"So what are these?" Emile asked as he looked at the pass in his hand. They had left the tent after Ulgrim handed them their passes with little more than a "good luck." Cort and Lond had grabbed their things from the barrel and were putting them on when Emile spoke up.
"It's your pass," Cort answered. He held his own pass out to show Emile. "Watch." Cort held out his free hand palm down, and then put the edge of his card against the skin. He could feel the faint rippling of his skin associated with the magic in the card. Slowly the card itself sunk into his skin and was eventually fully absorbed by his body.
"Magic labyrinths have barriers on them that prohibit entry," Cort explained. "With the pass's magic, you can get through them no problem. Not sure how it works beyond that."
Cort watched his teammates closely as they mimicked him. He thought Emile would need some assistance, but the man was accustomed enough to his shackles that he could maneuver his hands to push the pass into his skin. Lond's eyes, the only part of his face visible again, grew wide and bright as the magic worked and the pass buried into his body.
Once it was done Lond let his cloak fall to cover himself again, and the three of them returned to the main path of the camp. There was some signage that indicated the way to the labyrinth entrance. Not that Cort needed it much. He recognized the tents were getting less frequent, and small groups were walking along the same path as them already in their gear.
"These passes are interesting," Lond said in a low whisper, his hand poking out of his cloak as he looked at it. "The magic is a little simplistic though. Is the material rare?"
"It's refined from magic stones you can find in the labyrinths," Cort answered. He couldn't stop his smile. Information like this was common knowledge in Vim, so it was fun to be a wise sage for his comrades. "Apparently it used to be harder to make but they've really nailed down the process in the past 30 years or so."
"Hmm. I wonder how they made the very first ones. If you need material from the labyrinth, you need to get in the labyrinth. Without the materials though, you can't get in the labyrinth."
"That's the fun thing about diving." Cort felt like a giddy child. He had been wanting to join the divers he'd been watching since he was a brat. He gobbled up any story and lesson he could about the labyrinths. "They're not just full of monsters and treasure. Mysteries and magic tomes and history long lost. And this is a pretty new labyrinth, so we're likely to discover something awesome."
"I like that enthusiasm," Emile began. "Just remember there are monsters that view divers as nothing more than a tasty snack."
That warning from Emile did nothing to stop Cort's excitement, though. The tents had stopped completely, but people were still walking along the path. Cort's view was obscured by the people walking ahead of them, but he could just feel the tension in the air. The labyrinth was drawing near.
Their march suddenly came to a halt. A crowd of people had formed. Its occasional shifts forward were preceded by a call "Next!" happening at fixed intervals.
"Before we go in there, I think we should maybe come up with some planning for what we're doing," Emile said.
"I believe our goal is just to find artifacts," Lond replied. "I would assume going where people have not yet explored would be a good plan."
"Don't be so sure of that," Cort said. "You don't know what could've been missed. Plus, the deeper you dive the more dangerous it can be."
"And we lack any equipment like these guys." Emile gestured to the people immediately in front of them. Compared to Cort and his group, they seemed far more prepared. Proper armor, what looked like new weapons, and one of them had a gray sack attached to his hip. Cort knew that as a bottomless bag, easy to judge from the Gendy brand stitched into it.
"We'll stick to the first floor for today," Cort suggested and was met with nods from both his comrades. "There should be some weaker monsters wandering around there, so we can harvest a few magic stones from there."
"I take it there will be someone in this camp who will buy the stones from us," Lond asked. The crowd was slowly edging forward as they spoke.
"There's bound to be a trading post around out here. A general counter would buy the magic stones from us. Once we get a bottomless bag or something to carry them, we can even grab some monster parts."
"You know your stuff, Cort," Emile commented. "Does every kid in Vim want to be a diver?"
Cort's cheeks grew flush in embarassment. Emile meant it as a compliment, but it still reminded him of being back in Vim, bothering any diver that gave him an extra minute and a story about their most recent trip to the labyrinth. "It's just exciting stuff," he muttered softly, but then looked up to speak directly to Emile. I've been wanting a pass for a while, but they're expensive. And good luck getting my mom to give me the coin to go risk my life diving."
"So these cards are worth something?" Emile scratched his chin for a moment in a gesture of deep thought, then shrugged his shoulders when that became too difficult. "Eh. I don't need gold right now. What about you, Lond?"
"Iphos-Magus told me that diving would give me the worldly experience I've been missing," Lond answered. "We should send that regional lord a word of thanks, though. I'm assuming he's the one that paid for these."
"He told me that he was paying for most of my expenses," Emile added. "I'm still waiting for one of his servants to bring me a fresh pair of clothes. What about you, Cort?"
"He told me something like that," Cort replied. His tale of being recruited by the illustrious Iphos-Magus and his lord was a strange one, and he did not have the time to give his new teammates all of the details. Especially since "Next!" was called out once more, and the group in front of them stepped not only forward but down.
What the group was descending were stone stairs down into darkness. The black pit the stairway led into seemed to eat away all the light that touched it, but as Cort watched the group ahead of them he saw them not just disappear into the darkness. They stepped through it like it was a thin layer of water, the tallest one's head disappearing last through it.
"That must be the barrier you were talking about," Lond said. His eyes seemed hesitant, but the call of "Next!" from the man standing beside the stairs broke him out of it.
Cort was the first to take the step. He hardly even noticed Emile and Lond followed him. He did not seem to care either. All that he needed was ahead of him through the black curtain. He stepped through it, slowing when he felt no resistance to his foot slipping through. The pass was working. He continued going, and Cort and his team made it into the Remus Labyrinth.
The dive has started. Now entering the labyrinth of Remus, Veranus.