Chương 44: Dive Begins
We chatted with the Mahpurs for a couple hours longer before we all bedded down for the night. We learned their names are Ben, Ken, and Len. They don't have any way to distinguish between the 3, so I've just decided to not refer to them by name. They each had a solid red core, and they were all Earth mages, even their auras were the same.
I just tried to ignore it and focused on the dungeon dive ahead, it was recently found by a group of adventurers who immediately reported it to the guild without entering. So we are going in completely blind as to what might be inside. We had a small breakfast before extinguishing the fire and prepping our gear, like most dungeons it was a rocky outcropping in the forest and lead downwards. Except this one went down in a spiral and the walls were smooth, making them deceptively close. We use shadows and other things to help measure distance, but with nothing to cast shadow on the surface of the wall they seemed farther away than they were.
I would have used my brighter blue flame, but since we were letting Arthur lead and he hadn't asked me to, I didn't use it. The spiral continued for a few minutes until it leveled out and we met our first opponent, a nightmare fox. The same mana beast that mine and Arthur's cloaks are made of, they specialize in sound based illusions and their fur makes it hard to notice them. This flared it's fur and released an almost chittering sound that reverberated in the cavern.
The Mahpurs' brothers seemed instantly effected and looked around the room in confusion.
"Pops?" Came one of them and he walked to a wall, I dashed towards him when I saw the wall open up to reveal a trap door. He was already falling in as I got to him and the wall closed off behind as we slid down the slippery, winding, slide like trap. I wrapped some mana strings around the Mahpur as we slid and I could feel a familiar pull inside the cave, so I let it take us wherever this path leads.
I steered us to where the pull felt strongest, avoiding off shoots that had the stench of death surrounding them. Eventually the Mahpur came out of the illusion and looked around in confusion before seeing me.
"Mr. Rez, where are we?" I look around and shrug.
"No clue, we slid down a slope with many twists and turns before arriving here. I estimate we are about 50 feet below the surface right now." I said as i conjured a bright blue flame to illuminate the cave. Now the cave had a rocky texture to the walls and was leaking a liquid, the man almost touched it before I pulled him back with a mana string.
"Don't touch it." He looked slightly abashed, but I ignored it and approached the wall myself. After looking at it and touching it with mana strings I deemed it not dangerous, just some kind of 'sweat' the cave walls were giving off.
"Which one are you? I could never get your names straight." I ask as I turn to the man watching me while I tested the wall.
"Ken." I nod to that and look forward to the obvious exit and then back to him.
"Alright Ken, his good is your Earth magic?" He seemed confused, but answered nonetheless.
"Er well it's as good as Ben and Len's, but not good enough to be a fighter." I nod again and being a hand to my chin.
"So you can't sense things through the ground yet?" He shakes his head, and I hold in a sigh as to not shame the guy.
"Very well, it's not too difficult, just will mana from your core to your feet and feel the ground beneath. If using your hands is easier than use them, but spread your mana as thinly as possible through the earth. Do this every time we stop for a break and try to do it while we walk, eventually you'll be able to sense vibrations and all sorts of things. I've even heard of some being able to sense metals deep inside the ground." He looked at me in shock and immediately began to try what I said, but his red core showed his amateur abilities.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Rez it's not working." I clap him on the shoulder, and walk past him.
"It's quite alright Ken, I'm sure you'll figure it out even if it's not on this dungeon dive it will still be a useful skill especially for a mapper." I here him jog up beside me to stay close and we walk down the path, heading close to the familiar pull of an object with a will within it. The cave we were in slowly narrowed into a hallway just wide enough for us to walk side by side comfortably and probably 10 feet from floor to ceiling. Random holes in the walls caught my attention and I sent mana strings through them to see what I could pick up and I found water slowly rising.
Looking back where we came and then back ahead of us I couldn't see the exit on either side and I got a weird feeling in my chest. That's when the water reached the holes my mana strings were in and started rushing towards us. Grabbing Ken by the shirt I start running and I was wishing I had tested out breathing underwater right now with wind mana. I was running faster using wind to empower my steps and poor Ken was just sort of flying just above the ground in my grasp. The sound of rushing water grew as the hallway began to shrink and i heard the grinding of stone back in the direction we came.
Walls were raising from the ground to block off sections of the hallway and they were getting closer, so I sped up again and pushed forwards. Water was beginning to pool at the floor of the path and I could hear Ken's feet splashing in the water. I threw my light ahead of us to try and see the end but was met with the feature of a crocodile from Earth at the end waiting for us with a gleam in its eyes. I couldn't see its entire size as it was in an opening at the end of the hallways but it's body expanded past all sides of the door way.
It seemed to be a larger version of the River Croc mana beast known to the rivers of the beast glades. They were only B class mana beasts but this one seemed like it might just reach A rank, and had the scars from previous battles to prove it. I charged a fire ball and sent it shooting at the crocodile and it wisely scrambled out of the way as we shot past the doorway. Only now the entire room began to fill with water and the hallway closed off, I could see deteriorated remains of adventurers and bones of other mana beasts.
The croc snarled at me, but I was too busy with other things for a mere B rank maybe A rank mana beast. I pointed a finger at it and willed a fire enhanced mana string to penetrate its skull, it passed through flesh and bone seamlessly and the beast fell down. Though the water continued to rise, looking around the room I search for something to close off all the holes while I temporarily block half of them with wind magic.
I feel the familiar pull near the croc and find small indent in the wall that could fit half my arm in. I reach in and feel a handle like piece of rock, and when I grab it I feel sharp rocks puncture my hand before the handle gives and all the holes close on their own. I could feel the surge of Earth mana through the alcove from the handle after it took my blood. The water slowly drained and another revealed itself and the hallway we came from opened again.
I made my way to the croc and began to dismantle it, taking the skin, teeth, and some bones as well as some of the meat as it's said that River Croc meat is really good. Storing all that into my ring I grab the beast core from within as well, and can feel a small presence in it and let off a little chuckle.
"Heh, seems like it did reach A rank at least. Too bad it ran into me." I tossed the core to Ken who looked at me confused.
"Despite the name River Croc making you assume it's a water mana beast, it's actually a powerful earth mana beast. This one was even stronger than the normal ones, so you can have that beast core. It's also got a beast will inside it." Ken's eyes widened and he looked at the small orb in reverence before shaking his head and trying to give it back.
"But I can't accept this, I didn't even do anything!" The first sign of emotions on his face since I've met the guy were now showing as if he always did. I look to him with a smirk under my mask.
"Then how about helping out with the adventurer classes at the school I'm building. You could teach the kids about the dangers of dungeon diving and what to look out for as a mapper." He looked surprised, and a small smile appeared on his face before he nodded deeply.
"Thank you Mr. Rez! I'll accept this core, and I'll teach the kids to the best of my knowledge." I nod to him and pat him on the shoulder.
"Good, now lets push forward and hopefully we will meet up with the rest of the group." He nods and stores the beast core into his own ring, I also use a bit of fire and wind mana to dry out our clothes before checking all the remains. Most would see this as disrespectful I imagine, but I see it as being resourceful and smart. All I found was some gold and a few rusted weapons, but who knows, there could have been something rare and I would have missed it had I not checked.
After a short break of eating a little bit of the River Croc meat, which was actually as good as the rumors say, as well as drinking some tea we made our way to the new opened doorway. It was much drier than the hallway we originally entered from and didn't even have anything dripping from it, but I kept myself focused to make sure I didn't miss anything.
It was for nothing though as after a 5 minute walk we came to another opened section in the cave lined with shelves holding books and various objects.
"Wow…" came the hushed voice of Ken as if he was louder it would disrupt the wonder of an underground study. I just nodded my head in agreement, but didn't say anything as I walked to a bookshelf and grabbed the first book. It was in a language I wasn't familiar with, but for some reason I could read it.
'The lesser races have shown vast technological improvements now that we have influenced them to stray from their previous nomadic tendencies. The humans have created the Kingdom of Sapin founded by the tribal chief Sapin Glayder.
Elves have congregated to Elshire Forest and made their own Kingdom of Elenoir founded by the elder Elf Elarion Eralith.
Lastly the Dwarves while settling seem to be trading the crown back and forth every couple years, but the Greysunders seem to be the next rising power for the throne their.'
I closed the book and looked for a name of the author and found "Yvette" written on the back, and it made me think of the naming system of the Phoenix Asuras which would put her close to the Royal family. I looked around the rest of the room and felt the pull that I had followed the slope down for. It lead me to a great big tome of a book, set upon a desk surrounded by scattered papers.
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Author's Note
Hope you're enjoying the slightly different dungeon experience of this one compared to my previous straight forward dungeons. I felt dungeons should have booby traps and the like. Also felt like separating Arthur and MC for a bit, though idk
If they will join back together next chapter or not until the boss room of the dungeon yet.
We will also see the first non weapon centric will passed from a Phoenix Asura and it will give MC access to something I've been wanting him to lear for a while, but couldn't find the right way for him to learn it. Before I thought up the whole 'Phoenix Asuras can pass on wills and memories' thing I was going to wait until the academy arc. So there's a hint for what it might be.
Thanks for reading.
-SocioPhobia
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