In another room Tepo leaned his body against the wall. His expression was changing constantly as he recalled the conversation with his best friend.
Varei looked at Tepo for a while until he couldn't bear it anymore:
"Tepo? Are you ok?"
"I'm… fine."
Tepo took a deep breath, stabilizing his emotions.
"Don't worry. This was just a small quarrel.
Even I can see how close you two are. I'm sure you'll reconcile soon."
"Yes. You're right. I just can't accept that he joined a church. It's my mistake.
Instead of running away I should watch closely to make sure nothing happens to him…"
"To be honest I don't understand why you are so biased against churches."
Tepo let out a long sigh, shaking his head.
"It's difficult to explain. Unfortunately, I don't have any evidence, but I believe gods aren't some benevolent beings. They will bring ruin and misery to humanity to further their own goals."
Varei looked at Tepo with confusion. The little spirit didn't know much about worlds outside of the World of Spirits. But as his thoughts moved, he was actually the first to emphasize with Tepo:
"Well, I don't know about gods but the churches in our world are not good institutions.
They are greedy and aiming for power. It was actually them who came together and used their influence to declare the World of Spirits as closed off from others.
But all in all, they aren't different from other organizations, stockpiling resources and recruiting more and more people."
Tepo rose his brow as Varei portrayed his perspective. He kept it at the back of his mind, feeling that his worries weren't unfounded.
Subsequently the room fell silent again, the two warriors left with their own thoughts.
A short while later Tepo decided to continue training until the dungeon was solved, with Varei following his example.
Thus, the two warriors stayed in this random room and trained in silence.
Two days quickly passed. Tepo gradually felt more irritable as the dungeon remained unsolved.
After some time, he even found it difficult to uphold concentration, forcing him to take a short nap and eat some dried rations.
Although as a nine-circled warrior he hardly needed food and sleep anymore, especially during training, but after multiple days a feeling of low energy still settled in his stomach.
As Tepo was consuming some snacks, Varei did the same. With a drooling mouth the little spirit took out half a cow and ate in mere minutes, leaving Tepo astounded.
Done with their meal the two partners both felt annoyed as they conversed:
"What is everyone doing? How can they be so bad at solving dungeons?"
"I don't understand as well. I can only guess that the church members are busy in the forest, and the rest doesn't have much motivation."
"Hmpf. You're right. Sounds like something the churches in my world would do as well.
Say, Tepo… should we… try to clear the dungeon? Just so we finally get out of here?"
Tepo stayed silent for a while, two opinions clashing in his mind. Finally, he sighed and nodded.
"Let's do it. I don't feel like staying here any longer."
Although Tepo felt indignant, he decided to solve the dungeon and finally leave the church's territory. He was confident that he and Varei could finish the task in a day.
If he said his thoughts out loud, others might call him arrogant. But after his experiences since arriving in the new life the investigator realized that he had a knack for solving dungeons.
Thus, he nodded at Varei, checked the map and approached one of the many mirrors in the room.
After two transportations the duo arrived in a room not marked on the map so far. Tepo and Varei scanned it closely, looking for any clues before continuing.
They repeated the process a few times until one of the mirrors brought them back to the portal room.
Immediately a frown formed on Tepo's face. His eyes fell on the groups of warriors lingering around, wearing demotivated faces.
But he couldn't blame them, as he and Varei also refused to work for a while.
Thus, Tepo was just about to continue the exploration as two surprised voices reached his ears:
"Tepo! Where have you been, mate?"
"Tepo, cutey!"
A shiver ran down the young man's spine as Quordh spoke in a deliberately teasing voice, drawing quite some attention.
He turned around, looking at his dormmate in annoyance but the handsome man only chuckled.
"Tepo, are you still trying to solve the dungeon?"
"Well, more or less. Me and Varei here are still searching for clues."
"Oh? Did you make a new friend?
Nice, to meet you Varei."
"Yeah, nice to meet you, mate."
Tepo rolled his eyes as Quordh opened his eyes wide, exaggerating his surprise. But in his dormmates' minds Tepo really wasn't the sociable type, who easily made new friends.
"You are Tepo's dormmates? Did you already stop searching?"
"Yeah. Everyone you see here lost their motivation. No one is content to work for free, but the church doesn't let us go…"
"Aren't you angry?"
"Why? That's just normal, mate. No organization wants information about their dungeons leaked. There are many warriors specializing in taking other's dungeons…"
Tepo kept his face perfectly neutral, not reacting to Shorey's words. He simply asked another question:
"And what about 'taking everything we see' as a reward?"
Quordh clicked his tongue, his long blond hair swaying behind his head as he shook it.
"Too naïve. This dungeon has nothing valuable. After a few groups discovered rooms with vases, silver plates, jewelry, etc., everyone understood that we got tricked."
Suddenly Varei's eyes lit up brightly as he stared at Quordh. Even Tepo was surprised by the little spirit's behavior.
"Did you just say jewelry? Like, with gems and gold?
Did you take some away?"
"Ehm… no. Who would take those worthless things? It's not like they were artifacts. Only commoners would deem such tacky stuff valuable."
Varei almost didn't hear anything after the 'no'. He fidgeted in excitement, his gaze burning Quordh and Shorey.
"Where? Where is it? Can you show me?"
"Sure, sure. Here!"
With those words Shorey took out his map, showing it to Varei and Tepo. The little spirit studied it closely, realizing that it was more complete than their own map.
"Give me your map!"
Shorey was taken aback. He threw a questioning look at Tepo, only receiving a shrug as answer.
But since they could just ask for a new map, Shorey didn't mind and handed his own to Varei.
The little spirit hastily accepted it, planned a route and gestured at Tepo:
"Let's go! Let's go!"
Varei didn't wait for an answer, instantly disappearing into a nearby mirror.
"Well, guess I have to go…"
Tepo threw his dormmates an apologetic look before hastily following his partner.
Shorey and Quordh were left behind in confusion.
Meanwhile, Varei was already jumping through mirror after mirror, making it difficult for Tepo to keep up.
Finally, they stopped in a small room with only three mirrors. A large dresser stood on one side. On top of it was some silverware together with an intricately designed box obviously holding jewelry.
As Tepo arrived, he saw Varei staring at the gold and silver, his eyes sparkling even brighter than some rings on display.
"Hey, Varei, what's going on with you?"
"What do you mean? It's gold, Tepo! Gems and gold! Look at them. So beautiful!
You humans can't appreciate it! But for us dragon spirits, gold is…"
Varei trailed off, not able to find an accurate description. Tepo didn't really comprehend it, only shrugging his shoulders, watching as the spirit approached the jewelry with fascinated eyes.
In the spirit of keeping the best for last, Varei started from a silver plate to the left, reaching out his claw to gently caress it.
But suddenly he disappeared.
Tepo couldn't even react immediately, his eyes shooting open. He was shocked as he stormed forward.
"Varei!"
As Tepo's hand reached out and touched the plate, he vanished as well.
When he reappeared, Tepo was in another room. Varei sat on the ground before him with shock in his eyes.
"Varei! Are you alright?!", shouted Tepo with worry in his voice.
A low sniffle answered him.
"Tepo. My… my plate… I couldn't touch it!"
Tepo's mouth gaped open, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Don't shock me like this. I thought something serious happened to you!"
"This IS serious! Don't you get it? If I can't touch the plate, what if I can't touch the other jewelry as well?!"
Suddenly a light lit up in Tepo's mind. Just now he was too anxious to think about it.
"That's it. You are right! Obviously, it's not only the mirrors which can transport us! Maybe it's all reflective surfaces! But can it be that no one found out before us?"
Pondering, Tepo took out the dungeon's map again. He retraced their steps. Speaking in a low voice:
"There are indeed more connections than mirrors here! But it seems no one deems this information important…"