“I guess the Nerve Shaker will come in handy eventually, let's just hope it isn't as expensive as everything else I use.” He muttered, and then he gestured for the rest of the group to try and steal the same ability from these carcasses.
For a few minutes it was difficult for them to understand each other, because their ears were still ringing, but eventually they understood what he initially meant. Ear pain was one of the worst pains of all, they were not happy.
Anyway, Ortana was very keen on Tim's Idea. She didn't have that many abilities to begin with, due to the fact that oftentimes she had to sacrifice them in exchange for shapeshifting. She had shapeshifted a lot before, however now, when an opportunity to obtain new powers was presented to her, she did not hesitate to take it. She cut off, and ate four fat pieces of snake meat, regardless of how tiny she was by stature, and she noted that it was delicious!
Ortana managed to steal a quarter of a snake's power, and that amount was good enough, because Timothy couldn't do any better. She had the ability at her disposal now, she could pour mana points on it, and that was what mattered the most, as the quality of each power she had, improved along with her mana anyway!
“A bit sour, but food is food.” She joked, but she also had this dangerous look in her eye, which only confirmed that she obtained the ability.
This was a good day. They got new powers, and did not get killed by six-foot long snakes either! It was definitely something worth celebrating about, and they were celebrating inwardly, however, the rest of the group wasn’t as enthusiastic about eating snake meat.
Arvena expressed, “That's a fool's game there, eating animals to steal their powers. Nurture what you already have, or open a book, as it's the only honorable way to cultivate a new ability.”
“We’re fish, there weren't any books in the sea.” Tim pointed out.
There was no debating that part, so Arvena let them be. After all, she didn't have to like their methods in order to cooperate with these people.
Skendus however, had a better excuse as to why he won't eat snake meat. “I didn't have any books either, anyway, I'm an illusionist so I don't need this… nerve shaker? I can paralyze a person in a hundred other ways, both physically and mentally. I'm good.”
There was a lot of talking regarding this issue. Tim hadn’t realized that a simple suggestion from his side would end up sparking ethical debates, but yet here they were. He wasn't happy about this, he could see the repulsion that his two friends felt, and quite frankly he didn't expect this from them. Arvena had done treacherous deeds before, and she hadn’t been ‘educated’ as rigidly in comparison, so this was odd.
“Looks like the snakes pissed on everyone's nerves already,” He thought.
However, they didn't have time to debate right now, as they were on a little mission here. The dragons ended up eating all of the snakes, which was a bit of a waste, because for some reason they couldn't obtain any powers in return, but that was the ethical debate finished. The meat was wasted in a sense, but the dragons did seem pretty happy about their meal.
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Anyway, they continued walking through the tunnels afterwards, and they did so confidently, because they managed this first attack really well. They figured that if they were attacked again by whatever creature, they'd be able to handle themselves!
The torches they carried were a symbol of their radiant confidence, they weren't scared, though inevitably they ran into about eight more dead ends along the way which managed to halt their stride. The dead ends weren’t surprising. This tunnel system was beyond complex, as there was a lot of work done to create it in the past, perhaps decades of work even!
With that said, they could understand why the priest valued this place so much. Though there was no written record of how the mines had operated, anyone could guess that a mining operation that was this huge, had likely required hundreds of men to have it function. Any mine that required hundreds of men, truly had something to offer!
In this case, it has had so much to offer, that the mines hadn’t been completely forgotten, even though several generations were born after those old miners! The Forbidden Caves might as well do the city some good, this place had potential, the team saw at least four large iron deposits so far, for example, with some minor sulfur deposits. It was plentiful.
After a few more dead ends, the team ended up in another cave. This couldn’t be that first cave that they left behind, because it didn’t have the doorway that Timothy had made, no. This was an entirely different cave, and it was far bigger in comparison, well, half of it featured a major elevation drop!
There was a fifty-meter deep ditch of sorts here, and they guessed that it was about fifty meters, because they tossed a stone in it, and it took a few seconds for the stone to hit the ground. It was deep, and if Tim hadn’t been careful, he would've been the first one to fall in the ditch because he was at the front of a line.
“I prevented another tragedy today, I saved myself.” He joked, inwardly, and then he pitched. “Okay, looks like we're gonna have to fly down there. Can your dragon fly in caves?”
“I don't know, we both met him yesterday, and I don't think anyone can own a dragon, that’s a weird thing to say. He's probably smarter than you are.” She said, though no one really understood why she was so defensive over labels right now.
Either way, they figured out that Georgie could fly them down there. He even sat down, just so the goblins could climb on his back, which confirmed the notion that he was a very smart boy. At the very least he was very cooperative, but either way, they could progress deeper within the cave now.
They flew down to the bottom of the ditch, and they landed safely. Afterwards as they tried to decide on what to do next, a faint hint of yellow light caught their eye!
The ditch was surrounded by about seven walls, which together almost formed a circle. One of these walls featured a gaping, three-meter tall entrance which led downwards through the aid of yet another tunnel, and it was there where they spotted that faint little light, it was about fifty meters away from them!
Curiosity was their strong suit, so the team followed the light, as it looked like a good lead. It looked interesting at the very least.
Once they made it to the other side of the tunnel, they heard, and saw a very large pool of lava! It was right in front of them, poking at their pupils, and looking overall amazing!
“This can't be what scared the miners, right?” Ortana asked, and they were all wondering the same thing.
Moments later, they saw a weird, yellow creature flying about ten meters above the lava. This creature looked a lot like a dragon, and it had spotted the team, so it was flying their way with all the speed that it could muster! That thing may have scared the miners.