“I know you guys are tired but we gotta move first.” Mark removed his runic circle and stopped Hector from plopping down on the ground.
The emergence of the low-level boars only meant there was a high chance the floor had higher monster density than the previous two floors. Since their location was compromised, it was better to change spots before Ordina decided to launch another attack while they were fresh out of juice.
Ebony volunteered to carry all of them so that they could recharge. It was the most logical way of conserving energy since his stamina hadn’t dropped at all. Scarlet brought out her treasured pearl again while they tried to meditate, only she didn’t even bother trying this time. He knew what she was thinking when she looked at him, so he boxed her up when she was no longer out of breath and she started eating the snacks she prepared.
There really were singular boars just roaming around, probably to act as eyes in the forest.
They picked a relatively enclosed spot to set up camp despite daylight still around. Another reason was that it was getting misty with ice mana. It was a lot easier to manipulate than the ice mana in the ground but he left most of it alone for the little cover they provided their barrier.
He made sure to check high up on the trees as well, casting and placing more Layered Ice Carapace. Mark also went along surveying and inscribing small runic circles on the trees. Ebony recognised them as some kind of alarm and detection rune symbol compiled into one rune.
It was a lot of work but Mark could draw one around their entire camp but that would take a lot of mana ores and time. Usually only useful or cost-effective if they were camping for a longer time period. Some richer camps in dungeons like the one on the 13th floor would have runic scholars or mages set them up.
Although with Ebony and the royals in their party, mana ores were no issue, there simply wasn’t any need to expand the range where they detect monsters since they could react with just the simple alarms and his senses.
Both of them returned from the scouting and defence set up only to find that Hector’s tent was torn apart and they separated with Hector bleeding heavily as he held his belly. In the place of the tents were huge brown spikes. Roots, almost like Mark’s spear.
Scarlet burned them down but the damage was already done. There was no further attack after a few more root spikes emerged from the ground.
“Crap, did a boar see us and run off before we could see it? Or maybe one of the Kobolds was hiding on the branches and ran off.” Mark said.
“Ordina copied your spears as well, the trees are everywhere, their roots could probably reach anywhere in the forest. Hop on.” Ebony quickly brought all his shields back and they left.
Mallory took Hector’s armour out and started healing him.
They had set up really quickly as Hector laid down and the ground beneath him suddenly shook and stabbed him. He was lucky the trees or Ordina didn’t have good aim and that he punched the roots before it managed to fully pierce him.
“...Sorry. I should have activated the complete barrier.” Mallory blamed herself. Apparently, the barrier had a full spherical form as well.
They could be annihilated if that pierced their hearts or vitals while they were asleep. It was no wonder why it was so difficult for other parties to safely explore.
Then again, Ordina or its trees might have only learned that from Mark’s abilities. There are obvious limits to how fast Ordina is copying their abilities but it was already more than troublesome enough.
They had no choice but to rely on a little fire for light when it got dark but they quickly extinguished it when they found a free spot so that they wouldn’t be spotted. Mallory went really quiet and got them to protect her as she set her spell up.
Mark drew his alarm spells as well but not as much as before, they were more reliant on Mallory’s barrier. It was bad that they had to be more defensive than reactive but they could only hope they were harder to spot in the middle of the night too.
Covering the light produced by the cooking fire and eating in the dark was a new experience for some of them.
Food has been getting tastier and tastier and it wasn’t his taste buds since they were fully recovered for a while now. Ebony guessed that Scarlet was observing him when he ate and making dishes more palatable to his taste buds. Meaning there were more spicy dishes and also sour dishes, than savoury and salty. There were no complaints since spicy food to a certain degree warmed the others’ bodies up in the cold night.
It had been troublesome for the two women to relieve themselves previously but now, there was an increase in the danger for doing so. Urges were urges and Scarlet who ate and drank lots needed to go at least once every two days. With Mallory around, they could watch each other’s backs and have barriers to protect them so he was more at ease at letting them go by themselves.
“Don’t go too far and just shout for us if anything happens. It’s dark out and we won’t peek anyway.” Ebony remembered how far Scarlet had to go on the desert floors to relieve herself. It brought up a different memory along and she also had the same thing come to mind.
“Mhmm.” She seemed to have picked it up from Ebony.
It was fortunate they didn’t have to go for the big business due to the high Constitution. Ebony didn’t know Scarlet was taking a popular powdered solution that helps with the need of doing that. He himself just poops and urinates less due to his Physique.
Mark who was Master Class relieves himself even less frequently, he shook his head in reminiscences of travelling with or as a Journeyman.
Another eerily quiet night passed and there were no more attacks from the ground. Whether it was because they weren’t spotted or because of the barrier was left to be seen.
Hector has fully healed already, minus the aching in his body that Mallory left so that his body can recover properly, or so she claims. He was more energetic than usual and since they had no clue where to go, they followed his lead as he claimed that he dreamt that west was the right way to go. Mallory was clearly annoyed by his explanation.
It was even half the day in and they have engaged 3 groups of 4 to 6 mounted Prime Verglas Kobolds. Mark was getting worried about the mana expenditure of his spear. It was not as bad because the 3 vanguards could handle these Kobolds more easily but other than Ebony who would recover before the next fight, Hector and Scarlet was clearly getting more cautious with their expenditure or energy as well.
His sound magic was only useful to regenerate a tiny amount of mana outside of battle. Unlike him, the sound magic doesn’t help them when they are casting magic and only in effect when they are relaxed. If their mind wasn’t relaxed it wouldn’t work for them even if they were not in battle or casting magic.
Mark also stood beside Mallory to protect her during battles since the other three would engage in close combat. He had a bad feeling that the encounter rate was getting higher. They were forced to take breaks more often. He was worried the Chief Kobold would bring along a group, he would be forced to spend more mana and there was a high risk the others would be wounded unless they were at full capacity.
Ebony already prepared more of his blood for Scarlet for emergency use.
The further west they travelled the more frequent monsters got in their path.
Mark got a deep gash on his elbow when he pushed Mallory away from a stabbing root in the middle of an intense battle. It was right where he wasn’t armoured. Although she didn’t like the rough treatment, her anger was easily suppressed when she saw that he was merely pushing her away from danger.
Night fell again.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
It was lucky Mallory treated Mark quickly since a tendon was cut, at least according to her, Mark would fully recover without any future ailments or even a scar.
They fell asleep really easily due to how tired they were with Ebony as an exception.
Hector’s dream had been pretty accurate as something new was in sight during noon of the next day.
It was quite the sight.
Two absolutely massive chains were hanging from the sky. They were connected to a humongous double door almost large enough to fit the progeniturtle hanging in the sky. Leading to it were hundreds of felled trees upon each other acting as stairs.
“Quite the dream you had,” Mark muttered.
“Haha, yup.” Hector awkwardly replied.
“Looks like a guardian room. Last floor already. So Ordina is the guardian floor as the last floor type.” Mark ignored.
“Simple. I like.” Scarlet said.
Basically, the so-called guardian type last floors were last boss rooms in Ebony’s understanding. The most common types were having the strongest monster the dungeon had to protect a treasure and when defeated lead to the portal back outside the other side of the entrance portal.
It was said that there were times that dungeon cores were just right in the open beside the guardian but that was so rare most people thought it was nonsense since there should be no reason the dungeon would expose their own core. It was usually hidden in some corner of the dungeon.
There were also times when there was hardly any reward for beating the guardian. This was more common for over-cleared dungeons that are constantly cleared of their monsters. They wouldn’t be able to give something if few people died or if there was a lack of people inside the dungeon as well. It was not necessary for dungeons to kill to grow after all. As long as people stayed inside and spend stamina and mana, they would be able to absorb it. It would be way less effective and slower for the growth so there were not many dungeons that were not aimed to draw in and kill people with the lure of treasure that others dropped or they produced and/or changed with their magic.
“It’s coming to an end already huh…” Hector whispered but Ebony could hear him.
They placed their outdoor kitchen to fill themselves up, Mark joked about it being their last meal. It was merely for Scarlet to stock up and for the others to snack and rest.
Ebony also prepared as many Layered Ice Carapaces as he could since they were in no rush. Mark checked all his equipment together with Hector. Mallory did something to all their armour as well. There was a foreign mana over his robes but it seemed to be disappearing slowly as time passed .
“Some kind of defensive buff spell?” Ebony asked.
“...Is your perception for mana so good because you’re partially mana?” Mallory didn’t expect any normal person to be able to sense what she did but it was not surprising since he could sense her barriers as well.
“Maybe, I don’t know.” Ebony replied honestly. He was already a partial mana being before he got Mana Perception.
“Well, yes. Charging my mana into armour might damage it or just not do anything at all so I just coated them with mana instead. I had to make mana ‘stick’ but once out of range they would just dissipate like my overflowing wisdom. My mana has properties to toughen something but my skill level is low. The skill doesn’t really level, probably because I never got hit before.”
“You can cast it on anything without contact right? Since it’s just a coating of mana you could have just cast it over your normal barriers to strengthen them further.”
“...I’m not stupid. It’s a new spell I got days ago. That’s pointless anyway, the mana can be used to strengthen the barriers itself for much lower consumption of mana compared to an additional layer of mana.”
‘Oh, maybe one of the lineage spells that she just figured out or bothered making into a spell. Seems like a really good support spell that can increase anyone's defences. A simple coating of mana that utilises the base properties of a barrier mage’s mana, she should’ve made it a spell long ago. Then again, she’s a princess, I’m guessing she never thought she needed to use the spell for anyone. Now that she’s in a party it has its uses, the mana cost seems low enough to be useful for a huge number of people.’
“I see.” Ebony didn’t push the subject further. He could imagine the Royals being able to cast that for the entire army if they had the mana, time and skill levels for it. If their Fortification and mana properties were changed enough it really made one’s defences skyrocket.
‘If the skill tier is high and refined, that’s an amazing skill despite its simplicity.’ Ebony could see why the Royals were a great support class to have in one’s party. Not to mention Mallory had pretty good offensive capabilities as well and she was even a healer.
Although a new skill gained days ago probably didn’t help much it was better than nothing. She estimated it would last 15 minutes or so once they separated far away from her because she was unfamiliar with making her mana stick to something. Ebony’s gut feeling was that she probably didn’t know how to inject mana finely enough into armour despite what she said about damaging them.
Mallory’s previous experiments gave different results from what her books stated but she realised it was likely because the dungeon reacts differently from the outside world to excess mana. Ordina might be absorbing overflowing or leaking essence much faster than she expected. It would make sense since it grew faster than most dungeons.
Preparations were complete and they went onwards and upwards.
“Do we just push?” Ebony asked when they stood before the massive doors.
He truly doubted that the metal-looking but undecorated door could be pushed open even with all their enhanced strengths combined, the door appeared too large and heavy.
“It should open if we touch it. I heard some dungeons won’t open willingly though, the conditions differ from dungeon to dungeon.” Hector was uncertain.
“Just touch it at the same time.” Scarlet said. She raised her hand and waited for them. They raised the same hand and placed their palms onto the door at the same time.
A loud squeak resounded as the doors shifted ajar slightly. The ‘slight’ opening was large enough for all of them to enter side by side. Ebony had three shields on each side and Mallory played along with her own placement of barriers.
They were all getting their own battle preparations ready.
❅❅❅
“Fingers are going numb yo!”
“Sho..should have gotten better equipment beforehand.”
“Stop complaining, its because we haven’t levelled our resistances far enough yet.”
“Hey! They’re ahead of us already.”
“Unlimited…unlimited stamina and mana and flight. Travelling wi..with Ebony has always been convenient.”
“Whatever, the door isn’t closing. Hmm, let’s just enter with them. We were here for levels but the numbers on these floors are few. Let’s leave for another dungeon.”
“...ma..making amends?”
“You think too much. Useful doesn’t mean necessary.”
❅❅❅
The door wasn’t undecorated as it glowed from their touch. The white glow travelled from the palms throughout the whole door. Mark was staring at the symbols intently, Ebony tried to memorise it too since the symbols have a high chance of being magical and not an artistic choice.
‘Definitely runic in nature.’ Both Mark and Ebony could tell with ease. Too bad the light faded and it was out of sight when the door stopped moving.
“Hopefully there’s only the guardian. I’m not sure we can handle a group.” Mark hoped.
“If there’s a group we’ll leave it to you and Ebony while the three of us hold the guardian back. If the place is cramped I can take them out with a mega panch instead.”
“Only one presence,” Scarlet said.
Ebony confirmed as well, the mana density was a lot higher inside but the area through the door wasn’t huge. It was within his range of senses, a circular room was past a short corridor. The door was oversized compared to the room inside.
“Humanoid. Heavy.”
They entered the earthen corridor that was a little warmer than it was on the ice-cold floor. When they entered the door, all of them could see what was awaiting them past the corridor.
It was really Ordina’s style.
[Frost-Topaz Cardinal Golem Lvl ???]
“210.” Hector whispered.
It didn’t look too different from the Earthen-Topaz Core Golems, it just wasn’t as lean and its ‘veins’ had a glow that was almost greenish but closer to blue compared to the yellow Core Golems. It was sitting in the same position as the first one they met in the walkway shortcut that kicked Hector into the wall.
Laying against its seat or throne was a sword handle peeking through the massive shield not unlike Ebony’s. The chair, sword and shield all had glowing ‘veins’ like the golem itself. It glowed a little brighter the moment they exited the corridor and stepped into the room but didn’t move to attack them. The room was 100 metres in diameter at best with the ceiling around 3 times that, there wasn’t much room to move about.
Ebony sensed someone behind them and he didn’t even need to ponder on who it was. He just hoped Scarlet wouldn’t react violently or Hector being distracted in battle. The stone and petrification mage’s presence at this moment in time could change a lot depending on his actions.
The stone mage only took a step into the corridor and sat there, resting against the wall. Ebony left a Layered Ice Carapace laying against their side of the corridor wall just in case.
The Cardinal Golem moved, taking hold of its weapon and shield, standing up and then it bowed towards them.
It let its ‘aura’ loose as it got into stance.