Ball of Nothing

When Jermine and Truen were close enough, Zero stopped and told Bob to take a break.

"Go and meet them, tell them to set up camp near the bedrock but not inside or after it. I'll join shortly after I confirm some things. Also, take these."

Bob didn't question why Zero was giving a bunch of pre-drawn emergency talismans. He only asked where he should put the anchoring point to evacuate if something went south.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Zero smiled. "They'll simply teleport to the surface and create a mana barrier that will last for five minutes. It's enough time for me to open portals and bring everyone back to safety. Stick some of these on the sand walkers too, will you? I don't want to walk through the desert on foot. We don't know how far the city of gnomes will be."

With a salute, the dragon returned the pickaxe and transformed into his human form. Nobody wanted to scare Jermine too much, the poor mole girl had too many things to cope with at the moment. Zero didn't have the heart to tell Bob these talismans were something he made in Magnus Hilda after copying thousands of talismans for the royal family. They are experimental stuff that Zero simply forgot to get rid of during his stay. Luckily, they proved useful in the most unexpected situations.

Truen finally arrived at the dungeon "entrance" that Zero and Jermine talked about and blinked. He used magic to light the place up and felt that the rock was siphoning mana from him slowly but steadily. There was nothing Truen could do to stop the leak and mana recovery here was slower than on the surface of the desert. What did Zero find again?

"You're here," Bob greeted them and passed everyone a talisman before sticking a talisman to the butt of every sand walker. Jermine held onto the strip of paper and wondered what that was.

"Keep this close to you at all times," Bob explained and told them that it was Zero's instructions. Jermine didn't question it and Truen examined it. The runes looked slightly complicated but it was nowhere near the level of impossibility that Zero was capable of.

"It's an emergency evacuation talisman," he explained and Jermine nodded, feeling nervous about the dungeon that Zero was in. Why would they be given evacuation talismans and told to wait outside?

Once Bob, Jermine, Truen and the sand walkers were outside settling the campsite, Zero took that chance to sneak away. After working on the walls for a long time and trying to locate the source of the pained moans, Zero finally had an idea what this dungeon was.

Wii sensed that something was wrong while Mii busied away in the mindscape library. Likewise, Lily was receiving some really weird system usage graphs. Zero was meddling with her authority and overwriting some preset limits. At once, the flower fairy reported back to Mii who scowled.

"Not too long ago, Merlin said not to do anything stupid and yet here he is, seeking trouble. Where's Truen? Someone contact him!"

Wii tried but found that the party call authority was locked and that she couldn't access it. "What's going on? I can't contact Truen or send messages out using the intergalactic communicator."

While his mindscape assistants panicked, Zero raced through the labyrinth. It was too dangerous for everyone else to follow him, the entire cave was the boss monster's body. It wasn't just a dungeon system that spawns monsters and tries to kill adventurers to absorb their life force or mana. This dungeon was a living monster, similar to Sleepy Cave but less dangerous.

According to Axel, the Desert Poppy can only be found in underground desert caves near bedrock where many mana beasts spawn. This fit the description rather perfectly and Zero wondered what the flower looked like. Not many adventurers, if any, who saw it lived to tell the tale. Zero would be the first but he couldn't risk his friends on the quest. This dungeon ate mana and Zero saw how quickly the legendary Eternal Dragon was exhausted by staying in the cave for a while. The ghoul scorpions weren't even tough opponents but Bob was very worn out from just facing one wave of enemies.

Jermine didn't know if she should say this. Zero had left a long time ago alone while they were working on the camp. No matter how she thought about it, the situation looked strange. Truen and Bob were sent out with emergency evacuation talismans while Zero left to venture alone. The walls kept sucking the mana from Truen and Bob as it repaired itself. The recovery was slow enough for nobody to notice but it couldn't escape Jermine's special eyes.

As a mole beast folk, while they were completely blind. However, they were given a special gift passed down through generations that made up for their hereditary blindness. Many beast folks are gifted with their animal talents like keen senses, strength or unique abilities. The mole beast folks developed an ability to see mana and often used it to hide from their enemies underground. Lycontopia wasn't a very strong country and had always been attacked by other countries. Even within the country, the laws of the jungle applied. Resources were scarce and everyone honed their gifts to the best they could to provide for their clans. The weak either submitted to the strong or faced extermination. The strong protected the weak and fought for their country with their lives on the line.

Jermine wanted to keep this a secret from them because she didn't trust Truen or Zero even if they saved her from the adventurers and made her sign a magic contract promising to help her return to her parents. However, she wasn't the kind of girl who could see someone running into danger and not try to stop them. Bob was tired, she could tell. His mana reserves were halved and have not recovered. Truen's mana reserves were depleting and even if the archer tried to stop the leak, the dungeon walls were more powerful and sucked them in little by little. The longer they remained here, the greater the dangers they faced. She had to get Zero out of there as soon as possible.

"Um..." she pulled on Truen's sleeve and hesitated. Zero saved her life back there so she was only returning the favour. It might be too early to reveal the truth about her eyes but she could at least let them know that Zero had wandered away.

"I don't hear Zero anymore."

That sentence made Truen and Bob stop immediately. The dragon squinted. Was his dark vision failing him? Zero should be right there but he couldn't see anything apart from rocks. Truen gave up night vision and cast a strong light spell to save them the trouble. His face went pale when Zero was nowhere to be seen.

"Zero?" he called out but only silence greeted him. Truen tried to contact Zero using the part call function but found that he was blocked.