Descending in different feat, Chifya easily and unafraid jumps down like an elf flawlessly maneuvering. While Akatosh, utilizing the claw-gauntlet as his elevator-brake he slides down using the vines created by Chifya's magic. Through his surprised Akatosh didn't feel any heat emitting from his gauntlet after descending.
Trekking nearly a mile they came across an entrance leading to a dungeon. No doubt this is where the troubles are procuring as their senses told them they are not welcome here when a foul chill swept across their skin.
Before stepping into the dark cavern, Akatosh prep his inventory, the endurance potion a bottle of oil, and his improvised grenades. While Chifya, raised by the druids she contacts nature, yet something obscured her communication.
"This isn't right." She speaks
"Mm-hmm…" Akatosh responds not afraid of what lies within, rather exaggerated to finish this quest.
It wasn't necessary to use a torch since Chifya had magic to create a light-orb dangling in her palm. But one thing is for sure something is not right as if they're in a circle, returning to where they've started. Each passage led to the exit confusing their minds.
"Illusion?" Chifya said.
"So how do we get past this thing," Akatosh asks.
"I'm no expert in dispelling an illusion but the guild gave something to me. A scroll that can detect magical energy." Chifya explained unrolling the scroll and once she does like a radar of wave spreading in radius it burst a magical force.
"What!" she exclaimed.
"So… nothing?" Akatosh said knowing the scroll didn't detect a single illusion or, energy. "If not magic then it must be the place." He continues lighting a torch.
"What are you going to do?" Chifya ask.
"Nothing, nothing." He replies slowly tracing the walls inspecting every inch till he notices little tiny black roots bursting from the brick wall. "Aha… I think this is it!" He smiles, hammering the walls using the improvised flail revealing a secret passage. "You see…" Akatosh laughs as they descend the cylindrical stairs.
Deeper into the dungeon they again met a blockade. "Gahh… for the love of God!" he sighs seeing a corps crushed by rocks and debris. "Looks like you ain't so lucky my friend." He continues scavenging his half body. "Oh!... a penny," he said adding to his purse.
Watching him despoiling the dead body Chifya couldn't help but stares at him in disappointment. "I thought you're better than this." A displeased tone she utters.
"Mm-hmm…" He ushers reading the dead man's diary. A battered leather-bound book filled out with various entries that are, full of frustration and morose with his comrades.
Day 5
"We had to return to square one because of that stupid new recruit. If only he didn't touch my things, now I'm the one to blame by my superiors. This is so frustrating seeing my other colleagues as they laugh at me, I'll show them. I'll show them what my research is far superior to them."
Day 8
"Good riddance, I finally disposed of that blasted useless man. Now I have to find a suitable replacement since I used him as test subject no matter there are plenty out there. And my guinea pigs are dwindling but I've heard that those adventurers are caught up by our traps. Good for them, I intend to use them."
Day 10
"Those bastards, just because they are superior to us, they think of us as no more than servants but will see once I'm done… I'll beat that insolent man. Also, that damn Laneth, I told him not to dabble with Deedra's power… but he said "no… you're all weak, pathetic cowards", he thinks he can outsmart a god."
Day 13
"Something's not right, the air seems odd not to mention the fact that Laneth had something to do with his room. Shit even my magic seems to act strange, it must be that buffoon Laneth, I'm sure of it."
"Well, that some bastard diary… now we know how those adventurers ended up. As for this…." Akatosh banter folding the book as he stood facing the debris.
"I think I've found another passage" Chifya calls
"Really?" facing her incoming voice.
"It's right this way," she calls
"Coming!" He shouts giving her the diary. "You might want to look this up, you'll found out how your friends in the guild died. If luck is with us, well… they might be alive." he continues following the corridor. Watching him saunter through the corridors Chifya pout by his words of audacity.
Cautiously treading the dark path with only a handful of light, examining the walls, the floors, looking for a sign of traps or lurking predators waiting for an ambush. When they've reached a certain place filled with malevolent tools, they came across a torture chamber. Luckily, there weren't any dissected corpses or any sign of adventurer but rather a peculiar monster.
"A slime, I've never seen such a large one before." Chifya whisper.
"Oh… so what type of slime?"
"I'm not exactly sure, might be acid or poison."
"I see," Akatosh says, grabbing a bottle of oil. "I hope this might work." He says, throwing the oil right beside the slime shattering the container. Throwing the torch, the oil quickly blazes slowly incinerating the large slime.
"Well, that was quick, but how did the slime easily catch by the fire.... unless…" he smiles mischievously, "…OIL!" A fervor exaggeration as he grips his hand like a madman.
"You're mad!" Chifya says looking at his devious face.
"The eagle has come for liberation and freedom!" He smiles. "So, this is how it feels like to become a mad innovator." He wickedly jags until Chifya slaps him hard. "You—" he stops looking at her face, worried and scared.
Seeing him in his mental disorder, Chifya thought of the past destruction of the white seal, the first scroll which frightens her even today. He didn't know why she slapped him, but he ignores her and goes searching the place, looking for a slime.
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After the commotion and his laughing madness, Chifya heard a faint groan coming towards the other room calling for help. Right away she quickly follows the voice while Akatosh went the other way tracing the strains of the large slime.
The door was breached not by force but by corrosion. And after stepping into the room, he can hear the squishing sound of a slime embroidering his lustful plan. Swaying the torch, he had found his treasure, four different slime cages by a magical glass, and throughout the room were papers and books full of knowledge. Finding something to hold the torch, he begins his favorite stuff.
"Are you alright!" exclaimed Chifya unlocking the prison using the key she found hanging on the wall. Its magical cage confining seven adventurers, though half of them had some energy to fight. The others however were on their deathbed.
"I'm okay." Says the robust man.
"I have a medicine that will heal your wounds," Chifya says.
"Don't worry about me...." The man coughs. "Give it to my companions." He pleads.
"It's okay there's enough for you all." She spoke. "Do you know what happened here?" She continues aiding the near-dying.
"We were ambushed because of our rash confidence. But something struck the lower level, were all of a sudden, the guards never return, and we were left to die in hunger. We tried to use our magic, but it was futile the cage is magically sealed deflecting our spells." The man said averting his eyes towards his mage friend, injured, and dying.
While Chifya is busy doing her things Akatosh greedily inspects the papers greedily reading what was written. Apparently, the parts hold much larger bodies of work containing detailed studies of different kinds of monsters and mutations.
"Voracious Slime- this kind of newly mutated slime can grow even bigger than its kin only by eating living things can it grow, except for plants. It favors meat and flesh to be said, however, it is very vulnerable to fire and electricity. If I could find a way to make it immune to fire, it would be a fine specimen."
"Ahh… so that's why no carcasses can be seen" Akatosh notes, and without hesitation, he compiles all the pieces of paper into one. And when Chifya came to him after finished aiding the adventurers, she witnesses Akatosh madly stuffing the caged slime into his bag.
"What are you doing, those are evidence. You can't just take them away!" she said.
"HAH… evidence my ass, I'm not a guild member"
"But I am."
"So, what would it be then?" Akatosh said stuffing the last item completely emptying the room.
She quickly draws her enchanted short sword trying to intimidate him into submission.
Pointing the sword leveling the tip to his throat, "One step closer or—"
"Or what?" He said taunting her intimidation.
Giving him a warning, Chifya wound his cheeks. Without a word and hesitation Akatosh dashes in reverse, simultaneously switching his sword left to right. And just a few steps backward he lashes forward, using his claw-gauntlet restraining her attack. Knowing full well she had no armor only a thin layer of leather, he drives the hilt full force punching her abdomen.
The moment his attack strikes she quickly falls barely holding the pain. "You've changed." She pants kneeling to Akatosh's attack.
"I'm still me. It's just the other side of my coin." He says leaving but were stop by someone's attack. Three magic orbs strike at him, yet he manages to hide behind the door shielding the incoming projectiles.
Crash, the door shatters ripping out the woods. Following the attack, a powerful bright light flares the entire room slightly blinding Akatosh. Maneuvering at a distance, evading someone's advantage he swung his unsheathe sword hoping to detect if someone is attacking.
Without a mistake, a person makes contact by hitting his sword. Again, Akatosh setback trying to recover his blurry sight, but the man was persistent chasing him in circles. At last, he manages to recuperate his sense yet right away cornered by some furniture.
Luring the man as if Akatosh had no chance of evading his attack, he takes the bait. "Just give up already!" the man shouts giving him a warning.
In furry Akatosh had no chance but to defend himself from the incoming attack. Charging his heavy war hammer, Akatosh quickly unsheathes his sword aiming at the handle. Its weightless and sharpness easily decapitates the war hammer. After cutting his weapons into two parts he slides under his arm for a backstab but a ghastly orb flung at him releasing a cloud of a gaseous substance. Retreating his chance to decapitate the man Akatosh run to a safer distance, away from the deadly clouds.
As the battle continues to a mere second when. "ENOUGH!" Nearly ending the mage's life, Chifya shout.
She came out of the room holding her abdomen, panting. A second of silent, Akatosh slowly turns around going deeper into the lower dungeon. "I won't let you get away!" Blurt the man in leather armor-- a scout.
"Don't!" Chifya blocks the man.
"But--" The man blurts.
"I said, that's enough!" Chifya frowns. "You're still recovering, let him have this dungeon if he can." She said biting her lips.
Independently they set their differences by separating. Chifya had no other choice but to prioritize their safety. While Akatosh continues, excavating the dungeon in hopes of finding that interest his scheme.
"Let see… the diary said that there are more experiments here." Pushing the door, a foul wind slams his body subsequently affecting his mind. Something is trying to dominate him. He could feel an essence wrestling with his damn soul. And after the entity digs through his inside, the four scroll triggers devouring the entity.
"Hahahah… serves you right." He laughs not knowing his eyes envelop in damnation. Adding to his frustration, for every turn he takes misfortune awaits. He was always looked-down by the people in the guild, 'the brute woman', all of these feeds his emotion embracing the darkest desire.
From the deepest bottom of the dungeon a black humanoid spread its wings. A servant, no a creature from the nether planes a powerful one patrons by the Deedra. And the room he dwells were different, a mass of magical clouds swirls throughout the room alive and crying.
"I've been waiting for you." The entity said, the dark side of his coin, the thing that was despised by the keeper herself.
"So am I." Akatosh respond, a communication not in his realm but physically. "So, is this it, come to gift power and shit. Come to say sympathetic words about hatred and revenge then give untamed energy." a mad tone.
The entity chuckles. "Your past world of protagonist? HAHAHAHAH… no, its but a pleasure. You can feel it right-right. You felt that fucking pleasure when you ripped that body in to two, spewing his innards."
"I don't know, but I'm stressed for today and I don't give a damn about your pathetic motives. But the image of me you are using, I want to beat the crap out of you with my bare hands." He slickly smiles, grabbing the entity for a brawl.
"You can meet me in your place… oh well, too bad you don't know the way in, stupid! But I can show you the way if you're dumb enough." He laughs disappearing.
"I can't wait to pummel you." He replies when all of a sudden, he heard a voice around the corridor.
Tracing, he saw a disturbing scene. Overgrown tissues ooze like slime. What's even more surprising is, they are alive bulging like a beating heart. "Who's goes there" a dying voice of a man sack in flesh.
"What happens here?" approach Akatosh avoiding the flesh.
"It was him; it was him... He used us; he trades us…"
"Who Laneth?"
"Yes… yes, he's the one. Please I beg of you, kill me before he takes my soul." In a slow and dying tone, the man pleads.
"I don't know… if your fate is between my hand. Then I need something in exchange for a bargain, I want your knowledge."
"If that is what it suits you… there is a room… right behind that door. It contains the thing you need. Now… I beg of you—" Before he continues Akatosh dives his sword piercing his heart. "T-Thank you…" a last breath he ushers.
As Chifya and the survivors emerge, one of the adventurers notices her unease tension.
"Are you okay?" the adventurer asks.
"I'm alright, it's nothing to worry about." She blankly expressed.
Akatosh sigh. "Haa… it's always like this."
Akatosh threads to where the man spoke his things. Unlikely not what he wanted; the man was researching a type of magic that Akatosh doesn't have the slightest interest in. But even though it's not significant to his understanding, he again completely empties the room. Upon lifting a chest, he discovers something unusual, alive and it seems to be a whip made from adamantine. Its design is very intimidating, a razor whip dismembered into pieces suspended by unknown force-- connected.
Upon making contact using his claw-gauntlet it awakes and lashes in. Coiling with the gauntlet, dissolving with the elven-steel the two-item quickly fused into one. Subsequently, the thing started to communicate as if it wanted to be used.
Akatosh smile, using his mind to utilize the whip, swaying his hand the whip quickly emerges trenching nine meters in length then begun desolating the walls and furniture.
"HAHAHAHAHA… INTERESTING, MOST INTERESTING. IT'S SOOO GOOD TO BE A LOOTER."