“How much do you know about Fog Dwellers?” sitting on the ground, Jianmen asked both Professor Atkinson and Dolores when they asked him about the details of his encounter with the fog figure that looked like one of the statues in the temple, he did not answer but asked: “I mean, I don’t know too much about them. But I can’t shake this feeling they might be related to this place...”
“I … I don’t know much, I just know that my uncle Tamil works with someone who works with them - I think his name is… Paul? Raul? No...” Dolores scratched her head.
“Paulo Chang?” Professor Atkinson and Jianmen asked at the same time.
“Yeah yeah yeah! That’s it! ” Dolores nodded: “I think he’s a leader from one of the Elemental clans … but I don’t know much, you know I am not interested in or familiar with my uncle’s business.”
“I’ve heard of him, but I’m not that interested in them either.” Jianmen sighed and shook his head with a smile: “I should probably pay more attention to the power gossips around the magical world. What about you professor?”
“Well, I worked with Paulo Chang a long time ago.” Professor Atkinson said: “And I don’t really know much about Fog Dwellers either, so probably I’ll have to contact him.”
“Okay, but what do you know? Even a little bit can be helpful.” Jianmen asked: “For example, I just know that they are similar to Elementals and their bodies are made of fog - which leads to why I asked, it’s because the things in the lower level also have bodies made of fog.”
“Yeah. And from what I know, it is theorized that they are related to Depth Dwellers, because they’re also almost immortal beings, and they have the power of conjuring ancient weapons and artifacts from the fog.” Professor Atkinson said while thinking: “That’s all I can think of right now. We can go back to the academy and try and see if we have any related documents in the library.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jianmen nodded: “Then let’s transcribe and record first. It’s definitely not a good time to try to investigate the lower level.”
“Um. Forgive me for asking.” after a short hesitation, Dolores asked Jianmen: “But can you tell us what happened down there? You didn’t tell us, and if I may be so curious and bold: is there anyway that you go again after I make some tunings on the probe? You know, if you don’t mind and if it’s not too dangerous for you...”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“Yeah. That’s not gonna happen today.” Jianmen sighed and sat down on the floor: “So, the thing, monster, fog avatar of the god that attacked me still retained quite a lot of power. And what’s worse, was that it still has a strong connection to the power that holds this whole building in place. I found this out when it attacked me and I unleashed a little bit of counter attack and felt my power being dispersed to the air, the fog and the walls. So, I’ll need some tools to restrain it without hurting it in any way.”
“Hmm, but why be so gentle? We can afford to hurt it for a little bit right?” Dolores asked: “Plus it’s an avatar? The god itself has fallen already.”
“Yeah, well, it’s just a hunch. But I don’t think this is an evil god. The avatar is probably one that embodied its punitive or defensive side.” Jianmen shook his head and reached into one of his pockets to take out a small vial of some kind of green oil: “Here, rub this on the pen and paper when you’re transcribing, it helps.”
“Thank you.” Professor Atkinson took the vial of green oil, “What do you think it’s doing down there? We think there must be some remnants of the god’s artifacts and relics in the lower levels, and it’s guarding them. But it’s strange that it doesn’t chase us when we’re out here on the other side of the gate. It’d make more sense if it comes out and chases everyone out of this place.”
“Which is one of the reasons I felt this god might be more benign than we thought.” Jianmen nodded: “But anyways, that would be the problem for another day. Let’s transcribe and record as much as possible.”
“If you really think this is possibly related to the Fog Dwellers, we could try to compare these texts to some samples of ancient Fog Dweller text.” Professor Atkinson said: “I don’t know if the academy has this kind of documents, but it wouldn’t hurt to try - we haven’t had any luck deciphering what these texts meant.”
With the help of Jianmen and the limited but extremely useful tools he brought, Professor Atkinson and Dolores were able to transcribe much more ancient text on the pillars than their previous visits. The small vial of green oil served as some kind of force or power insulator, which blocked off a lot of the power that existed on these texts preventing them from being transcribed. With their previous attempts, Professor Atkinson and Dolores were using certain enchanted pens and clay tablets that had a similar insulating characteristic, but they required a lot of magical energy input from the transcriber, which made the processing extremely difficult and tiresome. And the oil Jianmen brought was infused with enough power to lighten more than half the burden.
“Mr. Yu, did you make this oil?” Dolores gently wiped off some sweat on her forehead and asked: “This is super nice. Thank you very much. I hope it doesn’t cost too much.”
“Yeah I made it. It’s fine, I have a lot in stock. It’s kind of a niche thing and is only useful for folks who deal with this kind of knowledge and information. ” Jianmen was also transcribing the texts with a clay tablet of his own.
“Wait, I think I found something.” Professor Atkinson was taking a break by the altar located at the center of this underground temple after finally finishing transcribing all the texts on the first pillar: “Come take a look.”
When Jianmen and Dolores came over to the professor’s side, they also saw what Professor Atkinson saw moments earlier: transcribed texts on the clay tablet Professor Atkinson used earlier were glowing in faint white light.
“Interesting, so at least we know that these texts are a part of the scriptures, and not some doodles from the believers.” Jianmen chuckled.