He didn't even know. "What room is this? Ugh..." Zan glanced at his map-in-miniature to the top left of his headset's visual overlap. The HUD, or Heads Up Display, as he had taken to calling it. He saw the numbers on the map. He and his teammates were coming across room thirteen, where they had encountered the Poison Needle fae while crossing over from room twelve. The empty closet which contained the gooey gears now in his satchel, was room fourteen. He saw no other passage than to the yet unexplored room fifteen.

  Room fifteen looked the same as the other rooms. Which meant it served no other purpose, as far as he could gleam, than to serve as antechambers to more important rooms. Or it would if room sixteen just beyond, held anything interesting. Which it did not.

  It wasn't until room seventeen -- blank, boring, as the rest -- did he see any additional passages deeper into the bunker.

  "Okay. We have doors to the left and right. Where shall we go?" Whiskey asked.

  Both doors were locked. His HUD pulsed red and conjured another animated image of a padlock bound by chains, rattling 'phantasmically' just before each door's surface. To their left, was door eighteen. To their right, door nineteen. Door nineteen required an energy reading of (1) to open. Door eighteen required a massive reading of (5) to open.

  "So, both doors are locked," Zan said. "Each require us to imbue the door with energy. That door wants only one energy. This other wants five. Screen Master: we are going to need to explore every room in this place, right? Like, we won't know where those clusters are which control the defenses until we explore every room, right?" he asked.

  "That is correct, Zan. I can point you in the general direction of the damaged cores you must repair to bring defenses back online. But I cannot pinpoint their exact location. There is always a chance you will get lucky and stumble upon one by chance, thus saving time, but even then, this leaves the matter of the doors unresolved. If you intend on staffing this bunker with personnel, as Order incarnations of the past have done, for safety, I recommend clearing out every room, least fae phenomena slip through the cracks and hurt the unprepared," MAC said, explaining some important details.

  Staffing the bunker with people? He had not considered...

  "It doesn't matter, then," he finished dwelling upon which door they should unlock. "If we have to unlock everything, then there is no point in overthinking. Let's imbue the door with the five requirements. All of at once. Come on, guys."

  He and Whiskey and Jiehong then placed their palms on the locked door and channeled their magic. He kept a firm watch on the slowly creeping number as it rose to meet the required sum. Breathe-in: breathe-out. Remain steady. Resist the urge to push it out with an edge. He lectured himself as every teacher he ever had, had done -- strict but attendant.

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  "Break!" he shouted, encouraging his friends to retract their hands.

  With the flow of magic suddenly ceased -- the rising number stopped just under four -- he asked his Party how they fared.

  "Not so bad, actually," Jiehong said.

  "Speak for yourself. I am getting up there," whiskey replied.

  "Let's take five and get back at it. I think I packed a snack in my satchel. Here, have a bite, guys. Let's all have a bite," he told his team.

  For the sum of ten minutes, they all rested. They eat dried nuts, meat, and berries with water and cheeses. A typical snack food for anyone who grew up in the area. Or who had easy access to a druid who knew how to encourage a diverse crop to grow.

  "Not the best papple fruit jerky I've had, but not the worst, either," Whiskey said as she stood up and dusted snack crumbs from her equipment.

  "Yeah. I think we left it to the air for too long," Jiehong said with a chuckle.

  "It wasn't even jerky, though," he said, getting up with his friends. "It was just dried pieces of fruit I had in my satchel. From back when Mentality's hidden force attacked after the villa battle and I was fending for myself."

  "You mean," Whiskey said, putting together the pieces, "this is not actual jerky? Just super dry fruit?"

  "Yes?" he said, unsure of how they were about to react.

  "Gross," was all Whiskey said.

  "Yeah. You should make an effort to keep food better stored than just leaving it in your pack, bro. That's unsanitary..."

  Not knowing what to say, he opted for the safe route: "Okay. Noted. And if I am careless, I won't give it to my friends. Honestly, I had no idea that was a thing people didn't like..."

  "Well, it is," Jiehong said firmly. "Something to keep in mind as you interact with people more outside of the specific way we lived back in our hometown."

  Duly noted, he noted to himself. He continued to talk to himself: I don't understand why they find it distasteful. It's papple fruit! It's not like it was bad, per se. It was only a little dry. There wasn't any mold or shet. If it is good enough for me, why isn't it good enough for them?

  Socializing questions aside, it was time again for his least favorite new activity -- bunker door opening.

  His palm joined Whiskey and Jiehong's palm. They channeled magic, while doing so, he told his friends, "Keep a steady beat, my companions. Remember to breathe in and out; don't push out your energy too fast..."

  Keeping his breathing steady as he could, his magic continued its unobstructed flow. It didn't know how, but he felt his companions use of magical energy. He knew their output was still too high. "Guys. Slow down. I can feel your energy. Take a breath!"

  He received grunting responses. Their magical flow did even out, some, but not by a lot. Which, in an instance, leveled out to zero as they finished infusing the door with its demanded mana.

  The door pulsed green. The padlock unlocked, its chains falling away. Then, it slid open. And they walked through -- but not before carefully checking the passage for any signs of Poison Needle fae.