Chapter Fifty-One

As he fell, he felt himself pass a barrier, then his surroundings changed.

The moment it did, he shifted back to his Fae form, mind snapping back into focus as he landed on the ashy ground.

He took a moment to scan the burned forest. Well, not quite burned. While the ground was ash and the tree bark looked charred, red leaves covered branches. The trees were very much alive, but he wasn’t sure how.

Was the dungeon even nature attuned? A quick scan with his mana sense gave him the answer. It wasn’t a pure nature attuned dungeon. The only nature mana he felt was wood, but several more unfamiliar attunements had a strong presence.

It felt similar to the first trial he stumbled across, which rejected him. That didn’t give him confidence on his compatibility with the dungeon. Though compatibility didn’t stop delvers from beating a dungeon, it just made it harder.

In case the team followed him in, he took off into a sprint to put some distance between him and the dungeon entrance.

However, as he ran, a problem presented itself. Like the desert he grew up in, he left footprints.

That discovery caused him to pause. He retraced his steps while wiping away his footprints, then eyed the trees while standing on a root to stop any further footprints.

An idea sparked. With practiced ease, he created wood spikes climbing up the tree, but unlike his ladders to the platforms, he didn’t tie the spikes into the ambient mana.

Instead, once he reached a climbable branch, he released his connection to the spikes, removing any trace.

Just in time too, as the group of five entered the dungeon soon after. Unlike his rather sudden entrance, they walked down the steep path in formation with the largest armored figure at the front.

He held his breath as they stopped at the base of his tree. They scanned their immediate surroundings, still in a diamond formation. A few hand signs flashed between the group, then they fanned out.

To his surprise, instead of remaining as a group, each member ran off on their own. Soon, all but one left his sense range.

Wouldn’t it be smarter to delve as a group? That was how most ran public dungeons. Maybe the private dungeon incentivized individual achievements.

Whatever the reason, it worked out for him. He could handle one of them at a time, but not the entire group. That didn’t mean he wanted to face any of them.

Could he sneak back out of the dungeon? That meant leaving footprints, though. What about teleporting out with his territory card?

He connected to his territory card, but while it activated, when he willed it to teleport him, nothing happened.

That was when his bracelets began flashing, prompting him to hide them in his robe as the tall figure remained standing under the tree.

Unlike the rest of his group, he appeared in no hurry to leave. In fact, he seemed extra cautious. His head swiveled as he surveyed his surroundings, looking for something.

All Arden could do was hide in his tree and hope he didn’t look up. Fortunately, his tattered robe stained with a mix of green, brown, gray and now black from the charred trunk provided good camouflage.

That didn’t mean someone wouldn’t spot him if they looked up. Good thing was few people ever looked up, and that applied to the figure below him as he soon gave up looking for whatever he was looking for, probably his bird form.

Booted feet marched in the direction Arden originally ran, uncaring if he left a trail.

Arden didn’t move until he left his sense range. When he did, he climbed higher, stopping when the branches became too thin to hold his weight. He sent a mana stream down his soul tether, hoping to shift to his bird form, but like the teleportation attempt, he didn’t transform.

This time, he knew why. While he didn’t transform, he got a response, and it wasn’t good. His bird form was going to be out of commission for a while. He got the feeling if he transformed, it would endanger his life.

That didn’t mean his aspect would die. It just needed time to recover. How much time that was he didn’t know.

Just like his last dungeon delve, he would need to travel on foot. Well, maybe not, but he had something to check before he made any plans. His bracelets continued to flash, insisting he check them.

When he opened his Ortus menu, a notification waited for him, giving him flashbacks to his last dungeon delve.

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Territory Quest Unlocked!

Complete The Ash Forest.

Reward: Dungeon Claim.

Dungeon claim? Would that mean he would gain control over the dungeon? Maybe that was why his territory teleport didn’t work. Someone else controlled the dungeon. If that was the case, was his territory teleport as useful as he thought it was? It didn’t say it, but it seemed like he needed to be within his territory to use it.

He hoped that wasn’t the case, otherwise it would be dangerous to leave the territory. What if someone attacked when they were somewhere else? The biggest advantage of the teleport was to return to the core quick. There had to be more to it.

Like everything else, it seemed he needed to do some testing. Unfortunately, like everything else, he also had to put it off until later.

Now the question was, did he want to complete the dungeon or make his escape? He doubted it was a good idea to steal a dungeon from whoever claimed it. Or did they claim it? Maybe the dungeon was unclaimed, and they discovered it.

Either way, it didn’t change the fact his claiming may cause issues. He wasn’t strong enough to hold a claim on a dungeon. Especially one so far from the territory core.

Still, the idea of claiming a dungeon intrigued him. Was intrigue worth the risk? He could leave the dungeon right now.

A sigh escaped him. No, it wasn’t worth it. Maybe if he had his aspect, but not as he was.

Arden climbed down the tree, senses spread wide in case someone returned, but no one did as he stepped onto the ashy ground.

As he walked toward the dungeon exit, he used his feet to wipe away his footprints. When he took a step onto the steep path, his foot met a barrier not unlike the one he passed on his entrance. His bracelets flashed, prompting him to open his Ortus menu, hoping to find the answer.

Territory Quest Unlocked!

Complete The Ash Forest.

Reward: Dungeon Claim.

Warning! Active Quest Detected. Exit Prohibited.

A growl of frustration escaped as he glared at the text. He never accepted the quest. What right did Ortus have in forcing him to stay?

That question dumped a bucket of cold water on his anger. Ortus didn’t need a reason. When he accepted induction, he also accepted Ortus’s influence over his life. The power it granted had strings attached. Ortus had a vision it wanted to make happen, and it used them to fulfill it. That meant it wanted him to complete the quest.

It didn’t influence him in how he completed it though. Could he take a shortcut? A previous idea he had came back to him, prompting him to retrace his steps back to the tree, yet again wiping away his footprints.

Once again, he climbed the tree with wood spikes, then perched on a thick branch. He eyed the other nearby trees with a calculating look.

His parents used their element to travel. Why couldn’t he? A forest to a nature mage was like a desert to a sand mage.

Arden activated his Nature Manipulation and reached out to the nearest tree. It connected with no problem, though a frown formed at the mana drain.

The card wasn’t nearly as efficient as it was before. Not that it was efficient in the first place. Maybe because the trees weren’t fully wood attuned. They were some hybrid. Still, his idea may work. It would just be a bit more costly.

He willed a nearby branch to bend in his direction. A smile formed as it followed his wishes. To save on mana, he ran to the next tree, using the branches as a bridge.

As soon as he stepped onto the branch, he cut his control, then continued on.

Fortunately for his mana the next tree was close enough to jump to.

It was slow going, but he made steady progress deeper into the dungeon. Nothing jumped out at him as he hopped from tree to tree like a squirrel only using his Nature Manipulation when the gap was too much to safely jump.

Using the same trick as the last dungeon, he used his mana sense to direct him toward the stronger ambient mana. It wasn’t as drastic of a change, but there was a slight difference. That also clued him in to another quality of the dungeon.

Before, he only checked the dungeon affinity, but when he inspected the mana density, he found it wanting. The dungeon barely qualified as grade one, the minimum for a dungeon.

It was like it was starving. Based on the environment outside, he could see why. Dungeons had a symbiotic relationship with their environment and delvers. Probably the only thing keeping it alive was the delvers and even then, it was just barely.

That meant he doubted he would find many card drops. If he found any creatures at all. Maybe that was why the group split up. They knew kills were slim, so they needed to spread out to find prey.

Still, a starving dungeon was dangerous. Sometimes even more so. Starvation brought desperation. It wouldn’t surprise him if the dungeon had some deadly trap to kill delvers. A healthy dungeon didn’t need to kill the delvers, only feed on the magic they used to survive, but a starving dungeon may be desperate to bite the hand that fed it.

Best to get the dungeon over with as quick as he could. His parents gave him several books on dungeon behavior, and every one of them agreed it was best to finish a starving dungeon as fast as possible. A healthy dungeon was more than willing to let the delver take their time, but not a starving dungeon.

Fortunately, he already felt the ambient mana level off, peaking a hair above grade one. If it was anything like the last dungeon, that meant he neared the dungeon core. The dungeon was tiny, if that was the case. Not unusual for staring dungeons, though.

A dungeon core was exactly what he found upon jumping to the next tree. Not unlike his last dungeon, there was a crystal in a clearing, but a frown formed as it appeared unguarded.

No dungeon boss? His last dungeon wasn’t the usual type either, but most dungeons he read about had a boss.

Well, he supposed the trial dungeon also had a boss. The fairies were definitely strong enough to qualify as a boss, but they didn’t seem to be the requirement to complete the dungeon.

It was hard to tell, but as his class card quest muddled things, but the trials were probably the primary focus of that dungeon.

He scrutinized the crystal and the clearing, looking for any trap, but no matter how hard he looked, nothing jumped out at him.

In fact, when he checked the melody, he heard a weak but light tune proving the dungeon core meant him no harm. The melody was so weak he wasn’t sure how it survived. Worse, the tune became weaker by the moment.

Arden’s eyes widened. He flashed back to the browning garden. Maybe they didn’t hide the garden but instead used it to keep the dungeon on life support. He broke the seal, damaging the garden and accidentally hurt the dungeon.

His forceful entry popped a hole in its airline, and like the diver underwater, the dungeon was suffocating.

An air line for a dungeon that didn’t have a backup tank.