Since all the covers seem exactly the same to me, I pick the closest one and walk right up to it. All the stone around it is so buried in the ground that I can't even tell how much of it is under the dirt, and when I lean down to brush my fingers against it, chalky dust scrapes away from the lightest touch. I rub a little harder to see just how messed up it really is, and after a few scrapes, it stops coming away and feels like actually scratching a stone.

"How come the wind didn't blow this stuff away?" I wonder as I rub the powder between my fingers. "A good breeze should've taken the entire layer off."

Clutter shrugs and kneels down next to the cover. "Probably the system. Don't think too hard about it, I guess. So… are we supposed to just break this thing so we can get down into the well?"

"Unless you see some ancient crowbar around here, then I'd say yeah." I pat him on the shoulder to get him to step away as I place a projectile coin on the cover. "I don't feel anything magical from it, but that doesn't mean it won't explode into thousands of extremely sharp stone shards. So get behind me."

He nods and sidesteps so he's positioned perfectly behind me. I take two more steps back, which he mirrors, then summon a shield coin that I clutch between two fingers in preparation. With a look over my shoulder, I raise my chin at him.

"Ready?"

"Yep!"

Alright. I snap my shield into being, and in the next thought, trigger the projectile. Magic and dirt and stone fly every which way, blanketing my shield in splatters, pings, and a few thuds that would've done serious damage to flesh. I squint through the motion to try and make out the cover, since it has to be made of some kind of durable material… but it's not there any more. Looks like my projectile did its job perfectly.

"There we go." I dismiss both the projectile and the shield with a thought. "One entrance carved out. I'll go down first, then send another shield up so you can make it down safely too."

Clutter pouts, but nods anyway. "Okay. You're… um… sure I can't go first?"

Pearl snorts in amusement. I ignore her. "Yes. Just in case there's something down there. Unless you've been hiding some serious firepower for reasons I can't even imagine?"

He kicks a rock dejectedly. "No."

"Then you get to come down second." I say as I step to the new opening. A glance down reveals a hole about four feet wide–not the giant clearing I'd expected. "Huh. Maybe these are all different wells."

"No, they all connect to the same well. Just four entrances to it for some weird reason." Pearl leans forward and scratches her chin. "Maybe it has to do with the kind of building this was before it got ruined. Um… maybe some kind of bathhouse, and each of the 'wells' was designated for a different room? So they wouldn't get soap in the drinking water, you know?"

I consider that for a second, but it doesn't sit right with me. If Illumisia is right–which I have no doubt she is–then we're standing above an underground lake. And if I'm remembering right, you don't want to drink lake water straight from the source. So they would've had some kind of water purification system in place before they drank it–either right here, in a single building, or in every house.

"Clutter, do you remember seeing anything like a water purifier in any of the buildings? Or just a water tank with some… magic runes on it?"

"Nope. Nothing like that at all."

"Hrm. Adds a little truth to my theory, but not enough. Get ready for your turn."

I step over the edge and summon a shield at my feet. Dry dirt sails by for a split second, then my bent knees absorb the brunt of the landing. Some of the dirt is so devoid of nutrients and water that it's almost turned bone white, and the closer I look, I notice more dings and bumps in the walls. Now I'm not an expert in wells, but I assume you'd want to build up some kind of… retaining wall so you don't get a cave in. Or just dirt and bugs in your drinking water.

"Can I come down now? I don't see a shield!"

"Give me ten seconds!" I call back, toss a coin towards the entrance, and summon a shield. "There! Stand on it and it'll take you down when I can prove its safe!"

"Okay!"

With that settled, I turn back to focus on the task at hand. Even moving slowly, it becomes damn obvious how deep the dry soil goes. It takes on a darkness and dampness with every passing second, but even when I can feel water somewhere below with my awareness, it doesn't look 'normal'. Just… regular dehydrated dirt. And some roots peeking through the soil that're as thin as spaghetti and look twice as brittle.

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Then, without warning, I'm through. Walls of dirt give way to a gigantic cavern with a good twenty feet of open space, and below that, an expanse of water that stretches so far into the distance that the light from the surface can't come close to reaching its outer edges. I kneel on my shield as it takes me right to the surface of the water and run a hand through it.

Slime coats my fingers the moment they touch water. It feels like a mixture of pond scum and cooking oil, and somehow, it doesn't smell like… anything, really. Not the dankness of stale water on stone, or the ripe stench of plant life that's been left to live and die without human intervention. Then there's the quiet, so all-consuming that my heartbeat is the loudest thing that reaches my ears. If something lived down here, I assume there'd be at least a little movement or sound.

But this–this looks like it hasn't been touched since it was destroyed. Maybe the walls have some water level markings I can look at. But before any of that; Clutter. His shield should be bringing him down any second now, and I'm directly under where he'll land. I summon a larger shield, just thin enough to safely hold Clutter and my weight, and stretch it as thin as it'll go. Shimmering magic unfolds a good few dozen feet in all directions, and I step out onto it as I look up to watch Clutter descend.

My shield comes into view first, followed immediately after by a wagging tail and a very enthusiastic Clutter. He snaps every which way to take in all the sights, but after figuring out there aren't many sights to take in, he focuses on me and jumps off to join me on the larger platform shield.

"The dirt was weird." He states matter-of-factly. "I think all this cave is stone, so why are there four entrances to it? Did they drill them?"

"That's the most likely explanation, yes." I toss him a few shield coins and motion off into the distance. "Those have shields just like the ones under our feet. Use them to explore this place, and if you need help, use this."

I flick him one last relocation coin, which he accepts and then returns. "Thanks. So… can you tell me what the big secret is now?"

"I don't see why not. Pearl? How about you?"

She sticks the upper half of her body out of her shell and taps her lip in thought. "I don't know, Shelby; is it a good time to tell him that you've been working with a shellraiser?"

I grin and exaggeratedly shrug. "I don't know, Pearl; maybe he won't believe me when I tell him. It's not every day you learn that an extinct species is actually alive and way more adorable than the stories say."

"Ado… you think I'm adorable?" Pearl blushes and smooshes against me in a one-sided hug. "Aw, Shelby! I think you're adorable, too!"

My smile grows as I shift my attention back to Clutter, who's just standing there normally. "So yeah, Clutter, this is Pearl. She's been in this shell the entire time, and the system kind of hates both of our guts. Having second thoughts about staying with us now? …Clutter?"

I wave a hand in front of his face. His eyes don't follow the motion, and he slowly blinks while staring off into the distance. Poor thing; meeting Pearl broke him. Maybe I should've held off on this until after the quest.

"Well… that's that for now." I say slowly and start walking away. "When you process what I just told you, start your own search. That shield will last a good fifteen minutes, so if you need longer than that… sorry, I guess."

I flick a coin into the distance, and another shield connects to the first. After giving it a few more seconds to see if Clutter's going to react at all, I shake my head and start my search in earnest. The first step is to find a wall and see if it has any markings I can use. After that… I guess just walk around until anything plastic-y or quest-like jumps out at me.

It's not like I can do much of anything else. The words on the map don't get any smaller when I zoom in, so they're definitely covering everything here. I roll my shoulder as Pearl fully leaves her shell and makes herself comfortable on my shoulder like a goopy parrot.

"This is kind of nice." She says happily. "I haven't really ridden on your shoulder like this since the tunnels where we first met. Now with everything that's happened… well, I still really like the view from up here. Kind of makes me feel like I don't have to do everything alone this time."

"Ominous. Think the system will let enough censorship slide so you can tell the story?"

Pearl laughs and shakes her head. "No way. I can almost feel it staring at me, waiting for me to say anything that might give you any kind of a hint for my quest with its finger over a big red button that says 'censor'."

That's certainly a visual. The horrible system–responsible for an unknown amount of Worth class deaths and the extinction of Pearl's entire species–watching us like a petty moderator waiting for the smallest offence. It's both diminutive and a little worrying, honestly.

Walking to the edge takes a little longer than I thought it would. By the time a wall enters my awareness, the light filtering down from the surface is just a spotlight in the distance. I flick a coin into the air, make the smallest projectile I can manage, and hold it close to the wall in the hopes of getting a little light. It doesn't help at all.

I lean in close even though there's no point and focus on my awareness. The differences in the rock are far more subtle than I expected; there's no obvious water line or any signs of interference. There's no slime on the wall, either, so the water level definitely won't rise any higher than this.

"So what's the verdict?" Pearl asks as I wipe my hand on my pants. "Find anything useful?"

I click my tongue and shake my head. "Nothing yet. I doubt going any higher would be useful, so maybe we're going to have to go diving. Unless you can feel anything under the water?"

"I can. Sort of." She frowns and kicks her heels against my shoulder. "The stone wall goes down, but there's nothing else near there. No… um… caverns? Tunnels? I don't know what the right word for it is. Maybe try walking around the perimeter of the lake?"

"Would be worth a shot if we had a shit-ton more time. But we need to try something else."

Pearl raises an eyebrow. "And what might that be?"

"I'll… think of something."

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