"So? What are you waiting for? I've already told you everything I could. What more do you need? Go do your job!" Jadas shouted with an annoyed expression.
"Can I punch him?" Blue whispered to Hera.
"We don't know if we need him for the dungeon. After we are done, we can come here to do that. He deserves a good slap," the Empress replied.
'Honestly, I think we should still ask some more questions, but I don't want to deal with him anymore,' Nimbus said.
'Me too. If we take long to leave here, I will punch him,' Lurize added.
"Ok, let's get going, guys," Hera suggested and started walking towards the second entrance of the warehouse.
The rest of the group followed her, not wanting to deal with that triton. Before passing through the reception area, Hera looked around the illusions, trying to see what they said. Things like 'Mana level' and 'transmission coefficient' were around. Some other words were also here and there, but Hera couldn't tell what they meant. It looked like the types of words that would name mathematical theorems or scientific terms.
After moving to the side and entering what was supposed to be the large area where the pool should be located, they found a very different place. It was a long and narrow corridor leading to what looked like a vast and well-illuminated room. This felt very much like an employee-only area. The ground was some sort of grate that echoed as they walked through. There were leaky pipes all over the ceiling and some valves here and there that were letting some steam escape. Hera was confused by this. They didn't see anything made out of metal in Sky, yet, here, it was everywhere. Maybe this was really the case, or perhaps the dungeon changed to fit their perception. Or, who knows, to protect some kind of technology that the system deemed too risky to exist.
Walking through that corridor was unnerving. They had to move in a single file line, and even if there was enough space for all of them to move comfortably, it still felt very claustrophobic. However, that didn't last for long. After a few meters, the path became wider, wide enough for them to move with three people side by side. Before reaching that area, Hera triggered her pulse to scout the path ahead. The entire place was brimming with mana, which made things even more complicated for her spell. It was like she was trying to sense the area through static.
"Ok, the mana here is acting weird. I can't feel what's ahead. Core, Frost, Ooze, go forward and make sure there isn't anything ready to ambush us," the blades started floating ahead and spread out on this new area, but it seemed to be empty. After getting that confirmation, the group moved forward slowly, ready for attacks.
Luckily, nothing happened. As they continued moving, the corridor changed slightly. The grated floor became a smooth area of white stone, and large slabs of stone in different colors now hid the pipes. This was slowly becoming a place that would be pretty to the eyes. There were no illusions, mana crystals, or even lights in this area, only the path. Another dozen or so meters ahead, the area changed again. Now revealing a massive circular room with some small vents framing the top of the dome.
"Ok, this is really weird. Why is the place like this?" Blue asked.
"I don't know. We just have to kill the monster, right?" Hera continued walking and looking around, noticing another five passages. One to the opposite end of the path they took to get here and another two on each side of the room.
"That's what the quest said. But this is looking very much like a modern thing. Do you think they were that advanced.?" Helena looked at Shane as she walked past a very thin mark on the floor going from the left to the right wall. It was a simple line that looked like the connection between two pieces of rock. However, doing that triggered something. A loud 'clank' sound echoed, and six doors came down from the ceiling. Each of them blocked one of the passages.
"What happened?" Mylo pulled his floral staff and got into a fighting stance. Lurize and Nimbus did the same, pulling their weapons and creating a perimeter around the group.
"I don't know!" Shane cried and enchanted the air around them to become a barrier.
"Mum! Up there!" Daskka called. Hera looked up and saw all the vents were now open. From them, a weird pinkish light started to emerge. About three dozen small globules appeared and started floating down.
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Mana Plasma - Level 29
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"It's in the name, but they have mana affinity," Hera called. She tried sensing them, but the mana felt weird. It wasn't exactly wrong, but the opposite. Almost as if she was looking at the negative of a photograph.
"Can't you do something about them with your title?" Blue created a few small clouds that looked like fists.
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"No. They don't move like regular mana, " Hera replied as the last of the pink lights came out of the vent.
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Quest Update
The Mana Pool safeguards have been triggered due to the presence of hostile beings within the structure. Clear all hostiles to unlock the door for the central chamber.
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"Good. I like things like this. Plain and simple," Blue smiled and tossed her Storm Fists at one of the globules. The five clouds slammed against it and kept their shape, then they flew in a circle and came back for another attack. That continued again and again. Each impact making the clouds lose a bit of their shape and mass. However, only after four of the monsters were killed and they were working on the fifth one did the Storm Fists finally vanish.
On the other side, Shane reached out and grabbed nothing, but by enchanting the wind, she made a very long whip that could allow her to attack from a distance. She twisted it high above her head and cracked on top of one of the Mana Plasmas, sending it flying to the wall. The follow-up was to let go of the whip and pull her launcher. Without using any ammo, she just pointed at a spot in the middle of a cluster of five monsters and pulled the trigger. The same whip crack was recreated in the location she aimed for, sending the creatures flying through the room.
Mylo spun his staff, making it glow slightly, and rushed towards the creatures. Each strike would let a small trail of lotus flowers behind it for a few moments. When one of the monsters moved closer, the flowers would burst, sending the petals flying to the creature that got too close as if they were daggers.
Helena went for a spell she used a lot when she was starting out, but an upgraded version of it. After all, removing the senses of creatures like this might not even work. She made several shadowgrabbers coming out of the ground and armed each with a bow and arrow. With a flick of the wrist, she sent a volley of Shadow Bolts, the most basic shadow spell she knew. But doing this way allowed her to increase the strength and accuracy of the attacks by a lot. With just the initial volley, about 6 Mana Plasmas fell, but the monster's pink energy projectiles intercepted the next attack.
Not wanting to get left behind, Hera rushed out of the barrier with Nimbus and Lurize by her side. Each strike of Fang or Claw would kill one of the monsters while the titled blades took care of any of those who were getting closer. The rest of her court paired up and spread out, attacking the Mana Plasmas that were on the outer perimeter of the room. While that was happening, the Empress realized she was one of the less flashy combatants. Not that this was a problem, per se, but it was something she had never considered. Even Blue's attacks were more eye-catching while she was only swinging her weapons. Sure, things would change if those watching knew that the flying weapons, Nimbus and Lurize, were part of her legacy. But even Daskka was putting it on more of a show by using her mist to match the circle energy coming from the monsters only to then squeeze them until they popped.
This was easy enough, and she wanted to see if she could be at least a bit showier. To do that, she created a poison elemental armor, hoping the drip effect it created would be enough to make her feel less self-conscious. Lurize ended up paying half of the cost of the spell, and instead of just a simple orange glow and the drops of poison coming out of her body, she was covered in what looked like an orange rhinoceros beetle's armor. It was very similar to the one Lurize created when he yelled, 'I am Mr. Beetle.'
Hera had no idea this would happen, but it did look pretty cool. And judging from the reaction of the other court members, they thought so as well. This was still a bit far from what she wanted, but it was a step in the right direction. In less than five minutes, all three dozen Mana Plasmas were gone. When the last one perished, one of the doors to the left opened. Before moving forward, they looked around for loot, but there was nothing. All the monsters died without leaving a single thing behind.
"Well, let's get going. Maybe we will have better luck with the next one," Helena tried to cheer everyone up, but that was unnecessary. None of them was too worried about rewards. The first-time completion would already be good enough, and the drops here would likely be gold which would be more of a hassle to deal with than anything else.
Hera dropped the armor and walked to the new path, with Nimbus and Lurize taking the front and the rest of the party following behind her. The passage was just like the circular room: white walls and simple architecture. After just two minutes of walking, they arrived in a room with several large vats of something. The liquid was being poured in through some of the pipes. It was thick and an odd brown color, almost as if it was some sort of chocolate syrup. There were a total of ten tanks, with five on each side, separated by a metal fence and a single rod going all the way to the ceiling. But the strangest part was what was in the middle of the room.
A gigantic green pool noodle was placed in the center of this room. It had the same texture and the hole in the middle that one would expect from the water toy.But more strange than that, the noodle was moving. Everyone could see how the body was slowly shifting up and down, almost as if it was breathing. Confused, Hera tried using her [Observe]
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Reformed Shapeless Shape - Level 30
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Hera found it weird that it wasn't showing the sleeping status, but she figured it was just part of the dungeon. However, as she looked up, everyone could see the Shapeless Shape move and raise what should be its head before looking around. The moment it looked in the party's general direction, it freaked out. The monsters started thrashing around, breaking some of the vats and jumping inside one of them. In a few moments, the creature flopped out of the vat, completely charred as if it had just jumped into acid and dissolved on the ground, leaving a gold bar behind. Right after, the passage where they came from was closed off, and another path opened in front of them. Despite the weird reaction of the monster, it felt nice to do a straightforward dungeon and remove the need to look for a specific path.
"Did we… just scare it to death?" Blue asked.
"I honestly don't know if that counts. It's more like it killed itself because of a freakout," Shane replied.
"Either way, let's keep going. And be careful not to touch that liquid. It doesn't look like acid, but it's not like we can be sure of it," Helena added before walking to the new path and the next part of the dungeon.