The moment Tamina made contact with the silver portal’s surface, it seemed to come alive, flowing over her like a liquid and practically pulling her in.

  The moment she was fully inside, however, it turned smooth like a plate of solid metal. Rylan’s reflection on its surface wore a rather stricken expression, which he quickly schooled. That looks impassable... I guess the entrance’s shut now.

  Standing next to him, Yuel made use of the opportunity to idly fix his hair. “Not shy about accepting a challenge, is she?”

  “She really isn’t,” Rylan replied, before a thought struck him. Face your challenges head-on... Isn’t that one of Singghir’s edicts?

  For a supposedly non-spiritual person, Tamina sure seemed to be following her chosen patron’s demands to the letter.

  “Oh, relax,” Yuel added after a moment. “You heard what she said; she’ll be fine, milord.”

  “Right,” Rylan replied, as his heartbeat started to slow down again.

  Tamina had said the Equipment Dungeon should be safe... more or less. For that matter, Rylan was happy the tingles weren’t trying to direct him into one of the other two portals. Actually, the tingles had grown a lot more subdued the moment Tamina had stepped in. It seemed like whatever being was urging him in there could tell the Dungeon was occupied at the moment.

  While Rylan was standing there processing all that, Yuel had already sat down on the dark stone floor, and made himself comfortable. There was actually very little sand down here, likely due to the relatively closed-off nature of the basement—though there was still fog, of course.

  Rylan still had too much nervous energy running through his veins to take it easy, though, so he took a lap around the room, trying not to feel spooked by the eerie lighting in the ancient, desolate ruin. As he walked, he couldn’t help but note that the floor tiles down here were much less worn than the ones in the hallways upstairs. It seemed far fewer people had had the privilege of coming down here.

  Though perhaps that had been a safety measure, more than anything, for Rylan was making fogging sure to stay a good distance away from the active Dungeon entrances.

  He did dare get a little closer to the empty rings, looking them over with curious eyes. Despite how long this place had lain in ruin, the metal was still shiny as anything, not a speck of rust along the oval frame. At the top of one of the empty rings Rylan found a hammer and forge, and two more featured a sword and bow.

  So there were two Equipment Dungeons once, three Challenge Dungeons, and only one Champion Dungeon...

  That meant the people who’d lived here long ago might have received two pieces of equipment, which they could have taken into three different challenges, and even the Champion’s Dungeon.

  Rylan studied the violet portal with a mixture of interest and apprehension. How many of these are there in the kingdom? I bet they’re all well-guarded...

  Rylan had to wonder if it was better to enter one as an Emerald or a Sapphire-Grade Quinthar. You’re outclassed either way, but which is the bigger gap?

  Perhaps it was about equal. Perhaps the real difference was that there was no need for a Sapphire-Grade Quinthar to enter one, when they didn’t even know if they would ever make it to Sapphire. After all, each jump in grade was a watershed, and having an Affinity alone did not make one a Ruby-Grade Quinthar.

  You’d have to be supremely self-confident and ambitious to try it at Emerald...

  Suppressing a shiver, Rylan turned away from the portal and moved over to sit down next to Yuel.

  “I wonder what Skill she’ll choose to be tested for,” Yuel said conversationally, taking out a waterskin. “Do you think her leaving her shield out here means she’s going for that foot-based Skill of hers?”

  Rylan looked at the abandoned equipment, and scratched his chin. “You know, I’m not sure...”

  “Well, she seems to know what she’s doing,” Yuel reasoned. “I wonder what she’ll come out! Suppose it’ll either be a new shield or a pair of boots, right?”

  Rylan shrugged. “If she beats the challenges.”

  Yuel scoffed. “Oh come on, you don’t actually have that little faith in her, do you?”

  Rylan smiled a half-smile, shaking his head.

  Yuel studied him for a moment, then took a sip from his waterskin and lowered it again. “You’re not worried about her at all, are you? You’re worried about yourself.”

  Rylan blinked, then felt his brows draw together involuntarily. He did feel uneasy about entering the Dungeon, and truth be told, it wasn’t just about the tingles urging him in there. “I haven’t been a Quinthar for all that long,” he finally said. “I guess I am a little worried I’ll screw up in there, throw away my shot at getting a piece of actual runegear...”

  Yuel patted him on the back. “Well, you don’t have to go in now. Like you said, you can go back and prepare, get some more training under your belt before you go in there and show Ethereon what you’ve got.”

  “Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

  “What’s the matter?” Yuel asked slyly, nudging Rylan’s shoulder with his own. “Worried the lady will think less of you for turning away from a challenge? Need to show her you’re a big tough Quinthar, hmm?”

  Truth be told, Rylan was more worried about whether the being urging him to go in there would get angry if he refused to follow its instructions, but that didn’t stop the blood from rushing to his cheeks.

  “Well now I am!” he replied, trying to play it off as a joke. “Thanks a lot, Yuel.”

  Yuel haughtily stuck his nose in the air. “Think nothing of it, milord! I live to serve.”

  Rylan shook his head, cracking a smile despite himself.

  “For the record, Rylan,” Yuel continued more seriously. “I think you could stand to have a little more faith in yourself, too. Ethereon doesn’t pick its champions lightly, and from what I’ve seen and heard, it picked an excellent one in you.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Thanks, Yuel,” Rylan said, ducking his head.

  “You’re welcome. Milord.”

  They sat in companionable silence for a while longer, until Rylan remembered there was something he’d been meaning to ask about. “Hey Yuel,” he started casually. “Have you ever heard of a place called the, ehm, Knackered Hag?”

  “The Hag? Sure, I’ve been there a time or two. Naz and I like to pub-crawl. Not my usual scene though; a bit tame for my tastes, to be honest.”

  Rylan’s heart jumped. “Oh yeah? I heard it was quite fun. Could you tell me where to find it?”

  Yuel frowned. “That place is for commoners, milord, not really fitting for one of your status... but if you must know, it’s in the South Harbour District of Cliffport’s lower ring. I forget the street names, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find. May I ask why?”

  “Oh, a friend invited me to come out with them there,” Rylan said, waving it off. “They just weren’t very specific with their invitation.

  Yuel’s eyes narrowed. “A friend, eh? And would this friend be of the female persuasion, or—”

  Thankfully, right at that moment, the silver portal’s surface started to shimmer again, before it bulged out into a humanoid shape.

  A split second later, the liquid-like silver withdrew, as Tamina stepped out with a shit-eating grin and a brand-new shield.

  It felt like Rylan’s eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets as he leapt to his feet while next to him, Yuel let out a low whistle. For Tamina hadn’t come out with any old shield, but one seemingly made of pure, pitch-black Obsidium.

  Not only that, but the darkmetal surface was covered in silvery runes glowing a soft white.

  “Great Spirits, Tammi,” Rylan said. “Is that..?”

  “Hermean fogging runegear,” she confirmed as she came walking over, holding the shield up for their perusal. “Did I call it or what?”

  “What does it do?” Rylan asked, his eyes still eagerly roving over the silver symbols and the shiny black surface. Those runes look very different from what the professor made... did the Hermeans use a different kind of mana-conducting alloy?

  “To be honest, I haven’t the foggiest. Ethereon only informed me that it’s a C-grade runegear, so I know it has only a single runework, but I don’t know what that does yet.”

  Generally speaking, Hermean runegear were heirlooms of the various noble families, with only a few in the hands of independent Quinthar. Among the known pieces, C-grade were the most common by far. There were probably only a few dozen B-grade or double-runework runegear in the kingdom, and A-grade or triple-runework was the stuff off legends, as rare as Ruby-Grade Quinthar.

  There was a famous story about a Sapphire-Grade Quinthar heroine known as Thunderclad, who’d relied on Zephyr—her pure skymetal suit of A-grade runegear armour—to take to the skies and defeat a Ruby-Grade Quinthar, thus freeing the city of Summit from his tyrannical reign.

  As for more modern runegear, there were several free cities and noble families with their own forges who’d managed to produce C-grade gear, but even the Thorns had yet to announce the successful creation of a B-grade piece. Moreover, they rarely sold outside of the family, and even then it was mainly stuff without combat utility, like Rylan’s anklet.

  Rylan shook his head. “Listen to her. Only a single runework.”

  “Well how else was I supposed to say it?” Tamina replied, playfully giving his shoulder a push as she slung the precious implement onto her back. “It has exactly one runework? Ultimately just means the same thing, right?”

  “You should show it to Isai,” Yuel suggested. “He’d jump at the chance to study it! And if you wait patiently enough, he might just remember you’re in the room and share his findings.”

  “Thanks, I’ll take that under consideration,” Tamina replied deadpan.

  “By the way,” Yuel started, licking his lips with a glint in his eyes. “Did you see any other runegear in there? Any hammers?”

  Tamina shrugged. “Didn’t get to see any other gear than this. But odds are there’s something to be gained in there for your captain.”

  He clapped his hands, doing a little hop. “Oh, this is so exciting! She’s going to be thrilled!”

  “If Captain Hammermore got her hands on a nice piece of runegear, that might just solve our little Dreadmaw situation,” Rylan mused.

  “Could be,” Tamina replied, peering at him through her eyelashes with a small, cocky smirk. “But right now the question is, what are you going to get?”

  Rylan hesitated. As he wondered if there was a way he could get Yuel to leave so he could talk to her in private, he made the mistake of glancing back at the blond man. The former pirate shot him a thumbs up followed by an obnoxiously big wink.

  Suppressing a groan, Rylan turned back to Tamina.

  Her smile slipped a little. “Well, you don’t have to go in now if you’re not feeling confident.”

  “It’s not that,” Rylan started, before stopping with a sigh. Fog, this is so annoying! But I can’t talk about the tingles in front of Yuel... “Look, ehm... you know my best Skill is only Rank 2. Should I really be going in there right now? I mean, if I don’t do well enough, odds are I’ll walk out of there empty-handed, right?”

  Tamina’s face seemed to soften as she stepped in front of him. “Look, Ry, the challenges are mostly about technique, reaction speed, that kind of thing. I’ve seen your throwing—you’re really good, and another few days of practice aren’t going to make much of a difference. You can definitely nail whatever Ethereon throws at you in there, but only if you step in there confident, ready to take on the world. If you go in feeling nervous and worried, well... there’s no second chance.”

  They held eye contact for a long moment. Tingles ran up his spine, urging him forward, while behind him, Yuel snickered quietly.

  Fog it. Whatever led me here hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

  Rylan straightened his spine, and lifted his chin. “In that case, I’m going in.”

  She studied him for a moment longer, then smiled and stepped aside, clapping him on the shoulder. “Good. Singghir bolsters those who meet their challenges head-on, so go show that Dungeon who’s boss. You’ve got this, Ry.”

  With warmth blooming in his chest, Rylan moved towards the portal.

  “Oh, but first take off that knife belt,” she added. “Everything you need for the challenges will be provided, so you’re not supposed to bring your own. I heard the portal will even spit your stuff out if you try.”

  Rylan stopped, then shrugged off his knife belt, and unclipped the sheathed dagger from his britches for good measure, laying them down on the ground like Tamina had. Finally, after a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the letter opener from his boot, and added it to the pile.

  At last, he stood in front of the portal, unarmed. The tingles seemed to grow ever more frantic as he drew a deep breath, then finally stepped forward, at the same reaching out to touch the shimmering surface.

  The moment his fingers made contact, the silver light ran up his arm like a liquid. A powerful force pulled on his arm, then his chest, and finally his whole body as he stumbled forward and the world went white.

  Rylan blinked as his vision returned, and he found himself standing on a platform of pink stone in the middle of a massive bubble of what looked like glowing, shimmering, liquid silver. In the distance, he saw three more stone platforms, seemingly suspended in mid-air.

  Looking down at the glittering pink bricks beneath his feet, he had to wonder where it had all come from, who or what had made it. If it was even real.

  There was something fantastical about the stuff around him, with the way it all floated and glinted and seemed to softly glow. Still, the platform felt solid beneath his feet, so he wasn’t going to make any assumptions.

  He also tried not to think about how if the other platforms were suspended over nothing, his probably was too. It’s fine, if I fall down into that liquid silver, I’ll probably just be chucked out of the Dungeon. Right?

  Still, that would mean returning empty-handed, so Rylan resolved to stay as far from the edges as possible while he completed whatever challenges Ethereon asked of him.

  As if on cue, a familiar voice spoke up, seeming to come from all around him.

  《Welcome to Equipment Dungeon AW2. Please first select a Skill to—》

  As suddenly as Ethereon had started speaking, it stopped.

  Rylan frowned. “Ehm...”

  《Skill: Knife-Throwing, has been selected,》Ethereon spoke a moment later, as if nothing had just happened.

  “Wait, what?”

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  : Unnatural Laws

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