"A door?" Gilded said, walking straight up to it. "Let me—"
"Don't touch it!" Llewellyn and I said at the same time.
I got a flashback of the time I almost got incinerated in Mondwyn Harbor, while we tried to work out the puzzle.
Gilded froze, then looked annoyed. "I know what I'm doing," he said. "Who do you take me for?"
He extended his hand to check it, but then seemed confused.
"I can't feel much," he said. "But touching it should be fine."
Llewellyn checked too, then relaxed slightly.
"What then?" I said. "Should we knock?"
I was being sarcastic, but Gléonwon said, "I'll try!" and bounded forward before anyone could stop him, knocking on the crystal with his paw.
Well.
Nothing happened.
Gléonwon sat back down, looking disappointed. "It didn't open."
Penguin waddled up to the door too and started pecking at it with his beak. Still nothing.
"System?" I called. "Any hints?"
[System Notification: The door responds to specific conditions.]
Specific conditions? Like what?
"Tell us more?" Llewellyn said.
There was a pause.
[System Notification: The System is not authorized to disclose that information.]
"Ugh," Gilded said. "Why do you even bother?"
Penguin, who was still pecking at the door and getting progressively more annoyed, chirped a few times, angry, before turning into a fire fox and trying to set it on fire.
The door glowed bright for a second, then went back to normal.
Huh.
"Hey!" Gilded said. "Don't hurt it!"
Llewellyn gave him a look. "You have better ideas?"
"Admittedly, no," Gilded said, rubbing his chin. He extended his hand then frowned. "It doesn't feel like the Fire affected it."
"Stay back," Llewellyn said. "Let me try something."
Before any of us could ask what he had in mind, he threw every Element he had at the door. Fire first, then a blast of Water, then Earth, Air, Wood, Metal, all of them slamming into the crystal one after another in quick succession.
When none of it did anything, except for making the door glow more, he stepped in and hit it with his sword.
…Which had no effect whatsoever.
Gilded yelled, like he'd just watched someone kick a puppy, before throwing his hands in the air and launching into a tirade that ended with, "What is wrong with you people!"
"Then you try something," Llewellyn said. "You said it wasn't affected by the Fire. No harm in trying the rest."
"Gah!" Gilded said. "Fine!"
For the next ten minutes, he proceeded to try one insane thing after another.
He sent some filigree-like threads of Magic under the door, as if to try and see what was on the other side. He had to jump back when they were whipped back in his direction—to Llewellyn's great amusement.
After that, he flipped the gravity of the whole cave for some reason, sending us all flailing about until Llewellyn caught us with a gust of wind before we could crack our heads on the floor, ceiling, whatever it was.
"Are you trying to win an award for most useless, impressive Magic?" I shouted at him, grabbing a squawking Penguin midair. "What was that even for! Do something useful!"
"I was trying to confuse it!" Gilded yelled back. "You think of something then!"
A second later he tried to apply Magic to the door's hinges and almost got all of us blasted back, if Llewellyn hadn't suddenly materialized his shield.
"You've done enough," Llewellyn said. "Stop. It's only reacting violently to your Magic—it did nothing like that when I tried."
Wait, he was right.
Gilded also looked taken aback, then started sulking.
"I was defending you!" he told the door. "Is this my thanks?"
…Honestly.
"Let me try," I said.
I wasn't feeling too optimistic, but… you never know.
I tried using my Abilities first. I was hoping Elemental Insights might tell me what was going on, but… nothing. I tried Crisis Management next, which usually came up with something, but was completely useless here. None of my Knot-related Abilities and Skills worked here and when I tried my Authority, it didn't work either.
Still… I wasn't attacked either.
I took out my Moonlight Sword to cut my palm and try Blood Magic too, but Llewellyn grabbed my wrist before I could even get my sword near my palm.
"Don't you even think about it," he said, glaring. "With your luck you might end up bonded to the door or something, even if you don't bleed to death."
…I mean, he wasn't wrong.
"Fine," I said, vanishing my sword again. "What then? We ran out of things to try."
Llewellyn gave Geometric Casting a go too, but it didn't work either.
"There doesn't seem to be any way forward," I said. "What now?"
"The smell of water and old Magic is coming from the other side," Gléonwon said, sniffing at it. "I can feel it."
We all looked at each other.
Gilded sighed and scratched his head, before pulling something out of his inventory.
"Put your hands on this, everyone."
"Why?" Llewellyn said, suspicious.
Exactly.
"I'm going to create a teleportation waypoint, so we can come back here directly later," Gilded said. "Assuming the domain lets us back in. It's four in the morning, I'm exhausted. I want to go to bed."
We all stared at him.
"What? I'm trying to give you all access too. But fair enough, if you don't want to–"
"Fine," Llewellyn said.
Gilded was right, it was already 4 AM. I also wanted to go home. But— Wait a moment.
"If teleportation works here, why don't we just leave? And do we need this? We normally just ask the System to get us where we want to go."
"This place allows teleportation in," Llewellyn said. "But not out."
Right, I forgot he could check. He did the same when we moved Gran.
"Besides," Gilded said. "The System might not be able to act easily inside a god's domain; I'm not going to risk it."
Alright, he had a point.
"Fine," Llewellyn said again. "Do your thing."
Gilded grinned.
"I'm assuming we're not going to check the other paths on the map?" I asked, after we'd all touched the cube in Gilded's hand. I had taken out my phone and tried to figure out where we were, marking the place with a red spot.
"Right now?" Gilded said. He extended his cube as if it were clay and shaped it into a long and curved kind of… thing. It floated mid-air, looking like some sort of lamp. "Right now I'm going to sleep. Ah, wait. I wanted to check those books first," he turned toward Gléonwon. "There might be some clues. Are those still here?"
"They're in the cave behind the temple," Gléonwon said, swishing his tail. "We have to go back first."
"But we couldn't get out," I pointed out. "We were trapped in."
Gilded paused.
"…Fuck. I forgot about that." He rubbed his face.
I studied the map again.
"Look," I said. "It's not very clear, but this could be another exit. What do you think?"
"That's at least half an hour's walk," Gilded said, groaning. "I'm very tempted to take out my tent and camp here."
"Feel free to," Llewellyn said, studying my phone. "We're leaving."
"Fine, fine!" Gilded said. "I'll follow."
"Maybe Penguin knows how to get us out?" I asked. He'd been amazing at leading us to the cabin in the Belgium Distorted Realm after all, and he seemed great with directions in general. Penguin chirped and looked up at me questioningly. I crouched down, showing him my phone and pointing to the possible exit. "What do you think?"
Penguin focused on the image, clearly concentrating, then chirped enthusiastically and sprinted off toward the other side of the current chamber, waiting for us close to the exit.
I grinned proudly, making eye contact with Llewellyn who seemed amused.
That said... I couldn't believe we were really going, leaving that door there.
Still, Gilded had a point. I was used to working nights and even I was exhausted.
We made our way through the passages. Here and there another of Yoon Juhyung's seals marked the way, but they were less frequent.
We followed Penguin around a bend, and—
Finally! Fresh air hit my face. Stars glittered through an opening in the rock.
"Thank god," Gilded said, rushing toward the exit. He stopped just before stepping out, hand extended. "No barriers. We can actually leave."
We emerged onto a narrow ledge halfway up the mountain. The temple sat below us.
Gléonwon immediately took flight, circling above us.
"Books!" he called. "Come see the books!"
"In a minute," Gilded said, sitting down heavily on a rock. "I need to breathe actual air for a second."
I checked my phone. Almost 5 AM. My body felt like lead.
Through the bond, I sensed Llewellyn's similar exhaustion, still mixed with frustration. Our date had been thoroughly derailed.
I really wanted to yank him into a kiss, but… maybe after we got rid of Gilded.
"We should just go home," I said. "We can check the books tomorrow."
Llewellyn eyed Gilded, who was cooing over Penguin, apparently genuinely happy he'd led us out. "What are the chances he leaves too, if we go? Without stealing them?"
Gilded looked offended. "I saved Ryo's life twice! Have some faith."
"You also interrupted our date."
"The System interrupted your date. I was taking care of my own business and didn't want to meet you at all."
Now that I thought about it—
"What were you even up to?" I asked. "Last time you were modding a Dungeon, fine; but there was no Dungeon there this time."
Gilded groaned.
"You people," he said. "Can't you just let me be?"