<~> CHAPTER 58

We followed the flow of air for a good thirty minutes while Aria continued to scout up ahead. We caught up with her at the next junction where she was waiting for us.

When we got closer she pointed in one of the directions. "There is a group of misty wolves that way. I'm not sure where we're headed next but it might be worth the .... for Helena."

I turned to Luna who already knew which word I had missed. ("Detour.")

Nodding, I turned back to Aria. "No reason not to fight them. I'll be able to pick up the path after."

"Let me get the first strike then," Aria said.

I looked at Maxwell who nodded in agreement. "That's fine. Helena, protect Luna and Aria."

As much as I wanted to protest, that seemed like a good idea. Wolves were pack animals, as I'm very aware, they will probably try to surround us and Maxwell can usually only cover one side at a time. I took my place and Aria led our group forward as quietly as we could manage.

There were eight bright white wolves in a relatively large room. The area smelled a bit like rain and I could see the trails of mist coming off the wolves, flowing with the air current I was now all too aware of. The room itself reminded me a bit of the bat room from the earlier floor, a simple open rectangle, but this one didn't have narrow doors that we could take advantage of. Aria already had an arrow pulled back into its drawn position and was making a point to aim at the largest of the group. A quiet thwip sound followed by a surprised yelp from one of the nearby wolves echoed through the room as Aria's target died instantly with an arrow right through its skull.

Aria immediately fell back into our group as Maxwell and Piper pushed forward into the room. We tried to use the archway as best we could to control the area but I had to stay in the back to stop the wolves from slipping through the cracks. Fighting these enemies made me feel a bit clairvoyant. My instincts lined up with their fighting style so well I could predict where the wolves would attack with high certainty.

An interesting idea came to mind and I feigned a trip. One of the wolves immediately dashed around Maxwell and tried to leap at me, the feint worked. My axe swung upwards and sunk into the wolf's barrel and knocked it backward like I had uppercut it. Rather than being rained in blood, a spray of spring water splashed against my shield. The attack had been devastating, the monster thumped to the ground, only barely in one piece.

Rather than her longer to charge area attack spells, Luna was throwing balls of fire at the enemies. These enemies were so much weaker to fire than what we normally fought, even her relatively weaker magic was tearing them apart as well. In only a handful of seconds, the eight wolves were massacred.

I paused and looked around, wondering if more monsters were hiding nearby. After a few heartbeats, nothing else came out and my eyes were drawn to my kill.

"Go ahead," Maxwell said, nodding toward the wolf I had killed.

Without a reason to wait, I walked up to my kill and sunk my teeth into the wolf. It was a truly odd experience. The wolves had flesh but their blood tasted like a freshwater spring. The lack of blood made the meat taste weird, though the amount of magic these monsters had was much greater than anything I had eaten since the trap floor with the minotaur. The flavor confused me as being both delicious and bland at the same time.

In no time at all I found the heart and bit into the flesh. These wolves weren't that large so I was able to devour it in two bites. Just like the flesh, the taste was odd and didn't have the iron flavor I had become so used to. Still, the rush of magic I felt as I swallowed the heart was thrilling.

At first I wasn't sure what had changed, but as I closed my eyes and concentrated on the strange feeling that traveled through my body, I sensed something odd. There was an intangible spot inside me where the flow of energy had collected into a knot. I frowned and furrowed my brows as I focused on the spot. The feeling was difficult to describe, but it felt like I could reach out and grab the spot inside me. When I did, I suddenly became disoriented. When the feeling passed I was several steps back from where I had been standing before.

("Helena! What was that?") Luna excitedly called out to me through the rings.

I shook my head. ("I'm not sure. I did something and then... I got confused. What did it look like I did?")

("Your body turned to smoke and then it reformed behind you!") she exclaimed.

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head. There was a small bit of nausea associated with whatever I did and it wasn't going away. I felt motion sick, something I hadn't felt since I was a kid on long car rides. I could still feel the knot of energy inside of me but it felt depleted. After focusing inward on the flow of energy I was now able to observe it in a way that I hadn't realized I could do before. Is this mana? Is this my own flow of magic like Luna's?

("Hold on, sit down for a moment,") Luna told me.

I nodded and slid down and sat on my butt with my legs splayed out. Sitting like this felt a bit odd after my legs had changed. I had to focus my eyes on a spot in front of me to keep from throwing up. Everything felt like it was slightly spinning.

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("When you ate the misty wolf's heart it did something to how your mana flows. Do you feel something odd? Like a stone in your chest?")

I just sat there for a moment and waited for the nausea to ease off, I needed a few breaths before I could reply. ("It feels like a knot, a spot in my chest where the energy all bunched up. Is this what my magic feels like? ...I feel like I'm gonna hurl.")

("Yes, that energy flowing through you is mana, normally the mana absorbs directly into your mana pool, but this time the mana bunched up in one spot inside your body. It seems this time you've taken one of the innate abilities the misty wolves are most known for. We killed them so quickly we didn't get to see it, but misty wolves can have brief moments where weapons pass right through them and they reform their bodies from the surrounding mist. What you did looked similar but instead of mist, your body turned to smoke that resembled your fur,") Luna said.

("That's great, but why do I feel so sick right now?") I groaned out

("When you used your ability I think you used up too much of the mana that's flowing through your body in one go, leaving you weakened. Misty wolves don't usually move so far when they do that, they use it to dodge hits rather than evade away.")

("Does that mean talking through the rings could make it worse?") I asked.

She shook her head. ("No, the innate abilities of monsters are separate from their mana pools. Innate abilities take from the flow of mana that circulates through their bodies. They can only use the ability so much before it puts a strain on their body because they need that mana circulating through their bodies to function correctly. You can think of it like blood. Mana pools are different, it's like a well of energy that fills your core. You can get exhausted if you dip too deep into your mana pool but if you try to use innate abilities too much it'll physically harm your body.")

("I don't really get the difference between the two but I'll take your word for it. How long till I stop feeling sick?") I whined.

Luna gently ran her fingers through the fur of my neck. I might have felt indignant about being treated like a dog, but her touch was so soothing that I would let it pass since it seemed to be helping.

("It shouldn't take too much longer before you're feeling okay to move again, but you shouldn't use that innate ability again until that knot of mana feels full again. Next time try to just flicker it on and off.")

Piper came over with a concerned look. "Is everything alright?"

I slowly shook my head. "Luna thinks I gained a monster's weapon but using it made me feel sick. She says it shouldn't be much longer before I'm okay to move again." I tried my best to explain using my limited vocabulary.

"Monster's weapon?" she asked curiously.

"She says the misty wolves can do something similar to the thing I did a moment ago," I told her.

Piper raised her eyebrows. "You can use a monster's innate ability?"

I shrugged in response.

"Here, let me try to help you." Piper placed her hand on my shoulder and I shuddered as her diagnostic magic flowed through my body. A moment later a feeling of warmth filled my stomach and the nausea finally went away.

"Be careful when you use that innate ability. I can heal the damage you do to yourself but it takes a lot of .... Your natural regeneration might be able to heal the damage too, but if you cripple yourself in the middle of a fight, things could get bad for all of us."

I nodded, just happy that her healing had finally rid me of the nausea I had been feeling. "Thank you, Piper. I feel a lot better now." I stood up. I still felt a bit sluggish and sore in a way I can't describe, but at least I avoided throwing up all over the place. That was never a fun experience.

"No chest this time," Maxwell declared once I got back on my feet. I looked up and was happy to see that I wouldn't be voluntold to climb the ceiling and open a chest this time. Chests were great and all but they tended to be a lot of work.

As we kept following the direction of the airflow, Maxwell had come to the conclusion that it did seem to be pushing us in the right direction. We had no idea if it was the most direct path, but it seemed to avoid a lot of frustrating doubling back when we hit a dead end.

We ran across more misty wolves and I was able to see their ability in action this time. I watched as Maxwell's sword slashed right through one of the wolves, head to tail, and its body reformed without a scratch just like Luna described. Now that I had an idea of how they used the ability I might be able to copy it better. I wasn't in any hurry to try it though and I could feel the knot in my chest was not even a quarter of the way filled to capacity. I would need to try it out of combat anyway because even if these monsters weren't much of a threat, the chance of getting that nauseated in combat sounded like an awful idea.

Eventually, we reached the stairs up to the next floor. As I stood in front of it I could feel the subtle rush of air that flowed up the stairs like a wind tunnel. Standing right here, it was obvious that the airflow was pushing through the floors and going up. That raised some questions for me, is the air coming from the dungeon or is this whole place ventilated intentionally? Is this just a random side effect of the weird magic of this world?

I shook my head and shifted to my human form before following the group up the stairs. I'm used to these endless questions with barely any satisfactory answers. I got the sense that even the people who live in this world wouldn't even have the answers to my questions.

We were about to make it to the seventh floor, the last floor before the lost halls. After that, the last five floors will be crowded but quick to navigate supposedly. The lost halls were the final hurdle before I could finally make it out of this place. I have no idea what will await me on the surface but it might be nice to have a break from the constant danger.

I was looking forward to it.