After a while, Lenore woke back up again. She was moaning and groaning a little but I felt her elation of the joining we had experienced. It had been intense, standing in the storm, feeling the magic surging around us, ebbing and flowing, changing the very fabric of reality around us. I wondered how long it would take until the magic would dissipate, if it would at all. Hopefully it would, or things would get rather spicy. But for now, we had a dungeon to explore and I was quite curious what we would find.
After explaining to Lenore what had happened, I opened my eyes back up and alerted the others that I was ready to continue.
Once again, Sigmir took the lead with Rai right behind her while Adra and I kept a bit of distance between the two groups Finally, Ylva played rearguard, allowing Sigmir to perceive everything in our group, thanks to their link. It took away their berserk-ability but in return gave us more options.
The tunnel we were moving in looked quite strange; everything I knew about the laws of nature told me that the loose-looking structure composed out of rocks, ice, earth and sand could not possibly be stable. But, apparently it was. Sigmir and Adra had done a couple of tests while I had meditated and declared the structure sound. Hopefully they were right, a cave-in could quickly do us in, even if I might manage to get some control of the ice, once it was broken from the walls. While merged into the walls, I had no way of influencing it using my Ice Magic, I couldn’t even feel it. In addition to that, the ice-parts of the walls were glowing in a soft, blue light, reminding me so very much of my magic. There had to be a connection but I was unable to find it. I filed it away for now, trying to come up with ideas to get a connection.
We got the first hint that we were not alone in the dungeon, when a strange, worm-like creature burst out of the floor beneath us, coming up right below Rai, so in front of Adra and me. He must have felt something, maybe some sort of vibration, or he might have been incredibly lucky. Instead of having his foot and leg drawn into the thing, he had managed to side-step its first attack and its momentum carried it further into the tunnel. Judging by his cursing, I would assume that he’d felt something.
My brain needed a second to comprehend what it was seeing and even after that moment, the first impulse was to deny reality. The thing in front of us looked like some unholy abomination birthed from the nightmares of a deeply disturbed person. My eyes zoomed in onto the thing’s maw, and there were only teeth. Row after row of sharp and pointy teeth, lining the way down into the things body. The rest of its body, seemed to be made up out of solid-looking segments, connected with narrow, fleshy bands between them. It looked like some unholy mix between a boa-constrictor, a lamprey and an earthworm. The phrase, “Kill it with fire!” sprung to mind, I was that disturbed.
But, I had no fire at hand, so I pumped as much Astral Power as possible into my normal icicle-spell, using Overflow and instant-casting it. At the same time, I used Observe, trying to learn more about the abomination we were facing.
Glacial Querder, level 37
My icicle pierced between the solid-looking segments of the worm, drawing a piercing shriek from the querder’s maw and it was staggered for a second, thanks to the impact. At the same time, Rai had struck with his daggers, one blade just creating a scratch in a solid segment, the other cutting into the flesh between two segments. Adra, seeing our attacks land, used her spear to pierce through one of the lower fleshy connections, pinning the querder to the ground below us.
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Sigmir must have realised that the pinned worm was no danger, focusing on the front, just in case the shrieks drew more attention, while the three of us finished off the worm. The querder had rather low vitality; after the initial three attacks, it only took one stab from Rai and a single combined attack from my Weaver’s Fury to send the monster into an early grave. Likely, it was lacking in vitality, relying on the armoured segments and attacking from ambush to take down prey.
The EXP we gained was miniscule, considering that the querder was 17 levels below me. Even the various bonuses could only do so much with a low base-amount making the dungeon not really worthwhile for Adra, Sigmir and me - but Rai should catch up a little. And getting the Dungeon Explorer Title for Adra and Rai would definitely be worth it, so we carefully continued, instead of sitting at the entrance, twiddling our thumbs until the magical storm outside died off.
For a moment, my curiosity overcame me and I inspected the dead querder, only to realise it was a bad idea. Too many teeth and not enough that I identified with anything other than disgust. It seemed to be a long sleeve, filled with razor-sharp teeth that tried to engulf something whole before shredding it. Shivering, I followed behind the others, suddenly very glad that the EXP for the dungeon would be largely irrelevant.
Now that we knew to be very quiet and focus on even the slightest vibrations and noises around us, the chances of a successful ambush greatly diminished, so the next two querders suffered similar fates to the first. The first one tried to go for Sigmir, only to be smashed against the wall with her shield before being instantly dispatched with her axe and the second one got instantly skewered by Adra’s spear. She even managed to pin it against the wall before more than the first foot was visible, turning it into a great test-subject for me.
The results were dismal.
First, I tried to use Darkness-magic against it, without much hope, and the results were about as bad as expected. The thing made a living below ground, in total darkness. The only thing that had a tiny amount of effect was using devouring-effects, targeting its vitality, but even to that, it was next to immune.
My next idea was feeding it Liquid Moonlight, to see what it would do with extreme cold applied to the insides of its body. I had quite a bit of hope, just to see it squashed. The stupid thing was able to consume the Liquid Moonlight and the noises it made could be only interpreted as gleeful.
Shooting an icicle into the maw and shattering it, hoping for damage from razor-sharp icicles was just as effective as the Liquid Moonlight, meaning not at all. Only that Adra now joked the wiggles of the thing seemed happy, suggesting I could tame it to be a pet.
Somehow, my glare did not reduce her giggles in any way so I used the magic I had the biggest hope for, Blood Magic. No matter what, the thing must have something that fell into the domain of Blood Magic, carrying its vitality and allowing me to violently murder it. Shuddering in disgust, I placed a hand on the wound Adra’s spear had made, ignoring the nearby teeth and trying to rip its vitality from its body.
Failure… There was just nothing to grab onto, even as I felt the sticky ichor sullying my hand, I was unable to grasp the vitality inside the thing’s blood to rip it out.
“Sigmir, love?” I asked, after stepping a bit back, my voice sugary sweet. “Could you lend me your Lok’nar?”
At the same time, my Weaver’s Fury started hovering behind me before encircling the things front-end like a collar. When Sigmir passed me her weapon, the blades stabbed into the thing, dragging it out of the wall like the cursed worm it was. Somehow, I felt my mouth curve into a smile.
I was far less skillful with the Lok’Nar than Sigmir, but with a copious application of strength-buffs, sheer and utter hatred and disgust, I managed to take out my dislike for the species on the things body. For ten minutes or so. First, hacking it apart at the seams. Next, hacking the segments to pieces, followed by hacking the pieces to smaller pieces.
Finally, I felt better, slowly coming to terms that my magic was utterly useless in any but its crudest form, using icicles to stab between the segments.
“Thank you, love.” I handed Sigmir her weapon back, after thoroughly cleaning it and myself from the traces left behind by the dismantling of the stupid thing.
“Oh, and Adra, my dear friend.” I turned to her, still smiling as I had been unable to wipe the smile off my face, since I had been given the Lok’nar and my voice sweet as sugar, “If you ever suggest that I want to have anything to do with such a disgusting creature… Just, don’t.”