Chapter 367: Floral Dungeon Part 3

Making their way through the small plains like area around the entrance Joshua lead the group towards one of the large forest nearby. Most of the place seemed surrounded in these forest which made sense in Joshua's mind considering the fact that any forest would have far more variety when it came to plants that could go on the attack than a grassland area. There were few open plain areas around the space that Joshua and the rest of the group could see as they observed their surroundings, but most of the space was covered in forest.

Joshua didn't even have to spread out his aura sense very far before he could already feel some corrupted plants in the area. Unlike with the forest outside of the dungeon the corrupted plants in this space didn't seem to feel the need to hide their presence. Joshua could tell why simply from the fact that there were far more corrupted plants inside of the dungeon. At least a good third of the plants inside of the forest ahead of them seemed to be corrupted. This was going to make their progress through the area slow as long as they played things safe, but if it came down to it they could push through the area without taking care of all of the plants that got in their way.

When they reached the edge of the forest Joshua could already see some of the trees in the forest swaying in odd ways without any sort of wind blowing through the area. They were all gearing up to take Joshua's group on the moment they walked into the forest. Titus however stopped the group from waltzing into the forest. Joshua knew that the giant gorilla only ever interrupted the group if there was something important that he wanted them to pay attention to. Joshua tore his attention away from the forest and looked towards Lilly's beast companion to see what he wanted.

"Fire spells won't be as effective the moment you walk into the forest." Titus said gaining everyone's attention especially in the case of Julia who frowned at his words. "Do you see that little flower over there?"

"Yeah it doesn't seem to be corrupted from what I can tell." Joshua said as he studied the little red flower with orange rims around the edges of its flower petals. "I don't think I've ever seen a flower quite like it before."

"It's a new variant that has popped up recently in some forest around the world. My mother told me about it and I've been looking for one to try to absorb." Titus said with a bit of a grin before he once again schooled his expression. These flowers have the ability to absorb heat. It is why if you walk close enough to one of them you will notice that the air around them is cold even though the temperature and humidity of this place is closer to that of a rain forest."

"So if they absorb the heat in the surroundings they can weaken the power of fire based attacks right. I guess it's not much of a surprise that the dungeon would have ways to deal with its two major weaknesses." Henry said with a knowing look.

"Both of its weaknesses? What other weakness is the dungeon defending against?" Adrian asked.

"The fact that the climate is geared towards a rain forest shows that the place isn't exactly nice for mages or creatures that prefer to use ice magic. These flowers just cover the other weakness." Julia said explaining what Henry was getting at.

"These flowers do far more than just absorb heat. They can eat fire." Titus said surprising the rest of the group. "Any flames that get within a certain range of these flowers will be completely absorbed, so wide spread fire based spells will be useless in this forest. If you wish to use fire as a form of attack then make sure to do it on a smaller scale with more precise spells."

"Damn. That's going to be annoying to deal with." Joshua said looking thoughtfully at one of the flowers. "Luckily they don't seem to be to densely packed-in the area. It should allow Julia to use more targeted spells if necessary. Cinder should stick in her ice form if that's the case as well. Each time she passes by one of those flowers some of her power would get absorbed otherwise."

Joshua took a deep breath before stepping past one of the harmless looking flowers and heading into the forest. He observed his surroundings a bit as he moved forward to see what type of plants they would be up against in the area. He wasn't surprised to see several similar trees to the ones they had faced in the forest leading up to the dungeon, but he did notice a tree that seemed a bit different than the others he had come across up to this point. This tree looked like a massive palm tree to some extent, but instead of just having a bunch of giant leaves at the top of it there were long branches that grew out from its sides with similar leaves on it.

When Joshua took a closer look at the tree he could see that it had these large fruits on it that looked like massive coconuts that were the size of watermelons. It made since that the fruit on the trees in the area would be larger than normal considering the size of the trees, but seeing them was actually a bit worrying. They had already come across a tree that shot down pine cones that would explode so these massive coconuts were not a welcome sight.

Outside of the plant life in the forest they were entering Joshua also took notice of the humid environment that he was sure was going to make him start sweating soon enough. It wasn't as bad as walking through a dessert, but the humidity was a different type of annoyance in itself. All of the moisture in the air would make fire based spells even weaker which caused Julia to frown as they moved forward. He noticed that there wasn't a single animal or beast in the dungeon which seemed to fit with the theme from the forest they had to fight through to get there in the first place. All in all Joshua didn't know what to make of the place or know if they would be able to clear it in time, but he'd make his best effort at clearing the dungeon.

As they got further into the forest Joshua and the rest of the group started to notice signs of corruption all over the place. Unlike outside of the dungeon where the plants hid any signs of being corrupted this forest was filled with several plants that were blatantly effected by whatever was causing them to become dangerous. There were several trees off on their own that were corrupted, but Joshua's group just avoided them and saved their energy. They didn't plan on fighting until they came across a large group that was in their way. If they went out of their way to kill every single corrupted plant in the dungeon then they'd be stuck there for weeks.

It didn't take to long for them to finally come across a group of plants that were close to each other and all corrupted. The second they got within range of the group several roots shot up from the ground and started to surround the area making it impossible for them to just leave the area without having to force their way through.

"Well this as good a group as any for us to test ourselves against. Everyone get ready." Joshua said with a smile as he stepped forward with his aura shroud surrounding him. In front of him there were a pair of pine trees along with a couple of the trees that relied more on vines and their regeneration properties. The one new plant in the group that they would have to deal with was the large tree that looked like a new version of a palm tree with the large coconut fruits hanging in clusters at the top of it.

All of the plants in the area had these red tendrils along their surface that seemed to pulse slowly. Joshua didn't get the time to observe them for long as some of the vines started shooting in his groups direction while pine needles started flying their way as well. Joshua charged on ahead leaving the defense of the group to Ivan and Jayce. He was better off grabbing most of the attention of the plants by being the biggest threat. Lilly had brought out Cinder as well in her ice form to help defend the group as the humid air started to gain a chill to it.

Julia had to be precise with all of her fireballs that she used to try to damage the trees. There were several of the little red flowers in the area and each time any of her flames got remotely close to one of them they would be sucked into the flower. The heat would then be dispersed and used to fend off the ice that Cinder was forming. In the end Julia focused on blasting down any pine cones in the air so that the others could focus on taking down the trees.

When Joshua got close to the first tree he noticed that the palm tree moved one of its branches in a sweeping motion. At first he thought it would be a similar close range attack that the other trees had used in the past, but the giant leaves on the palm tree seemed to straighten out and had a faint glow to them as they sliced through the air. Joshua dunked under the attack and looked a little surprised when the leaves cut clean through the ground behind him like a knife through butter. Before he could go in for an attack of his own several roots shot out of the ground forming a barricade in his way.

The palm tree started to shake as one of its fruits shot down in his direction forcing Joshua to leap out of the way. The second the fruit hit the ground it exploded creating a small crater in its place. There was an odd white smoke left behind by the explosion and Joshua decided to avoid it as he kicked off the ground and got to work cutting down the branches of the palm tree.

The rest of the group got to work dealing with the other trees. Titus was a mad giant that brushed off all of the pine needles that came his way before slamming his body into one of the trees knocking it over. His spores shot out forming several flowers that grew on top of the other pine tree and started absorbing all of its life force quickly. Titus on his own had handled two of the corrupted plants which eased up the pressure that was being put on the rest of the group.

Aito started firing off explosive rounds at the vined trees causing them to be broken apart. The explosive rounds relied more on rupturing and destroying the trees instead of burning them like Julia so Aito didn't have much trouble dealing with the red flower issue. Henry had made his bullets even stronger with a bit of an impact spell which allowed Aito to tear apart the two vined trees rather quickly.

With all of the other trees down for the count Joshua was able to easily avoid the strikes of the palm tree and chopped it down piece by piece. When he finally felt a surge of energy as it tumbled over and crashed into the ground a smile crossed his face as he gained a level.