A couple hundred metres away from Ebony’s campsite.
“Can you see them?” The youthful leader bit a piece of dried jerky. He wasn’t in the mood for forest weavers or leopards. None of them was desperate enough to eat kobolds either.
“Of course.” The party’s rogue was almost insulted by the question. It was just a darkness. “I can’t hear anything which is odd since they aren’t that far but they’re just play-fighting. I doubt you have to be disappointed about not testing his ability with the greatsword because it’s nothing spectacular.”
“Well, just keep watch.”
The hours passed.
“Ahhh! Enough, I’m up I’m up. Stop shaking me!” The youthful leader clearly wasn’t an early riser. The fake sun wasn’t even up yet.
“They were already up to train earlier, no different from last night’s play-fight. They’ve finished eating and are packing up right now.”
“Ell…they’re the hardworking type, looks like we’ll have to work for our ores.” Now that light was slowly coming back up, he could see the couple. Packing up as he kept an eye on them, he could immediately see the difference. They didn’t just look different, they felt different. Especially the target.
“Hurry up…” Gut feeling urged him to rush his fellow party members, he looked further to other party’s campsites to see that they were already gone and moved ahead. They probably didn’t want to look suspicious.
They were halfway through their packing when they saw the masked one crouched down, he was pretty sure the target’s blue skin wasn’t as bright as well. All of them heard a single drumbeat echo, and the couple disappeared from their spot in the same instant.
Despite their distance, he had to cover his eyes with his arm to block the wind and dust from going in.
“What the ell!” Their half-packed tents were blown away but the trees caught them. Who the hell goes into a full speed sprint first thing in the morning?
Their crafter and mage might not be able to match the pace, he didn’t have to worry for the slightly older Dwarf who had plenty of tricks up his bag or the rogue. They would look mighty suspicious to chase closely behind which made keeping an eye so much harder.
“Hey hey hey, that’s not the speed of some Journeyman. Not even a tier 2 level 150 movement skill should let them move that fast, even an extremely refined tier 2 skill.” Their Dwarven member commented. Not even an Agility focussed person could move that fast. The couple wasn’t even in sight anymore.
“That drum that shook the air and floor, and that glow. They elling enhanced their bodies just to run faster. Looks like the difficulty just increased exponentially. Great! Now we can raise our prices just as much!”
Instead of despairing over it, they were all in glee.
They would soon have endless complaints.
❅❅❅
After a night of seated meditation, Ebony had his mind grounded back in place. Everlasting Tranquillity more stable than ever. He had been tested, only in times of panic did he find out how emotionally unstable he was. His body was tough and his mind was shielded but his heart seemed weaker than a 10 year old. He must have kept everything away from him or that there was nothing or no one ever that close to him.
He looked at Ning Xin, at her mask. She was his greatest weakness but also his greatest strength.
Increasing the output of Frostblaze Augmentation to the lower limit that fire wouldn’t burst from his skin, just glowing brighter internally. This way, he should be able to keep up with her.
A single beat of her Core skill signalled the start of the race. She was actually serious as she used her ‘flash step’ to blast off. She used her body enhancement along with an active lightning spell to start off her charge while he similarly used his manipulation over gravity to repel him along. The stronger or abundance of gravity mana in Ordina was giving him a handicap. Unlike the ice mana on the higher floors, Ordina didn’t try to compete with control over gravity mana with him.
With the apparent intelligence Ordina had displayed to him, he wondered if it just let him use its gravity mana or if it doesn’t have complete control over every single element in itself.
He already turned his sculptures into small condense balls of ice mana to carry along since they wouldn’t be able to keep up.
It didn’t even take minutes before they were delayed again. Although it wasn’t as crowded there was still a line at the grey pillar, despite how early they had moved off. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be moving faster.
Their race continued on the mountain range, still opting to go through the horde on the largest mountain which far fewer people were on. They leapt past mountains as if nothing, ran past the horde without interruption and into the shortcut walkway. Blasted through the Earthen-Topaz Golems in a flash. With the walkway having widened, they were able to jump past any parties that were either resting or fighting. They were considerate enough to slow down before going past them or the wind pressure would have disrupted them.
With the overall expansion of every floor of the dungeon, the walkway seemed to be the most affected. They were only just able to exit from the eighth floor by the end of the day.
Ning Xin clearly got weary halfway through, she ran out of mana for her lightning bursts pretty early on and normal people can’t recover mana as they cast. That meant her fire enhancement died down sometime in the middle too. She was left with her Core skill for enhancement, so he was able to catch up and they carried on at roughly the same speed.
Although Ebony would have sore muscles and body, not even a full 28 hours or running is a piece of cake for Sustained Optimum Condition to keep him going. That wasn’t the case for Ning Xin, exhaustion and pain resistance only let her feel it less but her body is still being worn down, exactly the same as him, he just ignored the pain since his physique lets him recover muscles strains and tears.
“Are you hungry yet?”
“Surprisingly, not really.”
Ebony’s internal clock told him it just barely turned nighttime, the way from the eighth to eleventh floor was simply picking a direction and climbing a few slopes, it shouldn’t take him more than a few hours even if Ordina increased in size a little.
He turned around to show his back “Hop on.” signalling that he would piggyback her.
“My body temperature is really high now…and I’m sweaty…and smelly.”
“Perfect, you can cool down on my back and I like your smell.”
“...you’re being disgusting…” Ning Xin actually climbed on as she replied.
With her clothes, she wouldn’t really feel uncomfortable despite the icy temperatures of an enhanced body.
A soft moan came from his back when she climbed on, she tightened her arms around his neck. She didn’t expect the cool ‘bolster’ to feel so nice and the contact on her hot skin had surprised her, her body clung on reflexively like how she hugs her bolster to sleep.
Ebony on the other hand had to rethink his choices. The softness around his neck, the fleshy thighs wrapping his torso, the soft mounds on his back. Their presence was hard to ignore when they were practically burning into him. Not to mention the moan that she didn’t seem to notice was really bothering him.
‘I didn’t receive training for this…’
❅❅❅
Heavy panting filled the walkway. The panting continued for a long time before the dirt filled hair mage yelled, “We’re so extorting the crap out of them!”
The youthful group was stumped. They were able to keep the couple within sight at first but the two of them were practically golems that didn't tire out. They saw the couple exit the walkway and stood there a while so they were finally able to rest.
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The target had surprising game or perhaps the Xeng was surprisingly ‘easy’.
They were all pretty observant, they saw that at least the Xeng was exhausted but the look of nonchalance and the fact that the target was still glowing was beyond their wildest imagination. This target was unlike any others they have gone for. Seeing her climb onto his back, they were smart enough to start crying inwardly while the mage girl actually cried out loud.
“Please give me a break!!”
❅❅❅
One of his greatest mental training later, Ebony stopped before the pyramid as he woke Ning Xin up. She actually fell asleep on his back.
She shyly got off his back and didn’t dare look at him for a short while, there were two other parties around but other than the people on watch, the others were asleep. He nodded to them as a greeting as they did the same. They set up camp a distance away from the others.
Once again, she didn’t cook so much because they were going to sleep soon and she decided to make a heavier breakfast in the morning instead.
Ebony was alert again when she started wiping herself down in her tent, he warily looked at the other parties' nightwatchers. Hopping they didn’t have some special perception skill, he still let his ice balls expand into a massive orb that covered the tent.
Then he saw the group with the guy who fought him in the stairs on the first floor.
‘They were not normal after all.’ He remembered the crack in his wrist bones that healed long ago. He raised a hand to wave at them in greetings but the rogue seemed a little shocked by the greeting, he still waved back. ‘So only the rogue can see this far in the dark.’
They made their way towards him. Fortunately, Ning Xin didn’t dally on wiping herself, she actually got dressed and came back out. Evidently, she noticed the people coming towards them.
Neither of them said anything, the leader of the party, the boy who sparred with him, spoke up first.
“Haa! I thought we were fast but as expected from the ones who cleared Ordina before, you’re hella fast. Well, we’re going to be the second that clears it so we’ll be going on ahead. See ya around!” The boy’s party members looked at him in disbelief and the crafter and mage were dragged along by the Dwarf. They didn’t even wait for a reply as they entered the pyramid.
“Who are they?” Ning Xin asked, she clearly didn’t have any impression of them so he explained that they met briefly on the first floor.
“They caught up to us when we started off around the same time?”
“Mmm.”
It didn’t have to be said that it was obvious that the party of 5 Journeyman wasn’t your average party but neither of them really cared if they wanted to be the next who cleared Ordina so they went to sleep. Ebony stayed up to keep watch since there were other people relatively close to them.
They still trained in the morning before breakfast. When got through the pyramid, “Hug me,” was what Ebony said as he opened his arms wide.
“Wh-why should I?” Ning Xin was fully aware that he was making advances on her now.
“Trip fare.” Ebony pointed to the ceiling of water.
There was actually a signboard placed at the top of the stairs, right before the ceiling of water. It was written that they would be water mages selling trips every two hours or so, for a small price of 3 Greens per person. So parties without a method up could just wait till a water mage came down to fetch them. 3 Greens was a horrendous price but without the capability to cross the lake, they would be stopped at the 12th floor.
She dived in for the hug after a moment of hesitation that was gone the instant they entered the small pool of water, she was giving a bone-crushing hug with how afraid of the water she was.
They weren’t even shaken or eaten once. Ordina was definitely giving them face.
‘I’ll have to run up the walls but if I carry Ning Xin with ice, my ice wouldn’t be able to keep up. If I slow down I might fall off…nah I can just freeze myself onto the wall.’ Ebony was contemplating ways of crossing up the 13th to 18th floor as fast as possible. Their goal was to train on the 21st floor which has both the highest level monsters and a good number of them.
They left the confines of the walls of the large camp. Ning Xin has more trouble traversing fast in this terrain so they took it slowly.
“Can you ca-” Ning Xin was cut off as both of them leapt aside when they sensed movement from the muddy group.
An Issile’s back surfaced slowly, she already had her blades drawn and pierced out, not expecting a greenish hand to grab her blade directly. It steamed as her blade was extremely hot after she imbued it with fire mana. She leapt back instead of continuing her offence as she saw what it was that caught her sword.
Both her and Ebony stared at what wasn’t supposed to be here.
[Frost-Topaz Cardinal Golem Lvl 133]
It was way lower level than it was supposed to be, Ebony could only guess that the dungeon's guardian could move around more freely and this one was recently spawned.
The greenish glow dialled down and it returned to its original blue colour. Although it was so much lower level, both of them were pretty wary of Ordina’s tough guardian.
The golem stood atop the Issile’s head and bowed towards them again before sitting down and tapping the head of the Issile.
The three of them shared a gaze.
Ebony was the first to move, he jumped onto the Issile and sat beside the Cardinal Golem. Ning Xin followed and sat beside him instead.
Because he kept watching the Cardinal Golem, he was very intrigued when he saw its level drop and the Issile under them levelled up. Only by 5 levels though.
It pointed to Ning Xin and surprised the both of them when it made a noise, “Make,” it pointed towards the campsite, “No look.”.
‘It copied my mana vibration.’ Ebony could sense that the Cardinal Golem held a ball of mana in its mouth and only opened its mouth to let the vibrations out. As for the language, it must have learnt over time by listening to so many people speak or shout at its monsters.
Seeing Ning Xin confused, the guardian looked at him in plee.
“I think it wants you to use your illusion ward to keep us out of sight.” He was able to guess. Seeing the guardian nod and try to articulate ‘illusion ward’ a few times was confirmation.
Ning Xin gulped, she knew Ebony was pretty clueless so he wouldn’t know how abnormal Ordina was in terms of intelligence. It grew way too fast.
She still did as it said and took out the orb to activate, not giving the guardian the chance to observe it too much by hiding it under her mantle.
The Issile took off and flew up, he held Ning Xin so that she wouldn’t get swung off. Freezing his own pants and legs down and using gravity manipulation to assist her in staying on.
He was pretty sure the holes in the ceiling weren't so big but the one they were heading for was more than big enough for them to slip through with the gigantic flying eel.
There were dozens of Boomdart Fangs on the Issile, they slithered into the Cardinal Golem’s hand as it threw the snakes into the Issile’s open mouth. The Issile got faster again.
❅❅❅
In this manner, they were on their way to the icy ceiling of the 19th floor before they knew it. The Cardinal Golem didn’t attempt to converse and neither did the two of them.
“Higher?” It asked after they arrived on the 19th floor. The Issile retreated back after it let them alight on the top of the icy stairs on the 18th floor. It probably couldn’t access any other floors or perhaps it just wasn’t suited for the cold.
“What do you want from us?” Ning Xin asked before they could go on any further.
“...Fight.” It pointed to both of them, “me stronger,”.
Her expression under her mask fell, it wanted to learn from them more directly. Yet it wasn’t done speaking.
“Exchange.” It bent down and used its hand to chop at its neck.
Now she was thoroughly frightened by how much this dungeon knew.
“Where explody?” It cocked its head to her disgust, she had no doubt that was copying Ebony’s reaction too.
“Explody?” She sensed the amusement in his question despite there being no change in tune.
The next thing it did turned his amusement around.
The Cardinal Golem widened its stance and faced empty icy lands, it then pulled off a familiar triple punch into the air.
Ning Xin thought it was a copy of his ‘super panch’ but Ebony knew it was an attempt of copying ‘mega panch’. The floor in front of the punch was growing yellow lines which disappeared fast. He sensed the mana, ice mana and guessed the last to be topaz mana which the Cardinal Golem added into each punch and flattened it before letting it blast forward.
If it could do anything close to what Hector could do, they stood no chance should it return to the same level it had previously. They weren’t even back here to fight the Cardinal Golem again, they were just planning to train and push their skill levels against the Prime Verglas Kobolds and the hog-riding Chief.
“Deal?”
“Wait.” She pulled Ebony aside and signalled him to silence their conversation.
“What’s wrong? I don’t see an issue.”
“I mean…I guess so. It’s just…odd, dungeons rarely get this intelligent, even those that have been around for a very long time.”
“I don’t see a problem, it’s using us to grow stronger and so are we. Imagine this, it’s saying it’ll let us kill his highest level creature for natural potential. We can still fight it for real if we want to get the most out of the natural potential. Even without us, it’s not like it can’t get stronger either.”
“...”
“With how many people inside Ordina, it doesn’t even have excess essence for itself, much less enough to accumulate for a dungeon break.”
“The stronger the dungeon, the more beneficial for the strong.” Ning Xin wondered why she was even hesitant to begin with. There were no down sides.
Ebony walked towards the Cardinal Golem and held up a fist.
“Brofist.”
‘What is he saying?’ Ning Xin couldn’t keep up with his thought process.