Ortana's veins were painted in gold. They had that literal golden color on them now, and it was present from her hands, and all the way up to her elbows! It was terrifying, but she had only felt pain for a short second throughout this experience, and that pain was very minimal, so at least that was something to be positive about.
“What happened?” Skendus panicked, and tried to help her.
“I don't know,” She shook her head, “But I'm fine, that is, my fingers didn't fall off, so my hands are working pretty well. All things considered, that's what hands are supposed to do, right?”
“You should tune out Terrance more, because you're picking up on his sense of humor.” He said, and then he helped the other stand up.
The three of them didn't really know what to make of these golden veins, but since she didn't feel any pain, she figured that this weird color scheme would go away on its own eventually. She hoped that it would, at least, because the color yellow was very noticeable in the wild, it would ruin her natural camouflage quite severely.
Anyway, they rushed towards Arvena afterwards, because even though she didn’t suffer as much as a scratch so far, she was still knocked out cold. It wasn't an easy task for one to summon anything celestial, so she had fainted as a result. She was lucky that she only fainted, because if she withstood any physical damage instead, then she would either lose an arm or get burned into a crisp, so in a way, that prior exchange really went her way, mostly.
It would appear that she also exerted a lot of energy up until now, because even though she was alive, her body refused to wake up regardless of how much water they splashed on her face. She was out like a light, and she might remain so for several hours, so the team just sat around her, and waited.
A lot has happened this past hour, and the group couldn't understand half of the events that unfolded, so this was the best time to sit down and think about them. Skendus and Ortana were of a fair age, and despite their experience in life, they never heard about celestial weapons before, they never even imagined them. However, most tiny creatures never crossed the God's Punishment Realm either, so their ignorance regarding celestial weapons was excusable, but they were still beyond surprised!
“I can't see the dragon,” Timothy then said, “It's carcass is supposed to float on the lava, right? I was hoping to steal some of its powers.”
“What makes you think that you can fry its flesh to begin with?” Skendus asked.
“Hey, I'll eat it raw if I have to, because what's the worst that can happen? Two days of diarrhea? That's nothing!” He answered, and he wasn't joking either.
Unfortunately for Timothy, there was no carcass for him to nibble on, but he was none the wiser, because he hadn't witnessed the collision between the dragon and the spear. All he had heard was lava sloshing around, so his current cluelessness was excusable.
Tim still ran his eyes across the mana pool in the hopes to find some dragon meat, but he was unsuccessful. However, he did notice a couple of very important things instead!
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For a start, he finally noticed that the lava pool now was only half as deep as it used to be! This in turn revealed how big the pool's surrounding cavern was. It was so big in fact that one could fit an entire mining town here, if it wasn't for the rest of the lava that remained at the bottom part of the pool.
This truly was a fascinating site, but as he sweated through his decent shirt because he was within the vicinity of the lava, he noticed the second thing of equal, great importance. He spotted a bunch of tunnel openings, right where the lava used to be. The lava had sealed off these tunnels up until a moment ago, so by all odds, no goblin had ever stepped foot over there!
“There’s nothing there, I know it, but… I gotta see where those tunnels go. Maybe I’ll find some diamond deposits or some shit?” Tim muttered, as he developed this great crave to explore what was left of this place.
Since they haven't found any other pathways so far, he figured that the point he was currently at, was a dead end. This didn't feel right, and it was what convinced him to explore those tunnels to begin with.
Furthermore, he wanted to confirm that if there were greater threats out there, even greater than this dragon that Arvena had killed. He had to know this part for sure, because if there actually was a greater threat than that Yellow Dragon, then they were in big trouble, because they'd be far away from completing the task that they were sent down here for! Since the system hadn't rewarded him yet after they cleared the caves, he was more and more convinced that their little mission here was not over yet!
Tim stood up, grabbed a torch out of his bag, and said. “I'm going for those tunnels over there, they look interesting. Georgie, you can see in the dark, right, so do you wanna come with me? I could use a dragon.”
Georgie stood up, took one look at the lava below them, and shook his head in disagreement. This was the first time where he wasn't cooperative, and this was alarming, as it was a great sign that Timothy's idea was terrible!
“You are flying a one-ton dragon over all that lava. Besides, even if you make it to the other side, he'll get burned a hundred times before you even squeeze into a tunnel properly.” Skendus said, and he was making a lot of sense too, as this plan had a lot of holes in it.
However, an adventurer's spirit was unshakable at the sight of common sense, so he did not give up. He figured that a smaller dragon would do the trick, so he stared at the little dragonfly guys awkwardly, until one of them stepped forward to be a volunteer. Each of them were about five feet long, and although that sounded small, they could still carry him, because their wingspan was a decent, teen feet long! With that said, working with one of them made his plan seem a bit more plausible.
“Okay, I barely weigh twenty-five kilos so you should be able to lift me. You look like you weigh four times as much, so I’m assuming we won't take a hot bath as soon as we're in the air?” Tim spoke, though, he managed to confuse the dragon quite a bit.
The dragonfly was visibly confused, so Tim then decided to start making things more simple. “Okay, dragon, I'm gonna stop calling you dragon, it's too formal. How about Greg?”
The dragon shook its head in disagreement. It was obvious that it didn't like that name whatsoever.
“No? Okay, how about Cornelius?” He asked, and the dragonfly disagreed again.
Tim sighed in frustration because he was getting nowhere with this, so he actually came up with a good name next. He was desperate to get his little mission started.
“How about Bolivamus Tal the Greater? Billy for short.” He pitched, and the dragonfly finally nodded, he seemed really happy with that name.
While his friends cracked up laughing at his poor attempt at bargaining with a dragon, Tim climbed on the other's back, and grabbed a hold of its short, slightly curled, dark-blue horns. He was ready to fly.
“Okay Billy, go for those tunnels over there.” He pointed, and then said. “You better not drop me, or else I'll end up becoming the ugliest fried kebab in all of Valporovus!”