The four stepped back into Mugwort's clearing, each of them carrying exhaustion, dust, and the strange lightness that came with surviving something impossible. The sun told them it was midday… probably. After nearly a week of dying and reviving, time had lost most of its meaning.
Mugwort was exactly where they expected him to be: hunched over his enormous cauldron, muttering to himself, stirring stew like it was the heartbeat of the world.
Argent exhaled, relieved.
"Looks like the other four are still out. Haven't seen them since we left."
Mugwort spun around, eyes wide and wild.
"Ah! My long-lost children return! Yes, yes, come, come, come!" He waved them in with frantic flutters of his hands. "Haven't seen you in ages. Nearly gave your spots away to the stew ghosts. They get territorial when left waiting."
Ferric blinked. "Stew… ghosts?"
"Of course," Mugwort said matter-of-factly, ladling stew into bowls. "They hover over empty seats, glaring. Very rude if you ask me. Here! Eat, before they do."
He handed each of them an absurdly large bowl, far larger than usual.
Ward didn't hesitate, already devouring a spoonful.
Argent took a slower sip, then sighed. "I forgot what food tastes like."
Ryn let out a tiny gasp after her first bite. "I didn't realize how hungry I was…"
Argent nodded.
"When you revive in the temple, you come back full. Revived. Restored. No hunger at all. We must've been going at it for… five days? Six?"
He took another bite. "Guess it's been that long since we actually ate."
"Aye!" Mugwort declared. "Food is life, stew is soul, hunger is optional but recommended!" He cackled, but when he turned away to stir the pot again, his face unexpectedly softened. Just for a second. A warm, genuine smile. Then it was gone.
After a few minutes of blessed eating, Ward wiped his mouth and stood.
"We're heading to the outskirts' pub, grab a drink, relax a bit before the others get back."
He raised an eyebrow at Argent and Ryn. "You two coming?"
Argent leaned back against a log and shook his head.
"I'm good. I want to do absolutely nothing for at least half a day."
Ryn hesitated… glanced at him… then looked at Ferric and Ward.
"…I'll stay too."
Ward smirked knowingly. Ferric coughed theatrically.
"Try not to burn the camp down," Ferric said before the two wandered off.
Argent patted the straw bed down he'd fashioned crudely on the previous nights. Sitting down on it, his shoulders on a log behind him propping up his body.
"Thanks, by the way," he said quietly. "In the fights. You watching my back… I could go all out because I knew you'd cover what I couldn't."
Ryn, sitting on the log beside him, went a bit red in the face. while she took her hair out of the ponytail she usually wore.
"I… didn't think you noticed. I just wanted to make sure you could move freely."
Argent smiled faintly.
"I always notice you..."
He froze, realizing how that sounded.
"...uh, I mean, I notice things."
Ryn's face had turned a brilliant shade of red. She tried to hide it behind her hair.
"I think we're interrupting a moment," Ember announced loudly from behind them.
Rime peered over her shoulder. "Nope, not think. Definitely interrupting."
Argent jerked upright. The twins, Ember, and Rime stood there, dirt-streaked, clothes torn, clearly back from battle rather than revival.
Veyra folded her arms. "You two really can't keep anything subtle, can you?"
Ember and Rime both huffed in unison.
Veyrn snorted. "Welcome back, by the way. You were gone almost six days. If people hadn't seen you reviving over and over and trudging back to the dungeon, we'd have thought something happened."
Ember chimed in, grinning:
"Oh! Speaking of dungeon suic... I mean, dungeon trips, there are rumors going around the outskirts from people who saw you all."
She smirked. "Apparently you four have a nickname now."
Argent groaned. "Oh?"
"Yep!" Ember said proudly. "They're calling you..."
She lifted her arms dramatically.
"...the Respawn Miners!"
Argent blinked.
"Respawn miners? How do they know we were farming ore?"
Rime snorted. "They don't. It's because you keep dying and going back."
Ryn nodded solemnly. "Oh, because we were… mining, respawns."
Argent stared into the distance. "…Honestly? Fair."
A passing veteran just happened to be nearby and overheard their conversation, shouted:
"At least you're doin' a damn good job at it!"
Argent couldn't help laughing. Ryn giggled beside him.
"So what've you all been up to?" Argent asked. "Looks like you got into a fight yourselves."
Veyra grinned. "We hit the field when you didn't come back. Had to keep up with you lot."
Veyrn added, "We've been fighting giants nearly every day."
Ember puffed out her chest. "Sometimes twice if we die early!"
Rime raised a brow. "You say that proudly, but dying early isn't exactly..."
"It is if you go right back out!" Ember countered.
Ryn laughed softly. "God… I missed this."
Argent nodded. "Same. Being down there… I forgot what it felt like, just hanging out with everyone. I didn't realize how great it's been."
Ember stretched her arms overhead. "We made good progress too. Getting stronger. Giants don't feel as impossible anymore. Though I still wish I had a trait like the twins."
"Trait?" Argent asked.
The twins exchanged a conspiratorial glance.
"It was hard to get the hang of," Veyra said.
"Very hard," Veyrn added. "Dangerous, even."
"But we figured it out," Veyra continued.
"Eventually," Veyrn finished.
And then, they flickered.
After a heartbeat, each stood where the other had been.
Ryn gasped. Argent looked a bit shocked.
Mugwort, from the stew pot, shouted:
"STOP SWITCHING PLACES! You're confusing the stew spirits!"
Veyra shrugged proudly.
"It's called Twin Location. Handy for keeping enemies guessing."
The night continued and rolled on with more laughter and bragging.
Ferric and Ward eventually returned from the pub, both just tipsy enough to be loud.
Rime stood first, lifting his hands dramatically. "Alright, alright, check this out."
A frost-tinged breeze rolled off his palms, and with a quick flick he froze a nearby log solid. "Six seconds," he said proudly. "A whole giant. Couldn't move at all."
Veyra hopped lightly into the air, wind swirling around her feet. "That's nothing." She took three steps across thin air before dropping back to the ground with a smirk. "Graceful, right?"
Veyrn crouched and placed a hand to the dirt. A few roots sprouted starting to grow up, enough to entangle a person… then immediately sizzled into ash as Ember swung her axe around in an energetic demonstration.
"Oops, sorry!" Ember said, not sounding sorry at all. "But look! Fire, charged swing!" Flames burst along her axe edge.
"Can even throw fireballs with it, pretty cool right?"
Ferric laughed and sat forward, waving his arms. "Okay, okay. Our turn."
He mimed throwing something heavy.
"So there I am, hurling a giant crystal spider at Ward. Literally throwing a monster._"
"I caught it," Ward said, deadpan, raising his mug. "On my shield."
Ferric continued, excitement building. "And then Ward just, BOOM! Turns it into a lightning bomb! Spider everywhere!"
Ward shrugged. "Teamwork."
Argent chuckled. "You want teamwork?"
The shadows around his legs rippled faintly as he flicked his dagger hand. "I was basically… teleporting? Kinda? Popping in and out of shadows."
He vanished for half a breath behind Rime and reappeared beside Ember in a soft ripple of darkness.
"Like that," he finished.
Ember jumped. "STOP DOING THAT!"
Ryn lifted her bow next, a quiet smile forming. "And I was doing this…"
She pressed her heel into the ground, little stones rose in a swirling shape, sculpting the rock. Then she tapped her string. Two shimmering arrows of pale spirit-light appeared beside it.
Argent grinned. "And she saved my life like five times."
"And I don't think we died that much, not enough to get a nickname for sure, only eight times," Argent added casually.
The night was filled with laughter, warmth and camaraderie filling the clearing long after the sun dipped below the trees. Hours later, one by one, the eight drifted into sleep under the stars.
Argent lay awake just a moment longer. Ryn slept a few feet away, back turned, breathing softly.
He whispered, barely audible:
"Thank you. Really. It means a lot."
Ryn didn't move, but her face, unseen to him, warmed with a shy smile.
At the edge of the camp, Mugwort shuffled toward the darkness, muttering.
"There'll be a ghost tonight. I can feel it. Best let it visit."
***
Argent opened his eyes.
For a heartbeat, he couldn't understand why he was standing.
The warmth of the campfire… Ryn's soft breathing nearby… Mugwort muttering to himself…
He had just been there.
But now.
Cold stone pressed beneath his boots.
A vast chamber stretched around him, silent and empty, lit only by the faint, ghostly glow of crystal veins in the walls. At his feet lay the enormous mosaic wheel, it's sixteen wedges carved in perfect symmetry, symbols he still didn't understand circling around him.
The entrance to the dungeon.
Argent's breath caught.
"…I must be dreaming," he whispered. "There's no way I'd come back here on my own."
He spun slowly in place.
Nothing moved.
No spiders.
No echo of footsteps.
Just the vast, hollow quiet of stone.
"I'm losing it," he muttered. "I eat stew, laugh with my friends, go to sleep… and now I'm dreaming about this place? I really am going nuts."
A soft hum answered him.
Light pooled in front of him... no, not light, not exactly. A haze, shimmering between shape and nothingness, bending the air around it. The same figure he had seen once before, in that blank white void where the elements had been offered to him.
But here, its outline was sharper. Closer.
Almost… watching.
The voice came without sound, vibrating through the marrow of his bones.
"Finish what you began."
"Reach the end. See the trial through, child who walks with both light and shadow."
"Earn the qualification."
Argent's heart slammed against his ribs.
"…qualification for what?"
The figure blurred, edges dissolving, distortion sweeping outward like ripples from a stone dropped into a lake.
"Wake up."
The chamber shattered into darkness.