"Are you all right over there, lad?"

"Yep!" said Logan. "Almost done, be right there." He rifled through the garb of the last fallen goble assailant, securing his eighth Boundary-passing token. There had been nine total, but Clubber had fallen into the pit, so her stone amethyst chunk was lost. He faced the dragon sage statue with its glowing purple eyes.

Eldertread!

Within three easy hops, he perched on the statue's shoulders. It was a simple matter, tapping the totems to the gemstone eyes.

Affinity Touchstone (Void) detected! Would you like to rotate your affinity? YES/NO

"Not right now, System."

The call of the Void essence hummed notably in his hands but didn't force him.

After charging all the stones, Logan jumped down in one leap, Eldertread making his descent so light he didn't even kick up any dust.

When he rounded the corner of the dragon statue's room, he waved to his team craning their necks and standing on tiptoes, as if that might help them cross the Boundary. Since they couldn't, though, he joined them on their side of the invisible barrier.

Cassandra accepted a stone as he handed it to her. "All we have to do is hold these and walk through?"

The purple light shone on her face as she inspected it. It wasn't until Senna coughed that Logan realized he hadn't answered her question. The cough also made Cassandra turn her eyes upward at Logan, the inquisitive expression still on them.

"Yeah," Logan said, quickly putting on a sheepish grin. He made eyes at Senna, who judged him mischievously while Bromlin chuckled. Alden rolled his eyes. Logan turned to face Cassandra. "At least that's what the gobles did. I figure it should work the same way."

"Then I suppose we'll find out if it works for us too."

Logan stepped aside for her to pass him, and she took a step through the Boundary. Her stride slowed as she passed, and the stone in her hand dimmed.

"Fascinating," she said. While she sounded impressed, there was something analytical in her voice. "This kind of discovery will hold extreme weight with the Adventurers' Guild."

Logan followed her through with the others in tow.

Alden lifted the edge of his robe as he stepped over a sprawled goble while Bromlin applauded him.

"You did well for holding your own against these numbers, lad! So if we count the one you say fell down the pit, they were truly nine enemies."

"I said there were nine, didn't I?

"Well," the dwarf mused, "I know how people can get with boosting their numbers in battle stories. Not dwarves, of course. Well done."

Logan shrugged. He had gone from killing zero people in his life to ten in just a few days. The latest group hadn't stung as deeply as the one outside the cave, and he didn't know if that was a good thing or not. Rules here differed from back home, and survival was chief among them.

Logan made his way to the front and escorted them into the dragon sage statue room, collecting their empty totems. "Watch your step. That's the big hole I told you about." He climbed the statue and refilled the totems before handing everybody one, and pocketing the excess in his storage bag.

With lifted fist, Bromlin waved his stone. "I don't suppose these will give us an easy ticket down?"

"I don't think it's a matter of passing the Boundary," said Logan. "But I have a skill called Eldertread. It softens impacts on landing. I don't think it's enough on its own, but I have some ideas."

As Logan explained his idea of having Alden make earthen spikes jut out at horizontal angles to act as platforms, he held his breath as he checked everybody's faces for their reactions. Senna was the only one who seemed fully interested, and Cassandra was unreadable.

Alden crossed his arms. "That plan is absurd. I'm not jumping into complete darkness."

Bromlin adjusted his stance, eyeing the pit. "It's not the darkness that scares me," said Bromlin. He glanced down at his stocky legs and sighed. "But I'm not exactly built for graceful landings."

Before Logan could refute Alden's point, an illuminating orb bloomed into existence and danced above the pit. A glance at Cassandra showed her approving smile, and the display was enough to quiet Alden's grumble. Thanks, Logan mouthed to her, and she winked back. The lighting in here really emphasized her cheekbones in the best way possible.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Don't worry about hopping between landings, Bromlin," Senna said. She pulled out some pitons and coiled rope from her satchel, offering to make the descent from ledge to ledge a little safer for the shorter ones in the group.

With a relenting sigh, Alden nodded. "Very well. But how far will we be able to use this technique? I can't imagine the entire journey will be so conveniently cylindrical and contained. Do we even know if it has a bottom?"

"It must. I dropped an egg down there."

Alden blinked. "An egg?"

Logan lifted a clarifying finger. "A really important egg." At the bemused looks, he glossed over the fact that it pertained to one of his quests. Even though Alden groaned at the repeated explanation that he couldn't share the exact details, at least the mage didn't challenge the validity of its existence.

"Besides," Logan added, "that egg has been pretty lucky for me so far. To be honest, I'm kind of banking on that luck holding up. My quest is still active, so I know the egg survived the fall. I'm hoping we do too."

"Hoping, he says," muttered Senna. She raised her hands innocently when Logan shot her a look.

"What if some winged creature grabbed it midfall?" Alden pressed. "That would explain why your quest hasn't failed, but does not guarantee such a descent is possible."

Before Logan could answer, the ground rumbled. They all rushed around the wall's edge to see what had caused the noise and found a fissure on the other side of the Boundary. Void essence reached up with fractured tendrils. It was muted in color from this side of the Boundary, but still recognizable from their recent experiences.

"Well," Bromlin said dryly, "this is probably a better option than trying to go back the way we came."

Alden pursed his lips at the new Void fracture. "We still haven't addressed how to handle a further drop once the tunnel inevitably widens into a cavern."

As the others nodded, satisfying relief filled Logan. They were accepting the plan as their own, too. He faced Cassandra.

"So I had a thought about your wards and how you managed to wrap them around the frostfire elementals. Do you think you could make one large enough to wrap around us?"

Cassandra frowned. "That would take an enormous amount of energy."

"I can back you up with Invigorating Flame," Logan offered.

"Perhaps…" She glanced back at the boundary wall, and a crease formed between her brows. "Normally I wouldn't even think it possible. But… I think there's something ward-like about the Boundary itself and how it slowed my passing through it."

She explained to the others how her wards had a padded side to absorb impact and a rigid side to deflect, which is what Logan had noticed in the forest. "I think," concluded Cassandra, growing more confident as she explained herself, "I can use the same principle to create a ward that acts like a slow-fall cushion."

Senna, who had been listening and nodding, suddenly wandered off.

"Where are you going?" Logan asked.

"I love the creativity here," she called over her shoulder. "But it doesn't hurt to have a backup plan."

They watched as she dismantled a drum, peeling away the stretched hide, and started fastening it around a lightweight instrument case.

Bromlin raised a bushy brow. "Are you making a glider?"

"Yep," Senna said, focused on her work.

"Mind making me one?"

"Oh, we're all getting one," she said, smirking.

Logan grinned. "I like the way you think."

Invigorating Flame is level 6!

Eldertread is level 19!

Meditate is level 28!

Logan couldn't help but smile. As much as Alden may have scoffed at the idea of Logan aiding him with his new ability, the sense of power visible in his face suggested he didn't detest the help. Logan even got a murmured thank you.

With Logan strengthening Alden, he could create seven stable ledges at a time. When Alden did have to pause, Logan meditated his own mana back to full while Senna scrambled up and down fastening footholds for the others. All the while, Cassandra provided illumination.

They continued down the twisting, irregular sequence of outcroppings Alden had conjured as a spiraling stairway into the depths. The light gleamed off Senna's carefully placed anchors and secured rigging, guiding their way down.

The deeper they went, the more the darkness pressed in, swallowing the light above until only Cassandra's radiance lit their surroundings.

Then Alden grunted halfway through his series of stone summonings. "That's it," he said. "That's the end of the stable stone. I can't create a slab from thin air."

Cassandra lowered a second orb and confirmed the rim flared out into what must be the ceiling of an underground cavern. Nobody spoke as she released her control over the orb and let it drift downward. It vanished from sight. They must have descended over 200 feet already, and still there was no sign of the bottom.

I really hope I didn't get us into something we can't get out of.

"Cheer up," said Bromlin, nudging Logan's elbow. "There's a stone floor somewhere down there or I don't have a beard."

Chagrinned, Logan flashed a small smile. He hadn't meant to let his thoughts show on his face.

"I suppose," said Cassandra, readying herself, "this is the part where I make sure we don't splatter."

She extended her hands, channeling a concentrated pulse of mana. A shimmering golden ward expanded beneath the final stone ledge, its surface semi-translucent with a faintly cushioned texture. The edges warped as she adjusted the integrity, thickening the structure to support them.

Logan tested the surface with his boot. Springy, but solid.

"So we just… jump?" asked Bromlin, eyeing the platform suspiciously.

Logan clapped his back. "Or fall with style." He caught a reproachful look from Cassandra and winked. "Kidding."

With Eldertread to soften his landing, Logan hopped to the last spike, then landed weightlessly atop the ward.

One by one, the others followed until only Cassandra remained.

"Once I step on, I won't be able to hold it in place and we will descend." Sweat was already beading her brow, and it was clear the new application of her skills was testing her.

"We're ready if you are," Logan assured her.

Cassandra closed her eyes and stepped on, causing the ward to lower.

For the first few moments, everything felt stable.

Then the first Warpincer Raptor struck.

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