"Bloo."

"Bloo…"

"Bloo! Wake up!" A voice from above demanded.

The slime rolled over onto his side, making a noticeable scowl as his eyes stayed shut, which either means he didn't hear the demand, or he just straight up ignored it. A frail hand shook him a bit, causing the blob to finally squint his eyes at the person ordering him, which was Wilt. "Gimme' a few more minutes…"

"Nah, Bloo, you gotta get up now, Ed and Coco are ready to roll. I told you last night that we were going into the pit at dawn, and it's dawn right now!" Wilt scolded as he shook the slime.

"Stop it!"

"Get up already so we can go! We must not waste too much time, we gotta be out of the pit before nightfall!"

"Ugh, stop shaking me, I'll get up!" The slime finally caved as he exited his bedroll angrily, he stood up and yawned. "Why do we have to be out by dark?" Bloo questioned as he put on his backpack and pouch.

"So we won't have to deal with anything that happens to lurk around at night. The pit is also really deep, so we're probably gonna be in there all day," Wilt explained as he exits the tent, with Bloo following behind.

Bloo noticed the scenery as he crawled out to meet Wilt. Daybreak has barely arrived, with the sun slightly raised up in the sky, radiating soft beams of light through the clearing, turning the once dark area into a warm orange realm. The birds were alive once more, singing their distinctive tune. The firepit died a while ago, leaving only an ashy patch on the ground. It was a pretty calm morning.

Bloo walked over to the other three, who were close by the pit. Eduardo was setting up, deploying a metal hook into the ground by the edge of the deep hole. Coco came over with a wrapped hempen rope in her mouth, putting it down by Eduardo. Bloo made a quip, "Y'know, I won't need that rope, I can just scale on down the hole like it's nothing."

"We know that. That's why you're gonna go down first, and place down the other hook and tie the rope onto it." Eduardo mentioned as he tied an end of the rope on the surface hook. "Should be pretty easy for ya, right, amigo?"

Bloo was obviously a bit nervous about going first, but brushed it off and snapped back, "Yeah, yeah, that'll be light work!"

"We're ready when you are, Bloo," Wilt announced as he gave an unlit torch to the slime. "Oh, and you'd have to light that up, I forgot to bring a firestarter."

"Ugh, fine," Bloo said nervously as he rolled the loose end of the rope around him.

"Here's the other hook, ten cuidado, Bloo," Eduardo said as he handed Bloo another hook for the bottom.

Bloo peeked over the edge, darkness was the only presence that he could see. Bloo was unnerved, "It's uh, really dark down there…"

"That's why you got a torch, man. Just don't get yourself hurt," Wilt reassured.

Bloo was hoping for a different response, but he went ahead and lit up the torch using a small Fire Bolt. With a lit torch now in hand, Bloo slowly began to cling to the edges of the pit, making sure to get a good stick to the earth on the sides. He began carefully scaling down the hole, with the rope unspooling from his arm and unraveling behind him. The torch lit up the sides adjacent to the slime, only showing dirt and rock. The pit took about three minutes to scale down, with a floor finally in sight. Bloo landed on the dirt on the bottom, inspecting the area. There was only an entrance to a tunnel to his left, which showed only darkness within it as well. Bloo was uneasy, he constantly checked the tunnel entrance over and over again to make sure there wasn't anything looming in the shadows. He stuck the torch into the earth and deployed the hook, tying the end of the rope onto it.

Bloo was about to yell out to his friends that the rope was good to go, but he felt that his yelling could cause a hostile to appear from the tunnel. He was conflicted, he needed to tell his friends that the rope was ready, but he doesn't want something to awaken and ambush him. He began to feel embarrassed about his fear, his friends would probably laugh at him, he thought. Bloo didn't want to look like a wuss, so he finally yelled out to signal his friends, "The rope's ready, you can come on down!" His trembling voice echoed to the surface and the tunnel, almost scaring him, as he forgot his voice would repeatedly echo. Bloo prepared his crossbow and aimed at the blackness that was within the tunnel, ready for anything that may come through. He sat like this for what seemed like forever, until a noticeable landing could be heard by him. Bloo yelped and aimed his crossbow at the origin of the sound, which was actually Wilt.

"Woah, woah, Bloo, relax, it's just me, man!" Wilt tried to calm the tense slime, who finally lowered his crossbow and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry about that, it's just so quiet in here. The sound of you landing startled me," Bloo admitted.

"It's okay, man," Wilt reassured. He turned his attention towards the entrance of the tunnel. "Yep, this matches Billy's description, dark tunnel n' all."

"This is really, really freaky…" Eduardo voice said from overhead, slowly traversing down the rope with Coco above him. He soon reached the ground, "Have you guys seen any treasure yet? Cause I wanna leave this place now…" Eduardo said worryingly.

"Nope, nothing. After Coco gets down, we'll have to move into the tunnel. I'll take point," Wilt said.

This all seemed like child's play for Coco. Instead of reaching the very end of the rope, she just glided down to the floor using her wings, landing gracefully. "Coco?" The bird asked the rest of the team.

"We're fine, Coco. Let's move," Bloo answered as he reclaimed the grounded torch and handed it to Wilt, "Go on, Wilt."

Wilt took a hold of the torch and began moving into the tunnel, with the other three closely following behind. The only sounds being produced were from the party's footsteps, occasional drips, and the crackling of the torch. Wilt gripped the torch tightly, unwavered to the darkness ahead. Eduardo was right behind the red leader, showing fear with every step he took, flinching at even the smallest drip falling from the rocky ceiling. Bloo and Coco were walking shoulder to shoulder, with Coco showing no dread of what could come, but Bloo, however, was constantly checking behind him, hoping that there wasn't a shadowy presence following. Sometimes when he'd looked back, for a split second, he'd see something, a strange silhouette lingering close by, disappearing as his eyes came into focus. He came to the conclusion that nothing was there and his vision was playing tricks on him. But as the group traveled deeper into the tunnel, the young slime slowly started to become more of a nervous wreck, his breathing quickened, and his thoughts paced faster than his judgement.

Bloo's dread was stabbing him. The tunnel never changed, all of the stones' patterns looked the same, his friends were almost like the undead in his eyes, they were just walking, the same strut present throughout, almost mindlessly. The tunnel started to feel narrower, with the stone walls closing in, with no end in sight.

Eventually, the formerly rocky walls turned into intricate and intentional brick patterns, with each brick colored in a weathered brown hue, like a dungeon. This change eased Bloo's nervousness.

"I think I see something up ahead," Wilt hushly announced.

Bloo looked over Ed and Wilt with dread, and zeroed in on what appeared to be large translucent orbs with spider silk wrapped all over them, holding them tightly to the tunnel's right wall. Bloo's fear went away, "What are those? Did some kid forget their ballbag here?" Bloo said as he walked past Wilt to take a closer look.

"Hold up, I don't think-" Ed was saying before he was interrupted.

"Woah, check these out!" Bloo grabbed one of the orbs and inspected it. "Seems kinda different to the balls back home."

Coco seemed to chuckle, "Cocococo, cocococo!"

"Wait, what? These aren't play balls?"

"Cocococo!"

"THEY'RE SPIDER EGGS!?" Bloo yelled out in shock as he stumbled away from the egg sac, dropping one of the eggs. His yell created a distinct echo within the tunnel.

Coco, Ed, and Wilt all started to laugh at the slime's reaction, with all of them nearly hysterical. Bloo was cringing, hastily backing away from the sac.

Wilt finally began to compose himself and said, "Oh Bloo, I swear-"

The egg sac suddenly started to shake violently, with thousands of tiny bumps appearing across the silky surface, the sound of hundreds of eggs hatching could be heard. The entire party stared in horror at the egg sac that was about to burst, but Bloo didn't waste any time however, he shouted, "RUN!"

The once laughing party were now bolting down the tunnel in fear of their lives, with recently hatched spiders chasing them, the little demons were covering the walls, the ceiling, and the floor behind them. The babies were trying to close in on their birth meal, emitting a high-pitched hiss.

"THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER!" Ed screamed as he began falling behind the others, "Help me!" The purple beast called.

"Watch out, Ed!" Bloo warned as he prepared an Acid Splash, he started running backwards as he aimed the spell at the onslaught of spiders, getting ready to fire.

"WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! DON'T SHOOT THAT, YOU'RE GONNA GET ME KILLED, USE RAY OF FROST, USE RAY OF FROST!" Ed repeated.

"Too late! Get outta the way!" Bloo alerted as he shot a large wave of acid at the incoming spiders. The spell was successful, surprisingly, the acid covered the walls and floor, killing the closet spiders and slowing down the rest of them. Ed was unharmed and he started to catch up to the rest.

"Phew, finally you didn't mess up that spell, amigo. ¡Gracias!" Ed said.

"What, you think I was gonna screw up or something?" Bloo asked, sounding very exhausted.

"Well, uh-"

"There's a chamber door up ahead!" Wilt announced as he took the lead. "Pick up the pace fellas, there's still some spiders coming!"

"I can't run for much longer…" Bloo panted heavily in between each word, slowly succumbing to his failing stamina.

Wilt reached the door first, he grabbed the handle and swung it open and held it open for the others. "Get in!"

The rest of the party hurried in. Before the spiders managed to get in after them, Wilt closed the door fiercely, leaving the eight legged demons in the tunnel. "Welp, we can't go that way when we leave."

Bloo took a few moments to catch his breath, he quickly scanned the area while doing so, "We'll get to the leaving part later, we gotta check this place out," Bloo said as he began to investigate the place they just entered in to.

The area was a large room with a high ceiling, with lit torches clinging to the moist, dark brown bricks that create the walls. In the center of the room, there was a long, aged, wooden table with rusted silverware, cracked plates, and dusty glassware, scattered all over it. Such items disclose the area as a dining room of some sort. Strangely, there were no chairs in sight to accompany the table. There was only one other door besides the entrance they came from, it existed on the west wall of the room.

"This place is weird, where are the chairs?" Ed noted.

"Cocococococo," The winged creature pointed out three paintings on the east wall, all hanging adjacent to each other. Wilt and Coco went to go look at them.

"Huh? Paintings? We don't have time for a gallery walk, the treasure could be in the next room!" Bloo seemed very impatient, he immediately started heading towards the door to the next room. Just as he was about to grab the handle, he was stopped by Ed.

"Ay, Bloo. This place might have a history behind it, good or bad. We should take a moment to investigate this room to see if we can find out what's up before hunting for the chest," Ed commented.

"But-"

"Please, let's not be hasty," Ed warned.

Bloo stepped away from the door, "Fine. Let's just not deviate too far from our first priority, though,"

"Hey guys, do you know the language in one of these paintings? Coco and I can't figure it out," Wilt asked the other two from across the room.

Bloo and Ed stepped over to the paintings. Ed squinted at the art for a moment, "Now where do you see words, Wilt?"

"Look at the top right corner on the leftmost piece, it's in pretty small print, and it definitely isn't in Common,"

The leftmost painting depicted a dense forest scene. A large kipine was present, it sat on a thick branch, which loomed over a ravine. The kipine appeared to be stalking something out of the frame, with its face looking away from the viewer. The painting took place at night, with a full moon in the top area of the painting.

Bloo attempted to identify the language of the hand-written characters, "I think it's in Giant?"

"You mean Jotun?" Ed corrected.

"Same thing,"

"I might be able to translate it actually," Ed confirmed.

"Really? How do you know-" Bloo got cut off,

"I knew some old amigos who were giants a long time ago, before I met you guys," Ed explained as he turned his attention back to the words "Anyway, I think it's a title, it says, 'Driven out of the world above, and banished from the underworld, The Overseer stalks the beings within its territory.'"

"The Overseer?" Bloo repeated with confusion, "Since when did kipines get titles like that?"

"I don't think that's a normal kipine, look at the next painting by it, it seems to be part two of the previous one," Wilt noted.

The next painting, the middle one, had the scene zoomed slightly more into the kipine than the previous one. The setting was the same, except for dark clouds that were beginning to block the moon's light. The kipine's head was beginning to turn towards the viewer, and from what features were shown, its face didn't show the typical traits that kipines had. There was no beak, no eyes, there was nothing there, only a blank white void.

"That kipine is pretty unnerving…" Wilt noted.

"Creepy, the damn thing has no eyes or beak. What are these pictures trying to tell?" Bloo questioned. "Wait, I see a caption on the bottom right corner, Ed read it."

"I didn't hear please."

Bloo groaned, "Just read the thing already,"

"Not until I hear you say please,"

Bloo took a deep breath, "Fine, please."

"It's never a bad time to be nice. The caption reads, 'Without a purpose in the otherworlds, the fallen celestial's only objective is to protect its treasures.'"

"Treasure! Now this gallery walk has my interest! What treasure is this bird defending?" Bloo questioned with clear excitement, "Maybe the next painting has a clue!"

The final painting was the strangest of the trio, the scene now only showed the face of the kipine. The white void for a face was still present, except something else was also in it, an unknown symbol was where the left eye should be.

"Anyone know the symbol?" Bloo asked, "There's another caption at the-"

Wilt shuddered and stumbled on his feet, backing slowly away from the art, he nearly bumped into Coco, who happened to be standing almost behind him.

"Cocococo!" The bird moved away from Wilt as he nearly fell over on her.

"Wilt, are you okay?" Ed worryingly asked.

Wilt regained his bearings, "I'm good, it's just the symbol gives me some sort of bad feeling…"

"You shouldn't look at it anymore. I would tell you to sit down, but ya' know, there's nothing to sit in," Ed said.

"Wilt's fine. Could you translate the last caption at the bottom left real quick?" Bloo told Ed.

"'Those who attempt to steal The Overseer's treasures will face a dangerous challenge. In order to obtain the treasure, the challenger must successfully survive three days within The Overseer's territory. The challenger must hide away from The Overseer, while also facing any foes that reside in the forest.'"

"Three days!? That's nuts!" Wilt remarked.

"That challenge sounds awesome, defeating unknown foes while also keeping cover from the kipine seems like the battle of a lifetime, I could probably do that challenge without even using a Fire Bolt!" Bloo smugly said.

"You mean the battle of the end of a lifetime. You don't even know what's even in that forest, man," Wilt replied.

"You couldn't even handle a spider on your own, Bloo. What makes you think that you'll breeze on through?" Ed added.

"Cocococococo," Coco seemed to back up the other two's points.

Bloo pouted, "You guys just don't see it yet, I'm way more powerful than you thi-"

The west door suddenly creaked open loudly, interrupting Bloo's trash talk. A large hairy hand pushed the door open slowly. A large, glistening, iron blade in another hand came into view in the small crack made by the door.