The party of three and a wolf rested for the night. Roland’s sleep resistance skill had been maxed out after pulling so many all-nighters and after he reached his tier 2 class, it evolved. Now it was called Sleep immunity and he would be able to function for up to a week without needing to sleep.

Due to the nature of this predicament, he chose to remain on guard. The lava pool in the middle of the cave was dangerous as more of the volcanic salamanders could appear out of it. Then there were the smaller holes in the walls through which the centipede-looking monsters and slugs came out.

They had no tents so sleeping would be hard, mostly for the noble lady as she was clearly not used to extreme conditions like this. It was quite stuffy to begin with but the lava pool only made things worse.

Luckily for Robert and Lucille, they had a craftsman with them. There were also many various metallic ores in this place along with crystallized mana giving fluid that could be used as fuel. Lucille still had the plate that she used to control ice with, with some modification Roland was able to use the crystals to power it.

Thanks to this an area with purified air was established and they could rest. Lucille could barely sleep in Roland’s backup sleeping bag that didn’t really add much softness to the hard ground.

Roland on the other hand continued to examine the cavern. Besides Mithril and Etherium he managed to find various other metals and minerals. Some could be sold off to the alchemist guild while others he could use directly for his own wares. He did not have a pickaxe nor much space in his traveling bag.

It pained him to leave all of these resources behind but they needed to move. The longer they stayed here the more danger they would find themselves in. With his hammer and chisel he managed to snag a couple of the rarer materials but if he could return here alone remained to be seen.

He would need to convince these two nobles to not mention this cave when they got back. Then he would also need to be able to return here in one piece. Going down the chasm would be quite hard unless he brought some climbing specialist along.

You have gained 270 experience points

The slug-like creature collapsed after being frozen by an ice arrow. The monsters continued to appear after intervals which meant that this place was not safe to stay. It was time to leave, the edible monster salamander had been gutted and the meat had been roasted over the lava pool already.

“Where do you think this will lead us to Sir. Wayland?”

Lucille asked while Roland opened up the secret passage.

“I don’t know… but it could be a way out. Some dungeons like this have secret passages, they mostly take you to a treasure or are a shortcut to other sections of the dungeon. It could even lead us to where our companions are staying.”

This place was already a trove of treasures, these many magical crystals, and precious metals would make even tier 3 class holders salivate. Roland hoped that this passage would take them back outside into the main dungeon area.

“Fascinating…”

Lucille’s eyes sparkled with naive wonder. The girl was still quite chipper and didn’t realize that they could very well be walking into a trap.

“Are you sure that it’s safe? Wouldn’t it be better to wait for Lord Percival to organize a rescue?”

Robert on the other hand kept a cooler head. Even though they were stuck here it might have still been safer than to venture into the unknown. Roland turned to the two people here, he wanted to move into the secret passage. He did not want to put his faith in other people too much.

“You have two choices… either you can stay here and wait, or you can come with me. I won’t force you. I will go in alone if I have to...”

He had already made his decision, he would go explore all the possibilities. These two could wait here if they wanted, the monsters weren’t that strong and with Lucille’s ice magic they would go down rather fast.

“You intend to go in without us?”

Robert looked a bit surprised by Roland’s proclamation. Apparently, he still thought that Roland was working for them and was obligated to listen to their orders. Unbeknownst to them, this was not what was written on the contract that he signed. There was no clause specifically forcing him to take orders from the nobles, he was there more as a support than a defender or a fighter.

“Yes, the volcanic salamander meat should last you for some time. Lady Lucille also seems to know water magic, you won’t even need my water bottle. You can remain here if you deem it too dangerous. ”

“Remain here…”

Robert turned his head towards the cavern that they rested in for one night. After thinking for a moment the brother turned to the blue-haired lady that when their eyes met just smiled.

“Isn’t it fine?”

“My Lady?”

“I think we can trust Sir Wayland!”

“Ah… if the lady says so…”

Robert awkwardly turned towards Roland and his face instantly became stern. He nodded to indicate that they were ready to move.

“Agni.”

The Ruby wolf wagged his tail around while turning on the light-giving gem on his forehead. After activating the runes the passage opened up and all of them quickly squeezed inside. The door soon closed behind them, it was time to move on.

“Not much space in here, I’ll lead the way.”

The corridor was about two meters in width and three meters in height. It was wide enough for Roland and Agni to go in the front while Robert remained at Lucille’s side.

Just like before, there was no light anywhere. Without Agni, the two people behind him would have a tough time moving around. Roland thanks to his helmet was able to see clearly but the path was long and winding.

They continued walking and it took them quite a bit to finally reach a fork in the road. Two paths stood before them.

“Which should we take…”

Asked Robert while Roland took out his mapping device. Regretfully it had limited range and only showed more winding corridors that somewhat intertwined with each other. It was hard to make out where they were going.

‘I don’t see any traps… no runes either…’

Agni moved forward as well, he used his wolf nose to sniff for potential clues but he also came out short. With a whine, he looked up to Roland that just patted him on the head.

“We’ll have to depend on luck with this one…”

Roland said while looking at Lucille and Robert. He knew that his own luck stat was abysmal, it would be better if one of them chose.

“How about you decide…”

He pointed to Robert as he wasn’t sure how Lucille’s luck stat looked and Robert’s was above his by some points.

“Hm… how bout we go right?”

Roland nodded but before heading inside he moved his finger towards the wall. From his fingertip, a slight blue hue escaped that crafted a runic symbol above the path they were entering.

“Sir Wayland?”

“Just marking the way...I hope that I’m just being paranoid but it will help us if this is what I think it is…”

They continued forward and as Roland had presumed they came across another fork in the road. After putting a symbol above the path that they took they ventured forward into a corridor that one of the noble youth’s pointed them in.

Ten minutes turned to thirty, then to an hour as they continued walking into multiple paths. Then finally they came to a path that they had traveled through before. The symbol above the pathway was clear.

“This is the first path that we entered through… then that path would lead us back to the chamber with the mana crystals…”

“Oh… is that why Sir. Wayland put those symbols above the pathways?”

Lucille clapped her hands as she finally figured out what Roland intended with the markings. Thanks to his good memory he would be able to remember which path they had already tried.

They started to retrace their steps, now they entered the unmarked passages to see if they guided them to an area that they weren’t in before. With the help of this trick and Roland's good internal mapping skills they finally reached a larger cavern.

“This one looks different than the rest…”

The entrance they were looking at was different by having two lit torches on the sides. It was clear that this was the exit from this mini labyrinth that took them a few good hours to go through.

“Sir. Wayland is that a door? Could it be the exit from this place?”

“We should be careful… It could be a trap…”

Roland replied while activating his debugging skill but there was nothing out of the ordinary on this door. He couldn’t feel anything magical on it either. After scanning the surroundings with his map once more, he could only s