章 70: Recollection of a Dream (II)
"That's such a cheat." Cello clicked his tongue. He wasn't too happy that he did not have such an overpowering attack.
"At least now we don't have to worry about goblins," said Samuel. He helped Lilith off the ground.
Drake burst out laughing with glee. "It's all thanks to this powerful sword." He rose up his bastard sword for everyone to see. "Thanks to Geala it can level a city. Nobody can stop me." He chuckled endlessly like a maniac.
Lulu hit him on the head. "Calm down. It's getting to your head again."
"Oww. Why did you do that?"
"Because you deserved it."
"There they go again with their lover's spat," Konnor said. He placed his battle hammer over his shoulder. "It was always Lulu who could keep our leader in check. Sometimes I wonder if he does it purposely to get hit by Lulu."
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Samuel. "We should head into the dungeon before more of these monsters can follow us in. We'll be surrounded on both sides if this keeps on going. For now there shouldn't be any more coming this way. We shouldn't dally here any longer than necessary. "
"Che. I'd rather be here fighting," Cello replied as he hacked at a few straggling goblins. His bloodlust was still unquenched from the battle. "This is not enough."
"Calm down. There more inside the dungeon. You can take it out there. Don't forget there might be stronger monsters in there then out here." Lilith replied, cleaning her weapons.
"There better be," Cello grumbled. He picked off another that was heading towards him with a wild swing.
Drake entered first into the dungeon, carefully observing his surroundings to make sure that nothing would jump out and attack them. The dungeon was darkly lit with only one directional light coming in from the entrance. Small glowworm-like creatures lit the rest of the cave, giving it a luminescent glow.
"Spirit of Luminous." Lulu's staff glowed bright yellow as two orb-like spirits appeared before them. They brightened up the room and followed her.
"All clear." He motioned them to come in and follow. "Hopefully this won't be a long trip downwards and we can find what we need."
"Already missing home?" Cello snickered. He pushed past everyone else and went in ahead.
"Hey, Cello. Stick with the team," Lulu shouted after him to stop him from going too far ahead. "If you get lost we won't be able to find you."
"You don't need to worry about him," Konnor replied. He grunted with displeasure. "You just need to follow the entrails of dead monster and you'll eventually find him. It's not hard to follow a berserker."
"He always does this." Lilith sped up to join Konnor at the front of the group. Samuel and the rest followed right behind her.
As the group went deeper and deeper into the dungeon, they were swarmed by Baby Olm monsters with no eyes, skinny arms, and skinny legs. Their primitive bodies were slimy and long, and their backs were covered in spines. Their skin was pure white, almost transparent, except for their red gills.
"What's with these monsters?" shouted Cello. "They're dodging my every attack!" His swing missed its target and hit the wall with a loud thud. The battle axe got stuck in the wall, but with a heavy gruff he pulled it out with all his might.
"Maybe it's because you're too easy to read. We could see your swings a mile away." Konnor smirked. He stood ready for the impact of the Baby Olm charging forward. With his battle hammer in both hands, he swung wide. The Baby Olm slipped under his attack and tackled him onto the ground.
"Kehahahahah," Cello barked out a laugh. "It seems they can see your attack a mile away too."
"Get off," Konnor huffed. The Baby Olm's mouth gaped open, trying to bite off Konnor's head with its razor-sharp teeth. The only thing stopping the Baby Olm was the battle axe between them. Its jaws tried to break it apart but failed. Samuel came from behind and killed it with one swift strike, then held out his hand to help hoist Konnor up.
"Thanks." Konnor pulled himself up and spat on the ground. "These things seem to be using some kind of ability to sense us without having eyes. Anyone know how?"
Lilith was watching carefully as the fight unfolded around them while she was playing her guitar-like instrument. She changed her tune to play a different song that brought down the speed of the Baby Olms.
"Great work, Lilith. This is going to help out a lot!" Drake rushed in and continued to slaughter the Baby Olms with one fell strike after another. Konnor and Cello followed, and none of them paused until every single Baby Olm in their vicinity was wiped out.
They made it to the end of the dungeon without much trouble. Drake's group was talented and powerful enough to get through the whole dungeon more than ten times as quickly as an average group of players.
"Is this dungeon really where difficult monsters live?" The sound of Cello's disappointed voice could be heard clearly through the dungeon. "Where are the fire-breathing monsters, the boss, the thrill. This is all too easy." He grumbled so loudly that more Baby Olms streamed towards them.
"Seriously? Your loud voice is making so much ruckus that it's bringing more." Konnor sounded peeved. "I would like a little bit of rest here. Once in a while, having easy kills is better than having swarms of strong ones." He ducked under a Baby Olm's sharp claws that grew larger in size and shredded through rocks as if there was nothing there.
"Oh ho. That was a close one." He side-stepped out of harm's way. His short stubby body was making it a bit difficult to move quickly with his heavy clunky armor.
"A bit too slow there, buddy." Samuel picked off the surroundings Baby Olms like they were nothing to worry about. "Any slower than what you are doing now and the Baby Olms are going to get you."
"That's not true." Konnor's battle hammer finally made contact with the enemy Baby Olm and defeated it in one fell swoop. "I'm doing perfectly fine."
It was a constant on and off battle with the Baby Olms and Drake's group. They continued to move forward into the dark terrain of the dungeon. Sometimes the Baby Olms came in droves and other times there were only a few grouped together, making it an easy passage through the dungeon. The terrain changed from a dreary dark cave to a beautiful open underground field. With every step they took, the darkish-blue ground gave way to vibrantly colored plants.
Soon they came to the edge of a dome-like area where the bright plants flourished. The group looked over the edge and was awestruck at what lay below them. The colors were so vibrant and were rarely seen in the outer world. It was a mesmerizing display of natural crystals combined with plants that they had never seen before.
From small transparent to large pearly opaque colored crystals decorated the walls and the ground, creating a beautiful display of light. Entwined perfectly with the crystals were giant green plants that stabilized the growth of the crystals from going out of control.
In the middle of the land was a small hut that was covered densely in obsidian-like crystals. In fact, it may have been made out of the black crystals rather than of wood or the plants; it was covered too thickly for any of them to see its true structure.
Drake's group had only one direction to go: downwards. They saw no monsters or anomalies. It was a peaceful scene that was rarely seen in a dungeon.
"Is this for real?" Lulu whispered, holding on closely to Drake's arm. "It's so beautiful."
"Who would have thought that something like this would be so close to the city?" said Drake. "This world always has something surprising to show us. This is why I enjoy adventuring with you guys."
"Hehe." Lulu snuggled closely with glee. "So that's what we should call ourselves, huh. Adventurers. I like that. From now on people like us are called Adventurers. We should make it universal. It would be great to hear it resounding throughout the world."
"Are you sure about that? I'm not sure a lot of people would agree in wanting to be called an Adventurer."
"It'll be so cool. Come on, honey," she pleaded with a puppy dog eyes.
Drake could not look away from her cute face. He sighed. "Anything for you."
"Yes!" Lulu squealed with delight. She jumped around Drake gleefully.
"You spoil her too much, oh great leader," Lilith mocked. She glanced over to Lulu and shook her head. She placed her weapon strap over her shoulder and let her guitar hang loose at her side. "I wonder how often you have cave into that look that she gives you. Quite often, isn't it?"
Drake cleared his throat, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Let's go." He powerwalked ahead while Lulu closely tagged along.
"That's our leader." Konnor laughed heartily, his armor shaking. Cello grunted, slung his battle axe over his shoulder, and followed after.
Lilith and Samuel walked side-by-side so they could talk.
"I've heard your people have been having a rough time with the orcs encroaching on your lands," Lilith said.
Samuel nodded. "It seems that there is an intelligent leader amongst the orcs. Their forays across our border have become more and more frequent. It's going to take a bit more time before my people will be able to push them back into the Electric Continent."
"Do you have any plans?" she asked worriedly.
"Yes. It's going to take some time, but the elders have something in store for when I get back."
"I see." She quietly walked next to Samuel. She didn't know what else to say.
"Lilith."
"Yes?" Her head whipped towards him so quickly that she felt like she had whiplash.
"I was wondering if you would join me on the expedition to eradicate the orcs from my people…and possibly on many other quests as well."
"Heheh." Lilith giggled. "You're so serious, Samuel. Why can't you just say that you want me with you?"
Samuel blushed red. "I-I-I…" Even his pointed ears turned pink.
"I would love to," she replied with a bright smile. She ran ahead laughing with joy like a little girl who'd received something really special.
It took only a few moments to descend into the garden. Now that they were closer, they could see that the garden had an assortment of crystal-like flowers that bloomed beautifully. Their radiance glowed and amplified the light that was cast down from a hole the ceiling. The hole in the ceiling wall wasn't terribly big, perhaps the size of a small manhole. What was making the whole area glow brilliantly was the effect of the crystal gems that reflected the light in every direction.
"No words could describe this natural beauty," said Samuel. His eyes were filled with peace, contentment, and hope. The aura around Samuel glowed softly with green energy; his demeanor changed and became peaceful with the world.
Konnor whistled. "I'm surprised that no one has come here to harvest the crystals." He looked at a large yellow crystal with interest. "With the amount of equipment and accessories this could make, I can't believe this place has remained hidden."
"That would destroy this place's natural beauty," Samuel said with a bit of warning in his voice. "Living crystals like these should be protected. Not harvested. By unbalancing the natural order of the energy of this world, we would cause a disturbance. It would cause an unknown cataclysm that could wipe out a city."
"You're jesting, correct?" Konnor could not believe what he was hearing.
"No. With the number of crystals forming here, the natural magical energy level is abnormally high. Our spells could be amplified here by a thousand fold. Don't you see how a single small stream of light had made this place glow so extremely bright?" Samuel pointed up towards the small hole where light was filtering through. "That seems to be the only source of light at the moment. Think about it. One mishap and the whole place could create an amplification of the spell. A low-level energy spell could build up and destroy everything."
He walked over to one of the large red crystal flowers. He stopped and kneeled, reaching out his hand to place it beneath the bloom. A red petal fell into his hand. "Nature will give you just enough when you honor it."
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