The four people, lined up like beads behind Sheikh Atractivo, were descending the steep and narrow stairs. When they reached the bottom floor of the tower, where the daylight laid bare its utter ruin, you could hear a pin drop. Nafız couldn't sense the two guards standing watch at the door.
"Would you care to join me as I head to my favorite spot in the tower?"
Pushing open the rusted iron door he was leaning against, Sheikh Atractivo walked in without waiting for an answer; the others were well aware it wasn't a question anyway. When they reached the floor accompanied by a heavy stench of dampness, they were knee-deep in water. Only Lareina had been spared from getting her clothes soaked, thanks to Jashua.
"What a lovely place? Makes you want to live here for years!"
Nafız started grumbling after doing a 360; there was nothing but four walls where they arrived.
"Right? I call this place the watery dungeon, and trust me, if you play along with the water, it can give you beautiful gifts!"
Nafız's eyes lit up; Jashua and Alis looked like they were going to speak, but Sheikh Atractivo had other plans.
"Good luck, kids!"
The thin sword sliced the air gracefully, and the portal opened by the Sheikh quickly sucked the four youths in. This time, Nafız, who didn't close her eyes, was grumbling with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Screw your portal and your transit! Here, there, and everywhere, we've turned into globetrotters!"
Fortunately, they reached their destination before long; when they stepped onto the green grass, all four were looking at each other.
"Jashua, where are we?"
Along with the question asked, the Young Count turned to Nafız, asking for permission to answer.
"It's not like the Holy Blood Sect wouldn't know about the existence of the dungeons. Lareina can know too; if she wasn't supposed to know, that drunk wouldn't have sent her here."
After Nafız, who was familiar with the working principle of the Reward Dungeons, gave the green light, Jashua told his girlfriend everything he knew. While talking about the rewards he got from the dungeons he entered on the Orc Steppes and the Wild Swamp, he was also showing them to Lareina.
Of course, there were some dungeons the Young Count couldn't enter. He hadn't entered one because he wasn't an orc, and the other because Nafız and Alyon forbade entry. The dungeon remaining under the Cursed Lake was dangerous; no one except the two friends knew its location.
"No point waiting here, let's take a walk! Since we all ended up in the same place, there must be something we need to do together!"
The most experienced person in the four-person team was Nafız. While Jashua was still in short pants, she was looting reward dungeons. As for Alis, since his existence was the product of a reward dungeon, he preferred to stay out of the conversations and keep quiet.
And so the trek began. Escorted by the mountains seen from afar and the sweet-smelling flowers, trees with trembling branches accompanied the advancing team. There was a dirt path, flanked by dense trees and reddish-brown. The four people were walking side by side, yet they couldn't even take up half the path.
They walked for a long time; about half a day later, they came across a massive lake. On the lake, where it was impossible to tell where it started and where it ended, giant water lilies were floating. As the group approached, four water lilies broke off from the rest and glided to the shore.
It was obvious what to do; they had reached the trial part of the dungeon, the only thing left was to take a step. Whether out of impatience or to lead the others, Nafız was the first to do this.
"What are you waiting for?"
As the lily pad she stepped on drifted away from the shore, Nafız yelled at the others who were watching her in shock; the other plants were waiting for them. Stepping onto the plants, they moved away from the shore; everyone could see each other, but the distance between them wasn't close.
While drifting on the lake with a surface as smooth as glass, the distance didn't change at all; it was as if the plants were moving in coordination with each other.
The flower of Nafız's plant was blue, Jashua's was red, Lareina's was pink, and Alis's was milk-white. When the flowers, which had been wide open all day, started moving, twilight was descending upon the lake.
As it got dark, the flowers closed completely; the four youths were sitting cross-legged inside the petals draped over them. They weren't cramped for space; the flowers were so huge that Nafız would even dare to compare it with the tent she was born in.
"Let's see what kind of surprise is waiting for me this time!"
The Blood God was familiar with dungeons, but even she couldn't predict what was about to go down. All hell was breaking loose on the surface of the lake, which hadn't seen a single ripple all day. Order was shattered, the water lilies had started tossing about wildly.
"Jashua, where are you? Jashua, can you hear me?"
In a far corner, Lareina was calling out her lover's name; the sudden shift hadn't just scared her. Jashua was also busting his ass to pry open the petals of the water lily.
"Lareina, hold on! I'll be right there!"
The Young Count struggled for a while, but the petals wouldn't budge. He didn't have his weapon on him; he was going to force his way out using the blood energy he gathered in his hands. That was the game plan, but something Jashua completely didn't expect happened; every time he brought his hands into contact with the petals, the red energy just washed away like water.
The petals weren't letting the energy seep into them. They weren't resisting either; without giving it a chance to linger on them, they were sending it right back into the young man's body.
Jashua didn't quit; he kept trying to reach his goal. Hours were passing; neither Lareina's screams nor Jashua's efforts had yielded any results yet.
Unlike the lovers, the other two were perfectly calm. While Nafız stood up, Alis was sitting cross-legged. His eyes were closed, his body had gone stiff as a board, but his hands never stopped. As they passed in front of each other, they were forming small circles, and their speed was quite slow.
"Stay cool! Analyze the situation, don't panic!"
Muttering to herself, Nafız had been on her feet since the commotion on the lake started. Despite the howling coming from outside, the jolts caused by the waves crashing into the flower, and the movement she could track with her eye, the Blood God was standing on her own two feet.
The four youths were aware; the lake was testing them, but what they couldn't figure out was where the problem was coming from. The phenomenon driving the waters crazy lasted all night, and the youths just kept doing whatever they were doing.
Only someone watching from the outside could actually see what was going down. The flowers Jashua and Lareina were standing on were so close to each other that there wasn't even a hand's span between them.
Alis was being tossed around inside a tornado. He was coming from the outermost ring to the center, then going back at the same speed. The most bizarre situation was what Nafız was experiencing; while the world around her was in absolute chaos, her water lily had barely moved an inch.
This kept going until the sun's rays hit the flowers; in the early hours of the morning, the four water lilies were returning to their starting spots.
"Lareina!"
The Young Count wanted to lunge forward when the petals opened, but a voice was going to stop him dead in his tracks.
"Jashua, get back in your place!"
Even if Nafız couldn't figure out what was going on, she was experienced enough to know this move was idiotic. With her yell, Jashua stopped, waited for a breath, and kept walking towards the edge of the flower.
"I told you to get back in your place!"
The previous one was a warning, but this was an order. The Young Count's water lily shook so violently that Jashua stumbled and fell back to his old spot.
"You morons, you've been screaming your heads off all night. Without understanding the situation you're in, you acted like fools. The lake will be calm all day, sit down and think about what happened during the night!"
Finishing her scolding, Nafız sat dead center in the flower. Despite the racket around, Alis hadn't opened his eyes, and his hands were constantly drawing circles. Lareina was the first to sit; Jashua waited a while longer. Only when the last tremor on the lake's surface finally died down did the Young Count start doing as told.