Evelyn looked at Adrith and asked, “Where were you?”
Adrith lightly waved as he handed her the wand, “Just retrieving our things, but it seems like our 5 days are up since you’re awake”
Evelyn sighed as she said, “Since you were coming down from that level, what’s there?”
Adrith lightly waved for her to follow as he talked, “Nothing on this floor, we’ll need to worry about the next floor though”
Evelyn tilted her head, “Why?”
Adrith said, “Because a Chimera Dragon is roosting there”
Evelyn nodded as she said, “Okay, well that is not very comforting”
Adrith responded, “Nope, let’s get going we might be able to get around it if we are quick enough”
Evelyn nodded her head as she began to follow Adrith. She took notice of the things lying on the ground and was about to question them. Yet she already saw the metal from his armor beginning to fade, she sighed, wishing she could wear them more, yet she knew that they would be gone soon enough, so there was no point in her trying.
Evelyn did turn to Adrith and asked, “So with the talk of a Chimera dragon, why were you trying to find one on the 50th floor so bad?”
Adrith turned for a moment before turning back to his walking while saying, “Because there was supposed to be 2 on floor 50. Well. I thought there would be 2 since when we came down we had to fight 2 on floor 50”
Evelyn looked to Adrith, "Didn't you say before that on floor 40 is where you'd normally find the last of the Chimera Dragons"
Adrith answered, "The last place you will find them before they start to ascend. They push each other out of areas, that's why when monsters break out of the dungeon, they are normally accompanied by a Chimera Dragon. It was pushing them out as well"
Evelyn looked somewhat shocked as she said, “Wow, so seeing one is an omen of the dungeon breaking". Evelyn thought for a moment as she then continued, "So you think the one on the floor above us is the additional one? you thought you saw on the 50th floor”
Adrith shook his head, “No, a roosting Chimera Dragon is one that was there for some time. We found this out by trapping one on a single floor for a mage to research.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened, “Wow! You guys were able to trap one? How’d you do it? What’d you learn?”
Adrith shook his head again, “Trapping it much less of what we were doing, it was more the lord of the city fed men to the beast as a way for the mage to have it in one place so it could be researched for some strange reason”
Evelyn said with a winced face, “Well, sorry to ask”. She felt slightly bad about what she asked since it seemed like another sour spot.
Adrith just said, “Not your fault”
The two continued to walk in some quiet, now and again needing to sneak and hide through the fog dodging roaming Soulless and killing Parasytes as they moved to the next floor. The moment they reached the top of the next staircase she saw the horror of the floor Adrith talked about. Along the walls, the floors, and the ceilings is a net of gray thick tentacles that pulse and shift. Evelyn asks, “Wait this is what happens…”
Adrith raised his hand as he said, “Shh, it can hear”
Evelyn stopped herself as she began to see some of the tentacles inching their way closer to them. She looked to Adrith as he lightly gestured for her to follow him as he moved to follow the path he originally used to find Evelyn and the creature that took control over them.
Once they made it over they found that the tentacles were slowly moving towards the area where the Adrith left its body. Evelyn moved towards the body to begin looking at it, she noticed how absolutely mangled and destroyed it was, “You have some anger issues?”
Adrith shook his head, ”Alright, so the idea is going to be we will be using your star to fly over and around all the tentacles”
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Evelyn nodded her head, “Why say it here and not on the way up?”
Adrith lightly gestured to the tentacles slowly creeping into the area, “Wanted to see if there were any other creatures here. If it is only the Chimera Dragon then we will be able to leave pretty easily with your magic”
Evelyn began to stand up, “Okay, I’ll start”, Evelyn took in a deep breath and began to chant.
“Hear me, oh shooting star that flies through the night into the unknown, answer me”
“Hear my request, oh ferry me away into the unknown so I may find my way, answer my wish”
“Hear my plea, lift me into the stars where I can never be chained again, answer my desire, Wishing Star”
A golden light began to pour from Evelyn’s wand as she began to move the wand like a conductor's stick in an orchestra. The golden light fell to the floor like thousands of falling stars as a small platform began to form in front of her. The moment the disc began to form, she took in another breath as she began to chant again.
“Hear me, oh shooting star that flies through the night into the unknown, answer me”
“Hear my request, oh ferry of dreams, answer the wishes of all under your glow, answer my wish, Wishing Star”
The golden disc began to shine brighter and brighter as silver discs began to slowly rotate around Evelyn. Each one shined and shimmered as it slowly fell onto the golden disc and grew in size, to the point where it was double the size, with just enough room to fit 2 people.
Evelyn looked at Adrith as she saw on his face, amazement. A smile came onto her face as she began to sit down on the disc, “Come on, we got some traveling to do”.
Adrith nodded his head as he said, “Seems like you can do quite a bit with your magic”, he began to move to the disc and sat down on it. The disc began to shape and change to accommodate the two of them by placing a circle under both of them and keeping a small connection between the 2 circles.
“Well, let’s find our way out”, Evelyn said as she began to leave. The flying made traveling through this area incredibly easy. The tentacles became thick in many areas, yet it did not stop them from traveling through different areas to try and find other paths. After some time, they even were able to find the main body of the Chimera Dragon. It had lost much of its physical form, it began to look more like a giant mound of flesh. Evelyn took note of everything she saw she couldn’t ask about what was everything, yet she didn’t think she could. Since everything around seems to surprise Adrith as well.
After a few hours of searching and flying through countless areas, they could finally find a path that would allow them to reach the staircase without touching any tentacles or fighting the Chimera Dragon. Going up the stairs, Evelyn finally asked, “Should we continue flying? Or should we hide and walk?”
Adrith mulled over the idea for a moment before he said, “Flying, as long as we watch out for Chimera Dragons, we’ll be fine”.
Evelyn nodded her head as she smiled, they finally were able to move through the area much quicker than they were before. Evelyn was quite adept at flying with her magic, able to make turns and stops that allowed them to engage or escape with monsters that found them. Much of this allowed them to collect more Monster Cores again as they made their way through the dungeon.
The higher and higher they made it through the floors, their time became much easier. It was mostly easy traveling. Every fight they found themselves in they could disengage and move around through the dungeon to find alternative paths. There were other times they opted to fight and quickly killed monsters.
It was when they reached the 40th floor, that Evelyn felt at ease. The surroundings of these areas were very dull, the ground was smooth, and the walls were very cave-like. Countless small paths, different crossroads, dead ends, and hidden pockets in walls that would allow creatures to hide.
Yet it was different here as well, the cave seems to have changed slightly. The stone was darker, multiple areas seemed to have been slick and slimy while others were rough and clean.
Evelyn began to look around, inspecting the walls and floor as she made note of it, “Why is all of this different? It feels like something is going on”
Adrith hopped off the golden disc as he said, “There is a Chimera Dragon on the prowl”
Evelyn turned to him, “How do you know that?”
Adrith made note of the slick walls as he pulled off a strange gunk, “This is a marking fluid of the bastard. They secrete it when they are roosting. Anything that touches it when their tentacles are out will trigger the Chimera Dragon to awaken and go on the prowl”
Evelyn’s mouth ran dry as she thought about one of those monsters roaming around at the moment, “Okay, then we should start moving”
Adrith shook his head, “No, there is most likely a group here who triggered it and are right now being attacked”
Evelyn responded, “Even better, then we can sneak out while they fight it”
Adrith looked at Evelyn again as he said, “The problem is, we will most likely run into it on our way out. If they triggered it, they are probably leaving, which the Chimera Dragon will then follow, we will have to fight it no matter what, or at least try to get around it with them”
Evelyn sighed, “So, we find it”
Adrith nodded his head, “We find it”