Book Two starts here:

Chapter 48: In the dark

Alchemist's Lair had dark walls, covered in burn marks. A great fire had raged here once, many centuries ago. Back when an alchemist called the tunnel chain home.

Not that the walls were something that the three cared about, at this point. They were all angry. They had a home, them, adventurers. Castoffs from the guild. Now, it was all lost.

"Teri, four o'clock, bash," Rina commanded, as Teri ran past her, and bashed his shield into the snout of the giant snail. It tried to suck him in, only for Rina to shot more arrows at it. Making it bleed and let go of Teri.

"Why isn't the miasma working?" Thomas had begun the fight with the mournful tune, but the darn snail had not been affected.

"It could have been summoned by a Lich. Try something else," Rina took a couple of steps back, and then launched a barrage at the creature, just as Teri backed away from it.

Thomas tried to summon a plant, next. But nothing answered his call. The Mammoth Graveyard on top of them was barren land. Below was no different.

Then, he got an idea. Instead of making small balls of miasma, he coalesced them into one giant one. Then, he stuck it to the wound of the snail. It began to trash around wildly, but the ball seeped into the wound and entered its stomach.

The snail's eyes snapped open, and it gave a pained scream, before collapsing. Unlike some of the other snails that they had met so far, this one didn't end up being reduced to acid. Rather, many small snails were spat out of its stomach. Fortunately for the three, they were all dead.

"It could have swarmed us," Teri picked up one of the dead smaller snails, and touched it to his shield.

<Acid Snail Shield unlocked:

The user can spit acid out of their shield;

Level 1;

Snails to level 2: 20;>

"Pavos, go get me a crystal. Acid arrows sound great," Rina pointed at the big snail, and Pavos made his way to it.

As Teri and Rina divided the loot, Thomas sat down on the stone ground to think. It has been a day and a half. If they were lucky, then Lucius might still be sorting the mess that Owen made. Yet, luck was rarely on their side.

"We have to move on and find the core as soon as possible. But we can't smash it," Thomas said. Both Teri and Rina turned to him.

"You want to do what those bastards wanted of you?" Teri snapped. He threw a snail into his shield, and glared at the muse.

"We won't bash it, rather, we will become its masters," Thomas said. "It is the only way to protect Yaranhold from the guild and the dungeon at the same time."

"We will never be able to come back to Orestria if we become dungeon masters," Rina warned him.

"Do we need to, though? Come back to what? Owen is dead. I don't know about you two, but my family isn't waiting for me," Thomas snapped. His older brother had told him to get lost and waste his time with books somewhere where he couldn't see him. It was not like Thomas could ever forget that.

Both Rina and Teri bowed their heads at that. The loss still stung at them.

"Yes, well, he wouldn't have wanted for us to abandon the ranch," Teri tried to protest. It was their home. Even if there was a huge crater in the middle of it now.

"There is nothing left of the ranch now. Not even the fields, let alone the animals. Nothing could have survived after such a blast. I don't want to agree with Tommy, but we are fugitives now," Rina said. Pavos handed her the crystal from the slime, and she gratefully took it.

"Thanks, Pavos," she pressed it to her bow, and it glowed a green light.

<Bow unlocked: Acid Snail Bow,

New Skill unlocked: Paralyzing Arrows:

The user can paralyze even a Leviathan, if they aim well enough.>

"All right, speak about overpowered. Tommy, did you get a new tune from the snail?" the elf asked.

"Well, I think I can mimic its movement rhythm a bit. Like this," Thomas played a lazy tune, and acid bubbled around him.

"Great, now you are protected," Teri gave him the thumbs up, and Thomas hopped over the acid.

"So, where are we, exactly?" They had left the entrance half a day behind, but, so far, all they have done was fight a snail after a snail.

Rina pulled out a crude map she had been making.

"Let us see, we took a left turn first, then two right ones, but we are still in the same tunnel. It would be great if we get some real map of this place," Rina sighed, and handed Teri the map. He got thoughtful, and then placed the map over his shield.

<Shield unlocked: Map shield:

The area in which the shield owner is will be mapped, given enough mana;

For more areas, make more maps;>

Teri used his new shield to show a hologram of the area they were in. Then, he poured more mana into it. When he was nearly out, he saw that there were some red things in the tunnels with them.

"What are those?" He asked. They had monster heads, similar to goblins, with pocked out tongues. There was one right next to them, but it had x's on its eyes.

"The mobs. Let us find a way to bypass them. Do you need more mana, Teri?" Rina asked, moving closer to the tank.

"Sure, if you can spare it," Rina placed her hand over the map shield, and began to pour mana inside. The whole dungeon ended up mapped out. The among of red monster heads was disconcerting, but there, in the middle, was a purple crystal icon.

"The core?" Teri asked.

"Could be, or it could be a trap," Rina looked at the heads again. There was no bypassing them. "We will need to smash our way through."

"It won't be easy," Teri murmured. Seeing the map now, he saw that they had barely made any progress.

"So, we just need to make a mad dash for it and leave the monsters behind for Lucius to deal with," Thomas said. He patted his harp, his eyes never leaving the map.