In the end, Rai spent four days in the kobold warren, trading knowledge with Sesson and Torval, before finally setting out. Fortunately, nothing ill had befallen either Camellia or Brak during his stay, though both were somewhat annoyed with him that it had taken so long. Isa led the group toward the hole into the ruins, Rai at her side, Brak and the panther behind him, and Camellia at the rear.

“You know,” Rai said to Isa, “human view of kobolds is way off, if your tribe is anything to go by. Humans think of kobolds as primitive and savage, but your people didn’t seem savage to me, and your technology is actually quite advanced in some areas. You have metalworking – you can even process steel using that ‘sacred artifact’ you have. You have an iron mine, Sesson said?”

“So they say. Only the Iron Masters are allowed to bring back iron to the tribe from wherever they get it, so I don’t know,” Isa replied. “They’re also the ones who turn iron into steel, which is necessary for good weapons.” She waved her halberd around. “I’m pretty good at making weapons. I made this one myself.”

She grinned. “But we can be plenty savage. I was poisoned and worn out when you saw me fight, so you didn’t see me at my best. Normally, I’m a lot more ferocious.”

“I can believe that. You took that spider down, after all.”

“You’re pretty strong, too – you have some interesting sword arts, and you didn’t even use your magic beyond a defensive spell.”

“Thanks, but I’m just second circle and second tier.”

“Oh? Me too. The greatest of kobold champions only reach third tier, since that corresponds to the limits of kobold strength. But I’m not going to let that stop me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to surpass my limits and evolve, again and again, until I become an immortal dragon.”

Rai raised his eyebrows at the declaration. “That’s… quite a goal.”

“Well, kobolds only live for a few years past thirty at most. I don’t want to die. With each evolution, my lifespan increases, and dragons are supposed to live for a super long time, if not forever. Besides, I may be strong for a kobold, but I’m still just strong for a kobold. And there are plenty of things stronger than kobolds. I want to be really strong.”

“Fair enough! People say my goals are unrealistic, but I won’t let that stop me either. I want to uncover everything I can about the Tower Era, discover great magical items, and maybe learn ancient magics more powerful than anything currently known.”

“Oh? I told you my reasons; what are yours?”

“Well, fascination with the topics, for one. But also, I want to find a way to bring my lover back to life.”

Isa glanced up at Rai. “That’s… well, I can’t say I blame you, but isn’t reversing death going against the gods?”

“I doubt our religions have much in common with each other, but I don’t recall any teachings explicitly saying that. Why would there be, if it was impossible for us to do? But impossible for us doesn’t mean it was impossible for the ancients. Besides, while I acknowledge that the gods exist – how could I not, when divine mages exist – I’m not a particularly religious individual. If I have to defy the gods to bring her back, I will.”

“…Wow.”

“What?” Rai said defensively.

“It’s just… I’ve never heard anyone seriously say that they want to defy the gods before. It seems beyond belief.”

“Well, there are some people who think their god demands they exterminate all monsters, who also think kobolds count as monsters, so…. Besides, there are a bunch of different gods, right? They can’t all agree on everything. Surely at some point, following one means going against another.”

“Huh. I’d never thought of it that way.”

Once they reached the gigantic spider, they started encountering spiders of the smaller variety. The first time they showed up, they arrived in a trio and scuttled toward the group.

“No sense in wasting spells,” Rai said, drawing his sword. “But for safety’s sake… Force Armor.”

“Enhanced Scales.”

Two of the spiders went for the larger target in front, Rai, while the third went for Isa. Both the scholar and the berserker readied themselves: Rai adjusted his stance and held his sword over to the left, his knees bent and his right arm raised slightly; Isa pulled her halberd back, coating it in blood. They struck as soon as the spiders got in range.

“Wrath Strike!” Isa shouted, slamming her halberd down and cleaving the spider in two, both halves being eaten away by the blood on her blade.

Rai swept his sword from left to right, cutting deep into both spiders with a single stroke, removing their front legs and shattering exoskeletons. Despite their injuries, they futilely tried to bite him; he sidestepped one and the other glanced off his forcefield. A simple downward thrust between head and abdomen felled the one that had come closer to hitting him. He spun around the other spider’s second attack and cut off its head with a slash.

“Heh. So short I didn’t even go Berserk Mode,” Isa said with a toothy smile.

“Berserk Mode?”

“I was too worn out yesterday to do it, but I usually go into Berserk Mode whenever I get hurt or hurt a foe. You’ll know it when you see it. By the way, what was that nifty two-target slash? You didn’t call out the name of the art!”

“Er… you do know you don’t have to do that, right?”

“If you want to be boring,” Isa said, propping her halberd on her shoulder. “Calling out the attack names is cool.”

Rai laughed. “I’m surprised you care about that… but I guess I shouldn’t judge. After all, when I was younger, I came up with this name for myself. I called it my Mage Name. Thunderflame! Because I use fire and lightning magic. Anyway, the art I used is a first tier one called Wave Strike.”

“I have a two-foe art, too, called Pierce Through. It does what it sounds like.”

“We should have a competition next time.”

“Who can take down the most foes the quickest?”

“Exactly!”

Isa grinned. “I like the way you think. You’re not half bad, Rai.”

By the time they reached the hole, it was early afternoon, so they stopped, ate, and rested for a short while. Using the vines that Isa had put there days ago, they descended into the underground structure, orbs of light spread around to illuminate the surrounding area.

“This first room seems pretty well empty,” Isa said. “I used the stairs to go down to the next one last time, but I didn’t go any further than that.” She glanced up at the panther, who was still standing at the top of the vine rope. “None of us have magic that can get the cat down safely, right?”

“Unfortunately not,” Brak said. “So it will just be the four of us proceeding.” He smiled at Isa. “Are you relieved?”

“Relieved? Are you implying that I’m scared of your pet? Hah! Don’t be absurd. Why are you even coming down with us in the first place instead of staying with the beast?”

“I’m curious.”

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Isa raised an eye ridge at him skeptically. I really don’t know what his deal is, she thought. Why is he even still here? Rai doesn’t need a wilderness guide now that he’s got both the location of the ruin and me. Is he really sticking around just because of curiosity? Somehow I doubt it.

“Besides, someone needs to provide a little security for the healer so she doesn’t run away every time you face a monster.”

Camellia shrank in on herself.

“Lead the way, Isa,” Rai said eagerly.

The stairs were treacherous, broken and jagged, and they moved with caution down toward the second floor. Sounds that were a cross between squeaks and grunts echoed from further below, which caused Camilla no end of nervousness. She practically jumped from the stairs to the second floor to get away from the noises.

“I wonder what’s making those sounds,” Rai said.

“Dire rats,” Brak answered immediately, peering down the stairs. “Their cries are pretty distinctive.”

“Dire rats?” Camilla said, voice quavering.

“They’re a primarily subterranean variety of rodent,” Brak explained, turning to face her. “They look like rats, except they’re as long as Isa here is tall, including their tails. They’re not especially dangerous, as monsters go, but their bite has the potential to transfer disease. Those who are especially frail and sicky can actually die from it, but most people are simply bedridden for a few days to a week if they fall ill at all.”

He paused. “The real problem is that they are rarely alone, traveling in groups of up to two dozen. And if we can hear them from here, they’re likely not too far down.”

“Feh,” Isa scoffed. “Rats are still rats, no matter how big they are – nothing but prey.”

“You eat rats?” Rai asked.

“They’re not especially tasty, but yes. Of course, now that I’m strong enough to hunt bigger things, like boars and deer, I don’t usually eat them anymore.”

“Huh.”

Rai turned his attention to the room and immediately spotted the runed doorway-like arches. His face lit up and he immediately rushed over to one to examine it, eyes glowing with the light of Mage Sight.

“These runes… ha… hahaha… I’ve finally found it! A Tower Era ruin! And the magic in this ruin is still active! All right! Let’s analyze this!” He pulled out his journal and began comparing notes to the runes on the wall. “Yes… I see… so it’s not information, it’s a written permanent spell? It’s different from most of the magic items and enchantments I’ve seen. Hm… what if… are these coordinates? So this is a doorway that connects to different nonadjacent locations… maybe? But it requires a key to open it…”

Isa walked over to him. “What’s a doorway?”

“Hm? What’s a doorway? …Huh. I didn’t see any doors, let alone doorways, in your warren, did I? A doorway is a hole in a wall, usually blocked by a movable piece of wall called a door, that allows passage from one side to the other. Imagine if every tunnel’s end, and the entrance to the warren, was deliberately formed and had a barrier filling the gap – a barrier that could be moved out of the way. The movable barrier is a door, and the opening it blocks is called a doorway. Doors can also often be locked, which is a way of fixing them in place so that they cannot be moved. To unlock them, an object called a key is required.”

Rai gestured at the arch of runes. “This is a doorway, even though it has a solid wall instead of a door. It requires a magical key to remove the wall in the middle so that it can be passed through. Which is… unfortunate, since it means we can’t use it unless we find the key lying around. Unless…”

He dug out the Pass Pendant and held it up to the doorway. The runes glowed brighter, but nothing else happened.

“Sigh… it was worth a shot.”

He glanced down at Isa, then frowned. “Isa… I meant to ask you earlier, but… that ring you’re wearing is a magic item. Where did you get it?”

Isa tapped the flat disc on the ring with a claw. “This? In this room, actually.”

“May I take a closer look?”

She pulled it off and handed it to him.

“I want it back, though,” she warned.

“Of course. …Ha! Isa, you are incredibly lucky: this has the rune for “open” on it, and the magic within… I’m pretty sure that this is the key we need. Granted, it looks like a ring rather than a key, but magical keys don’t need to look like mundane ones.” He handed it back. “Could you do me a favor?”

She put it back on. “What’s that?”

“Hold up your hand right in the middle of the blank wall inside the rune formation and channel mana through the ring.”

“Channel mana…? You mean, like when I cast a spell?”

“Right.”

“Sure.”

Isa stepped forward and placed her palm on the wall slightly above her head height. The ring lit up with a eerie green glow, and the wall simply disappeared, revealing darkness beyond that neither their orbs of light nor her dark-sight could penetrate.

“Truly fascinating,” Brak said, “but I feel I should note that the sounds are getting closer.”

Camilla shrieked, and they spun around. Two enormous rats, easily two feet long without including the tail, jumped out of the stairwell. Immediately, Rai and Isa pointed their right palms at the dire rats. From the scholar’s hand leapt a twisted cord of fire and lightning as thick as three fingers put together; from the warrior’s hand a sickly green and red twisted mist of similar size shot out. Each struck a different rat and exploded. Rai’s attack burned and jolted, knocking the rat out and leaving it smoldering. Isa’s splashed over the rat, dissolving fur and flesh alike; it also stopped moving.

Then more rats surged up the stairs. Some of them kept going, climbing further toward the room above, but around half of them rushed out at the expedition party – a full ten of them.

Isa silently cast a zeroth circle spell, Cacophony. As soon as she completed the spell, a loud, ferocious roar sounded out, seeming to echo all around. The rats, frightened by the noise, grouped up together in a teaming mass, stopping short of reaching Brak and Camilla.

Rai ran at them, casting, “Storm Fan!” A spray of fire and lightning mixed together shot out of his palm and covered the miniature swarm. A moment later, Isa took a running leap and landed right on the other side with a shout of “Caustic Blood!” A bloodred mist exploded out from her in every direction, dissolving the rats’ fur and flesh where it touched.

Then she nonchalantly walked over to the first two rats and chopped off their heads.

“Well, that was underwhelming,” she commented. “I suppose that rats are rats, regardless of size or numbers.”

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!

A gigantic spider, identical to the one Isa had killed previously, scurried up and sprang out from the stairwell, decompressing back to its original size as it did. Brak’s eyes widened and he took a step back.

Camilla fainted.

“Get ready!” Isa shouted, slamming the butt of her halberd into the ground and sending blood up to the blade in an instant. “I’ll unbalance it, so go for a crit!”

She and the spider charged one another, Rai close behind. It lunged downward, fangs piercing scales and sinking into flesh. In response, Isa’s eyes glowed golden and a red, mistlike aura surrounded her, thrashing as though alive. The aura smashed into its face as it drew back, and Isa brought her halberd down on its legs with a cry of, “Balance Breaker!”

Two of its left legs broke off from her swing, acidic blood splashing against its side and eating into its carapace. It tipped sideways, head smacking into the ground, and Rai lunged forward, his sword piercing through its head while wreathed in fire and lightning, leaving a large hole wider than the sword itself behind. The spider twitched and flipped, curling its remaining legs, then stilled.

Isa’s eye glow and blood aura vanished, and she grimaced.

“Ugh, that venom… I think my body has fought it off now – I’m not getting any weaker, anyway.”

“I can assist with that,” Brak said. “If you will come here, I can cast Recovery on you.”

“And I’ll wake up Camilla so she can heal you,” Rai added.

“What sort of venom –”

“Weakening and paralytic.”

“Then I’ll use the spell on you twice, once to recover your strength and once to recover your ease of movement.” Brak placed a hand on Isa’s shoulder. “Recovery. Recovery.”

Isa rotated her shoulders and flexed her arms. “That’s much better.” She turned toward Camilla. Rai pointed at Camilla and whispered too quietly for Isa to hear.

“Wake up.”

Camilla’s eyes snapped open and she sat up with a gasp.

“That worked better than I expected,” Rai mused.

“What did you do?” Isa asked curiously.

“Oh, I just used the spell Whisper to make sure that she could hear me. It lets people communicate regardless of ambient noise or volume of speech, so I was testing to see whether it would work regardless of consciousness too, and it turned out the answer was yes. Perfect way to wake someone up, it turns out.”

Camilla glared at Rai, looking like she was going to complain, then noticed the dead spider.

“You… killed that thing?” she said in hushed tones.

“We did,” Rai confirmed. “Isa was injured, so if you would heal her…”

“R-right away! Heal the Wounds! Heal the Wounds!”

“All better,” Isa said with a grin.

“Then shall we get to exploring what lies beyond that doorway?” Rai suggested eagerly.

“Of course!” Isa replied.

Rai bit his lip thoughtfully. “Say, Isa… you’re not exactly being a guide anymore. Shall we renegotiate?”

She raised an eye ridge.

“I don’t want to insult you by offering to hire you, as though your help is just worth some shiny pieces of metal. You said your goal is to reach and exceed your limits as a kobold and then evolve, right?”

“Right…”

“Do you really think that you’ll be able to become a dragon if you stay in one place your whole life?”

“…What are you suggesting?”

“Why don’t you become my partner? We’ll fight alongside one another, watch each other’s backs, help each other achieve our goals, share the credit and the loot whenever we make new discoveries… You get the idea. It would be difficult for you to travel through humankind-populated lands on your own, but if you were with me, I could vouch for you, which greatly expands the places you could go.”

“A partnership, huh?” That’s actually a really interesting idea, Isa thought. Do I really have anything to lose? “You know what? Sure. I know I can trust you, you know you can trust me, and teaming up should make things more fun than going it alone.” She sliced her hand slightly and held it out. “Partners?”

A blood oath? Rai thought in surprise. She’s taking this seriously. You know what? In for a copper, in for a gold. He sliced his palm with his sword and took her hand. “Partners,” he said.