As one would expect, Lia noticed my approach before I got too close to them. The moment she heard my wings, she called out a warning to the others before turning around alongside some of her companions, while the rest focused outwards, just in case the approaching flyer was only a distraction from an attack on the ground.

Then, I could see the relief, though mixed with a bit of caution or annoyance, on the various faces looking up at me, and now, I realised that their group was quite large, and that Luna was present. Usually, Luna supported those fighting against the Bitumen during the day, meaning she should have been either on her way to the burned land or should have already been there pushing them back. Sure, it likely wasn’t necessary today, as the storm had suppressed the burned land quite thoroughly, but it was still a departure from normal operations, meaning there had to be a reason.

“Mother,” Lia greeted me with a respectful nod, “I trust you had an interesting night?” she asked, her voice tinged with a bit of mirth. Around her, I could see a few glances from the two groups my daughters had led. Those looks were a mixture of disbelief and confusion, making me wonder what had happened with them and what my daughters might have told them, either about me or about the storm during the night.

“The night had its moments, yes,” I replied, a slight chuckle escaping me as I thought back to those moments. Though, to be fair, those moments had mostly come during the aftermath, when I realised just how devastating the storm I had conjured had been and how much damage it had dealt to the local geography. A part of me felt a surge of pride at that accomplishment. Rearranging the local geography was something I had only managed once, when breaking apart a glacier and causing an avalanche to crash down on my hapless foes, burying them in the process. But even there, it hadn’t truly been a rearrangement; I had just shifted the covers, so to speak. Here, the shape of a couple of hills had changed, though, just like back then, the change was only superficial; the actual bedrock was undaunted. Clearly, I needed a lot more power if I wanted to continue rearranging the local geography.

Which might just be what I needed if I wanted to overcome the burned land. Even now, a part of me was busy trying to figure out how to deal with the strange structure I had seen earlier with my scrying constructs. And, maybe more importantly, how I might be able to deal with these stairs leading underground. Whatever might be hidden in the ground would likely be the actual enemy, the actual threat we needed to deal with, and even trying to get there would likely end poorly for me.

Sure, I had gained a measure of affinity to Fire, further boosted thanks to my recent level-up and the trait I had gained, but my primary affinities were to Ice and Darkness, a fact unlikely to change. I would always remain biased towards those elements, and, in turn, I would retain a weakness to Fire and Light, unless I somehow managed to change my entire mental and magical make-up. It might be possible to shed said weakness if I embraced a wholly cyclical paradigm, but there’d be major consequences. No, trying to change the fundamental magical paradigm I had embraced ever since I had come to understand magic wouldn’t work, it might just shatter my ability to use magic, or even kill me outright, given how my magic was rooted within my body.

“That being said, there was an even more interesting moment just earlier,” I admitted, getting interested looks from Lia and Luna. The pair had almost certainly realised that I had conjured the storm, though I wasn’t sure whether they realised the conjuration had partially been accidental, so for anything I had learned afterwards to trump that achievement would have to be something else.

“The storm during the night cleared the smoke and ash from the air, finally allowing me to get a good look at the burned area. As you can imagine, I took said look, but I don’t think you’ll like what I saw from above,” I explained, noticing that now the entire group was listening in, even those who were ostensibly keeping watch for any incoming threats.

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“There’s a weird structure deep in the burned land; it might even be the centre from which the entire burned land has spread out,” I relayed. Everyone’s interest immediately intensified, making it quite obvious that they felt destroying those structures would be akin to cutting off the head of a snake. “It’s incredibly well protected, especially from the air, so I don’t think I’d be able to come close to it, and even if I managed, I doubt I’ll be the one to deal with this,” I admitted, even if the admission stung, and not just a little. I hated admitting weakness or failure, but it felt almost inevitable given the circumstances.

“The structure I saw from above was composed of a few jagged rocks, or spires or something like that, all around a fairly sizable hole in the ground. That hole might be the core of this particular problem, and, more importantly, it might be a dungeon in its own right.”

Again, my words had an interesting effect. Lia and Luna knew just how much value a dungeon could hold, and, more importantly, they could likely follow my thoughts well enough and come to the same conclusion I had, that the burned land was an extension, or an overflow, from the dungeon. This, in turn, would suggest that the dungeon was creating more power than it could hold, likely giving the one who conquered it massive rewards, likely far beyond the already incredible rewards a dungeon of that level would bring.

Despite my continuously increasing abilities to enchant things, and Lia’s ability to craft useful items, especially back when she had worked with Alex to work metal, a majority of the gear we were using came from dungeons and we kept relying on it until we came across something better, doing our best to maintain said gear to keep it in working condition as long as possible.

“What’s the problem then?” Lia asked, a hint of eagerness showing through, making it obvious that she, at least, had followed a similar train of thought as I had.

“Fire, or at least heat, and a lot of it. The ground around that hole seems to be liquified, though how that works with a hole in the middle, I have no idea. Might be another indication of said hole being something exceptional, or if might be that the liquid has an absurdly high viscosity,” I admitted, though the idea of it being due to viscosity was almost immediately discarded when I thought back to the way it had moved under the few moving creatures I had seen.

“Ah, I could see that being a problem,” Lia nodded, her previous eager expression evaporated, like we likely would if we tried to explore a dungeon made of liquified stone. We shouldn’t die outright from the heat; after all, dungeons should be beatable if challenged at the right level. But that didn’t mean the heat wouldn’t be a major hindrance to us, sapping our strength by an order of magnitude while suppressing my magic almost as much as direct sunlight did.

“What do you have in mind, Mom?” Luna asked, actively joining the conversation for the first time since I had landed.

“Unless there’s something I’m not seeing here, we can’t go into that dungeon, if it is one,” I laid out my thoughts, forcing away the stinging feeling of failure, “But what we can do is help those who venture inside, deal with the guardians outside, maybe even weaken the dungeon itself, I’d have to test a few things.”

“And we can train the group to head inside,” Lia added, somewhat eager, even if she sounded disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to challenge a newly discovered dungeon. Or at least something that might be one.

“Why would anyone want to go into something like that?” one of the locals asked, reminding me that our conversation wasn’t private.

“Power and, in this case, to contain the threat,” I replied, not terribly amused at the interruption, “Dungeons, by and large, give those who venture inside a tremendous boost in power and reward them with incredibly useful items,” looking at Luna, I decided to have her demonstrate.

“Dear, can you show them the tool we picked up in Cheyenne Mountain?” I suggested, getting a nod in return. Moments later, Luna showed them the device that allowed her to generate an energy shield without issues, before launching a wave of energy into a nearby tree, causing it to fall.

“That’s what you can find in a dungeon,” I paused. And we can’t get in there because it’s fundamentally hostile to Lia and me. " My words ended that particular line of questioning. The locals were now quite interested in the idea of a dungeon, even if it was fairly obvious that they wondered about the risks involved.