‘Ugh…’

Where was she? The area was pitch black. She remembered she was supposed to search for the origin of the heavy air, but… what was this place? Her hands were touching something cold, probably stone. There was some viscous liquid on the floor, though she couldn’t exactly recognise what it was. Her head was hurting, a splitting headache reducing her capacity to focus. Her neck and back were also somewhat strained as if she had been curled up in a tight space for a long while.

The others were, obviously, nowhere to be seen. She blindly searched her way to a wall before slowly crawling around it for a good feel of her surroundings. The chamber wasn’t large. In fact, it was terribly small, perhaps able to fit around five or six people fully laid down at most. There was no sign of life other than her, the stone bare and smooth without any hint of erosion. Then the liquid…

She touched it again before bringing her fingers close to her nose. It smelled faintly of iron, the viscosity now reminding her of a certain substance: blood. From whom, she didn’t have to guess.

She ran her hands through her messy hair. Wet and a little slimy. The scalp felt soft. Her robes felt heavier than before. There was still liquid trailing down her body. She was practically soaked in it. As she recovered more of her senses, she realised she smelled like a butcher.

She reeled from the intensifying smell and slipped on the ground. Her head smacked violently against the wall. Stars appeared in her vision. Her head felt as if it was split open, the acute pain immediately coursing through her body. No. It was split open. She heard the splattering of blood on the floor. Her blood. She gasped.

She was dying. Not that she knew what that sensation was before, but it was her first instinctive thought. Her life flashed before her eyes, her body was rapidly cooling, her senses were dulling. She was definitely dying. From a slip. What a way to go. She looked at the darkness around her. Her corpse wouldn’t even be found at this rate.

So this is it—

And as soon as that sensation came, it left.

Huh?

She was back to normal in an instant. There was still an intense headache, but nothing more. She cautiously touched the back of her head. She wasn’t bleeding, though the splatter of blood on the wall was still there. There was no damage done to her mind. She was sane, as far as she was aware.

The human body was definitely capable of regeneration, but this?

This was impossible.

She was definitely supposed to die. At least if she had the same injuries in, say, the Academia. She stood up, and sure enough, her body was perfectly fine. It was an unpleasant, albeit interesting discovery… And if she wasn’t imagining things, it could be replicated.

She turned to face the wall and launched a fist into the darkness. Crack! She gasped. She nearly lost sensation in her fingers, but not before the pain of the bone fractures reached her mind. Adrenaline rushed through her, and her breath quickly became rushed. She had gone insane. Such an experiment was not worth the risk. Her rationality had completely fallen to her curiosity.

And yet… the next moment, everything was back to normal. She caressed her hand. There was no pain. The bones were where they should be. Even her skin was fine, unblemished and with no sign of wear from contact with the wall.

It was a stupid experiment, but it worked. She wasn’t sure if it extended to the entire structure, but at least for this tiny room, death was impossible. It wasn’t that she’d replicate the same thing once she escaped this chamber.

If she could escape.

She began to search for some sort of ladder or mode of ascension back above, but there was nothing she could use. There weren’t even any gaps in the stone for her to grasp unto. Even if she did somehow manage to climb up, there was no light to receive her, meaning whatever entrance she fell into was either out of sight or sealed. Even if, by some miracle, she managed to get out, there was a high likelihood she would simply be back at the hall of heavy air. Whichever scenario she imagined, it was practically impossible to pull off.

But then again, having regeneration like that was supposed to be impossible. Not that it would translate to having other impossible scenarios becoming possible, but it was a thought.

She began to pace around the area. They hadn’t entered many halls, nor had they collected many things of note, but based on her observations, a single conclusion could already be reached: the structure defied any system of logic. The only current constants were: they were in a ‘temple’, the structure truly existed, and that nothing made sense in this space. She could probably expect some sort of new strangeness when they entered the next hall. No, if they entered the next hall.

But given these constants, could she perhaps imagine some sort of rescue for herself, no matter how absurd the way might seem? The first large hall seemed to not contain much, but there was initially a moving statue, and later, something that weakened the band similar to a period of long rest.

Her dream came back for a moment. She couldn’t possibly use that as evidence, but if she were to completely believe in any sense of absurdity in the structure, then she could attempt to believe that her dream was real. And if her dream was real, then that boy, the supposed creator of this place, could be assumed to exist. And if what he said was true, at least from her vague memories of the dream, then she was supposed to explore the structure as he intended for her to do.

‘Well?’ she called out into empty space. No one was going to hear her anyway.

There wasn’t any response. Of course. She based her conclusion off too much speculation.

She sighed. Perhaps she should—

She felt a bit of stone protruding out of the wall. Running her fingers across the edges, the rigidity of the protrusion indicated it wasn’t the result of some accident or natural erosion, but a purposeful addition to the chamber. She could’ve sworn it wasn’t there before, but then again, she couldn’t see anything and therefore couldn’t prove the correctness of her visual memory.

Nevertheless, this at least meant a glimpse of hope for her chances of escape.

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She tugged at the bit of stone. Nothing. She pushed it. Sure enough, there was the sound of grinding far above her head.

She pushed it further. A thin ray of light seeped through the faraway ceiling. Nothing bright, but barely enough for her to make out the outline of her hands.

More. The entire ceiling was shifting, and with it, more light. She could see the chamber somewhat clearly now. The entire area was splattered with her blood. Somewhere along the middle between the ground and the ceiling, a corner of her robe hung on a tiny protruding platform. She noticed more as her eyes scanned the walls. Quite frequent, in fact, that it reminded her of steep hills with indented soil where children had frequently used as platforms to climb. It was actually theoretically possible to ascend, so long as one had the endurance and strength to do so.

She stopped pushing the stone ‘button’. The ceiling didn’t slide back. There was a way.

Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the first platform, using the button as her first stepping stone. Not used to lifting her body, every little movement felt tiring for her. Still, she continued onwards, reaching for the next platform, and the next after that with little rest. She knew she looked extremely dirty with sweat running down her face. Her dusty hands only made it worse when she had to wipe off the sweat for a split moment. Still, she had to continue.

Her muscles ached intensely, her robe feeling heavier as she went. The fabric kept getting in her way, her legs having to always lift a bit more to raise the robe a little before it could stretch towards the next platform. For the first time, she realised just how inconvenient it was to wear these clothes on an expedition. Compared to dirty but practical clothing worn by the treasure hunters, dirty and impractical robes were clearly the worse option.

As she gradually made her way higher, she began to feel a sense of drowsiness with each breath. Heavy air. The air from the hall was gradually piling up the narrow chamber, slowly drowning her in its poison. She was losing her senses and strength. She couldn’t outpace it. It already engulfed her. Her mind was dulling. The light seemed to turn grey before her eyes.

She wanted to let go. She felt like falling back down. She wouldn’t die. She could simply start over later.

With her vision blurring, she gradually released her grip. Her hands were tired, even if the sores kept getting regenerated and her endurance lasting for far longer than she could ever imagine. The air, it was getting to her.

Ah well, it can wait until tomorrow.

She suddenly felt a rope envelop around her waist. It violently tugged at her and tightened just as she began to fall. All of a sudden, she was dangling midair, her limbs just flailing about with nowhere to hold onto.

‘Sofis, stay still!’ That was Gennai’s voice.

‘Pull!’

Bit by bit, her body rose closer and closer towards the light, the air feeling lighter and lighter. As she turned her head, she could barely see Jorn at the front tugging at the rope, with a couple other treasure hunters behind him… including the other woman.

Temia. That was her name. Even Temia was helping out.

Before long, Sofis was dragged out of the chamber, leaning against a panting Jorn. He still smelled as bad as ever, but compared to him, Sofis was outright putrid.

The heavy air had completely trapped itself in the chamber. The stone slowly slid back in and closed, and finally, the hall had cleaner air once more.

‘Sofis, y-your hair…’ Jorn stammered worriedly, wiping her head roughly with his thick hands. Sofis’ head bobbed back and forth, and for a moment, she thought her neck was about to snap.

‘What happened to you?’ Temia kneeled in front of her and stared deeply at her dirty, possibly very bloodied face. ‘You aren’t looking scholarly at all.’

‘That’s a compliment,’ Gennai translated. ‘But… I’m just extremely glad you’re alright.’

Sofis had never heard Gennai’s voice being this gentle before.

‘And look!’ Gennai shouted, suddenly jumping up in excitement. ‘Look at this hall!’

Well, she’d perhaps cherish that moment for the rest of the journey.

As soon as Jorn had stopped harassing her head, she looked up at the surroundings. It was intensely bright. Light reflected everywhere, her eyes having a hard time to adjust after spending a while in complete darkness.

But before her vision was restored, she already knew what she was looking at: a hall of silver. Full of it, in fact.

Now, silver wasn’t nearly as valuable as gold, but it was nevertheless an extremely valuable metal. Used to mint currency, even the youngest of children knew of its value. And to have a full hall of it, adorned from ceiling to floor… If they brought all of this back, they’d immediately become wealthier than even the biggest patrons of the Academia.

For a moment, she thought she had been absorbed in another crazy dream.

She left Jorn’s protection and stood up. From the reflection of the silver all around, she could see a decently good image of herself. Her formerly fine clothes were all bloodstained as if she had just devoured raw meat like an animal. Her face was smothered with dust, dirt and blood. Her hair was a tangled mess like some beggar. She apparently lost a shoe somewhere along the way as she was now half-barefoot.

She clearly looked far worse than any of the treasure hunters. At this point, she was too devastated to even scream in agony.

Temia wrapped an arm around her shoulder. ‘There’s no point in maintaining appearances now, Scholar.’

Sofis wasn’t sure if Temia was mocking her, but she couldn’t muster a proper response regardless. Well, at least all of them were safe.

She had somehow solved the problem of the heavy air. The band was completely back to normal, elated even as they showered themselves in silver. The pebbles turned out to be silver stones that, though impure, were still worth a fortune when stored in bulk. The chests each stored more than an individual fortune.

If this was any treasure hunting expedition, the silver here was far more than enough to bring back a huge bounty.

‘Alright, let’s move on, people!’ Gennai ordered. ‘There’s probably more ahead, and we can’t just store silver when we have space for diamond and gold!’

Gennai was a greedy man.

‘And Sofis!’ He directed everyone’s attention back towards her. ‘Thank you for saving us from the air.’

‘Huh? I didn’t really—’

‘Three cheers for Sofis!’ Jorn shouted.

‘Wait—’

The thunderous roars drowned out any noise from her. The treasure hunters embraced her more intensely than they did at her initial welcome, their odour all passed on to her. Though at this point, it was practically a fragrance compared to her own smell. Even Temia patted her on the head before Sofis continued to be swarmed by everyone else. Jorn carried her above his head, and before long, the others were shouting her name and throwing her up in the air, catching her, then throwing her up again.

She didn’t do much, really. Having accidentally fallen in the chamber earlier, she was just searching for a way to escape. If it wasn’t for the absurdity of the ‘temple’, she would’ve long been dead. The air nearly claimed her again, if not for the collective effort of the band.

Best of all, at least for the treasure hunters, the grey hall was in fact a hall of silver. With the foggy, depressing air cleared, the splendour and beauty of the hall could be truly shown in all its glory.

After a long while of celebrations, it was finally time to move. The reality of limited rations was still true, and they couldn’t waste too much time in one place, no matter how much it enticed them to stay. Opening the exit, the delightful surprise of a flight of stairs revealed itself to their eyes. Finally they could ascend to the next level, closer towards the initial mysterious building they saw before they entered the structure.

Without a private space nor the excess water to wash herself, Sofis could only endure her own putrid smell as the band left the hall for the next. She strategically walked close to Jorn, hoping the latter could cover at least some of her odour. Looking back, her only disappointment in the hall was that even the books were made of silver, holding no knowledge for her to research. Well, that was a minor disappointment compared to every bit of new knowledge she gained so far.

The structure was proving to be an extremely complex and interesting place to explore.