Previously:

"I already know everything about him. My precious puppy told me…" said the Chief, signaling for her to come forward.

"Ah! Y…You're…!!" Budel gasped, flinching in shock when he saw the girl. It was the slave that Alibaba and the others had tried to free! Instead of running away, she had run back to her master and told him everything. The chief smirked.

"You're a good girl, Morgiana." He praised his slave. "How about dinner together?"

"No thanks." She answered squarely.

"Ahahaha, you're cute when you're aloof, you know?" He told her with a smile. "In any case… our prey is after something much better…" He mused slyly.

Chapter 10: The Dungeon's Center

"I don't see those police guys anymore!" said Aladdin as their little group of three ran up the steps to the dungeon on their own two feet once Ugo had safely returned to his flute.

"Ugo's the best getaway driver ever!" Faith said with a grin.

"Hey, look you guys! I see the entrance to the dungeon straight ahead!" said Alibaba, pointing to it. Faith didn't know ho he thought they could've missed it, given the fact that it was right in front of them and glowing. "My whole body's shaking…" he said seriously, sweating nervously. "There isn't a person who's gone up against this gate and won… Much less come back to talk about it…!! It really does feel like I'm standing before the 'entrance to death'…!!" He stopped and stood before the entrance. "Whoa… It's really funny looking…" He said nervously, slowly extending a shaking hand towards the glowing membrane.

WHAM!!

"!?" Alibaba exclaimed when Aladdin and Faith suddenly slammed into him from behind, pushing him through the entrance without any warning so that he could mentally prepare himself. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Alibaba screamed as they fell.

"WHEEEEEEEE!!!" Faith squealed excitedly, "Whoa!" She exclaimed when she felt a pulling sensation that was eerie similar to the one she had felt back on the plane with her sister and found herself floating over another world that had several pillars of light shooting forth from it. 'Wait… what the…!?' she thought, shielding her eyes as the light surrounding her increased to a blinding intensity. And then, suddenly, she felt cold and wet, and she couldn't breathe. "Fuwaah!" Faith gasped for air as she broke through the surface of the water. "?" she blinked in confusion as she looked down and realized she was now sitting in the middle of an eight-pointed star that had been carved into the bed of a shallow spring.

"Yay! You're finally here, Faith!" Aladdin said cheerfully. She looked up and saw that Aladdin and Alibaba had beaten her there and were already standing on dry land.

"Finally?" she asked.

"Yeah… I don't get it, but apparently Aladdin emerged first…" said Alibaba, rubbing the back of his neck.

"See, my clothes are all dry now!" said Aladdin.

'Wow, he's right!' Faith realized. 'That's weird… we got in at the same time, so how did they get here first? Is time screwed up in this place…?' she wondered. "I see you're still wet…" she remarked to Alibaba.

"That's because Alibaba only just got here a minute ago!" answered Aladdin.

"Oh, I see… I wonder why we arrived in such a messed up order?" she said, sweat-dropping, as she climbed out of the spring. Maybe they were saving the best for last?

"That's what I'd like to know." said Alibaba as they all started walking further in. "Whoa, the sky is dark and the ground is red… everything changed in a second…"

"It's kind of pretty…" said Faith. It sort of reminded her of how the Grand Canyon looked at night, but without all the stars.

"Yeah!" Aladdin agreed. "Though it's pretty and all… I can't help but think I've seen this scenery before…"

"Really? Where?" Faith asked as she and Alibaba glanced curiously at their little friend. Somehow… he didn't seem like his usual self.

"Hey, c'mon!" Aladdin said suddenly, grabbing each both of them by the hand. "There's something great over there too!" he told them, pulling them along as he lead the way. Faith blinked and Alibaba shielded his eyes as they rushed from out of the darkness into light.

"!!" They gasped in astonishment when their eyes finished adjusting to the sudden change. They had come to a large, cavernous opening illuminated by a huge glow and bright beams radiating down from the ceiling of the cave. Squinting, Faith could see that there was actually some kind of moss growing wherever there was light, and the far wall was lined with rows and rows of tunnels.

"Wh… What the hell!?" Alibaba exclaimed in surprise. "The rock wall is shining… and I've never seen those plants before!"

"I know, Isn't it flippin' Cool!?" Faith said excitedly with sparkling eyes and a wide grin. "Now that's what I call a 'dungeon'!!"

"Yeah, that's a dungeon!!" Alibaba agreed, suddenly feeling pumped again.

"We did it!!" Aladdin cheered.

"I can't believe we're here!!" Alibaba said excitedly. "I guess that spring earlier must have been the 'starting point'…"

"Starting point?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah! I read all about it in the famous 'Sinbad's Adventure Log'… Upon entering the dungeon's gate, one will fly through a pillar of light. Upon advancing on the correct path, treasures await. Most importantly, it is there that the 'Djinn Vessel' can be obtained." Alibaba explained.

"Oooh." Aladdin and Faith cooed.

'So I guess this 'Sinbad' must be that first dungeon conqueror he told us about before…' she thought. Aladdin, Alibaba, Sinbad… was it just her, or did there seem to be a lot of people here named after characters from the Arabian Nights stories…? But more importantly… "In other words, we can get all the treasures we want if we find that 'goal' thingy where the treasures are! And Then I can use them to fund a massive search for my sister!!" she declared, pumping her fist in the air.

"Your what?" Alibaba asked, taken aback.

"My sister, Hope. We got separated, so now I have to find her again. I've been looking for her while we traveled together." She explained, pointing to Aladdin and the Djinn in the flute.

"I see…" said Alibaba.

"But there sure are a lot of entrances here…" Aladdin remarked, looking around at all the tunnels. "How do we find the right path without getting lost?"

"Yeah, good question…" said Faith with a frown. "It's too bad Hope isn't here, she's a genius."

"Huh? Alibaba-kun…" said Aladdin, glancing back at his new friend when he didn't answer. He was trembling with excitement.

"Let's go, Aladdin and Faith, down this hole!" Alibaba said, suddenly taking off like a shot as he headed for the nearest hole.

"What!? Why that one!?" Aladdin asked, flinching in shock.

"Yahoo!! What's the matter, Faith!?" Alibaba taunted the older girl. "You chicken!?"

"Who you callin' chicken, boy!?" she yelled, immediately taking off after him.

"Ah!! Wait…?" Aladdin called out anxiously. He paused briefly outside the hole when something caught his eye before he continued hurrying after them, deciding he had better chase after them before they got too far ahead and wound up separated.

Meanwhile, back in the Chief's mansion…

"… Huh? Sir, what did you just say?" Budel asked, stunned by what he had just heard. The Chief couldn't be serious…

"Don't make me repeat myself… I said I'm going dungeon diving." Said the young Chief as he stood up from behind his desk.

"Are you serious, Chief!? Many thousands have made the dungeons their graves!! Going dungeon diving is the same as having a death wish!!" Budel exclaimed anxiously, breaking out in a nervous sweat.

"…" The Chief paused for a moment while he adjusted his coat. "Well, you aren't wrong… but those kids from earlier are going into a dungeon… So if little guys like them can do it, then I should have no problem, right? I've been waiting for him… the time to ascend had come."

"??" Budel said, confused. 'Ascend'…? What was he talking about?

"Ascend?" asked one of Budel's men. "Sir, there's hardly any reason for that…"

"That's right, sir!" said one of the Chief's servants. "You have wealth, slaves, and the amount of land you own is second to none."

"Yes…" said the Chief. "My territory is matched by no other man in our kingdom… But then, why not aim for the top?" he finished with a smirk as he stalked towards two female slaves bearing bowls of fruit and wine. "You see… I'm not satisfied… with this food, these women… or the land I own!" He shouted, swatting the food from their hands and pushing the two women to the ground so he could kick them repeatedly to vent his anger as he spoke. "As long as the king is there, I am still only second!" Budel and the others cringed as they watched, terrified that they might be next to endure his wrath. "So if I go dungeon diving… I'll have the country I deserve!!" the young Chief finished spitefully. "Let's go!!" he ordered Morgiana and the rest of his slaves.

"Man, I can't believe we've finally made it here!" Alibaba said excitedly as the three of them continued to walk down the first tunnel together. "It feels so awesome! I'm sure once I get the treasure, the old man is gonna freak out!"

"You mean once we get the treasure." Faith corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah, you know what I meant… Anyway, it'll be great! Right, Aladd—" Alibaba started to ask their little friend, when the boy abruptly reached out and grabbed him from behind.

—WHAMM!

Alibaba immediately face-planted smack in the middle of the ground.

"Pfft! Ahahaha!!" Faith laughed, practically rolling on the ground. She didn't know why Aladdin had just done that, but it was comedy gold!

"Quit laughing!!" Alibaba snapped at Faith before turning to face Aladdin. "Why'd you do that!?" he demanded incredulously, holding his poor bleeding nose. It'd better not be broken, or…!

"Well… actually, I'm kind of scared now…" Aladdin admitted with a nervous smile.

"You're scared?" Faith asked, surprised. 'Come to think of it, he has been awfully quiet…' she realized. He had hardly spoken a word once they'd entered the tunnel. "Is something wrong?"

"No, well… It's just that I'm starting to have a bad feeling about this… So how about we go back, and give this some more thought?" he suggested rather maturely.

"Hmm… That might be a good idea…" Faith said thoughtfully, taking a moment to consider it. Hope would probably have suggested something similar if she were there…

"What are you talking about!?" Alibaba asked, staring at them in disbelief. "Man up, and let's go! You want to get to the treasure room, don't you?"

"Yeah... but… what if we die, before we get it?" asked Aladdin calmly. Alibaba's eyes widened in surprise. Huh?

"Yeah… that would make it pretty difficult…" Faith agreed.

"Alibaba-kun, you said it yourself… in all the ten years worth of dungeon-diving, no one has ever returned from the 'hole of death'. This is really dangerous, especially if we lose our way in this dungeon." Aladdin reminded him. "This is where are dreams are going to come true, right? So let's take a step back and think about this together!" he finished with a kind smile.

"…!" said Alibaba, taken aback. "Y-Yeah… You're right…" he said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

It was then that Alibaba's thoughts began to wander. The still unknown secrets of the dungeon caused his heart to lose confidence and waver. On the other hand, Faith seemed to have adapted quickly to the idea of danger, and Aladdin remained level-headed. He had already been one step ahead of Alibaba and Faith, and waited for this moment. It was this little stopover after their entrance, and the decision to turn around, that saved their lives.

"There sure are a lot of holes, though…" remarked Faith as they looked around.

"And they all look the same too…" said Alibaba.

"Alibaba-kun! Faith!" Aladdin called to them, standing by one of the entrances. "Hey!! Look what I found!!" He said excitedly, pointing to a mark that had been made on the wall next to the hole. "This hole has something written on the wall beside it!"

"Hm? Let me see!" Alibaba and Faith said, rushing over to have a look.

"Ah! You're right!" he said.

"It's an 'X'!" said Faith.

"What does it mean?" asked Aladdin?

"Uh… maybe 'X' marks the spot?" she suggested.

"Are there any more?" asked Alibaba.

"Let's have a look!" said Aladdin. The three of them started darting about looking for more marks outside the other holes.

"This one is an 'O'!" said Aladdin.

"This one has a triangle!" said Faith.

"And this one… I really don't know." said Alibaba, sweat-dropping. His mark just looked like a random arrangement of intersecting scratches. "But it seems like the holes around here all have some kind of mark…"

Thirty minutes later, the three of them had finished examining all of the holes and had plopped themselves down on the ground for a break.

"O, X, X, O…" Aladdin sang, making a list of all the different shapes and symbols they had discovered by drawing them in the dirt with a twig. "There are so many, yet we have no idea what they're for."

"Maybe all the O's are for the correct path?" Faith suggested hopefully.

"Oh, maybe so?" said Aladdin with a smile.

"As if it's that simple!" snapped Alibaba with a vein popping on his forehead.

"My, sounds like Mr. McCrankypants over there needs a nap…" Faith mumbled under her breath, sweat-dropping. Well, it was a bit annoying that this first challeng was taking so long to figure out… 'But he's right, it probably can't be that simple, or so many people wouldn't have gotten lost in this place over the last then years…' she thought, taking another look around.

"…!" Alibaba gasped suddenly after a few minutes. "Wait, could it be…?"

"What is it?" asked Faith. "Did you think of something?"

"Maybe… Hey, Faith! Aladdin! Find a hole without a mark!" Alibaba said urgently.

"O-Okay…?" They said, exchanging a brief glance before dashing off to do as he said, wondering what he was up to.

"Here we go!" Aladdin said after a moment. "This one has no mark on it, but…"

"All right…" Alibaba said determinedly, coming over to examine it for himself. "This is… the correct path!" he stated confidently, placing his hand against the unmarked hole.

"What?" Aladdin and Faith said, surprised.

"Then why doesn't it…? Ohhh…!!" Faith gasped as the answer suddenly clicked. "Of course! I get it now!"

"You do?" asked Aladdin, still a bit confused. "So, if this is the right path, why doesn't have a mark on it?"

"That's because…" Alibaba started to explain.

"That's because only the wrong paths have a mark, right?" said Faith excitedly.

"Uh, yeah… right." Said Alibaba, a little chagrined that she had the nerve to steal some of his thunder when he had figured it out first. "Just let me explain the rest though, 'kay…? Aladdin, this mark is large and rough, so I got the idea that it was made by a human." He said, pointing to the 'O' marked on the wall beside the neighboring hole. "So then, who do you think drew this?"

"Hmm… I guess someone else who was here before us?" said Aladdin.

"That's right!" said Alibaba. "It was someone in this dungeon ten years ago! It was the people who came into this very same passage throughout the years! The first set of people who got lost in these dungeons a long time ago made these marks. Like us, they were trying to figure out which is the right way… However, they found both entrances that were right and wrong. So, Aladdin, tell me. If you walked along and found out that the path you took was wrong, what would you do?"

"… I'd go back, and try another path."

"Yeah! That's what you'd do if you had to return. That explains why all the different holes have marks on them. Whenever you go in one and find out it's wrong, you come back out and make a mark and try another. I think you know where I'm going with this, don't you?"

"…" Aladdin stared blankly for a moment while he thought about it. "Yeah!!" He said excitedly as his eyes lit up with understanding. "The hole without a mark by the entrance is the right!"

"Bingo!!!" said Alibaba with a grin.

"Yeah! Not bad, huh?" said Faith, giving Alibaba a pat on the back. "He's almost as smart as my sister!"

"Well, I'm definitely smarter than you!" he retorted with a smirk.

"Don't make me hit you…" she warned him ominously with narrowed eyes while she gave his shoulder a sharp (but not too crippling) squeeze to remind him who was boss. Alibaba did his best to suppress the whimper that threatened to escape his mouth. "So, you get it, Aladdin? Hundreds of other divers before us have led us here. Because of them, now we know exactly what path to go down…!!"

"Awesome, now we won't have to guess which is the wrong one!" said Aladdin excitedly.

"Y-Yeah… That leaves us with just one!" said Alibaba as he massaged his poor shoulder, still a little teary-eyed. "The one without a mark!"

"Which means… that entrance is… the right one!" The three of them concluded together, standing before the unmarked hole.

"Let's go, boys!!" Faith cheered, leading the way.

"Yay~!" Aladdin cheered.

"Hey, wait for me!!" Alibaba huffed indignantly. Wasn't he supposed to be the leader here!?