The journey toward the dungeon was as smooth as the rest of our travel. Traveling had been safe so far, which was good to see. Not that we let our guard down, though Arsted said he’d stand guard for most of the night and have us watch for two hours. It turns out he only needs two hours of sleep to be refreshed; how nice must that be?

  Like Arsted said, it took us three days to reach the dungeon. As we got closer to the entrance, I noticed tents were propped up. A group of adventurers had beat us here. If Arsted was right, there should be plenty for both us and the other party, assuming they didn’t make a fuss about us going in.

  I’d hate to turn back empty handed because another party got here first. It was best to worry about that only if the other party kicked up a fuss. If not, we were going to go in. The outside of the dungeon looked like an entrance to an old cave. There was one entrance, and it led underground. The entrance itself had to be thirty feet tall and wide enough for an army to enter. I hoped that wasn’t a bad sign.

  “I can’t wait!” Renna couldn’t contain herself any longer and let out a loud yell of excitement. She squeezed me a bit too tightly since we were sharing a horse, with me controlling the reins. “Thorian, are you excited?”

  “Of course,” I said, trying my best to sound as excited as her.

  We stopped in front of the dungeon. The first thing I noticed was that there was only one person near the tents. He must be a watcher, if I had to guess. Why else would he be out here and not with the party that went inside?

  “What are two children and a demon doing here?” the man asked once we stopped and dismounted.

  “We’re here to explore the dungeon,” I said.

  “Aren’t you a little young?”

  “They’ll be fine,” Arsted said.

  “What are you doing out here alone?” I asked.

  “Ah, well…” the man started turning red in the face. “I got separated from my party by stepping on a trap like an idiot. I didn’t want to explore by myself, so I came out here to wait for them to return.”

  “How long have you been waiting?” I asked.

  “Two days.”

  That must be normal, because he didn’t look concerned about that. It was a good thing we brought enough food to last us almost two weeks. I was expecting us to stay in the dungeon for a few hours and get out, but it sounded like we’d be staying the night if we wanted to get treasure.

  “Will your party be mad if we go in?” I asked.

  “Huh? Why would they be mad?” the man said.

  “Thorian, dungeons are open to everyone. Nobody can claim a dungeon for themselves. Some try, but that usually ends badly for them. There is no need to worry about trouble,” Arsted said.

  “If you say so,” I said. I wasn’t experienced in this manner and wasn’t going to argue. If Arsted wasn’t worried, then I wasn’t going to worry about it. “Let’s get started, then!”

  “Yes!” Renna shouted.

  “Be careful in there. There are traps intended to separate you and summon monsters,” the man warned as we started walking toward the entrance.

  “Thanks. We’ll keep that in mind!” I said.

  We quickly tied the horses to a tree and made sure they had plenty of food and water. Once that was done, we walked into the dungeon.

  I’d expected the dungeon to be dark; instead, there were blue lights illuminating everywhere. I couldn’t tell what was making the blue lights and put it down to some sort of magic. It was like walking into ruins. There were a couple of statues of humanlike figures, except they had wings and horns.

  I won’t lie, my heart was starting to beat faster the deeper we got. There was a bit of excitement, but mainly nerves. I didn’t know what to expect, and I hated that. Renna was not that way; she was a bundle of curiosity. She was getting a little too far forward at times. It made me nervous.

  “Renna, stop!” Arsted said.

  Renna stopped in her tracks and looked back. Arsted walked over to her and pointed at the stone she had almost stepped on. “That’s a trap to summon monsters,” Arsted said.

  “How can you tell?” Renna asked.

  “Look closely at the tile; you’ll see there is a small mark on it,” Arsted said, pointing at a black curved line. It looked like a scuff mark, except on closer inspection I could see that this line was crafted.

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  “Wow, how did you realize that was a trap so fast?” Renna said.

  “Experience. I’ve been doing this for over two hundred years. I can also sense the mana residue from the tile,” Arsted said.

  Note to self, learn to sense mana. I thought to myself. That was good information to know. Arsted wasn’t going to be with us forever. Then I remembered I had a pen and paper and took those out and made a note to learn how to sense mana. I wrote this in English. For some reason I liked the thought of having notes nobody else in this world could read.

  “Stay focused, Thorian,” Arsted said. I quickly put away my pen and paper. “Danger can come out of nowhere in here.”

  “Understood, let’s keep going then.”

  We walked deeper into the dungeon. We walked for a while, then I heard something coming our way. Arsted and Renna took out their swords while I stared in the direction where the noises were coming from. There was something running toward us, no, a few. Too much noise to know how much.

  The first one came rushing out. It was a creature with dark green skin standing on two legs, roughly six feet tall with both hands as sharp claws. Eight more came right behind him and were closing in on us fast.

  “Those are Kalmors,” Arsted said. “This dungeon must be strong to have them in this area.”

  Great, strong monsters and a strong dungeon. I created a couple of stone bullets and launched them at the Kalmors. To my surprise, the first Kalmor raised its claw to block the stone bullet. Instead of blocking, the bullet shot through its claw and through its chest, blasting green blood out the back, which sprayed onto another Kalmor, that caused it to slip and fall.

  I created two more stone bullets and launched them at two different Kalmors. This time, the Kalmors reacted by dodging the moment I launched the attack. The stone bullets shot into the darkness. Renna was done waiting and intercepted the first Kalmor. Her sword came crashing down on a Kalmor, who raised both its claws and blocked the attack, then pushed her back. A second Kalmor took that opportunity to swing its claws at her.

  Renna simply allowed herself to fall onto her back. The claw of the Kalmor hit air, giving Renna her chance. She thrust her blade and connected with the chest of the Kalmor. There was a screech and then it went limp. She quickly tore her blade out of the creature and nearly split the second one in half.

  The remaining five Kalmors screeched and ran past Renna, their eyes fixated on me. Arsted remained ready to defend me but made no move of his own. I placed my hand on the ground and summoned earth pillars. Two of the Kalmors were not prepared. They were squished like bugs when their bodies slammed into the ceiling. I followed up with a blast of lightning. One of the Kalmors dove in front and intercepted the lightning with its claws, then turned it back on me!

  “Oh shi—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence as Arsted pushed me aside and absorbed the lightning into his sword, somehow without getting hurt. He made his move, and the last three Kalmors were dead a second later.

  I got up and looked at the dead bodies. I could see why the Kalmors were dangerous: they adapted quickly after seeing an attack once. It was good to note that they could redirect spells like lightning; I’d need to be more careful of that in the future.

  “You both fought well,” Arsted said. He sheathed his sword and looked ahead; his eyes glowed green for a moment before returning to their original red color. “Remember this: any Kalmors you see in this dungeon know about the attacks we used. Each Kalmor shares a mind; they’ll expect these attacks next time we see them. That’s what makes them dangerous.”

  “I see. Thanks for the help.”

  “Sorry, I was too slow to catch up to any of them after they ran past,” Renna said.

  “You shouldn’t have broken formation. This is a good learning opportunity for you: never leave your position. If I hadn’t been here, Thorian would have been in grave danger,” Arsted said.

  “Y-you’re right,” Renna said, turning to me. “I’m sorry Thorian, I won’t let that happen again.”

  So that was why Arsted didn’t fight until I was in danger. He was teaching us and only stepping in when he deemed it necessary. While I would have preferred to cruise through this dungeon, Renna and I needed the experience.

  “Let’s keep moving, we’ve got a ways to go,” Arsted said.

  That’s what we did. As we moved deeper into the dungeon, we began seeing dead bodies. There were skeletons, along with some Kalmors that the other party had killed. “Hey, Arsted, how did those Kalmors not see the other party?” I asked after we came across another dead group of Kalmors.

  “Likely a summoning. Dungeons created by mana storms can have unpredictable behavior. Summoning monsters is a common one,” Arsted explained.

  “Good to know,” I said, making a note of that.

  The next hour was a cakewalk; we saw no monsters. There were a couple of passageways, which we chose at random. The first passage went either left or right. We chose left. The second was another left or right; we chose left again.

  “Is that a treasure chest?” Renna said, then bolted.

  “Renna, wait!” I said. But Renna ignored me. I’d bet all the coin I had that if Arsted said wait, she’d have stopped. Since he didn’t, I imagined there was no danger.

  I quickly ran to catch up with her and saw her open the chest. To my surprise, there was something inside. There was a purple crystal and a ring. Renna picked them both up and turned toward Arsted, who was standing over us.

  “How much is this crystal worth?” Renna asked.

  “Not much, that’s a common one found in dungeons. They usually go for five silvers,” Arsted said.

  “What about this ring?”

  Arsted took the ring and examined it. “This is nothing more than jewelry. You could get three silvers if you found the right merchant.”

  This treasure chest was a dud. Nine silvers wouldn’t be worth the journey if that was all we got out of this place. Luckily, that wasn’t likely. A thought occurred to me. “Arsted, do dungeons make chests?”

  “Dungeons themselves do not. A dungeon created by a mana storm will, at least when initially created. New chests are never created once the mana storm is over. As for why a mana storm would create treasures is beyond anyone’s understanding. Some theorize that treasures are stolen from someone’s home, while others think the mana storm copies what it has seen. I am not sure which one is more believable.”

  “Okay, well as long as we can make some money,” I said, and we continued walking.

  We didn’t make it very far before stopping. There were three ways we could go, except there were symbols above each entrance. One had a drawing of a Kalmor. Another had a drawing of a skeleton. The third had five lines, each of a different color. One line was red, blue, white, yellow and black.

  “We need to consider our choice carefully,” Arsted said.

  “Why’s that?”

  “One of these doors will lead us into a trap, one that will prove difficult to come out alive.”