The group quickly made their way through the first floor, and when they reached the portal room, the mages' entire demeanour changed, but not the warriors.
To the child, it looked like the mages realized that they were most likely going to get into something dangerous or that the portal meant something similar to them. But the warriors were all stone-faced and just studied the portal.
Quickly, the mages sprung into action.
Surrounding the portal on all sides, making a triangle, the mages, as one, took daggers out from the inside of their robes and cut the inside of their palms.
Dipping their fingers in their blood, the three started drawing the same circular pattern around the portal.
Over and over again, they drew a circle just about the length of their hands, and within the circle were these squiggly lines.
As the mages finished drawing out these symbols in blood in a perfect circle around the portal, the male mage placed his bloody hand on the runes and whispered, "Let me see."
A second after he spoke those words, the child felt a rush of mana from the runes invade their sub-dimension and feel around the ice and floors.
It felt like the mana from the runes were caressing their body, and a shiver went down their spine.
Taking their mana strings, the child was able to isolate and kick the invading mana out before it got too far into their sub-dimension.
Instantly, this changed their feelings about the group.
Keeping their guard up, the child watched as the male mage's eyes flew open in surprise.
"It kicked us out."
"What?!" Exclaimed the female mage with greenish-blue plumage. "What did you do wrong! How the hell did the dungeon even feel your search?"
"I don't know!" Exclaimed the male mage back at her. "I don't know, Seng, but it quickly pushed me back out. But I was able to feel what that portal led to."
He stopped himself from speaking as he stared off into space, with his eyes looking in the direction of the portal.
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"And?" Said the female mage with the grey plumage.
"It was a small separate dimension. A separate dimension that the dungeon seemed to have complete control of."
As soon as he said this, the two other mages went silent. Like they knew the consequences of what the mage was telling them. It even stirred some of the more powerful-looking warriors, giving them somewhat uneasy looks.
But they still went forward.
Ready for anything that could come at them as soon as they entered the portal, half of the warriors entered first before the three mages would even touch the portal.
After all thirteen of the warriors and mages passed through the portal, they carefully made their way to the second floor.
But the child didn't allow for easy sailing.
No, they were still pissed off about the foreign mana invasion and made sure that their encounters with the ice krills and alluring vines made their point.
The monsters were much more vicious and proactive in attacking this group, and the child had them target the mages. While the group dealt with the monsters relatively well, the main point of attack, the three mages, were much more banged up than the warriors.
The warriors were left with flesh wounds and the occasional major wound. But with the monsters targeting the three mages when they could get away with it, it led to them having more major and grievous injuries.
The group only travelled through three of the rooms before they decided to leave.
Quickly rushing out of the dungeon, the child held back the monsters as they watched them scramble out of their second and first floor.
As soon as they dove out of the dungeon's entrance and into the water, the mages dug out these little green berries from inside their robes.
They handed them out to all of the warriors, and they ate them.
Slowly, the wounds started to heal themselves, and the significant injuries became not so major. Once everyone was somewhat recovered, they left to return to where they came from.
They watched as the Tsiamewo's left their territory and were out of sight before the child turned their attention back towards making different types of monster mana cores with varying mana strings.
POV Alexis Miftern
They had done it.
Alexis had convinced some of his smaller merchant acquaintances, and they went all out to develop a merchant band that focused on the dungeon within the iceberg.
After it had disappeared, Mareian helped Alexis devise his business plan into existence to convince others to help persuade other merchants to invest in the idea of focusing a business entirely on the dungeon within the floating iceberg. It is a perfect idea. To follow the dungeon around and hopefully manipulate it to harvest specific materials, they can market to other continents through the merchant routes.
The potential moveable resources that this dungeon has or can gain in the future are immeasurable. And that convinced enough of his merchant acquaintances to invest in his idea.
He gained enough investment through more minor merchant contacts, and through leveraging and selling off most of his holdings, Alexis managed to put together a company with intercontinental trading rights in the continents surrounding the Togiak continent and following potential currents that the dungeon could have made their way into.
Overall, they had trading rights in ports of over 10 continents, and it took almost half of their money to do this.
But that was okay because Alexis obtained a piece of information that led to the iceberg's location.
Based on the whispers of one of the adventurers, a Tsiamewo, who spent most of his time living around the Kugluk plateau, an iceberg with a dungeon was found.
And that dungeon had a portal with violet, green, and blue colours. The same colour as the dungeon within the iceberg they hunted had.
The problem with this was that the Kugluk plateau was the centre point where most Huracan Ocean storms occurred. As a result, storms of the Huracan Ocean in that area tend to range from medium to extreme, and most, if not all, dissipate at the plateau's edge.
From those who have survived storms or were lucky enough to avoid them to reach the plateau, the plateau has all observed a type of current that circulates just around the plateau. Preventing things stuck or floating within their current from leaving.
So Alexis just had to figure out the right timing to reach the plateau, and he prayed he got it right as he headed in the plateau's direction.