Today is the 5th.
Aoi wakes me up and bats her eyelashes sensually at me.
"Oh… you've gained more of the system again," I say as I pat her head.
Soul Info
Name:Aoi HP:200MP1010Magic Power150
"Hey, so she's got a lot of MP, even though she's not very powerful," Hana comments.
"But she's also very young, which means that she has a lot of potential," Roxanne says.
"She's going to need a lot of magical training," Ciel says.
"Once she has the system, my Gift will help her get a boost in power," I say.
"Then let me slurp some more," Aoi asks.
I pat her head again and push her away from my vulnerable member. "I need the mana. You'll have to make do with this much for now."
She gives me a frightening pout. "Then drink more potions."
I smile wryly. "We're entering a dangerous place, so it's better to always keep my mana as high as I can."
"Kweh!" She lets out a slightly annoyed cry.
"Patience…" Hana says in a low and dangerous tone. Aoi folds her wings and remains stiff, trying to get her anger under control.
Lina's [Cursing Magic] increased by 1 (now 0+1). She learned how to properly use [Weaken] so that it doesn't accidentally affect us.
As we prepare our Charcuterie for breakfast, Klein starts to hear rumors about what happened in Goldport being related to the sighting of a pillar of flame coming from deep within the Sea of Trees.
That one is new information to us, so we listen closely. It was deep enough in the Sea that it likely happened in an unexplored area, so nobody knows anything concrete yet.
They seem to just be gossiping about some rumors and wild speculation which are trying to tie the pillar of fire to the [Meteor]s that destroyed the Innocent Nymph, so I tune them out and ignore what they're buzzing about. Yes, where there's smoke, there's fire, but I don't know what exactly happened over there, so it's too frustrating for me to try and piece together a proper theory.
Then we store the tent and continue our trip.
Unfortunately, Jarn is not yet ready for real combat and she's too heavy to ride in our dinghy while we travel, so she gets very limited time outside of my "Items." The golems should start teaching her how to continuously use [Telekinesis] to keep her body light.
By following the increasing number of tents set up by adventurers, we easily find the dungeon. It only takes us a few hours to reach a large gathering of prospective dungeon divers living around the entrance.
A simple wooden door and frame stands in the middle of a rare clearing, receiving direct sunlight. The words "Legado" are carved on the frame, just like it was in Gecynd's vision.
Why did she see this dungeon? Why did I see that vision of "myself" at the same time? It's obvious that they are related, but how?
Feeling an ominous chill run through us, we slowly approach the entrance from above the adventurers.
We see rough people living rough lives and talking about rough things. It's a wild atmosphere, similar to Rabanara's hunter's guild, and it gives me a small amount of nostalgia.
There are a few merchants selling their wares. Just basic things that adventurers might need, like food and equipment.
Quite a large number of the adventurers are staring at the door, too fearful or too weak to enter themselves, but also too curious to not observe whenever someone else dares to go in.
This is the perfect cover for spies that note who is entering the dungeon, so I have no hope in using the Hollys to help spot them in the crowd.
We simply land in front of the door and I store the dinghy in my "Items."
"Everyone ready?" I ask and they nod.
We are tense, but confident.
The whispers explode around us as I reach for the handle and turn it. The door unlocks and I push it open. We cast [Spirit Lights] to see inside and a bare wooden room is revealed before us.
Feeling curious, I look around at the other side of the door frame, but I can only see a closed wooden door.
A dimensional door.
We enter the room and close the door behind us, then the murmuring immediately becomes wild with speculation as the adventurers judge how our party would fare inside.
I dismiss the Hollys and we grab each other's hands, then the ground lights up and our vision goes dark as the feeling of weightlessness takes hold over us.
Suddenly, I'm awake and standing, then I see that we are all together and still holding hands. The harsh sunlight burns my skin and I quickly look away to protect my face from its intensity.
The grass is bright green but it shines silver wherever the sunlight touches it. This is the birthplace of the silver elves: Elaria, the Silver Grassland. But not really since this is all mana solidification and we are still inside a dungeon in the High Forest.
I look around and see only tall grass touching my waist, then I look up and see the blue sky painted with beautiful pillowy white clouds. The bright sun blinds me and I look around us again. There's nothing but grass as far as the eye can see.
I shift in place and frown in sync with Alissa.
"There's something off about this place," we say in unison. We would smile and laugh if we weren't getting increasingly uncomfortable in this place.
The grass seems to always tilt with the breeze in the same direction; the clouds don't move no matter how long we stare at them; and the sun hurts us, making my bones creak and my muscles protest with every movement I make.
"What is it?" Hana asks.
"Everything about this place is odd. It doesn't feel like a perfect recreation of the world," Alissa answers.
I summon four Hollys and establish a perimeter. They can't see anything other than the blue sky above and green-and-silver grass around us. The grass slowly fades into a shade of blue and disappears far off in the distance as the atmosphere gradually hides it from our view.
"Remember that every detail might be deliberate," I say.
There weren't many sources that mentioned these oddities of the dungeon, but the ones who did, now rank higher in my mind since they seem to be accounts from adventurers with high "Perception."
"So, do we go with or against the direction that the grass is tilting?" Lina asks.
I shrug. "Flip a coin? We don't have any information to help us decide how to make this choice, so it's pointless to argue about it until we know more."
"I think that 'go with the wind' seems rather 'silver elf-y,'" Roxanne says.
Ciel stops looking at the horizon and chuckles. "Sure, seems like a good idea."
I shrug again. "Fine with me. Anyone against it?"
Everyone stays silent, so we start walking.
The grass is easily crushed under our boots and the rather soft and resilient earth makes for good footing. Add [Swift Foot] and [Refresh] to this equation, and our hours-long jog barely tires us out.
I notice that the height of the grass is gradually changing, but there are always valleys where it only goes up to my waist (which means that it reaches the top of Lina's chest).
Lina and Roxanne's delicate pale skin requires tender care to not burn in this stupidly harsh sunlight. And so, they wear cute shawls over their armor, leaving only their strikingly beautiful eyes uncovered to look at us, giving them an air of mystery.
Then a Holly spots a monster stalking through the grass, and soon Alissa detects it too. It's a large insect-like monster that seems to have green-and-silver grass growing out of its back. Its eight thin, long and dexterous legs almost trace a line along the ground as it "swims" between the grass blades, causing minimal disruption as it slinks towards us. The front legs have long blades on them that I assume it uses to attack almost like a human uses swords. It's called a Leixe Campi, and its threat level is assumed to be 4.
Alissa closes her eyes and draws her enchanted warbow as some mana leaves her body. She releases the arrow and it whistles through the grass. Then it buries itself in the eye of the monster, but not deeply enough since the grass slowed down the arrow.
A sound like a blackboard being scratched assaults our ears as the monster screeches in pain and increases its speed, completely abandoning stealth and now visibly disrupting the grass as it starts sprinting.
I cast [Lightning Bolt] at the rapidly approaching clump of distorted grass but it doesn't even flinch.
"It's immune to [Electric Magic]!" I yell.
Roxanne casts [Fire Arrow] at the same time as Alissa lets loose another arrow.
The spell whistles past the monster as it manages to dodge it in time, but Alissa's arrow still buries itself in its carapace and causes cracks to form.
Aoi grows into big-Aoi size and stands beside Hana as they wait for the monster to pounce.
Ciel and I cast [Wind Hammer] while Lina casts [Earth Bullet]. We slow it down as we break one of its eight legs and pulverize the carapace, creating an opening for Hana to strike.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The monster tries to parry her spear with its forelegs, but it fails and is stopped in place as the spear slips into its body right through the gap where the dark carapace is missing.
Aoi strikes at the same time with a savage chop of her halberd and splits the monster in two.
Its innards pour out and the front half flails about wildly as it suffers in agony. Barely five seconds pass before all of its energy fades away as it dies.
"Ew…" I mutter.
"Tasty," Aoi says as she licks her halberd.
Aoi eats it like a crab: she breaks open a leg and slurps everything out, leaving the inside clean. If it wasn't raw, then it might look tastier to me.
Not even a minute after that, we spot a large, nearly camouflaged blue-and-white bird flying in circles high above us. Its hovering capabilities are astounding, but it's still not enough to perfectly hide itself in front of the completely unmoving clouds. This creature is called a Sky Stalker.
It's too far high up for any of us to kill it at this range, so we ignore it for now.
Another Leixe strikes and we stop it with a salvo of [Earth Bullet]s and other blunt spells. The golems help, too, and I notice that their mana control is getting noticeably better. Then the disabled monster becomes easy pickings for Alissa since its specialty is only in charging forward, not turning or dodging.
A little before lunch, Alissa lowers herself to the ground and listens carefully. "Hoofed beings are coming," she says and gets up.
"Can you guess how many?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "I only know that a group is coming."
"Well, Holly will spot them, anyway."
After a few minutes, a group of seven animals strikingly similar to Ronti appears in her view. They are silver horses with very long and thin legs that keep their bodies raised above the grass, leaving minimal tracks behind.
Their skulls are conical and their beady black eyes bulge out, giving them a comical look, but their appearance betrays their magical prowess. They can cast spells with Wind and Electric magic, giving them the name Storm Chargers.
"They're coming directly towards us; they know that we're here," I say.
I look at the anti-monster crystal in my hand. It protects us from most monsters, but it also seems to do the opposite sometimes.
Alissa immediately lobs a long-distance arrow at them, and through Holly, I see it getting struck by lightning mid-air, then it ineffectively falls to the ground.
"Yeah, we'll need a strategy against these," I say.
"The info said that they don't go into melee and instead kill their victims with lightning from a distance," Lina says.
Hana grunts in displeasure.
"I could just 'gib' them," Roxanne comments.
"New monsters are valuable, so I want their bodies intact," I say.
"We are very exposed in this place, we need a wall protecting us," Lina says.
I look up and see four Stalkers slowly circling above us, but they're still too far away for Alissa to shoot them down.
Bah. We should've just put in the effort to kill them earlier, but now they're also a threat that can strike at our backs.
I summon two earth elementals. "Everyone, raise a circular wall around us, but leave an opening to funnel them in."
We also put a wide wall in front of the entrance so that they can't look inside our circle and fire their spells directly at us.
Then I summon an electric elemental. A crackling ball of plasma appears, just like those plasma ball lamps. "Watch for the birds above us," I order.
"Why an electric elemental? It'll be useless against the Chargers," Hana questions.
"But not the birds, and it'll gain power from the Chargers."
"Huh."
"I'm still not feeling safe enough, can we make a burrow for us to hide in?" Lina asks.
That will cost a painfully large amount of mana, but I'm not the kind to be reckless, so I allow it.
After a few minutes, the beating of the hooves and the occasional rumble of thunder can be heard approaching us.
"This feels like a lot of effort for a few coins," Ciel comments.
I cringe and give her an apologetic smile.
I see the Charges notice the wall and they split into two groups. They circle around it and find the entrance, then they continue running around our little fortification, growing increasingly restless.
I feel my hair rise and small shocks arc through my body. It's the same spell that the Zinotues, the lightning tigers, can cast. It's called [Charge Atmosphere].
"Get inside the burrow," I say, and a few seconds after that, multiple lightning strikes hit the earth above us.
The Chargers neigh loudly in anger, impatience, and happiness as they think that they've fried us all.
They waste all of their mana charring all the grass above us, but absolutely nothing actually harms us. The electric elemental even gains more power as it captures some of the lightning for itself.
The lightning storm ends and their excitement wanes, then they cautiously start to approach the entrance to inspect the damage.
"Do they eat charcoal? No good meat would be left after that," Aoi comments.
"Monsters aren't known to have fine taste in cuisine," Ciel says.
"Oh, right. That's true," Aoi says and grins.
The first four Chargers get close to the entrance and tap the ground repeatedly in impatience, then they start entering our circle wall.
"Aoi and earth elementals, go after the three outside and we'll deal with the ones coming in. The elementals should go underground towards their targets, then they'll hold them in place when we charge out. From left to right, Hana takes the first, then me, then Lina, then Ciel."
"Kay," Aoi answers and I hear a low grunt from the elementals, who start merging with the earth and moving towards their targets.
From each side, a Charger finally enters and another comes in right behind them.
"NOW!" I yell and we all leap out of the burrow.
The monsters look at the charred grass in confusion, but then they neigh in anger as they see us emerging from the hole in the ground.
Hana flies towards her target, then Aoi jumps off of her shoulders and grows while holding her halberd and shield in each claw. The three of us dash towards our targets in a shield line and I activate [Dead Zone] on my enchanted shield.
Ciel's little [Holy Spirit] glows so brightly that it blinds the monsters, but for us, it only gives inspiration.
Roxanne throws a [Fire Whip] that holds mine in place. Alissa's arrow flies over Lina's head and sinks into the flank of her target Charger.
Hana reaches her target first and drives her spear through its heart, then she draws her sword and chops at the back of its neck. Her aim is perfect, so it will die after just a few seconds.
The elementals raise the earth around two Chargers while Aoi lands on the last one with a savage chop that embeds her halberd deep into the spine of the monster. It falls to the ground, wailing in pain as it shoots wild lightning bolts in every direction. Aoi activates [Dead Zone] and scoffs at it.
We reach our targets and strike. Lina easily crushes her Charger's legs, then pulverizes its head; Ciel slices through the throat of hers, then uses the [Dead Zone] of her shield to protect herself from its counterattack; I drive my sword into my target's heart and chop at the back of its neck, embedding my sword in its flesh.
Hana flies away to help Aoi. Lina helps Ciel and crushes the monster's delicate legs. I let go of my sword and cast [Earth Bullet] at its face to knock it out.
Aoi grabs the long face of her target and gives it a sharp twist, snapping its spine.
I step back and wait for mine to bleed out while Lina and Ciel finish theirs.
Hana lands on one Charger and cuts open its throat with her sword while Aoi bashes the head of the other one with her shield.
After waiting for only a few more seconds, they are all dead.
"YAY!" Aoi exclaims, then both she and Hana flap their wings with happiness.
I immediately collect the bodies as the girls clean the gore off of their weapons. With a bit of difficulty, Aoi retrieves her halberd and cleans it with her tongue.
Hana crosses her arms and nods proudly as she says, "Aoi, the Blood Drinker."
"And the Cum Guzzler," Roxanne adds.
"Oh… I'll get Titles one day, too!" Aoi exclaims, excitedly.
We quickly [Clean] all the blood off of our gear and I dismiss the elementals.
"Okay, these shields make everything easier," Ciel says and pats her shield.
"Didn't you use one back when you were a Templar?" Alissa asks.
"I wasn't part of the front line, so no. They were too expensive for my role, and I hadn't worked long enough as a Templar to save up the money to buy one for myself."
I look up and see that there are now five Sky Stalkers flying above us. I summon a Kite Dragon and two Needler Harpies. A flatworm-type dragon and feather-throwing harpies.
"Get them," I order and point upwards.
Both of my summons lack the firepower to bring down these huge birds. The Kite Dragon strikes, but its attacks are narrowly dodged. A few feathers are ripped and superficial wounds are inflicted, but the birds manage to keep it away with their magic. The harpies engage in a long battle of attrition with the birds since each side lacks the firepower to properly hurt the other.
"Well, it seems that they're at least keeping each other busy," Roxanne says with a shrug.
"It's still a bit of a waste of mana, though," I complain.
The birds finally decide to disperse just before lunchtime. They seem to be easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers.
I've noticed that the sun hasn't moved from where it was when we first saw it. It seems to be suck at the 9 o'clock position.
I summon a few spirit elementals and have them patrol around us.
The smell of meat cooking and veggies frying brings a calm over me as I sit in the chair outside of our tent and enjoy the fresh breeze. I double-check to make sure that our anti-scent stone is working. The last thing we need is to have every starving monster on this level coming towards us.
Endless green, silver, blue, and white; a soft smell of grass and earth; a crisp breeze that constantly tickles my skin; the low rustling and humming sounds of the grass. If only I could take off all of my armor and enjoy nature in the nude.
Alissa leaves the golems and the summoned goblin to finish cooking our meal and comes out to sit with us.
Her ears flick as she seems to get uncomfortable about something.
Roxanne absentmindedly undoes the ties of her robe and Ciel suddenly stops her while frowning.
I turn my head towards Alissa, then I feel a horrible sluggishness take hold over me, making my every moment become slow. I summon all of my energy and slap my cheek, then yell, "CRIATUA!"
Threat level 3.
Roxanne groans and the girls all slap their own faces to fight off the effect.
We stand and draw our weapons, then we fall into a circle formation.
The golems stop cooking and turn off our magic stove, then get ready for battle.
A rustling comes from the grass surrounding us and a high-pitched yell nearly makes us go deaf as a disgusting little thing jumps out of the grass and pounces on Jarn's head.
The mini-goblin frantically claws at the steel helmet but only leaves some light scratches on it. Jarn grabs it and crushes its neck. Just like a squeaky toy, it chirps like Gify and dies.
"Gih," Gify chirps, totally not like the Criatua, sounding offended at my thoughts.
Ciel smiles and shakes her head at our antics. Then everyone relaxes and sits back down in their chairs.
I store the Criatua in my "Items," and sit down, too. The odd humming of the grass is now gone.
"So, there is a humming when it attacks," Lina comments.
"I smelled something 'fresh' and it came from the monster," Alissa says.
I re-summon my spirit elementals and order them to search for the humming and pay attention to the smell. Before long, they find another Criatua creeping closer to our camp.
We continue our walk/jog through the grass and finally find a crystal clear lake, the entrance to the next level.
I look up and see ten Sky Stalkers circling above us. "Increase speed," I say and summon the Kite Dragon and Needlers again. More are going to find us the closer we get to the lake and they will definitely attack this time.
Five Chargers arrive at the other side of the lake to take a drink.
Great, now all that's missing are a few Leixes.
The fight starts and more Sky Stalkers take off from the lakeside and join the ones flying above us.
A spirit elemental detects a Criatua and I fire a [Lightning Bolt] towards it followed by a few [Earth Bullet]s. The monster gets mortally wounded and screeches, torturing our ears. Alissa fires an arrow towards the source of the screaming and silences it.
Holly detects two Leixes coming towards us, and soon Alissa does too.
"Stop!" I order.
"Aim!"
"FIRE!"
With the help of the two small golems, we crush the two Leixes and make them easy targets for Alissa. Then I summon two young Orc Strikers to retrieve them for me.
The Chargers see us coming and start neighing loudly in anger. Lighting crackles along their bodies as they launch into a dash towards us.
"Surround Roxanne and Alissa!" I order and we turn on [Dead Zone] all around us to protect the girls. I think about pulling Jarn out and giving her a shield, but I'm not confident enough in her combat skills yet.
The flying summons start to get overwhelmed by the number of Sky Stalkers, so I summon an electric elemental to protect us from the monsters above us.
The Orc Strikers come back and I unsummon them, recovering most of the mana spent on them, but with this many summons out, I'm still a little concerned about the amount of MP that I have left.
Still a few minutes away from the lake, the Chargers reach us and start throwing lightning attacks. It may be a waste of their mana, but defending against their attacks is also forcing us to waste our mana, which is much more precious than theirs.
The electric elemental suddenly shoots a bolt of lightning and fries a Stalker, which falls dead onto the ground in front of us.
"Perfect!" I exclaim.
"Greedy little man!" Ciel yells.
A Charger gets closer, trying to trample me, but [Wind Shield] keeps it away and I shoot an [Earth Bullet] at it, which nearly gets blown away by its protective lighting strike, but still wounds it badly enough that it retreats.
More Sky Stalkers fall down around us, killed by the elemental. Then the Needler Harpies die.
"Roxanne, thin them out!" I yell.
She uses an [Explosion] on a Charger and the others retreat even more, making it harder for her to aim at them properly.
"Jump on my back!" Hana yells and Roxanne obeys. Now our explosive butcher can focus on taking out Sky Stalkers or wounding the Chargers without risking falling on her face.
She points her staff, which now looks as threatening as a loaded gun, and casts.
A Charger falls, but doesn't die, so it intensifies its attacks and burns through our mana even faster until we finally leave its range.
The thrill of running away and the feeling of our invulnerability from the monsters' attacks is so intense that it's addictive, but a mere thought about the memory of the [Meteor]s is enough to sober me up.
Then we finally reach the lake and Roxanne casts [Water Breathing] on all of us. I store the toy golems away and Gify pops out of existence.
"Gih," she chirps as she leaves. Apparently, she still has to dry herself off when she gets wet, but she'd rather not have to do that right now.
Our mana is slowly chipped away as we reach the shore and the Kite Dragon dies. The wind magic of the Sky Stalkers caused it to suffer a death by a thousand paper cuts as it gradually bled out.
We enter the water and the electric elemental floats above the surface. We ensure that we are fully submerged before we finally stop. Then we look up and laugh at the cloud of Sky Stalkers swarming above us.
The remaining Chargers neigh in frustration and shoot lighting wildly in our direction, but they have no effect thanks to our [Dead Zone]s, and the electric elemental diverts anything that could actually threaten us.
We sheathe our weapons and awkwardly walk underwater to the bottom of the lake where another dimensional door awaits us.
Elaria is clear. Next level: the Ancient High Forest.