Over the next couple of days, Tahir, Hasio, Shukri, and occasionally Theo trained with Murabi. Tahir and Hasio to actually learn his techniques, his sword arts, as he called them, which were more advanced forms of what he’d already taught. Being able to use the basic forms and ‘throw’ aura in different shapes and forms acted as a prerequisite, as the more advanced sword arts required active manipulation of aura around the user. Similar to persistent spells, which Tahir had experience with. According to Murabi, actively manipulating aura in this way usually caused a visible effect, and he demonstrated himself, showing one of his sword arts and having the group pay attention to the pink glow and trail of aura that looked like flower petals.
After the demonstration, he began to teach Tahir and Hasio what he called the simplest of the sword arts, an extended weapon. Shukri still worked to learn the basic forms, and Theo came around more so to help refine her aura control in general. Most of what she could do with her primordial soul lay beyond the scope of what Murabi could teach, but with better aura control, she could make fantastic progress on her own.
To begin, Murabi had Tahir and Hasio gather aura around their weapons, but attempt to shape it into an extension of the weapon itself. As he explained, it had the advantage of being more efficient than simply ‘throwing’ their swings, since it only used aura when it actually made contact with something. Additionally, mastery of the art would allow one to form it in a split second, mid-swing, which they could use to catch people off guard. Ultimately, their training didn’t look too different than Shukri’s at first. The concentration of their aura around their weapons caused them to glow softly in different colors. Tahir’s a steady gold, Hasio’s a wavering gray, and Shukri’s a deep crimson. After the first couple days, it became clear that Mikharma’s earlier experience helped him along. He’d managed to add an extra foot of length to his sword with aura, though had a harder time stabilizing it when he actually moved around and swung the sword itself. It was more than the couple of inches that Hasio managed with his daggers.
Even that technique had layers and variance to it, and Tahir found it fascinating. The extended blade needed to have a dense concentration of aura in order to be semi-physical. At least as hard as the weapon being used to prevent it breaking and disrupting the swing, and to use it in a fight it needed to be maintained after hitting something. When Tahir summoned Mikharma once more to also partake in some of the training, she mentioned that she used a similar technique to kill a child of the great dragon Qordym, by slashing its throat even though she was just out of reach. This disrupted the training a bit when Shukri moved in to ask for more details, but overall the ancestral spirit’s presence was a boon to everyone, especially Tahir.
During that time, Theo also finished the second batch of elixirs for everyone to raise their aura. Tahir definitely felt that it gave less of an increase than the first, but certainly a noticeable one. They’d have one more set to make before they started getting diminishing returns, but with their funds and materials to make them thoroughly drained, they were hoping they could get another small fortune from their time in the ruins.
Three days after their training started in earnest, the Redclouds in Nagyermend called for a meeting to discuss details of the ruin. In the meeting they explained that due to the preliminary examinations and findings of the scouts, only Redclouds of platinum rank or higher were allowed to explore, with the exception of the gold ranked Redclouds who were brought in from the sponsorship. Looking around, Tahir saw that a large portion of the people in the meeting were gold ranked, but of the ones from Esharia that were selected, a few of them other than he and Hasio managed to get up to platinum as well. When he thought about it, Tahir could definitely see why they limited the exploration to platinum or higher and a select number of sponsored and trained gold ranks. Just thinking of what he found in the other ruins he explored, the average gold would definitely struggle to survive, especially since most of them wouldn’t even have experience delving into ancient ruins unless they made that their goal from the beginning.
As part of the meeting, the Redclouds also mentioned that certain sections of the ruins might require a specific skill set to get through, and such areas would be blocked off and announced as missions in Nagyermend for Redclouds delving in the ruin to explore. One area in the five or so floors that the scouting team explored looked as if it favored teleportation magic, due to the increased amount of magical walls. Tahir took note of that, and would have to make sure to go there with the Traveler if it didn’t get cleared out immediately.
With everyone informed, exploration of the ruin officially opened to Redclouds the next day. Theo prepared by making a couple of healing potions and auric recovery potions for everyone, and on the night before they planned to make their way to the ruin, Tahir asked Murabi if he’d be joining them, since the exploration was open to him as well.
“Oh, I’ll be there. Just a little later on. I’ll wait until after the gold rush has settled down.” He said, and then continued on at Tahir’s confused look. “Most of the people exploring the first dozen or so floors are going to be gold and platinum ranked. They’ll clear out the first floors and then many of them will probably leave after having thoroughly looted them. After that is when you’ll start seeing more of the tenured platinum and mithral ranks start showing up. At a certain point, working with people significantly weaker than you will hinder your ability to fight. Less so if you don’t care about keeping them alive, but I also don’t want a bunch of gold ranks swarming me because I can clear rooms for them.”
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“Is that something we should be worried about?” Tahir asked.
“Of course. You guys are a big enough group that no one except maybe lone Redclouds will actually approach you. And in your case it might be better to let a couple of people tag along. You’ve got pretty good eyes for people between all of you, so you’ll probably be able to sniff out anyone trying to take advantage of the size of your party to not pull their own weight.”
With their preparations made, and no word from Merui or Namilah in the days that passed, they finally made their way over to the canyon where the ruin resided. Complaining about the desert heat amongst themselves the entire way through, with the exception of Tahir, Theo, and Meti who could make the heat negligible with the first spirit, Theo’s primordial soul, and Meti’s innate resistance to fire. Occasionally, and in no small part due to a bit of pestering, Tahir and Theo would conjure cold water and let it fall onto Hasio and Shukri’s heads.
Once they made it, they found a village of tents and camps of Redclouds, hirelings, and merchants surrounding the canyon. Of which the top of the ruin rose about thirty feet into the sky. Impressive in its own right, but even more so when Tahir remembered that the ruin went all the way down into the canyon, thousands of feet down, and even underground. It didn’t fill the entirety of the canyon itself, but it did block the space that it did take up, essentially splitting the canyon into three parts. Thankfully, an entrance to the ruin existed at the ground level of the desert, without having to scale the canyon itself, but that also called into question exactly how the structure was built, and whether or not the canyon existed in exactly the same way when the ancient Vudranians created it.
“Is it really safe to have camps right around the ruin like this?” Theo asked, looking at the growing settlement around the ruin. “What if something comes out?”
“It’s as ‘safe’ as being surrounded by a bunch of delving Redclouds ready to kill anything that comes out could be.” Meti replied. “Is it wise, however? That is debatable.”
“Well, what better place to sell if you’ve got something useful for Redclouds?” Hasio added. “As long as they’re willing to turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble, of course.”
They reached the entrance to the ruin, finding several groups just outside, discussing how they’d go about their delve, forming groups, and generally coming together in the way that the Redclouds were known for, distinct from most other guilds for their support and camaraderie. Tahir spotted a hastily constructed board with a few sheets of parchment attached, and made his way there first. His eyes scanned it until he caught what he was looking for.
A hall on the fifth floor, with a crudely drawn map indicating a rough position. A space that required teleportation magic to get through, due to magical barriers and no visible way to disable them other than by force, and based on the strength of the barrier, it would require epic magic to do so. Whatever lay behind that barrier, they could practically assure that they’d have full access to it. No chance of another group coming before them - which was the case for most of the ruin, especially with dozens of gold and platinum ranks coming in all at once.
Of course, Tahir had discussed this with the group beforehand, though they agreed to talk about it more once they saw that the room still wasn’t cleared. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get all of us across, Tahir. We’re not just letting you go in with only the Traveler.” Meti warned.
“We should be fine, but speaking of which-” Tahir took in a deep breath, and summoned the Traveler, this time a tier three, as well as the air spirit. Split between aura and mana, they reduced his pools by a manageable but hefty amount. The recent increases to his aura and mana made it more feasible to bring out a tier three spirit. He’d still need more training to work with Mikharma, who altered his aura in a way that none of his other spirits did, but the abilities of the other spirits, as well as the affinities they gave him were well worth the exchange. Once again, as the Traveler appeared, the tips of Tahir’s hair took a silver sheen, as did his eyes, and the entirety of his forearms turned a silver color as well.
The traveler’s blue suit and top hat changed slightly with the higher tier, the silver and purple embellishments becoming more complex and interlocking. When they turned, or when Tahir looked at them in the right light, for the briefest of moments he caught what looked to be translucent wings, similar to a butterfly’s, sprouting from their back. They too, once they were summoned, took a deep breath and looked around at the surroundings. “Ah, the sweltering desert heat. It’s a warmth I haven’t felt in quite a long time.” With a flutter of their translucent wings, the Traveler took to the skies, and began to fly around the area, which brought a fair bit more attention than conjuring them out of thin air already had.
“Give them a minute, I suppose.” Tahir said with a nervous chuckle. As the fact that they were about to head into the largest Vudranian ruin ever discovered began to sink in. He couldn’t help but wonder what lied in its depths. Even if they were only exploring the 5th floor for the moment, Tahir, Theo, and Meti fought a lich in a smaller ruin that only had four or so, and this time they wouldn’t have an erinyes to help them. When he thought about it now, the group around him now could probably fight a lich, especially if Tahir brought out the divine serpent at tier three, but it would be far from an easy fight.
Well, they’d made it this far. He had no intention of turning back.