I gritted my teeth as the pain surged into unbearable intensity while the holy light poured into my veins. I could feel the miracle mending the many shattered fragments of my rib, snapping them back into its place.

Ashen skies, why do the Aspects have to make it so painful?

 

I let out a long sigh of relief as Anna finishes her prayer. My body jolted by itself as the magic light suddenly came back, illuminating the dungeon once more.

In front of me, the Copper rank elves stood together, the taller elf ran her finger through the raven black hair of the sorcerer, brushing the dust out of them. I always found the adventurer's team names to be off somehow, not reflecting the team in the truest light but damn me to the Seven if the name Damestar Ravens did not fit them perfectly.

 

"Old man, you fine?" Cil's voice sounded behind me.

 

"Old? I once heard from a wise man in Flinter that being senile only begins once there is no one to say, 'Remember that'? So young man be careful." I jokingly waved my pointing finger in the air as I moved my knee in a circle, hearing the weirdly satisfying cracking noise in the joint.

 

"Albert, can you stand up?" Anna asked in her melodic voice offering her hand for me to lean on.

 

"I think you did it again." I grabbed my knee and swayed back and forward barely able to contain my laughter as Anna stared at me with panicked eyes, her hands quickly came into the praying position. I finally let out my laughter, not being to contain it anymore.

 

"That was HALF a year ago!" Her long white and blue robe moved as she stomped on the ground. "So stop making jokes about it already!"

 

I stood up and patted Anna on the back and said with an exaggerated Catalinan accent. "I say we leave our quite entertaining discussion for the lunch." I smiled as I put my helmet back on. Hearing an annoyed snarl behind me. 

 

As I passed Iris she opened her mouth and said to my team mate. "Cisil, what is that sword you use? Never seen its kind before."

 

"Not your busine-" 

 

"It's his heirloom, isn't it right?" Anna interrupted Cisil.

 

"Eh... yes." His tone mellowed suddenly. Youth these days can't talk to each other.

 

"You always speak about it, so could you do it again?" The cleric in blue requested, unaware of the meaning in Cil's sudden change of tone.

 

"Y-yeah, *cough* This is a sword passed down my family. My father said that this blade was forged before the Empire even existed. Its name is Twilight."

 

I turned and casted a questioning look through my visor at the boy who did not recall the entire tale which was probably for the better. I go insane if I had to listen to it again. "Come on at least tell her how you defeated that monster so easily while we struggled," Cisil casted an uncomfortable look at me. "Cisil do you fear these fine elves are monsters of some kind?"

 

"No, but..." His eyes darted between me and two elves. "Fine, have it your way." He said as his eyes meet Anna's expecting gaze. "The runes on my blade are enchanted to against monster. Causing their mana to rush into my sword, damaging their internals as the mana violently moves between them and the sword."

 

"Meaning the more mana a monster has, the more deadly is your sword." Iris stated.

 

"Yes and that's it for questions about my sword."

 

We managed to walk all the way to the bottom which resembled an old water cistern with smooth stone walls on all sides. A carpet of bones was strewn across the stone floor with no further path to follow. I approach one of the bone piles and grab one of them. "Bite marks." I said absentmindedly, examining the detached arm with visible marks caused by being gnawed at. The bone bounces on the ground with a loud clacking noise as I toss it back.

 An odd skeleton rose from the pile and I slammed it with my shield causing bone fragments to fly high into the air.

 

"Well, time to look for a clue." I shrugged. "Dungeons love to break up the action with some puzzles."

 

We scoured the entire floor finding nothing except a weak skeleton. There was nothing down here except stone walls and yellow bones. "Found something?" I call out.

 

"No!"

"No luck!"

"Nothing here!"

 

I tiredly looked upwards to see that the roof was nowhere to be seen, replaced with stairs spanning eternity. I undid the leather strap keeping my helmet on my head and rubbed my eyes. "Aspects." I muttered as my eyes opened.

 

"Something happened?" The tall elf approached me, her spear tapping loudly on the floor. I silently pointed upwards. "Were we tricked?" Either she thought nothing of dying here or she was good at hiding her worry.

 

"Seems like it."

 

"Seen Siri?" She asked, showing more emotion than previously.

 

"Yeah, she standing there for while now." I pointed at the small figure at the end of the empty floor. Iris gave me a small nod and walks toward her companion.

 

Shortly after I heard two sets of steps approaching me from behind. "I think I found something?" Anna posed her question.

 

I turned to see Anna standing still with Cisil standing behind her.

 

"What?" I asked.

 

"A journal under a pile of bones." She passed me a tattered journal. Its leather cover crumbling under our touch.

 

On the first page of the journal in between maddened scribbles and otherworldly illustrations was a small legible paragraph.

 

 

"Flat sight, plain flat.

I'm visible to some, to most not.

I move through cracks unseen.

There lays salvation."

 

 

I read it out loud but neither me, Anna nor Cisil understood the riddle. On the second page was another legible paragraph hidden inside a circle with other circles inside it.

 

 

"Some not, unfortunate not.

Stone hard, death harsher.

Work long, long work.

Punishment for not."

 

 

"Anyone?" I asked about the cryptic paragraph but my companions shook their heads unknowingly.

 

"Albert maybe you found something. Something to make sense of it." Anna suddenly asked with anticipation.

 

"No, and I have bad news." I pointed at the roof.

 

"What happened?" She asked.

 

"Knowing them? If we do not answer the riddle we are doomed to climb these stairs until all our hope had been squeezed out."

 

"Maybe that sorcerer will make sense of this?" Cisil voiced his idea.

 

"She is standing there for a while now, so maybe." I follow my teammates toward the two elves. I barely managed to hear the beautiful voice of the shorter elf as she quietly ended her conversation with Iris. "Anything interesting?" I said while handing the journal to the elf.

 

"Yes, in fact, Siri was about to open the door." The tall woman explained.

 

"Door? I see no door." Anna said.

 

"I understood almost nothing of what she was trying to say, so I know as much as you do." Iris retorted, shrugging her shoulders before moving away from Siri.

 

I too back away as Siri's hands were suddenly wrapped with a black mist slowly creeping its way to the wall in front of her. Black tar began to drip from between her pearly white fingers onto the ground with a soft hiss. The summoned black mist started to seep into the solid stone, a constant hiss filled the air as yellow spots started to appear in the stone. The yellow spots grew larger to the size of a human head before turning slowly black, bubbles forming on their surface like tar being boiled. Whatever a bubble popped, it produced great puff of sickly yellow smoke filling the air with the smell of sulfur.

I coughed heavily as the wall of solid stone dissolved into a hissing black puddle. The black mist disappeared into the air, reviling a secret passage.

 

"Sorcery." Anna waved her hand to get rid of the smoke.

 

"Think that is our new path to the dungeon core." Iris said as she stepped over the hissing puddle into the passage.

 

"What happens if we step into this?" Cil asked.

 

"Disiolv." An adorable voice suddenly said in a slightly broken Common.

 

"Aspects!" Cleric beside her squealed in delight. She grabbed the source of the voice before it could step over the puddle. "I will not let you go, you're too precious to lose in a dungeon." Anna buried her head in shocked Siri as she hugged the unfortunate elf. "Say something again please!"

 

The sorcerer who dissolves the solid wall in a few short moments visibly struggled to free herself from Anna's clutches. A shadow quickly appeared behind Anna grasping her arm. 

 

"Auch." The blonde girl yelped in pain as Iris put her hand behind her back causing Siri to drop to the floor. The elves reunited, the taller one holding the hooded elf in her arms and smoothly crossing the dangerous black pool together. *Sniff* 

 

"Should have not touched her." I explained.

 

"B-but how could I not."Anna whined. "How could could you two resist!?"

 

"I will not answer that, and Cil sheath that blade before they notice." I shook my head in slight disappointment and followed the elves.

What will the two do without me? I guess, the role of a mentor never ends.