Chapter Forty

Seconds later, they circled above a small clearing with several lizards basking on rocks.

Since the snake seemed to want to target the creatures, he prodded the line of communication to get her attention as to not startle her. He couldn’t trust himself not to drop her if she jerked in surprise. “So, what’s the plan?”

The snake eyed the lizards below for a couple of seconds with a hint of anger. “Do that dive trick. We will blitz them. If we don’t, they will run away.”

“Will the momentum stall for you too?”

Arden’s talons strained as the snake tensed. “Don’t worry about me.”

Deciding not to pressure her further, Arden orientated himself downward and let gravity take him down. Despite her words, he tried his best to tuck the snake into his body to ensure he didn’t drop her.

His worries turned out to be pointless as just as he shifted to his humanoid form, so did she. However, unlike him, she shifted right back to being a snake and struck the first lizard before he even landed.

Fortunately, he timed it better this time, landing without even needed to roll. Taking the snake’s advice, he struck out with his staff at the nearest lizard. His eyes widened as the staff collided with the lizard. Instead of the expected impact, the lizard simply disintegrated into particles, then entered the staff.

While the snake latched onto another lizard with her fangs, Arden dropped his staff, not noticing it vanish before it hit the ground as he grabbed his bow. With a fluid motion far easier than before, he grabbed an arrow and pulled the bow back.

The arrow flew true, skewering the last lizard to a tree. This time, instead of the staff stealing the particles, they split like his previous kills. A card formed on the ground where the lizard died while the rest entered his bracelets.

Just like that, it was over. The fight, or more like a slaughter, lasted maybe ten seconds.

Arden glanced at the snake, who flashed to her humanoid form just long enough to stuff her cards in some storage device wrapped around her right forearm above her Ortus bracelet. The moment she touched the cards to the dark green scaled device, the cards disappeared, not unlike how they entered an Ortus bracelet.

That hinted her background. Even his parents didn’t have a storage device. They had to use more mundane methods. She definitely had a rich background, which explained her attitude.

He did a quick scan with his mana sense, causing the girl to stiffen and shift back to her snake form, but it was long enough for him to spot several other enchanted items.

Maybe that was why she stayed in her snake form even though she wasn’t trapping in her aspect form anymore. She carried a fortune on her and at her current strength that made her a big target.

Did she think he would rob her? There had to be more to it. She seemed uncomfortable being in her humanoid form for some reason.

Whatever her reasons, as long as it didn’t affect him, he didn’t care. He was curious and no more. Most likely, once they left the dungeon, she would go back to her rich life and he would go parent hunting for some answers.

Arden put the girl out of his mind and focused on his sole piece of loot, which turned out to be a mixed bag. He wanted to stockpile nature affinity cards, but the card could come in handy.

Dash (Common) Level 1

Type: Ability

Affinity: None

Attunement: None

Effect 1: Use mana to dash forward. Speed boost applied and time active scaled by level. Current improvement 10 percent and 1 second. Must be in the user’s active hand.

He could see uses for the card, but for now he didn’t want to add it to his deck. If it was like his other lower rarity cards, it would level on each kill, which would help, but maybe it would be better to experiment with it a bit before leveling it.

Besides, if their other ambushes worked like this one, he wouldn’t need a little speed boost. He had his bow, after all. Once they completed their time in the dungeon, he would decide what he wanted to add to his deck unless something amazing dropped.

He had a feeling most of the cards would be a lower rarity. They were just killing regular dungeon creatures. From the reading he did, just getting as many cards as he had outside of challenges was abnormal. It might be because the dungeon wasn’t regularly run.

The studies he read regularly run dungeons like those near a city had a much lower chance of dropping cards from killing. Really, the only way to get cards from those dungeons regularly was to complete the dungeon or challenges. That was why newly discovered dungeons were so prized.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He didn’t doubt some powerful families had hidden private dungeons, too. Despite himself, he glanced back at the snake at that thought. With the wealth she displayed, her family probably had one such dungeon.

Arden scooped up the card and stuffed it in his shorts pocket, wincing when he felt how tattered the robe felt. It was ceremonial, not meant to dungeon delve. Just the fact it survived as long as it did was a miracle.

Now that he had his bird form, its stealthy strained appearance lost its value, but for now he would keep it.

Done with his looting, he turned his attention to the snake, who was once more in humanoid form. Jealousy sparked when he noticed the two lizard bodies remained behind, unlike his.

That meant she had a card to stop them from dispersing. Nothing could stop the mana system collapse that created the cards or essence drops, but some cards could hold the body together for crafting materials or sustenance.

Now that he thought about it, when was the last time he ate? Before his Ortus induction? He would need to find food once he left the dungeon. Maybe the life mana in the dungeon sustained him. Normal dungeons didn’t sustain the delvers.

In fact, many delvers needed to bring extra food because fighting and traversing difficult environments burned a lot of energy.

Whatever the reason, he was thankful. It was much easier to focus on survival when one didn’t have to hunt for a food source. Especially when he didn’t have a card like hers to harvest meat. Plus, without a card to identify what vegetation was edible, it would be dangerous to find food. Though he could tell if something was poisonous at least but that did nothing for something toxic to him.

Another clue his parents knew what was in the dungeon. They knew he didn’t know forest survival and didn’t have cards to support him, so they had to know he didn’t need them. As hard as they were on him during training, they wouldn’t put him in a situation where he couldn’t find food.

The first mission post dungeon would definitely be some parent hunting. They owed him a lot of answers.

As he mulled over different methods of ambushing his parents, most involving his bird form, he watched the girl dismantle the lizards. Jealousy once again sparked when she didn’t use a knife or any tool but instead made a few hand motions and the lizards came apart into perfectly useable parts.

She eyed them with a critical eye before nodding her head. In the next moment, a similarly scaly device cinched around her left forearm flashed and everything vanished.

As soon as she finished her looting, she shifted back to her snake form and looked toward Arden, pointing her tail toward the sky as if to command him.

Arden released a sigh then shifted into his bird form, but instead of going to her like she seemed to want, he remained where he was.

They stared at each other for several seconds before she hissed in annoyance but slithered toward him. She straightened herself on the ground before going limp, allowing him to grasp her with his talons, then spread his wings.

Since the clearing was far smaller, he couldn’t take his usual gradual ascent. He had to take a bit more vertical route. With some practice, he knew he could do a tighter spiral, but with the scaly cargo, he didn’t trust himself. Though now that he knew she could also stall her momentum, the danger of killing her from dropping her was quite low. No wonder she allowed him to carry her.

He flapped his wings as hard as he could, feeling himself lift off the ground, then he pointed his beak toward the sky and continued to flap. This was the test to see if he could fly vertically up the tunnel.

It turned out he could. His wings ached even with support from his mana, but he climbed above the treetops. He released an internal sigh of relief when he leveled off, only to wince as a throbbing ache radiated through his wings.

The snake pointed to their right once more, but he spent a minute casually gliding in a loose circle to let his wings recover first. She shifted, hissing in frustration, but he ignored her.

If she wanted a free ride, she would have to deal with it. Once he got used to his bird form, a bit more ascents like that wouldn’t be a problem, but for now, he needed recovery time.

When the throbbing died down, he orientated himself in the direction she pointed and took off at a moderate speed. He almost chirped in surprise when he found his wings propel him effortlessly forward.

Not only did they recover, but they also strengthened. It wasn’t a big jump, but it was noticeable. Hopefully, it wasn’t a onetime occurrence.

His flight didn’t last long, as the next clearing wasn’t far away. This time a pond took up most of the clearing, fortunately lily pad free.

Two things became obvious to him as he circled above. One, there was a messy wood structure under the surface of the water, and two, the water was like the lily pad pond. As in it wasn’t water but liquid nature mana.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the snake eying the pond with eyes full of greed and he couldn’t blame her. Even though they eclipsed the pond in strength, it was still a valuable resource. He had a feeling whatever creature lived within wasn’t her target, just in the way.

Like the previous ambush, he dived, then shifted to stall momentum. As his momentum stalled, the snake continued shooting downward, right into the pond. Her tiny form barely made a splash.

He landed on the shore and looked down to find the structure crumble, then everything stilled. Nothing happened for several seconds, causing him to worry the snake got herself killed. Only for a moment though, as a slightly higher-pitched voice than normal spoke in his mind. “Help me drag this thing out. It’s too heavy.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself? I doubt it would be an issue with your Fae form.”

“Can’t, busy.”

Arden’s eyes narrowed. He peered downward with all his senses to find the snake coiled up at the center of the pond next to a brown furred creature. There had to be a reason she stayed in her snake form in the pond. The answer came seconds later as a dark liquid oozed out of her, not unlike his accidental dip in the last pond.

Realization dawned, causing him to walk into the pond which reached up to his chest. Unlike his last dip, he barely felt the dense mana. His own mana eclipsing what the pond had.

He bent down and grabbed the creature and tossed it out of the pond. Then, out of curiosity, he shifted into his bird form to see if it affected him.

The answer was yes and then some. Fire burned through his smaller feathered body, purifying it. It didn’t add to his mana core, but that didn’t mean the rest of his body didn’t benefit. Strength filled him with each heartbeat, washing away any aches he had.

Since he knew he could escape by shifting back, he relaxed, allowing the liquid mana to do its work.

His parents always warned him to only drink small doses of liquid mana, which he didn’t follow even by accident, but the danger of damaging his mana system disappeared, since he was stronger.

It shouldn’t affect him, and it didn’t in his humanoid form, but that wasn’t the case for his nature-based aspect form. No wonder creatures loved to live in liquid mana.

Besides, even if it didn’t strengthen him, it felt too good to leave.