The moment Sulika’s foot landed on the other side of the portal, she immediately raised her wand and pointed it ahead of her.

  After a second of scanning the dark room for any sign of threat, and finding none, Sulika lowered her wand and took a step aside to allow the others to leave the portal.

  The room was dark, but thanks to a shattered glass dome that used to be the roof, she could see enough to get a feel for her surroundings. Starting with how big the room was - It was huge, far larger than the building she lived in.

  The room was circular with a diameter of about three-hundred-feet. The glass dome ceiling was approximately a hundred and fifty feet high at its lowest point, and close to two hundred at its highest.

  Sulika could barely make out the twenty darkened braziers mounted halfway up the walls. She heard the next person exit the portal and pointed her wand at the first brazier - “Evoon: Flare.” She intoned, causing a small ember to appear above the tip of her wand.

  She said nothing as the next person exited the portal. Instead, she slowly rotated her body while pointing her wand at each brazier in turn. Each brazier caused a new ember to appear around the tip of her wand, and by the time she’d pointed at all twenty, a halo of fire was slowly circling the tip.

  With all braziers accounted for, Sulika flicked her wand and released her hold on the mana she’d been gathering - Twenty lights flashed through the darkness, leaving trails of fire in their wake, connecting the tip of Sulika’s wand with twenty lit braziers.

  As pleasant orange light filled the room, Sulika and the others found themselves standing in the middle of a mostly empty room. A few dusty crates scattered here and there, but otherwise, nothing stood out.

  The room was made entirely of a uniform gray stone. The way the floor connected with the wall gave Sulika the impression the room hadn’t been constructed piece by piece. Rather, it felt as if the entire room was carved from a single, massive stone - like a mountain’s peak or the rim of a volcano?

  She really hoped it wasn’t the second one. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the smell of sulfur out of your hair?

  Before she could get too carried away by the idea, she noticed another detail of the room: deep grooves created intricate patterns along the floor and walls - This set off alarm bells inside Sulika’s head.

  She’d seen such markings before.

  Back when she was still a rookie hunter under another captain’s command, they’d been called to close a temple type dungeon that had grooves similar to these. In that dungeon, the grooves had been created by the mining teams harvesting all the silver veins built into the floors and walls.

  However, no mining teams had come to this dungeon yet. So, assuming the grooves were caused by a similar action… Then they weren’t alone, and she wasn’t just talking about the monsters.

  “Eyes up, everyone.” Sulika whispered as she started walking towards the only door she could see.

  “This looks like a temple type.” Ralocan muttered, a chill running down his spine.

  He hated temple type dungeons.

  Temple types usually meant one of three things: undead such as ghosts, zombies, skeletons, possibly even a vampire or two. Giant spiders or some other horrifying insect type monsters. Or construct types - Golems, automatons, puppets, moving statues, etc.

  Ralocan was fine with the undead. Most couldn’t survive the slightest exposure to Cyndarr’s divine flames, so they were a non-issue. But insect types were… Disturbing, to say the least. And construct types were a pain in the rear to deal with. They felt no pain, knew no fear, and couldn’t understand mercy.

  They were unfeeling killing machines that cared not for destroyed limbs and broken bodies - Instead, you had to specifically find their ‘heart’ and destroy the formation surrounding it. Otherwise, they’d never stop coming after you.

  “That’s my guess.” Sulika replied and motioned for Derrik to take the lead - as was his role as the vanguard.

  “Aye. Moving up.” He jogged around her right side and took position at the front of the line with Rosa in hand.

  They approached the door slowly, taking extra care to check for tripwires or any enchantments that could alert the locals to their presence.

  Derrik placed his hand on the metallic pull ring and waited for Sulika’s signal.

  Sulika pulled the detection crystal from the pocket of her jacket and stepped up to the door. She carefully stuck the needle in any gap she could find, waiting for any sign of magic… But after a minute of this, the crystal hadn’t so much as twinkled.

  Did they really not put a detection spell on the door?

  Sulika returned the crystal to its pocket and stepped back, giving Derrik some room to get the door open.

  “Anything?” Zarud asked.

  Sulika shook her head and grabbed her wand. “But that doesn’t mean we’re in the clear.”

  Ralocan, Derrik, and Zarud all nodded in understanding.

  “Enmet: Dome of Silence” Sulika intoned before drawing a circle in the air with her wand - A semi-transparent dome of mana snapped into place around the door. It lingered for a half-second before fully fading from view, disappearing as if it’d never existed in the first place.

  “Alright.” Sulika said and nodded at Derrik, who nodded his agreement.

  Since he was inside a [Dome of Silence] that completely eliminated sound waves. Derrik couldn’t reply verbally, so nodding was the best he could do.

  The stocky dwarf took hold of the handle with both hands and threw his weight into opening the door.

  One tug - The heavy door refused to budge.

  Two tugs - The door shook but did not open.

  Three tugs - The seal is broken; the door begins to slide across the stone floor.

  A few seconds later, the door was open, and they were outside…

  The sky was the usual disgusting mix of black and sickly purple present in all dungeons, and the all-encompassing smell of rot that accompanied it.

  The ground beneath their feet was covered in a thick layer of ash and snow, but Sulika could feel the rocks beneath her feet. That, combined with the unobstructed view of the sky, confirmed her theory that they were on top of a mountain, rather than inside a volcano.

  In front of them loomed a massive, Golden Temple that had been built precariously on the edge of a cliff that extended a few hundred feet away from the mountain.

  The temple’s entrance was a wide rectangle with thick, golden pillars supporting the triangular roof. A gigantic dome loomed above the entrance, seemingly covering the rest of the temple.

  It wasn’t the most elaborate design she had ever seen, but the amount of gold on display made her palms inch.

  Just one pillar from the front of the temple could probably allow her entire team to retire and live like kings for the rest of their lives. As for the rest of the temple... Well, it was likely worth more than the entire Island of Azuris.

  Had they not been on a time limit with the risk of a dungeon break looming over their heads, Sulika would’ve gladly started shoving her pockets full of gold.

  Sulika swallowed her desires and strode out of the door. “Minds on the mission, boys. I know it’s tempting… gods is it tempting - but we can’t afford any distractions until we’re sure the dungeon won’t break. If it does, then it won’t matter how much gold we have. The dead can’t enjoy unimaginable wealth.” Sulika told them.

  She watched as her voice registered in her teams’ minds one by one, each one snapping out of a greed induced stupor.

  They’d all been just as fascinated as she was. All that wealth just… lying there... Ready for the taking.

  She shook her head again and resumed walking towards the marble steps.

  “Zarud, do you think you could -” Ralocan spoke from a few paces behind Sulika.

  “Not a chance in hell. You’d need a crane to move one of those pillars.” Zarud grumbled.

  “I’m not saying we take the whole thing. Maybe just the broken one, over there.” Sulika didn’t need to see him to know which pillar he was referring to; at the far end of the entrance was a broken pillar. Half of it was still attached to the roof, but the other half had been broken - shattered beyond any hope of repair. It left huge chunks of gold scattered across the ground in front of the temple.

  “Well... I could probably bring back some of those chunks - Provided our captain gave the okay.”

  “So long as we deal with the dungeon first, I don’t care what you grab on the way out... Because I’m definitely grabbing some of that gold to take home.” Sulika replied, her voice implied she was joking, but the look in her eyes told them she was very serious.

  They reached the staircase and quickly ascended them - once again, taking extra care to watch for any traps or monsters that could’ve been hidden nearby.

  They hadn’t seen any yet, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. In Sulika’s experience, they were almost always traps or monsters hidden near the portal. It was the dungeon’s first line of defense against the hunters who sought to close them.

  Since there was almost zero chance of that defensive line not existing. It meant the traps were either hidden by magic or buried beneath the floor, waiting to be triggered by a pressure plate or some other sensor.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Now that she was considering the possibilities, there was one other option. The worst outcome of all - they’d appeared in a place that didn’t need traps to protect the heart of the dungeon.

  Though she hated to think about it. The farther they walked, the more likely the last option seemed to become.

  However, what Sulika didn’t realize was there had been traps, and there were ‘guardians’ waiting to protect the temple at any cost. But the traps had been disabled by scavengers before they started looting the temple.

  As for the scavengers themselves… A gust of wind hit Sulika’s face, forcing her to raise a hand to keep the snow out of her eyes. As the gusts passed them by, it took with it wide swaths of snow from the ground in front of the temple.

  Had Sulika, or any of her team, looked back at the path they’d taken from the portal room to the temple entrance. They would have seen what secrets lay buried in that darkened snow.

  However, they were too focused on the possibility of traps ahead of them, to care what lay behind them. And by the time they reached the top of the stairs, the falling snow had taken back its secrets - forevermore hiding them within the shadows of the dungeon.

  Eventually, these secrets would be forgotten - washed away by the sands of time until not even their families could retain their memory. Men, women, people one and all. Didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, young or old, famous or infamous. They would eventually be forgotten - such was the fate of all who fell within a dungeon.

  Sulika led her team through the front door of the temple and down a long, straight corridor. While watching for traps, demons, and anything else that might try to take a bite out of them. The group was in awe at two things; the intricate details engraved on the walls and ceiling, and the gigantic cracks and holes throughout the corridor.

  “This place looks like a cannonball bounced around in here.” Sulika thought while peering into a hole in the wall that was about the size of her torso.

  A part of her wondered what was on the other side of that hole. But she’d been in enough dungeons to know you did not stick any part of your body inside a hole you couldn’t see the end of.

  “The writing looks like Kharrak, but the words are all wrong.” Derrik muttered.

  “You’d be the expert on that, master short one.” Ralocan replied.

  “Do you think you’ll still be able to make short jokes if I break both your kneecaps?”

  “Probably. Since even if I were bound to a wheelchair, I’d still be taller than you.”

  “Hmph. Taller, and three times as ugly.”

  “That’s not what your mother said last night.”

  “Means nothing. My mother thinks orcs are good looking, too. Ask Zarud.”

  “Hey, don’t involve me in this mess… I will admit though, your mother has good taste. Probably explains why I see her at the brothel so often.”

  “Nah. That’s not why. She just has to pick up my sister from work.”

  Zarud snorted and quickly covered his mouth to avoid making too much noise. Derrik grinned up at him, clearly enjoying himself despite the circumstances.

  “Could you knock off the jokes until we’re no longer at risk of, you know… Dying?” Sulika said. While she was glad the three of them got along, they didn’t have the luxury of relaxing just yet.

  “Sorry ma’am.”

  “Aye, my apologies.”

  “My bad.”

  “Thank you.” She sighed. “I understand the need to blow off some steam, but now’s really not the – Watch out!” Sulika shouted and threw herself to the side, allowing the first blast to race past her and blow another hole in the wall.

  “See what I mean!?” Sulika shouted.

  “O’ Noble Cyndarr, keeper of the flame most radiant, hear my despaired plea. Grant me an impenetrable shield with which to protect mine allies. As your devoted servant, I beseech you: Elemental Shie-” Before he could finish the spell, Zarud was forced to leap towards him.

  He dragged Derrik and Ralocan with him as he moved out of the way of a second, more powerful beam of purple energy that pierced the mana Ralocan had gathered and punched a hole through the wall behind them.

  Sulika watched in horror as the gathered mana pulsed once… twice… three times - Each pulse causing it to grow more unstable.

  Normally, divine magic was the most stable source of mana you could find. However, that was a double-edged sword. Because they’re so stable, each spell is able to contain far more mana than any other.

  The more mana a spell contains, the more violent the outburst becomes when it finally gives in.

  The corridor shook violently as a fourth pulse broke the wall apart. Huge pieces of gold and marble landed on the floor just inches away from their feet, and it didn’t take a dwarf to know the ceiling was about to collapse.

  Acting quickly – Zarud dashed forward and grabbed Sulika by her belt. Spinning quickly to build momentum, he tossed her the final fifteen feet to the archway at the end of the corridor.

  Sulika didn’t fight the throw. Instead, she went along with it and used the momentum she’d gained to come out of the throw swinging.

  She rolled out of the throw, returning to her feet in an instant. “Abaas: Shield!” She shouted and lifted her wand in time to block a third blast.

  The mana splashed against her shield before branching out to hit the wall around the archway.

  “Hurry!” She shouted as a fourth blast hit her shield and forced her to take a step back.

  While Sulika was shielding them from bombardment; Zarud seized the opportunity to lift Derrik by his pants and haul ass to the exit with Ralocan hot on his heels.

  They could hear the out-of-control magic hissing and popping, which spurred them to run faster than they ever believed possible.

  As Zarud reached the end of the corridor, Sulika shoved her shield forward to clear the archway of hostile mana. Zarud leapt over Sulika whilst holding onto Derrik, the two of them crashed onto the floor hard enough to knock the wind from their lungs and force them to drop their weapons or risk accidentally stabbing someone they shouldn’t.

  O’ Noble Cyndarr, keeper of the flame most radiant, hear my despaired plea.” Ralocan said as he shoved Sulika through the archway.

  “Grant me an impenetrable shield with which to protect mine allies.” He turned his back to their attacker and held his hands out towards the unstable mana.

  “As your devoted servant, I beseech you: Elemental Shield!” He formed a triangle formation with his fingers and - BOOM! The mana detonated, resulting in a deafening explosion and created a sixty-foot-wide fireball that ripped apart half the corridor down to its foundations and blasted the rest out onto the mountain.

  The hunters quickly climbed to their feet and looked around for the source of the magic that’d attacked them.

  The inside of the temple was a wreck. Half the walls had collapsed, over sixty percent of the roof was just… gone, somehow. And all that remained behind the temple’s walls was a single circular room with two people standing back-to-back in the center.

  The first was a tall figure in dark robes. A pitch-black veil covered their head, fully concealing their identity from any who got too close.

  The other figure was something altogether different.

  The creature was something out of Sulika’s worst nightmare; Eight-feet tall with a pair of silver-plated horns curling back over its bald head.

  It was covered in small scales whose color reminded Sulika of freshly spilled blood. A suit of silver armor covered its thickly muscled body, leaving only its head, large bat wings, and spiked tail uncovered.

  Six beady black eyes with pupils that seemed to contain the flames of the underworld within them, stared directly at Sulika and her team. But what she saw in those eyes wasn’t malice – it couldn’t even be called interest.

  The creature was looking at them the same way she’d looked at an ant that had wandered into her home. And she had the distinct feeling it could squash her with just as much effort.

  However, there was something else in those black eyes. Something that stole away any fear Sulika might’ve felt at the creature’s presence.

  It was fear. The creature was being devoured by it.

  “Did you see which way he went?” The creature asked the hooded figure, its voice irritating Sulika’s ears.

  While the voice itself sounded fine, if higher than she would’ve imagined. It carried a strange undertone that bore directly into her brain.

  “N-No, lord Bozzen -”

  “Do Not Speak My Name!” The Demon roared. Its anger caused blue flames to erupt from its scalp, igniting the space behind its horns with a fire hot enough to be felt by Sulika and co from over thirty feet away.

  Sulika didn’t want to imagine how the cultist must have felt being next to such anger.

  The hooded figure shrank away from the creature “Forgive me. Please, my lord. I-I didn’t mean to insult you.”

  It took a few seconds, but Bozzen did calm down. As he calmed, the flame atop his head receded like a hairline, eventually disappearing beneath the demon’s scalp.

  “Never mind that. Just keep your eyes peeled, he could be anywhere.” The creature said, his voice agitated to the point of mania. It clearly didn’t want to be here – then again, neither did Sulika, especially not after seeing how scared that thing was.

  “We need to leave, now.” Sulika whispered. She didn’t know why they’d stopped attacking them, but they needed to take whatever opportunity they could to regroup.

  Attracted by her voice, the creature’s eyes locked onto her - Then slowly slid to a spot above Sulika’s head – There was a clear change in its expression, going from a mild annoyance to curiosity, then confusion, then… Fear?

  “What did you say the name of this world was?” The demon asked quickly, rounding on the hooded figure and grabbing their robe in one large, scaly hand.

  Bozzen lifted the cultist as easily as Sulika would a slice of bread, and held him at eye level, leaving his feet to dangle some three feet off the floor.

  “I don’t know, my Lord!” The hooded figure shrieked. “Mag - Mog - Mak- I don’t know! I can’t remember!” He choked out.

  “Think, mortal. Think! Use that pea brain of yours and give me a name.” Bozzen snapped.

  “Mag, ma… Mag ársa! It’s Mag ársa!”

  Bozzen’s eyes went wide… The fear slowly drained from his face, replaced with a tired acceptance that Sulika did not like.

  He stumbled backward as if he’d been struck and released the hooded figure without a care. The figure collapsed to his knees and started coughing, his body straining to suck down as much oxygen as possible.

  Sulika noticed the sudden change in the demon’s demeanor but couldn’t understand it. What was so important about the name of this dungeon?

  “You idiots doomed us all.” Bozzen said, his voice tired. “Everything we’ve done, all the work we did to seal this place away… And you IDIOTS -” He screamed before whipping around and grabbing the figure by the collar of his robe. “Have ruined it!”

  “I- I was just following the young master’s orders…” The figure gasped.

  “And look where that got us.” Bozzen growled, his eyes glowing with barely suppressed malice.

  The figure screamed in terror and flailed against Bozzen’s arm. Sulika and her team readied their weapons for battle. She doubted they would win in a fight against Bozzen, but they couldn’t let the figure be killed without finding out what the hell was happening!?

  A pair of bloodshot, crimson eyes flicked towards Sulika at that moment - “Send me back! Please!” Bozzen pleaded, his voice leaning more towards a cry for help than a command - A tidal wave of bloodlust washed over everyone in the room, driving them to their knees and allowing the now frantic cultist to escape its grasp and flee.

  Sulika and her team, despite not being the target of the bloodlust, weren’t unaffected by it either. All four of them felt the air knocked from their lungs, and their vision darkened at the edges.

  Sulika blinked through the blurry vision and focused her eyes on Bozzen… Or rather, on the Giant standing behind him; Crimson hair that flowed over his shoulders like liquid magma, a heavily muscled frame poorly hidden by a ragged robe, and those eyes… Incandescent golden eyes that seemed to be simultaneously looking at everything and also nothing.

  An impossible weight was crushing the life from Sulika’s lungs, keeping her on the edge between consciousness and blissful unconsciousness. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and could barely breathe. She thought this pressure would never end - and then it was just… Gone.

  The bloodlust evaporated into nothing, taking with it the pressure on her chest and the fog covering her eyes.

  Sulika didn’t know when, but she’d collapsed onto her stomach with her face hidden beneath her hair. Her arms were shaking, her legs were weak, and her stomach was in knots. But even so, she pushed herself off the floor until she was able to sit on her legs.

  “I apologize for losing myself. It was unbecoming for our first meeting.” A pleasantly deep voice reached Sulika’s ears, prompting her to drag her eyes away from the floor to land on a pair of golden eyes with slitted pupils.

  The Giant was kneeling in front of her with his left hand extended towards her - Sulika flinched away from the hand in surprise and jumped back. Zarud, Ralocan, and Derrik rushed to her side and placed themselves between her and the terrifying giant.

  The giant didn’t shy away from their drawn weapons. Hell, it barely looked like he realized they had drawn weapons.

  “Greetings.” The giant smiled and said,“I am Aldritch of clan Blackshield. A pleasure to meet you all.”

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