Drake and his cohort followed the green thread the short distance in the clearing to where it stopped. It took them to what looked like a beast's lair. It was a large dirt hole in the ground that they were barely able to fit inside. Ruby was too large to fit through it at all. So was Renn, who transformed into her rat form and headed a few feet into the dark depths of the tunnel, then waited for Drake and the rest of the cohort to follow.

"Are you able to transform into something smaller?" Drake asked his scorpion beast. He didn't want to assume that she could, when she couldn't, or vice versa. He knew that Renn was able to, but only because she had visited the ordinary world.

Ruby shook her head, indicating she couldn't change forms, making Drake sigh. He caressed her large head. "If I take you home to my world, you will be able to change into something smaller when we get there. After we return here, you will still be able to change into it if you choose to do so. We only stay in that world long enough to gather supplies. I won't force you to go with us, but if you want the ability to change forms, then when we finish our quest, I'll contact you so I can take you with me if that's what you want. You can let me know when we finish, if you want to go back with us so you can gain the ability to change forms… ok."

Ruby bowed low. A feeling of relief washed through their mind-link before she turned and headed toward her hive, where she could keep Drake updated on what was going on. Her speed was so fast that she disappeared only seconds after she left. Drake didn't know if it was relief to go back with him, or relief not to go… he had no idea why Ruby felt so relieved. Drake shrugged, then looked at his friends. "We'll contact her when we get the master spell book. Let's go."

With Renn in her rat form, in the lead, they followed the green thread into the depths of the dark dirt tunnel. Their eyes glowed brightly, allowing them to see perfectly in the darkness.

The tunnel was smooth and long, as if a giant worm had slithered into the ground, making its path too large for the dirt to fall back into place, refilling the hole.

The damp, earthy smell permeated the air. It smelled fresh and clean as if nothing had ever contaminated it. There were no other tunnels, just the long one they were in, which felt never-ending. The walls were smooth, with no crevasses, indents, or holes anywhere. The only thing that lit the way was the little lantern of truth that hung on Drake's belt and their own glowing eyes as they scanned the tunnel for things that only their magical vision could see. They continued to follow the brightly glowing green thread as it led them through the dark depths of the tunnel system.

After some time, there was finally a fork in front of them. There were four paths to take. The green thread led them through the third one. This one was just as long. Drake was glad he had the thread leading him. He would have never figured out which tunnel to take. He would have started with the first one and worked his way to the last one until he found the one that he needed. He felt like he would have wasted a lot of time without the thread leading the way.

After walking through the third tunnel for what seemed like hours, it split yet again, this time into three tunnels. The thread led through the last one. "In case we get lost, remember the third tunnel, then the third tunnel again. You never know if the green thread will disappear or not," Drake mumbled, scanning the walls of the tunnel as they walked.

So far, the tunnel remained smooth with no indentations or chambers attached. The tunnel was firm, with packed dirt pressed tightly, which made it stable. At least Drake hoped that it was stable. He was afraid to make noise that might cause a collapse in the tunnel, trapping them.

"I sure hope this thing doesn't decide to collapse on us," Chad muttered, as if he had read Drake's thoughts, not liking the tunnel. Unlike the cave that was made of rock, this one was made entirely of packed dirt, which is far more likely to collapse than rock.

"Let's not take chances and keep our voices to a whisper. I don't want vibrations to collapse any part of it," Drake whispered. "That would really suck."

Mike stayed silent, taking a page out of Chad's playbook, who was the one who kept quiet most of the time, while he, himself, spoke frequently, having trouble keeping his mouth shut. The fear of the tunnel collapsing far outweighed his need to talk.

As they followed the green thread through the tunnel, it led to a large chamber. Inside, in the center of the chamber, stood a pillar that looked like a podium. The rest of the chamber was smooth dirt, with nothing else to be seen. The packed dirt podium was flat on the top and had nothing sitting on its smooth surface.

"Is this the chamber of knowledge?" Mike whispered, afraid to speak too loudly, causing the ceiling of the chamber to collapse.

Drake looked at the full map in his system and found that it was. They had found what they were looking for; they found the Chamber of Knowledge, but the podium didn't have the book they needed sitting on top of it. The room was empty.

Drake looked around the chamber, looking for a way to access the book. When they had received the staff, they all were required to stand on the platform as a group, and the staff rose from the ground for them as a result. This one didn't seem to have anything that could do that. From what Drake could tell, it was just a short pillar of packed dirt: nothing else.

"Look around for something that could tell us what we need to do," Drake said quietly. His gaze scanned every inch of the tunnel's large chamber. He had his eyes glowing brightly as he looked around him.

The entire chamber was smooth, with no holes or ledges of any kind. The pillar remained where it was. It was made from the same soil that the tunnel had been dug out of. They could see nothing special about it. It appeared to be just a pillar of dirt.

"So much for being easy," Mike muttered sarcastically. "We have just under five days to figure out how to access the book. What do you want to do? Do you want to search the other tunnels to see if there is something in them that we need?"

Drake continued to scan the room as he thought about it. "This is the Chamber of Knowledge. I think we have to use our own knowledge to access the book." It was the only thing he could think of; it made sense. He wasn't sure what to do beyond that.

"Ok…" Chad started. "The last time we all needed to stand on the platform. This one is a podium, and there is no platform for us to stand on. Maybe we all press our hands to it?" he suggested.

They all stepped forward, surrounding themselves with the dirt podium, and placed their hands on the podium's flat surface, then waited. Then waited some more… nothing happened.

Drake stepped away and began to pace as he thought of another way.

"Maybe we should go back to the first fork, and each of us take a tunnel and see if we can find a clue," Mike suggested. "There are four tunnels, and there are four of us."

Drake shrugged. They had plenty of time to explore, so he agreed. Following the thread out of the chamber, they made their way back to the small opening where they had found the four tunnels lined up and the main tunnel that led outside. They stood in front of the four lined up and waited while Drake decided exactly what to do.

After several minutes, Drake looked between his friends. "This is a cohort quest. It's our ascension quest, not just mine. I can feel it in my gut, and it tells me that we need to go into each tunnel as a group. We'll start with the first one, and when we find out if there is anything that can help us, we'll move on if we need to."

Drake and Chad exchanged a look before nodding. "Agreed," they said quietly in unison. They still didn't want the vibration of their voice to collapse the tunnel. It would be deadly. All their talk remained in a whisper.

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