By the time we had defeated the hydra, there was barely any remaining daylight left for us to travel. Sirius judged it would be wiser for us to rest for the night rather than try and fight off the darkness. I agreed with his decision but didn’t find the necessity to voice it out.

I had many things that I had to ponder about and things that made me curious but my body was way too achy and sore for that to happen. Instead, as soon as I was done with my dinner, I headed to sleep

The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, reminiscent of the time we used to sleep like a log as a child. I let myself enjoy stretching my arms and legs for a while before others started waking up as well. After putting off the fire—making sure it didn’t cause a wildfire, we started our journey of the day.

We didn’t have any breakfast but I was okay with it as last night we had the meat left over from our last hunt. It wasn’t the most savory taste—heck it lacked texture, any sort of spices, or even salt for my taste buds to feel but at this point, I’d gotten used to it. That said, I was still very much interested in experiencing the fine cuisine of this world, the kind that nobility indulges in.

From there on, it would take us two long hours—give or take, to find our way to the dungeon. It wasn’t that the road was long or far away but that its exact location was unknown. Even Darren as a pathfinder wasn’t able to locate it out of thin air. Knowing that opened my mind to his powers a little more. According to him, his powers allowed him to notice the finer details of things than most. Other than that, there wasn’t much to it.

I knew he wasn’t lying by saying that but it wasn’t the truth either. His powers were way more impressive than that. It’s just that he was always hard on himself, something that he had to solve by himself. I could tell his failure to detect the core the first time was still bogging him down but our words weren’t going to reach him. It was also the reason I hadn’t asked him about how he managed to heal Sirius.

Besides knowing him, it wasn’t going to take long either.

The appearances of dungeons were sporadic. There was no set location or time when they would appear. Each of their outer appearances varied as well.

“At the start, people thought dungeons existed and there was no increase or decrease in the amount over time. But through decades of tracking and exploration by the scouts, the number of dungeons has continued changing. That meant dungeons spawned. But it is very random,” Sirius explained.

Was it the case? I mean the dungeons were guarded by guardian beasts*…*

My awakening was rather peculiar. Sirius didn’t need to tell me to figure that out. Then again, it wasn’t like my condition was normal from the start. I was a half-mystic from the time I found myself here. Normally, a sprout was only capable of awakening with someone’s help. Because it took them hours and during the whole process they would be unconscious. Although the trigger to their awakening would be a sudden emotional influx, it didn’t change the fact that it would still take hours. In the history of the council’s overlooking, there has never been such a case, neither was there any information written in the ancient texts—or so Sirius told me.

I was unconscious, that’s for sure. But Basak’s intervention seemed to fasten how my body perceived time. It was the only logical explanation that I could think of. It also makes me curious whether ascending from a lower rank to a higher rank would be similar. When I asked Sirius about it, he informed me that he had never looked at or given any thought about it. Although disappointing I shrugged it off.

Basak also mentioned how Prince Sorvel was going to be the key to me becoming a Senior mystic. Even though I didn’t trust him entirely, there was a low chance of him lying about it. And even if Dark Knight didn’t come after me, there was no harm in getting stronger.

If possible I would love to inquire about it from lord leader…

But I couldn’t hope too much on it as chances are they would most likely be cautious—worst-case straight up hostile toward an outsider like me. Sirius and the others were rather accepting but I couldn’t expect everyone to be like that.

My thoughts soon drifted toward the fight against the hydra.

There were many things I learned from the fight. It was indeed an invaluable experience just like Octus had previously mentioned. I also got an opportunity to test out my new powers handed to me. Even though I had a lot more to experiment with, my understanding of the new powers was more than before. So it was a boon.

But the most important lesson it gave me wasn’t just the increase in strength.

Being so close to death does change a man, I chuckled bringing raised brows from my companions.

Getting a second chance at life wasn’t something that everyone received just because they wished for it. Most would kill to get such an opportunity. I still didn't know how exactly I intended to live this new life of mine, but one thing I was certain of was that I would never squander this opportunity.

Sure, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with this new opportunity. But there was nothing wrong with being unsure. I could always wait and figure things out.

Worse come to it, I can just live hundreds of years and think everything through.

Although I didn’t have a well-defined goal, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to live this life better than my past. A life with no regrets.

But for my immediate goals, finding more information about this cursed town and finding a way out of Xavier was the priority. From what I’d pieced together, Xavier was nothing more than a glorified cage surrounded by massive pillars that both shielded as well as kept the civilians out of danger. Living my entire life in such a place wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

There was also my curiosity as well. From the memories of Basak, there were a lot of things in this world that I didn’t know and see. I genuinely wanted to experience them.

Maybe I could become a traveler or a merchant in the future.

Merchants in this world were more knowledgeable than most other people. It was because they traveled from country to country and gained a vast amount of knowledge. It was a lot different from the modern era where theoretically anyone could know anything.

During the two hours, I also asked Octus about his telepathy. He didn’t bother hiding anything and explained it in detail. By the end, I was more than satisfied.

In brief, Octus had to first initiate a mental connection with the person he wanted to talk to through telepathy. Once that was done, he could freely speak his mind. The catch was once the mental link was broken, the other person wouldn’t be able to understand the cut-off unless they had experienced it a couple of times. That being the case, Octus and I practiced it a couple of times for me to get a feel. And after a while, I understood the sensation.

It was like a small itch. A mental itch of sorts. It was hard to put into words. But imagine someone tickled the inside of your brain and the sensation of their touch makes you want to have an itch.

But that wasn’t my biggest concern. I was more worried about whether Octus could hear everything in my mind.

“Okay, how many thoughts do you think a mind produces every single second? Hundreds of thousands, right?” Octus asked and I nodded. “Then do you think it’s even humanly possible for me to go through all those as well as mine in a moment? No! As a result, the only thing I hear is what you want me to hear. Nothing more than that.”

When he put it that way things made more sense but I still gave him an unsure look.

“Fine. You are not the first person to doubt this ability of mine. Even our wonderful leader, Sirius, was on guard against me for days after I joined this team. It was such a hassle to get his trust.” Octus said.

Sirius just shrugged his shoulder without looking back.

Pretty soon after that, Darren found the dungeon.

—

Truth be told, the dungeon didn’t live up to my imagination. It was simple, well very plain. Although I couldn’t see the inside of it, from the entrance it looked like nothing but an cave—an underground cave.

Its opening resembled the entrance of a haunted house. A layer of wild leaves and flowers, along with spiderwebs, concealed its entrance.

Out of pure curiosity, I activated my soul vision, and a brilliant, blinding light flooded my sight. Instinctively, I shut my eyes as a searing pain assaulted them.

Interesting. It seems the dungeon contains a lot of bondor inside them and perhaps it’s related to what Sirius and the others are here for…

Before going diving inside the dungeon, Sirius explains about the dungeon. It was a market dungeon. The ancient

The ancient texts in Xavier suggested that these types of dungeons were mostly found from the 2nd zone onward. They're called markets because various types of magical shards and crystals are found inside them. Experts also debate that they are more common due to the abundance of stone shards available. However, they have failed to provide a logical explanation for this phenomenon.

“Wait aren’t we going to take some fire inside?” I asked, confused.

“Don’t worry,” Octus replied, not bothering to explain any further.

Huh?

I watched them go inside without care and followed behind. My concern about the inside being dark proved unfounded.

Unlike what you would expect from an underground cave, it was different, at least in terms of lighting. It wasn’t dark and gloomy but rather well-lit. Of course, by modern standards, it wasn’t overly bright, but it wasn’t something to scoff at either.

There were some kind of gems responsible for the light. They were set into the walls, though haphazardly and unevenly, as if a child had thrown them into the wall, and they had stuck there since.

“These are called moonlit gems. Pretty much all dungeons have them. Miners are sent to mine them and after a few refining processes, they can be used commercially and also in houses.” Darren explained.

Although it was a fascinating sight to witness, I got bored of it fairly quickly. It also became harder to tell how long we had been inside the dungeon as outside light wasn’t entering. But if I’d guess it was a couple of hours at least. At one point I started thinking we had been running around in a circle but Darren ensured that wasn’t the case.

The narrow cave opened into a wider hall, a room bigger than even Prince Sorvel’s chamber. There were quite pillars in the room, reaching upward into the ceiling. Moonlit gems were also inset in the ceiling. But what was the most odd part about it was there was a giant tree in the middle of the room.

Instead of some kind of fruits growing, crystal-shaped shards were hanging. Most of them were black as if someone had rubbed ash on it’s surface. But there was a white, transparent one.

Sirius approached the tree with calm steps, stretched his hand toward the sharp, and plucked it with ease.

“Heart shard acquired. Mission retrieval commencing,” Sirius said.