“That’s an ominous door,” I said looking at the metal structure jutting out of the hard rock. It looked about the size and shape of an outhouse yet created entirely out of metal. That was in fact more metal then I had ever seen in my life and I whistled as I placed my hand on the structure. My skin immediately prickled as I felt a powerful Manite field; much stronger than even Tegram’s staff.

“Man those stairs were a killer,” Lindon said as he transferred his apparently new walking stick into his left hand before brushing his right through his hair. I could barely blame him. We had descended eight flights of stairs to get to this point; namely eight flights of slippery rough-hewed rock that put strain on my newly repaired muscles as I had to lean left or right at different intervals in order to prevent myself from taking too many stairs at once.

“What are you waiting for,” Green said almost impatiently. “You have the key, you have a door use them both and get in.”

‘But how,’ I wondered. This thin metallic piece was like nothing I had ever seen before and if Green hadn’t told me a key I would never have guessed at its function. Slowly I started examining the door looking for various grooves and imperfections on the door and after a few seconds of searching I found a small protrusion. Pressing it caused a panel to slide open revealing a glass window that glowed a dull blue and I hesitated for a second before I placed the metal card against it. A weird buzzing noise sounded before an angry sound like a broken horn sounded causing me to wince as the blue light turned red. I examined the card for a second before I turned it over and placed the other side against the glass. This time I was greeted by the sound like a wind chime and after a brief moment the panel that exposed the glass slid back into place and with a grinding of steel the whole slab slowly started to swing open.

“Well that’s ominous,” Lindon said as he took a step forward towards the structure tapping it with his stick. “Is that a ladder?”

“Indeed it is,” I said fully alert as I stepped forward. Inside the structure was a circular hole with a ladder leading down. However the style was like nothing I had ever seen before composed of metal and other substances I hadn’t encountered before. No wood or stone seemed to be involved in the construction. However as soon as I stepped past the threshold of this dungeon all thoughts of analysing this strange erection fled from my head.

For the first time in my life I felt as if I could breathe. The Magite field was so strong it felt like I had stepped into a whole other world and I found myself casting Detect Magic almost instinctively and the feeling I got was the crispest I had ever felt as a dozen minor sources of magic blinked into existence. I twisted my hands and immediately cast Hydraulic Push feeling the spell smoothly lock into place and within three seconds a jet of water burst from my fingers impacting the nearby wall which stood completely unyielding in response. My spell wasn’t stronger. I didn’t perform it faster or use fewer gestures; but there was a certain effortlessness that came with the motion. It felt like there was less chance to screw it up and less concentration was needed.

“Feeling good,” Lindon said. “You’ve only been magicless for two cycles and I’ve never seen you more miserable.”

“You’ve only seen me for three days now,” I retorted immediately refusing to admit he was right. Still this place did make me feel more cheerful. Despite the imminent danger I felt much more at ease than the caves upstairs.

“Good now my husband should be about three floors down at most,” the elderly woman said. “I don’t have a map. I didn’t agree with that old fool’s exploring.” Her voice choked slightly as she said that and I got an impression of intense regret. If that was the result of marriage I’m glad that I decided to never marry.

“I’m so s__” Lindon moved forward to comfort her only for her to grab his arm and push him forward.

“I’m over it,” Green said cackling slightly at the surprised look on the merchant as he stumbled and tried to maintain his balance. “Time heals your wounds or makes them worse or you die.”

“And what option did you choose?” I snapped back causing the woman to increase her chortling.

“You’re very suspicious for a person who’s already resolved to take the job,” she claimed. “Are you having second thoughts boy.”

“And turn down a story this great,” I said with a false bravado that I hopefully pulled off. Truthfully I was both scared and apprehensive. With the Gynevine Specter I was escorted by two guardsman and I had no idea of how truly dangerous it was until it was dead. With the wolves I didn’t expect any danger in the first place until I my fighting instincts kicked in. With the shadow no amount of resistance or retreat would have made the slightest difference. I still shivered in memory of that horrific sight. Even thousands of me would be nothing but dust in the sky compared to that outrageous being.

“Are you okay,” Lindon said in apparent concern and I realised I had zoned out for too long.

“Life is not for the timid,” I said banishing my apprehensions to a place inside me that I kept tightly locked. “I’ll go first and you can just stick behind me,” I continued as I walked up to the circle in the ground and stepped onto the ladder quickly descending the rungs. If I didn’t want to risk my life then I would have stayed in my village. Army wizards experience life threatening dangers every day and I refused to be less.

“I agree,” Lindon said sliding down behind me with natural confidence I could only hope to emulate. “A timid merchant is a poor one. Lead the way buddy.”

I nodded to him as I looked around the place that I now found myself in whistling as I saw the unusual architecture that characterised my surroundings. The place was entirely constructed out of metal, a seamless marvel of design that even a troop of blacksmiths would likely be unable to replicate. ‘Was this made of magic,’ I thought to myself as I walked down one of the corridors in search of stairs.

On either side of me strange locked doors composed of metal were situated every few metres apart but a cursory examination revealed the fact that I had no ability to open them and my ‘key’ didn’t help. There were potential treasures behind every door and yet I knew that the stairs wouldn’t be found there. A quick Detect Magic pinged out a few interesting spots behind the doors and I resolved to look more closely on the way up.

“Find the corpse first buddy,” Lindon said from his position right behind me. “We can rob the grave on the way upwards.”

“Yeah,” I said, barely acknowledging the double standard. While grave robbing was almost universally frowned upon; the invasion of the olden ruins that occasionally were occasionally found in this land had a blind eye turned towards them. The reasons for this basically boiled down to the fact that anybody who could successfully get into and out of one of those ruins were usually powerful groups and they often brought back lost artefacts or piles of wealth or the like.

Still, no lost artefacts or endless piles of wealth presented themselves before me, not that I would have a lot of easy ways to carry them around if they did. On the plus side I had yet to see any of the powerful monsters that used these little hideouts as their haunts or any of the powerful magic that similarly defended these tributes to those long past. If one were to ignore the unusual construction method this place looked exceptionally ordinary. Not a single trace of life showed itself in these halls.

I was just about done with those thoughts when a door slammed open in front of me and I jumped backwards holding up my hand with a familiar spell on my lips. After a moment with no follow up I looked back to Lindon who shot me a concerned look. With more confidence then I felt I walked towards the open door and took a glance inside the room. The room was square and rather sparse with most of the items broken. The only thing that still remained remotely intact was a painting of a landscape with red grass and an indigo sky.

“Oh wow, that could be worth a lot,” Lindon said stepping into the room only to jump back as a part of the floor burst open revealing more ladder-like stairs.

“Something’s watching us,” I said taking a step into the room cautiously; ready to jump back if the door swung closed. “Let’s continue,” I said after a few moments of hesitation slipping down into the next floor.

“Alright then,” Lindon said as he landed behind me. “Floor two of three. Still one floor to go.” His confidence was inspiring but unfortunately his voice echoed slightly more in the corridor then I would like. From some place far away I heard as the combined noise of various little tapping sounds plinked against the metal in the distinct way that told me something was approaching.

“Shhh,” I said backing away slowly but I was too late as an azure creature with a snake like head with two cruel looking mandibles on either side of its wide face. Hundreds of legs skittered along like a perverted centipede and the thing was covered from nose to tail in a blue carapace that was heavily chipped and scarred. The thing drew itself up to a greater height of two metres glaring down at the both of us and I drew a few gestures in response preparing my Hydraulic Push in response. The tense standoff ended as the creature lowered its head towards the ground and in a surprising display of dexterity and coordination the creature moved backwards in a slithering motion.

“We got rid of it,” I said shaking my hand free of accumulated water only to receive a tug on my arm. “What’s the mat__” I started turning around only to stop dead as something horrifying stood at the end of the corridor.

Whatever stood there in far off darkness was vaguely human shaped but had less bulk than humans and far less than goblins. Its leanness seemed to match fables that I had heard of elves but it was much shorter and of course the two of us weren’t dead yet. A pair of branch-like horns emerged from its head and with each small motion a hissing, popping noise sounded out.

“Demon?” Lindon asked with some well-concealed fear in his voice and I frowned in response. No, despite village superstition demons looked more human-like than this, albeit with warped features. In addition, the pair of glowing white orbs that contrasted against its black silhouette proved its lack relatedness. Demons were known for having an aversion to showing their eyes. My thoughts were placed on hold as the being stepped forward and the two closest lights winked out of existence extending the darkness and perfectly hiding the creature.

“Just run,” I said just taking my own advice and swivelling on the spot before sprinting down the corridor. After about a dozen paces we caught up to the snakepede which had curled itself into a ball with its head hidden from our view. It was a few more steps before I chanced a glance behind me only to gulp and face forward again. From that brief look I picked up that Lindon was barely half a step behind me but barely a dozen steps behind him was the encroaching darkness that ultimately crushed all light sources.

“Dancing Lights,” I intoned before throwing the spell behind me at the place where I last saw the creature. A gargled sound of hissing announced that the creature had been affected but an additional quick glance showed that the lights had already been snuffed out by this shadowy monstrosity. Also Lindon used that moment of hesitation to overtake me and I found the creature nipping at my heels.

“Turn ahead,” Lindon stated a second before I saw it myself and I gritted my teeth realising that I likely wouldn’t even make it to the turn before this thing tore into me. A desperate plan sprung from my mind and I spoke recently revised words and formed a few gestures hoping against hope that my spell would hold despite the fact that I had never hurried this hard on any spell.

“Hydraulic Push,” I said pointing my left hand backwards in the direction of the creature and I was gratified to see that it flinched at the tier one spell pointed towards it, slowing slightly even as absolutely nothing came from my palm. On my right hand on the other case a jet of water spread outwards and hit the floor just before the turn. I took my eye off the creature at this point, hearing its scream of frustration before I felt more than saw it charging towards me at even greater speeds. Its hesitation allowed me to hit the turn a second before it did but instead of turning I slowed down enough to hit the wall before calling forth one of my oldest spells.

“Shape Water,” I said without a single gesture, my long periods of practice with that particular tier zero had made it almost instinctively. With a single breath I had turned the puddle of water into ice freezing most of it while leaving the top slippery. With a single count of one I ducked low and charged towards the legs of the creature. My timing was perfect as the creature slipped on the ice sliding forward for a moment before I hit into its legs. Despite its lean look the creature’s limbs had the consistency of hard wood and I knew that if it had been firmly rooted my chances of knocking it over would be nil.

As it were luck smiled upon us both and the creature toppled after my tackle falling face forward and impacting onto the ice and the metal floor. At the same time I hit the floor hard leaving no doubt in my mind that bruises would be a large part of my near future; that is of course if death wasn’t. That thought sobered me right up and I staggered to my feet before pointing at the creature slowly attempting to do the same with less success than me as it appeared badly disorientated.

“Hydraulic Push,” I cried out aiming towards the chest, which I was actually confident in hitting, and watching with some relief that gusts of smoke exploded from wherever I hit, causing the creature to scream in agony. “Hydraulic Push, Hydraulic Push, Hydraulic Push,” I repeated ignoring the increased strain as I aimed to pierce into the body of the creature causing more and more wounds to show.

Lindon stepped forward at that moment, very deliberately not interrupting my line of sight, before bringing his heavy walking stick to bear on the neck and head of the creature crunching down and not giving it an instant to recover. The creature still attempted to resist throwing up its lean arms to protect its head but Lindon was surprisingly accurate getting jabs into soft spots and targeting the throat most of all causing its struggles to gradually become weaker.

It was only after I cast four more Hydraulic Pushes and Lindon had managed to blind it in both eyes and crush most of its neck that the thing eventually went still. I collapsed to the hard ground earning some more future bruises on my rear and I watched as Lindon did the same panting and trying to regain his breath, his long hair a bit of a mess at the moment.

“Ha, ha, ha, haha,” Lindon said trying to regain his breath before he burst out laughing, the sheer joy to still be alive heavy in his voice and after a second I joined him. The two of us just lay down and laughed and laughed as the tension drained away and we realised we were still alive. One of us would stop before the other continued triggering a response to the other. In the end it took almost a minute before I finally got my laughter under control and then Lindon did the same; before we froze.

A third laugh had joined us at some point and I felt a shiver run down my spine independent of the chill of the ice beneath me. With a burst of light the darkness that we had laid in was dispelled revealing a break in the steel ceiling made of glass for some reason. The glass ceiling displayed an image of a woman sitting on a steel chair and dressed in a fine scarlet overcoat and black pants with far too many buttons.

“Oh, you guys are too amusing,” the glass woman spoke with a melodious chuckle. “Don’t you know that Nacht Venators are endangered? You feel like performing that trick about another hundred times and committing a true atrocity,” her last words were said with thick sarcasm as she leaned forward, never leaving the chair as she gazed down at Lindon and I.

Still her ridiculous words were by no means the scariest part about her. No that honour went to the appendages on her back that looked thousands of small vermillion rootlets from a tree had shaped itself into a mockery of feathered wings and the boater hat which shaded over her face hiding her eyes.