"Alright, that should be good enough." I finished placing some nearby rocks in a circular formation, "Get the charcoal."

"Right here, amigo." Shaid tossed the charcoal we had prepared in advance out of the bag, "Think this is good enough?"

"Yeah, don't overdo it." Olya explained, "We'll be here for a long time, so don't go wasting more than we need to. Expect to reuse some of the pieces that didn't burn all the way also."

"Wow, that desperate to hold out, are we?" I chuckled, "Don't worry, man, we packed extra. We can afford a couple of fireplaces."

"I don't think 3 bags of charcoal will be enough for an entire month's worth of stay." Olya sighed, "But it's not like we're completely out of options yet. This dungeon we found is keeping us safe from the snow's moisture and wind, and the earth it's buried in serves as natural isolation. I reckon as long as we find a small cozy room to lodge in, we could effectively prolong the fireplace's warmth for as long as we want."

"Then, once we heat up a bit, let's go looking for one." Shaid chuckled, "We could use a place to safely store all those books of yours."

"Light novels, not books." Olya gave a snark reply, "Besides, I'm not gonna leave all my treasures in a lair named after someone else. That's practically forfeiting your inventory, and I don't condone such scams."

"Who are you to judge, amigo?" Shaid raised an eyebrow with a smug grin, "You're not exactly clean, fatman."

"Yeah, and what's with calling me fat so much!?" Olya lifted his shirt up after unzipping his coat to reveal a somewhat chubby stomach, "Look, I get you guys calling me that before, but I've been working out recently! I lost like 10 kilos just in these past three months alone!"

"You misunderstand, man." I explained, "No matter how much weight you lose, you're always gonna remain "the fat guy" of the group. We're not exactly callin' you out for it, it's just we got way too used to callin' you that, and switchin' to something else just don't feel right."

"Yeah, what he said, amigo." Shaid then further elaborated, "We call you fat cause we love you."

"What kind of twisted love is that!? Call me something else, dammit!" He got kinda fussy over it, "Imagine seriously trying to change something about yourself for the better, only for the people around you to completely ignore your efforts. It makes me feel like all those days of dieting and running around everywhere were for nothing."

"Naww, don't say that." I pinched his still exposed tummy, making him hide it back under his clothes out of embarrassment, "We get you're workin' hard, man. That's epic. Still, even if you ask us to change the way we address you, I don't really know what to go with."

"How about Baldy?" Shaid thought something up on the spot.

"That's way worse than Fatty!" Olya complained, "Do something that's not negative, please?"

"Well, if we were to look at your merits, then somethin' to do with hagglin' and your brains would probably fit the bill." I figured, "How 'bout Brainiac Arrest-!"

"Ohhh, ha-ha, I see. Like Cardiac Arrest, huh?" Olya nodded before lashing out at me, "That's the same as calling me fat, you idiot! Dammit, I give up..."

Oh come on, we're just making some jokes. No need to cry about it. But seriously, you can't just expect us to suddenly pick another endearing yet equally as catchy nickname for you all of a sudden like that. It's kinda the point of a nickname for it to be the first thing you think of when you see the person in question, even before their name. And yeah, just for the record, calling him fat does in fact come from a place of love. Shit, if I was his height I'd probably be 10x fatter than he is. I guess what I mean to say is - I don't think calling him fat is bad, it's more like "Oh, look at this fat little guy who's practically the backbone of our entire operation. What a cool guy", y'know?

"The fire's burning out." Shaid turned to me, "Amigo, toss in some more charcoal."

"No, we should listen to Olya and preserve as much as we can until we find a smaller room." I shook my head as I got up, "Come on now, pack your things up."

"It's just basic logic, bud." Olya wobbled up, "A smaller room will heat up way quicker than this hallway that continues on until Gods know where, and when it does, the rate at which it'll cool back down once the fire dies out should be way slower than in the hallway."

"That makes sense when you say it, but will it truly go like that?" Shaid seemed a bit hesitant to let go of the fire's cozy warmth.

"Be as skeptical as you want, but I can assure you that my hypotheses are absolute." Olya proudly boasted as he hoisted his large backpack and two suitcases, "Alright, get up."

"Tch, fine..." He rolled his Eyes, "You better be right though."

Making it through the long tunnels was kinda creepy at first, if I'm gonna be honest, but it lost that edge the moment Olya accidentally let loose a small poot, which echoed loudly throughout the rest of the dungeon. Literally all of the tension immediately got thrown out the window the moment that happened, since we all started laughing before following suit to see who can get the loudest echo.

"Ooh ooh, wait! I got an idea." I shushed them before taking a deep breath and belching with all my might, "Phew, that felt good!"

"Phahaha, it's still going!" Shaid was hitting the ground from all the laughter, "No way, no way you just did that!"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Haha, that one stinks worse than the damned farts!" Olya grabbed his belly from laughing so hard, "Dude, what is that?"

"Remember the meat patties I bought for the ship ride to here?" I sniffed the air in front of my face to help me remember, "Yeah, it's probably that. I got extra onions, so obviously it'd reek."

"Yuck, man!" Shaid started running onward, "Come on, amigos! Let's get away from this stench!"

"Oi, hold up! That's dangerous!" Olya ran after him, "Schnell, the hell are you waiting for over there? Come on!"

"Gotcha." I walked peacefully at my own pace until we stopped at the first door.

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"What's this?" Shaid knocked on the door politely before opening it once he made sure no one was inside, "Hello~? Anyone in there?"

"Huh? This room..." Olya pointed out the obvious, "It's empty."

"Well duh, why wouldn't it be?" I looked around, "Though, it's pretty snazzy. I'm thinking we could definitely store those books of yours here just so long as we find a shelf to put 'em on."

"Light novels!" Olya corrected me before continuing, "But yeah, I'm just genuinely baffled. This place really wasn't inhabited by anybody. But that begs the question... Who made this dungeon?"

"Shaid's Lair." Shaid thought it was now his turn to correct people over the name, "And who cares about that? We found an epic place to call our own. Spruce it up a bit with some furnishings and bring a good large supply of charcoal for heating and you've got yourself an underground bunker for the ages!"

"Totally agree with you on that one." I then went back out of the room, "Well, Olya should probably start mapping the rooms out, so for now let's continue exploring until we find them all."

"Ehh?" They both groaned before begrudgingly agreeing, "I guess..."

Making it from one room to the next, we eventually reached the final floor of this lair. Honestly, I don't think any of us were expecting there to be so many floors to this place, but I can definitely see the beauty of it now in its entirety. Really, I can't even call this place a bunker anymore. It's more like an underground 10 story hotel. Wait, if it's underground, then does it have 10 floors or 10 basements?

"No, something doesn't add up, though." Olya thought, "This place is so huge, but from the top to the very bottom, we didn't find a single thing. No loot, no items, no animals, beasts or humans. Like this place was never touched by anyone ever."

"What's so wrong about that?" Shaid only saw the positives of his new lair, "That just means we don't have to feel guilty about taking someone else's crib. Besides, amigo, it removes the step of taking excess things out in favor of storing our own in these rooms."

"I'll drink to that." I nodded, "We can make this place our base of operations and store the loot we find from our travels in here. It's a nice location, away from everyone so that we don't have to worry about any burglaries, and even when someone stupid enough to travel all the way out into the middle of the north pole were to come, they'd be too stupid to figure out how to solve the puzzle to gain access to it. Seriously, can it get any better than this?"

"I'm telling you guys, something about this place isn't as good as you're making it out to be." Olya inspected the wall of the room where there would usually be the door leading to the lower floor, "Maybe there's like, a secret extra floor..."

"Olya, watch out!" Shaid jumped to push him out of the way, "Shit, that was close."

"What just happened?" Olya looked disoriented, "I went to touch the wall there, then a ton of bright colors flashed in my mind, and next thing I know I'm on the floor."

"Yeah, those lights were crazy man." Shaid looked pale, "Oi, Schnell! Relight your torch, I can't see shit in this dark."

"Shaid...?" I felt my heart drop as I tilted my head at him, "The torch never got put out. It's still burning."

"Oiii, amigoo, quit fucking with me, man." Shaid looked around the room, which is when we finally noticed his Eyes had turned Purple, "Come on, this isn't funny. Stop hiding in the dark and answer me."

"He did answer you though." Olya anxiously replied, "Hey, Shaid. Are you feeling okay?"

"Schnell..." Shaid continued blindly calling out to me before falling unconscious on the floor.

"Olya, catch him!" I ran to them.

"Got him!" Olya supported his head as we rushed to see what was wrong with him, "Shaid! Shaid, bud, wake up!"

"Shit, you think the light did this to him!?" I feared, "What even was that, damn!"

"I don't know. But for now we gotta heat his body up, and fast." Olya thought rationally, "Schnell, get the fire started, he might be suffering from hypothermia."

"Crap, is he gonna be alright?" I spared no expense and immediately kickstarted the fire with the torch in my hand, "There, we're good."

"H-Huh?" Olya froze up once he inspected the out cold Shaid, "No, dammit!"

"What's the matter?" I rushed to see for myself.

"H-His pulse...!" Olya turned to me, "He doesn't have a pulse!"

No way... No way, no way! R-Right, that's just cause of the hypothermia, surely! Ain't no way a bit of cold is gonna catch a guy like Shaid! He's too strong and resilient for that! Damn, we've fought off a bjorn and survived, so this can't be how it ends! Live, goddammit, you have to, jackass!