“I knew something was hazy when you mentioned looking for octopus eggs,” Tamina grumbled. The soft lines of her face—the only part of her sticking out of her bedroll—were hard to read in the dimly lit tent. “Still can’t believe Yuel just went with it.”

  Rylan shot her a sheepish look. “It was the only thing I could come up with so fast.”

  “So. Arphineas, huh?” Soren whispered, a twinkle in his eyes. “That’s a pretty... poetic choice.”

  In response to his name, the blade in question produced only a light snore inside Rylan’s spirit.

  “Well, it had to be something meaningful,” Rylan grumbled. “It’s at least better than anything he suggested. Or would you have preferred Edgelord, Mystic Razor of Eternal Doom?”

  “I’m not saying I don’t like it, I just hadn’t expected you to come up with something so—wait, Edgelord?”

  “Can we talk about Maris, please?” Tamina pleaded.

  Soren waved at her to go ahead, all the while eyeing Rylan with disbelief. In response, Rylan just shrugged.

  “So this... spirit,” Tamina started. “Or suspected spirit, anyway. It—she—suddenly changes the sense of direction she’s conveying, to point you towards the Equipment Dungeon instead of the bubble. You enter it regardless, only for her to somehow manipulate Ethereon, forcing the choice of Skill for you, and then later the reward selection, all to get you... Arphin. And she went through all that trouble, just so that he could deliver a vision of you as a foghorn. Do I have that right?”

  “A memory from a foghorn,” Rylan corrected. “Most likely meant to show me the way into that underground place.”

  “Right,” Tamina replied dryly. “All we have to do is find the right pile of rubble. Honestly, I’m still stuck on the part where Maris interfered with the operation of a Dungeon.”

  “So Maris tricked Ethereon,” Soren whispered, waving it off. “Big deal! Let’s be honest; Ethereon’s either not paying attention all that much, or it's not that smart.”

  Rylan cringed. “You sure it’s wise to say that out loud?”

  Soren shrugged. “My grandmother speaks quite irreverently to and about Ethereon, and she remains unsmote. I’m not too worried about it. More importantly, there has to be a more useful clue in your vision. You said you didn’t recognise Yuel until afterwards, because the foghorn didn’t understand what humans were, right? So what else did you see in there that you couldn’t recognise from its point of view?”

  Rylan frowned. That was a good question, but a hard one to answer. The foghorn had mostly been focused on its herd, and the ‘juicy greens’ it had been chewing. Rylan could probably identify the species of some of the plants if he thought hard about it, but he doubted that would be too helpful. As he started shaking his head, however, he recalled something, and froze.

  There had been something else. Something big, green, and frustratingly inedible.

  Rylan’s eyes widened as he recalled what it looked like. “There was a statue!” he blurted out. “A green statue of... of a person riding... something? I think it had... wheels, like a cart—no, a chariot!”

  “Excellent!” Soren exclaimed, prompting Tamina to shush him, after which he continued in a whisper. “A green statue... I’ve actually seen one or two in the city centre, but none that resemble your description.”

  “And I guess you two think we should go looking for it,” Tamina grumbled. “What if it’s all a trap? What if this spirit wants to possess you or something?”

  “Possessions aren’t a real thing,” Soren replied, waving her off. “There have been no confirmed cases, just a bunch of myths and scary stories. But no, I don’t think we should go looking for it; I’ll do the looking. We’re doing a sweep through the city centre anyway. Now that I know what to look out for, it’s just a matter of time, really.”

  “You don’t think we should sneak out to go looking at night?” Rylan tried.

  “Definitely not,” Tamina replied flatly.

  “I still think it’s too risky,” Soren added apologetically. “Besides, there’s no real rush, right? We can’t leave until we find some Aetherium anyway. Anyway, for now, the best thing we can do is get some proper sleep. After all, we have Dungeons to conquer!”

  Rylan let out a sigh, but nodded. Still, he silently promised himself that, if it was starting to look like they would leave before he’d found Maris, he’d sneak out to go look for her. On his own, if need be.

  After all, he’d promised himself he’d clear his debts. And now that he had Arphin, the debt he owed Maris had only become that much greater.

  In the morning, Arphin greeted Rylan with his customary cheer. Rylan groggily checked the blade’s mana charge, and found it to be about three-quarters full, equating to about 2.3 points. This showed that Arphin indeed generated his own mana, albeit slowly.

  Upon leaving the tent, they were informed by a cheery Yuel that Ezra had, in fact, made it through the night. And thus, there was nothing impeding the captain from planning an expedition to the Dungeons they’d discovered.

  After an extra-hearty breakfast, said excursion was rapidly organised. Soren was coming to delve the Equipment Dungeon, and it sounded like the captain planned to do both the Equipment and the Challenge Dungeon in one go.

  Rylan supposed she was more than ready for it.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Though Tamina had mentioned that the Challenge Dungeon tailored its trial to the person who entered it—which apparently included scaling the difficulty to their grade—Rylan had little doubt that an experienced Quinthar like Captain Hammermore would be able to overcome whatever it threw at her.

  Rylan, on the other hand, still had some preparing to do, and thus was only coming to help Tamina guide the way.

  Specifically, Tamina had explained to him that, unlike with an Equipment Dungeon, in a Challenge Dungeon you were allowed to bring your own gear. Which meant Rylan could bring and use Arphin, an advantage he didn’t want to miss out on for a lack of practice with his brand-new friend.

  Tamina herself, however, didn’t express much interest in entering the Challenge Dungeon. Soren was quick to speculate that she’d either need permission to enter, or wouldn’t be allowed to keep the reward even if she did.

  Rylan tactfully decided not to ask. Her Contract probably wouldn’t permit an answer anyway.

  Ultimately, they set out with a group of five—all four Quinthar and Yuel—making their way over to where Tamina had left a pile of rocks to mark the start of their path into the fog.

  Rylan naturally kept an eye out for any green statues along the way, but they didn’t really cross through the city centre, instead moving around it in a shallow arc.

  Upon entering the fog, the tingles merely pointed Rylan back towards the bubble, so they indeed had to rely on Tamina’s markings, which consisted simply of large arrows scratched into moss-covered walls and boulders.

  They made their way to the building and down to the basement unimpeded, the eerie glow of the portals welcoming them into the ancient sanctum.

  “All right,” the captain started with her customary shark-like grin, her hungry eyes never moving off the silver portal into the Equipment Dungeon as she took off her hammer and put it down on the floor. “I’m going in first.”

  Yuel coughed, ‘subtly’ nudging her arm.

  She let out a long-suffering sigh, turned around and performed an actual curtsy. “My apologies. I obviously meant to say: would you mind terribly if I went first, milord Thistlethorn?”

  “Not in the slightest, my Lady Baroness,” Soren said with a slight smile and a flawless bow. “It will be my honour to await your triumphant return.”

  Captain Hammermore shot Yuel a look that seemed to ask ‘Happy now?’ The blond former pirate just beamed at her, miming the act of wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

  Shaking her head and muttering to herself, she strode into the shimmering light of the portal, and they settled in to wait.

  It didn’t take long, as within ten minutes, she came back out sporting a big grin and an even bigger hammer.

  Its shaft appeared to be made of regular steel—albeit the shiniest steel Rylan had ever laid eyes on—but the smoothly bevelled head had a reddish-brown tint, and was absolutely covered in white-glowing runes.

  Rylan recognised the material instantly, as he’d walked around with an anklet made of the stuff for over five seasons—close to a year. Deepmetal. And not a little bit of it either. That hammer had to weigh a ton, and it would only grow heavier if she charged it with mana.

  Rylan couldn’t help but wonder how many points she had invested in Strength. Her biceps were rather impressive, now that he was looking, but that didn’t tell him anything, as the way Attributes enhanced people’s abilities was purely spiritual.

  Yuel was the one who finally asked the question on everyone’s lips. “So, captain... what grade is it?”

  The captain’s grin only widened. “B-grade.”

  Rylan’s eyes widened as he took it in once more. So that’s what B-grade looks like... no wonder it has so many runes; it has two runeworks!

  After they all congratulated her and ogled the runegear for an appropriate amount of time, it was Soren’s turn. Despite himself, Rylan felt a flicker of worry as his friend sauntered up to the Dungeon.

  He knew it was silly, as the Equipment Dungeon truly seemed to be safe. Even falling off the platforms apparently just got you sent outside, so about the worst injury Soren could get was a bruised ego, if he was forced to return empty-handed.

  His worry made way for surprise when Soren unexpectedly sat down in front of the silver portal and... started taking off his boots. “What... what are you doing?”

  “What does it look like I’m doing?’ Soren returned as he stood up and put his boots aside. “I’m giving my toesies a good stretch, of course!”

  He then proceeded to do just that.

  “Well it looks like you’re planning to enter the Dungeon barefoot,” Rylan replied.

  “Also true!”

  Rylan opened his mouth again, but Tamina spoke up first. “He’s planning to pick Dancing, Ry. The Dungeon will provide him shoes to go with his Skill for the challenges.”

  “I just hope it has my size,” Soren mused. “I could always dance barefoot, I suppose.”

  Yuel flipped his hair over his shoulder and cocked his head aside. “So you’re not going for a rapier?”

  Soren shrugged, still stretching. “I only gained Fencing recently. Besides, I constantly use my shoes, and only rarely, if ever, my rapier.”

  Captain Hammermore let out a snort. “I suppose a fancy pair of dancing shoes would be more useful to you once we get back. You’ll be the talk of any gala you attend.”

  “Exactly!” Finished with his stretches, Soren threw back a wink at Rylan, then confidently stepped into the portal.

  Rylan shook his head. It still felt bonkers to him to choose a pair of shoes over the kind of weapon he’d always dreamt about as a kid, but he had a begrudging respect for the decision nonetheless.

  I stand corrected. The worst thing that could happen is that he comes back empty-footed.

  Thankfully, even that worry was ungrounded, as about fifteen minutes later, Soren came strutting out with a brand-new pair of pointy-toed shoes.

  Rylan’s brows rose at the sight of them. Far from the leather he’d been expecting, the shoes somehow appeared to be made of flexible strips of metal which shone and gleamed, and moreover, were carved with glowing white runes and studded with nodes of Aurorium that didn’t just give off a purple-reddish glow, but shone with a plethora of colours.

  Yuel let out a strangled gasp and dramatically fell to his knees. “Great Spirits... So—so fabulous! Oh, I might faint!”

  [Pssh,] Arphin scoffed. [They’re decent-looking, I guess, but those tips are barely sharp enough to stab with. And that big dumb hammer may be B-grade, but you’d see it coming miles away! You like me better, right Boss? Right?]

  ‘Of course I do, Arphin,’ Rylan sent back, trying not to let his exasperated amusement leak through. An insecure spiritgear... spirits help me.

  Either way, Yuel’s reaction certainly didn’t seem to help abate Soren’s ego. Rylan’s friend laughed as he struck a pose. “I know, right? They may be C-grade as runegear, but these are A-grade in fashion!” He sauntered over, his metallic shoes surprisingly quiet on the bare stone, and patronisingly patted the former pirate on the shoulder. “Tell you what, if you give me a foot rub back at the camp, I may let you polish them.”

  Yuel continued staring at the shoes, greed and affronted pride clearly warring over his face.

  Captain Hammermore let out a bark of laughter. “Hah. He’s really got your number, doesn’t he? What’s it gonna be, Yuel?”

  Yuel whipped his head around to the captain, looking at her as if she’d thrown him a lifeline. “Captain! I’ve always been your favourite, right? If you get a Pearl of Inspiration in the Challenge Dungeon, would you consider...”

  The captain shook her head exasperatedly. “You want to become a Quinthar just so you can enter a Dungeon in the hopes of obtaining a pair of shoes?! Unbelievable. You know, I was considering that possibility, but now that I understand your priorities, I’m thinking I’ll pass.”

  “Wait, you were considering it? For real?!” Yuel asked in surprise as she hefted her new hammer and started walking towards the golden Dungeon portal. “C-Captain?”

  She shot back one last disappointed look, then strode in without another word.

  Yuel remained frozen on his knees, then started looking around for help. “S-She knows I was just playing it up, right? Right?!”

  “Yeah... I’m sure she knows,” Soren said in a tone of voice that suggested he didn’t actually think that at all.

  Tamina just shrugged, and when Yuel’s pleading eyes met his, Rylan pityingly shook his head, fighting hard to keep the grin off his face. Then they both moved to crowd around Soren’s spiffy new shoes and study them, leaving Yuel to wallow in his self-inflicted misery.

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