The Ruins of Aqumus were sounding more and more like a fairytale these past few weeks, they may not exist. Arvena has been promising to take the team to the ruins for a while now, but throughout recent events they discovered that she was less than trustworthy.
Arvena rarely told the truth, and when she did try to tell it, she didn’t tell the whole truth, as in, she ultimately failed to mention her agendas in the past, and or the associated dangers that are tied to her agendas, she failed to mention those a bunch of times! Her behaviour was alarming.
As a matter of fact, she barely told them anything useful about the library of Rempegena, even though it’s been a month since the library was unearthed, or, teleported. She refused. The team didn’t get much out of that little journey, they were just dragged there to act as bodyguards, just to keep her alive, rather than anything progress-oriented. To tip the bucket, neither three of them were allowed to enter that library after it was unearthed, which truly was a shame.
They earned at least some of those ancient secrets, so they should be treated better in that regard. If that wasn’t annoying enough, one also had to remember that most of what happened regarding that library was creepy. She didn’t explain how she teleported the whole structure, and she didn’t admit to discovering any new powers within it either, which in hindsight was beyond suspicious. She refused to share her findings, and the quality of her mana was a frightening mystery now as well, she refused to speak about her exact level of power! For all they knew, she could kill them on the spot if she felt like it.
With all of that considered, it was very likely that she was hiding something, again. She may be using the team to solve the mere, egocentric problems of the locals, rather than helping the team progress! This was very possible, and yet it was the least problematic theory!
It didn’t take much to figure out that she was lying about something, because initially, in the beginning she had explained that it was very important to go through two hypothetical checkpoints, if they were to get to and survive the Ruins of Aqumus, those were her words. She considered those checkpoints to be dire, and yet they hadn’t gotten any closer to traveling towards those treasured ruins, they wouldn't be getting any closer to them even if they escaped this nano universe with their lives! It was unlikely.
The ruins were likely on the other side of the world, so they won’t be seeing that place anytime soon. The team did the math in their heads, so they didn’t trust this lady at all now, yet they still felt forced to follow her lead because not a single other goblin had volunteered to be their guide in the prior universe. If they didn’t follow her, then they would be utterly and completely alone here, and that wouldn’t be the best formula to progress either.
So as they followed her lead, the team had to hope for the best, because if the problem regarding mana quality brackets was as consistent as she described it to be, then they had to try and do something about it! Arvena was their best shot, regardless if they liked it or not.
Well, they didn’t like it, and that’s why Tim asked Skendus to keep an eye on their guide. The latter could read through minds, so he could help keep everyone away from any potential, explosive danger. Tim made that demand through a wordless thought, and knew that Skendus would pick up on it.
At some point, through a whisper, Skendus then admitted. “She’s blocking my attempts… This nasty little goblin has definitely ascended through the god’s punishment realm of mana, because rarely anyone could reject my powers before. Let’s try not to die here, okay?”
With that considered, this trip within the universe may be coated with multiple challenges, challenges that they had to face. There was no real way to predict anything that could happen, so their best bet was to be on their guard at all times. Ortana had been loyal and honest enough these past couple of months, so they warned her of the potential dangers as well. If not anything more, she has these great, defensive capabilities, and could keep her friends alive, or shielded, if great challenges arose. They trusted her to be on the lookout, they trusted her the most.
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Anyway, regardless of their sour feelings about those numerous matters, they did later on make some progress in this nano universe. The body of water they were in was unpredictable, sure, but they managed to progress nonetheless, because they swam towards the very bottom without any casualties or confrontations.
They were four hundred meters deep underwater, to be exact, and although they started feeling the water pressure weighing down on them, they felt that the risk of imploding was worthwhile. They found a city of sorts here, and although they didn’t know where to look in order to make this city worth their while, they were still enthusiastic!
“This place looks like ancient Rome, god damn it, except it’s less sophisticated. What’s the point of building something like this underwater? It looks all ruined and gross.” He complained, so carelessly, as perhaps the water pressure was getting to him.
“Rome? I haven’t heard of anything like that before.” Arvena admitted, “This looks like the old city. In theory it should be filled with aqus goblins, but they’re probably guarding their holy sites or something like that. Let’s hope they left a tiny little holy site behind them, one that we could use.”
“So this city is empty? Because if we have to fight them, plus fight a bunch of degranus goblins, then we might all die. Come to think of it, it’s almost sounding like you’re trying to kill us.” Tim added.
“Oh, I’m not, and you probably misunderstood me. Aqus goblins are way more accepting of guests, if those guests share the same species as they do, that is. I mean they could probably guess that we aren’t locals, but they’ll be less likely to attack. This is why I didn’t let you turn into fish up there, it’s much more safe to be disguised as the main, intelligent species here.” She explained.
“I’m glad you’re making sense again, but if you’re up to some weird shit like you were with that library, you better believe that we will turn back. I don’t want to end up crippled or dead because of you, you best understand that.” He warned, directly.
Arvena nodded along, which hinted that she acknowledged the other’s concern. Though odds were that she was just agreeing in order to shut his mouth, because of all things, she seems to be a master at pacing herself based on her own goals and or agendas, she could play along well. Regardless of what she vocalized, Timothy could still see her boundless willpower behind her indifferent smile. He couldn’t be fooled as easily nowadays.
Anyway, they browsed the city that they found, with the hopes of locating a holy place within it, or any place of worship really, as small as that place may be. Arvena insisted that it was imperative to find a place like that, if the four of them were to remove the mana-bracket that may occur in the future, it was imperative. Although she refused to explain how a holy site would help them, she still felt entitled to the support of her guests.
This was an interesting, if not infuriating situation. The four of them searched through the ruined, stone city with that goal in mind, even if they felt very confused and agitated while doing so!
The city seemed like ancient Rome back on earth, because there were a lot of white, marble columns spread across the city. Paired with the fine stone houses, one could safely assume that the people here had lived well, that is, if they had figured out how to make use of such houses while deep underwater. The place was all gross and mossy now, yes, but in its prime it was likely a wonderful domain.
Anyway, after about an hour of searching, the group’s effort lied in vain. They didn’t fight a holy site, or a church, nothing of such sort. Something found them instead!
The group was within the increasing darkness of the deep waters, they were at the bottom, and yet when something as huge as a whole whale floated on top of them, it was simply difficult to ignore all of the commotion in the waters, or the shadow that followed the creature! Something truly had found them.
What was one monster, became two, and then they let out a couple of calls equal to a cry of an angry dragon! The group could only pray that these beasts weren’t hungry, that was their best shot, because there simply was no fighting them!