Avgi’s wooden form began to shift, turning stony. His arms and legs assembled large gauntlets and greaves of geodes, as he walked five paces from the slab. "Might be a good idea to jump down."

Only then did Salixio realize what Avgi was about to do, rolling off the construct and sliding down the bricks. As Avgi dragged one foot in preparation, Salixio dove behind a nearby tree, disappearing. The stone gauntlets dug their palms into the ground as Avgi continued scraping out the grass with his behemoth of a boot. He even snarled like a beast, completing the act.

Finally, he sprang off of the ground like a catapult payload, throwing his fists forwards whilst charging fast enough to whistle in the air. When his fists hit the gargantuan entranceway of the dungeon, the unmovable rock shattered. The devastating impact unleashed an initial immense noise, followed by a deafening grind, and several other impacts on the ground that could be felt throughout the forest for a long stretch. He didn't just make the slab collapse; he made it burst.

Once there was no more noise, Salixio shyly peered around his tree, finding the great stone structure in several huge pieces along the ground. "Did you really have to show off?"

Standing at the lip of the now-opened dark tunnel, Avgi stood tall, reverting to his grassy form. "I'd say the maker of this dungeon wanted us to use the front door! Why not oblige?"

Salixio wasn't very impressed by the display, but he was prompt to return to his partner's side. As he did, they got a good look into the tunnel. The floors were paved with smooth stones, dusty and mossy yet. However, the entrance quickly led to stairs leading down, and from there it was all dark.

Avgi slightly lowered his stance, giving off a warning. "Let's be careful, now. Falling into traps would make things a lot harder for us."

Rather than merely enter with that possibility in mind, the prince took a step back. "How do you think someone would set traps for a Chloro Elemental? Certainly not something we can just trigger with vines and avoid…"

"Let's see. They might want us to think that!" As if tempting fate, Avgi stretched out his right arm, several wooden vines lashing out across the hall: viciously striking ceiling, walls and ground alike. They reached far enough to smash the first few stairs, as well.

After leaving multiple gashes in the concrete, Avgi retracted the destructive whips, slowly turning back to Salixio.

There was a thin dart stuck in the back of Avgi's hand, oozing sap. He was holding back tears with a strained smile.

He was met with a sigh. "Hold still…" Salixio reached for the dart, plucking it out and making the hero shiver all over, cringing in shock.

Avgi's right hand fell to his side, refusing to move. Instead, his left was the one to give a bothered thumbs up. "Th-Thanks… Let's go in…"

"Now that we know there are traps, this is gonna be a lot harder." They slowly slinked across the destroyed ground, making sure that nothing else was in their way. Once the duo stepped down the stairs, the pollen in the air became thin enough for Avgi to revert to his original form. As he did, his golden hair and eyes literally lit the dark and otherwise inhospitable tunnel.

When light flowed across the hall, they found that the stone corridor was still constructed of bricks on the arched walls, and smooth flat stone floors. Everything was mossy, damp, and cold.

One detail out of the picture stuck out; by the wall was what seemed to be two small, mainly-black box-esque things. The smaller of the two was small enough to wrap one's hand around, and had two seeming holes. Presumed paper plastered onto the front seemed to have black writing on it, but it was scribbled out. The larger box-esque thing had buttons on it, and looked to have a hollow interior that the small box could fit in.

Avgi knelt down to the peculiar sight, utterly stumped. "Hey, what's this thing?"

Salixio was briefly shocked. "Eh? I thought you'd know what ancient relics lie in ancient places." He walked over and knelt down to pick up the two weathered objects, blowing off a heap of dust. "Sometimes these get left behind in certain places, but they usually don't work. Let's see about this one…"

As if knowing what was going on, the prince turned over the larger thing, and two tube-shaped metal cylinders popped out. He handed them to the confused Avgi. "Try putting electricity into those."

He nodded along, shifting to a shocking form as the cylinders sparked with power. When he felt it was fine, he shifted back, and passed them to Salixio. He dropped them as soon as they zapped his hand, before hesitantly picking them up again and inserting them into the big box.

The prince took the smaller box out of a clear-looking box, and inserted it into the big box. One of the buttons on it was pressed, as he stood up and slightly held it out. Intelligible sounds came from the miraculous box.

"Hey, the recording's started. Hey, Bri-Bri!"

"Huh? Oh yeah. Let's introduce ourselves first. No more dawdling!"

Avgi was perplexed, and Salixio was interested. The voices that came from the strange contraption were young, much like the listeners in that very moment.

"Salixio, don't you think that one sounds-"

The box interrupted again. "Alright! My name is Winnia Willow-"

"And I'M Bright Brilliant!"

"And we're gonna be documenting our dive into this dungeon, in case anyone else wants to try it in the future!"

"Feel free to follow along! If it doesn't look like we're exploring the same dungeon, then you're on your own."

The box clicked as the green thumb upon it pressed down, and it stopped playing. Avgi gave a curious glance, and Salixio held a wowed one in return. "Winnia's the name of my great, great… Great? Grandmother? Huh…"

Avgi's eyes narrowed, as he looked out to the hallway beyond, taking note of the thick moss all around. "So this thing is capturing voices spoken several generations ago? How?"

"I'm not sure about how this relic works, but these are usually found in abandoned places and dungeons like this. It may have something to do with how weirdly fragile and intricate they are." He pressed down on a button again, the voices continuing.

"So! Bright, shine some light down there. Alright. We're looking down the entrance, and it looks like… There's a slot in the sloped ceiling above the stairs. Oh! A thin pressure plate on the floor! Okay, be sure to step around that."

Avgi sighed with shame. His hand wasn't leaking anymore, but it still stung.

"Alright! If that's all, let's go!" It sounded like heavy footfalls began. "Hey, wait up!" A second set of footfalls followed. As the ancient duo moved along, the modern pair started to walk forwards through the hall. They didn't see anything suspicious, after some more glancing, so it didn't seem foolish to take a lead ahead of the recording.

For a moment, the footsteps ended, before crashing down all over again. They likely jumped down the stairs and kept going. "Bright, stop! We have to slow down!"

The sounds weren't slowing down at all. "Forget about it! I don't see any-THIIIING!!!" It sounded like the ground collapsed in tandem with his latest footfall.

Sure enough, Avgi spotted cracked ground ahead of them, or moss taking the shape of cracks. "Salixio, give it a smack."

He paused the recording, as a wooden vine extended from his arm to follow the order. As expected, from wall to wall, the ground ahead of them caved in for what seemed to be a five meter stretch. Avgi knelt down at the edge of the pitfall, shining light on what was at the distant bottom.

There weren't any bones upon the damp dirt, thankfully, but he did notice the generally large chunks of trap concrete would have made for a harsh landing.

After confirming the details, he stood up and turned back to the prince. "Nothing at the bottom. Start up the…"

Salixio didn't make him describe the box. "Oh yeah. This is called a player, by the way."

He snapped his fingers and pointed at it. "Yeah, that. Good that you know about this stuff… And that I've never heard a thing about it."

Avgi had thought back to the five dungeons he’d crossed so far in his lifetime. Usually strewn out were treasures such as golden coins, chalices, the jewelry of people he had no idea the history of, and even tarnished instruments he knew not. Yet, never did those artifacts give off any sound as intricate, and in such an automatic way as this.

Seemingly to mess with Avgi, Salixio chose not to comment on his confusion, only giving off a smug smile and pressing play.

The loud onslaught of Winnia’s panicked voice continued, as the time capsule replayed history.