Chapter 99 Darkest Tails

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The cave was pure dark. It took us some time before our eyes got used to it. However, no matter how long we waited, the darkness still lingered. The wall was made with some kind of dark rock like charcoal or something.

"Turn off your torch. This is a coal area. If you drop your torch here, we will be roasted alive." Sig said. "Be very careful with slimy black water. If you get one on you while fighting salamanders, the fire can not be put out."

"Huh? How are we going to see our surroundings then?" Mattheus asked. Lily's inexperienced group was panicking.

"Lights come forth Here." Edelweiss lighted up her wizard staff, and it glowed like a floodlight.

"Oh, nice."

"I haven't learned how to do that…." Lily pouted.

"I guess we can trade magics once more later. Lord Lily?" Rhander also did the same with his feystones. But I noticed a significant difference in how they used their stones. Edelweiss poured mana inside the feystone and, at the same also used mana from other feystone as light. In contrast, Rhander used his feystones like flashlights with feystones that acted as batteries.

"Watch out!" lhorne shouted, and I quickly moved my buckler to the left to block an arrow aimed straight at Edelweiss. A massive amount of red eyes swarmed over us from behind the shadow instantly. Their clacking noise was awfully familiar.

"Skeletons!" Alistar shouted as he prepared his axe. There must be more than fifty of them. They charged towards us, but Alistar was ready. With his herculean strength, he charged to the front, and the avalanche of skeletons broke like a tide to a rock.

"Undead here?" Edelweiss was baffled.

"Not the one in Fort Soleil. This one drops the scrap feystones." Jona said after she crushed one straggler with her axe.

"Huh? So the ones in Fort Soleil don't drop Feystones?" Sig asked after we cleared all fifty of them.

You have leveled to level 23

"And this one gave exp. My level just went up." Lily said as my fireballs took out 6 more stragglers while her sword decapitated them without mercy.

"I wonder why the ones in Fort Soleil Didn't give exp," Alistar said as he looked down at the scrap feystones the monster left behind. Monsters from the dungeon do not drop anything except feystones. They are only to be used as experience points. We marched on, and before us laid stairs to some unknown. The darkness still lingered in the furthest reaches of the cave, as we only relied on the light from my Edelweiss and Rhander lamps.

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“I am getting tired.” Edelweiss said.

"We can't rest here. There is no light, and we can't light a fire. We would be too vulnerable to ambushes unless you and Rhander there will stay guard all night to light the lamps." Sig replied flatly. Edelweiss no longer complained. Alistar nodded that once we found a place, we would rest.

"The wall is slimy…." Lily said as she looked at the wall, which was shined by Edelweiss' lamp as we descended the stairs.

"That is the liquid I was talking to you about," Sig replied flatly. "From here, the enemy will start using magic."

"Huh?"

"You will be fine if the liquid does not get into you. Kill them with arrows! They are an easy pick."

We followed down the stairs. Lhorne once again used his bionic eyes to pinpoint the enemy and shoot it with arrows. The enemy looked like a frog, and once Lhorne hit the balloon in its throat, the frog literally exploded and died in a single shot.

"Hahaha! We might get outta here without casualties! If that really happened, we will invite you guys again to this dungeon!" Sig laughed merrily at the positive outcome. "Those frogs could spit greek flame. If the flame gets into you, you will be roasted alive. Moreover, they had a range of over thirty meters with their shooting even in these dark caves. It was bothersome!"

Sig said the combination of our magic and technique made the dungeon raid easier. Lhorne could kill the arrow more than a hundred meters away even with a single light source from Edelweiss staff, so the frog had no chance of hurting us.

"If this was a normal dungeon, we would cry at their behavior," Alistar said

"Yeah, the monsters aren't that strong, but they really use the advantage of the area they reside in," Edelweiss said.

"The true treasure of this dungeon is at the ores we found!"

"Where are the Titan ores?" Lily asked.

"That one is still far down below. We will reach the resting spot in a moment." Sig said. After more than four hours of walking and killing over 40 frogs and spiky lizards, we reached the end of the tunnel and found a river there. The walls and ceiling glowed with blue light, giving a serene feeling as if this place was made so the adventurers could rest their weary bones. The sound of the moving waters was soothing, and the temperature was a cool breeze, unlike the hot and humid from before.

"This place is beautiful!" Edelweiss turned all smiles at the resting spot.

"This is a good place to rest. Niece, bring out the tent, and we shall camp here." Sig said while pointing at the corner of the wall as we entered the new cave biome, "I will also assign you to recover the feystones we used."

"Yes, dad." Niece nodded. She brought out the rations and tents. She even prepared firewood. I was curious about how much her storage capacity was, but asking it directly was rude. However, Lily sensed my intention and asked anyway.

"About a hundred cubic meters." She answered. "But I would prefer to carry less. It decreases my mana, after all. I could not fight well like other blessed magicians if I had to carry everything at full capacity."

The rest was rather long. Edelweiss slept immediately until morning, with Rhander following suit. There was no sun, of course, but we have the clock from the dwarves. Several lizards ambushed us from the river when we rested, but Lily and Alistar easily decapitated them. Earning her another level.

You have leveled to level 24