"Agh, hrm..." I rolled in the bed a bit as I woke up.

"Nnn..." The girl I just slept with the night before moaned, "Go back to sleep..."

"Sorry, I'm gonna get up now." I tried as carefully as possible to do just that without moving her too much, "You can continue sleepin' if you want."

"Mhm..." She murmured, "Nighty nighty for me, then."

Yeah, I can't really just idle on for too long, no matter how much I want to. Shaid's finally started showing signs of waking up, which we did indeed use as an excuse to throw a massive party in the lair with everyone, but that doesn't mean we can rest for too long. His state is still uncertain by the day, and while I know we can just revive him with the Book whenever he dies, I still dislike the idea of actually having him die at all, so I'd like for that to not have to happen anymore. Getting out of bed, I noticed I was the only guy left in the room. Figures, Olya must be thinking the same, but I'm surprised the doctor isn't here...

"Uuuughh, I just wanna go back to bed~!" Olya could be heard whining as soon as I entered the buffet room.

"You can indulge in the lair's pleasantries as much as you want after your friend gets revived." The doctor grabbed some soup from the table and put it on his plate with a smirk, "Your guys' words, not mine."

"Grr...! Sigh, okay, I get it..." Olya gave up before noticing me standing at the door, "Oh, morning bud."

"Uhh, yeah. Mornin'." I waved back, "You guys are up early."

"Well, I need to check on Shaid, and while I was getting out of bed I noticed Olya lazing about, so I had him get up as well." The doctor smiled, "From a medical standpoint, sleep is important, but lazing about in bed is bad, hence why I didn't wake you up, Douglas."

"Oh, thanks, I guess. Though I would've preferred you did." I shrugged, "I wanna go to the next World Wonder, you see, so I was actually lookin' for Olya."

"At least eat a proper meal before you go headfirst into the next mission." Olya rolled his Eyes, "Both of us know just how dangerous our next destination is without any food in our stomachs."

"Right, why do you think I'm so eager to go?" I put my hands on my hips as I declared, "Next stop is Abyssus Solis, innit?"

"Wipe that expectant gaze off your face, bud, cause we ain't going anywhere near the quiks." He sighed, "The Tria Prisma, our third World Wonder, is located on the southwest of the continent. In other words, don't go thinking you'll get that emotional reunion chapter with Cass like your wet dreams led you to believe."

"I-I wasn't thinkin' that..." I blushed a bit, "And seriously dude, I've outgrown wet dreams years ago."

"Cass?" The doctor turned to Olya, "A friend from your travels, I presume?"

"Well thanks to this guy butchering any and all chances with her, I'd say calling her a friend would be kinda generous." Olya pointed to me, "Guy had her chasing after him and declined because, get this, he was afraid she might get hurt on our travels! Phahaha, can you believe it!?"

"Oh, is that so?" The doctor actually sided with me on this one, "I actually agree with him on that though. Dragging people along on your whims is reckless and among other things extremely selfish. If he didn't wanna stay back with her, then breaking up was the smarter choice, no doubt."

"You agree with me, doc?" I felt tears start to well up in my Eyes, "All I've ever been told was how badly I fucked up all this time...! Doc, you're actually not a jackass, after all!"

"Oi, none of that!" He dodged my bear hug, "You may be an idiot when it comes to most things, but I guess you're one of the rare people who value putting others ahead of you. I can admire that much, but please no hugging."

Was that a compliment or a diss? Who cares, someone finally validated my approach to the situation with Cassandra, so all is right in the World! Haha, suck it, Olya! I knew I was right! Still hurts though...

"Just finish your meals so we can head out." I heaved a long sigh.

"Where's the rush?" Olya savored his food as he asked, "You don't got a girl waiting for ya'."

Uuuuu... Fuck you, man..."

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***

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"Ahhhh!" I yelled out of habit as we traveled through the portal, "Whoa!"

"Ack, shiet, ptu!" Olya spat out all the sand he got in his mouth when he fell on his face, "How do you always manage to stick the landing while I'm over here eating the entire floor away!?"

"Maybe start workin' out a bit more and you'll get a sense for balance?" I suggested, "But damn is it hot over here! Haha, how nostalgic!"

"Yeah, tell that to my sweaty and chafy ballsack." Olya continued complaining on and on, "If we didn't mess anything up, the Tria Prisma should be right here somewhere, but I don't see it anywhere."

"We didn't mess up, did we?" I asked, "Just to be sure, you definitely only thought about the Tria Prisma when we jumped into the portal, correct?"

"Of course, I'm not you." He returned a snarky reply, "But then again, I heard it's not exactly one of those showy World Wonders like the rest of them. Some say that it's actually pretty submerged into the sand, so be prepared to dig if we need to."

"Aww, what?" I sighed, "No way, we don't even know what it looks like! Look, let's at least look around for a bit before we go jumpin' to conclusions."

"Yeah, no duh." He then started scanning the area, "Well, as to be expected, we're pretty elevated when compared to the rest of this terrain. Given we should be standing on the sand dune that's submerged the Tria Prisma in sand, I guess it makes sense."

"Huh, I never thought of it that way." I noted, "But there's gotta be some part of it stickin' out. Like, Tria Prisma, from the name we can at least guess that it has something to do with three prisms. Otherwise it'd just be plain misleadin'."

"Yeah, but names can be deceiving like that." He added, "Like with the Library of a Thousand Passages. In reality, it doesn't even have a single passage. Just a giant tower with a lot of stories."

"Still, they might've meant passages as in the passages you'd find in the books there." I reasoned.

"But then a thousand would be way underselling it." He refuted, "Surely there's a ton more in those bookshelves, no?"

"Yeah, but who's countin'?" I chuckled, "Besides, they're always addin' on more to their collection, so maybe they just started off with a thousand and never bothered to change it."

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"So maybe the Tria Prisma looked like three prisms before, but changed overtime?" Olya caught me on that one, "See? You just proved my point."

"Just shut up and look for anything stickin' out." I groaned as I started kicking the sand around, "Oh hey."

"What, found something already?" Olya smirked.

"Nah, but there're some people over there." I pointed over yonder, "They look foreign. Their clothes aren't made of any robes the people of the desert wear, so they must be cookin' like sausages over there."

"Oh..." Olya looked depressed the moment he saw them, "The Carmenians..."

"They are?" I started inching towards where they were, "Then they're our colleagues, right? We both work for the king, so we oughta' give 'em some pointers on how to survive out in this heat, don't ya' think?"

"Uhh, actually..." He squirmed in place awkwardly.

"Hey-!" I went to call out for them to stop, only for Olya to shut me up.

"No!" He reprimanded me with his hand on my mouth, "T-They can't know we're here!"

"Huh!?" I was taken aback by his odd behavior, "But they're on our side! This is our chance to get even better treatment from the king-!"

"Dude, the king and his soldiers think we're in Sibirus, don't you get it?" Olya struggled to think of the words, "We can't let them know of the lair nor the Book's powers, otherwise he'll...! H-He'll just kill us and take it for himself, y'know? That's what kings like him do, isn't it?"

"It is?" I wasn't following along at all, "But Mezzo isn't the type of guy to do that, though. He even gave us a ton of travel funds, and gave us basically whatever we needed as long as we spread the word of the ITA and did his commissions."

"Just trust me on this one." He sighed, desperate to talk me out of getting the soldiers attention, "Please, Schnell. Please just don't let them find us. Trust me."

"Why, though?" I laughed a little, "You gotta give me a better reason to not trust the Carmenians, dude. They're good people. A bit rough around the edges, but good if you know how to deal with them."

"...Please." His White Eyes begged me, "Please trust my words, just this once. Let's go find the Tria Prisma and dip back to the lair."

What's up with him? I don't think I've ever seen him make this face at me. Don't get me wrong, the Carmenians do seem like an overly proud bunch, but the king was actually pretty down to earth, all things considered. Not to mention he's our benefactor. And besides, once you get used to it, you start to understand how to properly talk to the other Carmenians as well. It's not like they're some power hungry monsters who'd kill us on sight. They're genuinely good people.

"...Well, whatever you say." I shrugged as I obliged to his pleas, "I guess you could argue we've got nothin' to gain from helpin' them, though personally I'm against standin' by idly. If you make that face at me, then I can't help but to trust you, man."

"Schnell... You're so kind..." He actually started tearing up as all the suspense left his body, "I... I'm a monster... I'm sorry...!"

"Whoa, whoa, what the hell?" I started guffawing, albeit a bit nervously, "What's the matter, huh? Dude, get up, come on! It's not that bad, okay?"

"S-Schnell..." He sniffled before composing himself, "L-Let's just... find the Tria Prisma."

"Yeah, man, that's the spirit!" I smiled confidently as I walked over to the other side of the dune, "Ah."

"What's the matter?" He asked.

"Looks like this isn't a dune, after all." I pointed down for him to come look, "It's a cliff."

"Hm?" He poked his head out to see for himself before getting all excited again, "Uoooo!!! So it is! Schnell, I think there's something etched onto the cliff face! I think that might just be what we're looking for!"

"Yeah, let's go check it out!" I smiled, "Looks like we were quite lucky this time around!"

The bright smile he had on temporarily became melancholic in nature, but he soon switched back a moment later. There's something he's hiding from me, but I guess I don't wanna press him on it too much. Yeah, let's just give him some time, and if he does want to tell me later on, I'll hear him out completely. That's the plan.

"Oh, I get it now." I pointed to the etched carvings on the wall, "The Tria Prisma isn't a sculpture, like for example the Cognisphere, but a drawing."

"Yeah, but it still looks absolutely breathtaking." Olya ascertained, "Three prisms projected on a wall, with the other two stemming from the central one in the middle - one going up from it, the other going down. What does it mean?"

"Maybe another thing to do with the Gods?" I shrugged, "They seem to be fond of these abstract puzzles."

"But look, there's something in the base of each prism." Olya noticed, "Doesn't it kinda resemble maps?"

"Oh hey, it does! The middle one most resembles our World map, so what are the others talkin' about?" I wondered, "Wait, somethin's wrong."

"What?" Olya turned to ask.

"The middle map, it's got somethin' ours doesn't have." I pointed to the bottom left of it, "That group of islands, it's not present on any of our current maps."

"Oh, you're right!" He got psyched, "You think if we went there we'd actually find it? An archipelago hidden from the World map?!"

"Haha, yeah, now you're talkin'!" I gave him a strong high five, "Let's all three of us go after we finish this! Shaid, you and I!"

"Yeah!" He smiled, "It's a promise!"

"Oh, but I found it first, so I get dibs on the name." I smirked.

"What? Oh come on, not again!" Olya whined, "That only works for when we actually see something in real life!"

"Nope, I saw it first on this map, so it's gonna get named after me." I firmly defended my stance, "First come, first serve, man. No whining, remember?"

"Uuuugh, fine..." He pulled out the teleporter half and tossed it on the ground in front of us, "Well, we can discuss that later. For now, let's just touch the wall and go back to the lair."

"Oh right." I ran up to the wall to witness the Green light indicate another World Wonder checked off the list, "Heheh, almost forgot."

That being said, the now deployed teleporter was still standing there, waiting for us to jump onto it. Apparently, Olya said all it takes is for you to stand atop it, but both of us are pretty heavy, so I fear we might break it. Hesitantly, carefully, I stood on it first before blinking and...!

"Oh, I'm in the pleasure room again." I realized I once again accidentally spooked the doctor into climaxing prematurely.