“Hey, are we almost there yet? I’m getting kinda worried about Lucia.”

  Magnus had become rather impatient; he was itching for battle and feeling guilty about losing Lucia along their journey. Deep in Pristine Greenwood, Theresia and company were traveling while holding each other's hands so as to not separate themselves amidst the fog.

  Theresia was ready to doze away as always, but she supplied a firm answer to the Gaian man.

  "See that clearing ahead of us. We've arrived."

  ???

  In foggy weather, the reflective attributes of water are often lessened. This is because the sunlight is diffused by the miniscule water droplets that give the fog structure. The mist surrounding Pristine Greenwood had become so thick that Lucia could barely see her reflection in a pond she had happened across.

  I can’t believe I forgot to find a mirror back in Valeria. I really want to see what I look like.

  She held her face as she vainly attempted to examine her own features in the water below.

  "Hey Lucia, what are you doing? Don't you want to go save that girl?"

  Yves made a slight jab towards Lucia, hoping to snap her out of her daydreaming. With a startle, she picked herself up and gred at Yves. The gre was more of a formality as the duo had established a pyful dynamic.

  The ntern dangling from Yves' belt had started to become less effective at repelling the fog as time passed, but the two had enough visibility to walk with a comfortable space between them. As such, they progressed much faster than Theresia, Ceres, and Magnus did. Traveling became much faster when one was not tripping over rocks and other small terrain.

  They had covered so much ground that Lucia and Yves arrived only shortly after the others at the towering bck door.

  “Lucia!”

  Magnus was the first to notice her arrival, as Theresia was busy napping and Ceres sat quietly on a nearby log.

  “Hey! I made it in one piece!”

  "I can see that, but uhh, what are you wearing… Actually, forget it. All we gotta do now is head inside and deliver this guy a piece of our minds… and fists!"

  While the two were amid a friendly conversation, Yves interrupted.

  “So these are your party members? The Gaians are both level 10, and the Umbral is a meager level 3. These numbers do not inspire confidence in me. If my guild was here, this “Alfarr” would be easy pickings.”

  “Cut it out, don’t be rude.”

  Lucia gave him a kick in the lower calf for admonishing her teammates.

  "Just ignore this guy. He's a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he means well."

  “Uhh, okay.”

  Slightly taken aback, Magnus let out a weak reply before rounding up the rest of the party.

  I didn’t know Yves had a guild. And he made it sound like he was the leader too.

  Unfortunately, Lucia didn't have time to inquire further as the rest of the party had already gathered.

  During this reunion, Lucia described her recent misadventures into the Velborral Mountains, her run-in with Yves, and the spectral golem that Yves had syed singlehandedly. She chose to leave the panic attack out of the story due to embarrassment and expined that her change in attire was caused by slipping into a pond.

  “Wait, so how did you actually end up in those mountains?”

  Magnus questioned her story, so she quickly formed another lie in her head.

  “I didn’t notice the map was still functional, so I just tried remembering the general direction and got turned around on the paths.”

  It was a lofty tale. Checking the map would still be the first step taken by almost any lost fairy. However, Magnus pushed the matter no further and refocused the group back on the matter at hand.

  "So, is everybody ready to charge in there?"

  With a yawn, Theresia answered.

  “I’m ready.”

  Yves and Ceres remained silent, but the tter of the two nodded her head. This only left Lucia to give her response as the amber-eyed Gaian refused to dispy any enthusiasm.

  “Let’s go in there and save Marie!”

  And so, the party entered the dark door and prepared themselves for battle.

  Upon entrance to the massive door, a notification appeared on each of their status windows: "Dungeon: Mistheim." The group had stumbled upon one of FOO's many dungeons, although this "Mistheim" seemed different in several ways. Mistheim had no tie to any quest, and it was, in some manner, connected to world event pguing the nearby areas. At least Lucia had a hunch that it did. A dungeon named "Mistheim" would undoubtedly connect to a world event titled "Eternal White Mist."

  The first part of the byrinth greeted the party with an expansive wide hallway whose end was shrouded in darkness. Without many other options, the party cautiously pressed deeper into the shadows.

  Yves was the first to notice an enemy.

  “Everybody stay in formation.”

  An ensemble of ughter sounded out from the darkness shrouding the hallway, and the party stood frozen in pce as it did. Eventually, a group of short bck creatures began pouring out from the darkness, each one of them cloaked in leaves and carrying weapons such as swords and bows. Their small stature and bright yellow eyes would have been rather cute if it weren't for their hostile nature.

  "These are forest spirits, also known as sylphs. Be careful—they are strong in numbers! And make sure to protect Theresia!"

  Yves, having more experience than the rest of the group, took on the role of leader for this dungeon. Lucia felt a little stung by her demotion, but it allowed Yves to optimize their chances of success. He was particurly insistent on protecting Theresia, their only real source of healing. The bard was of such a low level that one strike would likely spell her end, and it did not help that she had lost an additional level at Alfarr's hands.

  Furthermore, Theresia's healing was retively slow for two reasons: her aforementioned low level and the bard's specialization in AoE support. Many of the bard's skills were simply songs, only one of which could be active at a time. Some regenerated health, while others buffed the strength or speed of nearby party members. Therefore, the group needed to employ caution with the damage they received.

  While it might seem that the Summoner css would be a DPS and the Holy Lancer a tank, it was actually the other way around. Magnus's Summoner css specialized in tanking damage through familiars, while the Holy Lancer was a DPS css with some support elements. One particurly useful skill was the Holy Lancer's "Divine Domain," which increased the damage taken by enemies inside it while slowly regenerating the MP of allies. Lucia and company's only other source of healing also resided in Holy Lancer's "Last Providence." However, this skill was only to be used in emergencies as it had an extremely long cooldown.

  The current battle favored Lucia's band of fairies, as Magnus's tortoise familiar drew most of the Sylphs' aggro. Lucia fired off her Shining Lunge skill and began cleaving through sylphs to charge runes. Both Yves and Ceres positioned themselves inside her Divine Domain and were hacking through the horde before them. In the backline, Theresia switched between healing and buffing songs as appropriate, and Magnus supported his tortoise with water magic.

  Within a blink of an eye, Lucia had gathered enough runes to use Runewave, so she signaled Ceres to reposition her Divine Domain. As she signaled Ceres, Magnus noticed a sylph ambushing Lucia from behind and quickly sniped it with a well-timed icicle spell.

  Ceres had fully repositioned her Divine Domain, allowing Lucia to deliver a devastating Runewave spell to the enemies contained in the shining light. Many of the enemies sputtered into crystals as the azure wave crashed into them.

  Yves had refrained from receiving too much damage during the battle, as the red-eyed Umbral was unable to provide the healing needed for his css to truly shine; however, he was able to build enough blood vials to release Maniacal Sweep onto the sylphs, finishing off the st few sylphs that were debuffed by Divine Domain.

  “Woohoo, we did it!”

  Theresia shouted in glee as the party took a collective sigh of relief. Each of them had gained a level from the csh, resulting in Lucia and Theresia returning to their previous levels of 31 and 4, respectively. The amber-eyed Reaper became level 45, and the two Gaian siblings reached level 11. The first victory was under their belts, and with it, they confidently strode further into the abyss of Mistheim.

  At a certain point in the dungeon, when the hallways began to narrow and the lights became even dimmer, the party began to worry. Magnus's tortoise familiar would not have enough room in this compact space, and they were unsure if aggro could be effectively managed without it.

  Unfortunately, their nightmares came to pass. From both directions, childish ughter rang out, and sylphs swarmed them. Some sylphs fired arrows that became difficult to dodge in the tight hallway. One of those arrows struck Theresia and left her with only a sliver of health. Suddenly, Lucia heard Ceres's voice for the first time.

  “Should I heal her? I can use Last Providence.”

  “Do it!”

  Yves immediately ordered the blonde knight to use her emergency skill. His internal reasoning was quite sound, as he thought it was unlikely they would be able to reach the end of the dungeon with no consistent healing method. And so, Ceres cast Last Providence, fully healing Theresia. The incredibly wasteful aspect of this move came from the rest of the party being close to or at full health, meaning that the skill provided little benefit to anyone other than the Umbral bard.

  Lacking a tank, the party formed a circle around Theresia and Magnus, the two with the least amount of defense and arguably the most importance. The purple-haired girl thrust her bde into sylph after sylph, building up her rune gauge. Ceres had also positioned Divine Domain in a manner that just barely covered the entire party. One of the few upsides of this cramped space was the increased effectiveness of her domain.

  It was at this point the battle took a depressing turn: Dodging had become too difficult for the frontliners as a series of unrelenting arrows rained down upon them. In the chaos of the situation, the formation broke, and sylphs began swarming Magnus and Theresia. Theresia died almost instantaneously, and Magnus struggled to fight back with his magic, which was suited for long ranges. Lucia and Ceres attempted to cut their way to the Summoner, but they were too te. Alongside the Umbral, Magnus perished.

  The remaining trio focused on self-preservation, although their chances looked dim. Even if victory could be attained in this battle, the prospects of conquering Mistheim without a healer seemed bleak. Despite these weights hanging over them, they persevered and eventually defeated each and every sylph.

  After ensuring they were safe, Lucia colpsed onto the ground with her rapier falling beside her.

  “Ughh, that was rough.”

  She looked over her two remaining allies, who also suffered from exhaustion. Ceres, in particur, needed a break as she held herself up against a wall, but Yves seemed stringent about moving along.

  "Idling in dungeons is a rather stupid idea. For all we know, these sylphs could respawn, and then we would truly be out of luck."

  Lucia responded with a rebuttal filled with despair.

  "I'm pretty sure we've already lost any chance of succeeding. How can we complete this dungeon without a healer?"

  “We won’t know until we try.”

  Giving into despair was an option. The three of them could always throw themselves into the next pile of sylphs and travel back from Valeria, but would Marie survive for that long? In fact, Lucia wasn't even sure Marie was alive at the current moment. Alfarr mentioned that his master needed Marie for some reason, but Lucia couldn't imagine she would remain unharmed indefinitely.

  He has a point. Maybe we shouldn't give up yet.

  Lucia picked herself up off the ground and readied herself for more dungeoneering.

  After a few more yards of the hallway narrowing, the trio found a spiraling staircase. With each step, Lucia's feet ached in pain as she descended downwards, but she did not compin or make a peep; her mental spirit had been reinvigorated through Yves's stern words.

  The further they descended, the darker it got… Until they reached the bottom of the staircase, which opened up into a well-lit room. At the center of said room rested a cerulean crystal that emitted a bright light. It was rotating in a stone base, and a ring of unreadable letters moved alongside its perimeter. Luckily, there was no sign of any monsters nearby, so the party took a moment to regain their composure. Even Yves couldn't object to this, as it seemed they had reached a dead-end in a dungeon with only one path.

  During their brief rest, Lucia happened upon a small stone tablet with characters she could actually read.

  “Beneath the stone of blue skies,

  Lies ancient power, of pure light.

  Speak his name of ivory white,

  And cim the holy fervor’s might.”

  Engraved in the miniature stone tablet were crudely drawn depictions of dragons and wind.

  "Hey, you two, come over here. I think I found something."

  The group spent considerable time rereading and contempting the cryptic riddle. Lucia could feel her brain melting as she reached into the deepest depths of her memories for clues, but she could think of nothing. In silence, the group sat, with each of them occasionally suggesting something. Still, even after what must have been an hour of trying, nothing appeared to open the path forward.

  Yves, in particur, was growing tired of the whole ordeal and thought they had simply missed another path earlier in the dungeon. Riddles were not his strong suit, or so it seemed, as he let out an uncharacteristic gasp before speaking a single word.

  “Fafnir”

  Just as the word had been uttered, the crystal became a blinding blue, and the trio collectively shielded their eyes. When the light had calmed, a passage leading under the crystal opened on the floor.

  “What was that?”

  Lucia whipped her head towards Yves in confusion.

  "You remember that dragon-snake thing in the story? Its name was Fafnir."

  "...Well, this riddle is suddenly quite obvious with that piece of information. You could have let me know the dragon's name earlier!"

  For the next few moments, Lucia chewed out Yves for his incompetence. It seemed that even he had a weakness. While the two argued pyfully, Ceres observed them and cracked a slight giggle. With the riddle successfully solved, they descended deeper into Mistheim.

  At the end of this passage, they found a sizable cave filled with crystals emitting a faint hue of purple. Towards the end of the cavern, they found Marie bound to a small altar with Alfarr reading a book by her side. In a drawn-out motion, the gothic man closed the book and welcomed them in a disinterested cadence.

  "Welcome to Mistheim. My name is Alfarr, and I am a Spear of Aluber. I shall defeat each and every one of you."