Chapter Forty-One

Unfortunately, as with all good things, it didn’t last long. With the two of them benefiting from the pond, the liquid mana turned murky quick.

Maybe a minute after they entered, they had to leave as they felt the toxins they expelled were trying to absorb back in. Arden had to push the toxic mana out and create a barrier as he waddled out of the pond.

That turned out to be a stupid idea as the liquid mana stopped any attempt to fly out, and he was far too short to reach the surface. The bird form wasn’t meant to swim, either. He unfortunately didn’t gain the crazy versatility a duck had.

Instead, he shifted to his humanoid form and climbed out before shifting back to his bird form on the shore.

A sigh of relief left him that sounded more like a soft squawk when he found the liquid mana didn’t ruin his feathers. In fact, they looked better than ever. They were a deep black with a slight greenish tint, barely noticeable unless in the light. He would have zero problems ambushing in the dark. Couple that with the snake’s dark scales that were very similar shade to his feathers, they made for a perfect ambush pair.

Unfortunately, the dungeon was always lit. He supposed it made sense as plants thrived in the light. Though he had to wonder about fungi. There were plenty of shadows from the canopy, but they didn’t seem to have a designated area in the dungeon. At least, none that he found.

Speaking of the snake, she had no such problems leaving the pond. She swam through the liquid mana like she moved on the ground by slithering, almost like how an eel swam. The near vertical ascent to the surface didn’t give her trouble either.

Unlike him, she seemed perfectly adapted to her aspect. She had to be if what she said was true. As much as he liked his bird form, he couldn’t imagine living as one for months. It was a part of him now, but it wasn’t the whole of him. Flying was awesome, giving him an enormous range of travel, but he liked to be on land as well.

If only he had his bird form from the beginning. From the sky, it was obvious the fairy clearing was the target of his quest, so he would have flown directly there and likely gotten the update to do the trials. Still, the initial survival taught him a lot. Sometimes the easy way out wasn’t the best way.

Like the previous clearing, the snake shifted to her humanoid form just long enough to dismantle her kill. At least he thought it was a kill. A shiver ran through him when he witnessed her stab down into the creature that looked like a small beaver. Only then did she receive essence and the card which she instantly stashed in her card storage device. Apparently, the creature he thought was dead was only paralyzed.

Would that have been his fate if he hadn’t escaped their first few meetings? Fortunately, he did escape. He didn’t want to find out if she would have trapped him inside his own body with her venom.

Though knowing what he knew now, he found it doubtful she would have gone that far. Maybe at first to gain the upper hand, but she needed him so she wouldn’t have killed him but still the thought of the possibility terrified him.

Good thing he was mostly immune to her venom in his humanoid form now and he could shift at a moment’s notice.

What if she bit him in the air, though? Sure, he could shift to kill downward momentum, but with his bird form paralyzed, there would be no recovering from that. The only reason he knew that wouldn’t happen was the fact she needed him.

She had the upper hand in her snake form against his bird form, but he had the upper hand against her snake form in his humanoid form. The best she could do was take advantage of her speed, but her venom was useless. Who knew what she was capable of in her humanoid form, though?

At least for now he could trust her because of their circumstances, but it might be a good idea to distance himself once they escaped the dungeon. She was too much of a wild card that could spell his end, and he hated risks he couldn’t mitigate.

If he dropped her in the sand and took to the air, he doubted she could follow him. Though there was a chance she could track him down for revenge. She tracked him through the dungeon. Best to part ways as amiable as possible.

As he thought that, the snake slithered over to him and made herself easy to pick up, skipping the stand off from the previous ambush.

Not wanted to waste any more time, he grabbed her with his talons and took flight, finding it easier than ever to fly near vertical over the treetops. Soon, he would be ready to escape the dungeon. He might be able to pull it off as he was, but best to milk the dungeon for all it had first and perfect his flight as best he could.

Like the previous ambushes, the snake pointed her tail in the direction she wanted to go. Fortunately, his wings felt good enough to continue on right away.

When they reached their target, he slowed and circled, unsure of how to attack. Instead of a clearing, there was a dark hole he was glad he didn’t find by accident when he ran through the forest. It would have been a bad end to fall into it.

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The problem was he couldn’t see what laid inside, making him hesitant to dive, but the snake seemed confident. If he had to guess, this was the fungi environment he had wondered about earlier. He had an epic rank resistance card, so he should be fine.

On that thought, he orientated himself downward and descended, pointing his beak toward the hole. The moment he plunged into the hole, darkness smothered him. Panic hit, causing him to shift to his humanoid form to stall momentum, earning an annoyed hiss which turned to a feminine squeak as she shifted to her humanoid form as well.

His panic turned out to be pointless as a moment later, he landed on something soft and springy. Still blind from the sudden change of light to dark, he couldn’t tell what it was for sure, but it felt like a type of moss.

Soon his vision adjusted, giving him a dim view of his surroundings. Just in time, too. Movement all around him caught his eye, but the snake next to him seemed unbothered. In fact, she shot forward toward the first target just after he noticed them. It went down the instant she struck.

Any further view paused as he jumped to his feet, ready to bring down his staff on his foes. Only to realize he didn’t have the staff in his hand. He still felt it, though. That was probably why he didn’t notice it wasn’t in his hand.

Despite the hostile territory, he felt at his connection to his staff. When he did, a pulse of mana shot down his tether, not unlike how he shifted.

In the next moment, his staff appeared in front of him, allowing him to grab it. As soon as he did, he couldn’t help but marvel how perfect it felt in his hand. It was like it was made for him, which he supposed it was.

Like with the lizards, the moment it contacted what he could best describe was a living mushroom, the creature vanished in motes of light and entered the staff. Another attacked undeterred by its fallen brethren, but when it too met the same fate, something shifted within the dark cavern.

The mushroom creatures didn’t attack far from it. Instead, they dipped their mushroom tops to him in what he assumed was a sign of respect, then as one disappeared into motes of light and entered the staff.

Said staff gobbled them all down like the glutton it was, the capacity seemingly endless. An annoyed hiss reached his ears, but he continued to stare at the staff in wonder.

Did they commit suicide to honor the staff or something? He prodded the staff with his senses, gasping when he felt something other than mana within. Curious, he grabbed at it, causing motes of light to leave the staff and form a card in front of him.

Since the card glowed, he could read it even in the dark. It had a green eye just like his own, surrounded by black. When he read the description, his heart leaped. Did the staff make the card or was this the reward for killing the mushroom people? He wasn’t sure, but something so valuable probably wouldn’t come from regular monsters unless he got really lucky.

Enhance Dark Vision

Type: One Time Use

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Biological

Effect: Upon inserting enhance dark vision into one’s deck, the card will enhance the user’s vision while in dark environments. The card will disappear after use.

Without hesitation, he added it to his deck, feeling another card activate he recognized as his Biological Boost. A smile formed, realizing his boost card affected permanent boosts as well.

He would hunt down as many boosts as he could. His staff grew warm as well, probably the attribute enhancement he saw at work as the Enhance Dark Vision activated. Unlike the Race Purification card, Ortus didn’t ask for confirmation. Probably because it was a beneficial enhancement without destroying cards or causing drastic changes. At least, he hoped.

His answer came within seconds as a burning in his eyes caused him to squint, but it passed soon after. When it did, the surrounding cavern came into view as if bathed in light. Unlike the dark vision he read about, the colors weren’t washed out, nor was it black and white. It was like he was standing outside.

However, when he accidentally caught sight of the light streaming in from the hole above, lava burned through his eyes. He dropped his staff, causing it to disappear once more, and clutched his face as mana pumped into his eyes to help heal them.

Fortunately, the damage didn’t seem major as the pain dimmed soon after, but to avoid a similar situation in the future, he vowed to avoid looking at light while in dark environments.

That sounded like it would be hard to pull off. He would need to do some testing. There had to be limits, otherwise the boost would be more of a curse than a boon.

On that thought, he opened his eyes to find the cavern dim once more, but steadily growing more detailed. He focused inward, finding a stream of mana feeding his eyes more than before. Upon grabbing the stream, his vision fluctuated as if messing with a weak mana connection to a light.

Out of curiosity, he created a ring of mental energy to force a set amount of mana to his eyes and found his vision stabilize to higher detail than his previous dark vision, but not the vivid detail. He glanced up at the light above and felt a warming in his eyes, but it was tolerable.

Good, he didn’t cripple himself with the in hindsight impulsive use of the card. He just had to take active control when it was in use. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to adjust, as if something aided him. Once he set a level, it stayed that way without active input.

The card was definitely a boon. Never would he be blind in a dark environment, but it wasn’t a one-of-a-kind enhancement. There were tons of ways people improved their dark vision. Even he knew of multiple cards that had a similar effect, and that wasn’t counting enchanted items.

The advantage of his method was he didn’t need to spend money on an enchanted item and the card wouldn’t take up deck space. It might even work inside the Ortus bracelet suppression effect in cities. All in all, a nice boon.

Even with his enhanced dark vision, it took him a moment to spot the dark snake, who looked up at him with envy. She couldn’t complain. So far, she gained more than him during their ambushes. Only time would tell if that would remain to be the case as they continued.

After shifting into his bird form and grabbing the snake, he spread his wings and shot upward, finding the dark vision still active in his bird form, proving the Ortus bracelets didn’t control the ability. He cut the stream off, causing the effect to cease all together as he flew upward.

With ease, he flew back up into the forest and above the treetops. A perfect test to see if he could fly up the tunnel leading out.

It wouldn’t be long now until he left the dungeon. A shot of apprehension tinged with worry hit him at the thought of leaving.

He couldn’t find himself looking forward to it, as leaving the dungeon meant he would lose the comforting feeling of nature mana surrounding him.