I blurred into motion and drew Light of the Fearless in one smooth move, ready to lay the pain on the sorry monster that dared fuck with us. I’d just about had it with sudden appearances of overpowered enemies. I was gonna unleash everything I had in my vast arsenal on this fucker...

  Unfortunately, not every problem could be solved with a hack or a slash.

  The earthquake under our feet and the geysers that belched sulfur into the air seemed to be a natural phenomenon. There wasn’t a monster in sight.

  “Uh, Rogar?” I asked, fighting to stay on my feet. Rogar had failed at that task in the first few seconds, and was now on all fours. “How long do you think it’ll take to mine that ore?”

  “Mebbe a few hours,” Rogar shouted back, white-knuckling his battleax. I couldn’t blame him. If this was a normal quake, it was going on for an awfully long time. Worse, it was reshaping the landscape, pushing up rocks in certain places while swallowing other areas entirely.

  And while there were thankfully no skyscrapers to rain glass and metal on our heads, we could easily be swallowed up if we weren’t careful. Which, I supposed was the point. The whole damn cell wanted to kill us.

  Grabbing Rogar, I slung him over my shoulder, before jumping around, avoiding the protrusions, and doing my damndest to maintain my balance.

  It took every ounce of my concentration, but after a while, I managed to find my rhythm. Just that maintaining that seemed impossible. I’d already had several near misses, and sooner or later, I was gonna mess up.

  Congratulations! Grace has increased from 65 to 66.

  Hurray for silver linings. In a less dangerous setting, this would’ve made for some awesome training. If my Grace continued to improve at this rate, it wouldn’t be long at all before it maxed out.

  Unfortunately, that did nothing to solve our problem. I was starting to consider abandoning our plans and fleeing to another cell when the vibrations finally subsided.

  What remained was nothing like the flat landscape of before. We were surrounded by jagged hills and miniature mountains. Some of which protruded all the way up through the ceiling into the portion that had no gravity.

  “Well,” I said, staring up at one. “I guess we won’t have any trouble getting out of here, at least.”

  Rogar was happy to finally have his feet under him again. Any more jostling and I was pretty sure he’d have thrown up. The guy didn’t take to motion sickness well. Or, at all. A bit of miracle water calmed his stomach, saving us from that unfortunate outcome.

  “Well?” I said. “Where do we dig?”

  Rogar pointed to a nearby jutting formation of pitch-black rock that was studded with twinkling white flecks. They almost looked like stars up close. “We don’t have to,” he said. “That’s Voidsteel, mixed with traces of Aurorium, if I’m seeing things right.”

  My mouth hung open. Things had finally gone our way for once? We’d actually struck gold?

  Either we’d gotten incredibly lucky, or something was about to go horribly, terribly wrong. I supposed we were about to find out.

  We were not lucky.

  The earthquakes happened every fifteen minutes, and lasted for ten. Not a lot of time to mine, especially when each quake usually erased the work we’d done. We’d inevitably find new protrusions with the metals we were after, but owing to how exotic and durable those metals were, it was slow-going.

  That was, until I realized that the right combination of dirt and nearby rocks kicked up from the quake made for a near ideal explosive.

  Digging was for normies. Blowing stuff up? That was where it was at.

  The trick was first etching a narrow hole into the rock with the tip of our pickaxes, about four inches deep. Then, I’d just put my hand up to the hole and [Launch]. The tiny space, coupled with the insane force from my ability and its quirk that things coming out couldn’t be stopped, pulverized the ejected stones and rocks. Which, in turn, blew apart the metal-rich ore like I’d just set off a stick of dynamite.

  Well, I say rich, but Rogar pointed out that Voidsteel required a lot of smelting and refining. When processed, even a big pile of the stuff would yield barely enough for a small blade—if that. To say nothing of Aurorium. The situation was even worse. It seemed only high-ranking dungeons had dense veins of the stuff.

  There wasn’t much I could do about that, though. Having any of these metals felt like a win. They weren’t things that could be bought in stores, and they were essential for making the best equipment.

  The only downside to my approach was I wasn’t immune to the blast, and my suit started taking damage. Nothing I could do about that, though. I’d just have Rogar repair it once we were done with the Trial.

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  Which was soon, hopefully. I’d barely had time to recover from the Cataclysm Dungeon before we decided to go on this delve. I was looking forward to some R&R before Aerion and I headed out to the elven forest.

  I was in the middle of daydreaming about hot baths when the next series of tremors kicked off. Thankfully, it would be our last. We’d gathered a whole pile of the ultra-rare ore. Processing them into a form that could be carried out could wait until we were back with the rest of the group. I was so done with this place.

  Aerion eyed her fellow delvers warily.

  When Greg left, she sat down to meditate, having spent another 5 points in Dominion and Cunning after her recent level up, bringing her ceiling up to 64 and 25, respectively. She’d maxed out both, so the headroom was welcome, and if she needed, she still had 7 points in reserve to spend.

  Thus, Aerion had sat still, closing her eyes as she tried to focus on the various sounds around her. The sound of her heartbeat, her breathing… Richard and Philip, whispering—clearly gossiping—about something.

  She only picked up bits and pieces, but the word ‘she’ came up more than a few times. Being the only female party member, and perhaps the only woman in this whole castle, Aerion found her concentration slipping.

  Some might’ve called it good training. Aerion called it annoying. If they were going to talk about her, couldn’t they move farther away? And why discuss her at all? Aerion wasn’t born yesterday—clearly, they were up to no good.

  And while Aerion thought highly of them both—especially Richard—Aerion had to admit, Philip was more of a mystery. While he seemed like a nice person, she’d never bothered to get close to him or Rogar. She’d never had to; they were just Greg’s friends and business partners. Or at least they were, until they decided to delve together.

  Aerion was never very good at making friends. She wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to—!?

  Aerion’s ears twitched. The sounds of approaching footsteps destroyed the last strands of meditative concentration she had.

  Relenting, she opened her eyes. “Yes? Is something the matter?”

  “Say, Aerion… We should chat,” Richard said.

  Aerion gestured to the grassy patch in front of her. “What’s this all about?” she asked.

  “Well, first, allow me to preface this by saying that I care about you and Greg,” Richard said. “You’re both dear friends to me. My truest friends on Axius.”

  Aerion nodded. “I value your friendship as well, Richard,” Aerion replied. “And… yours as well, Philip,” she added.

  Her hesitation must have shown, because Philip returned her words with a wry smile. “It’s no secret we’re not all that close. And yet, you’ve saved my life more than once in the past days. I’ve nothing but gratitude for you, which is why I feel we must have this conversation.”

  Aerion was beginning to grow suspicious now. “Is this serious?”

  “No.” “Yes,” Philip and Richard said at the same time.

  “Er, well—not in the way you’re thinking, most likely,” Philip corrected, scratching his head.

  “It’s about Greg, Aerion,” Richard said. “Specifically, your relationship with him.”

  “Oh. Oh…”

  Richard held up both palms. “Now, it’s not our business to meddle in the affairs of others—and normally, I wouldn’t. But as I said, I care about the two of you. We both do. And sometimes, friends need to have hard conversations with their friends, for the benefit of everyone.”

  Aerion rolled her eyes. “I’m not a child, Richard. No need to, what is it you say? Beat around the bush? This is about the, er, argument Greg and I had earlier, isn’t it?”

  Philip scratched his nose. “Well, er,”

  “I understand completely,” Aerion said, bowing her head. “Allow me to apologize for that. As a delving party, we place our lives in each others’ hands. A petty argument may seem trivial, but here, it could lead to mistakes during a fight. Mistakes that may very well get one or more of us killed. You have my sincerest apology.”

  “That… wasn’t what we were talking about, Aerion,” Richard said, looking somewhat embarrassed. Aerion couldn’t fathom why he of all people would come across that way, however. She was the one who deserved the shame. Well, Greg did, if she was honest. But Aerion wasn’t raised to shift the blame. Regardless of who was at fault, the team dynamics suffered.

  Aerion found herself growing irritated. Just thinking about Greg sparked all sorts of unwanted emotions these days.

  “This isn’t working,” Philip said with a sigh. “You’ll have to spell it out for her, I’m afraid.”

  Richard cringed, prompting Philip to put a hand on his shoulder. “Friend, this was your idea. Best you see it through.”

  Richard massaged his forehead. “S’ppose you’re right. Though I must admit, I am regretting it now.”

  “I suppose they’re perfect for each other, in that way…”

  “In what way?” Aerion frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Aerion,” Richard said, looking her in the eyes. “This might come as a bit of a surprise to you, considering his recent behavior… but, er, Greg likes you. Romantically, that is.”

  Aerion’s eyes flew wide, and her heart began pumping like mad. “E-excuse me!? That’s—that's not possible. You must be mistaken.”

  Greg hadn’t shown even a hint of attraction toward her. In fact, he’d brushed off each of her advances, time after time. Bold advances, at that!

  “I can see this is going to take some doing,” Richard said with a sigh.

  Philip’s lips warped into an evil smile. “Good thing we’ve got all the time in the world, eh?”

  “Right you are, friend. So, then, Aerion. The first thing you have to understand about Greg is he's about as dense as lead...”

  Aerion squirmed in front of the two men. She had a sneaking feeling she was in for a very uncomfortable few hours.