When it comes to traveling on foot, you truly feel every single step, be it the easy beginning where it's just you and the weight of your gear, vs the halfway point where it's you, your gear, and the weight of fatigue.
So, the fact that a vehicle could cover so much distance without feeling the exhaustion weigh on me was amazing. I could see the well-trodden path below me as we went, occasionally the sky would have an airship, or stray flying monsters would go overhead. Thalia in the passenger seat says I'm still a nervous driver due to my constant and rhythmic viewing of the speedometer, angle, fuel reserves, and temperature and then back to the windshield for 10 seconds and repeat. I would say it's not nervousness; it's procedure.
My entire job is making potions, a process where you are given instructions that if followed incorrectly will cause the potion to fail, ingredients wasted, and or blow up in your face. For that reason alone, I think it's more of a general attentiveness to procedure than nervousness. We drove on, the expanse of a massive forest seemed to be emerging in front of us. The contrast compared to the hilly and rocky terrain all morning was a rather welcome sight. As we approached the tree line, there was a knock at the back window. Thalia twisted around and slid the glass slide as Kaelen poked his head in.
"The sun's starting to set, and we have been on the road since just before lunch, how about we set up camp right outside the tree line."
I turned to Thalia who nodded and from where she had been tracing our map and marked a spot, she called camp 1 that was just past the mountain range that Hopestone was next too. Taking a moment to look over her work I saw that she had missed a landmark, so as we pulled to a stop I said.
"Were closer to around here, there was that part of the mountain like a mile back."
Thalia wordlessly looked over her work, nodded and made the correction. As she and the other hopped out I put the vehicle in park as I took a moment to think.
This entire time, Thalia had been almost robotic, she didn't speak much, her expressions almost never changed, and even when she was excited, it only showed by a light blush on her cheeks and moving around faster. She was just hard to read in general. I stepped out to join the others as I saw Jax was running in and out of the tree line grabbing sticks to put in a pile. Thalia seemed to be helping, but while she grabbed 4 or 5 sticks each run, Jax made 7 or 8 runs for each of hers. Kaelen and Selene were grabbing stuff off the cart, Kaelen going at half the speed Selene was going as Selene grabbed two or three bags that Kaelen only had one of. That just left Liora and me to look and make sure that there is nothing we have to worry about in the woods.
"Shall we get going?"
Liora gave a nod, but seemed to be elsewhere, her thoughts seemed to be drifting and her expression said that they weren't drifting in a nice direction. Liora and I made our way into the tree line as Liora asked.
"Any thoughts on Thalia?"
"Well, they aren't much of a talker, practically the entire ride was silent aside from the occasional trailer question with the window."
"Please tell me I'm not the only one that feels like that could be a bad sign."
"It's not a good sign, but I don't think it's bad, maybe she is like Selene and has trouble expressing herself."
"Selene is shy, not speaking a word for hours on end while in the same room is calculating."
We took a minute to walk in silence, simply looking around the area, the woods were thick, the smell of pine mixing with the setting sun to tint the woods in a light orange and red hue that felt almost comfortable.
"I have been meaning to ask, I noticed you were quick to say no to Thalia joining even off the get go, was it a weird vibe thing or?"
Liora stopped for a moment and seemed to take some time to think before she scratched the back of her head.
"Honestly, I have no clue why, maybe it's a weird vibe, maybe I feel like she is trying to catch us in a scam."
A part of me wanted to say that's just dumb, and that nobody else seemed to get that bad vibe, but I remembered back to when we had fought the Blood Trent just two days ago. When I had a bad feeling about the tree everyone said gut feelings often save adventuring groups.
"In that case I'll try to keep an eye on her, as you all said before, gut feelings save adventuring groups"
We walked around, starting to circle back to camp when Liora's arm shot up. I froze beside her as she quickly made her way behind a tree. I followed trying to avoid making noise.
Around 100 ft away was the now familiar silver sheen of Thalia's hair. She seemed to be standing there, her back to us as her arms were held out at either side of herself, the mana strings she made before extending from her fingertips and seemingly slithering across the ground. She stood motionless, the only movement around her being the slight breeze moving her dress and the strings slithering across the ground.
She seemed to be in almost a trance, before she seemed to twitch, and started to walk, the strings still searching the ground. I turned to Liora who nodded as we started after her, taking care to tread quietly. We ended up going around 50ft before Thalia broke into a run, making her way over to where a tree laid on its side. At the base, roots pointed towards the sky, bits of dirt clinging here and there caked dry in the sunlight. She seemed to slide into the small divot below the tree.
While we could get closer to see in, her strings were still searching and we weren't sure if that would alert her or not. Waiting for a moment she emerged, retracting her strings before grabbing a few sticks from the ground that her strings had pulled to her hand and made her way back in the direction of camp.
Liora and I waited for a moment before walking over to the small divot. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but as we looked down both of us said.
"A Trapdoor?"
Indeed, as pristine as the wood one would find in a cleaned building, a simple wooden trapdoor sat in the center of the small divot. It wasn't large but could probably fit even Larz if he squeezed himself inside.
"So do you think she just found this?"
I asked, crossing my arms.
"Maybe, I would say it was something she planned like an ambush except for the fact that she didn't ask to stop, Kaelen did."
We took another moment to simply ponder the strange sight before Liora said.
"We clearly have no Idea, and there is no way I'm opening a potential trap without the others here."
"Agreed, let's head back to camp and we can ask the others."
I said as we started back to camp. Liora shook her head.
"Let's not mention it first, I want to see if Thalia will mention it or if she will try to hide it."
I was a bit surprised, but nodded along, agreeing on the small test. We made our way back in relative silence until to our surprise, Thalia, Jax, Selene, and Kaelen meet us before we got to camp. Liora saw Thalia leading but turned to the group as a whole with one of her usual casual smirks.
"If you were worried about us returning, we were almost back."
"Actually, Thalia was saying she found an item dungeon this way, figured we would check it out before we start dinner for the night while we still have light."
Jax said as we came to a stop facing each other. Liora seemed a bit surprised by how quickly Thalia told the rest of the group. However, I was confused about a different thing.
"What's an item dungeon?"
The others turned to me as if surprised for a moment before remembering up until 3 days ago I was a regular shop owner.
"Are you aware of how a river will passively grow as it flows due to the fact that the dirt around it will slowly be swept away down the river over time?"
Thalia asked me crossing her arms. I nodded before she continued.
"Water likes to fill a space; Aether likes to take specific shapes. Both will erode on surfaces. Often times items that get a bit of damage or a small mark will have that start the path for natural runes, often turning items into magical items transforming the item to be something different. When this happens, a finished item will make a dungeon around itself by changing the environment. Nobody knows exactly why this happens, but it's called the Aether transmutation phenomena."
I blinked for a moment before turning to the others.
"So, there is a magical item down there then?"
Jax nodded as he started towards the trapdoor we had found. It took us only a minute or so to backtrack there. As we approached Kaelen started to reach for the door, but was stopped by Thalia holding a hand out.
"Once a dungeon is opened, the monsters inside will be able to leave as well. Our camp is close enough they may come this way. Let's camp for the night before we attempt the dungeon in the morning."
Everyone nodded at this as we all turned and started back towards camp. Kaelen and Selene held their stomachs like they couldn't wait for dinner while Jax and Thalia seemed to be having bits of small talk as they walked. I caught Liora's eye as we made a silent agreement. We would need to keep an eye on Thalia in case she attempted the dungeon while everyone slept to steal the item.