Lux let the tension go out of his limbs, a delicious heat seeping all the way to his bones. He dawdled, flicking hot water with his fingertips, steam from the bath had blurred the outside world into a clouded haze. Lux rested his neck against the spring’s edge and closed his eyes. “This is heaven,” he sighed, lips curling in contentment.

  The last few days really had been a taste of paradise for Lux, a proper holiday, finally, after the breakneck marathon Silver had put him through clearing those Wild Dungeons. Silver had whisked him straight to some tiny village called Winter Pines.

  At first, Lux had wondered what the point was. Why such an out-of-the-way place?

  Then he remembered, the Hot Crystal Shell Snails, the ones the bathhouse needed, only grew a day’s journey from here.

  The group had paused in the village for a day before heading out after the snails. To Lux’s utter delight, Silver told him he could stay, rest, and soak away his cares while the others went foraging.

  Before they left, Azura had swung by his room and handed over a fat pouch of gold coins and a monster core the size of a melon. Lux had stared, then asked Azura why he was being handed this bounty.

  The answer made the burly man flush red as a berry. Apparently, Magenta and Azura’s disaster in the last dungeon had been Azura’s fault. He’d mixed up his potions and dosed Magenta with a sleeping draft mid-battle with a Rocknocerous, knocking her cold.

  Azura had thrown himself into the fray to keep her from being flattened, dislocating a shoulder, wrecking his foot, and getting his head split open for his trouble. The gold coins and monster cores were his thank-you for Lux risking himself to keep them alive.

  After that, as Lux pocketed the crisp gold and the monster cores, he realised an important truth. He was a simple man. Money could patch up anything.

  Lux soaked until his skin wrinkled like old fruit, the bathwater’s embrace a happy shield against the biting cold outside. He eyed the snow, then sprinted for a nearby hut, trailing mist.

  Warmth from a squat little stove greeted him, and he buried himself in a thick towel before layering up his clothes to battle the chill. The snow was falling again as he left, powder crunching underfoot with every step down the path to the single inn.

  When he pushed open the inn’s door, a wave of heat washed over him. “Lux, you came early for lunch today.” The voice was Norton’s, familiar and friendly.

  “Hi, Norton. Whatever’s ready, I’ll take it!” Lux’s stomach growled. He scanned the cozy two-story inn, the first floor bustling with the warmth from an open fireplace.

  He perched on a barstool while Norton ducked into the kitchen and quickly returned with a steaming plate piled high with meat and vegetables. Lux paid the thirty bronze and attacked the meal with gusto. He would definitely miss Norton’s food.

  “I’ll be sad to see you go, Lux, it’s been good having someone to talk to.” Norton’s expression was honest and tinged with real sadness.

  It made sense, really, apart from himself, there was only one other guest in the whole inn. Winter Pines, Lux had learned, rarely saw any outsiders.

  With its high altitude and endless winter, there wasn’t much to do in the village or much reason for travellers to visit. But the locals scraped by collecting rare herbs that pushed up through the snow. Without those, Norton said, the place would have dried up long ago. Lux liked it here, the people were straightforward and kind.

  “I’ve enjoyed our chats as well.” Lux eyes crinkled as he smiled at the bar keep. “I’ve learned a lot too,” Lux replied, meaning it.

  Lux’s eyes were automatically drawn to a large map of Mystic Beau hanging over the hearth. It was the start of their pleasant conversations.

  Norton had shown him just how vast Mystic Beau was, with the large map. Eight continents, and the one he was on was called Mystic Beauty. Earth could stuff its entire population into Mystic Beauty tenfold.

  Three of those continents were now a lost cause, totally submerged beneath a tide of monsters. Thankfully, the seas kept them contained, holding the nightmares at bay, but Lux finally understood why Mystic Beau was always reaching out for help from other worlds.

  It was not only desperate, it was logical, the monsters on the five remaining continents with Mystican populations had to be eradicated, and they couldn’t do it alone. At the bottom of the world map, numbers perpetually climbed. The figure was astronomical, Lux stared at it sometimes as if willing it to slow.

  After a passing conversation with Norton, Lux had learned the true meaning of those numbers. The growing digits represented the monster population on Mystic Beau. Even with reinforcements and visitors from other worlds, the numbers only ever rose. Never fell.

  Lux could imagine it, if nothing drastic happened, one day the monsters would cover every inch of Mystic Beau.

  Norton had also let slip what he knew about dungeons. Lux, now an owner of one, had a tangle of questions. Norton’s relative was supposed to be a dungeon scholar, Lux pressed him for information, but there were no easy answers.

  Most questions simply didn’t have answers, even with researchers dedicated to dungeons, knowledge was a string of gaps. The one thing Norton could say for certain was how dungeons kept spawning monsters.

  A dungeon when formed could accept a sample of any monster, and once it had that sample, monsters of that type would constantly be teleported inside the dungeon. That was the purpose of a dungeon, providing a place to thin the monster population of Mystic Beau.

  After Lux listened to the reason for dungeons, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Why aren’t there more dungeons?” He honestly thought that was a fair question, and Norton seemed to agree.

  Norton explained it all in his steady way. “There used to be dungeons everywhere on Mystic Beau. But the people who could make dungeons disappeared all of a sudden, poof, just like that.” Norton even snapped his fingers for effect.

  Lux blinked. Poof? “Why would they all vanish at once?”

  Norton’s expression turned sour. “It’s because of the three continents now overridden with monsters. Back then, the kings of those three continents didn’t want monsters to go extinct. Monsters were their main energy source. If the monsters ran out, their power ran out too.”

  “Somehow they got it in their heads that if all the monsters ended up in the dungeons, Mystic Beau would lose connections to the dungeons at some point then access to the monsters would disappear.” A small chill crept up Lux’s spine. He could already see where this was going.

  “The three kings gathered together and schemed. They started rounding up every single person who could create dungeons, snatching them away before anyone had the chance to ask questions.”

  “When the world finally noticed no new dungeons were appearing, it was far too late. No one could find even a shadow of those people. The technique to make dungeons vanished along with them.”

  “But the kings weren’t happy just capturing dungeon makers. They began destroying the dungeons that already existed. Every last dungeon on their continents was wiped out. They even sent agents to the other continents, bold as you like, to continue their crusade.”

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  “Of course, the other continents fought back hard. War exploded. The rest of the world banded together to put a stop to the madness, and in the end all three of those kings were wiped from the board. But it was already too late for their lands. Without dungeons to keep the monsters in check, the creatures multiplied like crazy.”

  “Three generations. That’s all it took for monsters to overrun everything. Cities fell, people scattered, and soon desperate Mystians flooded into the remaining continents. Taking back their homelands? Not a hope, the monsters outnumbered anyone who tried to fight them. In the end, all three continents were abandoned, left to rot, and nobody went back.”

  After listening to all that, Lux was convinced, Silver finding a dungeon was nothing short of a miracle.

  Lux withdrew his gaze from the map and his thoughts returned to the present. He thought of the silver-haired man, and realised Silver would be back soon. Lux wolfed down the rest of his meal and hurried to his room to start packing.

  Once he finished, Lux decided to restock the snacks that had become his everyday craving, ever since Winter Pines. Silver City, backward as it was, hadn’t even managed a bakery yet, so snacking there was a distant dream. The thought made him miss his shoddy house so much it hurt.

  When the others finally trickled into Winter Pines, night had already crept over the rooftops. Lux was slumped in a chair by the inn window, fighting off sleep. A sharp gust slipped through a crack, snapping him upright. Azura burst in, arms loaded with two gigantic shells, so heavy he could barely keep his grip. “Lux, help me! These things are impossible to carry!”

  Lux eyed the monstrous shells. Goo was seeping out from a split in the side, pooling on the floor. “Why are they so big?”

  “Who cares! Just hurry!” Azura didn’t stop to explain, he was out the door again before Lux could blink. He scrambled after, not bothering with a goodbye to Norton, they’d already done that earlier.

  Outside, he almost doubled over laughing. Novgar had a snail perched dead-centre on his head, ooze streaking his face. He was juggling four enormous shells under his arms.

  “Laugh while you can, stupid human. I’ll remember this.” Magenta’s words were as sharp as a hailstorm.

  Lux turned, and his heart stuttered. A snail’s antenna was looped around Magenta’s wrist like a shackle, the shell weighing her arm down. The look she shot him was pure frost, cold as the night air. Lux swallowed hard.

  Thankfully, a porthole opened right then, and Lux was spat out in front of his house. It was too dark to check for changes in Silver City, so he wasted no time telling everyone good night. He had no intention of hanging around Magenta a second longer than necessary, not when she looked ready to freeze him solid.

  Lux woke the next morning with a jolt. Why were people shouting outside his window? Why were hooves rattling on the street so early in the morning!

  Lux rolled from bed, yanked on his clothes, and scratched the eighty third mark deep into the wall as he ran a hand through his wild hair. He barely remembered to straighten his tunic. Then he rushed outside, his heart thumping with every step.

  A long parade of wagons wound slowly by, wagons and horses he’d never seen before. None of these faces belonged to his village. Lux’s curiosity grew with every unfamiliar coat and hat. He hurried up to a man in heavy armour who strode alongside the convoy, the metal plates creaking in rhythm with his march.

  “Excuse me, can you tell me what’s going on?” Lux blurted, excitement tripping his tongue. A merchant convoy in Silver City, surely it couldn’t be true!

  The armoured man didn’t even glance over. “White Peal merchant convoy has arrived in your village.” The guard moved in step with the wagon’s wheels, legs steady as the street.

  Lux matched the pace, his gaze roving like a fox over every cart and box. “Are you…are you here to trade?” The question sprang out, hope fizzing inside him.

  But before the guard could say more, a bellow echoed from up ahead. “Devon, you came!” Lux instantly knew the voice, the booming greeting belonged to George, Trella’s chosen merchant. The lead wagon stopped, a big-bellied man leaping down with surprising nimbleness to meet George.

  Lux hurried, eager to catch every word. Devon, the leaper, clapped George on the back, his eyes sparkled. “Of course I would come, after I got your letter, we headed straight for your village.” Devon's laugh was warm as bread. “I owe you and Trella my life, after all.”

  “Aish, I keep telling you anyone would have stopped to help. But thanks for coming.” George was all grins as he talked. Lux, caught in the moment, hovered at the edge of their chat until George noticed him and waved him over. “Lux, you’re back! Come and meet Devon, he is the leader of this traveling merchant company.”

  Names and hands went around, and then Lux, unable to hold back, fired his question straight at Devon. “Is your convoy really stopping here?” His eagerness spilled out in the words, impossible to hide.

  Devon’s laugh was booming. “Of course! We’re stopping, and we’re happy to trade. George sent word that he’d been attacked on his return trip from Appletree Village, and his wagons needed repair. We’ll buy the produce he usually sells while his convoy’s out of commission.”

  Lux blinked, surprised. He shot George a questioning look. “You were attacked?”

  George shrugged, sheepish. “On the way back from Appletree Village. Thieves! But I was lucky, I was close to Silver City when it happened. I made it inside the wards before they could get the money, but they did a number on the wagons.”

  Lux squinted at the merchant guards still flanking the wagons. “Sorry, George. It didn’t even cross my mind to send reinforcements with you.” The thought was honest and sharp, a lapse he hadn’t realised until now.

  “It’s my fault too,” George said, voice low. “I should have told you. I figured, it’s just Appletree Village, it’s a short trip, who’s going to bother with a small-time merchant?”

  Devon cut in, cheerful as ever, “No one got hurt, and you can still trade, so let’s not waste time on regrets! Besides, our arrival is a good thing for this whole village.”

  Devon’s good spirits scattered the heavy talk. Lux seized on the real prize. “What did you bring to trade, Devon?”

  Devon’s smile was a beacon. “George mentioned you need supplies for the dining hall, and the workers have been asking for new clothes. I brought everything you asked for.”

  Clothes! Lux could have danced. He had only two sets, the same two sets for seventy-odd days, and he still had seventeen more days in Mystic Beau. The thought of not having to hand-wash his shirt every night nearly made him giddy.

  Lux followed the caravan as it rolled up to the old farm grounds, and stopped. Only, the place didn’t look abandoned anymore. The leaves and debris that used to carpet the earth had vanished, a lush sweep of grass stretching out in their place, like the ground itself had been scrubbed and dressed up for market day.

  The merchants wasted no time, bursting into motion to set up their stalls. “Lux, I will go and let the others know that the caravans have arrived.” George announced this in a rush, then bolted straight up the road toward the temporary apartments without another word.

  Lux blinked after him, but then his gaze pulled towards the construction site. His jaw nearly hit the ground. When he’d left, there’d only been one temporary apartment. Now? Five and a half of them loomed in the distance. He could have sworn buildings didn’t breed like rabbits. “How?”

  No one even tried to answer. Lux was still staring when Devon’s voice yanked him back. “Can we start loading the produce into the wagons?” Devon was already pointing, all business, toward four buildings on the other side of the road.

  Two of them, granaries, Lux only remembered one being there before. But now there were two, side by side, looking ready to swallow up half the harvest on their own.

  The other two buildings were big, blocky warehouses, brand new. Judging by the neat organisation, George had planned everything out to make the trade with the merchant group quick and painless. Only one stop, no running back and forth.

  By the time the stalls had gotten their canvas up, a wave of residents was already heading down the road, drawn by the promise of fresh goods. Lux didn’t waste any time, he dove for the clothing stall first. Four sets of clothes, done. Then he moved on, weaving through the crowd.

  Rugs, cutlery, accessories, even weapons, the stalls were packed with more than Lux had expected. By the time he was at his fourth stop, a hungry crowd had gathered around, voices rising in a crisscross of bartering and deal-making.

  Lux stayed clear of the chaos, not tempted to join in, he couldn’t take anything back to earth anyway. The clothes would be enough.

  Mission complete, he set out to find Devon and settle the business with the produce. He spotted him standing with George and Trella. “Lux, you’re back! I’ll take you on a tour after I have a little shop!” Trella grinned and darted off before Lux could even reply, already vanishing among the stalls.

  “Lux, we just finished negotiations. I took the money for the items for the canteen out of the profits.” George pressed a heavy coin pouch into Lux’s hands. For a second Lux just stared at it, then cracked it open. 240,786 gold coins, glittering like yellow river sand.

  Lux couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m leaving you in charge of trade, George. As Silver City grows, we’ll need people for different departments. I’ll leave all merchant business to you from now on. Later, you can see Beatrice at the town hall for an official office.”

  If Silver City was going to be anything, Lux would need to start appointing people. He’d known from the start that Silver himself wasn’t cut out for the paperwork, the results were what mattered.

  George’s face broke into a full-on sunbeam of a smile. “Thank you, Lux! I won’t let you down!” His excitement was almost contagious. “Speaking of Beatrice, she wanted you to visit her as soon as you returned. I’ll let Trella know he can find you there.”

  Looking up, Lux could see the town hall just a short distance away. No point delaying. He offered quick goodbyes and ducked into the building, hoping for good news.