With their own little contract established, their pickup spot designated as the local dungeon, the group used the services they had already paid a month forward for to be ferried off to the dungeon with the girls in a much more elevated and pumped mental state than before for obvious reasons. Once inside, the party chose a different path than before, encountering nibblers at the start, just like before, but at the crossroads chosing to deal with groups of kobolds instead of morboons. And since everyone was well experienced dealing with that particular creature, their speed was notably faster than the day before. With a proper and well known opponent, Rex was using his new blood weapon, slicing and dicing through numerous kobolds. He started to resemble a battle maniac, as he was the one who was charging towards the enemy as soon as a new group appeared, sometimes causing the monsters to flinch with his agressiveness after the first few were savagely cut apart.
There was savage efficiency in his style, while still showing his great skill with his weapons as well as awareness of his surroundings. Whats more, he did not fail to fullfill his task towards the party, tying down most any group they were encountering. What made Samanta even more intrigued was the slow, yet incremental changes she could recognize the further and further they delved. Rex was growing stronger wit hevery group they took down. A slightly sharper movements here, a faster response time there or a sword swing that sliced through a latter armor a kobold was wearing at another point. Sure, the sword he was using was getting stronger with more and more blood spilled, but that could only explain the cutting power.
When she asked Rex how he was doing it, he just shrugged and explained.
"You do know I am a mage type. And yet, just how often do you see me using my abilities as a ranged weapon or the like? What I do most of the time, is infuse myself with mana, enhancing my own physical capabilities. It does have a few problems though, if you have ever asked Alurial about the practise. First, ones body must be trained and in great condition, since infusing too much mana could have extremely harmfull. So, besides training physically to strenghten ones body, one has to also learn their limits. That is what I have been doing- slowly increasing the amount of mana I use to empower myself."
Alurial then confirmed his words, explaining the obvious difference between mages and pure body warriors who are extremely proficient in mana enhancement techniques. It was their mana reserves as well as the upper limit of mana they could at a time, with mages having a much greater upper limit, being brought down only due to the lack of physical training on their part.
"So, how comes you are not going a pure mage path?" Veena asked "Isnt the whole blood element and its lack of ordinary element supression in the world enough of a reason to focus there?"
"Besides the whole- blood magic is a vampire only thing?" Rex asked, explaining further "My unique skill set makes better use of a well rounded combat style. And I find it fun. Not to mention it allows me to adapt to any unexpected situation."
"Fair enough I suppose." Conceded Veena.
With kobolds not providing the party enough challenge to properly stimulate their further growth, though mostly being a rather lacking source of revenue, their monster cores selling cheap and having no proper item drops either, they speedran through the sections that they were in, soon after reaching yet another cross-section.
"Dunno about you guys, but I dont feel like hunting monkeys today." Spoke up Meru, clearly hopingfor something else today, making one of their possible paths forward a no go.
"Anyone else has a special interest forming due to the options presented before us?" Samanta asked the party.
"Dont care."
"Whatever." or a simple shrug came from the rest of the team, leaving Samanta with a rather large selection.
"Dont complain later regarding my choice then." she sighed and looked toward the marked tunnels before her.
"Reptiles it is then." she spoke up, signaling the group to follow her. A marking 'Lizardmen ahead' engraved by the path she had chosen.
Lizardmen were a what one would asume the creature looked like based on the name alone. With height of up to two meters, lizards head and tail stuck on a humans body, while covered in scales of various colours and equiped with either clubs or spears. The first group they encountered had six or so members and similarily to the monsters before, they rushed ahead, obviously eager to tear the intruders apart, hiss-like and gurgling sounds coming from their throats as they closed in.
Though there was yet another change that the party had noticed as soon as they started to walk down this particular tunnel. The cave was becoming more and more covered in vegetation, creating a damp and swampy feeling. It was as if the dungeon itself was saying that they are entering a swamp, and thus acting to make the place look like one. While stronger than kobolds, the lizardmen were not quite on the same level as morboon boss, allowing both Rex and Meru to block or parry the incoming strikes without too much issues. Still, the club strikes were quite heavy, forcing the duo to adopt a tactic to parry most attacks and then use whatever opening they were given to inflict wounds. Samanta and therest of the backline di what they do best, peppering the monsterswith ranged attacks whenever they had the chance.
And unlike the day before, where they started late afternoon, this time they had much more time for their delve, even if the girls liked to think by the end of the day they would leave the dungeon, only to come back next day. There were parties that spent rather long time in dungeons, going from days to weeks, sometimes even months, all depending on the size of their groups, amount of support staff taken along, whether they have at least one space mage with them and so on and so forth. Parties of a smaller sizes, around five or so, would ussually try to limit the duration of their delves to a couple of days maximum.
As the hours passed by one after another, their party advanced further ahead, leaving empty path behind them, only the vegetation remaining due to the disipation of their slain enemies corpses. And with every encounter and fight against the lizardmen, it became easier and easier on the party. Rex had increased the distance between himself and therest of the group, having shown his terrifying strenght and precision, serving as a deadly spearhead that would pierce through the armor of their enemies and start wrechking havoc from within, allowing the rest of the group to perform their own tasks.
Flurry of deadly arrows and powerfull fireballs scrattered and disoriented the creatures advancing towards them, while Meru intercepted off whatever got past Rex and the firing squads effective range, though more often than not she was finishing the monsters off. And while they were undoubtedly getting better and better and handling lizardmen, it was also true that the group was getting more and more tired, more so mentaly, since Ria was capable of recovering ones stamina on the go. It was the mental strain and exaustion that starting adventurers have to be carefull about.
Eventually they reached yet another crossroads, with most of the having gone by, the small sand clock around Samantas neck fliped over quite a few times already. For better or worse, they encounered no rare monster of lizardmen origin, ending in a rather calm manner, the party not having experienced any encounters that would endanger their lifes more than prefferably. Luckaly, one of the next segments of their aviable options led to an exit gate, allowing the group to plan an end to the days delve, though they would return home slightly later.
The monsters that stood between them and the exit once again were morboons, thus their path back home was relatively smooth, with a single notable encounter along the way. It was a pack of morboons with an odly colored individual among them, that was a rare variant. Unlike the boss like champion, this particular morboon was of the same size as a regular one, though what made it unique, besides the obvious different coloration was its ability to create fireballs, similar to Alurial, though with a notably worse aim and intelegence to utilize its destructive power properly.
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Upon registering the quickly aproaching Rex, just like an ordinary morboon, the rare variant went into rage induced berserk like state, son trowing its fireballs in Rex's dirrection, not caring much for a concept of friendly fire, causing random explosions and wounding and dispersing its own allies, providing Rex with plenty of space to dance around said fireballs as well as cutting some morboons down as he aproached closer and closer to the main headache of the encounter.
Only once he was in melee, did the fireball barrage from the rare monster stop, it not being stupid enough to try and blow Rex up alongside with it. Unlike humans, monsters had instinctual understanding of their own techniques, allowing them not accidentally kill themselves using something they should not. Still, such a change in their surroundings only served in Rex's favour, providing him a much larger and populated as well, area, where nothing but his quarry would be present.
Even as meru repelled the few morboons that got past Rex, that blood red blade of his own making, as it was swung again and again, heavily supressing and wounding the rare variant as well as shredding any dumb creature that tried to interfere in the abttle of monsters. And as he did so, the rare monster revealed another dangerous technique it had up its sleeve, as it quickly had to pull it out. Heavy punches that exploded with loud booms and plumes of smoke as its fist connected with another surface, exclusively being the ground or dungeon walls. Rex was too fast and slippery for a proper contact against his flesh, allowing him to eventually finish off the monster.
Even Rex did not escape entirely unscathed, a few minor scrathces adorning his form as well as singed clothes, the proof of the high temperatures he had been dealing with. However, it was quite the rich harvest for him as well, since the danger of the monster he had been fighting with had kept Rex at bay, forcing him to chip away at its life, one strike at a time, thus allowing him to absorb more and more blood into his weapon with each sucessfull blow. And the life essence of a rare variant such as this turned out to be quite the quality recourse that he was in need of, giving him progress with his weapon project by quite a large margin. And to add a cherry on top, the monster dropped something rather rare as its dust scattered. Besides the monster core, that was of a bright red shade and radiated warmth, it left behind another bead like object, that, once in Alurial hands, since the group was curious about the bauble, was deemed to enhance the power of fire element mages, strenghtening their ability to controll and mould fire mana outside of their bodies. Something that Alurial was drooling over the entire time they still had to spend within the dungeon.
Once outside, they saw it was close to, if not slightly past midnight, the moon hanging over their heads, as if greeting their return to the surface.
"I am exausted!" Exclaimed Alurial, recieving weird look from Rex and Meru.
"What?!" she exclaimed once she noticed their increduluous but knowing expressions. "Dont look at me like that. I am a back line caster, it is only natural that my physical condition is lacking compared to the rest of you." she complained with overly exagerated gestures, quickly begining to laugh, not able to keep up the act.
"It is so much easier when you are true to yourself, isnt it?" Rex spoke as Samanta activated their beacon, sending signal to the coachman guild for them to be retrieved.
"Mhm." Alurial nodded in agreement to Rex's words, a certain glint in her eyes as she watched him.
It took another half hour of star gazing for the party untill their transportation arrived, bringing them back to the town. The team was quiet and content, each of them already halfway into dreamland. But as they crossed the city gates, both Alurial's and Rex's eyes shot wide open.
"You sensed it too?" Rex asked, noticing the unnaturaly sharp and maybee even frightened half elf.
"What is this ominous feeling?" she asked, clearly uncomfortable. Rex took a deep breath, as if the action would help him determine a proper answer to the question posed.
"That is tainted mana. A phenomenon when a large scale spell is formed and the caster, or casters, are not skilled enough with either the spell itself, their ability to perform group casting, or possibly the school of magic entirely. Either way, a grand scale ritual magic has been cast here and extremely recently as well." his face was dead serious as he added "I smell serious trouble brewing."
His words forced the rest of the party to grow tense as well, though untill they reached the inn and had at least a bit of rest, if that would be at all possible now, it would be hard to come up with any proper solution to the issue that had cropped up. Rex himself did not offer any additional suggestions at the time either, more focused on a few things he would have to do once back in his room at the inn.
As they entered Luna's Garden, they could see the uncomfortable state their host was, clearly feeling the taint in the air. Noticing their group, she tried to get a smile on her face, resulting in an extremely sad excuse of one. "Welcome back." she 'smiled' at the party.
"Any actual harm coming to you due to the taint? or just extreme discomfort?" Rex asked, causing the dryad to become startled, though noticing the half elf knowingly looking in her dirrection, understanding rose in her eyes.
"Its so bad that ordinary mages can feel it too?" she asked, though the inquiry regarding her condition was answer enough, thus she shook her head off of the question, answering Rex.
"Its very unpleasant. So much so that it is harder to breathe, but that is about it. And once the taint dissipates, I and my girl should be fine."
"Good. If it gets any worse, inform me immediatly." Rex spoke, snickering in his head about the comparison of him to ordinary mages, his voice calm, yet authorative, making Luna feel just a bit better and safer becasue of it. A smiple 'mhm' came out of her on instinct, casuing her to lower her head, a slight blush creeping on her face. 'Look at me, acting like a dutifull and obedient wife. Luna, you are a grown lady!' she panicked and admonished herself in her thoughts. 'He does smell nice though, when not covered in monster blood.'
Unlike his party, after a quick bath, he did not lay to rest immediatly. After all, he was nowhere near as exausted as the girls, nor was he willing to stay unaware of a possible deathtrap hiding within these walls. For a few hours Rex did nothing but concentrate, siphoning and cleansing mana around him, amassing truly incredible anounts within his grasp. Once he was sure he could gather no more, he molded it as much as he could, then released it, creating a massive mana pulse, resulting in an expansive and extremely detailed scan of the entire town.
With sweat covering his forehead, slowly dripping down his face, he exhaled, clearly tired from the action he had just performed. Though his effort was worth it, having learned incredible amount of usefull information that could be used to solve the problem at hand, should he be forced to act. Though with the personalities of the ladies he was in a party with, it was just a matter of time untill they were in the thick of things, earning another sigh from Rex. Women could sometimes be so troublesome. He wondered just how attracted men were to the fairer sex and just how crazy shit they were willing to deal with for some fun times. Physical or otherwise. And while he had quite a bit of clues to follow regarding the ritual, he did not found anyone he could classify as the culprit of the event. Likely they hadd already left the town, or dispersed and returned to their normal personas.
There was little talk in the morning, each member of the party deep in their own thoughts. Both Rex and Alurial could feel that the taint was just slightly lower than it had been in the previous evening, though only by a small margin. Their senses were proven to be correct as Luna seemed just a bit more comfortable than a day before. She did confirm what their senses told them. It was only when they reached the guild that they learned about a rather significant clue he had not picked up in his scan before rest about the cause of all of this.
"How many does that make?" Rex asked one of the receptionists, a grim expression marring his face.
"More than a hundred." the receptioninst replied, his face as glum and strained as one could imagine. Said receptionist lived in this town and unlike most adventurers, could not just collect his stuff and leave it all behind. A simple ritual gone slightly wrong was one thing, one that possibly sacrificed over hundred lives to achieve something- a big ass problem.
"Thats terrible!" Exclaimed Ria, turning her puppy eyes to Rex "We can help them somehow, right?"
"What do I look like? Support center?" he hopelessy looked at the busty blonde, no other words coming to his mind. Ria, in turn, used her feminine viles, grabbing one his arm and pulling it to her chest, enveloping it in fluffy softness, eyes firmly locked on Rex's own.
"Fine, I will se what we can do, but it will take some time. And I have a rather powerfull suspicion that the missing people might already have perished." He replied, already cooking up a few possible plans of action against their sudden issue. It was no longer a simple wait and see scenario.