Chapter 45: Reuniting
AN: Had a good night so I decided to post earlier than the scheduled 12pm, enjoy.
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I walked closer to the book and took in the weathered pages from many times of being opened and closed, the pages rumpled and crinkled to show the wear on them. Rubbing a hand across the book I feel it resonate with me and the lingering will of Yvette flows into me, and with it her knowledge on enchanting and artificing as well as seals.
Like the other Phoenix Asuras she was assassinated by the Vritra, but she was able to use her ability to bring her here where she left her Will in the book of her life's research. Also through the memories I found that she is the one who made the artifact that my birth father gave my birth mother, that allowed her to teleport away. All of her knowledge on enchanting brought a grin to my face as she was way ahead of even Gideon in this regard.
I willed the book into my ring, and then with wind magic pulled everything in the study into my ring to pour over at a later time. The reason is that looking at the books purely from her memory biases my view and I see it as she saw, interpreted it as she interpreted it. If I want to gain my own insight into things I need to read it myself while not under the influence of her memories. I turn back to find Ken standing there, just coming out of his daze while looking at me.
"What was all this stuff?" Deciding that he didn't really need to know about Asurans I 'acted'.
"Ah well it seems a really crazy old woman holed up down here after she got passed that River Croc from earlier. She wrote a lot of insane things that make absolutely no sense, so I'm going to take them and try to find someone who might be able to understand it." He just absentmindedly nodded, and a wry grin appeared under my mask. This guy just goes with the flow, didn't even doubt me for a second.
Looking around the room to make sure I don't miss anything and I spot a chest placed in the corner, and looking through her memories I know that it holds all artifacts that she had finished. Rings that deployed shields based off intent rather than needing mana from the wearer. Necklaces that increase passive mana intake, which will help Arthur tremendously. And many other nifty items that I immediately stored into my ring, for further plundering at a later time.
"Alright, Ken. Lets see if we can't find the rest of our party. Who knows what kind of trouble they've gotten into without me?" He just nods and follows close behind me as we leave the room of one, Yvette. The room was blocked by a large metal door with various enchantments to act as locks and traps should it be brute forced by someone. Pressing my finger to multiple symbols on the door while infusing my mana into it the door eventually lets off a creaking noise as it slowly swings open.
Ken looks at me in surprise, but I ignore him and walk through the door and into the huge chamber that awaits us. Multiple beast sized holes revealed to not just be beast sized, but also homes of mana beasts. Several Silvercoat Bears lumbered out of the holes when they picked up our sent and I could feel Ken get scared.
"No worries Ken, they aren't that strong." This was just to calm him down as these bears were approaching the AA rank when usually they are only A ranks. Their silver fur shines with light from my flame making it seem almost blue, and each individual hair is as strong as steel which is why they get their A ranks. Most weapons can't even cut them and then you got these bigger than horses sized bears with razor sharp claws and wind magic.
Taking out my Kukris I decide to test their sharpness a little bit. I tie a mana string to each of the handles and I run forward toward the closest Silvercoat. It stands up on its hind legs easily reaching 12 foot tall and I can sense the fierce wind mana swirling around its claws as it swipes at me even though I'm still a fair distance away. That's because it's a wind based attack that I defuse with my own wind, so that it doesn't hit Ken behind me.
Stepping off a platform of air i leap upward and fall down with both swords raised above my head, the bear slashes again but this time I throw my left kukri at its swinging arm. It embeds deeply into the arm stopping the slashing motion and causing the bear to roar in agony as i tug on the mana string and the blade comes back to me. I continue fall with both blades still raised and slash down as I reach the bears neck, removing it with a diagonal slash from right shoulder exiting at the left hip.
Looking at the Kukris I nod to myself as i sheathe them, setting into place as the bear collapses and the others rush forward in a frenzy, 6 in all. Having tested what I wanted to test I shoot wind enhanced mana strings through their skulls and pluck out their cores all before they even hit the ground. I started to walk, but I noticed Ken wasn't following me so I turned around to see him staring at the bodies of the bears.
"Oh don't worry Ken, you can have the skins of the bears. I just wanted the cores. Hmm actually now that I think about it I will take at least 3 of the skins as they could make for some good armor. Good thinking Ken." I get to work skinning the cost off the bears with mana strings and pile the 4 others beside Ken while I stored mine, only to still find him blankly staring into spaces.
"What's up Ken?" He seemed to be brought of his stupor and looked to me just to shake his head.
"Nothing Mr. Rez, we can continue. Thanks for the pelts." He pulls the pelts into his ring and jogs over to me and I nod my head at him.
"Good man, Ken. Always on the move, I like that about you." I finish with a clap on his shoulder and continuing on our path through the dungeon. While we were walking I looked over Yvette's memories and studied what she knew about enchanting and the symbols associated with and found that it was different than the symbols on my katana. That was making me believe that the symbols on my katana might be Runes instead, but I have no basis for this thought.
I noticed that Ken was indeed trying to use that technique I told him about, all while he was mapping out the path ways as we walked. That took a talent in itself as I know some people can't even walk and read at the same time, let alone walking, writing, drawing, and trying to learn a new technique. I'm actually really impressed with Ken and I start to hope that he survives the future ordeals, as I could see him really stepping up in the right position.
After another break for about 10 minutes we heard something rapidly approaching us and I notice that it's a baby nightmare fox cub. I don't really have a reason to kill it, and it's young, barely a couple months old. It kept running until it saw me and at first it looked ready to attack before it looked closer and then cocked its head to the side. It walked closer and it's pitch black silky fur glowed blue in my fire light, bright yellow eyes observed before it let off a small yip and came closer.
It cautiously approached closer and closer until it was right in front of me and then it paused, sitting on its hind legs and looked up at me as if waiting for an instruction. Instead though I willed a piece of meat out of my ring and after slightly roasting it with my fire I placed it in front of the fox. It sniffed before letting out a cheerful coo and began to dig in. A smile spread across my face at the cute display and after it finished the meat, it yawned cutely and hopped in my lap.
I stroked it's silky fur as it fell asleep in my lap and chuckled softly.
"You silly fox." I muttered, still caressing the fur.
"Are you going to keep it?" Ken spoke up and I saw the fox's ear flicker, but the rest of the body stayed still.
"Well I don't know about you but I'm not much in the business of killing babies, human or mana beasts." I answers as I stood up earning a mewl of protest from the small creature, but purred happily as I stuck it into the hood of my cloak around my neck. I used mana strings to secure it in place so that it would fall, and waited for Ken to stand as well.
"I'm not one for such things either, Mr. Rez." He actually had a happy smile as he looked at the little fox's head peeking through my hood.
"Good, Ken. Alright it shouldn't be much longer until we find them if we came across a nightmare fox cub." He nodded and we renewed our journey for our companions. Any mana beasts that came our way I killed and even let Ken try to kill a few because as a mapper they don't really try to fight. Just get in and get out, but with me backing him up I let him get some experience. He wasn't bad, but a red core mage with only a dagger and earth mana, there really wasn't much he could do besides fend them off. Which is good to have in its own right.
After another hour of not finding them and the occasional mana beast, we decided to bunk down and sleep as Ken was like a zombie. I told him I would take first watch and wake him after a couple hours, but whether it's my Asuran blood or my white, I just don't need the same amount of sleep as other people. I could go months off just meditation and I wouldn't need to sleep, with no meditation I could still probably pull at least a month but it would be stretching it.
So I decided to let Ken sleep until he woke up, and made sure to set up a sound barrier around him so that ambient cave noises or even a fight, if it happened, wouldn't wake him. It seemed he really did need the sleep as he stayed passed out for 8 whole hours before he finally started to stir.
"Huh? How long have I been asleep?" Ken said as he rubbed eyes while sitting up. I handed him a warm cup of tea and bit of River Croc meat, which he accepted gratefully.
"Ehh, probably about 8 hours now." He spit out the tea he was drinking, and I had to catch it with wind mana to keep the scalding tea from landing on me or my furry friend.
"8 hours!" He exclaimed.
"Yup, I figured you could use the sleep. And hey, don't spit out my tea again or you won't get anymore." I saw him stiffen at my words and nod his head seriously.
"Do you need to rest any, Mr. Rez?" He asked as he took tentative sips of his tea. Stroking the fur of the fox I look over to him.
"No, I'm quite fine Ken. When can continue on as soon as you're ready." About the time I said that a rumbling resounded around the he hallway and Ken as well as the Nightmare Fox looked around frantically. I calmed the fox and prepared by wrapping strings around Ken in case I needed to move him, but it turned out unneeded.
A chute opened up above us and 3 forms came tumbling out of it and smacking on to the ground with Jasmine landing safely atop the pile before jumping down with her daggers drawn. Though she quickly sheathed them upon seeing us and I just raised a hand in greeting.
"Yo, Jas! You guys made it!" She smiled softly as she saw me until she saw the fox in my lap and her eyes went wide, she quickly scooped the fox up and started petting it's fur. I shook my head and looked passed her to the pile of bodies trying to untangle themselves.
"Oy, Note! How long you gonna roll around on the ground like that? It's not very befitting of a party leader, ya know." I heard grumblings come from him amongst the pile, something about beating my ass but I mostly tuned it out as Jasmine took a seat beside me.
"How did he do?" She looked up from the fox and gave a small nod.
"His commands were precise and easy to follow, he also kept Ben and Len safe from any dangers. So far he's done great." I nod at her words as I look at the 3 people finally extract themselves from each other.
"Good." I look at the fox that looked more like melted pudding under Jasmine's administrations and felt a smile tug my cheeks, only looking away when Arthur flopped down in front of us with a massive huff and Ben and Len sat beside Ken. I kept my mana strings around Ken so that I could at least remember him, but I gave up on the other 2.
"So Captain, how'd it go?" I asked cheekily and I could feel Arthur's glare causing me to and Jasmine to laugh.
"Traps, traps every-damn-where." He huffed out in annoyance, and I nodded in solidarity.
"We went down chute much like yours, that had multiple paths, each smelling of death. Reaching the end we came across a king hallway that closed off sections as we ran and filled with water, only for a giant River Croc to be waiting on the other side." Jasmine's eyes went wide and she stopped petting the fox which got a frustrated noise in response. She quickly went back to petting it when she spoke.
"I'm glad you're alright." Me and Arthur nodded to what she said.
"Me too, glad to see you guys made it through in one piece." We all shared a moment of silence and i decided to break out some food and tea for our new resting companions. As I passed Arthur his cup of tea I patted his shoulder.
"Good job keeping them safe." He seemed stunned at first, but nodded seriously and sipped his tea.
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Author's Note
This dungeon will probably complete with the next chapter or maybe 2 depending on how I decide to write it. Either way there will be a 6 month time skip to the next part of the journey after this dungeon is finished.
I've got little things planned here and there, and one of those things will be shown when they return to Xyrus for a week after that storyline that happens.
Not much else to say, but about the enchanting. I can't promise I'll go super deep into all that, but I will try to do things here and there with and more of the stuff that Yvette knew about the past will be used in later storylines etc… Also the nightmare fox cub is not going to be Jaron's, his other reason for keeping it will be brought up next chapter.
Thanks for reading.
-SocioPhobia
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