[POV: Riku Kamishiro - The Artificer] [Location: West Tunnel Entrance]
Riku Kamishiro felt like he was walking inside a microwave.
His monocle was screaming at him. The stream of orange data overlaying his vision was scrolling so fast it was giving him a migraine.
[ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: MANA DENSITY CRITICAL] [RADIATION: 600 PPM (PARTICLES PER MAGE)] [RECOMMENDATION: EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY]
"This is insane," Riku muttered, adjusting the brass knobs on his gadget with trembling fingers. "The ambient mana is thick enough to chew. My shielding capacitors are at 85% and dropping. How are you not dead?"
He looked at the boy walking beside him.
Amano Sora didn't look like he was walking into a radioactive death trap. He looked like he was taking a midnight stroll to a convenience store.
Sora was walking with a loose, easy gait, his hands tucked into the pockets of his scavenged grey leather armor. He wasn't sweating. He wasn't wincing. While Riku felt the heavy, crushing weight of the dungeon's "God Radiation," Sora seemed... empty.
"I told you," Sora said, not looking back. "I'm an insulator. Zero mana means zero conductivity. The dungeon doesn't even know I'm here."
"That defies the laws of magical thermodynamics," Riku argued, stepping over a puddle of black slime. "You should still suffer from biological degradation."
"Yeah, well," Sora shrugged. "Tell that to the Deadlands. Compared to where I've been sleeping for the last month, this place is a spa."
They reached the Mid-Guard Junction.
Riku stopped. The smell hit him first—rot, iron, and old death. Then, the sight of the carnage.
The Gnoll Warlord's corpse lay against the wall, a massive, rotting heap of muscle and iron. Around it were the shattered remains of the battle. Daigo's old tower shield, folded like a taco.
"Data point," Riku whispered, scanning the scene. "Squad 1 eliminated the boss. But the structural damage to the environment suggests a protracted engagement."
Sora didn't look at the Warlord. He was looking at the ground. He crouched down, running a gloved finger through a smear of dried blood.
"Squad 1 didn't kill this thing alone," Sora said quietly. "Look at the drag marks."
"Drag marks?"
"Here," Sora pointed to a set of scuffs in the dirt. "Heavy boots. Mercenary tread. Grog was here. He tanked the main aggro." Sora moved his finger to a splatter of black ichor. "Poison. Grog got bit. That took him out of the fight."
Sora stood up, wiping his glove on his thigh. He looked down the dark throat of the West Tunnel.
"Riku, refresh my memory," Sora said, kicking a piece of broken wood. "When Valdorn read the scroll at the start... who was in Squad 2?"
Riku blinked, accessing his perfect memory. "Squad Two: Support and Defense. Reiji Narukami. Mei Tachibana. Toru Makabe. Hinata Moriyama."
"Right," Sora nodded. "Reiji is the Paladin. Mei is the Lancer. Toru is... what? Pyromancer? And Hinata is the Assassin."
"Correct," Riku confirmed. "Why?"
Sora pointed to the broken wood on the floor. It was a spear shaft, snapped cleanly in half.
"Mei's bottom part spear," Sora said. "And over there... scorch marks on the wall. Amateur fire magic. That's Toru."
Sora walked a few steps deeper into the tunnel, analyzing the tracks in the dirt.
"Reiji is gone. But there's no body. And the drag marks leading to the exit... that's Ren's squad carrying the wounded out. They took Grog and Reiji."
Sora turned back to Riku, his expression grim.
"So, if Reiji and Grog got carried out... where are the other three?"
Riku froze. He did the math. "Mei. Toru. Hinata. They aren't accounted for in the extraction report."
"Exactly," Sora said. "They ran. Panic response. The Warlord blocked the exit, so they ran deeper."
Sora started walking into the West Tunnel. "Come on. The trail is getting cold."
They moved deeper into the darkness. Riku kept his hand on the small, clockwork pistol at his belt. It was a prototype—a mana-compressed air gun. It had six shots. He prayed he wouldn't have to use them.
Suddenly, the tunnel floor changed. It was covered in splashes of vibrant color.
"What in the world..." Riku whispered, shining his mana lamp.
Lying on the cavern floor were the corpses of Shadow Hyenas. But they weren't just dead. They were... tie-dyed.
One was coated in bright yellow paint. Another in neon green. A third in electric blue. The paint was sticky, glowing faintly in the dark.
"Is this a mutation?" Sora asked, crouching next to a blue carcass. He poked the goo. "It's wet. And it smells like... blueberries?"
"No," Riku adjusted his monocle, analyzing the substance. "This mana signature... it's chaotic but structured. It matches Noa Yukimura."
"Noa?" Sora raised an eyebrow. "The girl with the headphones? Valdorn said she was a Summoner. Since when does she paint?"
"She calls it 'Artistic Manifestation,'" Riku explained, fascinated despite the danger. "She summons constructs using paint as a medium. It bypasses the need for blood contracts."
Sora looked at the painted hyena. He looked at how the thick paint matted the fur, how it made the creature visible against the black rock.
"Smart," Sora murmured. A flicker of genuine impress crossed his face. "Shadow Hyenas rely on stealth and speed. If you coat them in heavy, glowing paint, you ruin their aerodynamics and their camouflage. You turn a predator into a target."
He stood up. "She adapted. She didn't try to overpower them; she changed the rules of the engagement. That's... actually brilliant."
"Squad 1 must have come back," Riku deduced. "Ren, Daigo, Noa... they came back to find the missing students. They slaughtered this pack."
"Yeah," Sora agreed. "But look at the tracks. The paint trail keeps going. They didn't find them here."
They continued following the neon breadcrumbs. The tunnel widened, the ceiling stretching up into darkness.
Finally, they reached it.
The Fork.
To the left, a narrow, twisting tunnel that smelled of dry dust and old bones. To the right, a massive, gaping maw that smelled like a sewer had exploded.
Riku adjusted his monocle. He looked Right.
"High energy signatures," Riku reported, his voice tight. "Massive. I'm reading multiple distinct mana sources. Ren. Daigo. Noa. Reiji. They're all down the Right path."
Riku looked Left.
"Left path... faint life signs. Erratic. Chaotic. But small."
"The smell," Sora noted, wrinkling his nose. "Right smells like shit."
"Fecal matter usually indicates a den," Riku nodded. "It makes sense Ren went that way. That's where the monsters are."
"Yeah," Sora said. He walked over to the Left tunnel. He ignored the smell. He ignored the mana readings. He leaned close to the wall, running his hand along the rough stone.
"What are you doing?" Riku asked impatiently. "Ren is to the Right! We need to catch up! If they're engaging a new threat, they need backup!"
"Ren went Right because Itsuki told him to," Sora muttered, his fingers brushing against something. "Itsuki follows logic. Logic says predators drag prey to the den."
Sora stopped. His finger hooked onto a small, jagged scratch on the wall. It was barely visible, hidden in the shadow of a rock.
It wasn't a natural scratch. It was a carving. A crude, jagged symbol that looked like a skull with crossed bones.
"But the missing three... they aren't logical," Sora whispered. "Mei is impulsive. Hinata is anxious. And Toru..."
"What about Toru?" Riku asked. "I haven't collected much data on him."
"Toru is a Pyromancer," Sora said. "Fire users hate damp, enclosed spaces. And they hate bad smells. Methane risks explosion."
Sora looked at the carving.
"Do you know what this symbol is, Riku?"
Riku shook his head. "Negative. It does not match standard dungeon runes."
"It's a territorial marker," Sora said, his voice dropping. "I saw it in the textbooks Valdorn threw at me in the Deadlands. 'Trespassers will be eaten.' This is a Goblin boundary."
Sora stood up. He looked down the Left tunnel.
"Reiji sent them away to hide. They ran blindly. They hit this fork. Toru smelled the Right tunnel, gagged, and went Left because he thought it was safer. Because it didn't smell like a monster's toilet."
Sora turned to look at the Right tunnel—the one Ren had taken.
"Ren went to the den," Sora deduced. "But the Hyenas didn't take the prisoners to the den. They chased them... into the Goblin territory."
Riku's face went pale. He looked at his scanner again.
"If Toru is on the Left..." Riku's voice trembled. "And Goblins are intelligent pack hunters..."
"They're walking into an ambush," Sora finished. "Or they're already in one."
Riku looked at the Right tunnel. "But Ren is on the Right! My sensors... I'm picking up a spike! A massive mana spike! Something huge is waking up down there! A Zone Boss!"
Riku grabbed Sora's arm.
"Sora, we have to go Right! Ren is the Asset! He's the Hero! If a Boss is down there, he needs support! We can't let the Hero die! That is the mission priority!"
Sora looked at Riku's hand on his arm. Then he looked at the Right tunnel.
"Ren has [Divine Guidance]," Sora said calmly. "He has Daigo, who apparently has a reinforced shield now. He has Noa controlling the battlefield. Even if they walk into a Boss Room, they can tank it. Ren can survive a beating for ten minutes. Hell, he might even win."
Sora pulled his arm free. He turned his body toward the Left tunnel—the dark, silent path.
"But Toru? Mei? Hinata?" Sora shook his head. "Toru is an idiot with a lighter. Mei has a broken weapon. And Hinata panics when he sees blood."
Sora checked the straps on his gauntlets.
"If they ran into a Goblin nest, they don't have ten minutes, Riku. They have two."
"You're... you're choosing the stragglers over the Hero?" Riku asked, incredulous. "That's statistically unsound! The utility value of Ren is—"
"Fuck the utility value," Sora snapped.
It was the first time Riku had heard Sora curse with genuine anger.
"Ren has plot armor," Sora said, his eyes cold and hard. "He's the Protagonist. The world bends to keep him alive. But the others? They're extras. And extras die off-screen."
Sora drew a weapon from his back. It wasn't a sword. It was a short, jagged bar of rusty iron he had sharpened into a crude machete. It looked ugly. It looked brutal.
"I'm going Left," Sora stated. "You can run to Ren if you want to be safe. But if you want to save the people who actually need saving... you're coming with me."
Sora didn't wait for an answer. He stepped into the Left tunnel, moving silently into the dark.
Riku stood at the fork.
He looked Right. The safe bet. The strong team. The Hero. He looked Left. The suicide mission. The defect. The weaklings.
Probability of survival on Left path: <15%. Probability of feeling like a piece of shit if I leave them: 100%.
"Damn it!" Riku cursed, slapping his thigh. "I hate irrational variables!"
He turned and ran after Sora.
"Wait up!" Riku hissed, catching up to the boy in the grey armor. "I have the thermal sights! You'll walk into a trap without me!"
Sora didn't look back, but Riku saw the corner of his mouth twitch upward.
"Took you long enough, Prodigy."
"Shut up, Defect."
They moved together into the darkness, leaving the Hero to his destiny, and stepping into the void to save the forgotten.