Temperance slashed through some large foliage with a Reining Winds sword and dispelled the sword before continuing to walk, with Skull trailing behind him on all fours. As he continued to walk, Temperance felt something cold touch his left hand, and when he glanced down to look, he saw that Skull was sniffing his left hand. Temperance rolled his eyes followed by Skull abruptly climbing onto Temperance's left arm and continuing to sniff it.
"Do you mind?" Temperance asked with a mildly irritated tone. Skull peered up at Temperance as she climbed up Temperance's body and laid belly-down on Temperance's head.
"Something's odd about your...," Skull muttered before she sniffed Temperance's hair.
"My...?". Skull quietly purred as she mused over what it was she found odd about Temperance.
"Mana... yeah your mana and other energies smell peculiar," Skull muttered as she buried her face in Temperance's hair. Temperance mentally groaned and remarked to himself that Kannachi said the same thing when they met. Temperance felt Skull get heavier as she pressed her body against the back of his head.
"Could you not-," Temperance muttered before he realised Skull had fallen asleep. Temperance rolled his eyes and decided he'll wake her once they get to the mana source.
A few minutes of non-stop walking later, Temperance arrived at the entrance of a large cave that he knew was an entrance to the magic dungeon, as he saw mana (of various colours) spiralling around and into the cave. Temperance crossed his arms as he examined the dungeon's mana flow and confirmed he could probably handle it, even if he were alone. Temperance went to speak but was interrupted by the vibrations of Skull silently snoring.
"We're here," Temperance stated as he raised a hand in front of Skull's head before he snapped his fingers, making Skull's ears perk up. Skull kept her face in Temperance's hair and even pretended to still be asleep by fake snoring. Temperance rolled his eyes with a fed-up demeanour.
"Just to let you know, you didn't make any sound when you were asleep," Temperance stated loudly, shortly followed by Skull slowly raising her head and glaring into the large cave in front of the duo. Skull flopped off Temperance and landed on her feet.
"Alright! First to reach the boss room gets to fight them!" Skull cheerfully exclaimed; she blitzed off into the cave with Lightning Amp lightning trailing behind her before Temperance could even respond. Temperance sighed and muttered something under his breath before activating his own Lightning Amp, at a low level, and rushing after Skull.
As the two kitsunes disappeared into the cave, a tall reflective metalic humanoid figure loomed high in the sky above the cave as they stood on a floating magic platform (a platform made of mana). The figure's single large glowing red dot-shaped eye examined the cave.
"Magic Dungeon Type: Complete. Dungeon Level: B. Calculating probability of unit needing to interfere with Lady Skullnaia's antics... .... .... 43%," the figure stated with a deep synthesized male voice, which was immediately followed by a large explosion and a large plum of dark smoke erupting out from the cave, as the sound of Skull maniacally giggling accompanied the smaller explosions.
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"61%," the figure stated as they heard a beep in their head. The figure sighed and pointed one of their hands into the air behind themselves before firing a concentrated dark blue ion energy beam; shortly followed by the body of a large winged monster plummeting behind the figure and crashing into the ground below with a loud thud.
A thin laser-pointer beam shot out from the figure's eye before the beam formed into a screen (like the floating ones seen in sci-fi movies/shows) that showed Temperance.
"Individual known as Temperance diagnostics show that 2% of his magical energy, 3% of his kai and 10% of his qi is not his own, is what you were going to say right Neo Xero?," Hika (wearing a super sci-fi, magic highschool outfit) remarked cheekily as the glowing red dot stared at the floating Hika. Hika complained it was too dark and proceeded to create a ball of light that illuminated the area while revealing Neo Xero (he had slightly large black spikey metal hair with dark blue tips, slightly large plated dark silver arms and legs; darksteel chest, armoured arms and feet, dark blue gems embedded in his hands).
"Your commentary is not required, Hika-01," Xero stated monotonously, making Hika poutingly squint her eyes and stick her tongue out at Xero. Hika asked Xero why they were waiting outside the dungeon given Skull's track record. Xero explained that since Skull has a companion with her then he doesn't need to assist unless something dire happens.
"Dire... like?" Hika asked. Xero went through a variety of different circumstances that Skull put herself in where Xero needed to intervene, until coming to one that applied to this situation.
"A cave-in," Xero stated. Hika thought about Xero's answer before nervously giggling upon remembering the event Xero was referring to. Xero crossed his arms and Hika silently read a text message on her phone-shaped lime-green floating screen.
Inside the magic dungeon, torrents of lightning-coated fireballs rocketed through a stone-brick corridor and straight for a group of worn-down armoured skeleton soldiers; the fireballs slammed into the skeletons before they were instantly obliterated by the resulting explosion. Dust clouds littered the hallway before Skull pierced through the dust clouds and maniacally laughed as she soared through the air before she landed on the ground and surfed down the hallway on a metal shield.
Skull deviously grinned with her sharp shark-like teeth as she watched Temperance zip past her. Temperance brandished two mana swords (a Raging Blade sword and a Lightning Phantom sword) before swiftly slashing through the horde of skeleton soldiers and only leaving charred bones behind as Skull rode past them on the metal shield. Temperance stopped at a T-shaped cross-section before the shield Skull was previously on slammed into the wall when Skull jumped off it and landed next to Temperance.
"Urrm...," Skull uttered as she looked between the two hallways. As Skull continued to look between the two paths, Temperance was looking at the wall the shield struck and noticed one of its bricks was slightly pushed back. Temperance started to walk toward the slightly damaged wall and Skull looked at him with a confused expression. Temperance pulled his swords back before dual-slashing the wall and creating a mini explosion from the mixing of fire and lighting mana. The wall instantly crumbled and revealed a hidden tunnel.
"Woah, a secret tunnel," Skull murmured as she peered down the new tunnel. Seemingly remembering she had challenged Temperance to a race, Skull quickly jumped in front of Temperance before booking it down the tunnel while cheerfully singing the phrase secret tunnel. Temperance sighed and slashed the head off the skeleton standing behind him before jogging down the secret tunnel.
Meanwhile, in Crystal's pocket dimension, the three sisters were wearing animal onesies and laying in sleeping bags while being in a room that was simulating being in a forest. Crystal had an annoyed expression on her face while Kannachi and Merrybel were sleeping like rocks.
"Should have figured this was what she meant," Crystal murmured before she closed her eyes and angrily went to sleep.