Eventually, our bot friend was in working order, or at least as much as I was: enough to finish the work.
We broke camp and headed further into the dungeon. The city was vast, complicated, and empty. We spent the next however many hours working in relative silence.
At one point, we encountered a complex trap involving a pressure plate and a moving wall covered in spikes. Kael had found the primary mechanism under a flagstone and was fiddling with the inner workings. "Lorne."
"What's up, Kael?"
"Come help me here, please."
As I approached, I saw he was indicating a complicated mess of clockwork that only he understood. "Right here, on the locking pawl. It needs to be held in place so I can remove the activator."
I put my hand on the small lever he indicated and held it in place. He pulled a small device from beneath it and began to toy with it.
I watched him carefully, trying to decide how to phrase my next words. "I'm sorry."
Kael paused. I could see his fingertips tense against the metal. Then he resumed working. "About what?"
"About SCRUB. And worrying you guys."
Kael popped the mechanism back into place and told me to let go. There was a whirring sound and a loud CLUNK that I had learned to associate with a trap disarming.
When he was done, he looked me dead in the eye. "SCRUB doesn't feel pain. He'll be fine. And I'm not mad at you for worrying me."
I nodded somberly. "Then what?"
Kael let out a long, slow exhale. "I'm mad because you got distracted, and it put you in danger. Why did you need to be looking at your console?"
I had no way to answer. Not in a way that I could keep the reason secret. I could tell him, of course, but that would mean a lot of explaining and answers I didn't have. "Honestly, I'm just frustrated that I haven't learned any new skills yet."
There was a pause, during which I was unsure if he accepted that answer. "...I guess that's fair. Just save it for after the job next time, okay?"
I felt relief flood through me. "Yeah. Yeah, you got it."
He offered a fist, which I bumped with mine, and we stood up together. He looked at me with stone-cold seriousness. "Also, if you ever make my best friend cry like that again, I'm going to punch you in the dick. Got it?"
Another pang of guilt. "Got it."
"Good."
The tension seemed to dissipate after that.
The rest of the job was uneventful. We cleared the city and prepared to descend to the Core.
The Core chamber of the Unnamed City was the most peaceful room in the dungeon.
It was vast. Not like the one in the Ebon Maw — which had been vast in the way of something trying to intimidate — it was simply the kind of space that happened to be that way. Grand in its austerity.
The ceiling rose high above us, a perfect dome of pale amber stone that caught the light from below and held it. The walls were unadorned. No carvings, no columns, no architectural conceit. Just stone, ancient and clean and indifferent to being looked at.
The floor was a single unbroken slab. Not worn, not cracked. Preserved the way everything in this city was preserved — not maintained, just untouched. As though time had passed around it rather than through it.
The Core stood at the center. A column of pale amber light rising from the stone floor to perhaps twice the height of a man, pulsing with the slow, measured rhythm of something that had been doing this since before anyone alive could remember. It gave off no heat. The light it produced was clean and even and illuminated the chamber without warmth.
It felt like the last candle in a cathedral.
The air was completely still.
Hask walked past me, and we got to work.
First we had to deal with the dead Boss.
It was the largest thing I had ever seen in an enclosed space.
The Boss had settled into the far end of the chamber in death in the way structures settle — not collapsed, not fallen, just redistributed. Its weight was enormous, and you could see where the stone floor had given slightly beneath it, shallow depressions where the buttress legs had pressed down over what must have been centuries of standing watch. It hadn't moved often.
The body was pale amber stone threaded with veins of dark metal that caught the Core's light and held it without reflecting it. The metal wasn't decorative — it ran through the stone the way steel runs through the frame of a building, visible where the adventuring party's work had cracked sections open. The fractures in the stone looked peculiar. Not wounds. Structural failures.
It was bipedal, wide at the base, the proportions of something engineered for permanence rather than movement. The limbs were splayed outward in death, each one as thick as a support column, the whole mass of it distributed across the floor with an evenness that suggested it had simply decided to stop rather than been knocked down.
Where a face would have been, there was a single eye. Large. Centered. Dark now — whatever light had lived in it was gone. The amber stone around it was scorched black from something the adventuring party had done, the damage radiating outward in a pattern that told me they had hit it there repeatedly and deliberately. They had known that was the thing to aim for.
The eye was closed. Not the way eyes close in sleep. The way a lamp goes out.
The Core pulsed quietly behind it. Still intact. Still doing what it was built to do.
I looked at the warden for a long moment.
I didn't know what it was. I knew, without being able to explain how I knew, that whatever it had been doing in this room mattered more than anything the adventuring party had understood when they killed it.
Hask whistled. "That's a big'un. He got bigger since the last time I was here."
Without another word, he walked past me and headed for the crumbled colossus.
His statement struck me as odd: the monster had gotten bigger? How? For what reason? Was that normal?
I asked exactly none of these questions. I simply followed my foreman.
As we reached the corpse of the Boss, I stared upward in awe at the sheer size. This thing looked more like a force of nature than a monster. The thought that this thing was moving about not that long ago was hard for me to wrap my head around.
Hask grunted. "Tessa. Mana sight."
The halfling girl hopped over enthusiastically. "Yes, sir!"
She spaced her feet apart and adopted the very serious expression I had now grown used to, and cleared her throat. "That which flows unseen, be witnessed! That which corrupts in silence, be named!"
I chuckled. Tessa's spell chants, while completely unnecessary, were something I always liked. "By the Third Principle of Arcane Revelation and the Undeniable Theorem of Visible Flux — show yourself! Cleansing Art:"
The usual dramatic hand gesture, executed perfectly, as always. "Cleansing Art: Mana Sight. Activate!"
The room shifted, and the flow of the dungeon's mana became visible. As many times as I had seen this already, it never failed to hit me how beautiful it was. Shining and smooth, graceful and serene.
The Core's mana was visible everywhere — slow deep currents of amber light moving outward from the crystal in the center, steady and measured, the pulse of something that had been doing this for a very long time. Healthy. Intentional.
But from the monster's remains, something else was visible. Not currents — threads. Dozens of them, hair-thin and rigid, radiating outward from the body in every direction and anchoring into the floor, the walls, the base of the thing itself.
They didn't move the way healthy mana moved. They were fixed. Taut. Still pulling toward the pattern they had been holding when the Boss died, maintaining the ghost of a function that no longer had a body to perform it.
It looked like the aftermath of something that had been holding on for a very long time and didn't know how to stop.
Tessa was already furiously scribbling in her notebook. "Okay, so!"
She clicked her pen with the energy of someone who had just discovered something fascinating rather than something standing between us and going home. "Good news and bad news. Good news — the Core is mostly fine. Totally intact, no structural issues, functioning exactly as it should be. Really impressive craftsmanship actually; whoever built this place was extremely good at their job."
I asked myself the same question I asked in every dungeon: who built it? And why.
Tessa continued. "Bad news — we have a mana lock."
Hask grumbled. "Fun."
I looked at her curiously. "Mana lock?"
She beamed at getting to explain. "See those threads?"
She gestured broadly. "When the Boss died, its mana didn't die with it. It was anchored to the Core — like, physically tied to it — and those anchors are still active. Still pulling. The Boss is gone, but the mana doesn't know that yet. It's still trying to do its job."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
More scribbling. "The problem is that those anchors are interfering with the reset cycle. If we try to reset the Core with the mana lock in place, the anchors will treat the reset as a threat and resist it. Which would be — "
She made a small explosion gesture with her hand. "Bad. Potentially very bad."
She looked up from her notebook with a bright smile. "So I have to sever the anchors first! Which I can do. It's basically just a really complicated hex removal. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes. I have the incantation already."
Tessa assumed her stance. Feet shoulder-width apart, one hand extended, notebook tucked under her other arm. She cleared her throat. "That which was bound in purpose, be released from purpose! That which is held by will, be freed from will! By the Second Theorem of Mana Dissolution, the Sixth Principle of Arcane Severance, and the Absolute Declaration of—"
Kael's eyes were already on the ceiling. "—Cleansing Intent — by these authorities and in the name of proper janitorial practice—"
Alara's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "—I sever what was tied, release what was held, and dissolve what no longer serves its purpose! Cleansing Art:"
The pause.
"Unbinding. Activate!"
I watched her use her magic the same way I always did: admiringly.
I had come to learn that, even with simple incantations to activate them, Tessa's magic was incredibly difficult to muster.
Like all magic, it was about intent. You use the force of will to imagine the result of your magic and manifest it. The more complex the spell, the more willpower was required and the sharper the intent had to be.
As I watched her spell take effect, I could tell that it was, in fact, extremely advanced. She never failed to astound me.
We watched the odd threads of misbehaving mana disconnect from the walls, ceiling, and Core and fall limply to the ground. They receded back toward the corpse of the Boss, but didn't disappear; they simply lay flat on the rock.
Tessa was breathing heavily, her hair pressed to her brow with sweat. But she looked exhilarated. "I wasn't sure if that was going to work. I just unlocked that skill last week..."
I grinned. Very Tessa.
She stood upright. "All we have to do now is scrub the mana, and then Lorne can dissolve the st-"
She trailed off as her eyes crossed and she began to fall backwards.
Instinctively, I lunged and caught her before she hit the floor. She lay limply in my arms, looking up at me with a big smile. "My hero."
I felt my face get hot and I helped her sit. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Just a lot of mana drain. I need to rest a bit."
"You didn't need me to catch you, did you?"
She giggled. "Nope, the fall was to see if you would."
Alara coughed loudly from a ways away. "I'll scrub the mana while you rest. Lorne, follow behind me and take care of the stone."
I set Tessa down and hefted my mop. "Right."
I unclipped the handle of my bucket from my pack. "Fill."
The spell was routine at this point, easily filling the bucket with clean water.
I rummaged in my pack until I found a chemical I hadn't used much before: Debri-sol. It was designed to melt stone and stone biomass.
Once I was prepared, I clambered up onto the rocky corpse behind Alara. She was using the spray she and Tessa always carried to scrub away excess or corrupt mana signatures. As she sprayed and wiped, I followed behind, mopping and dissolving, being sure to keep my eyes averted when she was climbing above me.
We didn't speak as we worked, which was the norm. But we were efficient. Tessa only needed a short break before she was able to join in. Hask helped as well.
Kael reminded us that he was legally not allowed to touch chemicals, but was rooting for us. I made a mental note to ask him about that later.
It only took around three hours to dissolve the monster and all of its mana.
Once the room looked like there had never been a corpse in it, Alara, Tessa, and I collapsed in an exhausted heap. Hask seemed fine.
As we were all catching our breath, Kael chimed in. "Great job, guys. Ready to prep the Core?"
I groaned loudly. We weren't even done yet.
We broke for food. As always, we had a package of delicious sandwiches that were always my favorite part of any job. I wondered what Ojola was making right now back at the Guild Hall. Probably something incredible. I was pretty sure that orc lady was my hero.
After we had eaten, the rest of the work was smooth sailing: Resonance Wash, spray, wipe, spray, wipe. Mana bleed. Synchronizing trap signatures. Tessa frowned as she drained the excess mana.. It was the frown she wore whenever she found signs of tampering.. She didn't say a word. She didn't have to. Same old, same old.
Finally, Hask was able to use his reset crystal.. "Cleansing Art: Reset. Activate."
The magic reset without any ado. Just a receding and evening of the glow. Same as always. "You guys did good work today. Let's get home."
We heard the flat, mechanical voice from the pillar echo around the room. "Dungeon Reset complete. Exit warp activating in ten… nine…"
We all sighed in relief as the countdown finished and we were magically whisked away to the entrance of the dungeon.
The Guild Hall's bathhouse was, in my considered opinion, one of the finest arguments for civilization ever constructed. Hot water, unlimited supply, magically maintained temperature, and the silence of a space where nobody expected anything from you.
After the day we'd had, it felt like an apology from the universe.
I noticed, as I always did upon entering the bathhouse, that the steam was suspiciously cooperative. It gathered in exactly the right places with exactly the right density to cover one's relevant anatomy, regardless of where anyone was standing or moving.
I had been using this facility for months, and it had never once failed in this regard. I chose not to examine the enchantment too closely. Some things are better accepted than understood.
The bathhouse was divided by gender, as was standard in the Guild Hall. Tessa was on the other side. Alara had declined to join us entirely.
Oddly enough, Hask was with us. That was a rarity.
As I slipped into the hot water, I groaned as all of my muscles immediately started to relax.
We had been in that dungeon for eighteen hours. None of us had slept. We were beaten, bruised, filthy, and exhausted. The hot water immediately began to wash that away.
Kael sank into the bath up to his neck and sighed deeply. "Man, what a day."
That was certainly putting it lightly.
Tessa's voice came from beyond the bath divider. "Guys, I'm bored! There are no other girls here!"
Kael called back. "You just got in, Tess. Just relax and enjoy the water."
We heard a "hmph" of protest but nothing else.
Kael turned to me. "So what was it like?"
"What do you mean?"
"Fighting the Amber Vestige. What was it like?"
I pondered that question. What had it been like? The monster, made of amber light, moving so fast I almost couldn't keep track of it; the way it didn't make so much as a sound. Most vividly, I remember the snapping jaws and a clawed fist being rammed into my shoulder.
I had felt the intensity of the moment – the distinct urgency that came with being in mortal danger, but I had otherwise just been…kind of numb. Almost apathetic. "It was terrifying."
The lie came more easily than I thought it would.
Kael quirked an eyebrow. "Really? You're always so calm under pressure."
I shrugged. "I think I was so scared that I had to act."
Kael seemed to find that acceptable. "I guess that's how you want to be in a situation like that. Compartmentalize the fear and move."
"I guess so."
Was that what it had been? It made sense, logically, but didn't quite feel accurate. I knew what compartmentalization felt like — the conscious decision to push something aside and deal with it later.
This wasn't that. This was more like the danger had arrived and some part of me had simply recognized it and gotten to work, without consulting the part of me that was supposed to be frightened.
That felt like it should bother me more than it did.
Tessa's voice reached us again. "THIS IS SO BOOORING!"
I laughed. "Sorry, Tessa."
We sat in silence for a long moment, pondering the day's events.
Out of nowhere, Hask broke the silence with a grunt. "You're getting there."
We both looked at him. He was sitting with the water up to his chest, beard unbraided, eyes closed.
We waited for him to elaborate. He did not.
The two of us looked over at the divider as we heard a faint thump from the other side. I shrugged. "Your modifications to our flare guns really saved my ass."
Kael looked quietly proud. "I'm glad. I didn't even think about using them as a weapon. I wonder…"
He drifted off for a second. We heard another thump, followed by scrabbling noises. I noted that the thump was higher up on the partition. I chose to ignore it. "Wonder what, Kael?"
He shook his head as if snapping out of a trance. "Oh, I was just wondering if I could design a version of the flare gun that could fire other projectiles."
"Other projectiles? Like what?"
"I dunno. Bits of metal, or something."
"Like, as a weapon?"
"Maybe. It would have to fire them much faster than a flare."
"I mean, you're kind of a genius, so I'd bet you could do it. But it doesn't seem super useful."
"Sounds like a challenge."
"Could be."
We both chuckled, but the gears in Kael's brain were clearly turning. I had no doubt we would soon have some cool new gadget.
After another comfortable pause, I asked a question I'd had all day. "Is it normal for four dangerous monsters to get missed in a dungeon?"
Kael frowned. "I mean it's not unheard of, but it's rare. Adventurers are usually pretty thorough. One or two monsters going undiscovered is something that'll happen sometimes, but four? Anomalous."
Of all the things I enjoyed hearing, "anomalous" was not one of them. "Do you think that's what happened, or was it something else?"
"Actually, funny thing about that!"
I looked up. Tessa's face was poking over the top of the partition, her cheeky grin firmly affixed. As she crawled up and on top of the wall, I was extremely grateful for the magical steam. "I found something interesting in the Core."
She talked as she threw her legs over the side. "The mana was tampered with, of course. No surprise, but this was diff – oh, shit!"
She was cut off mid-sentence by her wet foot slipping on the divider. She tumbled from her perch, plummeting directly into the bath with a splash.
Kael shook his head in a way that told me this had happened before.
She surfaced, red hair plastered to her face. She spat out a mouthful of bath water and didn't miss a beat. "The tampering was almost identical to all the other Cores…but not quite."
Hask gave a grunt that meant he wanted her to continue.
"In all the previous instances, there were magical commands to draw or reroute mana in ways that destabilized the dungeon. This time there was more…The base tampering was the same as always. But there was something newer on top of it. An addition. Someone came back."
She paused, looking thoughtful. "There was a contingency put in place that when the Boss was killed, a certain number of random monsters would respawn."
I sat in silence, the bath water feeling slightly colder as I considered what she was saying. Monsters set to respawn after the Boss died meant that someone wanted to have them in the dungeon when Janitors entered. "Foreman. Who was the party that cleared the Unnamed City?"
I looked over at Hask. His jaw was set in that way that told me he was thinking about something grim. "Silver Fang."
That was disconcerting. There were plenty of lower-level parties that could handle a low Class Three dungeon. Why was Silver Fang in there?
But the longer I sat with that, the more it made sense. Actively changing or manipulating the mana of something as complex and dangerous as a Dungeon Core would require a top-tier spellcaster. And Silver Fang's mage definitely fit the bill.
I felt like I finally had a piece of the puzzle. "Are we going to report this?"
Hask was quiet for a moment. "Not yet. We need more information. If Varkas is involved, it can't get buried."
He said no more, and didn't really need to.
The tension in the bath was palpable. Tessa was wide-eyed and worried; Kael was staring off into the middle distance. Hask still didn't move or even open his eyes.
So much for relaxing.
When Hask broke the silence, it felt like glass shattering. "No point in worrying about it right now. Nothing we can do."
He stood up, the magical steam settling into place immediately. "Enjoy your bath. Don't stay in too long."
He grabbed his towel from a bench near the bath and headed for the changing room.
We all looked at each other nervously. We finally knew something, but it only made everything worse.