”

He sighed and glanced up as if choosing his words carefully. “Don’t you have any other friends?”

“Sure. Uhm … Lisa?” Jason wiggled a little on his shoulders and Micah stepped to the side to balance him out. He suppressed a grunt.

“Male. Guy friends. Lisa can be your ‘girl best friend’ for all I care.”

Why did he care at all? “Uhm …” Micah said again and thought for a moment, but he was having troubles finding an answer. He had lots of friends. He didn’t know if he was close with any of them.

Thankfully, Jason saved him. “I don’t think there’s any treasure up here. I don’t see anything but rubble. Can I—”

“Oh, right.” Micah knelt and grunted when he hopped off. Without the weight, he felt lighter, but also felt a hint of an ache coming on at the small of his back and sides of his neck, like a can bent a little as it was pressed together.

He winced and stretched, looking around.

Ryan was checking on Lisa’s map. He didn’t look up. Kyle was still looking at him, so Micah turned and asked, “Jason. You brought your sewing kit, right?”

“Huh? Yeah, why?” He seemed a little slow to respond, probably bummed out about the lack of treasure.

“Yeah, why?” Kyle asked.

He showed them the sack and tear. “If we’re taking a break anyway, we could fix this up?”

They both stepped closer. Jason swung his backpack around and began to rummage around. Kyle lifted the tear, though, and scowled. “What did you do; try to catch a Prowler in this?”

“Uhm … yeah? But to be fair, I thought it could help slow the cart down so it wouldn’t run off without us.”

He looked around. “Where is the cart?”

“I let it run off without us.”

He looked at him. Micah looked back, blinked, and rushed to explain. “Because I needed to help? And I know where it went so we can catch up, and, and— I have all our stuff here?”

He lifted the sack.

In a muffled voice, Jason complained, “Hey.” He’d bitten down on a patch of fabric, had his backpack on a knee, the sewing kit in one hand, bone wand in the other, and was leaning against him for support.

“Oh, sorry.”

He waved the wand over the needle and thread and garbled, “Protechshion.” They began to shimmer.

Why …? Oh, the sack was pretty thick. He had [Basic Mending]. He was the expert here.

Kyle grumbled, “Why didn’t you bail from the start? No, don’t answer. It was because you wanted to try out some stupid ‘creative’ solution instead of doing the obvious thing. Just like you did a second ago with Jason and your gymnastics instead of letting a summon scout it out.”

Actually, Micah would have answered ‘habit’ or that he hadn’t been thinking straight. But he liked being creative and trying stuff out. He was a freaking [Alchemist].

“Hey,” he snapped. “Creative solutions can save your life in a pinch.” They had saved his life lots of times—almost every time he had gone into the Tower, with the Kobold, during the entrance exam, when they had gotten stuck in here during the changes, during the last exam …

“And it’s good to try stuff to know if you can do it. What if we need to flee and that floor is the only exit route? Now, we know Jason can stand on my shoulders, pull himself up, and then pull us up in a chain.”

Next to him, Jason nodded as he put his pack away. He started working. “Improv is important.”

Kyle gestured at the tear. “It can also cause problems. Like breaking your equipment—”

Micah glared. He thought of the missing layer of armor and felt naked. Low blow.

“—or wasting time. Seriously, it’s like you can only do sticking to the letter of the rules or doing something insane, nothing in-between.”

He opened his mouth—

Lea groaned. “You’re both right!” She threw her hands up. “So can you drop it already and stop fighting?”

They blinked. What was her problem?

“We’re not fighting,” Micah said.

“Yeah, this is just how this team does discussions.”

Jason gave her an apologetic look. “You get used to it.”

She made a face, paused, and mumbled, “I think you people got a little too used to it.”

He almost winced. So she still hadn’t forgotten their first meeting? He had hoped her opinion of them would have changed over the last few weeks of training. Apparently not.

“I did save some mana, though?” Lisa said out of the blue. She stored the paper in her belt, brushed some dried mud off her gloves, and held her hand out. The lizards dropped down from above and died in her palm. Was she done? “And I had more time to focus on mapping.”

Micah shook his head, though. “No, Kyle is right—” In the corner of his eye, the guy began to smirk. “Which doesn’t mean I’m wrong. It just means I should keep an eye out for simpler solutions.”

He seemed to consider that for a moment and shrugged. No harm, no foul, it seemed to say.

A bit of harm, Micah thought. Or something that could have easily become harm. He needed to focus.

The stakes were higher this time. He was finally here and he wanted to have fun, explore, go on an adventure, just as he had last time, but he could do that in a few weeks. He needed focus to succeed. He could do well and then decided which option to choose … right?

He glanced at Ryan. The guy stood off to the side and kept an eye out, said nothing, looked at no-one, almost seemed to ignore them …

No. If Micah did well now, he was making his decision. Truthfully, he’d already made it.

He sighed.

“I did a simple patch fix for now,” Jason said. “I’ll enchant it so it should be fine for a few hours, but we should probably switch to the spare until we camp for tonight.”

“Got it. Thank you.” Micah slipped his own pack around, got the spare, and started shifting the contents over.

“Did you find anything, Chandler?” Kyle asked. “Up there?”

“Nope.”

“Hm. Maybe we’ll find something deeper in. The quicker we are, the quicker we’ll get there. Let’s move.”

None of them could argue that, even if it was him saying it. Micah took one last look at the floor above and led them in the direction of the cart.

They found it at the bottom end of a root of mine shafts. Dead end. It was useless to them now.

Ryan and Lisa checked out the other branch of the split railroad and came back after ten minutes or so. They checked all the other dead ends of the spiraling cluster where piles of rocks were stacked at some ends and mines had been abandoned in others, but all shook their heads.

Nothing.

Micah tried not to scowl, but he was more confused than upset. Normally, they would have found at least one Kobold camp, or a cart full of rubble and crystals, or a pile that might have hidden a treasure chest. But not … nothing.

Maybe if they tried mining some of these walls …? But where would they start? They had no idea where something valuable might be, only one pickaxe, and some handheld tools.

Someone with a [Miner] Class might have had better luck than them. They counted their crystals and moved on.

The moment they found the next minecart standing alone in the middle of a red tunnel, Micah tossed the bundle inside, shoved the marbles in, and fixed the ropes without argument.

They took off in formation and began to herd monsters toward themselves—giant centipedes, Ember Beetles, insect swarms, the occasional Whip Spider, and most of all, oversized Teacup Salamanders; they grew big up here, almost as big as the ones that had been fed. It was rinse and repeat of what they had done three times already without many results.

The tracks led them north-east—slightly off course, but they were still good to follow. Tracks usually led to treasure of some kind, their tunnels were spacious and offered a clear line of sight and ease of travel, and they could fight freely and help each other without their full luggage.

Or at least, they had been good last time around. For the second time that morning, Ryan turned around to shout back a warning at them.

Micah saw why a second later: Just around the curve, a large pile of rocks had been stacked up on the tracks like one of the mines' dumpsites.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he grumbled and ran for the ropes. He was the only one who could. He grabbed them, heaved the now-heavier sack out again, and fled the other way.

Ryan had almost caught up with him when the cart crashed. The sound of stone breaking against stone echoed in a deafening rumble throughout the cavern and the minecart crunched, tumbled, and scraped against the ground ahead.

They flinched at the sound, and the monsters seized the moment's advantage to forced them on the defensive.

Lea was swarmed by Teacup Salamanders that latched onto her legs, boots, and arms, but ignored them for a moment, which was a weird thing to see from an outsider perspective. Micah was used to it himself—a habit he was trying to get rid of. Or at least, he was trying to learn not to do it unintentionally.

But she wrenched her summoning crystal off her belt, threw it, and the reinforcements a few meters behind them were impaled by giant emerald spikes in an instant. Then she got to hacking up the ones gnawing on her with her ridiculously sharp axe.

Micah helped by shooting a giant centipede on the wall. His iron balls weren't enough to immediately kill, but he could slow it down.

The moment she had a second to spare, Lisa asked on the other side of the tunnel, “What the hell was that?”

“Roadblock?!” Micah called back and glanced from nearest tunnel to nearest tunnel, wary of an ambush. Where the hell had the rocks come from?

But as they slowly dispatched their pursuers, no ambush came. Even Ryan shook his head in the quiet after the battle as he listened.

The others who hadn’t seen what had happened frowned at him as they trudged around the corner, as if they expected this to be his fault somehow, but those expressions vanished when they saw the wreckage.

The pile had been broken, rocks scattered everywhere, and the cart lay on its side half a meter or so away with scratch marks leading up to it in the ground.

They inspected the area but the rocks looked like they had been placed there instead of being natural. Kobolds? Floor design?

“Maybe it’s just a normal aspect of the floor?” Jason said. “Like, you need to clear the tracks to use them? We were one floor down, in another area, a day away when we found ours last time. The rules could be different here.”

Clearing tracks in order to use them did sound like something you would find inside the Tower.

“Yeah. Maybe,” Micah mumbled.

Ryan sat crouched next to the wreckage and looked up. “I’m not clearing rocks from the tracks.”

“But what if we get rewarded for it?” Jason asked. “Like, there’s a reason why need the minecart past this point?” He looked down the tunnel with starry eyes.

Micah gave Ryan a look that … hopefully … said, It’s possible.

“We would have to slow down. I’m not sure I would have time to clear rocks from the tracks.”

“You know,” Lisa said, looking around, “you guys talked up the railroads so much, saying they got you a bunch of crystals, treasure, and all that. They don’t seem that great to me?”

“We are doing great on crystals and progress,” Lea said. “We’re much quicker than my team was last time …” She paused for a second, then said more quickly, “We just haven’t found anything else of value yet.”

Micah shook his head. “It was better last time. We put almost all our stuff in the cart to lighten our load, used stamina potions to keep up, and spread ourselves much thinner.”

“Which came to bite us in the back,” Kyle grumbled.

Right.

“Don’t we have stamina potions now?”

“We do. I made two, but they’re for emergencies only unless we find more in a chest or something. And the point is that we would have to slow down, not speed up.”

Which might not have been a bad idea at all. They couldn’t keep this up all day, not that Micah would say so out loud.

“Either way, we can’t use this cart anymore,” Kyle said. He bent over and swept up one of the wheels that had broken off. “It’s busted. Let’s move and decide when we find the next.”

He moved to toss it like skipping a stone or throwing a baseball and Micah spoke up, “Ah! Can I have that?”

He hesitated. “Why?”

“To keep? As a trophy. I have some other stuff, too, back in my room.”

He considered, glanced down the tunnel like he wanted to throw it out of spite, but then reluctantly handed it over and asked, “Gale, where’s the water?”

He pointed.

Ryan took one last look around and led the way. Most of them mimicked him as they fell in line and Micah made a mental note of what had happened for his report as he put the wheel away.

Maybe it was nothing.

“Why couldn’t you sense the water above us?” Lisa asked in the quiet before the next fight.

“It doesn’t work so well up and down,” he said and rubbed his arm. “Or at least, I’m not used to sensing water that way except if it’s like, clouds right before it rains. But more importantly, because there’s a lot of it. My Skill works relatively, so I focused on the larger bodies of water through the humidity. I kind of thought it was the general humidity here at first.”

“Huh.”

Micah leaned forward and asked. “So the river we’re headed for might be bigger than you thought?”

“Maybe? It might not even be a river. As I keep telling you people, it’s not perfect.” He sounded a little defensive.

“I was just curious,” Lisa said.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“I’m hoping for a giant river. Outside. With lots of trees and wood elementals.” Micah watched Kyle for any kind of reaction as he said, but couldn’t see anything but a shift of his shoulders.

Hm.

“Oh. Uh, I know some people who used the Skill as a basis for learning weather forecasts, though?”

Lisa smiled and shook her head. “You people are ridiculous.”

“You and your stigma against [Adventurers],” Micah said.

“Oh, they weren’t [Adventurers]. They were district workers.”

Their chatter lessened, then stopped as they picked up the pace and more and more monsters popped out of side-tunnels.

Ryan impaled a fully-formed Ember Beetle on the tip of his spear and looked around for a place to put it, which was great. He could use the burning butt for makeshift fire potion and other stuff, in case they needed any.

At least that, they gathered more fully-formed monsters and collected them in jars, boxes, or sacks depending on the type. Micah had to jiggle his jar of nasties around to check them all.

They fell back into the formation they used when they didn’t have a cart: Lisa was in the center to draw the map, someone backed her up, another scouted ahead, one person was there to be flexible and keep up line of sight between the different groups, and two went on errands as needed.

… Which usually meant checking out spots where any of Lisa’s summoned lizards had died.

If it happened, she sometimes didn’t want to send more in case they were killed too and she wasted resources. Instead, she sent the others with a guide to retrieve the marble and inspect the area.

Despite how nimble her lizards were—like actual lizards, they could disappear in the blink of an eye—it happened often enough that Kyle would routinely show up and drop a marble in her hand with a smile and an almost sarcastic, “You’re welcome.”

She would roll her eyes or not react at all, but thanked him from time to time.

“What the hell, Chandler?!”, was out of the ordinary.

Jason and he had been gone a little while longer this time around. Lisa had already been frowning before they showed up. It turned into a scowl, then. A lizard skittered up her leg.

What now? Lea mouthed and headed back.

They had abandoned the railroad in search of the next on a more direct route east, and the tunnel around them was becoming narrower and more drab with fewer veins. It seemed like they were headed in the wrong way, but Jason said it was the most direct route.

“You think that’s funny?" Kyle said. "This is a freaking exam. Don’t send us on fool’s errands or we won’t go at all.”

“It wasn’t a fool’s errand,” she said. “I couldn’t find it.”

“What?”

“The marble. I sent another lizard to search with you, but I couldn’t find it so I tried to tell you to come back.”

“That was what those stupid circles were supposed to be?”

“Yeah. Regroup. Micah and Ryan would have gotten it.”

“You could have told us that in training.”

“Pretty sure I did.”

“Pretty sure you didn’t.”

“You lost a marble?” Micah spoke up, interrupting them. His voice was a little uncertain and he turned to Kyle. “You didn’t find it again?”

“Nope.”

“Should I go? I could look with my [Essence Sight]—”

“No,” Lisa interrupted him. “The monster that killed the lizard probably ate it and ran off. I would have found it otherwise. Or was there something else in the tunnel?” She turned to the others.

“Rocks?” Jason offered.

Kyle grunted and rolled his eyes.

“So … it’s gone?”

“Yeah. It probably isn’t worth chasing … after … ” She looked at him and noticed his expression. “Oh. Sorry, Micah. I know it was a present, I try to take good care of them, but this can happen.”

He nodded solemnly. “Have you lost others?”

“A few?”

Kyle glanced between them and asked, “Are you really going to sulk because you lost a stupid marble in the Tower?”

“What? No, no. I just …” Micah grasped for the right words for a moment and put on a smile. “It just means I know I’ll have to buy her new ones, someday.”

She smiled back. “Thanks.”

Ryan’s wristband, their loot in the river, her mana rings, one Growing Boot, his armor, now this. He was a little bummed out about losing it, though, because losing stuff in general sucked. He wanted to get them back, someday, even if he had to replace them.

The others began to walk away. He turned to follow and Ryan suddenly ran into the mouth of the tunnel, a little more animated than he had been all morning.

“Guys,” he said. “I found something.”

It was a simple thing. It hung from a stalactite on the ceiling by scraggly, twine rope in an even more narrow and drab tunnel leading north.

A wooden sign.

Micah had no idea what the squiggly letters on it said—he had elected Overseas Studies over Dwarvish—but Lisa, Lea, and Jason apparently did as they huddled under it, trying to get a look at the letters.

Lisa mumbled to herself in frustration as she squinted up. “I don’t … what … What does that even—”

“Do you need a light?” Ryan asked her with a hint of impatience.

“No.”

“No,” Lea said. “It’s the handwriting.”

“What about it?”

“It sucks. What letter is that supposed to be?” Lisa pointed. “I don’t—”

“‘Announcement’?” Jason tried.

Micah and Kyle were the only ones who had hung back. He felt a little awkward with them all staring at a sign he couldn’t read. He wanted to ask them to teach him but knew they didn’t have the time. He was lucky he had them to solve this for him or he would have screwed up on the report.

Instead, he made himself useful and kept an eye out to make sure nothing would sneak up on them. Sure enough, a skittering shadow disappeared in a recess in a side of the stone. A few feelers still poked out.

He got his slingshot, reconsidered because of the limited ammo, and drew his sword instead.

“Yeah, I think it says announcement,” Lea said. “‘Announcement to strength’? Step forward’?”

“That’s nonsense words. It doesn’t mean anything,” Lisa said. She seemed frustrated by its mere existence.

“Oh, what if it’s like … archaic!” Jason said, excited once more. “Like some kind of puzzle or challenge? Maybe … ‘Proclaim your strength and enter’?”

There was a pause.

“That’s stupid. You’re stupid.”

“I don’t see any alternatives,” Lea said. “Should we take it down? I could appraise it to see if there’s any magic on it.”

“There isn’t. I would know.”

“Oh, would you now?”

“Yes, I would.”

Micah jumped around the corner with his shield at the ready and stabbed a giant spider to death. It flailed and tried to charge him so he jumped back and impaled it against the ground.

While the smoke cleared, he glanced back and switched through his different lenses and some essence variations he’d found to check the sign. To him, it was just wood and some kind of ash-based ink. It wasn’t even good ink. He wondered how long it would survive in here.

He called out but didn’t know if they would hear him through their bickering. “It doesn’t seem magical to me, either?”

“I could just appraise it and we would know?”

“You can only use your appraisal a few times per day, right?” Ryan asked. “Probably not worth wasting on a sign.”

“So what do we do?”

He shrugged.

Kyle glanced around and said, “Proclaim our strength …?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“[Adventurer]!” Jason shouted with a smile.

They were about to say something when there was a ding.

They all jumped as if a true Salamander had just burst through the wall, despite the simple bell sound.

“What the hell was that?” Ryan asked, looking around.

“There was a ding!” Micah pointed and rushed back. Screw keeping watch, what was up with this sign?

“There was a ding,” Ryan echoed and headed toward the other end of the tunnel.

“Hey, wait. Where are you going?”

“Relax. I already checked out the next bends. I just …” He didn’t finish the sentence. The others spoke over him anyway.

“Is this an actual puzzle or what?”

“Yeah.” Jason sounded ridiculously happy about a simple ding. “Now you guys have to do it.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lea said. “The sign is in Dwarvish. Shouldn’t we respond in Dwarvish? If it’s part of the puzzle?”

“It dinged when I said [Adventurer]?”

“Perle!” Lisa called out.

There was a ding.

Ryan jerked ahead of them, frowned, and looked around.

Micah bounced on his feet. “There was another ding. What did you say?”

“Daughter?” Lea asked.

She shrugged. “It’s a puzzle, right?”

“Ooh, what’s [Alchemist] in Dwarvish?”

“[Adventurer] worked for me,” Jason said.

Kyle chuckled. “What if it just dings for everything we say?”

“I have no idea.”

“What do you mean you have no idea?”

“There’s no one word for [Alchemist]. There have been different groups—”

“Ballsack!” Kyle called.

There was a ding.

They all stopped dead in their tracks, expressions frozen, except Ryan who pressed his ear against the wall. Slowly, they turned on Kyle. Jason shoved him by the shoulder and said, “Take this seriously!”

He laughed.

Jason looked up and around as if he were fearing some kind of divine consequences from the sign.

“[Alchemist] …?” Micah tried. Then, louder, he called, “[Alchemist]!”

There was a ding.

“Huh.”

They looked at Lea, but she said, “I don’t know what to call?”

“Guys,” Ryan interrupted. “There’s an actual, physical sound being made here close by, not just some ‘magical’ apparition. I don’t think this is like the mine carts. Say some more stuff.”

“You first,” Micah called. “Kyle and Lea are undecided.”

He hesitated, then called up, “[Fighter]!”

There was a ding and the guy disappeared around the corner, chasing after the sound. Lisa wordlessly sent two lizards after him.

“Uhm … Bluth!” Lea called and winced as if she immediately regretted it. But, there was a ding.

They all looked at Kyle and his good mood was suddenly gone. He looked at them, seemed like he was about to spit out a curse, but stepped forward and mumbled, “Fuck it,” instead. “[Fighter]!”

There was a ding.

“Seriously?” Lisa asked. “[Fighter]? You better not lie to the magical sign. It knows all.”

“Screw you.”

[Fighter], Micah thought with a smile. But then he frowned. “I don’t get it. You already called something?”

“We’ve all called something,” Lisa said and looked around.

If something were to happen, wouldn’t it be now? “Maybe we said the wrong things or …” Micah said and chewed his lips for a moment. His eyes went wide and he whispered, “Or maybe it actually knows when we’re lying.”

He glanced at the sign. It suddenly seemed ominous to him. Or was he just imagining things?

“I didn’t lie.” Jason frowned and called out again, “[Adventurer]!”

“And what—” Lisa started.

There was another ding, cutting her off. Okay, so they could all say stuff multiple times.

Micah looked to the others. “Do we try it again? Truthfully? I think Kyle and Jason are already out so …”

“Perle!” Lisa repeated and Micah tried not to wince. Why couldn’t she just call her Class like them?

The ding sounded slightly quieter this time. Then, all of a sudden there was a rapid ding, ding, ding in the distance. It didn’t sound like they had done something right. It sounded like someone had dropped a bell on the ground and was scrambling to pick it back up.

Then it stopped.

“Did Ryan do something?” Micah asked.

Lisa shook her head. “Not that I can see. He’s still running around. Wait, he’s on his way back.”

Kyle took out a Teacup Salamander behind them.

Ryan appeared in the tunnel in a flash and leaned against the corner to catch himself and catch his breath. “Guys. I think there’s a bell running around here.”

“A what?”

“I think—” he started again, but broke off, and called, “[Fighter]!”

There was no ding.

"[Fighter]!" he tried again.

Nothing.

None of them knew what to do. Jason called for the third time, but he didn’t get a reply.

“Did we … did we do it wrong?” Micah asked.

All of them glanced at Kyle, who scowled, and asked, “What? It wasn’t me. It wasn’t. I was honest the second time around.”

If someone had done something wrong, then …

“Damnit, where did your stupid bell go, Payne?”

He pointed and Kyle ran off. They spread out and searched the area. They mapped it thoroughly, took down the sign, had Lea appraise it, tried calling out different things again, but …

Almost an hour later, they were right back where they had started with almost nothing to show for it except some crystals, monster parts, and a detailed map.

Proclaim your strength and enter.

It wasn’t like they had found any golden sheens or Guardians either … Micah mulled it over for a bit and mumbled, “I don’t get it.”

“Me, neither,” Jason said next to him. “Maybe … maybe our translation was off, or we were supposed to say something specific, or we were supposed to show our strength somehow … by doing stuff …?”

He hadn’t even thought of that last part. But then why would the bell have sounded if they called things out?

They didn’t even have any clues except the stupid sign and all three of their Dwarvish speakers agreed it was incomprehensible. Micah really wished he could have read it in case he saw something the others had missed … which was probably unfair to them. He didn’t doubt they knew what they were doing. Lisa and Lea with their educations and Jason with his sheer enthusiasm for all things Tower …

Ryan packed the sign up. They might as well take it with them. “We won’t find any answers standing around here. C’mon, let’s go. Where’s the river?”

Jason raised a dejected arm. It was close enough to the direction of the sign, so they followed that.

The guy was reluctant to leave, though. “What if it was important, though? What if there was something we missed?”

“We don’t know that,” Lea said. “We can come back later if we find out something new or look it up afterward when we get back to school.”

“I mean, we’ve all read tons of reports for today, right? Did nobody find mentions of anything like this?”

They all shook their heads. Other riddles for other areas, not this.

“If you manage to come up with an idea that convinces us,” Kyle said, “we can come back later.”

Jason shot him a glare. “You’d just say you aren’t convinced.”

“Wow, you’re smart,” Lisa of all people said. She was probably upset she hadn’t figured it out.

Lea sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Please, don’t fight.”

“No.” Jason was frowning at Lisa as if he was thinking about something. “No, I mean … Hey! Lisa, can I see your maps for a moment?”

“Uhm, sure?”

She forked them over and Jason quickly leafed through the pages, then glanced at the drab tunnels around them. The area almost looked like they had wandered back into the hive-like cave systems where the Kobolds had attacked them last exam, if slightly more spacious and flat.

The rest of them slowed down and kept one eye on him, almost hoping that he would have a great idea. Because if not, this was a clear screw-up on their part.

What would the school think?

He paged back to their bigger, vine-like maps of the railroads they had traveled, set the smaller map from the area against the bigger one, and called out, “There!”

Lisa and Micah bumped heads in their haste to see what he meant. Neither of them winced, but … He had no idea what he was pointing at.

He told him as much.

“Look, the third railroad we took traveled south-east for a while and branched out to the north, but the fourth one took us north-east and branched out south, and now we’re in this corner to the side of that railroad, the stone is shifting colors, and there are no railroads around.”

He gestured around them as if that was the answer.

“So …?” Micah asked.

“Look. Doesn’t this seem familiar to you?” He pointed at the lines again. They looked like a sideways slanted ‘y’ except smaller lines branched into the ‘v’ area and there were pockets between those lines where there was nothing but …

Drab and narrow tunnels, Micah thought as he looked around, because they were standing right in one of those tunnels in the middle of the ‘v’, headed east, that the railroads avoided.

Jason smiled when he noticed his look and dragged a line out from their position to the center of the ‘v’ where all of the lines converged.

All roads lead to … a drop-off spot.

“It’s another surface mine,” Micah realized. If so, they were literally standing at the top of one of those maze mines they had gotten lost in last time, where the Kobolds had shoved piles of rocks down dark tunnels at them and Whip Spiders had swarmed them. Just two floors up.

The other guy was grinning. “Maybe.”

“Surface mine?” Lea asked with a frown. “We’re underground.”

He shook his head. “No, that’s just how I thought of them because of how spacious the area is.”

“You mean the place you guys snuck into by diving through the river last time?” Lisa asked them.

He nodded. Just this time, they were at the very top of the mine instead of toward the bottom and … they had a sign telling them to proclaim their strength and enter. To challenge it?

Kyle grumbled and stepped up, “You mean like the one that ran away with its hoard of our loot?”

Jason nodded.

The guy slapped him on the shoulder in praise. “See? You managed to convince us after all.”

Micah looked ahead to where the tunnels were becoming more spindly at an ever-so-slight downwards slant. At least, now they knew what to expect.

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

Micah shoved the sack over the tan Kobold’s head and dragged it around the corner. He wrenched it up and held it still while it struggled, but everyone else was too busy killing pests or acting as lookout to notice. Nobody but Lisa was there to help.

She saw him, broke her concentration on her summons for a moment, and glanced over with an expression that said, What do you expect me to do?

He made a face of his own and flapped around with invisible arms. Anything! The Kobold wiggled and was beginning to slip from his grip. If its long mouth slipped free, it could cry out.

She stomped over and bludgeoned it to death with a few heavy strikes of her staff, each of which sent Micah buckling back with quiet grunts. After the captive burst, he rubbed his chest with a silent glare. You could have been a little more considerate.

She rolled her eyes and adopted the vacant expression of a [Mage] focused on other things.

They were using the same tactic they had used the first time around when they had stepped into these tunnels, except this time, they had the strength to pull it off. And they had Lisa, who could cast [Sound Ward].

He’d remembered seeing it on her Proof Of paper and asked if she could use it because she so rarely did. It muffled some of the noise they were making and helped a lot.

“Why are we headed down again?” Lisa still hissed at him. “We should be looking for a way up to fight more difficult opponents.”

“This is,” he whispered back. “It gets more difficult the further down you go and there will be an entire encampment at the bottom for us to fight.”

“That makes no sense. The Tower gets more difficult the further in and the further up you go—”

“And in certain areas now,” Jason interrupted, “with Guardians and whatnot.”

“Is this supposed to be the latter?”

Micah shook his head. “I think this is a fourth-floor challenge. It’s just that it’s big. It’s not like you can mine up.”

She shot him a glance. “We’re in the Tower. Of course, you can mine up. Haven’t you ever heard of Trest at the Rock?”

“Shh!” Ryan hissed at them. They ducked down a little, properly chagrined, and once he had their attention, he nudged his head down a tunnel and led the way.

One by one, they checked to make sure nothing would see them and followed him down. Lisa was last and waved her hands over the tunnel entrance to raise a barrier.

They had to be quiet because they wanted to do this right this time. They couldn’t let any of the Kobolds sound the alarm because the reinforcements would bog them down and half the mine would run off with their loot. They didn't want to spend all day chasing after them like they had last time. Instead, they wanted to get all the loot at once and save the time and effort.

Ryan jerked back from the next corner all of a sudden, trapped his javelin under his arm, and made a warning sign at them. He held up five fingers, gestured over his shoulder like pulling up the strap of an overall, and jerked a thumb in their direction.

Five enemies with some kind of equipment headed their way. A mining team? Either way, they would be a little harder to silence.

They pushed forward to get to the edge of the tunnel on the left side where the Kobolds would see them late.

Micah pushed his way past the line, though, to get to the front, and pushed back at everyne except Lea. He held up the summoning crystal dangling from her belt and a white ball of his own, popped the latter in his mouth and pointed at the corner where Ryan was listening in.

She nodded. Hopefully, she got his meaning?

He readied his waterskin, tapped Ryan, and flashed him the unpoped glue ball between his teeth.

The guy nodded and turned back. Without looking, Ryan counted down from three with his fingers. When he reached zero, he pulled back and made himself small to give them room.

Micah took a swig, bit down, and swung around the corner to breathe a cloud of glue at the five tan Kobolds walking there.

They yelped in surprise but it was quieter with the glue in and around their mouths, quieter than the constant echoes of pickaxes ringing against stone below.

Lea stepped up and, caught and slowed, the Kobolds couldn’t dodge the summoned hedgehog she threw in their midst. Emerald spikes shout out through the white and impaled three of them point-blank. The fourth was promptly decapitated by her axe and the fifth skewered by Ryan’s javelin.

When they burst, their tools and crystals were slowed and muffled a fraction by the glue.

Micah spat out the empty shell and sighed in relief. That had gone well.

“Uhm, Micah?” Lea whispered to him and gestured at the cloud of falling glue in the tunnel.

“Oh, right.”

He took a deep breath, crouched low, and leaned forward to breathe an enhanced gust under the layer that pushed the glue up and away. It clung to the walls and ceiling like a sheet. He walked forward and inhaled water essence to make it dry more quickly so it would stay that way.

To him, it looked like they were walking beneath a tunnel of trees then, where the canopy was covered in ever-so-slightly swirling spiderwebs.

He snatched up one of the Kobold’s crystals off the ground and looked up to find Lea staring at him.

“How did you do that?”

“The, uhm, cloud? I showed you in training, remember? I’m an [Alchemist].”

“Yeah, no. I know that but …” She glanced around and walked forward as if she was actually impressed.

Micah saw an opportunity there and said, “Allow me to correct myself, I’m a combat [Alchemist].”

Kyle bumped past him. “Smartass.”

He grinned.

They were only two bends away from the entrance then: a dark and rocky tunnel that led up to a golden sheen of light. Two guards were stationed there, one sitting halfway in the screen as if it hadn’t noticed it. They both had crude bows and arrows.

Micah stared at that golden sheen almost a second too long and felt his heart rate pick up. In joy.

Ryan pulled him away before he could sprint on through like the first person to finish a race. They backed off, conferred, and slowly dragged their belongings closer to the corner. How did they want to do this?

If they silenced the guards, they could sneak up on the camp, take out key enemies, and cut their way to the loot before it could be taken away. They had the means, but it would be dangerous.

If they didn’t manage to silence the guards, they would have to rush in blind and do the same, which would be even more dangerous but … it might also be good in more ways than one. It would be a challenge.

As long as they were all in agreement?

There were nods all around and everyone readied their equipment. Lea and Jason drunk their fire resistance potions but held off on [Surging Strength] until they saw a reason to drink it. Jason enchanted a few key parts of their equipment for added protection as well as a few of their slingshot ammunition.

They ducked around and attacked: two shots and a [Firebolt] for the left guard aimed at its throat, a javelin and an arrow for the other.

The two yelped. The right one burst immediately, but Micah didn’t know if that was enough to alert the camp. He quickly fitted another shot, but Sam was quicker. The little Teacup Salamander had run off the moment they'd attacked and leaped off the wall to bite the Kobold in the neck and finish it off.

They rushed toward the smoke at the end of the tunnel to see if they had been spotted, already nocking new ammunition, but once they could see the mine, they stopped dead in their tracks.

There was nothing beyond the golden screen; no Kobolds waiting for them, no miners, no minecarts. Last time, there had been an entire mining operation with a caste system, tamed monsters, and more but …

There were some monsters hiding in crevices, flitting shadows here and there, but they were few and far between. The crevices looked more numerous too, almost as if parts of the walls had been gouged out. It was all colored in yellow-gold from this side of the screen.

Micah leaned as close as he could without touching it, almost as if he were afraid to, and looked around to see if … Maybe they were all just hiding right around the corner?

Kyle scowled and stepped on through. The light shattered, an ethereal sound rang, and everything darkened as their eyes adjusted to the absence of light. Most of the crystal veins had been mined on the other side and it revealed the space for what it truly was: dim, dead, and abandoned.

He stared. They all probably did.

After a moment, Ryan spoke up, “Micah, flip through your lenses, try to see if you can find anything but keep your eye on hiding places like cracks or the ceiling. Lisa— Uh, can you focus on your attunement and staff at the same time?”

“Huh?" She didn't look away. "Uhm, not well?”

“Alright, uh … Jason or Lea, are either of you good at quickly getting the hang of magic items?”

Jason glanced at them, seemed to catch on, and said to her, “I’ll defer to you this time.”

Lisa handed her the staff. “It’s enchanted with [Wind Sense]. Give it a bit of mana to start it up.”

She nodded.

Only then did Micah catch on. [Essence Sight], [Magic Attunement], [Wind Sense], and probably his [Enhanced senses] as well. Invisibility. He thinks this is like the camouflage frogs.

It didn’t even have to be invisibility. There was a tunnel at the very bottom of the mine and though dark, they didn’t know if something was hiding in there. What if a Guardian had ‘killed’ everything in here and made this place its nest?

That didn’t mean it couldn’t also be invisible, so Micah said, “Lea! Can you lend me your wand?”

“Why?”

“Because I can see its influence and when it latches onto things.”

She nodded, but Jason took it from her. “This way, I can do something and you can focus on your sight?”

“Sure ...? Just wave it around where you think a monster might be hiding. I’ll try to keep my eyes open.”

Ryan turned to their last member. “Kyle. We’ll be distracted in there. So if something ambushes us, fucking kill it.”

He made a face and slipped his axe a little further down the handle. “Don’t patronize me.”

They huddled together and slowly made their way down the spiraling depths of a subterranean surface mine. Warm light came from the ceiling, but marks scaled the walls as if whatever had done this had tried to reach there, too. The occasional sliver of red led the way and sometimes, another glow would ingnite with the thrum of insect wings when they got too close to an Ember Beetle hiding in the dark.

Micah tried not to react the few times he was surprised and wondered if anybody else had not seen them. He didn't want to say anything. It didn't bode well for their current endeavor.

They scanned every rock, crevice, nook and cranny for any hidden titans waiting to surprise and devour them. They killed every pest they came across with ease and eventually, none surprised him anymore. The few monsters that wandered in from the surrounding tunnels were killed from a distance sometimes even, by spell, arrow, or slingshot.

He was almost hoping for another giant to silently be waiting over him in the night, hands twitching as it decided what to do with him. Maybe he could kill it this time but ...

Micah flipped through his lenses and every singular essence he had discovered and took the room in, he followed the lines of influences coming from Jason and the wand when he had his [Affinity Sight] up, he took it all in but …

Lisa frowned. So did Ryan after a while. Lea looked like she didn’t know what she was doing with the ram-headed staff. Translucent, red lizards skittered over all the walls like blurry embers in the distance to search places they couldn’t reach or act as bait.

But nothing.

They reached the bottom of the funnel without incident and stepped into the tunnel, Lisa summoned a flame in the palm of her hand, Jason as well, and their anticipation rose. The next cavern where the furniture had been last time was empty.

They inspected the huddle-hole in the side for monsters, but all that was in there was a dusty red treasure chest. They moved on.

The final, smallest cavern where the Salamander pens had been last time didn’t even have a river. One of the walls leaked water, another glittered and led into small tunnels that didn’t go far—except for one that had a crack in the side which led to a silver portal out of the Tower. But that was it.

No Guardian.

They headed back to the central room.

“Ryan, I don’t think there’s anything in here with us,” Lisa said. She held her hand out to accept her staff back from Lea and focused as if she were listening.

Ryan shook his head. “Me, neither.”

“So what? Did the Kobolds just abandon this place?” Micah asked as he crouched in front of the wall and crawled under. “Why would they do that if not because a monster chased them out?”

Ryan shrugged.

“Maybe there is a monster but it will come back?” Jason offered. “Like, if we sleep in here at night?” In a deeper voice, he added, “‘Who slept in my bed?’”

Wood scraped against stone as he dragged the red chest out.

“I swear if we’re fucking walking in the footsteps of another group of climbers …” Kyle grumbled and shoved him aside to open the lid.

“Hey!” Micah said and froze.

The loot was still in there. A high tin that looked like it was meant for tea or cookies, a bit of green cloth, a glowing potion, a pouch, and a kettle were inside.

“Of course, we’re not in the footsteps of other climbers,” Lisa said. “We broke the threshold.”

“Yeah, and there would have been more stuff around if it had been climbers,” Jason added. “Furniture, corpses, trash. Climbers always leave their trash behind, like Micah with his ammunition.”

He perked up and let his eyes dart around, suddenly feeling like he had been called out.

“No, no,” Jason rushed to say, “we did it last exam, too, to get rid of extra weight we wouldn’t need. But ... still.”

“Oh. Uhm … but hey! Look, free loot! And we didn’t even have to fight anything to get it.”

“We did drink two fire resistance potions,” Kyle said as he inspected the kettle. It was old-fashioned, squat, made of dark stone or something similar with engraved or sculpted flowing patterns, a wide lid, and handle for carrying it.

“Lea,” Micah said, sat back up, and went rummaging through the treasure chest himself like a child through birthday presents. He got the tin before anyone else could. “Can you appraise this stuff for us? Ooh, look. Crispbread. Huh. I thought there would be cookies or tea …”

He pulled one out. It was long and rectangular like his Nana used to buy. Above him, Lea frowned and suddenly snapped, “No!”

He tried not to jump and glanced at the crispbread in his had like it was poison, but his sight didn’t show him anything. “Huh?”

She leaned against his shoulder as she squatted down. “Don’t eat it. It’s magical.”

“How do you know?”

“I recognize it. That’s a trail cracker.”

“Uhm …”

“Trail cracker? Crumb cracker? Don’t any of you recognize— It’s enchanted with [Breadcrumbs], jeez.”

Jason, at least, seemed to recognized what she was saying. As soon as she mentioned the Skill, though, Micah got it too.

“Ooh, I want to try it out. How does it work?”

“What? No. Why would you want to try it out if you already know what it does? You’ll lower the retail value. You’ve probably lowered it a bit just by touching one of the cookies—”

He quickly let it fall back inside and closed the lid. No harm no foul, right?

“I just want to know how it works …?”

“There are different kinds. Some you eat, some you push mana into, some you push mana into the tin. Let me see … Ah, see this is the latter.” She pointed to a small slider on the bottom of the tin where a corner could be opened. “You put mana in the tin and the crackers slowly start to crumble. As long as you have the tin, you know how far you’ve gone and know the way back perfectly. Guessing by the size and number of crackers, I’d say this one is good for at least fifty kilometers. Of course, you still have to provide a little bit of mana for the effect but it's pretty valuable.”

Micah stared in awe. At her and the tin both. It was useful to immediately know what things did when you found them.

Kyle asked, “And then?”

“Then? What then? Then it’s done. Keep the tin, throw it away, sell it at a junk shop or melt it down—some magic items only have limited use.”

He seemed unimpressed.

“We can sell it for a lot, though. It’s more valuable than the two potions we drank, assuming Micah was being honest in his receipts.”

“I was! And what about the rest of this stuff?”

“I don’t know, I would have to appraise it.” She sat and took out the fabric. A feather pattern was woven into it and it shimmered whenever it moved. Green, blue, purple, yellow.

It reminded him a bit of a bird’s plumage.

“The sooner you appraise these,” Ryan said a few steps back without looking, “the sooner you can do it again. Right?”

“The sooner we can find out what happened here,” Jason added.

They all looked at him but nobody said anything. They all probably thought the same thing: if they hadn't found any answers for the sign, they might not find any answers here, either. A thorough swoop hadn't shown them anything on the way in after all.

In the pause of conversation, the silence of the large cavern seemed to loom. Micah thought something would appear at the mouth of either tunnel at any moment or come bursting through the walls.

It was a good thing Ryan was keeping watch. Otherwise, he would have felt the urge to check himself. As it was, Micah felt the urge to speak up instead to make the silence go away.

“Alright,” Lea said as if she was decided. “[Appraise Object].” Her eyes flickered with a silver shimmer and she looked the thin green fabric up and down.

Now that she held it, it looked almost like a bandana. Especially with the lighter patterns woven in a square around the center.

“It filters air,” she said, “and … it warns you when it’s working. I’m not sure about the specifics though.”

Ah, Micah thought. A bird-themed bandana in a mine. He smiled, but it would probably hurt him more than it could help.

“Maybe someone else could wear that in case they fight near me when I use my poison breath?”

“Sure,” she said and handed it to Jason. Hands freed, she took the kettle from Kyle and repeated the Skill. “It’s enchanted to be more durable than it is and boils water on the inside.”

“That’s it?” Lisa asked. She sounded disappointed.

“Yep.”

“It’s useful,” Micah said. Part of him wanted it because well ... he wouldn’t need fire to boil things. But that was childish. He'd been working with fire for over half a year now. Maybe they could sell it. Or maybe someone else on their team would want it.

He inspected the pouch. It was full of marbles, of course. The potion was also his purview: it was the same healing potion he had seen a dozen times. Even without a pattern, he recognized it. He would be surprised the day he found a different one from a Salamander chest.

Kyle broke the chest itself into fine pieces. The rest of them divided the loot in case any one of them lost their backpacks.

Jason wondered about the mine out loud. He voiced theorizes, told them about similar things he had read, and tapped the walls and asked Ryan if maybe there was a hollow space or something? Had they noticed anything new in the last few minutes? Maybe they needed to light up the cavern to find the clues or mine the walls behind the Salamander pens?

Kyle was busy hacking the chest into rough pieces and looked frustrated one way or another when he did, but Micah could almost see a vein pulsing on his forehead when he heard the other guy talking.

Worse, Micah agreed with Kyle. They had a plan. They didn't have time to hang out on the second floor when they already had the treasure chest from that area.

Especially not this second floor, he thought as he looked around at the darkness.

“We can search the area,” he said, genuinely anxious to get away because the lack of inhabitants spooked him, “like we did for the sign but maybe a little less. Say two to three tunnels radius around the mine? And then we can make an awesome map for the Guild—report that this kind of thing can happen—and maybe they can look into it or warn others if we don't find anything. But if we don’t, we have to move on.”

A compromise. That was all he was suggesting.

Jason turned around, noticed them, and seemed torn.

Kyle bundled the wood pieces up, stuffed them in a sack, and nodded at the tunnel. "One way or another, can we get a move on?"

Gladly, they did.

“But … wouldn’t it be better if we gave the Guild an answer rather than a riddle?" Jason said as he followed after them. "It just seems like this is more important.”

“No,” Kyle grumbled.

They stepped into the mine and headed up the spiraling pathway on the outskirts. Those of them that could kept an eye out in case the Guardian showed up after all, but they mostly just have to fight off the handful of weak monsters that had found their way in during the few minutes they had been gone. 

Micah glanced over and echoed him, “We have a plan. We want to map out a way to the Fields, remember? That might take time.”

"But—"

“You signed up for this.” Kyle pointed a finger at him. “I'm ... okay with Micah's stupid suggestion of making a map because it might earn us a better grade. At least, if everyone else thinks so, too. But even that is generous.”

Lisa grumbled a little but nodded next to him. Micah knew she would rather be headed for a higher floor than stick around here, as her team had done that last time.

Jason glanced at them, sighed, and ran ahead to slash a large Teacup Salamander. It was almost as big as the fed ones they had fought.

Micah hoped and was quickly disappointed when it bled light instead of blood. “Look,” he tried to cheer himself up as much as he did Jason. “We got an entire treasure chest almost for free. That alone would be worth the slight detour. We were lacking other treasures, right?”

“Yeah, no. I get it. You don’t need to cheer me up. I mean, maybe we will find an answer around here.”

“Just don’t be too disappointed if we don’t,” Lea told him and her tone ended of the conversation. She looked ahead. “So how are we going to do this, the mapping?”

“Spread out in pairs and communicate?” Ryan said. He gestured like swinging a cloak over his shoulders. "Do a loop around?"

“Sure.”

They almost naturally fell into pairs with the closest person then. Kyle and Lisa at the other edge, Ryan and Lea in the center, and Micah tagged along with Jason. When they left the mine, the guy still looked a little anxious despite what he had said so Micah tugged on his arm and told him, “C’mon, I want to take a short detour for something else.”

“What?”

He smiled. “My trash. I reused my shells during the entrance exam, so who knows? Maybe I can do it again.”

The tunnel they had come in through was only four bends away. It wasn’t far and they warned the others before they left. They needed to fight their way there, but without the fear of reinforcements from the mine, they did it more confidently.

Micah quickly ducked inside and jogged down the length of the tunnel only to stop and frown at the wall.

The hair-thin layer of glue had started to decay and droop on the walls. But at the very end, a large circle was missing, cut out with a jagged edge almost like … like he did on floors covered in spiderwebs to take samples.

And just below it, where his spit still marked the wet spot where he’d spat the empty shell out, that was missing, too.

What?