The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail had been chilling around the East Forest for no reason in particular when he came across a fairly large group of people gathered around the base of a mountain there, chattering among themselves. It was in a Fairy Tail mage's nature to be curious and as such, Houren found himself drawn to this crowd and after a short, internal battle where he tried to convince himself that nothing good could possibly come out of getting himself involved with whatever was going on here, the Fire Dragon Slayer approached the base of the mountain to find out exactly what was going on, and why so many people were gathered around the base of a mountain in the East Forest. As the Fire Dragon Slayer got closer, he noticed that the base of the mountain was being guarded by a bunch of Rune Knights who were actively barring people from going inside, and the people around the mountain were actually just gathered around the Rune Knights, asking them for an explanation and whatever have you when you feel a riot is about to break out. There must have been something inside that the people outside were interested in, but of course, letting the people see it must not have been in the Rune Knights' best interests, so that was probably why so many people were stationed outside to warden the area off. Really, that was it, the thing that the Fairy Tail mage had given up a portion of his morning stroll for. Knowing that it was now pointless for him to still be idling around here, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail turned to live, but was quickly stopped by the strong booming of a familiar voice.

"Hey, aren't you Houren?" the voice called out, as a large man who the Fire Dragon Slayer recognized as Barras made his way out of the ground and over towards him. "There's rumors about a many rare metals inside that cave, you know? There's one that I'm interested in myself, a rare metal that will let me make weapons and armors better than anything I've ever created before in my life. That's the thing I want more than anything in this world," from the way he was talking, the Fire Dragon Slayer could tell that he was incredibly excited at the prospect of getting his hands on this metal, but his excited expression was quickly replaced by a sullen one as he pointed at the Rune Knights that were still barring anyone from entering, and Houren knew immediately what he was trying to say but did not reply until Barras continued to talk. "Listen, maybe it's presumptive of me, but can you go and venture in to help me get the metal? I'll pay you as well, and much more handsomely than the last time you did a job for me. How about that? The metal looks like a glowing blue substance, like that legendary etherion stuff, you know?" Barras put his hand in his pocket and took out some jewels as a means of enticing Houren to do what he wanted.

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The idea of being bribed by Barras, who he considered one of his good friends did not really sit well with Houren, but he decided to accept it at face value. After all, like he said many times before in the past, it was not in his nature or personality to reject someone in need, nor was it in his nature or personality to turn down work in exchange for money; in other words, employment. He had two options now that he had formally accepted Barras' request, and that was to completely destroy the Rune Knights that was blocking the path and going down the cavern to explore. Of course, if Houren did that, he would likely become infamous and might even be branded a criminal. It also meant that the other people in the crowd that weren't Barras would be able to get into the cavern, and if that happened, the precious metal might be taken by someone else before Houren could get to it. Or even worse, the cavern might actually just be incredibly unstable and lives could be lost. In other words, beating up the Rune Knights and allowing more people into the cavern was certainly out of the question. The other thing he could do was sneak past the guards, which wouldn't be too hard considering the fact that most of those Rune Knights were already struggling to bar the masses out of the cavern. However, because of that, it meant that there would be a lot of witnesses when the Fire Dragon Slayer eventually did try to sneak past the guards. In other words, he didn't have much confidence that would work, and as such, it was out of the question altogether as well.

Ultimately, the Fairy Tail mage decided on the easiest and most foolproof method, but the one that would also take the longest. He would wait until the crowd, and ultimately the Rune Knights, dispersed elsewhere, probably after the sun set and the night fell. There might have been one or two guards left guarding the cavern but dealing with them wouldn't be too much of a problem. The Fairy Tail mage didn't need to worry about getting in trouble either since it'd be dark and they likely wouldn't be able to see him that well. Once it was nighttime, the Fire Dragon Slayer headed to the cavern, and much to his surprise, there wasn't even a single person on duty. This made his job so much easier, and humming happily to himself, the Fairy Tail mage entered the cavern only to be met with absolute darkness. The fact that it was dark outside meant that absolutely no light was coming into the cavern and he could not see anything. Allowing his right hand to blaze up, Houren used it as a torch as he continued to walk all the way until he found that his own path had been barred, not by a pesky Rune Knight but by a large rock.

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The Fire Dragon Slayer scratched his head at the sight of the large rock, wondering what it was that he should do next. It was a big rock, but then again, Houren knew he was a strong guy and would be able to move it, but he certainly couldn't do it while he was using his right hand as a makeshift torch. If he wanted to move this rock, then he'd have to do it in the pitch darkness, but he supposed it was better than turning back here, disappointing Barras and not getting his money. The Fairy Tail mage shook his right hand until the flames there began to die out, and soon, he once again found himself basking in absolute darkness. Fortunately, back when he still had a source of light to see, the Fire Dragon Slayer had placed his left palm on the giant rock and as such, knew exactly where it was. Turning his right hand so that both of his hands were on the rock, Houren picked it up with a slight grunt and threw it out of the way, to a safe spot he had picked out back when his vision had not been impaired by the absolute darkness. Immediately afterwards, he allowed his right hand to blaze up again, and once again, decided to use his right hand as a makeshift torchlight.

Grinning to himself even more, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail continued to make his way down into the cavern, taking in the sights that were being shown to him. He began to think of strange things like perhaps this place was actually a place where cave people from ancient times lived, and there was actually a part of Houren that was looking for some scribbling or strange inscriptions or pictures on the walls, but of course, he did not see anything like that. Eventually, the Fairy Tail mage reached a point where he found himself actually being able to see things without the need of his makeshift torch and as such, he began to shake his right hand to snuff out the flames as he made his way towards that literal light at the end of the tunnel. Once he did so, he found himself in a larger area with a single pillar in the center of the room that was giving out light. There was also a large black hole there that Houren couldn't help but look at, and from looking at it, he could tell that if he fell through it, there would be nothing but darkness waiting for him there. As such, he avoided this black hole by standing as far away from it as possible and soon found himself at the other end of the room where three different paths stood before him. It looked like his journey had been split into three different paths now, and deciding to leave everything to luck, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail chose one at random and began to pick up the pace slightly.

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The first path wasn't all that short, but as Houren would find out later today, it would actually be an exceedingly short path compared to the one that he would take later. At the end of the first path, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail found absolutely nothing; nothing important anyways. There was not a single thing in sight that fitted the description he had been given and looked like it could be the thing that Barras the Blacksmith had been looking for. At the same time, there was nothing interesting that Houren could claim to have been any use to him either. There was nothing but rocks, and not even the valuable kind that you could collect and potentially sell for more money, just the kind of garbage that was a dime a dozen in caverns such as this one. When the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail realized that he had actually hit a dead end, he sighed, picked up his bearings and turned around, half expecting to reach another dead end, just because in fiction stories, these kind of mazes tended to fuck with people in ways like that. But nope, that wasn't the case. By turning around and going back and retracing his steps, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail had found that he was in the room he had been in befofre, back when he was still being given the choice of three different paths to choose from.

He was now well and truly aware that one of these paths was absolutely useless and if he chose it, he would reach a dead end. As a result, he decided to pick one of the other two available paths, choosing randomly and then going through it with a brave heart, not knowing at all what it is that he would find there. This path was a bit more complex than the other one as it required him to move some stones, and at one point, he even had to once again choose between two paths. He chose the right path, and found himself in a dead end so he went back to choose the left path. It was much longer than the right path, so the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was under the impression that he had chosen correctly, but of course, that was not the case at all. At the end of the path, he found yet another dead end, and this discouraged him considerably but he now knew what path he had to take; it was the one that he had not chosen the first time around. With this in mind, and using this fact to encourage him, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail trudged along as quickly as he could back to the central area with the pillar of light, black hole and more important, the correct door that was going to lead him out of this place and all the way to the rare material that Barras was looking for.

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The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail took a deep breath before going through the final path, knowing full well that by a process of elimination, this would certainly be the one to lead him to the fabled material that could allow Barras to create weapons and armors greater than he had ever made before. Of course, that was assuming that the rumors that people had started were true, and this great material actually did exist inside this cavern. If Houren was led to another dead end, he would still be able to hold his head up high though, and apologize to Barras but tell him that he did try his best, but it was simply a case of rumors not being true as opposed to Houren chickening out and not bothering to check. Besides, Barras the Blacksmith already knew Houren to be an honest man. Taking in another deep breath, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail headed into the third path and began to look around. Only 2 minutes after walking along the path, he already was faced with an obstacle in the form of a large rock that was blocking his path. This was a good sign, since the correct path was more likely to have the most obstacles; at the very least, that was true in things like games and stuff, but then again, it was naive for the Fairy Tail Mage to think that this cavern was the result of intelligent design, and not just nature taking its natural course. There was, of course, a good chance of this simply being a coincidence as well.

The other thing that the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail had to be careful of when confronting these rocks were the fact that they were actually in fairly fragile places. When he moved them, he had to make sure that he did it carefully so that he did not cause the entire cavern to crumble down and crush him or something like that. The Fairy Tail mage had no qualms about dying a heroic death, but he had no intention of being found trespassing in a cavern in the East Forest to collect a material that he had no personal interest in. He didn't want his name dragged through the mud in death as some hired mercenary. Moving what seemed to be like the fifth or sixth rock that Houren had already encountered in this path, he finally found the material that Barras the Blacksmith had told him about, and carefully, as though this might have been some intricately laid trap or something, he approached it and picked up the material. Fortunately, it wasn't a trap or anything, but the material was in very limited amounts, probably not enough for Barras to create anything substantial but at the very least, this proved that this material did exist in the cavern and if one were to take another turn elsewhere, they could easily find higher quantities of it somewhere else in the cavern.

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Now that the Fairy Tail mage had the material in his hands, it was time for him to leave the cavern. It took him a long time to reach the area where the material was, and trying to find his way back was more or less akin to something like a memory game where he had to retrace his steps in order to get back to the entrance way. That is exactly what he did though, and he was proud to claim that his memory was still fairly good, and he retraced his steps with almost one hundred percent accuracy, even to the part where he began to use his right hand as a makeshift torch light. Eventually, he found his way back to that common room with the three paths, the pillar that the Fire Dragon Slayer had used as a light source and where the large dark hole was. Carefully avoiding the dark hole like he did the last time, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail headed into the tunnel area where it was absolutely pitch dark and once again, he allowed flames to engulf his right hand as he trod along all the way back up to where the entrance was. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, the Fairy Tail mage reached the entrance way but before he could pass it, he noticed the backs of some Rune Knights and realized that they were now standing guard outside there again. He needed to be discrete but fortunately that wasn't much of a problem for him as he managed to skirt his way around the guards before they could see him, before he started running off at full speed. Even if they saw him now, it'd be pointless since he was already deep into the East Forest.

In regards to the East Forest, the Fairy Tail mage had his doubts that there was anyone who would be able to outmaneuver him within it. The Fire Dragon Slayer wasn't the fastest man alive or anything, but there was nobody else who knew this environment as well as he did, and that was something that he was willing to put money on. With the material still in hand, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail headed into the town of Magnolia, specially the store where Barras the Blacksmith did most of his business. The blacksmith was working on something, but the Fairy Tail mage knew that he would forget whatever it was that he was doing for a glance at the material that he had entrusted Houren to find. Entering the store, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail quickly walked to the counter and placed it on the counter. Barras the Blacksmith was working at the forge and upon seeing Houren's figure, immediately took off his mask, put the weld back in its holding and walked over to examine the metal that Houren had found for him. His expression showed that he was somewhat disappointed with the quantity, but he quickly cheered up when he realized that this meant he could go into the cavern and know that his search could potentially be fruitful. Satisfied with his knowledge, he handed the Fairy Tail mage his due reward.

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