章節 38: Purest fire known to man... Dungeon torches.

After he had finished Henrietta looked enthralled by is tale.

Henrietta "Fascinating, and you did this all by yourself? My... As a sixteen year old to achieve such skill is impressive, maybe even unheard of."

Reima rubs the back of his head, "Actually, I'm eleven years old..."

Dandelion who seems to be muttering song lyrics stares at him, "Really? What are they feeding you at Kaer Morhen I wonder..."

Reima looks a little downtrodden as he replies, "Brutal physical tests, human experimentation and Mutagens..."

Dandelion feels regretful to have brought it up but his lover saves the conversation.

Henrietta "I would like to invite you to enjoy the festivities of the Summer Solstice festival that's being hosted in my city."

Reima grimaces when he realises the Duke will be returning for the festival aswell... With Henrietta's relationship with Dandelion being a kind of public secret he would hate to be caught in the cross fire...

Reima "My apologise Lady Henrietta but I have other more pressing matters that can't wait." Her facial expression doesn't change as she replies.

Henrietta "That is a shame, perhaps once you're done with your task you will have a proper tour of my city."

Reima nods gratefully, "Don't hold you're breath, but if I find the time I would be glad to see more of your wonderful city." The finish the required courtesies as she points to a large pouch filled with around 600 crowns sat on a nearby dresser and bids him farewell. He sends a small nod to Dandelion and is escorted out of the palace.

Reima "Now to find that underwater lab" He almost groans when thinking of the amount of effort this task is going to take."

He starts walking south of Beauclair and finds the undisturbed grave of the professor who created the improved mutagen formula. Reima continues on knowing he's on the right track, he follows his vague recollection of the lake that contains the elven ruins and eventually stumbles upon a body of water... Unsure whether this is the correct one, Reima strips naked and dives in while being cautious of any nearby Drowners. After an hour of looking around he finds nothing and concludes that this is the wrong area.

And so a cycle of picking a random lake in the area and diving to try and find something continues for a couple of days... Until.

Splash, Reima dives headfirst with no expectations, this must have been the hundredth time hes dived in search of these damned ruins with nothing to show for it. Just as hes about to give up, teleport to whoever made this bullshit lying quest and stabbing them in the face, he spots a blue twinkle in his peripheral vision. Turning quickly towards it, he spots the vague silhouette of a large building and something blue pulsing within... Found it!

Reima quickly equips his gear and makes sure all his potions are secured to his belt before diving towards the structure. Finding the still operational portal he quickly dives through it... And lands face first on some rocks. Gripping his bleeding nose he stands and grumbles about shitty portals.

Somehow the portal restricts all none-living matters from coming through, otherwise the whole place would be flooded.... Reima questions how it knows to take his clothing with him though.

He starts walking through the caves while noting the still burning torches scattered around, examining one he finds that it's just a regular torch... No magic, no special ingredients. Just a forever burning torch... He continues until he finds the spike traps.

Reima "Nah, fuck this." He states as he blinks past the annoying spike traps... He also unlocks the chest that's hidden by yet again, more spike traps.

Inside he finds a couple metal ingots, some Floren coins and best of all a Greater Chernobog runestone. He quickly pulls out his silver sword and pushes the rune stone into it, the rune stone slowly sinks into the blade while leaving glowing red rune markings on the blade.

Reima swings the sword to test it and feels like it picks up momentum quicker. He leaves the rest of the loot in the chest due to not having any use for it...

Reima continues to follow the path as it descends and loops round on itself, remember that combat is close he draws his silver sword and applies a Quen shield before he steps into the arena like area. He looks at the two statues either side of him and prepares to counter attack as a magic force field stops him for escaping.

The panthers statues leap out turning black in the process, they jump at Reima with incredible speed and he only manages to evade the strike by blinking away.

He quickly uses Yrden on the ground as one of the panthers try to pounce on him, it's movement is impeded by the Sign and he goes to slash at it's neck. His strike is interrupted as he parries another strike from his side, the claw coming dangerously close to his neck.

Knowing that his shield is still active he takes a slash to his body and stabs the attacking panther in the throat. It stops moving and crumbles back to stone dust as he is forced forward by a heavy strike to his back that breaks the Quen shield and leaves a small gash on his armoured shoulder.

Utilising Observation Haki he dodges the second strike to his back, pirouettes and decapitates it in a swift flurry of moves. He looks down at the piles of stone dust and doesn't see any loot that can be scavenged. He sheaths his sword and takes a quick breather from his exploration.