The day had arrived.

  Natalie stared around at the enormous dome enclosing the beati of Aradon, or indeed Valhaur, itself. The dungeorance. As one of the most mythical objects ienatalie had of course seen it ibooks, had seeailed artistiditions of the oory-tall, bck obsidian sb.

  It was somehow less than she’d expected.

  Because this was the dungeorance? Four wingspans wide, and a siory tall, the sb of bck stone was so … unassuming, sidering it was the lifeblood of society, as important to early civilization as rivers and arable nd. The dungeorance ought to be bigger than life, majestic, awe-inspiring, t ten thousa high. It should have Natalie falling to her knees, her mind overwhelmed.

  Which was dramatic, she knew. But really. It was the dungeorance. While the polished, perfectly geometric ste of bck stone was far from mu was clearly of supernatural make, not a natural occurren the slightest—it simply cked the enormous presehe cept of ‘dungeorance’ had in Natalie’s head. The artwork ibooks had exaggerated the details.

  Still, there lenty of awe, but it stemmed from Natalie’s knowledge of what the object represented, rather than sheer preseself.

  The gssy bck surface wobbled, a set of adventurers stepping into the seemingly-solid material, disturbing the surface like it was made of water. The group of five sank into the darkness, then were gone. Faster than liquid would, the obsidian stabilized, regaining its rigidity.

  That, at least, lived up to the descriptions. Otherworldly.

  “So,” Sofia asked. “Everyone’s ready, then?”

  The five of them had showed up after css. Around them, roups of Teudents swarmed, some of them already havi off into the entrance’s gssy bck portal. There was a steady flow into each of the entrawo faces, north and south. Most entered from the north. An old superstitioainly false, but even Natalie’s group would be doing the same. Ridiculous as it was, no point iing fate, right?

  “Ready to kick monster butt,” Liz said. “Over-ready. Feels like I’ve been waiting forever.”

  That se was, undoubtedly, mirrored in all of them. This was the culminating moment every Teudent had waited, and trained for, their entire life.

  Even Liz, permaly bubbly, seemed to be anxious in a ‘let’s get to it’ sort of way. The cheerful response had been more forced than usual, as if trying to ease everyone else’s nerves.

  “Let’s do it.” Resting a hand on her hammer’s shaft, she vibrated with anticipation. She looked around at each of her teammates, then nodded. No disagreement.

  Stepping forward, Natalie spurred the group into motion.

  Her anticipation grew as she approached the tall sb of obsidian, but she didn’t let herself slow. With only two ways into the dungeon, and loads of adverying to enter, clogging the flow of traffic was a quick way to getting kicked out of the building with a hefty fiached. Plus, Natalie wasn’t scared. Just stuffed with adrenaline.

  The bck surface rapidly approached. It took some overriding of her instincts to force herself to tihe wall looked as solid as anything else did. Her brain told her she was going to smack face-first into it, however many times she’d watched teams step into its gssy bck surface.

  She shared a quice with Jordan, who her, then Natalie braced herself and strode into the obsidian wall.

  ***

  The bustle of the Aradon’s dungeorance disappeared, a switch flipping off. Silence echoed through a dark cave tunnel.

  Cave. The most on Sanctum biome. No surprises there.

  She turned in time to see the st of her teammates step from the bck portal sprouting from the ground behind her. Ana, with that ever-present bnk expression on her faatalie had no problems with people who kept striposure—her best friend was o that girl was … icy. A statue. Not hard to read, but impossible. She was almost unnerving to be around.

  But a good mage. That was all that mattered.

  Natalie swept her surroundings with a dising gaze. Though a group of first-timers dropping into the first level of the Sanctum were uo have an ambush sprung oraight out of the portal, it would be idiotiot to check.

  Stretg tunnels ran in two dires, one brang into the far distahe passages were illuminated with a soft blue glow from the moss ging to the walls. A er, brighter light radiated from Natalie and Liz, the front line and back line, respectively. She fiddled with the tiny, ft-oval nterns affixed to each of her shoulders. veools. How annoying would dunge have been in the old days, having to use torches? The me came with veniehough the dungeon was as deadly as always. Just less of a logistical hassle.

  “Cave,” Sofia said. “That’s good. Fewer swarming enemies.”

  That was their team’s identified weakness. Sofia and Jordan excelled in siarget damage, which made the team great for boss-hunting, but poor when handling too many e once. Ana plugged the hole slightly, being a mage with det area of effect spells, but the disbance left them weaker against swarms than most teams.

  Bance wasn’t alreferable, though. Specialization was valuable, and the real money—and experience—was in taking down bosses. Not that they’d be reag ooday. The first delve of the semester was exploratory, meant to dip their toes ier. Plus, they only had a few hours. Curfew was at ten. Real delves happened on the weekend, where the expedition could stretch ht. Weekdays were for quickies.

  The group oriehemselves to their dark surroundings.

  Natalie heed her hammer up. She didn’t say anything. They’d all trained for this for years.

  As Liz had put it … it was time to kionster butt.