As I within reaching distance of dagger atop the podium, I couldn’t help but pause. My expression clearly portraying my confusion.

By all common sense, God-hunter should’ve said something by now.

“Hello, God-hunter? Are you there?” I reached out and tapped the dagger.

The dagger was cold to the touch.

Instinctively, upon touching it, I knew for certain this was God-hunter. I’d been around her enough to recognize that.

Yet, she wasn’t…

I don’t quite understand the sensation. It just felt like she isn’t there.

A single tear tickled my cheek. Wiping it away, I stared down toward my fingers with an unexplainable sadness as looked at the thin layer of the dust on them.

Oh, God-hunter… What happened to you? How did someone take you and place you twenty miles underground?

Placing down the mana lamp beside the podium.

I slowly removed God-hunter from the podium. Carefully wiping the dust that covered God-hunter, I placed her in a comfortable location inside my bag.

I’ll figure out what’s wrong with her later. She’ll be fine.

Holding up the mana lamp, I noticed something.

Text below the podium that God-hunter had rested upon. I inspected the incomprehensible text. Placing my fingers atop text engraved deep into the stone podium I felt the engraving.

They seemed to have a solemn atmosphere to them, although maybe that was my imagination. The translation system remained offline.

Briefly the world flashed.

Visions of a giant snake-like monster, with massive fangs chomping toward me. Only to vanish into a cloud of white smoke.

Stumbling backward, I instinctively pulled out God-hunter to fight back. By that point, the monster had disappeared already.

The hell was that?

Looking around, I realized my location had changed. No longer was inside the dark and dusty underground temple.

My surroundings had changed.

I appeared to be in… a dinning room?

Fancy plates with food lined a nearby table that was surrounded by people. Various humanoid lizard-like maids, with dragon-like scales and tails were walking around. They were serving guests who were a similar species sitting down at the table.

A palace? Or mansion?

Moving my fingers slightly, I put away the mana light and confirmed that I wasn’t inside a ‘death vision’.

Had I been teleported here?

Note to future-self: Don’t touch random symbols engraved into rocks in the future.

Actually, that should be common sense by now… why did I even touch those symbols? Magical involvement? Momentarily idiocy?

I stayed silent, I stood up and observed the surroundings.

Judging by their appearances, I would assume them to be… Draconian?

I couldn’t be one hundred percent confident in that assumption because I hadn’t exactly seen one of them before now.

Draconians were a mix of the bloodline of dragons and one of the intelligent races… which makes them half-monster.

…hmmm, kinda a coin-toss whether they’re friendly.

In the novel, Stanley and Tracy saved their princess from getting eaten. So, he’d definitely be treated well.

As for myself, when randomly appearing in their dinning room, their reaction could be anything.

This also might be a different group compared to the one that Stanley saved… No, wait! Isn’t that Stanley?

The guests at the table were mostly draconian. I hadn’t been looking that carefully at them. After careful examination, I confirmed that Stanley actually sat at the end of the table.

Stanley was barely visible because of the various draconian guests surrounding him.

I briefly considered the cost-benefit of greeting him, before deciding to stay silent. I’ll follow him after the banquet to chat.

Listening to the various guests chat, the experience was odd. I could barely understand the gist for their conversation. The words I was most familiar with were various phrases such as please and thank you.

They seemed to complementing the competition of some task or job? It’s hard to understand them.

Stanley was an active participant in the conversation… but unless he chose to directly speak in English, his words were translated into the same strange language the people around him were speaking.

Putting away God-hunter once again, I waited for the meal to end and Stanley to leave.

Following after him, Stanley returned to a room with a twin beds. Tracy lay sideways atop the bed. I took a moment to examine her.

Brown hair, relatively pretty with a sleek yellow outfit. On the bedside table, twin daggers. Presumably Tracy’s weapons.

“Carm tevu tus.” Stanley briefly spoke to Tracy before looked back around the room. “Someone there?”

My lips curled into a frown, unhappy with being sensed. Apparently Stanley has keen senses… or insane luck. Knowing him, it might be the latter.

Tracy sat upright and examined the room along with him.

“Hey, Stanley.” I greet him, waving my hand to catch his attention. Regardless of my feelings about being noticed, this was my opportunity to come out of hiding.

Stanley’s expression turned to surprise, “Tobias? What are you doing here?”

Tracy picked up her weapons and gave me a deadly glare.

Yes… I get it, Tracy. You don’t like me for some reason. No idea what I did to deserve your dislike, though.

“To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. One second I was in the Residential Zone.” Rubbing my neck, I gestured around the room and continued. “Before suddenly appearing here… wherever here is.”

“Sounds similar to my own experience.” Stanley stated tucking his bag underneath the bed. “This is the draconian capital underneath an active volcano in the Third Zone.”

“Yeah… figured it was something like that.” I said with a nod and gestured toward my backside, “From, you know, the tail and scales.”

Tracy’s death glare hadn’t stopped throughout this conversation.

Stanley seemed to suddenly remember something, “Oh- Right. By the way, how did things go with Rin?”

I kinda looked away and searching around the room. “Well enough. Slightly tough when we cannot communicate properly.”

“Right… translation issues. Sorry.” Stanley looked between Tracy and myself.

That- that wasn’t exactly what I meant. Rin simply refused to communicate with me when given the option. Don’t exactly feel like loading my personal problems onto him though.

Too bad the translation function’s currently broken meaning I cannot communicate properly with Tracy. Otherwise I could get some *cough* revenge for Stanley spilling information to Rin earlier.

“Anyway, what’s going on with place? Fancy meal you were having earlier.” I changed the topic.

“Ah…” Stanley nervously rubbed his hands together, “I don’t like that type of thing but… the princess insisted.”

“Princess?”

“It’s a long story.” Stanley stated in a tone that ended the conversation.

Tracy spoke to Stanley, “Tera conus ti non.” (Rough translation: What are you talking about?)

I managed to get a rough translation of Tracy said, though my confidence in the accuracy was extremely low.

“Kirnon, tenon.” Stanley replied in rapid succession. (Rough translation: General stuff.)

As it turns out, when faced with no other option, you learn to adapt to the language around you.

Although, again, zero confidence in my translation skills and I couldn’t speak it to save my life… but, I could barely make out the general meaning of some sentences.

“Zeiterith terun ki vus?” Tracy said with a glance in my direction. (Rough translation: Scheme/plot he doing here?)

Err… that last translation doesn’t seem right? Maybe it's an expression similar to ‘what is he planning?’ or ‘what is he doing here?’

Is Tracy actually that suspicious of me? Or am I extremely bad at translating this stuff?

Seriously, though, I don’t remember doing anything around her that would cause her to dislike me.

Stanley answered with a shrug, “Untava terun. Kert sah va.” (Rough translation: Misunderstands him. Translation broken.)

“Not to interrupt, but do you mentioned we were beneath a volcano. Do you happen to have a map of the surroundings?” I asked, interjecting into their conversation.

“Map?” Stanley turned to Tracy and said. “Sevius tu lapo?”

Presumably that meant ‘Do you have a map?’ and judging by the expression on Tracy’s face, the answer was a resounding ‘no’.

“Kavos di tafro? Tevius la-tim.” Tracy responded to Stanley after a momentary pause.

Yeah… I would have no idea how to begin translating that… that’s just gibberish. The only word I recognized was ‘you/they’.

“I’ll ask the princess later.” Stanley helpfully stated to inform me of his plan.

I bowed respectfully, “Thanks… I don’t suppose you can direct me toward the outside world?”

Stanley’s movements portrayed slight embarrassment, “About that… You know how I mentioned this we were underneath an active volcano?”

“Yeah.” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously… What exactly did that have to do with anything?

Stanley took a deep breath before speaking out an entire sentence in one smooth motion, “There-might-be-lava-and-magma-blocking-every-exit-to-the-outside-world.”

“…”

I stared at him in utter silence. I found myself unable to completely believe it.

Every exit? Covered completely by lava and magma? What’s the likelihood of that happening?

How are we even breathing if that happened? There had to be an air shaft somewhere if we were underground.

“Is that- is that news the draconian princess gave you?” I cautiously asked.... still unsure whether I wanted to believe it or not.

I might actually be fine swimming through lava, but that’s beside the point. I couldn’t say for certain without trying it, and didn’t plan to risk my life attempting it.

…However, I simply cannot believe that a civilization living beneath a volcano has no ability to manipulate lava around to create an exit. Far more likely, the princess or someone else similarly influential ordered them to utilize the lava from the volcano to seal the exits.

“We confirmed it for ourselves after being informed.” Stanley stated with a sigh.

“I see…” That doesn’t exactly lower my suspicion of them actively blocking the exits to keep you here.

“Do you want me to inform the maids of your presence and get you a room?” Stanley inquired, leaning forward slightly.

Hmmm… If Stanley introduced me, the Draconians shouldn’t be directly hostile.

“Alright, if you wouldn’t mind.” I nodded.

While there might be some troublesome effects, using a room without permission would be noticed eventually. Better to do things on the bright side if there’s an option.

“Please inform them of my predicament… And tell them to not bother with food.” I added afterward, “Also, if there’s a free room close to your own, I would feel more comfortable.”

“Map, empty room near my own.” Stanley nodded, “Got it.”

“Alright, welp! I’m going to explore the surroundings a bit.” I explained, getting ready to step out the room.

“Ah, wait!” Stanley called out, stopping me. He pulled out his bag from underneath the bed. Rummaging through it, he pulled out a spherical green gem and handed it to me. “Here, you might need this later.”

“Thanks… I think.” I stared at the green gem in my hand, and tapped it. “What does it do?”

“No idea.” Stanley shook his head.

“Why give it to me, then?”

You’re just handing me a green gem that you have no idea how to use? Or what it does?

Stanley shook his head, “I just get the feeling that you might need it.”

Analyze.

{Time Shard – A shard containing fragments of the laws of time. Nonedible! Do NOT eat!}

…Alright? I’ll bite.

“Why exactly do you think I’ll need a Time Shard?” I asked, thinking about the information analyze had given me.

Why is it so insistent on people not eating it? What kind of person eats a random gemstones?

Also, respectfully, what the hell is a time shard? The name kinda speaks for itself, but how does it work and what can it do?

Stanley looked as surprised, “Time shard? You recognize this gem?”

“Only slightly.”

Stanley leaned forward and examined the stone in my hand. “A time shard, huh? What can you do with it?”

“How am I supposed to know?” I rolled my eyes and pocketed the thing away. “Why’d you even decide to give it to me, anyway?”

“I told you, intuition.” Stanley replied.

Part of me wanted to smack him for his repeatedly vague advice, the other part wanted to get on my knees and praise the almighty god of luck for his unwavering benevolence.

While his answer was completely unhelpful in determining why I was going to need it. Even so, I didn’t dare to be negligent and reconfirmed its location.

If Stanley said I might need this little thing. I was definitely going to need it. I didn’t dare to be neglectful with his advice.

Confirming the time shard was secured away tightly, I bowed slightly and displayed my appreciation, “Thanks for the help.”

Stanley waved his hand dismissively, “No problem.”

I stepped out the door and turned waved backward, “Okay, I’m going to explore around on my own. If the room is ready by the time I return, maybe you can let me know.”