“Mm, wait, big bro. See that flickering light on the stone slab up ahead?”

Nai tugged on You’s fur. She’d just happened to notice a faint light flickering on one of the stone slabs.

“Huh? Let’s go take a look.”

You was curious now, too. The tug made him turn around at once.

The two foxes approached the slab and leaned in for a closer look. Sure enough, two things on its surface were glowing faintly red.

“What’s this?”

You tentatively reached out a paw and touched one. Ding~ Item acquired: 【Candle Heart】. Use it to create a flame that burns for thirty minutes and illuminates an area within a three-meter radius.

“Uh, so it’s an item dropped by a Candle Moth. I didn’t expect this to be like GE, too. But it feels so strange right now—the item actually appeared in my consciousness.”

You glanced at the red glow that had vanished from the slab. He could feel the information that had appeared in his mind. Amazing~

“What does it feel like? I wanna try, too.”

Seeing her big brother looking so pleased with himself, Nai reached out and touched the red glow with her little black paw. Ding~ Sure enough, she got a 【Candle Heart】, too. She could feel the information appearing in her mind, and found it amazing as well. GE couldn’t do that.

“Looks like a one-use item. I have a feeling it’ll come in handy.”

You propped his smooth, rounded chin on a paw and thought it over. Back in GE, he wouldn’t have bothered picking up an item like this. He had no use for it—the system gave out plenty of lighting tools. You’d have to be a hardcore immersionist to turn down the lighting gear the system provided.

But here, there was no system, and they had no way to make this kind of lighting tool. That made even an item like this incredibly valuable.

The siblings left the spot they’d been exploring. After crossing a fairly wide passage, they reached the mine they’d spotted near the cave entrance.

They followed the tracks in the ground deeper into the mine. Lava lit the place, though, so they could still see everything around them clearly.

Various man-made tools were piled near the inner part of the mine: pickaxes, electric drills, hard hats, and the like. They were all terribly old. And for some reason, getting close to them gave the siblings a cold, uneasy feeling.

“Big bro, I... I think we should get out of here. This place feels so creepy, and there’s no one in sight.”

Nai’s nerves were on edge again. Her limbs trembled slightly as she walked, and her eyes darted from side to side.

“Hey, little sis, look. There’s a sign up ahead.”

Just then, You spotted a wooden sign standing in the middle of the path ahead. The two foxes hurried over to check it out.

The damaged wooden sign read: 【Ahea... danger. Please ...】 Some of the writing was hard to make out, but You and Nai could still get the gist.

“That’s weird. The path ahead looks clear and well-lit. Why put a sign here?”

Nai stared at the sign. Could it be some kind of prank by mysterious ghosts? Eek~

You, meanwhile, studied it closely. What was a warning sign that looked like a trap supposed to tell you? If this were in GE, what would he do? After mulling it over for a few minutes...

“We’ve already seen this path on the way here. It looks like there’s only the one route. We could always go back the way we came and leave through the tree hollow, but is there another way? And this sign standing right in the middle of the path feels out of place.”

You said slowly.

“Well, if you put it that way, big bro... But this sign looks like it’s been here for a long time. Maybe it’s a warning left by the miners.”

Nai replied calmly, on the other hand...

“Oh-ho~ If even you think it’s fine, little sis, then we should keep going. It might be a trap, but it could also be a nice surprise. It’s not like we’ve never run into things like this in GE.”

You took one step forward, then another.

“All right. We’ve come this far, anyway. I’m a little scared, but for some reason my curiosity is just too strong!”

Nai steadied herself, pushing down her unease. More than the fear, she was afraid of her own curiosity about the unknown. The more scared she got, the more she wanted to try it—just like when she and her big brother hid at home and watched horror movies through the gaps between their fingers.

“Okay, then. Get your skills ready. GO!”