Mash didn’t know what he would need for the dungeon, but he felt comfortable with the range of his draconic domain and decided to improve his strength. The upgrade would hopefully be more useful for the immediate future. The changes he made to his stats were paltry, and the thing that actually drew his attention was the fact that he had become closer to achieving the True Body. What had he done that could have brought him closer to it? Was it possible that looking for a hobby had been the cause? That didn’t make any sense, and he tried to figure out what else he had done recently.
As he thought about it, he remembered what had happened with his earrings. That might have been the cause. It had certainly felt like it would have been good enough. He tried recreating the feeling now. He was lying in his bed and tried channeling some mana into the tattoos beneath his ears. When he realized that nothing was happening, he pushed more mana but also tried moving it to replicate the earlier effect. Priscilla had been watching at the time and gave him some directions for it.
Eventually, he felt the mana click into place, and his consciousness was carried away. The fact that the feeling matched his class advancements bothered him a little, but he didn’t try and resist the transition. Soon he found himself standing in that space again. The enormous tree with the strange fruit standing tall before him. The strange marks in the sky, and the clouds of the class system. All was laid out plainly and looking at them like this made him feel a bit better. Everything seemed much more manageable now that he could see it.
Curious about the fruit, he approached the tree again. This time Jill wouldn’t interrupt him, and he reached the tree unimpeded. Once he got closer, he noticed that the tree had things engraved into the scales. Several of them depicted other creatures and they were obviously meant to reflect his other transformations. He noticed a shift in scales so that they resembled Priscilla rather than the dragon. The strangest thing he saw was the patch of fur on the back of the tree, and he was disgusted by the decaying portion caused by the demonic beings. Looking at the tree closely he was surprised at how easy it was to understand the different parts he saw.
More than the physical manifestations of his forms, there were also subtle displays of his affinities. He could tell what each affinity was, and also realized that the ones he used more had more significant impacts on this space. The clouds and lightning were a combination of his wind and lightning affinity. He used wind when he flew, and lightning was slowly becoming his primary magic for combat. The tree itself represented wood, which was essentially the basis for most of his defenses and imitations. Even just making the wooden imitations of Priscilla was significant use of wooden magic. He noticed a slight purple tint appearing on the treetop and knew that was his mental affinity. It was developing well if he was judging it correctly. Finally, he saw the strangest of them.
His anti-magic manifested in a strange way. It was like a void, something that tore into the very space itself. It was especially strange as it mixed with the treetop and with the storm clouds that represented his other affinities. There were a few other affinities, and he even saw one he hadn’t tested yet, though he had no idea what it was. It shone a vague shade of white, and he had no idea what it could be. He dismissed it, for now, not needing another magic to learn.
Instead, he moved his attention to the odd fruit that he could only think of as his golden body, or maybe it was his “true body.” That was a possibility, and he stepped toward it apprehensively. It hung from the tree and was large enough to bend the branch that supported it. It almost touched the ground and felt even more like a living thing as he approached. It was several times bigger than he was.
At first, he didn’t think much of the fruit beyond the power it radiated, but something else crept up as he touched it. The skin felt hard, and the streaks of gold were different from the black skin around it. Then he felt a craving, a desire to eat it that reminded him of the piece of dragon flesh he had received from the labyrinth. He quickly forced himself to stop feeding energy into the tattoos and felt the world dissolve around him. A second later he was back, lying in his bed. He was surprised to feel the sheets clinging to his body, and he realized that he had been sweating. That temptation to eat the fruit surprised him and made it seem riskier to enter the space again.
He didn’t actually know if eating the fruit was smart or not but didn’t want to do anything just yet. If it was a manifestation of his golden body, he should at least wait until he achieved the true body before trying anything with the fruit. There was no reason to rush and ruin what might be a huge improvement. However, what if eating it was the method to achieving the true body. It felt like that would be too easy though, and that didn’t make much sense considering he had already started on the path without eating it. He kept thinking about it, right up until he fell asleep.
He woke up early, mainly due to Priscilla waking him. She didn’t need to sleep as he did and was often awake for days at a time. She saw through his own eyes and senses, so she was basically blind when he was asleep, but that didn’t stop her from working on a magical affinity. With that being the case, she had been able to work on the mental affinity even while he was asleep. As he woke up, he checked to see whether she figured out how to make the telepathy work both ways. She gave him a mental shrug of the shoulders followed by a strong maybe. He also checked his status to see if there had been any progress from the earrings last night. Sadly, it wasn't going to be that easy to achieve the true body, and he noticed nothing amiss.
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It was good enough for now, and he went to get ready. Red wanted to leave early, so he could wake the others after getting ready himself. As he finished getting ready, he quickly went to get the others. They might still be asleep, but he was going to ruin their naps. Leaving the room, he was amazed to hear that everyone was up and getting ready themselves. It was certainly unexpected. Not long after, he was joined by the other three and they made their way back down the ravine. They gave the keys back to the inn owner and chose to fly as soon as they got out of the building. Mash used wooden wings, not wanting to risk causing a commotion with his transformations. They were a lot more monstrous now.
Flying was probably a lot faster than any boat and certainly better than walking. In only a few minutes they were flying through the tunnels. They crisscrossed in a dimly lit cavern, eventually the light completely vanished, and they needed Luke to use his buffs to light the way. Mash didn’t need a light with his domain, but the others still needed it. The caverns were damp, and it was clear that there were times when the water level rose significantly. The caverns stretched on for a while, though the trip didn’t take nearly as long as he expected. The trip would take them a day if they went by foot but flying like this took it only took them an hour or so. The ship probably would have been fast too as the dungeon was downstream.
The cavern opened into another large ravine, and they could see the dungeon entrance on the other side. There were people walking in, and a crowd had already formed around the entrance. It seemed like several groups were debating whether to enter or not, and he understood why. If nobody had returned yet, then the dungeon would either be extremely dangerous or had significant time-altering effects. Mash had Priscilla inform his siblings of that already, and he had warned them that he might be gone for a while.
They ignored the crowd, and simply landed near the dungeon entrance. They rested there for a little bit recovering fully before entering. It only took a few moments, but he felt like it had been a long time. The time finally passed, and they prepared to enter the dungeon. Mash sent Arthur one last message, letting him know that he was going in now.
As soon as he stepped in, he noticed the shift in temperature first. It was hot inside as if the season had changed to the middle of summer. The heat bore on him, and quick glance showed him an unusually large sun. If he was able to feel the heat, the others must hate it. He turned out to be right as Jill and Luke had already started to sweat. Red didn’t but that made some sense, especially considering that she was functionally made of blood. Putting his friends aside for the moment, he looked over the rest of what he saw. There was sand all around them, though it was strangely grey instead of brown. He wasn’t wearing shoes and noticed how the sand felt grainier somehow.
The environment wasn't the biggest thing though. No, that fell to the dozens of people sitting across the ground. He looked over them, and even without his domain, he could tell that some of the people were strong. The others were looking at the seated people too, and Jill started walking towards one of them. They all followed her, and she asked the closest seated group a question.
“What’s everyone doing?”
Jill was all smiles as she spoke to the nearest group. The group consisted of two elves and a human, all three of them were female. The elves had their ears displayed as their hair was tied back into a ponytail. Even the final girl had her hair tied in the same way, though her ears weren’t pointed. They looked at Jill carefully before responding. It seemed like they were appraising Mash’s group, and he struggled to restrain himself from rolling his eyes.
“The entrance is gone and we're stuck here. Apparently, some people have been in here for half a month already and can’t figure out how to clear the dungeon. There are several trying to figure out what, but most are waiting for someone else to figure it out. The heat makes exploring a little dangerous, that’s the only body of water in the desert. At least no one could find anything else.”
“What about water crystals?”
Mash ignored the fact that the elven lady was obviously speaking to Jill and not the rest of them and asked his own question. Surely some of these adventurers would have the means to get by without relying on the stream of water.
“They don’t work, and water magic doesn’t either. Creating water is impossible here, but manipulating the river seems possible. However, nobody wants to risk ruining the only source of water.”
The answer surprised them, but Mash was already forming some ideas. Jill thanked the group, and slowly moved the group towards the river. As they did so Mash explained his plan and he was pretty confident it would work. As they got near the river, Mash created a few large wooden barrels. They were enormous reaching his own height. He made several of them as well. Several people noticed but didn’t say anything as he approached the river. He filled up every barrel, moving them into his storage space. The water was cold, and the river was wide enough that he could only barely see to the other side. Sadly, he only saw more desert.
This plan was actually two-fold, as he paid particular attention to the adventurers that were looking at him. He wanted to know who could be trusted and used this opportunity to show off his storage space. He was surprised to see that very few people looked at him with anything more than simple envy. Nobody looked hostile which was unexpected.
They were probably more than a little glad to see that someone else would be trying to get out of the dungeon. Some of them must be growing desperate. So long as one of them could make food or heal, then they could remain here indefinitely. However, sitting in a hot desert for months or years sounded awful. Mash hoped that they wouldn’t end up in the same situation.