“Like any other fish out of water huh?” Hector commented with his hands behind the back of his head.
“Not any other fish.” Mark disagreed but gave no further details.
“How do we get up to the higher floors anyway? Are we looking for stairs or lakes or slopes?” Hector asked.
They have been travelling straight after exiting the camp with no particular destination.
“Vines. We can actually get all the way up to the eighteenth floor directly. No shortcut though.” Mark answered. His information gathering was pretty successful.
“Climbing up vines? How far up do we have to climb that way? Half a day?” Hector complained about the troublesome method.
“If we move straight at this speed we should take almost three weeks to reach the dungeon walls. The vines hanging along the walls lead all the way up and through holes on the ceiling or ground of the next floor. The same vines connect through the dungeon across the six floors, letting us climb all the way to the eighteenth.”
“Simple enough. There aren’t any aerial monsters anyway.”
“Three weeks at this speed? So about two to three days if we rush.” Ebony was internally flabbergasted. Scarlet could almost sense the impatience in his voice with her refined Sublime Instinct from the time she was in the realm of blood.
Rather than impatience, it was closer to pity. He did not like wasting time in covering distance. When he said ‘rush’ it was also at the speed where the others wouldn’t be too exhausted to fight. If he was by himself, he would likely reach the eighteenth floor before the next day. The vine climbing might slow him down though.
Other than Mark and Scarlet almost falling into the water by stepping on a patch of algae nothing much went on. Ebony was quick to react as usual and gave them a helping hand to support them. Hector was already clear of where to step since he could sense where the water was.
The snake called Boomdart Fang had green and black scales, it was a normal sized snake about as long as an arm and as thick as Ebony’s sword’s grip. They were not even considered hidden to his senses but visually and audibly, they were pretty good at staying hidden.
Ebony was slightly impressed that its long fangs and explosive speed could crack and make a tiny dent in his compressed Layered Ice Carapace.
But letting it bite again didn’t make a mark on his shield anymore. It was similar to a skill. It had to dart out at full speed and bite once to apply full force.
Its venom was not corrosive as nothing happened to his shield but he wasn’t about to try and get bitten by what’s supposed to be extremely lethal.
As for Swamp Golems, which was a green mossy rock that hides in a foetal position, they were exactly like the Mud Golems that he had fought. Unbelievably weak to ice and fire but strong enough to contest Hector’s quadra enhanced punches. They were not much different from the Mud Golems in terms of size, shape and attack patterns.
Except that this environment was perfect for their regenerative properties while fighting Mud Golems on a summer afternoon without any mud around was the reason why he even managed to overcome them.
He could see why Mark thought that they would not be able to complete and clear the dungeon. The difficulty in putting a monster down for good was getting higher as their Vitality was quite high.
Once they got the hang of each type, they sped up towards the dungeon walls. Basically just moving forward.
Hector tripped a few times and was a good laugh for Mark since Hector never warned him about the puddles.
Ebony gave both the guys a ride while he ran and Scarlet sat with Mallory. The two ladies were originally pretty quiet in each other’s company but have started to open up and chat. Sometimes, Mallory would box themselves up and the guys couldn’t hear their conversation. Including him with his Vibrational Gravity Sense.
He was pretty sure he gained a glance or two from time to time while they were talking.
They tried not to bother with the monsters unless they were attacked since it would serve them no purpose to fight. Although Mark can gain experience, he was at a higher level and it was not really worth the energy. None of the monsters here have good parts to extract either, other than the poison from the snakes.
When night fell and the time for dinner came, they had to find some dry firewood because there was no place where Scarlet could set her kitchen up. Neither did she want to dirty her portable kitchen.
Finding dry firewood was impossible here so they relied on Mark’s little magic trick.
There were broken tree branches here and there due to some fighting and the dungeon being too lazy to repair it. Adding to the atmosphere and environment. They gathered the larger branches for Mark to draw on.
Mark took out a white stick and its sharp tip ignited before he started drawing on them. After the pen burned into the surface of the wood and Mark completed the runic circle that was unfamiliar to Ebony, they watched as the burnt symbols started to gather water droplets.
Getting Ebony to make ice sticks to stab the edges and hang them upside down. Mark continued to do the same for the other branches they gathered. He watched the wood pour out water faster and faster, he would take some time to study the rune Mark drew up.
❅❅❅
In about an hour, the water was drained out of the wood and was perfectly functional as firewood.
Scarlet was also just about done with her preparations. Surprisingly little food was being prepared but it was only natural since they didn’t fight much. Even she had learnt to ration after her experience with starving.
Mark was the one who took taking watches most seriously, even when Mallory had set up a dome barrier around them. He would ask to be let out to check the surroundings. This time, Mallory followed him out for his walk before dinner.
Having learnt that Mallory could use both healing and barrier magic, he would be brain dead if he didn’t suspect her background. Nobody said anything about it and Mark didn’t bring it up either.
It was awkward as they walked about in silence. He wondered why she decided to follow him today.
There was another party in the distance fighting a group of Swamp Golems. Having some trouble as they didn’t have any mages. They didn’t seem to be dying so the two of them didn’t interfere.
Mallory suddenly stopped when they reached another relatively open spot that wasn’t being used as a camp spot.
Mark didn’t even have time to ask what was wrong before he raised his spear to spin in defence. Feeling the impact but not seeing anything. A projectile?
“How about a friendly duel?” Mallory didn’t ask that with any intention to wait for an answer. She wouldn’t take no for an answer either.
‘What crime did I commit?’
❅❅❅
Hector put on the armour he was cleaning after he smelled their dinner ready. Halfway through the wait, he felt the temperature rise sharply and wondered what Scarlet was cooking that required such heat. Ignoring it as he went about his own maintenance.
Mark had gone out for longer than usual but he wasn’t worried about his cousin with him.
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As if they knew that dinner was ready, Hector spotted his cousin and Mark come through a taller bush.
“Hey! What took…” Hector, who was about to complain about them taking their own sweet time, paused.
The two who went to scout the surroundings didn’t reply as Mallory opened an entrance in the barrier for them to enter and she quickly went to set her tent up before diving in.
Hector thought he was imagining things because that was the first time he saw a faint blush on his cousin’s face. The burnt dress up to her knees, charred skin here and there didn’t even catch his attention.
“Yo..yooo. YOOO! What happened!?” Hector’s delayed but shocked reaction was enough to catch Ebony and Scarlet attention.
They turned to see that Mark had some tears in his clothes while his upper armour had a thin cut right down the centre. There was dried blood where the cuts on his body were but he was no longer bleeding. Hector could only assume that Mallory healed him.
Scarlet who had been extremely absorbed in her cooking only just noticed the remnant heat in Mark’s body. It was enough to melt some metals. Like her Blood Boil but Mark didn’t look uncomfortable, neither did it seem like he was burning his energy or even health.
It didn’t take a perceptive person to sense the intense heat coming from Mark’s body. Ebony was more interested in their clothes. Like Scarlet’s, they had to be incredibly resistant to heat if it hasn’t burned to crisps yet. He helped cool the area with a little ice magic.
“Just a little bigger group of golems and issiles sneaking up to us.” Mark lied through his teeth.
“Well, just glad that you’re fine I guess. Is she okay?” Hector believed it. He was still a little concerned about the look on his cousin’s face. With her healing, a light injury like what he had seen would be fully healed and even burn marks and cuts could be fully healed before scars form permanently.
Ebony manipulated mana in the air to silence his and Mark’s voices. Well, he didn’t talk and just used Mana Vibration to simulate his voice. Just in case the other two knew how to read lips.
“You beat her up?” Clearly, he was not as naive as Hector. Even Ebony who wasn’t from Elcra could guess that Mallory was a princess, he had no doubt a smart man like Mark could guess the same as well.
“...It was a duel. Don’t put it that way. I didn’t beat her up.” Mark knew he couldn’t really hide it.
“I see.” Ebony always sparred as well and didn’t see a reason to ask why they had a sudden duel. They could be training like he usually does with Scarlet and Hector.
“Dinner’s ready,” Scarlet said. It was obvious to her what happened as well after her chat with Mallory.
She might not understand the healer well but the outcome seemed to speak for itself. No surprise with her being a healer and Mark having an evolution and over 70 levels over them.
Scarlet, who mostly recovered from the side effects of drinking the blood of creatures whose only instincts were to kill and consume after sipping a little of Ebony’s blood over time was starting to get her itch to fight again. She didn’t have to suppress it due to the strong desire to kill anymore.
She just doesn’t think she was suited for dungeons since she couldn’t eat what she slayed and cooked.
To explore Mallory’s taste buds more, she prepared something more in line with the Imperial’s cooking. Grilled steak that was a little more buttery than she’d liked, a side of bread that was sadly not freshly baked, fresh assorted salad with her personal dressing and a soup a little more out of the ordinary since she used seafood which she wasn’t very used to. Ebony called it a bisque. She thought it was a weird name but just followed.
Another thing that she found that couldn’t be left out of meals for Ebony was fruit after dinner but she’ll cut some for them after dinner.
She was a little disappointed that it did not satisfy the healer that was clearly in a bad mood.
Mallory didn’t even want to eat at the same table as the guys and copied Scarlet, eating alone in her tent. She didn’t have any visible injury and already changed into another dress that was vibrant cyan in colour. Not caring about camouflage in the least.
She just tossed and turned on the thick and soft flooring of her tent. Putting a waterproof sheet under her tent had been a smart move. The noise that the guys outside her tent only served to irritate her further. Acting asleep when they called her to open her barrier for them to go out to spar.
Soon enough they didn’t bother her anymore.
❅❅❅
Ebony was asking Mark about the rune he drew on the branches. He created it himself and it was very simple. The runes for absorbing mana were mixed with those absorbed water mana. It just had to be specific on where it absorbs water from, where it would go and also not to be reabsorbed by the wood. The other smaller details like its absorption speed could be adjusted.
If he didn’t draw certain symbols right the rune would just absorb water from the surroundings. By slightly burning the rune on, the water wouldn’t be reabsorbed into the wood and hanging it upside down lets it just drip down. It was a survival skill Mark found to be more useful than one might think.
While Ebony didn’t think he would need to use a rune like that, it was still knowledge that was better to know than not to. He would have to translate the combinations of runes to Sister Jing’s rune language. It would be a mix or water and generic.
He had taken the time to reclassify the types and depth or ‘levels’ of runes in the Korun language.
There were generic runes which did all kinds of stuff. From preservation to dust resistance to mana absorption. The works. Every copy of each function such as balling up mana or shaping them up was recorded too. If a spell was needed he just needed to use the appropriate elemental symbols.
Then the rest were parked under each element together with specific spells that other elements are not able to fully copy. Different elements had different properties after all.
Next was to classify the strength of the runes which was harder. Sister Jing used the low, middle, high and so on but that was too vague for him. Cross-referencing with Mark, Ebony found that each language could have their own ranking system and even using the same language, people just classify them to their liking individually or may not even classify them.
Mark himself called anything that improved or had the effect of 0 to 20% as level 0 runes. 20% to 50% as level 1. 50% to 250% as level 2 and so on. According to him, most of his equipment had level 3 runes, he had the relevant runic skills, unlike Ebony.
According to those percentages, Korun was pretty vast in the differences between each of what Sister Jing calls, low, middle and high. She never specifically explained but what she called low had the effect of 100% to 1000% while the middle was anywhere between 1000% to 10,000%.
Ebony could see why his greatsword was so resistant to heat.
Precision when inscribing or engraving was only a small part of what will affect how strong or how effective a rune is. There was a need to take into account many things such as the type of rune that was placed onto what material. Though the biggest thing would be whether the person inscribing the rune has the related skills.
Ebony thought that was too complicated and used the same tier system for skills and reclassified them.
0% to 100% was untiered.
100% to 250% was tier 1.
250% to 1000% was tier 2.
1000% to 2500% was tier 3.
Since he was stuck with moulding runes that were untiered, the rest of the tiers were just numbers he assigned. He had no idea if it would be accurate or if it would make things confusing in future. The percentages of skill levels and tiers increase exponentially and he didn’t bother extrapolating on skills that he doesn’t already have.
Although he had always been moulding runes onto his crafts he had merely ‘engraved’ the same two-dimensional runes but inside the material. There were more complicated ones that were three-dimensional but he wasn’t going to run before he learnt how to walk. He was far from mastering even the basics. A good memory really helped a lot in his studies.
Ebony didn’t just give Mark whatever knowledge he wanted. Only correcting some of the misunderstandings he had in the three languages that Mark learnt. They were incomplete but Mark worked his way around it pretty damn well and was clearly very flexible with their usage. The draining of water from wood was a good example.
The night had been mostly silent until a splatter of dirt and mud splashed onto their barrier which woke Mallory and Ebony up.
Ebony volunteered to be dispatched to take the three attacking Swamp Golems down.
Merely a short disturbance in the night.
They moved off before the fake sun rose, it had been an early night’s rest the day before.
Mark had to scold Hector and Ebony who were trying to push each other into swampy puddles as they moved. Hector had started it by telling Ebony there was water deep under where he was about to step. He had replied by dropping Hector off his shield by flipping it over.
Although Hector caught on the sides at the last moment, his lower body was already drenched. It had gotten a chuckle from both ladies and the slightly less rare raising of Ebony’s lip. It had been getting possible to change his expression by a tiny bit. Just that it was still too stiff and only Scarlet could tell.
Then the pushing began as Hector wanted revenge. It had been fine and all as they broke formation but Mark had enough after some Issiles and Boomdart Fangs had been alerted. The Boomdart Fangs seemed to realise they would fail as long as Ebony was there and never really attacked.
He had to take charge as the eldest here after all. He had thought that at least Ebony was mature enough to understand the dangers of a dungeon. As if a healer that charged ahead wasn’t enough. He didn’t want to deal with some pranks that may put them in trouble during the most crucial of times.
‘This really makes me look like their guardian bodyguard…’ Mark was beginning to feel his stress levels increase.
Knocking them on their head with his spear a few times managed to get the message through. It was nice of them not to dodge.