It is late in the morning as Aloy and Link stand upon a bridge and are relieved at the sight of a town of caves and stone eaves below them. They see dozens of Gorons milling about the place aptly named, Goron City.

The journey up until now had been a very difficult one. More difficult than the one up to Zora's Domain. They had felt the heat of the place as they were entering past the first checkpoint. It was nothing they could not handle. Further in, they fought fire Chuchus. As Chuchus die, they burst; making those of an elemental type especially dangerous because they released their element into the environment around them, injuring their attacker in the process. The duo had to use their ice weapons against them, ice rod for Aloy and great frostblade for Link. Next was a roving Guardian, of which they made short work of and next entered a tunnel full of fire Keese and more fire Chuchus. Then came the climb up to the top where they not only encountered a pond of lava, but also the intense heat. Their ice weapons made the heat more tolerable, but they had to drink their respective fireproof elixirs in order to survive. Aloy found it to have a sharp hot taste. The elixir did not take away their ability to feel heat, but it did make it much more tolerable as it increased their heat resistance. They got only several steps in before they encountered another roving Guardian that they had to dismantle like the one down below, destroying their ice weapons in the process. Further in they were able to climb Eldin Sheikah Tower and activate it. Then decided to get their bearings and sail over the volcanic landscape, dotted with its lava ponds and hot springs, while at the same time keen on landing on a place that was relatively safe. They manage to cut about an hour's worth of hiking and land near a hot spring as big as a pond, then continue up a hill with a road paved with black hardened lava. That is when the volcano rumbled loudly and boulder sized lava balls fell near them, making them run all the faster. Further in they had heard a loud bestial roar echo throughout the mountainside and looked to see that it was coming from none other than the Divine Beast Vah Rudania as they saw the massive construct in the crude form of a salamander traversing the side of Death Mountain with flaming feet. They hurry on, passing a raised railbed with a metal cart nearby.

They came upon a long bridge made of metal railings and are now looking down at Goron City.

"Damn, I never thought we'd get here in one piece," Aloy sighed. "And that huge machine on the side of Death Mountain?! That's what we have to get inside of?! How're we gonna do that?!"

Link assures her that they will find a way inside, then urges her to come as he jumps off and whips out his paraglider to sail down to the city below, with Aloy close behind. They look about the place.

"So these are Gorons," Aloy mused as her focus records them as such. They have individualized appearances, but all have that general appearance as that Goron named Boldon. "It's amazing how they are able to make their home in a place that would kill either of us."

Link muses so, then suggests that they ask around about how they could go about getting inside of that Divine Beast.

"Hey, look over there," Aloy pointed. He looks with her and they see what looks like armor being displayed inside of a cave with a Goron nearby. "That looks like something you or I could wear. Let's go check it out."

They enter the store and check out the armor. It is brown and black, with quilted padding and crinkled arms and legs. The helmet has bars in its face.

"Hey there brother, sister!" the Goron storekeeper said. "That is the Flamebreaker Armor. It's designed for Hylians so that they will be immune to the immense heat around here. Wear that, and you won't need any fire elixirs."

"How many of them do you have?" Aloy asked.

"Just that one."

"Just this one . . . ? I take it Hylians don't come here very often."

"Hylians rarely come here, sister. Anyway all three pieces together costs three thousand three hundred rupees."

"Three thousand three hundred rupees!" Aloy exclaimed, then turns to Link. "I have none and you have only ten. Do you have any more stuff to sell?"

Link answers no.

"Great, so that means time is against us," Aloy fumed. "We're gonna have to find someway to procure more fireproof elixirs if we're gonna stay here. We should warp out of here and go somewhere to find more rupees."

Link agrees and then suggests that they go and see if they can find a Sheikah Shrine nearby so that they can use it as a warp point back to here.

"Then let's get going," Aloy said.

They go outside and walk past an elderly Goron wearing an eyepatch over his right eye and has long white fringes and beard gathered into four ponytails.

"Drat! That blasted Rudania!" The elderly Goron grumbled loudly.

Link stops by him and asks what is wrong.

"With Rudania runnin' wild recently, Death Mountain's eruptions have gotten real bad," the old Goron answered in a harsh gruff tone.

"Rudania?" Aloy asked.

"Yep, the Divine Beast Vah Rudania," the old Goron answered. "Do ya see Rudania stompin' around up there on the mountain?" As he points and they look to see the Divine Beast crawling along the side of the mountain. "They say that one hundred years ago, it actually used to protect our people from harm."

They look back to the old Goron as he is silent for an instance. "But that was then, and this is now! Now all it does is mess up our mining operations! We're all suffering because it's stoppin' us from doin' business! I can't tell ya how many times we've used the cannon to chase off that fiend. But it always comes back!"

The old Goron suddenly winces and grunts in pain.

"Are you okay?" Aloy asked.

"It's just some back pain," The old Goron grumbled. "Wait. Who are you people?"

Link answers that they are travelers.

"I see," the old Goron mused. "So then, you came all this way to pay your respects to me? I like you two already, brother, sister!" His tone more jovial. "Well, my name's Bludo. I'm the great Goron Boss who's fearsome enough to silence a crying child! Or to make a silenced child cry, either way. Yes, it is none other than I, Bludo!"

"Then I guess children should avoid you, Bludo," Aloy quipped.

"I was plannin' to drive off Rudania like I always do, but then this blasted pain in my back flared up outta nowhere. That blasted Yunobo," as Bludo muttered. "When will he return?"

Link asks who Yunobo is.

"Yunobo is a young Goron who helps me drive off Rudania." Bludo then turns to point down a path. "He went to grab some painkillers for my back from the Abandoned North Mine, but he hasn't come back yet." Then turns to face them and mutters. "Slacker . . . I bet he's off somewhere wastin' time."

"Or he could be in trouble?" Aloy suggested.

"Hey," Bludo said. "If ya happen to see Yunobo, will ya let him know I'm lookin' for him?" Then flinches as he yelps with pain.

"What do you think, Link?" Aloy asked, and Link tells her that maybe they should go look for Yunobo. "I figured you were gonna say that."

They go up the path that Bludo had pointed out. As they go up, they come upon a Sheikah Shrine.

"Wow, so there's a Sheikah Shrine here too," Aloy mused. "It's amazing that it hasn't been destroyed by the lava if that's been here for thousands of years. And of course, you want to go in there first?"

Link verifies her answer.

They go up to the Shrine and enter it, hearing the disembodied voice of a monk named Shae Mo'sah offering them this test. They step off the elevator platform and into a large unobstructed room that is surprisingly cool. At the back of the room is a doorway blocked with bars. Next to it are a wooden shelf up high with a metal object on it and dead ivy leaves leading all the way down to the floor, and near a large button. They walk up to it and Link notices a square hole in the ceiling with a lit lamp hanging from a rope high up. Link takes out an arrow and shoots the rope, causing the lamp to fall and burn the leaves up to the shelf. The object falls down and is revealed to be a barrel. Link steps on the button, causing it to go down and the bars to rise on the doorway. He steps off and the button pops back up and the bars fall back down.

"So that barrel is a weight," Aloy said offhandedly.

Aloy and Link pick up the barrel and lodge it onto the switch to keep the bars up. They enter the next room and on the leftside is an alcove up above with dead ivy vines hanging down, covering a chest. There is a lit stone torch near it and Link takes out an arrow, lights it, and shoots it up at the vines, causing them to burn away and free the chest. He opens it to discover a stone smasher, a sword with a heavier tip that is meant for smashing instead of slashing.

Behind them is more of the open room with a paddlewheel attached to the wall and a ramp from up above. Off to one side are columns that look more like raised areas of the floor and a ramp on the wall beyond them. They are confronted by three small Guardians, one of which is armed with an ancient short sword. Link attacks two of them while Aloy attacks the third, reducing them both to springs and gears. Over in a corner they discover a chest and this time Aloy opens it to take out a ruby.

"You already got the last one, remember?" Aloy quipped as she puts it away, causing Link to smirk.

They go up the ramp and come before a wall with bars in it that they can see through. There is a ramp leading up and they come upon a room with bars in the walls and a locked door. The door in question is golden with bas-relief symbols and set up like bars since there are vertical parallel crevices in it, along with a keyhole.

"The key must be around here somewhere," Aloy mused. "Maybe down that way."

They head around the corner and come upon a staircase and ascend it to come upon a large button that Link steps upon. A burning brazier on a large chain suddenly drops down from a hole away and up above them. Beyond it up on the wall is a wooden shelf with dead ivy about it, and a metal barrel upon that shelf that is next to and above a ramp leading down right.

"I see you'll have to roll out the barrel here," Aloy said dryly, then felt as if she had said a pun.

Link takes out an arrow and shoots the brazier into the wall, burning the leaves and shelf, causing the barrel to drop down upon the ramp and roll down and disappear around the other side upon another ramp.

They descend a nearby ramp and Link notices another chest. He goes up to it and finds ten ice arrows. They continue their walk toward the end of the room where there is railing on either side to make a hallway. At the end on their right is a doorway with bars. They head along the wall and come upon a button. They see that a set of bars prevents the barrel from rolling down onto the paddlewheel. Link steps upon the button and the bars lift so that the barrel can roll down onto the paddlewheel, causing it to move and the bars on the nearby doorway to rise.

"Please let that key be in that room," Aloy sighed.

They enter the room and come upon a ramp going upward to the right so that they will end up going over the wall. But down in the corner in the right is a chest.

"Please let the key be in there," Aloy repeated.

Link opens it and holds the key up, making Aloy sigh with relief. They go up the ramp and over the side, which takes them back to the room where they first got that barrel rolling. They go over to the golden door and open it as the beams that make up the door slide away from both above and below to permit their entrance. The go up the ramp and there is a floor button, of which Link gives Aloy the honors of stepping on this time. Two braziers fall before them. Link walks down the platform and rounds the corner, then almost falls down through the large opening that was hidden by the platform.

"Okay, I'll see if I can figure out how this will go," Aloy said, then looks at the braziers then at the door beyond. There are dead ivy vines about it and going up the wall to a wooden shelf with a metal barrel on it. There is also a button near the door.

"Of course," Aloy said whimsically as she takes her hunter bow out and an arrow. Before taking aim, she studies those braziers and discovers that they are each hanging from a rope. She takes aim at one of them and releases, hitting it directly so that it would start swinging. She then takes out another arrow and shoots the rope as it swings back at its furthest. The brazier drops and ignite the leaves all the way up to the shelf. Aloy hurries down the ramp and over to Link as he places the now fallen barrel onto the button, making the bars rise. In the other room is the monk.

"That . . . was complicated," Aloy sighed as she and Link walks up to the monk. "Well then, let's get our spirit orb and begone from here."

The monk is veiled and sits with his right knee lifted along with his right arm with a brass ring hovering above it while his left arm is down by his side with his hand pressed flat. Link touches the shield so that he and Aloy can get the shared spirit orb. The monk telepathically congratulates and thanks them before dissipating into blue motes. The duo leave.

Once they are back outside, Aloy and Link are overwhelmed by the sudden intensity of the heat.

"Our elixirs . . . wore off while we were down there!" Aloy gasped as she takes out her other bottle of fireproof elixir and drinks. She feels better as the intensity of the heat disappears, as does Link as he also took out his last bottle as well.

"Ah! That's better," Aloy gasped. "Now then . . . Let's go find this Yunobo."

They continue past the shrine up a trail alongside a lake of lava. Something jumps up ahead of them for an instance, and Link warns Aloy that it was a rock Octorok. They wait with bow and arrow out, waiting for it to jump. Sure enough it does, and they release, killing the Octorok. Link harvests its remains and they continue along, encountering another that manages to hover for an instance and suck in air. It then spits a ball of semisolid lava at them, almost hitting them. Again, they wait for it to jump and this time Link releases an arrow into it so that it falls dead.

They continue on until they come upon an area of the land that leads out over to islets in the lake of lava. A Goron wearing a yellow hardhat blocks the way.

"Yeesh! What's goin' on today?" The Goron stressed. "So many people out and about! You should know it gets much hotter past here, and there are also lots of monsters. It's really dangerous!" Stressing his vowels.

Link asks if he knows Yunobo.

"Why's a stranger like you askin' about Yunobo?" The Goron asked.

"Boss wants to know," Aloy answered this time.

"Huh!" The Goron exclaimed. "Boss does?!" Then in a calmer tone. "Well . . . Then I guess I better tell you where Yunobo is!" He turns and points down behind him. "Yunobo . . . went to the vault to fetch some painkillers. But now that ya mentioned it, I suppose he never came back." He then turns to face them. "This place is dangerous, so ya probably shouldn't go lookin' for him. So? Do ya need somethin' else?!"

"No, we'll just be on our way to find Yunobo," Aloy said, then she and Link walk past the Goron.

"Hey ah, Goron," Aloy asked.

"Drak! My name is Drak!"

"Hey um, Drak," Aloy said. "What is that there?" As she points to a large black metal object that looks suspiciously like a weapon.

"Oh, that's a cannon," Drak answered. "The Boss and Yunobo use it to blast Rudania whenever it happens to get too close."

Aloy and Link thank him for that answer and turn to go on their way, only to be stopped by a gap with part of the lava lake beneath them. Link jumps as he whips out his paraglider and makes it across. Next it is Aloy's turn and she lands next to Link.

"It's a good thing we got this paraglider for me before we came here," Aloy said as she puts her paraglider away. "Now let's do this."