The landscape before him was no longer mesmerizing, but rather repulsive - instead of snow-white clouds, it was dark blue storm clouds, and the castle was only a ruin, with the wind howling over it, singing a song about the frailty of all things. No wandering knights would have thought of going there, they would have avoided it in search of a more suitable place to rest and sleep. But that is where they, the young dungeon explorers, must go. They must overcome the obstacle, or they will go no farther.

  "Walk carefully, there's a pothole somewhere!" Tim warned them, and the bruised spot from the last time was immediately echoed with a nagging pain.

  "Too bad the goggles don't allow us to distinguish between true and false visions," the gorgon complained.

  "What if we all tried to use the formula to remove the illusion together? I hope you still remember it."

  "How could anyone forget that?"

  But their attempt was met with mocking laughter from far away, and the shadows around them grew even thicker.

  "It's an original humor from its creator, though," Tim grimaced.

  "That's the way it was meant to be," Mez'A'Shib shrugged. "Because the first and quite natural reaction to the phantom will be an attempt to dispel it."

  "So we'll have to keep walking by touch. At least not for very long!"

  Tim could have argued with that, but Naar-Tam was right: as they moved forward, the ruins were rapidly approaching, as if they were taking fifty steps at once instead of just one. And they were ruins only in his imagination - the peirot had seen a sand dune with softly needled cacti on top, Ri-Bo had seen an ivy hedge, Selkise had seen a waterfall, and the drow had seen spears sticking out of the ground. His mirage, by the way, was the closest to the truth - a rusty iron grate blocked the passage. It was the end of the illusion - the tunnel looked normal from there. The only problem was that the grate did not want to budge. Climbing over it wouldn't work either. Mez'A'Shib bothered to look for a hidden lever, but he didn't succeed.

  "It would have been nice to have Urgrot here, or who among the orcs has an innate gift of Soft Metal?

  "What if there was no one in the whole class with such a gift? No, the problem must have a different solution."

  "So find it!"

  "Why should I? Here's an idea: let's all grab the grate and give it a good shake!"

  But that didn't help either.

  "That's where we could've used a circular saw," Tim sighed.

  "What do you mean?"

  "There's a machine for cutting metal. But even if it were here, it wouldn't work without electricity..."

  "Electrical discharge is the solution to the problem!" Naar-Tam was excited. "Tiis, would you be able to use your gift to hit the obstacle?"

  "Do you think it will work? I'm not sure," she said skeptically. "Well, I'll give it a shot, but just to be safe, stay away."

  The advice was not out of place - it sounded like a high-voltage short-circuit, and the smell of ozone wafted in all directions. With a pitiful creak the grate tilted and tipped sideways, revealing the passage.

  "Hooray, it worked! And you didn't believe it!"

  "Mez, what's next on the course?"

  "Only one marker, 'heaviness'. The rest of the map was left unfinished."

  "We're gonna have to carry weights?" Tiis-Mir was horrified.

  "Let's hope not. We shall soon see. And don't forget to collect crystals!"

  The reminder came in handy: in a situation where boys are more concerned about showing off for the girls, and the latter only have time to stare around, no one pays much attention to such 'little things'.

  "Are there any?" Chilajt asked, hesitantly, and immediately found a gray cube.

  "And it looks like quite a few!" two steps away from her, Tiis-Mir found a yellow ball and a pink tetrahedron.

  "Anything you find should go into the common pot," Naar-Tam warned her sternly.

  "Why?"

  "Because it has to be that way. We know you, girls, you'll hide the most beautiful crystals!"

  "Eat that!" Tiis-Mir took offense at him and threw a tetrahedron at his head.

  Tim and Mez'A'Shib had to settle the conflict by popularly explaining why everything found is shared equally among the expedition members, and why not all jokes are good even among friends. In the end, the peirots apologized to each other after they had cooled down a bit.

  "That's it, now let's go, and don't forget to watch your step!"

  "Why are there so many crystals here? It's strange, why haven't there been any before, and there are so many now," the gorgon was astonished.

  "It's not strange, we gathered them all last time! And the new ones don't appear that fast."

  "The lower tier is, the more there are, so there's enough for everyone," said Mez'A'Shib conciliatorily.

  "So what are we waiting for? Go ahead!"

  But it was getting harder and harder to keep going; Tim's legs could hardly move, as if they were very tired. It was strange, since the day had just begun, and it was not as if he had to carry bags of cement. Not immediately, but Tim realized the meaning of the note - it meant the force of gravity! It is much higher here than in other places!

  "Uff, I'm a little tired," Ri-Bo muttered, not addressing anyone in particular.

  "You're not the only one," Naar-Tam smiled mirthlessly.

  "Neither are we," Tiis-Mir and Chilajt supported the tilfing.

  "The magic that's hostile to us is at work again, and we must get out from under its influence as quickly as possible!" Selkise worried and even tried to speed up, though without much success.

  "It's easy to say, I feel like I have pads on my feet!"

  "There's increased gravity," Tim explained.

  "Gravi... what's that?"

  "It's a force that pulls us to the ground... well, some kind of magic."

  "So that's what was meant by the word 'heaviness'! It's just hard to move!"

  "At least we won't freeze, that's fine."

  "We need to get to that cave over there, it will relieve us for sure!"

  It was true: as soon as they got there, it was like a mountain was lifted from their shoulders. And at once they wanted to jump for joy.

  "But it took all my strength! Why don't we take a little break?"

  "Yeah, we can have a snack at the same time!" Ri-Bo encouraged the girls.

  "Your appetite doesn't seem to have been affected by any adventures," Mez'A'Shib grinned.

  "What's the big deal? It's more interesting for a well-fed person to travel than for a hungry one!"

  "What for snacks?" Tiis-Mir was interested in it.

  "Let's see," Naar-Tam licked his lips and began to open the backpack.

  Inside the backpack were not only bgurts, but candied fruit which Tiis-Mir immediately took from him, sharing with Chilajt. Selkise refused both, explaining it with her lack of appetite, she was only drinking some water. Looking at her, Tim limited himself to half a plate of bgurt, though he would have gladly eaten more.

  After the meal, the mood brightened up - no obstacle was too great now! Only Mez'A'Shib once again boringly reminded of the need for caution as the map was no longer their guide.

  However, nothing terrible happened. They walked along, looking at the frescoes that adorned the walls of another tunnel. They depicted scenes from the life of the geerkhs: a team of geerkhs dragging a huge log, a little further away other 'spiders' working a field, and on the wall opposite a geerkh-teacher, holding a scroll in his hand, explains something to the pupils sitting around him.

  "Look, they had schools too!" Selkise, who had been trying so hard to remain calm, became agitated. "What a pity they have left here! What a pleasure I would have made friends with them!"

  "Maybe we'll meet them. We haven't explored the Dungeon yet."

  "It's bad we can't take those frescoes with us," Ri-Bo sighed.

  "What's the problem? Take a pick, cut it out of the rock and carry it with you!" Naar-Tam sneered.

  -Eh, no smartphone to take pictures of... I meant someone who could make quick and good sketches," Tim corrected himself at once.

  "There's someone in our class who can do sketches! Judging by the skillful caricatures he makes, there will definitely be no problem with local creativity," Tiis-Mir burst into flames with the idea.

  "I wish I knew who he is," Ri-Bo said in as indifferent a voice as possible. And he was eager to see if any of his friends would say anything he shouldn't. His calculation was correct.

  "It's almost certainly Virda, she's good at drawing," Chilajt said.

  "Really? Is that so?" Naar-Tam wondered.

  Tim remained silent, intuitively sensing that it was better not to mention any names unless you trusted everyone and everything. Selkise was silent, too, glancing reproachfully at the gorgon. But Ri-Bo, very plausibly depicting surprise, rejoiced in his soul. All that remained is to relay the information to Germeht before the kriurik will brought to play. He didn't feel pity for Virda - for any tilfing, any anzimar is an enemy, whether he believes in Inhis or not. So let her own people deal with her, and maybe they'll forget about him.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Conscience, quieted at first somewhere at the edge of subconsciousness, reminded of itself with a poisonous prick - and who would you be after that, wouldn't you be a traitor? After all, you do not even know for sure if it's Virda or someone else, but even if she is - is it a crime to paint on the walls, where others leave their inscriptions? If you do so, there will be no more caricatures, and hardly anyone else would dare mock the goblin and the squad members. To calm down a bit, Ri-Bo had to promise himself not to say anything to anyone as far as possible.

  The tunnel led them to the 'meeting room' - right in the middle of it was a huge round table, and around it were a dozen or two 'chairs', which were rectangular blocks of stone, firmly fastened to the floor.

  "Wow! That's where we should have had a rest!"

  "Yeah, much more comfortable than that cave. By the way, judging by the scraps of rags on the floor, that room had already been used for rest and recuperation."

  "And as a dining room as well," Selkise remarked squeamishly, pointing to the dried crumbs and brown stains on the white marble tabletop.

  "Well, to make a long story short," Mez'A'Shib remarked thoughtfully, glancing around, "there's good news and bad news. Which one do you want to start with?"

  "Let's go with the good news, come on!"

  "Since our predecessors chose this place for the refectory, it's safe to be here."

  "What's the bad one, then?"

  "There's no way out of the room. Only the entrance through which we came."

  And indeed, there is no hint of a door or passage beyond. The friends were immediately discouraged.

  "Was it worth it to come here then?"

  "But there was no other way."

  "We might not have seen it."

  But no one wanted to go back and examine the 'spiral' of the minus third tier in detail.

  "But those who've been here before us got through it somehow!"

  "Who told you they did? Maybe they got here, had their lunch, and then went back," Naar-Tam joked.

  "You don't have to go that far to get enough to eat. No, there must be a way through, we just can't see it."

  "You mean it's an illusion?"

  "And this option is not excluded."

  In order not to listen to someone's stupid giggle again, they decided to do without magic. They simply walked around the room along its perimeter, touching the walls and paying attention to the frescoes that were there too, but not too many. Alas, they found neither disguised doors nor levers to open secret passages.

  So the problem has a different solution, Tim thought. Most of the traps on this tier were magical, so according to the theory of probability, this is where they should meet the 'physical' one. A lever or button of some kind must be present, and not necessarily on the walls. But there's nothing like that on the floor - there's flat, grayish stone everywhere, just like in the tunnels. Maybe, the solution to the mystery lies in four tiny windows, resembling loopholes, almost below the ceiling? But the sun can only peer through two of them at a time - the second pair is on the opposite side, which remains unlit in any case. Maybe they have to sit on certain 'chairs' in the right order? But how to find the right order if there are no clues? So, he would have to use his brains. He examined the ceiling just in case, and then concentrated on the table. A cursory glance around it revealed nothing of note, and it was only when he looked closely that Tim noticed a scratch on the edge which was too regular in shape, as if a diamond chisel had been run across the glass to the ruler. On the opposite side, exactly the same, and aside two more - closer to the center, but also opposite each other. You can't leave these by accident, there's something here. It took a second to think about it, and then Tim grasped the tabletop firmly with both hands and tried to turn it clockwise.

  "Hey, what are you doing?" Naar-Tam was interested.

  "I'm trying to move it, but I can't seem to do it alone, it's too tight."

  "What a problem, we'll help you now!"

  When the four of them got together, the tabletop indeed began to turn, with some creaking, but it did. When the scratches lined up, something clicked inside the table, and it stopped moving despite all their efforts. But, as it turned out, it was no longer needed.

  Part of the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel through which they had entered the room moved aside, revealing a passage.

  'The minus fourth tier.

  Are you still there? It won't be long.'

  "We're serious and for the long," Tim assured the blurry letters, and took the first step into the darkness of obscurity: it was much darker here than in the room. Almost immediately two balls of fire lit up behind him: the magic of Tiis-Mir joining Naar-Tam's gift. The others followed into the passage - and froze, waiting for their eyes to adapt to a sharp change in the level of lighting.

  They were on a small platform, or rather, a rocky ledge, from which stairs ran down on either side. And directly, just a few steps away from them, began a bottomless abyss - or rather, the bottom was present somewhere, but very far below, with their torches impossible to see.

  "Well, at least they guessed to build stairs, otherwise it doesn’t feel like jumping down," Naar-Tam and here did not do it without humor.

  "It's just a question of which of the two to choose? They look exactly the same."

  "Probably all lead to the same place," Mez'A'Shib suggested.

  "Then it makes sense to separate - one group taking the right and the other the left. We'll have twice as many crystals at the same time!"

  Who is talking about what, and a lousy one about the bath, Tim commented to himself on Ri-Bo's remark. You have to be extremely careful here - though the precipice is fenced, they forgot about the stairs, so it's better not to approach the edges.

  "If we split up, we risk losing sight of each other. And then, if something happens to one of the groups, the other won't be able to help," Selkise argued.

  Her argument was accepted as reasonable (the tilfing puffed up a little with resentment, but remained silent), and, choosing the stairs on the right, which looked less dilapidated, they began a cautious descent. Only Tiis-Mir hesitated, looking over the railing to see what was below.

  She nearly paid for it with her life.

  A dry jerking crack, and the part of the 'balcony' where the peirot girl was, broke off, and began to fall into the abyss. A howl of despair swept through the dungeon, causing them to turn around and stare in horror. Even if someone had thought to use Super-Speed on himself, he would not have had time to - it was all too quick. How disgusting is the feeling of your own helplessness, when one of your friends is dying before your eyes, and you, with all your desire, cannot save him...

  And then Tim's wand made itself felt - again, as in the forest clearing, a blinding flash followed by a frozen black and white landscape. Only the head of Tiis-Mir remained above the cliff; another second, and there would have been no chance to save her. Tim ran up to the cliff and tried to grab her by the arm, but immediately realized there was no way to pull her out, only hold on weight. He had to throw the wand aside, fall on his stomach and use his other hand to hold on to the edge of the cliff. Otherwise, when the magic runs out, the peirot girl can easily drag him down with her.

  "Help me!!!" He cried at the top of his lungs, and the reality came to life - after a moment's hesitation his friends scrambled to the rescue. Mez'A'Shib and Ri-Bo grabbed Tim's legs and torso and pulled him back, Naar-Tam flung himself down beside him, hooking Tiis-Mir's other arm. When it was all over, the peirot girl was literally shaking, and the tooth did not fall on the tooth.

  "T-thank you... I t-thought that was... w-what a nightmare..."

  "If the friends hadn't been around, that would have been it!" The humor of Naar-Tam turned out to be specific.

  "That's who you should thank," Mez'A'Shib clapped Tim on the shoulder. "If it weren't for his gift, you'd still be flying down."

  And, as if in confirmation of his words, somewhere far below there was a dull sound of stone striking stone.

  Tiis-Mir's reaction turned out to be stormy - she literally hung around Tim's neck, nearly strangling him.

  "You're my friend forever now!"

  Out of the corner of his eye, seeing the mocking expression on Selkise's face, Tim released himself gently from the embrace.

  "Thank you, of course, but I didn't do anything heroic. Anybody would have done that in my place."

  "Not everyone! He," Tiis-Mir pointed at Naar-Tam, "wouldn't have lifted a finger."

  "You bet! Not everyone is given such a unique gift! In addition, some people were warned: the places here are dangerous, you need to be on the alert all the time!"

  Since no one in their group had ever seen how Tim's gift worked, there were questions right away. He had to answer them, but in a way that didn't contradict the version of instant teleportation. But everyone was so overjoyed at the miraculous rescue of Tiis-Mir that no one thought to question his words. Chilajt, picking up the wand, solemnly handed it to Tim.

  "Tiis, are you able to continue the expedition?" Mez'A'Shib asked carefully.

  "What's the big deal? I'll just be careful, that's all!" The girl had already regained her composure.

  "Then let's begin our descent. Just in case, stay close to the wall."

  Waiting for the right moment, Mez'A'Shib motioned to Tim to step aside a little.

  "I think I understand something," he whispered hastily. "Your gift works when you have to save someone. It's noble, of course, but..."

  "Can there be a "but" here?"

  "Maybe. It's not hard to set up a situation like that and trap you in it. You can't use any gift twice in a row. You must be careful."

  And he turned and hurried to catch up with the others. Tim had no choice but to follow him.

  The staircase seemed endless - probably at least a thousand steps had to be overcome before they ended up at its foot. The minus fourth tier was a giant cave - but unlike the hall of the minus first tier, where with good vision and light you could see what was in the opposite corner, here it was impossible to move in a straight line. There were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere, rock ledges and half-destroyed ceilings made of roughly hewn stone - in general, the same labyrinth, but without tunnel passages. In principle, it was manageable - the only thing that bothered them was a strange chalk inscription on the wall:

  'Be afraid of transfers leading nowhere.'

  "We're not going to get into those, are we?" Naar-Tam asked cheerfully, turning to his friends. He wasn't expecting an answer, finding his examination of the nearest stalagmite far more interesting. And disappeared, vanishing into thin air.

  Tiis-Mir rushed to the rescue instinctively, but was intercepted by Mez'A'Shib.

  "Stop! There must be a trap!"

  "Don't worry, I'm all right!" The voice of Naar-Tama was heard from afar. He managed to move almost to the very top of the stairs they were descending.

  "So that's what the inscription meant!" Tim guessed. "Spatial transfer!"

  Mez'A'Shib's reaction was immediate.

  "Chilajt, it's your turn to save us all. There must be a whole set of magical traps or barriers that teleport you if you touch or step on them. And a lot will depend on your ability to see them."

  "I'll try," the gorgon promised uncertainty, glancing around. And almost immediately reported:

  "Yes, they are! The part of the floor where Naar disappeared is lighter than the rest. There's another just like it over there. And a little farther away there's one more..."

  "All right. It's basically the same labyrinth, only with magic involved. And, uh, damn it, there's no map. All right, let's just take our chances."

  Chilajt was now their guide. Everything went smoothly at first, but the traps soon became more frequent, and eventually they found themselves at a dead end. They had to go back and find another way - and again with the same result. The third time was more fortunate: another trap was a narrow strip that easily could be jumped over. Chilajt insured them, showing where to start jumping. And in the end, almost everyone made it over the trap safely; only the yusme was unlucky enough to stumble, and immediately she disappeared from sight.

  "Selkise, where are you?" Tim shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the dungeon.

  "Ahead of you! There are two sculptures with a passageway between them..."

  "So that's where we're going! Come on, everyone, to teleport!"

  He was the first to go to her. Others had to follow his example.

  Fortunately, there was no danger where they were, and there were no traps nearby, only a dark tunnel, and stone statues on either side of it. But not of the Geerkhs: the creatures were a cross between a grasshopper and a mantis, and beneath their prayerfully folded forelegs on pedestals were stone bowls. One of the bowls was empty, but the other...

  Tim had never seen a crystal with so many facets - surely it was a dodecahedron! He was tempted to take the crystal from the bowl, but he had doubts: there was a reason they say that free cheese comes only in a mousetrap. Fearing a trick, he did not dare to do this, as, indeed, most of his friends. Ri-Bo was the only one who couldn't resist the temptation, but he was slapped on the arm by Mez'A'Shib.

  "Don't even think about it! It must have been put here by someone, or it would be lying on the floor. We'll find more of these, and even better ones!"

  Alas, his words were in vain as soon as they began to explore the tunnel, the tilfing, supposedly accidentally lagging behind, furtively looked around and carried out his plan with lightning speed.

  But it would be better if he didn't do it: the 'insect', peacefully slumbering on the pedestal, awoke, and the fire of anger flared in its eyes. And then it jumped off the pedestal, scaring the hell out of Ri-Bo, who started running away with cries of "Save yourselves!"

  The others, too, panicked when they saw who was after him, rushing to the exit. One by one they disappeared before they reached their destination. And then, with surprise, they found themselves sitting at the desks of the classroom where their classes were held.

  "That's very unexpected," commented Tiis-Mir in a frustrated voice.

  "Thank you for not going directly to the Principal's office."

  "Why did that creature suddenly become so angry? - Chilajt wondered. "No one seems to have touched anything..."

  "I have my suspicions. Give me your hand. Not that one, the other one!" Mez'A'Shib shouted at the tilting. "I knew it! You stole it!"

  "Why?" Naar-Tam looked reproachfully at Ri-Bo. "Haven't we found enough of them? And now, by your grace, we almost lost everything! Personally I have lost my wand!"

  Their losses, as it turned out, were not limited to the wand of the peirot; Mez'A'Shib had dropped his map as he fled, Tim - his pickaxe, and Ri-Bo - his backpack.

  "Maybe we can still get them?" Tiis-Mir suggested timidly.

  But alas: voices began to be heard from afar - the day had long since begun. They could not think of going back into the dungeon in such a situation: the risk of exposure was too great.

  "I can try and go there alone tomorrow morning," the drow suggested.

  "No, we won't let you go alone!" the peirots said in one voice.

  The rest, of course, did not stand aside. Mez'A'Shib confiscated the ill-fated crystal from the tilfing and handed it over to Tim for safekeeping. And, waiting until no one was left on the first tier, they scattered to their rooms.