“This has got to be one of the stranger things I’ve ever done,” Vin muttered, glancing at the two creatures flanking him as he made his way deeper into the forest. Other than Alka, most of his party was currently indisposed, but at least two of them had been in good enough condition to join him.

  An indignant squeak reminded him that Reginald had excellent hearing, and Vin winced, quickly apologizing to the annoyed rat. He shot a glance at the final member of their small party to make sure they weren’t offended as well, but it seemed as though Blossom truly was just a magical construct following orders.

  A while back Shia had taught him how to activate Blossom’s cat mode, and informed him that she’d instructed the cat to listen to his commands should she ever be out of commission. At the time, Vin had thought the elf was being a bit paranoid, but now he was thankful she’d had the foresight to prepare for something like this happening.

  Madam Trebella had given him specific instructions on where to find the materials and how to collect them, and Vin had been less than pleased to learn that he would almost certainly have to fight his way through a good handful of monsters in order to retrieve them. Naturally, the specific materials she needed for her ritual were found deep within a cave that was a known spawning point for many of the insect monsters roaming the forest.

  Having a magical wooden cat watching his back made him feel just a little bit better at the very least.

  “I don’t know, watching you stumble your way back to camp that second day, staring at a rock and mumbling to yourself about magic was pretty strange,” Alka said, using her sword to slice through some undergrowth blocking their path. The ghost had been rather angry ever since her conversation with Madam Trebella, and Vin was more than happy to let her get her anger out on the trees and bushes rather than any of the infernals.

  “Fair enough.” Vin realized he was once again toying with the dark gemstone secured around his neck and he scowled, forcing his hand back down to his side. “Hey, are you excited about getting the chance to slice up some monsters at least? Madam Trebella made it sound like the place was going to be chock full of them.”

  “I’d rather slice that stupid grin off her face,” Alka muttered, cutting her way through a small tree rather than just going around it. “Who does she think she is anyway? Threatening to trap me in a doll and chuck me in a closet? I’m a Slayer, Vin. A trained, killing machine. I can accept myself being bound to something dangerous like a sword, but a doll?” Alka grunted, shaking her head vigorously. “No way. Not in this life or the next.”

  “Wait seriously? It was the doll part that bothered you? Not the threat of being shoved in a dark closet for years?”

  “Are you kidding? One of those dumb apprentices would have me out of there within minutes,” Alka snorted. “No, it’s definitely the doll bit I can’t stand.”

  Vin couldn’t help but laugh at his friend’s ridiculousness, shaking his head as he double checked their directions and adjusted their course slightly. Since Madam Trebella had warned them that Alka's natural death mana could still interfere with the ritual if she got too close to him, the Slayer had busied herself by floating out ahead, killing whatever enemies dared to cross their path rather than risk echoing him. So far that consisted of two small monsters, each one some sort of giant butterfly thing that spat acid when it got close. Thankfully, the acid was entirely useless against the ghost as the burning globs just sailed straight through her, and Alka had killed both monsters with ease.

  On a more positive note, Vin was happy to learn he still gained experience for discovering new monsters at least! The realization that he hadn’t gotten anything for finding the town or the race of infernals had been disheartening. He’d grown quite used to the giant boosts from meeting new sentient creatures, so he was rather sad to see that one go.

  Thanks to Vin’s Mental Map and Alka leading the way, their small party managed to follow Madam Trebella’s directions without issue, finding themselves standing before a dark hole in the ground before they knew it.

  “This must be the place,” Vin said, staring into the mouth of the cave. Due to a quick bend only a few feet into the cave, he couldn’t really see what he was getting himself into. “She said it was entirely underground, so it has to be this.”

  “Creepy Witch sending you into a creepy cave,” Alka frowned, peering into the dark hole. “I don’t like this one bit.”

  “It’s not like we have much of a choice. Don’t forget, she could have just let us die,” Vin pointed out, approaching the cave entrance. Carefully lowering himself into the ground, he was startled when a notification popped up.

  New dungeon discovered! 5,000 exp gained.

  “What the hell? Alka, it’s a dungeon!”

  “What?” The ghost said, her brow shooting up as she shot over to him. “The Witch didn’t say anything about a dungeon. What do you-”

  Her question was cut short as Alka slammed into some sort of invisible wall, the startled ghost stunned as she reeled backwards, windmilling her arms in the air as if she’d suddenly forgotten how to float.

  “What the hell?!” Reaching carefully forward, Alka did what Vin could only describe as the greatest impression of a mime he’d ever seen. Pressing her hands against a wall that clearly wasn’t there, the ghost struggled to push forward, grimacing as she failed to make any progress.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Some sort of… barrier…” She muttered, finally giving up and drifting a few feet back. Raising her sword, she slashed forward at a few different angles, her frown only deepening as the blade failed to connect with anything.

  “It’s not a magical barrier or anything as far as I can tell… Which can only mean one thing.”

  “Dungeons are divine magic?” Vin asked, doing his best to stretch out his own magic senses. When he also failed to detect anything, he cast a quick Sense Magic, and was surprised when he actually got back a faint signal. “Strike that, not divine magic. Just super, super faint for some reason. But why?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine… A better question though, is why can’t I go through this one? It seems pretty similar to the barrier around the divine sanctum back at the citadel, and I didn’t have any issues entering that. So what makes dungeons so special?”

  “I’ll add it to the list of things to ask the Gods next time I see them,” Vin sighed, realizing he was going to need to start writing these things down before he forgot them. “Regardless, this doesn’t change what I have to do. It just makes it a whole hell of a lot more dangerous.”

  “Vin, you can’t honestly be planning to head into a dungeon of all things without me, right?” Alka laughed, waiting for him to crack a smile. Realizing he was serious, her mirth vanished, and gave him a concerned look. “We have absolutely no idea what a dungeon actually is. For all you know it contains nothing but swarms of epic monsters. It’s too risky.”

  “Actually…” Vin paused, closing his eyes and focusing on his inert skill. He’d purchased Dungeoneering ages ago on a whim, but unlike his other skills, he hadn’t received any information about dungeons in the slightest. Hell, it was still sitting completely untouched at level 1. But now that he was actually standing in one…

  For the first time, he got a faint sense that the skill could actually be used for something, and he concentrated on that fleeting feeling. Mentally locking onto the odd sensation, he focused his will, and grinned when two new notifications popped up. First was a small window with some bare bones information about the dungeon, and the second was a typical level up message.

  Dungeon Type: Cave

  Primary Monster Type: Insect

  Dungeoneering increased to lvl 2! 200 exp gained.

  “Well, so far I’m not all that impressed with Dungeoneering,” he laughed, telling Alka what he’d discovered. “I could have guessed it would be a cave full of insects without the skill.”

  But despite what he said, Vin actually felt hopeful for his strange skill. He could somehow sense that there was more to this skill than just giving him some pretty basic information, and he had high hopes for what it might end up doing in the future.

  “If it’s more of those acid spitting butterflies or nasty stinger looking things, you may be in for a rough time,” Alka warned him, tossing him the sword through the barrier. “Though I’ll admit, I feel slightly better knowing it’s mainly insects you’ll be going up against and not anything too large. If you run into anything too dangerous, you’d better book it out of there. I’ll be able to help if you lead the monsters out of the barrier.”

  “We don’t even know if dungeon monsters can leave the dungeon, but I’ll keep it in mind,” Vin promised, giving Alka a quick wave before beginning his descent into the cave. The cave floor near the entrance was sloped down just enough to make walking difficult, and he knew it would be a pain to fight on.

  “Light,” he muttered, focusing on keeping the spell in the shape of a tiny ball over his head. Thankfully the spell drew barely any mana so long as he kept it at the level of a common light bulb, so he had no worries about leaving the spell running. The only downside was that he wasn’t good enough to cast two spells at the same time just yet. Shia had informed him it was something he’d be able to do in time once his focus grew higher, but it was a feat he was still far from achieving. And seeing as he didn’t exactly want to be thrust into darkness the moment he had to attack something, he quickly changed his mind, dismissing the spell and going with his backup plan.

  Taking a knee, Vin sifted through his pack and pulled out the gemstone he’d actually learned Light from in the first place. The runic object had proven to be an excellent source of light when needed, so much so that he’d dropped off the lantern he’d snagged from Alka’s fragment the last time he was in camp without ever having even used it. The gemstone still had plenty of mana left in it after all, so with only a slight struggle, Vin managed to secure it to his severed arm with a bit of rope.

  “Not the greatest flashlight, but it’ll do,” he muttered to Reginald, earning a squeak of confirmation as he moved the gem around, testing it to make sure it wouldn’t come undone in the event he needed to run. It wasn’t pretty, but it kept his hand free to direct a spell or wield his sword if needed, and that was far more important than looking cool.

  “Well, no sense wasting time.” Taking a deep breath, Vin took the lead and ventured deeper into the cave.

  The first few minutes were tense but silent as they ventured lower and lower underground. Water dripped off stalactites, occasionally hitting him on the head as they walked, and only the sound of his and Blossom’s footsteps could be heard, echoing as they walked along the stone floor. But the further they trekked, the more the cave began to change.

  First was the moss. Small stretches of blue and green moss began creeping out over the stone walls of the cave, adding some much needed color to the damp dungeon. Not long after the moss started, bioluminescent fungi lit up the cave interior, growing upside down along the ceiling and bathing the stone walls in an eerie pink.

  Once they had a source of light, Vin happily returned his makeshift torch to his pack, not wanting to risk losing the enchanted gemstone if he didn’t have to.

  Sealing up his pack and tossing it back over his shoulder, Vin paused.

  “Do you hear that?” He asked, turning to look at Reginald. The rat stood there, his head cocked to the side before turning and giving him a concerned nod. The two of them continued listening as what Vin could only describe as the sound of distant humming steadily grew louder and louder.

  Before he could even come up with a plan, the insects were upon them.

  The fragment containing a friendly race of humanoid arachnids that cast magic by weaving their own webs into runic formations!

  first fragment selection poll, so that will be fun!) And I will also say, second place, consisting of the utopia that had solved death but lost the ritual when they were yanked over to Edregon still got 37% of the vote (and was my personal favorite haha), so I will almost certainly still be including it within the story, just in a much smaller fashion.