A few months ago in the middle of the Whispering Forest, Lola playfully hummed to herself as Kusana was brushing Lola's hair and tails with a hairbrush, covered in pale cyan and teal mana. Minia and Nola frantically, while desperately gasping for air, bolted past the girls while the two carrying two large metal cubes.

"So that's the kind of training I'll be doing when I get past the pre-Sage Form training," Sophia remarked, as she was laying on her side on top of the picnic blanket; that she and two girls were situated on. Sophia sighed and glanced behind herself when she heard leaves rustling followed by a loud thud crashing into the ground.

Lola and Kusana darted their heads backwards and looked at Mimi (in her slightly short seventeen-year-old naga form: silver with pale yellow tips, pale yellow snake eyes, pale white skin(to the point it was slightly cyan), a yellow naga tail; she was also wearing a grey sundress with a flowery pattern) as her tail slapped the ground before it transformed into a short yellow scaled tail and two human legs, while her head was buried in the ground.

"How have you managed to lose to a child a hundred times in a row?" Zallino asked as he slowly descended from above while Kai was hanging from the tree branch above Mimi. Mimi pulled her head out from the ground and the nine small yellow snakes in her hair rapidly shook their heads.

"Despite being a part snake; I thought me being an otaku would've clued you in on how unathletic I was," Mimi mentioned as she picked up her straw sun hat, with a large light blue phoenix feather in it, and put it on before her head snakes popped their heads through the holes in the hat. Zallino sighed as Vivo descended next to Zallino and remained flying a few inches above the ground.

"Master Zalroth and Zalkutaro have located multiple magic dungeon instances that have suddenly appeared and ordered each of us to deal with one of them," Vivo stated as he looked up at Kai and told her Zalroth wanted her to deal with the magic dungeon instance by the nearby lake; he also told Mimi that she had to go to the one by the nearby river and Zallino that he had to go to the magic instance dungeon on top of a large tree before Vivo flew off into the sky.

Mimi complained about how far away that was but Kai pointed out that the river Vivo was probably talking about was only thirty minutes away. Mimi was about to retort to Kai's comment before Zallino picked her up by the collar of her sundress; Mimi meekly cringed up her face as Zallino spread out his wings and blasted off into the sky with enough force from the flap of his wings to send out a powerful wind blast.

Kai watched as Zallino and Mimi soared off into the distance. She looked over at the nearby lake before looking down at Lola and Kusana when she overheard them talking to each other and noticed that the two were staring up at her. Kusana, with Lola sitting on Kusana's hair trail, floated up to Kai.

"We're coming too!" Lola excitedly cheered, with Kusana adamantly nodding her head. Kai strongly shook her head and stated they shouldn't as she lifted herself onto the top of the tree branch she was hanging on to. The two kids crossed their arms and pouted at Kai's response.

"And why's that?" Lola disappointedly asked. Kai stated that she'd be in so much trouble if she brought the two of them into a magic dungeon without Zalroth or any of the stronger egos/visages. Lola nonchalantly rolled her eyes and joked that Zalroth wouldn't be mad.

"It isn't your dad who I'm worried about being mad at me...," Kai meekly stated causing the three of them to go quiet. Kusana broke the silence by stating Chronia wouldn't be mad if she didn't know. Kai was stunned at Kusana's almost scarily Zalroth-like response before she slumped her head defeatedly.

"Fine... you can come with me," Kai said, making Lola and Kusana cheer; intentionally not loud enough so that Sophia and Minia didn't notice. Kai lowered herself onto Kusana's trailing hair and told Kusana the direction of the lake Vivo mentioned; Kusana fist pumped before she flew above the trees and soared off for the lakeside magic dungeon instance

Back in the present, Kai playfully spun around on the spherical-shaped lantern as she reminisced about her dungeon conquest with Lola and Kusana. The others were searching for the hidden puzzle pieces as Kai continued to spin around on the lantern; she abruptly stopped spinning and glanced upwards when she sensed that Zalroth was trying to telepathically contact her.

"Aren't you going to help in the search for those metal puzzle things?" the voice of Zalroth in Kai's head asked. Kai adamantly shook her head and firmly stated that it would be too easy if she helped. Zalroth amusedly chuckled, causing Kai's ears to attentively point upwards before she asked what was so funny.

"It's nothing serious; I just found it amusing how I know you were going to say that. Oh and before I forget Lola wanted me to tell you that your opponents have already found all their puzzle pieces," Zalroth remarked before he ended the telepathic call. Kai slowly nodded her head as she took in what Zalroth had said and the second she fully processed Zalroth's words Kai bolted to her feet.

Luna opened a box and found a small metal cluster sculpture inside it. As she took the sculpture out of the box, a red and orange blur barreled past her; the blur crashed into the cupboard next to Luna and chunks of wood were shot out in every direction. Kai drastically ripped her head free from the obliterated cupboard and raised a large metal cluster sculpture over her head.

"Ah hah, we found one," Ruby cheered as Sophia carefully took a medium-sized metal cluster sculpture out from beneath a floorboard. Kai zipped back to the lantern puzzle before intently eyeing the large sculpture as she sporadically spun it around; Kai spun the sculpture around with such intensity that it created afterimages.

"Gotta hurry, gotta hurry," Kai jittery muttered as she stopped rotating the metal cluster and placed it on the pedestal of the left pillar; hurrying over to the lantern and started to fiddle with it until it flicker on and shot out three beams of light. One of the beams of light shone around the metal cluster before perfectly filling out the bird outline on the wall.

"Woah... you were able to solve it without the lantern being on," Luna remarked as she, Ruby and Sophia returned to the puzzle lantern with the other two metal clusters. Ruby joked she'd have a hard time doing it even with the lantern on as she placed her metal cluster on the pedestal of the right pillar before she stepped back and presented her contribution to solving the puzzle to Sophia.

Sophia amusedly rolled her eyes and started to rotate the right metal cluster; Kai nervously watched Sophia, as she was slowly solving the skull shadow puzzle. Kai, in a panic-stricken state, itched her tails as Sophia meticulously rotated the metal cluster until the shadow it left formed into a skull. Ruby enthusiastically praised Sophia for how quickly she solved the puzzle, which made Sophia cover lightly itch her face and say solving the puzzle wasn't that praiseworthy.

"Well, anything done by a competent person is going to look impressive to a dumb person," Luna remarked as she placed the small metal cluster on the pedestal of the middle pillar. Ruby squinted her eyes at Luna as Luna grabbed the base of the pedestal and strongly spun it to the right; the metal cluster rapidly spun on the spot and Luna, along with the others, watched the shadow casted on the wall spontaneously shifted and morphed shape.

After a few seconds of letting the metal cluster spin Luna grabbed it and instantly stopped it when the shadow it casted was vaguely in the shape of a boat; Luna did some micro-adjustments to the rotation of the metal cluster until the casted shadow snugly fitted into the boat outline on the wall.

"Show off...," Ruby grumbled. The outlines of the shapes on the wall glowed before they, the pillars, the metal cluster and the lantern bursted into mana dust. The dust gathered onto the wall and formed into the shape of a doorframe before the wall between the doorframe disappeared. Ruby and Kai excitedly fist pumped before they heard Kiki talking over the speakers.

"Incredible! Both teams were able to solve the first challenge at the same time!" Kiki excitedly exclaimed; both teams were shocked at hearing how neck and neck they were. Kai frantically ducked between Sophia and Ruby before booking it through the door frame; Ruby called out to Kai before frantically racing after her. Sophia and Luna once again shook their heads in disbelief before slowly jogging after the two demi-humans.