Shawn watched warily as Garrett gathered the silvery material, as much as he could into the mineral sample vials. “Okay, now I want to test this out. Walk toward me slowly, with one of the vials. I want to see if it reacts when in a physical container.”

  “Forgive me for sounding unscientific, Shawn. But this doesn’t seem like a good idea.” Garrett tightly secured the jar and stashed several others in his bag. He was no stranger to field dressing injuries, or stripping corpses as part of hunting, and handled it quickly. Shawn sent a note to Halsey.

  Just a quick check, what’s the distance?

  Twenty meters and change. Do you think it’s based on distance?

  I think it's an energy emission of some kind. Or it's triggered by proximity. But if we can control when this happens, this might have some…interesting implications for Etteria recovery. The fact that he’d felt instantly refreshed, twice, after having encountered this Etteria, meant it could have an alternative use. But this required careful testing. Garrett started walking the distance, while Halsey kept count. So far, he felt not a single trickle of energy.

  “Alright, so, what’s our theory?” Garrett closed the distance and stood about a meter away, holding the vial jar upright. He peered at Shawn with curiosity.

  Shawn rubbed his hands together. “It's like you said. The monsters got more dangerous. Something has changed on the pnet. My guess? It's either something local in Valtiria, maybe some weird magical cycle…or…Revarik did something, down in the core world. But, we’re severely cking data.”

  “No, the other part.”

  “The primal Etteria?” Shawn asked. “Wanna hear my insane theory?”

  “There’s no insane theories here,” Garrett assured him. “Because I’d like answers, too.”

  “Okay. Radiants are gestalt users that acquired their power from the primal Etteria, however it's made, or perhaps it is a natural occurrence of the Etteria itself. The Radiants have an additional ability to grow stronger. They absorb the essence of Etteria when in proximity to it,” he finished.

  “That theory doesn’t hold. Telga’s been around raw Etteria before, in her b,” Garrett countered but then looked at Shawn with curiosity. “But then again, this Etteria–if that’s what it is–is not something I’ve encountered before in these creatures. This is new."

  “More interesting, this metal and gss canister is all it takes to stop the Etteria from reacting with my proximity,” Shawn proposed. “If Etteria is in most living organisms in this world, it’s possible it accumutes like heavy metals would in the diets of rger predators. Over time it builds up. Or it’s produced by biological means. Instead of toxic buildup like in my world...it strengthens them. I know Etteria can develop in people over time, Chakra told me that. This might be the logical conclusion of that process, taken to an extreme scale."

  “It would take immense amounts to get to this concentration where it leaks out,” Garrett pointed out. "Normally you can't even see Etteria in a biological organism. Why exactly did you ask me to pull you away?” Garrett asked casually, wagging the canister freely with his hand.

  “Let’s put it like this, every story I’ve ever read since I was a kid, Garrett? They all tell me power like this is dangerous.” Shawn tapped the gss with one cw gently. No reaction. “You guys have kids stories in Remaria?”

  “Yeah. A few,” he replied softly. “I remember my parents told my brother and me the stories of those who came before. The story of the old gods. The true gods, not the Radiants who come close. I remember one about Gaia, the bravest of the scaled Kin, who defended Earth from the Outsiders. How she sacrificed herself to seal the st portal that connected them, to whatever infernal realm they came from. Earth and the united Kin destroyed their astral gates to keep them from spilling forth, should they fail in their defenses.”

  Shawn tried to picture that. Magic and gods, on Earth. It sounded like a fairy tale, alright. Garrett examined the fluid in the vial, eyes focused on it, before sighing softly. “That was the st time Remaria had reliable contact with Earth, before the summonings and the portal tech were developed.” He secured the vial in his bag. “All the powers of a goddess, and Gaia chose to sacrifice it all to keep Earth in one piece. I guess that's kind of the opposite of what you were getting at, though."

  Shawn stood there, unsure of what to say. He couldn’t even comprehend that kind of power. “More history of Earth I don’t know about, Garrett. But, I wish I did, now.” With their test now concluded, he gestured to the derelict structure. “Wanna see what we can find in there? I’d rather not have this pce colpse over our heads.”

  “Yeah, let’s have a quick look.” Garrett pointed to the viper. “Want to try one st test? I scraped as much of that Etteria as I could, it didn’t seem to affect me.”

  “Yeah. Maybe because you scooped up most of it, it didn’t trigger. Like there’s a…critical mass.” Shawn frowned and tried to think of an analog. “It only triggers at a certain threshold amount of the material.” He took a few steps toward the viper and felt nothing. He felt no energy, no pinpricks or needles in his body. “Well, this has been enlightening. We can isote this stuff. How has no one ever witnessed this?”

  Maybe no one who has witnessed it has lived long enough to report back. It may also decompose--it's not a hundred percent on our reality. It overps with elsewhere, is what Varrick and the others said.

  “Anything big enough or dangerous enough to generate this much Etteria in their body?” Garrett asked and gave the question a good consideration. “Yeah, there might have been a few isoted cases I’ve heard from other scouts, different parts of Valtiria, and other tectonic masses. I’d like answers on this one, too. Maybe we can research it when we have the chance. In the meantime, let’s see who was camped down here.”

  Shawn winced as he tried to regain his stride--he was sore all over, and returning to motion brought it to his attention. He kept his rifle leveled at the doorway, hand drifting to his warhammer out of instinct. Garrett eased the metal and stone door open gently. The hinges ground with the sound of hundreds of years of dust and rust, but it swung open with little resistance. Garrett went in, rifle aimed, and motioned for Shawn to follow.

  The structure was intact–preserved, even. Shawn pulled open a glow stick round that Cire had cooked up and cast the room in a bright yellow glow. His feet echoed across the smooth stone floor, and Garrett motioned to the right, weapon still readied. Shawn gnced around and saw wood–actual wood pnking making up the interior walls. There was even a hearth for a small firepce and a cooking area. He saw a small stash of old mining gear, a sword in a sheath untouched by age, and a bow made of a strange, composite material. But, it was unstrung. Composites? Here? Interesting. He secured it to his pack, it was worth an investigation, just for the oddity of the material alone.

  He also saw a press and what could have been items for making firearm ammunition, but there was nothing but a scattering of bck granules on the table There was but one window–made out of translucent stone, not gss. He gnced out, and could almost see the corpse of the viper through the tinted material.

  It felt like a trapper cabin, but meant for underground, judging by the snares, and rger traps meant for the rats and other dangerous beasts. And, what looked like a few trophies on the wall. An ursina skull was the most prominent on the mantelpiece. Hardcore son of a bitch. It took us a ton of effort to kill these things. This pce looks like it’s sized for one, maybe a small family.

  But he wasn’t here for trophies. An urge to find answers drove him. He grabbed the sword off the metal stand it had been stacked on, and withdrew it gently. “Ever used one of those before?” Garrett asked quietly.

  He shook his head. “Not this kind of weapon. A hunting dagger for utility maybe. But I wouldn’t be using a weapon I wasn’t trained in, not for combat." The metalwork was fwless–it suggested great care in its construction, or given this world, possibly magic. He secured it to his pack. He saw a small bedroom and what he presumed was a washroom in two separate walled-off areas.

  What he found surprised him. A small desk and an ancient wooden chair were set in one corner. The bed itself was dusty–but intact. It was surprising how preserved the building was, all things considered. Shawn wandered to the desk to examine the contents. The drawer opened effortlessly. Inside he found a hide-bound book, the material still soft and flexible. The pages looked weathered and were made of actual paper, but slightly yellowed.

  What he read got his attention. “Garrett. Take a look. It's in English. Someone was here for a while.”

  After a few minutes of reading aloud, Garrett let out a soft whistle, while touring the underground cabin. “This guy made this pce a home. So that colpsed tunnel was originally opened decades ago. He might have been one of the original settlers of Vea’nt before it was resettled. Talk about a rugged life.”

  “And he found signs of the old civilization, but they were just as crumbled as we see now.” Shawn let out a soft sigh. “Cicero, wherever you are now, you must have been one tough bastard, to survive down here.”

  “Where there's a will, there's a way.” Garrett opened a chest tucked away in a corner, pulling out faded clothes and an empty, worn backpack. “What else is in there?”

  “He kept digging through the ruins. He was searching for something. He noted that it was odd how the ruins were located. He also tried to study that gravity trap. He theorized that at one point, those gravitational oddities might have been used for transport. That trap there that he made use of? That was his clue.” Shawn peered through the journal, noting schematics that he penned in fine detail. “Guy used firearms, too, but I don't see them here. He sketched out pns and dimensions for a semi-automatic rifle. Which is just one trigger group away from magical assault rifles.” A small forge in the back, bckened and sooty, suggested he’d been doing metal work, too. “He was here for a while.”

  "Could you make one?"

  Shawn let out a contented smile. "A self-loading rifle? We could make rger caliber rounds. And at a faster rate of fire, makes someone with low-power gestalts a stronger force factor. But..." he trailed off. "Am I creating a worse problem for this world, down the line?"

  "Won't know if we don't survive what's coming. Revarik might take months to plow through the lower yers, Shawn. But he will get to the outer orbital yer, eventually." Garrett's logic wasn't unreasonable.

  He flipped through the pages. More schematics. Details on the biology of the monsters. The pages were detailed. There was even a mention–a recent one, before the st entries–of the ursina. And a rge, bat-like creature that he’d killed and witnessed a silvery substance emanating from it. "He witnessed the liquified bio-Etteria, too. This isn't new, it's just not been well recorded."

  "More of those dangerous monsters? I thought the ursina was a prime specimen of its species, but the viper with acid? that was new. I've never seen one spit acid," Garrett commented.

  The st entry was puzzling. It showed a canister…with a crystal inside, and a note on the ruins. It looked awfully familiar. Garrett continued talking while his mind was spinning at the implications of this.

  “I thought it was odd that I saw some of those mushrooms growing everywhere. He pnted them, plus there are soil deposits outside the house. Like an underground garden, some pnts are edible–they can grow without sunlight. The mushroom fiber network can get minerals from the rock. Plus there's a persistent dampness down here–” Garrett stopped speaking, and Shawn heard a soft clink of metal. A light blue glow lit the room. “Shawn. Get over here.”

  He put the journal in his bag, and walked over to Garrett. His breath caught in his throat, when he saw the stockpile. “Garrett. Tell me that isn't what I think it is.”

  “Etteria. Refined ore.” the material was glowing slightly, and Garrett turned it in his hand gently. “Wow, this could be useful. A chunk this big? He must have been refining for a while.”

  “Where do you think the guy went?” Shawn asked, before realizing he didn’t feel any trace of that energy transfer. “Also, this is our control group. This stuff didn’t affect me. So, no absorbing dangerous materials and becoming a cautionary tale,” he added with a nervous ugh.

  “We could use this for rune work, Shawn. We could use this for many things,” Garrett said softly. But his fingers trembled with excitement at this discovery. “I think Telga will have to get an excavation team down here. Besides the ore deposits, there's a lot of potential for discoveries down here.”

  “We could use it. I hope this guy doesn’t come back, looking for his–”

  “Shawn…he’s no longer with the living. This pce is ancient.” Garrett shook his head. “In Remaria, you don’t question incredible finds like this. You make use of them. Alright? I would happily use this with a runesmith to enchant our weapons, use it as a power source, or use it for barter. Something to keep Vea’nt thriving, or to defend against Revarik. Until that son of a bitch is dead, everything I do, is me acting as a warrior, defending his nd and his people."

  Shawn gnced around, taking stock of the small stone cabin. No one had been here in a long time–years, decades, even. “Let’s go, then. We’ve got a lot of backtracking to do.”

  A moment ter, they’d grabbed anything of value, and Shawn gnced at the journal. He wondered, how Cicero’s journey had ended. Had he found buried treasure, and departed the depths, never to return? Was he in that pile of bones now sitting on the ground, having fallen on his trap by mistake?

  Or had he finally come to the end of his hunt at the cws of the numerous monsters down here, old and tired?

  Maybe this one time, he didn’t need to know the answer.

  He gently closed the door behind him and tensed his cws on the cavern floor. He was ready to get out of the depths. But he knew, there would be more delves into pces like this, someday. To find precious cargo that would be used in the defense of Vea'nt. For himself, Cire, Regia, and the others.

  Maybe, to find Maggie, too.

  And Revarik.

  He tensed his cws gently at that thought as they walked upward, toward fresher air and brighter lights. It feels like the path to saving this pnet isn't unlike Dante's Inferno. To delve ever deeper. To conquer my regrets and my shortcomings.

  Abandon all hope, you who enter here. But you're not Dante, and Revarik isn't Lucifer. You have a chance to do what others haven't.

  The walk back into the mine was uneventful–too quiet, even, and he surveyed the damage from the tremor as they passed by. He had no idea how much time had passed by, but it must be nearing nightfall. He couldn’t wait to spread his wings and get out of these cramped spaces–

  He paused for a second, and Garrett swiveled, peering at him in curiosity. “What’s up?”

  “I…nothing.” he kept thinking to himself, that strange feeling of getting used to being an Aveeran… permanently.

  He didn't know how to feel about it: good, or bad.