“Ugh, that was… not the best food I’ve ever had,” Mirae said.

“Agreed,” Serrena said.  “I understand that different localities have their own unique cultures and signature dishes, but that was utterly bland and devoid of taste!  I swear that the cook probably finds mayonnaise too spicy!”

“I could see the light leaving Lysette’s eyes with the first bite she tried,” Danitha said.  “Struggled even to get a quarter of her meal down.  I think the cooking did more damage to her than you did when you dueled her, Serrena!”

“I’ll ignore the insult,” Serrena said.  “Lyse, you going to be able to fight?”

“Yeah.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t all that hungry.”  Not needing to eat anymore does have some advantages.

“Well, just don’t slow us down,” Serrena said.

Lysette nodded as she continued up the rugged expanse, occasionally stopping to help Mirae with the less traversable patches of the mountainous road.  It was far from impassable, even to non-Cultivators, but the number of sharp boulders and outcroppings on and along what passed for the ‘road’ was rather high. Off the road was filled with much more of the same, with the added trouble of carnivorous plant life and at least one serpentine creature, based on the faint hissing sound coming from the south.

Lysette grabbed Mirae as the two reached a stone wall a bit taller than either of them and held them in a princess carry.  With a single bound, Lysette leapt to the top of the small ledge, still carrying her disciple before setting them down upon the relatively flat stretch of road ahead.

“I apologize, Lyse.  For slowing all of you down.”

“Don’t apologize, Mirae.  I asked you to join us.  Besides, we all have things we’re better and worse at.  It isn’t as though I can use your techniques, so don’t feel bad that you’ve chosen a different Cultivation path for yourself.”

“Then I simply need to get stronger so I needn’t rely on you to carry me like this.”

“It’s fine to rely on others from time to time.  As long as you are willing to help them back in their time of need.”

“But– Lyse, what could you possibly need help with?”

“As I said last night, Mirae, I too have my enemies.  Very powerful ones, ones I cannot hope to defeat on my own.  In time, I will need your help and the help of many others if I am to emerge victorious.  At that time, I trust you will help me as we agreed upon?”

“Of course, Lyse.  I did pledge myself to you.”

“Alright you two!” Serrena shouted from a fair distance ahead.  “We need to get a move on!”

“Apologies, Lyse,” Mirae said, jogging ahead.

Lysette followed a short distance behind.  She couldn’t help but be happy with Mirae and the progress they’d made just in the past day.  They seemed filled with both the desire both to push themself further and a willingness to reciprocate the aid given to them.  Just what I need out of my disciple.

The remainder of the trek was similarly treacherous— nothing insurmountable, though Lysette did lag behind Danitha and Serrena throughout most of it, helping her protegee along the way as the four climbed the remainder of the trail to the mouth of the Gnarian Mine #3.

The mine’s facade was a large tunnel built into the side of a well-worn cliff face made of some sort of light-colored stone.  In front of the entrance proper was the hastily abandoned campsite the magistrate had mentioned before.  A number of large, partially destroyed tents were scattered about the area, along with pots and pans and something that looked like half-eaten food wrappers.  

More than anything, Lysette was envious of her human companions and the rather limited sense of smell they had.  That she had once had as well.  The entire campsite was filled with the nauseating stench of rotting meat and rancid, fermented fruits and nuts far beyond being just ‘overripe’.  And that was only complemented further by no small amount of manure— bear or goat, were Lysette to guess— further assailing her already tender nostrils.

Serrena grabbed a couple of branches about the size of her forearm and passed them to Lysette and her companions.  “Everyone take one.  We have the light bulbs as well, but I’d rather use those as a last resort if push comes to shove.  I can ignite these to provide us with another source of light that we can use while hunting down our target.”

“Another thing,” Lysette added.  “I didn’t mention this before, but I can see in total darkness.  The range is limited and the vision isn’t perfect, but at least it means I won’t be off-guard if we’re without a light source.  Further, the sight is omnidirectional, meaning I think it would be best if I served as the rearguard and kept watch for any threats coming at us from behind.”

Mirae’s expression was a mixture of excitement and awe at the revelation.  Danitha’s was one of more casual interest, while Serrena just shook her head and scowled.

“Of course you do,” Serrena said.  “Shall we?”

Lysette didn’t much care for the attitude, but she did understand why Serrena would be so frustrated.  She had a combination of incredible talent, coupled with unrelenting devotion to getting stronger.  And yet in their duel, she was thoroughly humbled by a first-year, and one from the absolute boonies, not even a privileged young noble with years of prior training and study under their belt.  It really wasn’t fair to her, something that made Lysette feel more uncomfortable than it maybe should have.  Life so rarely was.  Something to fix.

The first stretch of the mines was filled with little outside of expectations.  The map seemed mostly accurate; starting from the single terminus leading in from the outside, the pathway branched outward into a series of winding tunnels not dissimilar from a root network.  Every few hundred feet along one of the paths, there was a slightly wider node with various equipment strewn about— hardhats, minecarts, pickaxes and shovels seemed the most common of them, along with some sealed canisters that contained emergency water rations.  Lysette wasn’t sure how sanitary that was, but better than nothing for her human comrades should the worst come to pass.

It was eerily quiet as the four passed into the interior of the mines.  Even with Lysette’s enhanced hearing, she could only hear the occasional squeals of bats roosting upon the ceiling punctuated by the crackle of the burning stick in Serrena’s hand as she led the way deeper into the tunnels.

“Where do you think the creature will be?” Danitha asked.

“Probably the deepest part of the mines,” Lysette said.  “Given the beast seems to enjoy precious gemstones, I would imagine we won’t find it until we get much deeper.”

“Do you think the creature dug its way into the mines?” Mirae asked.

“Not likely,” Serrena said.  “Judging by the alleged size of the orephage compared with the size of the tunnels, I would imagine this creature lives underground.  At some point, either it crawled into these mines, or the miners dug too deep and awoke it.”

“Be quiet for a moment,” Lysette said.  

She closed her eyes and tilted her head, focusing her attention on her hearing and aurasense.  It was extremely faint, likely imperceptible for her companions, but there was a very faint and distant rumble deeper in the cave.  She placed her hand on one of the rocky walls, feeling the vibrations, but without enough knowledge of how sound waves propagated through the various stones, she couldn’t trace it back to its origin.

“Do you hear something?” Mirae asked.

“I can feel something big moving around, but I can’t pinpoint where it is.  It’s still quite far away, but be on guard.  If I hear anything more, I’ll let you know.”

A deep, booming rumble shook the entire caverns about fifteen minutes later.  A bit of dust and a couple of small pebbles fell down from the ceiling, something which caused Danitha in particular no shortage of misery and discomfort as furiously attempted to shake the debris out of her hair.

“Can you do something about this for me, please, Lyse?” she asked, shuddering, and squealing in a voice of a certain pitch that made Lysette instinctively wince and shudder from the grating it inflicted upon her eardrum.

“What do you think Lyse can do about that?” Serrena asked.  “Besides, better that you get used to such discomfort now on your first assignment than later on–  Lyse, what in the Infernal Realm are you doing?”

Lysette placed her hand on Danitha’s head and allowed it to dissolve into the scalp, trying to reach against her skin.  There was absolutely no reason to believe this would actually work, but it would at least assuage her mood.  And considering the relative harmlessness of a few flakes of dirt that easily blended into her dark brown hair, helping with her sudden bout of anxiety seemed the more important task.  

She allowed her shadowed hand to seep down through the various strands of hair, wrapping around her scalp and seeping ever so slightly into her pores, feeling around for any clumps of dirt she could.  Although she gave the request an honest attempt, trying to wedge out the tiny particles, she judged it too risky to try anything too extensive, and was ultimately unable to do more than give her friend a gentle massage and pull out a few of the larger clumps that had gotten caught in her hairs.

“I got what I could, Dani,” she said.  “Though it wasn’t everything.”

“Oh, um–”

“Sorry, did you not want me to?”

“I just… didn’t think you’d actually be able to do anything, but it definitely does feel cleaner.  Plus, whatever you did felt quite nice.”

Mirae looked at Lysette with an odd expression that Lysette interpreted as morbid curiosity, while Serrena had her back turned the whole time.

“Ahem, you two,” Serrena said.  “If we could please keep the discussions and activities appropriate for everyone involved here, that would be great.”

Lysette sighed and paid the matter no further attention as they continued their descent into the heart of the mines.  The rumbling grew louder and more frequent with each minute, and as they reached the deepest tunnel on the mines, the small, human-made tunnels gave way to a massive natural cavern deep in the heart of the plateau.

Even in the low light of the torches, it was astoundingly beautiful.  The flickering light refracting upon the myriad surfaces of ore crystals created a radiant shimmer that twinkled like stars in the night sky, and in contrast to the dry and dusty air in the mine, the cavern was damp, and every few seconds, a droplet of water fell off one of the many stalactites high overhead, punctuating the rumble of the beast’s footsteps a few hundred paces away

“It looks like you were right, Serrena,” Mirae said.  “I would definitely say that the miners dug too deep and disturbed something best left alone.”

“If you would like to turn around and head back to Gnaria, now is the time.”

Mirae shook their head.  “No.  I promised that I would join in this mission, and I intend to see that commitment through.”  They mouthed something that, through Lysette’s aurasight, vaguely looked like ‘For Lyse’s sake’