After stepping through the teleportation portal with Rebecca, we found ourselves facing a jagged outcrop, just a small piece of a vast mountain. Rebecca carefully scanned the environnt before turning to . Even the sound of her light armor echoed off the surrounding rocks.
"Are you sure this is the place?"
"Just follow ."
My answer must not have satisfied her, as she didn’t lower her guard for even a second. So, I decided to ease the tension with a bit of conversation.
"Have you ever entered a dangerous dungeon before, sister?"
Rebecca continued to examine the cliffs above without a trace of fatigue in her voice as she replied:
"A few tis. Most of them alone. The worst was the Rift of the Forsaken at the northern border. I didn’t see the surface for four days straight."
"And what did you find?"
"A half-collapsed ruin, an old magic seal, and a field that distorted the flow of ti. Oh, and three n who deserved to die."
There was a cold clarity in her tone. Rebecca didn’t embellish any detail, perhaps because she believed there was no need. Her gaze drifted to the horizon. Her instincts were clearly on alert.
"I see. But what about the tis when you didn’t kill anyone? How did you divide the loot then?"
Rebecca heard my question but didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, she tilted her head slightly and stared at the thin cracks between the gray stones beneath her feet, as if weighing her response there. After a few seconds, her voice ca, calm and asured, like she was reciting a truth:
"The one who finds the dungeon gets half of everything if they survive. The rest is split equally. Every adventurer knows that rule."
I nodded. It seed fair... at least in theory. But there was a familiar shadow in Rebecca’s expression, suggesting that the rule didn’t always work as written.
"So the rule is clear," I said. "But the practice...?"
"The practice," Rebecca replied, turning her eyes back to , "depends on who you’re with."
"What do you think about this offer? If there’s one or more Technique acquisition items among the treasures, you can have one of them. But everything else goes to ."
Rebecca didn’t look at right away. She lowered her head slightly, staring at the cracks between the stones again, as if the answer lay hidden there. Silence stretched for a few seconds. Then she spoke, her voice quiet but clear:
"It’s a generous offer," she said. "And a bold one, too."
Her eyes finally t mine. There was no greed or suspicion in them. just a cool calculation.
"Finding Technique acquisition items in these kinds of dungeons is rare," she continued. "Even when they appear, it’s usually just one. No group in history has ever pulled out more than one from a single dungeon."
"That’s exactly why my offer is good," I said. "It’s both smart and brave. If one shows up, you’ll be the one who gains. If it doesn’t, we split the rest equally. See it as an opportunity to build trust. A kind of apology... for what I did in the past."
Rebecca listened. This ti, she didn’t avert her gaze. She held her eyes on mine, silent. asuring. Weighing. At last, a faint line tugged at the corner of her mouth, not quite a smile, but the closest thing to it.
"An apology for the past? You’ve changed a lot since we last spoke." She paused and turned toward . "I’m not resentful, Leonardo. I could never hold a grudge against family. I was just angry, for a ti. Angry that you showed no respect to your own blood, that you made so many reckless decisions, and that you cut off all contact with us. That’s all."
"What are you, so kind of Godmother?"
Rebecca didn’t react right away. She squinted slightly. "Is that so kind of military complint?" she asked, and we resud our walk.
"In a way, yeah. Anyway, we’re getting close."
Rebecca scanned her surroundings again. The rocks beneath our feet were becoming strangely uniform with each step, arranged as if by the hand of an architect rather than nature. Even the wind seed hesitant to pass through her.
"Strange," she said, voice lowering. "I don’t see a dungeon anywhere. What makes you think we’re getting close?"
I turned toward the rocks and answered with a faint grin,
"Because we’re lost now."
Rebecca’s brows furrowed. A brief silence followed. Then her eyes narrowed. "What?"
"To enter this dungeon, you must first beco lost. Otherwise, anyone could find it."
She took a few steps back, looking over the terrain from where we’d co. Her eyes scanned the cliffs, the pattern of the stones. She realized sothing was wrong, but clearly wasn’t happy to admit it.
"I won’t ask where you got that information from but I hope you know what you’re doing."
There was a warning in her voice, but no panic.
Silence fell between us. It was the kind that made you feel like sothing might crawl out from between the stones. We both stayed still and listened. But all we heard was the crunch of stone beneath our boots.
Then I felt a subtle vibration in the rocks. A dull, pulsing throb rose from beneath the ground. Rebecca felt it too. her hand went to her sword, eyes alert.
"The ground is shifting," I whispered. "The dungeon is pulling us in without us realizing it."
Suddenly, the twin resonance seal in my hand turned to ash.
Rebecca flinched, but remained composed. "So we’re already inside?"
"Yes. And the entrance might already be closed."
She looked up briefly, but the sky was no longer above us. Without warning, the world had transford into a gray do, rocks bending upward, sealing us in. The direction we ca from was now just a stone wall.
Rebecca took a deep breath. "So what now?"
I pulled out a scroll and burned it. A translucent, glowing white orb appeared in my palm.
"I’ll light the way. Stay close, and don’t wander off."
Rebecca gave a small nod and didn’t let go of her sword. We moved forward, the massive stone surfaces around us now forming walls. The glowing orb drifted ahead of us, cutting through the dark and revealing engraved patterns on the stone.
The floor had changed. What once was rugged terrain had beco smooth and geotric designed, not natural. The tunnel was neither wide nor narrow. But the silence... it was unsettling. No wind, no sounds. Just the echo of our steps and Rebecca’s barely there breath.
"How long do you think this tunnel is?" she whispered.
"Hard to say from here. Just watch your step."
Rebecca nodded and stepped more carefully. The ground was paved with ticulously carved stones that shimred faintly, as if hiding the footprints of those who had co before us.
Her eyes stayed ahead, but her voice remained behind . "It’s too quiet. Dungeons don’t stay this silent. Sothing’s off."
Just then, the orb’s light dimd, like sothing invisible was devouring it. The air grew thick and heavy. We stopped in our tracks.
Then, just ahead, the stones shifted. Massive slabs moved. not upward, but sideways. The floor split open.
From the depths ca a sound first. guttural, like sothing with gravel caught in its throat. Then a massive claw rose from the crack. Jet black, stone-hard, with veins that shimred like silver. Then another claw.
Rebecca drew her staff instantly. I, anwhile, muttered under my breath,
"Classic entrance. Damn starting monster."
The creature finally erged. Its body was built like a hulking gorilla, but its head was pure nightmare. It had no eyes, just a ridged bony plate running up from where the jaw began. Its mouth opened vertically like a wound, not a jaw. Hot, rancid steam hissed out from within.
Rebecca knelt, resting her sword against the floor. She was waiting.
I hissed at the orb in my hand. "Shrink," I said, and the sphere compressed to the size of a marble, then drew itself into my wrist. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small seal fragnt, murmuring with a crooked grin at the edge of my mouth
"Let’s get started."
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