Chapter 124: Dungeon Found

The deeper the group traveled into Laetus forest, the stranger the scenery around them became. The brightly colored fir trees from before, became sparse, replaced by giant orange flowers that were taller than everyone in the group put together.

These flowers glittered and shone like they were disco balls. Although they looked out of place in this wacky forest, Xinya felt that they were a vast improvement over the fir trees. Basically anything would be in his opinion.

It wasn't just the scenery that changed, the monsters did too. Xinya couldn't believe that there could be stranger monsters than that caterpillar-hamster hybrid they saw earlier. To his disbelief, there were, as he walked he saw that the monsters became more peculiar-looking than even he could have expected.

Xinya couldn't even start describing how they looked if someone asked him to describe the monsters he seen in the Laetus Forest, he would say that they ranged from something out of a Dr. Seuss nightmare to a Tim Burton's wet dream. All in all, Xinya was very impressed by the monster designs of this forest.

If he had to make a guess as to why this forest was so out of the norm, he would presume that it was the production team did. He figured they asked the designers to think outside the box as they were making this place, and out of spite, because of their meddling they decided to just throw the whole box away.

Xinya smile at that thought of the designers getting so pissed at the production team and decided to do whatever. 'They probably just got drunk while they were making this place, and when they saw what they had done, they decided to roll with it.' He thought to himself, amused.

"This place is simply amazing, It's like we are on another planet." Xinya heard Melting Snow mummer next to him. He couldn't help but agree silently.

"Who would want to live on a planet like this," Xinya asked, turning to look at him.

Smirking, Melting Snow cocked his head towards the only female in their group, "Roaming Wind would love living here."

"I bet she would," Xinya said, laughing slightly.

Hearing the sound of Xinya's laughter, Wei turned her head to look at him. What she saw brought a small smile to her face. She loved how much Xinya was enjoying playing this game. He was more carefree now than he ever been in the past. She was glad he found a friend that could bring out that childish side of his.

Although she was glad that he was happy, she was also a tad envious of Melting Snow, for being able to get Xinya to smile like that. She knows she makes him happy too, but she feels like he is always taking care of her when they should be taking care of each other.

Inside the game and outside of it, Xinya has been helping her in some sort of fashion. Even when he was trapped in that house with that 'woman', he inadvertently helped her by not trying to contact. If he did, she knew his stepmother would have made trouble for her and her mom.

Although she appreciates his help, she feels useless. She had previously talked to Wandering Sound about how she was feeling, and he told her that maybe she was subconsciously relying on Drifting Cloud and she needed to experience the game on her own.

She thought about what Wandering Sound told her really hard and realized that it was the truth. After they finish with this dungeon, she will sit down and talk to Xinya about parting ways and go with Wandering Sound to gain experience on her own. Once she was stronger and could match up to Xinya, is when she would rejoin him.

As if sensing that she was thinking about him, Xinya turned to look at her. Giving him a bright smile she asked, "What are you two laughing about over there?"

"Nothing at all," Melting Snow quickly said. "Isn't that right Drifting Cloud."

"If you say so," Xinya said laughing at how silly the boy was being. He wondered if Melting Snow was really scared of Roaming Wind.

Cocking her eyebrow at the two of them, she said, "Sure, have your little secrets."

Wandering Sound who was walking a little behind the three, smiled at the interaction between them. He could tell that Roaming Wind was a little jealous of how close Melting Snow was to Drifting Cloud. He saw the signs all the way back in Errinishworth.

He wouldn't tell her this, but he found it really cute. The way she was acting was similar to how a child acts when they get a new sibling and have to share their parents' attention. Walking to her side, Wandering Sound nudged her, before giving her a knowing smile.

~

Xinya watched Wei and Wandering Sound playfully poke each other for a minute, before turning back towards his map. It looked as though they were close to where the dungeon was located. Only a couple more miles and they would be there.

They continued walking for quite a while, the brightly colored fir trees made a second appearance, this time they were densely packed together than before. Which made it more difficult to walk through, without aggroing the monsters within them. Just as Xinya was about to check the map once more he heard Melting Snow gasp.

Turning to see what was wrong, he saw that Melting Snow was looking at something in the distance. Xinya looked in the direction he was facing and saw an amazing sight. There was a tall purple tree that stood above the rest, it was pulsating slightly with a yellow glow and fluttering all around it was the largest butterflies that he had ever seen.

"That's where we need to go," Xinya told everyone, while still looking at the beautiful looking tree.

With a bright smile, Melting Snow said, "Then let's go! What are we waiting for."

Melting Snow took off running before Xinya could even speak, dumbfounded he turned and looked at Wandering Sound and Wei as if to say, 'What am I going to do with that kid.' Wei just gave a small shrug, before rushing off also.

Laughing at her antics, Xinya and Wandering Sound followed behind. They ran through the forest quickly, making sure to bypass any monsters they saw on the way until they made it to a clearing.

The clearing was huge, and in the center of it, stood the purple tree in all of its magnificence. Now that they were closer, Xinya could see why the tree was larger than the others, It was growing on top of something.

"It's a temple," Wei said as they got nearer to the tree.

Xinya could see that Wei was right it was a temple of some kind, a ruined one at that. He could tell, even in its ruined state that at one point the temple was very beautiful. Even with a large tree growing over it, he still thought it was lovely, but in a different way.

"I found the entrance!" Melting Snow yelled from the other side of the tree.

Going over to where he was, Xinya saw that Melting Snow did find the entrance. There was a dark opening hidden in between the giant roots of the tree. It was completely dark inside the opening, and Xinya had a feeling that his glow flowers would come in handy, while they were in the dungeon.

Giving him a pat on the head, he said, "Good Job, let's set up camp here for the night and go inside the dungeon in the morning."

"Alright, I'll go get some firewood." Melting Snow said, before rushing off.

Wandering Sound had already started building the fire pit, while they were talking. As Xinya was about to go over to help him, he was stopped by Wei.

"Drifting Cloud, I saw a small pond over on the other side of the temple, do you need to soak your feet?" Wei asked.

Looking at his interface, Xinya realized that he should go soak his feet, his bar was very low. "Thank you for reminding me."

"No problem, you go soak your feet, I will help finish setting up the camp. Afterward, maybe we can fish together." Wei said.

"That would be great," Xinya told her, walking in the direction of the pond.

As she watched him go, Wei gave a small smile, before turning to help Wandering Sound set up camp.