The band continued on for a while without any breaks, trekking through staircases and empty halls. Though the walls were decorated with intricate carvings and the size of each chamber continued to inspire awe in each of them, there was unfortunately no treasure to be looted. For what purpose the halls were for, no one really had any idea, for they lacked even the most basic of furniture, being only empty, meaningless spaces for them to pass through.

Temia seemed to be a lot more at ease since that incident. Sofis could now stand next to her without any sense of hostility. In fact, the two had occasional conversations whenever either of them found something interesting to the eye. For Sofis those were some carvings that might’ve reminded her of a place in a book, for Temia those were some interesting detailing on the sides of stairs. Each conversation wasn’t long, but it was enough to pull the two of them a little closer to each other as the only two women in the band.

As they walked, Sofis could only note down general descriptions of the halls as she went, unable to chip away samples for her research due to the increasing toughness of the stone. She could only wonder what sort of tools were used to carve those extremely detailed reliefs of gardens and sweeping landscapes that she now witnessed. The emptiness, however, also became increasingly unnerving as they continued onwards. Compared to the hall of silver before, everything now seemed far less glamorous, and while still formidable, couldn’t hold their interest for long. Even stranger was the complete lack of vegetation, the halls undamaged and intact. Compared to what they saw in the initial level, this seemed far more well-preserved, the air more static and dry.

She wasn’t particularly surprised by this abrupt change in atmosphere, to be honest. After all the fantastical things in the first level, a change in the environment wasn’t nearly as shocking or exciting anymore.

She only wished there was at least a chamber or something where she could clean herself… Perhaps even that was too much given the fact that she was currently deep inside some ancient ruins, far away from any realistic access to clean water.

Or at least that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, ever since they entered the current level, she had been hearing the distant sounds of flowing water, perhaps a small waterfall or a stream. Certainly there was a water source nearby. But for the original architects, whoever they were, to design such a crucial chamber inconveniently hidden away from the other halls was just outright stupid.

The memories of that dream with the ‘creator’ was coming back to haunt her again.

‘Hey, is it just me, or have we walked for much longer than we usually do at this point?’ a treasure hunter asked.

‘Yeah,’ another agreed.

‘I’m hungry,’ Jorn muttered. ‘Thirsty too.’

‘We can rest once we enter this hall,’ Gennai responded. ‘I’m a bit tired now too.’

He pushed open the doors and led the band inside. Unlike everything before, the hall was completely bare, the walls blank and devoid of any decoration. It was boring and frankly ugly, as if one had cut a box inside a mountain and abandoned it. Nothing, not even bricks lined the floor, only the cold, smooth surface of stone. Only a lamp post stood at the centre, a pile of sticks sitting in the bowl waiting to be lit up.

There was simply nothing else to interest them.

Gennai lit up the lamp with his torch, the light illuminating the entire hall with a warm glow. After everyone had entered, some began to unpack their things while mumbling complaints which Sofis couldn’t hear.

‘Um…’ Jorn spoke up. His voice was unexpectedly timid, unbefitting of his usual self. He had also stopped walking, just standing frozen in the hall while his eyes glanced everywhere nervously.

‘You’re not feeling good?’ Gennai asked.

‘... Who are you all? Why am I here?’

‘Huh?’

Everyone looked at him in confusion.

‘What do you mean—’

‘This isn’t my home. I need to go back. Why did you take me here?’ Jorn was visibly panicking, his eyes bubbling on the verge of tears. ‘Mother? Father? Where—’

‘Jorn, calm down!’ Gennai quickly grabbed his arms, shaking him lightly to and fro. ‘Hey, look at me. Tell me what happened. Hey, hey—’

‘Get off me!’ Jorn violently flung Gennai’s hands away, nearly knocking him down to the floor. ‘I’m… scared. Help me. Anyone, please…’

‘What’s gone into him?’ a nearby treasure hunter asked in worry. ‘Did he lose his mind?’

‘Gennai, you know what’s happened?’ a second one said. ‘You know Jorn best, right?’

‘It’s familiar,’ Gennai quietly said as he backed up a few steps. ‘He used to be like this… ten years ago. When he wasn’t nearly as big as he is now.’

‘What?’ Everyone nearly exclaimed in unison.

‘That’s not the point right now,’ Gennai gritted his teeth. ‘Hold him down. He needs to be calmed.’

Jorn was now a sobbing mess and barraged towards the chests, howling and screaming at the top of his lungs. Despite the treasure hunters’ best efforts to block his way, he simply shoved them away before arriving at their treasure. With a roar, he toppled over a chest, the silver inside scattering everywhere on the floor.

‘Don’t hold back!’ Gennai commanded. ‘Get the rope and tie him down to the ground!’

A few of the treasure hunters lunged themselves at Jorn, tackling his legs to bring the giant man down. Still sobbing, he tried to thrash his way out, kicking and stomping violently in random directions. A few others quickly launched themselves and put their entire bodies on his back, piling up until Jorn could barely even breathe under the weight and pressure. The rest grabbed rope and rapidly tied them around Jorn’s legs and wrists, firmly restricting his movement. Finally, the others could get off the man in relief.

Jorn was still inconsolable and attempted to break the rope, but to no avail. He sobbed and sobbed until he couldn’t anymore, his cries reduced to whimpers before he was finally sedated.

‘Hey, Jorn,’ Gennai cautiously approached him. ‘What happened?’

‘A-Ah, who… are you?’

‘Your hero. You know, the one you always wanted to meet and bring you on an adventure?’

‘You… are?’

‘Yup, that’s me.’

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘The hell’s he talking about?’ Temia commented. ‘Gennai, are you used to talking to Jorn like this?’

‘Shh…’ Gennai glared at her for a brief moment before resuming his weird conversation.

‘You might not know this since you’re one of our newest members, Temia, but Jorn told us what he was like before,’ a treasure hunter explained. ‘It’s very similar to what we’re seeing right now, but basically, there was this incident where he lost both his parents and was running around, panicking like a headless chicken before being found by Gennai. It’s how this band started, actually.’

‘Apparently that was his most vivid memory,’ another added. ‘He sometimes still talks about it, though he hasn’t mentioned it recently.’

‘Quite a few of us were from the same village, so we kinda knew about this from the beginning.’

‘Could’ve told me earlier, idiots,’ Temia snapped.

‘Well, we tried. You just didn’t seem like you were listening.’

‘Oh, really?’

‘Temia…’ The others could barely hide their annoyance.

Sofis looked at the scene in wonder. Gennai was like an older brother frantically trying to comfort Jorn, the younger brother. As an only child, she could only imagine these scenarios in her head. She jotted it down in her notes, recording bits of their conversation as they went. It wasn’t related to her research in any way, but if she had to start a project studying familial relationships some day, perhaps this would come in handy.

‘Wait, hey, what’s wrong?’ Temia’s voice brought Sofis back to the current situation. One of the treasure hunters was staring into empty space, not unlike how she imagined herself when daydreaming at the Academia. However, that person was obviously empty of thought, only staring into the distance for the sake of doing so.

And the next moment, the man’s eyes flickered with panic.

‘Hey, what am I doing here?’

‘You said you were hungry, man.’

‘No, I mean, what am I doing here?’

‘Are you alright?’

‘No. And who are you?’

‘What do you mean “who are you”? I’m literally—’

‘I thought this was Canna, but it’s… too quiet. Where’s Hefaus? Am I captured already? Is the battle over?’

‘The hell are you saying?’

‘I think… he’s having memory loss as well,’ Sofis concluded.

‘Scholar… You’re joking, right?’ The closest treasure hunter looked at her anxiously. ‘He hasn’t been a soldier for twelve years, and I’ve only met him for ten.’

The message was obvious. The man would’ve forgotten everything with his friend of ten years.

‘Is that his most vivid memory?’ Temia asked.

‘I don’t know!’ That treasure hunter shouted. ‘I don’t know who or what Canna or Hefaus is, I don’t know what he’s rambling about, and I sure as hell don’t know anything about this being some “vivid memory”!’

‘But it must be,’ Sofis said quietly as she observed the situation. ‘The man must’ve buried it deep inside, but he still remembers.’

Another treasure hunter’s stomach suddenly growled. The man sat down and closed his eyes even as everyone else was already beginning to freak out at the second case of memory loss.

Then that man opened his eyes again.

‘Oh, what’s this surprise— huh?’

He stood up and looked around. ‘What are these people doing here? Why are they freaking out? Did the surprise go wrong?’

Oh no…

Sofis was beginning to sense a pattern. The cases of memory loss couldn’t be randomly happening. The hall they were in, empty as it was, contained something that was messing with them all.

But what pattern was it, exactly?

The band was rapidly decaying into disarray with more and more of them succumbing to severe memory loss. Sofis noticed they each started with a blank stare for a moment, entering a state of confusion, before then turning to panic, bewilderment, or a mix of both, having lesser and lesser people to control their emotions. She had already shuffled away from them, huddling in a corner as she rapidly jotted down notes.

Treasure hunters. Structure. Temple. Research for Academia Historica. Exploration. Figuring out everything here. Joined a band. Hygiene issues. People losing memories. Different halls. Search for the top.

It wasn’t for research. It was her own personal details. She feared she might lose her memories soon. If that were to happen, at least she had something to remind herself of who she was.

Temia sat next to her, in her hand a knife as she stared anxiously at the crazed group of people.

‘Hey, uh, can you write something down for me as well?’ she asked Sofis.

‘S-Sure, what do you—’

‘Write “It’s meaningless”. That’s it. Say it to me repeatedly if I lose my memories as well.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘It’s something that eventually led me here. I might snap out of this stupid trance if you say it enough times.’

‘A-Alright…’ Sofis scribbled the words down.

‘I’ll say those words for you as well, if you’re the one that loses your memory first.’

Sofis really didn’t want to hear those words at this moment.

Most of the band were completely deranged now. Gennai, a moment ago trying to comfort Jorn, was now embracing him, his expression far less composed than usual. Many others were just limping or walking around in complete confusion, unsure of where they were or needed to go. The entire hall was filled with sounds of questioning, shouting, screaming and crying, some of the men outright acting like frightened children.

Sofis looked at Temia. She was strangely composed, taking out what seemed to be snacks in her pocket before pouring its entire contents into her mouth.

‘What are you doing?’ Sofis wondered.

‘Oh, I just felt like eating some food,’ Temia gargled. ‘Forgot to leave some for you.’

Sofis could never be like this. To just sit like a bystander and calmly eat while everyone else was in a state of chaos was impossible. Compared to Temia, she was quite literally shaking uncontrollably. Hunger and thirst was also finally catching up to her. She hadn’t eaten in a while, and without any source of food in the area, there was only the supplies stored in one of the chests.

She stood up… and found that exact chest toppled over, the food trampled and crushed under the dirty feet of the crazed treasure hunters.

‘Oh.’

‘You hungry?’ Temia asked, noticing her gaze.

‘Yes. Starving, in fact—’

Sofis saw a flash.

The next moment, she realised she was staring into empty space. She must’ve been daydreaming again. The exam was probably still in progress, but she had to focus…

She didn’t recognise this place. The people looked extremely filthy. No, she was also filthy. She nearly vomited at her own smell, instead coughing and gagging before she regained her breath.

Was she dreaming? She pinched her arm. No, definitely not. This was real.

She was in the lecture hall just moments earlier, but what was this place? Was she abducted here? No, she couldn’t have been. She wasn’t restrained.

Then what was she doing here?

‘Is this some sort of joke?’

A strange woman stared at her. Sofis found her extremely intimidating, more so than her professors. She took a step back, only to realise she was already cornered. Her hands began to sweat. Not good. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to focus and finish her paper—

Wait, where was her paper?

‘So hunger is the catalyst, huh…’

What was that woman even saying? Sofis had absolutely no idea. This was definitely not part of the exam. Had she gone insane from the difficulty of the questions? Was this some sort of drug or medicine-induced hallucination from a rival? Was this actually an elaborate prank by a friend? She couldn’t care less.

‘I have an exam to take. Excuse me—’

The woman blocked her path. ‘Treasure hunters.’

‘What?’ Sofis was now quite sure she wasn’t the only one going insane here.

‘Structure.’

‘Please, I need to leave—’

‘Temple.’

‘What are you even saying? Please, let me leave—’

A strike went straight to her jaw. Before Sofis knew it, her world went black.