Sofia was about to receive what she thought might be the strangest handshake of the century, when the Sprite Dancer’s color turned back to yellow all of a sudden, and it took a few steps back looking left and right as if looking for some invisible enemy.
What is it? A Sunless?
Sofia also looked around while Pareth was keeping tabs on the Sprite Dancer.
A loud and uncanny sounding voice blared inside of Sofia’s head before she could see the source.
“YOUR KIND IS NOT WELCOME.”
Another creature like the first one appeared between Sofia and the Sprite Dancer. Its skin was a lot more crumpled than the other, and it was glowing in a very deep red pulsating tone.
Sofia jumped back by reflex, raising her shield.
“LEAVE!”
“Alright, alright! I’m leaving. No need to scream,” Sofia answered while walking backwards with Pareth and checking the area behind her for Sunless drones with her mana senses.
After taking some distance and feeling comfortable in believing that the creature was really letting her leave, she turned around and ran as fast as she could.
She ran for five good minutes, the planet’s eerie scenery flashing by as she sprinted faster than some people could fly. Always monitoring the situation behind her, she was hoping not to get followed. Finally, after punching a low level Sunless drone to death at the top of a very small hill, she sat on a somewhat flat rock, panting.
Crap…
That could have been bad…
The reason why Sofia had instantly followed orders was very simple. She looked at her last system log.
[Executioner - Lv.349 - Imprint power : ??? - Effect : ???]
Do not make an enemy out of the crumpled paper people. Lesson learned.
What would have happened if I still had [THE GLORIOUS] on and the flames attacked that guy? Better not to think about it too much…
A shadow sprite came out of Sofia’s shield with a pop.
“Oh, that’s where you hid. I almost never call you… Sorry you had to see that, little buddy.”
The dark sprite flew up to Sofia’s face before deciding to hang out under her chin, visibly not too mad about the situation.
Sofia’s shield made another pop. The Sprite Dancer’s own shadow sprite had been hiding in there too.
Oh… Is this like… An involuntary kidnapping?
The sprite flew up in the air.
I guess it’s leaving.
Then it came right back down, made a stop in front of Sofia’s face, and then flew a few meters to her left and hung in place there.
What is this little guy doing?
The sprite came back, once again stopped in front of Sofia’s face, and left in the same direction for a second time.
Wait… “Do you want me to go this way?”
Sofia’s Sprite flew out from under her chin and joined the other one. She looked at Pareth, then back at the sprites who were, it seemed, waiting for her.
Let’s follow them, I guess? Actually, can you carry me? I still need to catch my breath a bit more…
Pareth happily crouched, grabbed Sofia and lifted her, placing her on top of his shoulders, in between his three heads, where she could comfortably sit with her legs around his front-facing neck.
Thanks.
Resting her chin on his skull, she hugged Pareth’s head as he stood up and walked after the duo of shadow sprites merrily flying away.
The sprite kept leading Sofia and Pareth through plains and forests in the same relative direction until it was almost sunrise. At some point, it had found a river and had started following that.
I’m surprised that this river doesn’t freeze overnight.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Sofia was starting to think the Sprite was not really leading her anywhere, but she did not mind the break either way. Just observing the scenery and bolting Sunless drones from the top of Pareth’s head was a decently relaxing way to spend the night.
Finally, the river ended in a huge waterfall going down a cliff. Pareth looked down the cliff.
That’s at least a thousand meters of steep cliffside. Better wait until the ambient mana comes back before trying to go down. It looks like a thick jungle below.
Was I this high above sea-level all this time or is this just a giant crater?
The Sprite Dancer’s sprite did not share Sofia’s opinion on waiting for sunrise, and started flying down the waterfall. Sofia’s sprite seemed to hesitate for a second before it followed the other one.
Well… I guess we can follow… You still have the slow fall ring we bought before the trial, right?
Pareth jumped after the sprite.
The slow fall was not all that slow considering how weak the ring’s effect was compared to Pareth’s weight, but it did help.
Somewhere around mid-way through the cliff, the sprites suddenly rushed into the waterfall.
Huh? Sofia extended her mana senses to probe the terrain, and found that there was a rather small opening in the cliffside, behind the waterfall. A literal crack in the stone.
Is this where it was leading us from the start? Pareth won’t be able to fit in there. I’m jumping off, come back inside. Thanks for carrying me all night, Pareth.
Sofia lightly jumped up from Pareth’s head, landing on the air while Pareth kept falling. The skeleton then made his way back into Sofia’s storage ring. The hole in the cliffside was still a bit further below, so Sofia kept lightly stepping on air as she made her way down step by step, eventually facing the waterfall and the hidden crack.
She brought her shield out and held it above her head before walking through the waterfall.
The sprites were waiting for her on the other side, hanging out in the fissure, when Sofia made it there, they started flying deeper into the cliffside. The passageway was narrow, but Sofia could just about fit by walking sideways without her armor. She extended her mana senses further but couldn’t find anything down the winding crack in the stone.
Where is this thing leading me… Could it be the entrance to one of the Crumpled paper people’s hidden villages? They have to live somewhere…
The Sprites kept going deeper and deeper inside of the seemingly endless fissure, Sofia felt that she had already been walking within the cliff for a few kilometers by now. There was no light reaching her besides her own, and nothing to see except for the rough stone she was walking along.
The fissure was slowly getting narrower and narrower, which wasn’t ideal, but Sofia held back on switching to graveyard transportation for the moment. She found the exploration of this unknown crevice of the planet to be somewhat exciting.
If this leads to a dead end, though, I can’t guarantee no sprite will be harmed.
Sofia kept going deeper until her mana sense suddenly hit a wall.
Strange.
There’s nothing there? This is familiar.
Another trial dungeon?!
Sofia tried to see what was ahead, but still couldn’t see anything, as the fissure’s walls were too uneven to see far into. She gave up and summoned the graveyard skeletons to quickly take her to the spot where her mana senses gave out.
The skeletons grabbed her and pulled her through the stone all the way to a small cavernous room dug at the very end of the fissure. This was where her mana senses gave out. The sprites were waiting for her within the ‘room’.
The Sprite Dancer’s sprite happily hovered up and down. It flew to Sofia’s face one last time, then to the other sprite, and disappeared.
Leaving just like that…
Sofia observed the small cavern the graveyard crew had dumped her into. It was really just a small empty hole dug inside of the stone. There was nothing in there except for a few rocks littering the ground, and a small metallic panel on the wall opposite the crack.
Not the dungeon doors I was expecting.
Sofia walked up to the metallic panel, it was quite low on the wall, at about the level of her waist. The metallic panel opened up as she stood before it, revealing a second metallic slate beneath, one with a hand-shaped indent.
A human hand?
It would also fit Vampires and Elves. Maybe Exidians too if they cut their nails. But certainly not the paper people. This is what the Sprite Dancer’s sprite wanted me to see…
Is this why it reached for my hand?!
And it let its Sprite lead me here in secret after I got chased away by the other one… I suppose I made a friend after all…
I have to put my hand in, right?
Can it be dangerous?
It’s blocking my mana senses like the dungeon before so it’s fair to assume this is a system-created thing.
Let’s just give it a try.
But not before a quick Identify.
[Racial reconnaissance interface] : A smart lock designed to open the way to Humans, Dragons, and Gods only. It can also be configured to only let certain precise individuals through, but this function seems to have been deactivated.
Humans, Dragons and Gods…
Are you telling me…
The handprint was that of a right hand, with the thumb on the left, so Sofia took out her Dragon-scale armor, and also her glove and rings, just in case, and put her hand inside of the slot.
Light shone under the palm of her hand with a low buzzing sound, after which the metallic plate emitted a small beep, and a short flash of green light.
Are we done?
Seeing no more activity from the lock, Sofia pulled her hand back, and the small metallic doors of the lock closed back up.
Green light is good, right? Did I unlock the thing?
There was nothing obvious happening.
“Maybe it’s broken?”
As if activated by her voice, noises of something heavy moving resounded from behind the stone wall on which the lock was.
----------------------------------------