“Wait, why would Hephestus have a forge all the way in Tartarus?” I asked, “I thought this place was a prison for the Olympian’s enemies, not for one of their gods.”

The Regressor laughed, “You should have paid more attention to your classes if you think the Smith god was treated the same way as the others. He was despised by most of his peers because of his deformities, especially by his mother. They thought that the gods should all be perfect as if any of them were.

Jae-Hyun gave a mocking, bitter chuckle, “Hephestus has probably spent more time in Tartarus than on the outside because of one perceived infraction or another. His hatred for the gods most likely eclipses my own, it’s why he’s the one god that has most likely left something for us to steal.”

“Why do you hate them so much, boss?” Noel asked, uncharacteristically curious for once, “You must have met them already, right?”

“I have my reasons,” he said in that same voice that left it in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t explain further.

Yoona quickly noticed his unease about the topic - she was most likely the real reason he was so bitter - and decided to speak up, “And they threw him in the worst place on Earth because of that? That seems unnecessarily harsh, brother.”

“You will find that the gods are always harsh,” he replied, “Their way of thinking isn’t the same as ours, and things like familial ties do not exist between them.”

Vadeem looked at the twins with a hint of worry before replying with a sigh, “That’s rough… family’s important.”

He walked over to the twins and gave the two a friendly pat on the shoulders, “I’m not sure how you two lived before, but we’re family now, all of us here, ok?”

Ana looked over at her sister and nodded slowly, Eva gave the big man a thumbs up before both of them were engulfed into a massive bearhug.

“I’ve always wanted a sister or two in this case,” Yoona said with a smile, “It’s always been my brother taking care of me all this time.”

Even the Regressor looked at the two girls with a silent smile, I think he was too embarrassed to say anything else. Noel just shrugged as if what Vadeem said was already an established fact.

“Well,” I said finally, “Welcome to the Abyss family then, Ana and Eva.”

The two were still hesitant to interact with me too much, maybe because they still thought that I was some kind of deity, but I’ve noticed that their behaviors have started to shift in the last few days. I think they realized that I wasn’t a literal god, or at least not the holier-than-thou kind that the Regeressor seems to hate, but they still needed some more time before they could feel completely comfortable around me. I won’t rush them.

“So do you know where the forge is located, boss?” Noel asked, “Let’s get there fast so we can focus on getting cores! I’m itching to fight something that doesn’t fly!”

“I do not,” the Regressor admitted, it seems like this is a rare case where the man didn’t have all the answers. I guess he never had the chance to fully explore Tartarus in his past life.

“Um, so we just search the whole place?” Yoona asked, “Won’t that take too long?”

“There are hints,” her brother answered, “the layout of Tartarus used to change daily to prevent escape attempts, but that function had long since ceased to work. But that wasn’t the case before, so Hephestus had to have created something to guide him back to his forges each time he gets sent back here. We look for those.”

“Do you know what exactly we’re searching for?” Yoona inquired again, she seemed pumped to help out after her extended absence in that last Trial.

“No,” Jae-Hyun said, “But check for inconsistencies around, maybe a small mark on the floor, places with condensed mana, anything that looks like it doesn’t belong. It shouldn’t be too well hidden, nothing else in Tartarus back in the day, at least on this layer, would have tried to look for these clues.”

“Understood, boss!”

“We split up to search,” he continued, “there doesn’t appear to be anything near us, but if you find trouble we regroup and fight together. Use the system message to communicate, and if there’s danger, Walter will use his halo and we use him as a beacon to meet up. Don’t leave the immediate surroundings of the staircase.”

I was a little peeved that I was used as a portable light source again, but I guess that’s life. We agreed with the leader’s suggestions, not that we ever had anything to critique his strategies.

“Wait a second,” I said before we could all scatter, “But why can’t the twins use the system chat to talk?”

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Everyone stopped what they were doing and frowned.

“I tried that before, but I didn’t know how to have them use the system chat. I always thought they couldn’t use the same tools we did.” Vadeem asked the Regressor, “I mean, they didn’t come into the Trials the normal way.”

The two girls looked at the rest of the party in confusion. They weren’t sure what we were talking about.

“Um, let me ask,” I said, “Ana, Eva, do you see any see-through screens sometimes?”

The two nodded, then made a series of gestures.

“Oh,” I continued as Noe did its thing, “They say that saw it, but they couldn’t read any of the information. I guess the system doesn’t translate written text.”

“Will the things they say be translated into English if they use the chat, though?” Yoona asked, “It won’t be much help if they send us text we can’t read.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem…” Jae-Hyun said after thinking for a while, “At least that’s the case with the chat system when it’s used between two normal Aspirants. You can think in Korean and it’ll still look like English on their end, Yoona.”

Yoona: Does it really do that?

“Yeah, it does,” I answered, “unless you thought that part in English as well.”

The Regressor then knelt down and spoke to the twins, “Alright, I sent you two a party invite, a screen should have popped up. Can you just say yes in your head?”

They nodded and did so.

“Ok, good, I’ll need you two to do this…”

The Regressor then took the next ten minutes trying to find a way for them to access the Party system message system, having the girls draw out what they saw on their end on the floor so he could properly navigate them through the series of screens. I actually didn’t know that the Trash Matrix mainly communicated its features through text, which was so unlike Noe.

“It is because I am better, my Host,” she chimed in.

Yup, you certainly are!

Muscle A: Are we doing this right?

Muscle E: Is this ok?

“It works!” Vadeem shouted as he rushed up to hug the two, “You can talk! Well, sort of!”

Muscle A: You are squeezing us.

Muscle E: But we do not mind.

“Ok,” Noel added, raising an eyebrow, “I know that I’m not one to talk, but those nicknames…”

Vadeem put down the squashed children and glared at Noel, “And what’s wrong with the nicknames they gave themselves? This is probably the first time they’ve chosen anything on their own. Are you saying their naming choice is bad?”

The redhead shivered, “Um, no, it’s nothing! I uh, I just wanted to say that you two did good!”

“That’s right,” Vadeem grumbled, still giving the woman a warning look. I guess Vadeem could fight back when he really needed to, and Noel knew what buttons to not push on her friend.

“It’s good to see that you can communicate with us now!’ Yoona added to diffuse the situation, “Um, it’s good to properly greet you!”

Muscle A: Thank you, sister Yoona.

Muscle E: Thanks.

The high schooler almost melted when she read that, although they dodged her attempts to hug them. Guess she really did want a little sister of her own. It will be good for them to properly tell us what they think, I’ve mostly forgotten that they were there most of the time given how eerily quiet they are most of the time. It’ll be interesting to see how the two differ since they’ve pretty much always remained together. I kind of just lumped them as one entity most of the time.

The Regressor nodded at the progress being made, but quickly refocused us on the task at hand. We weren’t in a safe location, so the proper introductions could wait. Once the novelty of the situation wore off, we all went our separate ways to see if we could find Hephestus’ elusive clues.

I looked around the barren ground, not really sure what I was doing. Occasionally I’d use a feeler to turn around some big rocks, but I was more or less wandering around. With my Dawn Bringer passive, I could see perfectly well in the darkness, and I was pretty sure that there was nothing of note in my patch of Tartarus. The place was just an eerily flat expanse of dirt, rocks, and that everpresent glowing moss.

I was certain that there was nothing here unless Hephestus decided to bury whatever he decided to use to guide him to his forge. I noticed the others in the distance looking a lot more productive than I was. Noel was even flying through the sky, checking out the various areas that we couldn’t get to on foot. All I did was just poke my feelers into the ground every now and then, hoping to find something. It was awfully boring.

“Brother!” Yoona shouted just as I was contemplating what kind of shadow puppets I could feasibly create with my new limbs, “There’s something strange here!”

Yoona: Sorry, I forgot you said to communicate using this. Um, there’s something strange over where I am.

Lady Awesome: I see you, my little bro’s close by as well, we can use his light bulb head and meet up.

Walter’s Fine: Hey, I resent that, it’s a halo!

Vadeem the Dream: I’m afraid it does look like a lightbulb from further away, my friend.

Jae-Hyun: Meet up with him there.

Muscle A: Got it, boss!

Muscle E: Ok.

We used my halo to meet up shortly after, and Yoona pointed at a spot on the ground. It looked like all the other spots on the ground to me.

“There’s an unusual flow of mana there, can you guys feel it?” the girl asked, “Maybe I’m looking too hard.”

Vadeem stepped closer and brought some of the dirt closer, “Yeah, it’s a little different, you’re right. This patch feels more like the Earth we have upstairs.”

Jae-Hyun joined him and dug his spear into the spot. He did something with his weapon, the same black electricity crackling from the tip before a faint glow erupted from the ground and formed a line. No, it formed a path.

“Right,” I muttered, “of course it’s got to do with mana.”

Yoona winced, she must have felt bad about my condition since she was the most mana-sensitive out of the whole group.

“It’s fine,” I reassured, “at least I got cool tentacles.”

Vadeem gave me a cautious glance and whispered, “Walter, uh, you might not want to say that in front of the ladies.”

I sighed. Yeah, that’s probably true. It seems that even my most powerful tools were creepy.

“Let’s follow the trail before it fades,” Jae-Hyun said quickly and we all stopped our banter.

His job’s been increasingly more about keeping this party on task and focused lately, we tend to go off-topic whenever there’s even a slight lull in the atmosphere. Probably something else to work on in the future, if I knew the Regressor’s standards for discipline.

“Alright, let’s go deeper then.”