Content warning:

  Mention of animal killing.

  Lauren’s eyes scanned over the town as she hovered above it, keeping herself in place with wind magic. Last night’s blizzard had left great heaps of snow covering everything, half-burying all the buildings. Several residents had started clearing it before the sun had even risen, using their System spells and mana-enhanced strength to unburden the roofs and make pathways.

  When Lauren had joined in helping, she had been able to simply move large amounts of snow at a time with her magic, and then drop it outside the town. The System’s preset spells didn’t have the level of control necessary for that, so the residents had been carefully using fire spells and wheelbarrows. One person had a truck with a plow attachment.

  Seeing that the task was done, Lauren descended from the sky.

  “You’re done already…?” Emma asked as Lauren landed. “I really need to learn chantless.”

  Lauren smiled. “As soon as we figure out how, then yeah. What’s next?”

  “Nothing else. The minor repairs on the two houses and the greenhouse are already finished, though the plants seem to be struggling a bit more than usual.”

  Emma gestured at the communal greenhouse roof that had been partially caved in just a couple hours ago.

  “We really don’t know what’s causing it?”

  Emma explained as they entered the greenhouse, “The most common suspicion is mana, since it’s apparently everywhere. There are other theories about it being Dungeons specifically, or some people say animals are stealing life from the ground in exchange for magic, or… well, it goes on and on.

  “We know that using magic directly on plants withers them, but using tech powered by mana crystals to grow them delays the withering slightly, but not enough to directly cast spells on them. The plants in Dungeons aren’t immune to the withering effect either, but it happens much more slowly within them.”

  Most of the plants were fruits and vegetables, with only a few herbs.

  I guess when stuff barely grows, you have to focus on having food at all before spicing it up.

  Lauren tilted her head. “What about, like, plant people? Or someone like Marama? Could they grow crops?”

  “Plant-kin,” Emma clarified. “And I suppose Marama would be a mushroom-kin. But whether or not they can do it depends on a few things.

  “There’s a guy who turned into a banana tree person, and he makes a killing just growing banana trees all day. But he’s also only able to do that because he’s worked really hard over very many years to grow his mana pool enough to allow for that. Gaining a mana pool that large takes a ton of work. The advantage is that he doesn’t need a System Band to grow those trees.”

  Lauren looked him up on her phone. The man had leafy hair and bark-like skin, but otherwise didn’t appear all that unusual. He was proudly posing amid a massive field of healthy-looking banana trees.

  Yeah, I can see why he would be wealthy in the current state of the world.

  “Could I try my magic?” Lauren asked, gently grabbing the vine of a dry tomato plant. “It seems to work just fine in my garden. Anytime my plants withered, I was always able to identify the cause to be mismanagement on my part. Or sometimes an insect was eating them or something. But once I had the soil, water, and sunlight all figured out, magic only helped them grow faster.”

  Emma nodded. “Mhmm, I was about to suggest the same. Maybe this will give us a clue about why your magic is different.” She pulled out her phone to record the experiment. “Alright, go ahead.”

  Lauren crouched and pointed her palm at the struggling plant. Then, slowly and carefully, she started using healing magic on it.

  It’s been getting enough water and sunlight, and the soil seems good… It feels like it just hasn’t been absorbing any nutrients for some reason.

  She focused on supplementing all the missing nutrients with her mana, regenerating what was missing, and healing the damage from starving.

  Lauren spoke her thoughts aloud as she worked. “Plants need like, nitrogen and phosphorus and stuff, right? I can’t make any of that, but I can regenerate it if it’s a part of a living thing. …I guess I hadn’t really thought about it before, but regenerating missing parts is really wild, actually.”

  The tomato plant gradually grew and became vitalized, its vines filling with life and lengthening. The tomatoes expanded, and turned bright red, and Lauren stopped her spell.

  “Lauren,” Emma quietly uttered, “you could be the next banana man.”

  Lauren snorted a laugh. “No thanks. I’ll still help with growing food if I need to, but I think I’d be more useful in the Dungeon.”

  “I agree,” Emma said, while she recorded the plant from up close. “Can you tell if there’s any difference between your healing magic and everyone else’s?”

  “The end result is the same as far as I can tell, but the process of System spells is different.” Lauren shrugged. “That’s as much as I can tell. Maybe the researchers have figured something else out by now?”

  “Not sure, but we should talk with them anyway.”

  Emma recorded another video of Lauren, this time of her thoroughly explaining and demonstrating what she had done. After sending it to Professor Richards, he eagerly replied back that he and some others would arrive soon.

  Lauren ended up most of the day in the garden while a group of researchers documented everything and took samples. Once they left, she then recorded a video where she answered what questions she could about chantless magic, because people had been spamming their personal accounts for information.

  “How does it look?” Lauren asked, turning in place to show off her armor. She had painted a silver accent color on parts of it.

  “It’s good!” Savannah said. “Is the paint smell gone?”

  “Mostly, yeah.”

  “Now we all match!” Maeve said. She stood next to Lauren to compare colors. Maeve first held her gray accent color next to Lauren’s silver, then moved down to their tail colors. “I’m envious that you got silver hair while I got gray.”

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  “You look good with gray, though,” Lauren replied.

  “I do! But having shiny fur like yours would be fun.”

  Lauren’s phone beeped. “Heather will be here in about ten minutes.”

  “Oh! Perfect timing,” Lucia said. Everyone went to finish preparing for today’s Dungeon dive.

  When the doorbell rang, Lauren took a breath to calm herself and keep her tail from wagging, then opened the door. The familiar bee girl was wearing casual clothes and a large backpack, with another large bag hung over her shoulder.

  “Hi!” Heather greeted. “…Are you going to let me in or just keep staring?”

  “Oh! Yeah. Sorry. Nice to see you again.”

  I was so excited to see a friend again that I just… Ugh.

  Heather’s antennae twitched as she giggled. With them leaving for the Dungeon right away, she immediately headed for the bathroom to change her Dungeon clothes.

  “Have to get used to composting toilets again,” Heather muttered as she exited. She then opened her large pack to put her armor on.

  “You got new armor, Heather?” Lauren asked.

  When they first met, Heather’s armor had been almost entirely matte, gray metal. The one she was putting on now was also metal, but was burgundy and had a different overall shape to it.

  “Mhmm!” The bee girl replied. “Last one was a government set I was required to wear and didn’t actually own. Got this one and new swords from a blacksmith friend of mine. I paid her, of course.”

  Lauren complimented, “It looks good. I like the color.”

  This armor’s quieter than her last set, too. It’s not clanking quite as much.

  Once Heather’s armor was on and she had her swords strapped to her hips, everyone was ready.

  “One last thing before we go,” Lucia said. She handed her phone to Heather. “Can you take a picture of us? Lauren’s armor matches with ours now.”

  After taking the picture, Heather asked, “Where are you going to post it? Your Wolf Pack account is still suspended, right?”

  “Just our personal accounts for now is fine.”

  Once they were aboard the train heading for the Explorer’s Association, Maeve asked Lauren, “How does crystal collection sound for a change of pace?”

  “What, like mining? What kind of jobs do you usually do?”

  “No, they mostly just grow from the walls,” Emma said.

  Savannah chimed in, “We usually either harvest food, or mana-rich materials.”

  Emma nodded. “Yeah. Mana crystals typically have more mana contained within them than regular materials, but if those materials are from much deeper down, then they’ll have more instead. That mana is extracted into used crystals for research and technological development. Like how our phones and drones have mana crystals integrated into them, making them somewhat resistant to being disabled by large amounts of mana.”

  Heather poked Lauren. “Where did you get the big crystal in your house? And how is it able to ward people away like that? Most crystals just get used as fuel.”

  “Just fuel…?” Lauren gave the bee girl a baffled look, who nodded back.

  Right, my knowledge isn’t exactly common knowledge.

  Lauren coughed. “There’s a giant ravine that goes right through the middle of the jungle. Crystals grow at the bottom of it. As for what crystals can do, they can… record spells, I guess is how I’d put it?”

  Savannah groaned and thunked her head against the train wall. “I can’t wait to see it! I really want to be down there already!”

  Lauren laughed. “Me too. I guess we should head there soon? I’ve already seen plenty of other things. Plus, my garden is probably a bit overgrown by now.”

  The six of them made their way through the EA and to the telepad, turned on the headlamps they had prepared, then teleported. The glum scenery of the building distorted, and was replaced with the rocky wall of a cave. Lights had been set up around the telepad, and were strung along the ceiling as well.

  “No sunlight at all on this Floor?” Lauren asked as she looked around.

  “Too much rock in the way,” Lucia said.

  As they were led through the tunnels by Lucia following a laminated map in her hand, their footsteps and armor echoing off the walls, they didn’t encounter anything at all besides the occasional other Explorer carrying their haul of crystals back to the surface. They exchanged quick greetings as they passed.

  “This cave seems rather barren…” Lauren said.

  “Ah right, this is the highest Floor you’ve been to,” Heather said. “You’ve only been to really deep Floors so far. The closer you get to the surface, the more everything inside is all dried up. The highest Floors have nothing left but dirt. Animals are killed before they can repopulate or get big.”

  “How would they even repopulate if they’re aren’t any left?”

  “New Dungeon animals grow from mana itself.” The bee girl shrugged. “However that works.”

  “Does it feel like old times, Heather?” Savannah asked her.

  Heather chuckled. “Almost. You haven’t flirted with me even once yet.”

  “You used to be so oblivious to my flirting,” Savannah sighed wistfully, then glanced at Lauren. “But that’s not my job anymore.”

  Lauren rolled her eyes.

  They eventually heard clinking sounds, and a few minutes later, reached an area that hadn’t yet been picked clean of crystals. Only small ones were growing from the walls, which were chipped off and dropped in bins.

  Lucia led her group past them, however. “There should be larger crystals further in, plus a small chance of encountering an animal, if there are any left, so keep an eye out.”

  “Wouldn’t there be a Guardian somewhere on this Floor?” Lauren asked.

  Meeting another animal like Tyche would be really cool.

  “Should be, but there probably isn’t right now,” Maeve said.

  “People always go after them first, because they give better materials,” Heather said.

  Savannah added, “People have even tried becoming Guardians themselves, since it seems to just go to the most powerful animal on the Floor after one dies. It apparently only works with animals from that specific Floor, though.”

  If someone goes after Tyche… Well, they’d die. She’s indomitable.

  They arrived at a large heap of rusted metal that had been pushed against the cave wall. It took a moment for Lauren to even recognize what she was looking at. “…A car?”

  “Mhmm, leftover from when the Dungeon first formed.”

  Wait…

  Lauren slowly walked around the vehicle, carefully inspecting it. “This is Paul’s car…”

  “Who’s Paul?” Heather asked.

  “He lived in the apartment below mine. Last I saw, he was trapped beneath a bookshelf…” she said, her voice laden. “He died here…?”

  Maeve put her hand on Lauren’s shoulder and gave a somber nod. “Probably. His body was never found, though. I’m sorry.”

  “How do you know?”

  “We looked into everyone who went missing in Rockford back then.”

  “Oh… How did his car end up here but I ended up all the way at the bottom? I remember falling through my building, a lot of tumbling, and then trees.”

  “Dungeons form their lower Floors first,” Heather explained. “A hole opens up on the surface that connects to the Dungeon. The first Floor formed then shifts down to make room for the next Floor. And then it just keeps going, pushing the complete Floors farther and farther down. Paul’s car would’ve fallen sometime after you did, so it ended up all the way up here instead of with you.”

  Lauren turned her attention back to the wreckage. It was utterly mangled. Time, animals, and Explorers had damaged it so much more over the years than the initial fall likely had.

  “It used to be pale blue.” Lauren reminisced. “Paul had a hobby of taking meticulous care of it. He probably spent more time waxing it than inside his house. We didn’t speak much, but he had been friendly the few times we did.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maeve said. “We haven’t been to this Floor in so long that it didn’t occur to me…”

  “It’s fine. I’m taking this with me when we leave. I’ll dispose of it properly.”

  “It’s considered a landmark in this dungeon now,” Emma said apologetically. “We, and others, have said that it should be taken out of here, but it was deemed a part of the geography.”

  “Have none of his relatives claimed it?”

  “They said it’s fine where it is.”

  It doesn’t feel right to just leave it here… I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, Paul.

  Lauren stared at the car a while longer, then finally turned away from it. Her grip on her spear tightened. “Let’s go.”

  Peel it down and go mm-mm-mm-mm

  Little Help.