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“The last I heard from her, she said it was cold and hard to breathe…”

I had finished recounting the story of my side of the events for them, leaving out having the second system and instead explaining it as a rare elemental hybrid of the fighter class, which they had likely already guessed at from when we had fought the goblins on the road together.

“Are you still planning on heading to the unexplored areas?”

I asked them, hoping that I could join them and have their assistance in finding Rhil.

“I think it’s more vital than ever that we save as many people as possible while we figure out what’s going on…”

Bernard was still resolved to go. I didn’t know if he had a specific person he was trying to find or if he was simply doing it because of his own bleeding heart, but it didn’t matter to me.

“But what about what the Snake said?”

Velle asked, referring to the Snake’s last words.

“I already sent word through the Association but I’ll probably be heading to the capital after we clean up here.”

I hadn’t expected him to come with us, anyway. Alikr had his own duties to the Association that came first.

With Alikr going to the capital, any worry I felt about what might happen while I was away was somewhat relieved. It was an irrational fear because I would likely be unable to help either way, but it was still there, especially after seeing the destruction of the city I had called home for so long.

“What about supplies?” I asked. I had still been unable to find a storage bag that worked properly for me.

“We had procured the necessary supplies already and had been preparing to head out before everything broke into chaos. That crystal was one of the last items we had procured…” Velle’s voice trailed off.

Mana crystals of large capacity were prohibitively expensive. While the Association had already rewarded those who had stayed behind and helped protect the city, it wouldn’t amount to the cost of a mana crystal.

Objectively speaking, they would have been better off time, experience, and money-wise if they had just left.

“Well, since it sounds like you’ll be headed that way anyway, do you think I can tag along?”

I finally spoke about my intentions. I needed to find Rhil before something terrible happened.

“It’d be great to have one more member along, kid, especially since I’ve already seen you fight. It sounds like your friend might be in a mountainous area, right?”

Taking into account the cold and the difficulty Rhil had experienced in breathing, Bernard and I had both come to the same conclusion.

“I actually have an idea for that.”

Alikr spoke and rummaged around inside of his bag for a few moments before producing a long canvas scroll and unrolling it on the table, the edges of it dangling out into the air.

It was a map that showed the explored areas around the city and included the areas of the unexplored regions that we were thinking about.

While the explored areas on the map were marked with terrain features, landmarks, towns, cities, and outposts, the unexplored regions past and between those were simply left blank.

Alikr rested his finger on a section of the map that was far northeast of us, following a faint line that had been explored up to the marking of a mountain.

“If we were to assume that the teleport spell she was struck with would follow the path of least resistance to the closest mountain range…”

He tapped on the map to emphasize his point.

“…Then this should be it.”

‘Why would we assume that the spell deposited her there and not in literally any other mountain range on the planet?’

I made my concerns known.

“Why are you assuming she’s there?”

Alikr looked at me, seeming to remember that I was fairly new to the adventuring business and didn’t have much practical knowledge.

“The longer the distance, the more mana such a spell takes. While it could be possible that she was taken somewhere else, it’s most likely that she’d be in the nearest mountain range, assuming a mountain range is where she actually is, of course.”

There were too many assumptions and ifs for my liking, but I had nothing else to go on.

“We can go for your friend first. From how you described her, she would be of great help going forward.”

Bernard was under the assumption that she would be joining the group and that I would be staying with him after she was rescued. Of course, I didn’t deign to correct him in his assumptions either. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, if a bit naive.

Velle was harder to get a read on. She was soft-spoken and tended to watch. I had no way of knowing what she might be thinking at any given moment.

Still, we agreed to venture together for the time being while Alikr headed towards the capital.

We said our goodbyes to Alikr and parted ways with him shortly after.

There was nothing left for me in the city, and we took the same mana wagon that I had ridden into the city on with them back out, headed towards the mountains on the map—the distance too great and muddled for us to see the mountains from the city.

* * *

Reaper Scans

[Author – Farlight]

[Proofreader – Harley]

Join our discord for updates on releases! https://dsc.gg/reapercomics

* * *

We stopped only a few hours after exiting the city, in a forested section of the road where we could take the wagon not far off the path and hide it from the view of the main road. It was better to be safe than sorry.

We had a small meal consisting of dried jerky that could go a long time before spoiling as we discussed our plans.

The wagon was big enough for all of us to sleep in safely, and thanks to alarm magic that Velle was able to place within a wide radius of the vehicle, we wouldn’t need to have someone stay up as a guard. The magic would warn us in advance if anything large enough to harm us passed over it.

Velle pointed to an area on the map not far up the road from where we were. It was a dungeon marked only a short distance from the main road as well.

“This is a low-rank goblin dungeon. It should be easy to clear for us and allow us to get used to fighting together as a party.”

Velle was the one who had made the suggestion and was pointing out the dungeon on the map. The map was marked with various sites that could be dungeons. The markings tallied the dungeons’ estimated “rank” or “difficulty”, and the enemy type of each dungeon, which was easy enough to figure out without locking oneself into said dungeons.

I thought that it was also a good opportunity to gain levels before the mountains.

While the goblin dungeon was calculated as something fairly easy, the dungeons tended to get harder the farther out from the city that we looked.

It was already dark by then, the forest around us was eerily quiet, not at all filled with the sounds of the forest that I was used to. I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the magic circle or not, but not even a bug chirped within hearing distance of us that night.

***

The entrance to the dungeon was a simple cave mouth set into the side of a large rock, recognizable as a dungeon by the hazy purple aura that hovered at the mouth of it.

When we entered that aura, anything and everything inside could be different from how it looked on the outside.

After we parked the wagon a short distance away so that any wandering goblins that might emerge from the cave weren’t able to immediately spot it, we approached the entrance.

The purple haze in front of the entrance shimmered and twisted as we approached, as if reacting to our presence.

I still had yet to receive any more quests at that time, but I expected that to change soon.

Bernard stepped into the must first, vanishing into the air as he stepped into whatever world waited inside the mist.

Velle followed after Bernard, not even hesitating for a moment.

The same couldn’t be said for me.

While I was eager to level up and to be able to rescue and see Rhil again, I couldn’t help but think back to my first dungeon experience and the aftermath of it.

I logically knew that the goblin dungeon had likely been there for months, undisturbed, and was a dungeon of the static variety, but it was still enough to put some level of fear into my heart.

When I mustered up the courage and stepped through that purple boundary, I found myself at the start of a dark, narrow tunnel that led into the earth.

[[You have entered a Dungeon!]]

[[Dungeon: Spirit Breaker

Clear Conditions: Defeat the Dungeon Boss

This dungeon holds a powerful hatred within. A species that hates the other intelligent species of the planet unconditionally and often makes pacts with other, darker beings calls this their home.]]

Bernard had already taken out a few Light Stones, which were, as the name implied, stones that were imbued with the Light spell that would keep them emitting a soft, steady light for hours before they needed to be recharged with mana.

“Here, we never know what might happen.”

He handed me one of the stones so that I could light the way for myself in case it was needed.

I looked back behind me and saw that the purple haze still lingered at the entrance, which meant that, in the worst-case scenario, we would be able to escape from that place without having to do something dramatic such as fight to the end or make a valiant last stand.

We followed the pathway for some distance, the walls seeming to slope steadily away from us until we were walking through the middle of a cavernous tunnel with still no end in sight.

The edges of the circles of light cast by our stones grew dimmer and dimmer until we were sure that the darkness itself was unnatural, pressing down on our light from all sides.

A glint of silver light shone for a brief moment in the darkness before the first ambush began.