Chapter 471 - Giant Tortoise

"Are they done?"

After I finished checking on the others and transport the human experiments to Varadis, I returned back to Celestine who is resting after spending too much mana. She's still not used to manipulating metal, and how she tries to stop the enemy from using earth magic was too tiring for her.

She has drunk some Mana Potions, but she's still tired. Though we can't move forward if she keeps resting.

"They are doing fine. Though the enemy they are facing are all earth mage as well. But from the looks of it, the room in this place is more reinforced. I guess it's the reason why you felt something strange from this path. Can you sense anything ahead?"

"No. After defeating that goo, there's no other thing that makes me feel weird. I have rested enough. Shall we go?"

She looks tired, but if she says that she has rested enough, I think we can still go on. Though from now on, I will be the to fight most of the time. I am confident in my stamina more than my magic.

"Then, we will go ahead. If the paths we take connected ahead, we will see each other soon. The others should be okay even if they fought the same enemy again. I guess it's difficult for us since we only have you as the only mage here," I said.

"Maybe we should get another person?" Celestine suggested.

"Not now. Let's get as far as we could just the two of us. At the exit, the Professor should have prepared something to greet us. I might ask for the others to help before we leave the dungeon," I replied.

For now, I need to inform the others first. I called Sonia to come and she appears in front of us right away.

"Any news?" Sonia asked.

"Yes. Tell the others that the Professor is waiting for us. I might need everyone's help so they need to prepare themselves. I'll transport this letter to portal. You can inform Albert and the kings after Kayla read the letter," I said as I opened a fist-sized portal so I can transport the letter. I didn't say anything to those on the other side because if I opened the portal for too long, I will waste my mana.

"Okay," Sonia replied.

She then disappeared and appear again on the other side of the portal just before I closed it. Now, let's move.

Just like in the three other rooms when I visited them, I left a Blobby in this place as well so I can check on this place again in case we missed something. I put them somewhere conspicuous because if the Professor realized that there's a Blobby in this place, he will use it to gain immortality. To insert the Blobby inside his body so he can survive without food, water, or rest.

Though maybe he already has one in his body since he knows the effect. There's no way he would miss it.

Still, for my name to be written in the letter… I hope he just thinks that I'm just someone with a lot of powerful mages as friends. Seeing that the goo from before is immune against physical attack, and my Aura doesn't affect it, if he knows about it, that Evil God will do anything he could to destroy me. I hope the Professor is too greedy to get the Black Slime and didn't tell the Evil God about me.

Being used as a bait might be useful to get him out in the open, but I have too many friends. They might be used as hostages since the Professor knows we live in Cassau.

"Oh? A monster?"

As we move forward in the dungeon, trying to find the exit, we encounter a monster blocking the path. It's just a normal Ogre, and not one that has been experimented. Though I don't know if it's controlled or not.

I killed the Ogre with one hit of my spear easily. I guess it's not experimented as it has the strength of a normal Ogre.

"Still, for a man alone to defeat an Ogre this easily, it should be nearly impossible unless he has magic strong enough to even destroy this tunnel. Though I'm just talking about regular mage. Not our mages who are far beyond average," Victoria said.

"You're right. I forgot that the monster I can easily kill now are something that regular mages will find it hard to defeat. Still, we need to be careful. Oh? There are two paths again. One to the bottom level, and another one to the upper level. Celestine, which way should we take?" I asked Celestine.

"The upper path should take us to the exit since we're below the ground. But we're here to investigate, so let's go down first," Celestine replied.

"Okay."

I left a Blobby in in the room I defeated the Ogre, and climbed down to the lower level.

Just like before, there were monsters as well. Seeing how there are monsters, seems like it has been a while since the cult members who explored the dungeon cleared the monsters. Or maybe it's this dungeon's fault to keep making monsters appear as fast as possible? I don't know. The truth about dungeons are something that everyone can only speculate.

There were some monsters who were quite strong, but they are not strong enough to defeat me. I can easily defeat them with one hit.

As we go deeper, I finally see something.

""Stop!!""

Celestine and I shouted together. I guess she can also sense it at the same time I see it using my Divine Vision.

"Celestine, you can sense it?" I asked.

"Right. You can see it? What is that monster?" Celestine asked.

That's right. What she sensed is a monster under there.

"Something like a giant tortoise. But its limbs are being tied with a quite powerful chains it seems. Even the neck. But the most important thing is that on its back, the shell, there's mineral growing on the back of its shell," I said.

"…Roy, do you think that monster is what the cult is hiding? The source of some magic resources for experiment?" Victoria asked.

"I don't know. But that's probably the case. If we read the documents we found on the way, we will know it. But we didn't read any and just grab everything. For now, let's see if I can communicate with it. That monster doesn't seem like one to appears in this dungeon," I said.

"I agree. The feeling is different. Also, halfway through the lower level, it feels like the place is not natural. Something like being created by humans," Celestine said.

Hmm… maybe that monster is used for breeding purpose. To grow magic resources on its back.

"Let's be careful while encountering it. Its mouth has been closed as well. I will release the bind on the mouth of the tortoise first. Be careful since it might release some sort of magical beam like Spot can do," I said.

We entered the room where the giant tortoise is. It's a big room since it was made to fit the tortoise. Though how the tortoise was put here is something I don't know. Maybe it was put here since it was just an egg.

As we enter, the tortoise also saw us. But it only looked at us for a moment, and then it closed its eyes again. It was as if the tortoise has given up trying.

On its back, I can see some parts of its shell has been dug many times, and some have started growing some sort of ores. Well, if this monster has been raised by humans, there's a chance that it can understand our language.

"Hello, I came in peace. Please don't attack as we'd like to talk. If you're harmless, we would even let you go," I said.

I don't know if the tortoise can understand or not, but seeing as its eyes are looking at me curiously, I guess it's worth a try.

"Victoria, transform into your original form," I said to Victoria.

"What about your disguise?"

"Use Blobbies for it. I will need you to make an appearance so the tortoise know that I can be trusted with monster," I said.

We only spoke in low tone so the tortoise can't hear us.

And then, Victoria started transformed into a blob of slime and rested on my shoulder.

"It's fine. He's not a bad guy. He has a lot of monster friends," Victoria said to the tortoise.

The tortoise's eyes are glancing between Victoria and I. Well, it's obvious that it can't react. It's being chained after all.

"For now, I will release the chain blocking your mouth. I hope I won't hurt you," I said.

After Victoria introduce herself, I had her transformed into a key so I can unlock the bind covering the tortoise's mouth. It's connected to the one holding its neck, so I had to release it as well.

"Alright. Seems like you can understand my words. But can you speak?" I asked the tortoise. Though I don't think that it can talk.

"I can," the tortoise replied.

"You can talk!"

Although I want to believe that it's a monster that can talk, I was still surprised seeing how it talked so calmly.

But it's good since we can ask it questions.. I think we can get something from it.