Chapter 332: Saw this Coming

- Terakath -

You have achieved a true connection with the Elemental Source of Earth. Whether accomplished at a moment of breakthrough or by channeling a pure elemental force, you are now forever marked by this connection. You are favored both by earth itself, and earth elementals of all kinds. Moderate increase to the effectiveness of Earth Elemental Magic and charisma when interacting with earth elementals. Allows the title holder to move through earth and stone as easily as water, without leaving any trace of his or her passage.

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[...Huh.]

Mike took a moment to consider the implications. This was the third elementally oriented title he'd received since reincarnating in this world. In both other instances, he'd only managed to get said titles when he was in the middle of a life or death struggle. He'd kind of assumed that was necessary to form this kind of connection. Evidently he was wrong.

[So, I simply have to establish a strong enough connection to the elemental source. Or does it have something to do with what I was trying to accomplish while using Earth Magic? This calls for further experimentation.]

He was in the midst of considering possible methods of unlocking the fire related title in order to get a complete set, when Morris interrupted him by waving a hand in front of his face.

"Hey, you in there?"

Focusing his gaze on the man, Mike gave him a slight nod. "Ah, yeah. Sorry, I was lost in thought."

"Don't tell me you didn't see the climactic finish?"

"...Would you hate me if I said no?"

His friend sighed in disappointment, but nevertheless started explaining in an energetic voice. "There I was, holding the line and keeping the boss preoccupied while Sera communed with her Oracle ancestors, petitioning them to assist her in guiding her aim."

"Wait, you can do that?" He asked the girl, who was staring off into the distance.

She glanced over at him. "I don't know. I connected to...something this time. When I did, the voices of long dead Oracles flowed into me, helping me to understand what I had to do."

"I see, that seems pretty useful, but I take it from your mood that there is more to it. Maybe you can tell me what's bothering you?"

Morris blinked and looked back at Sera, as if suddenly realizing that something was strange about her.

"It's…" She started before swallowing. "It's just, I recognized one of the voices…"

Trailing off, she looked down on her hands which were tightly clasping her bow. Mike saw her shoulders shiver briefly, and he guessed what the problem should be.

"Sera, I'm sorry. It must have been hard to find out this way."

She swallowed again before answering. "It's alright. It's not like I didn't already know that she was...gone. It just caught me by surprise."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"Yeah, just give me a few minutes."

He nodded, even though she couldn't see him, and looked back at Morris. "Sorry, you were saying?"

The bard grimaced. "Ah, well. Long story short, Sera shot the boss through the eye, killing it instantly. I couldn't have asked for a better follow up."

"Sounds pretty exciting. I'm sorry I missed it. Anyway, have you checked out the loot yet?"

Morris shook his head. "Not yet. I wanted you to look over the chest just in case it's trapped."

The indicated treasure box was sitting next to the boss's corpse, by all appearances having materialized at some point while they were talking. Like other dungeon drops, it was a nondescript, simple chest without any sign of lock, but previous experiences had taught Mike that things weren't always what they seemed.

Walking over to it, he used a combination of Appraise and Aerosense to check for anything out of the ordinary. Thankfully, it appeared that there weren't any traps, or at least none that were visible from the outside. Unlike chests in the real world, where he could at least get a vague idea of the contents depending on how air-tight they were, this one was a perfect enigma. He could only guess that dungeon generated chests were somehow perfectly sealed prior to being opened.

"Looks safe enough. Do you want to do the honors?"

Morris glanced back at Sera again, and hesitated for a second. Then, perhaps thinking better of it, he stepped forward and pulled open the chest.

Inside were two items, a scarf made of a pale blue material and a small statue of a bird, seemingly carved from a block of ice. Mike quickly used Appraise on the first one.

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Glacial Scarf

Magic Item (Tier 2, Rank 3)

Woven from silken fibers harvested from Tundra Worms, this scarf provides its wearer with a measure of protection against the cold. Moderate resistance to the harmful effects of low temperatures.

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[That's pretty straightforward, but enhancing defense is never a bad thing.] He thought before moving onto the statue.

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Frozen Raven

Magic Item (Tier 2, Rank 2)

Carved from enchanted ice in the shape of one of the arctic ravens of lore, this statue can be brought to life by the command word "blonold." Once animated, it follows the commands of its owner for up to three days, at the end of which it returns to its inanimate shape and cannot be animated again for seven days. During this time period, it can be used to carry one spoken message of up to thirty words to the person of your choice. The recipient has the option of giving it a reply, but whether or not they do, the statue will return to you upon completion of its task.

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"Well, what did we get?" Morris asked after a while.

Mike explained the items and their effects.

"Not exactly a great haul, but I suppose I can't complain too much. This isn't exactly considered a difficult dungeon." The bard grumbled.

"True. You'll probably have better luck in the next one. While the monsters are somewhat terrifying, I can guarantee that they drop better gear."

"You aren't exactly making me feel better about it. This time around was dangerous enough."

Mike slapped him on the back. "With as much as the two of you have improved, you'll be just fine. Besides I'll be right there in the event you get overwhelmed."

"Hopefully you won't be distracted when we need you."

"Hey...ok, fair point. That does remind me, though…" He said while glancing up at the rotating golden ring. "There is something I want to check out. Do you two mind heading out before me?"

Morris followed his gaze and frowned. "Are you planning on doing something dangerous?"

"Hopefully not, but better safe than sorry. I just feel a lot more at ease knowing that you two aren't wrapped up in it."

The bard stared at him for a few seconds before finally nodding. "Alright, just be careful. Dungeons aren't exactly well understood, and several aspects of their existence hint at powerful forces at work that are beyond the understanding of mortal minds."

"I promise." Mike replied lightly.

He waited until Morris had grabbed the still absentminded Sera and taken her out through the exit portal before turning his full attention towards the ring.

Rising into the air, he floated towards it cautiously, senses fully trained for any hint of danger. This continued until he was roughly five meters away, when he suddenly collided with an invisible barrier.

Rubbing his nose, he flew around the boss room trying to see if there was a way past the wall, and after a few minutes of experimentation, he was able to determine that the invisible barrier extended outward from the top of the tower in a dome-like manner, measuring roughly five meters laterally and twenty meters vertically from the surface of the observation platform. Based purely on his limited knowledge of how dungeons operated, he was forced to conclude that this was another one of those 'edge of the traversable map' lines that he'd seen before.

[Whoever made these things definitely borrowed too much from video games, but I guess this means my investigation is done.] He thought resignedly, wondering how much Morris would tease him for wasting his time like this.

Before he had the chance to descend, however, Audra burst out of his pocket and took to the air. She circled him once, and then flew in the direction of the barrier, somehow managing to cling to it with her claws.

"Hey, come on now. There's nothing here. Let's get back to the others." He tried to reach for her but drew his hand back when he noticed her intense gaze.

"What's the matter? Do you feel some-" He started to say, but stopped when the little dragon turned back to the barrier, leaned forward and bit down on it.

He heard an audible crunch, and was shocked to see a portion of the dungeon's blue sky vanish into his familiar's mouth.

[I knew she had a strange diet, but this is ridiculous.]

A few more bites later, and Audra had created a sizable hole, behind which he could see an impenetrable black void. She glanced back at him and gave a short gurgle, before slipping through. By the time he'd realized her intentions, the little dragon had already vanished into the space beyond the barrier.

"Crap, crap, crap!" He groaned, leaning down to look through the hole, but was unable to see anything. "Audra! Come back! We don't know how dangerous it is!"

Out of desperation, he grabbed the edge of the hole in the barrier and pulled. With a crack, another section of the sky broke off in his hand. He took a moment to examine the shard, noting the strange sight of a fluffy cloud gently drifting in the piece he held, before dropping it and repeating the process.

In a matter of seconds, he'd created a crack big enough for him to slip through. Feeling a slight trepidation at the thought of what he was doing, he nevertheless pushed forward.

There was a brief sensation of almost impossible cold washing over his skin, mixed with a sort of electrifying tingling, but it passed in less than a second once he'd left the darkness. He found himself in a vast, dark chamber that reminded him of the dimension he'd ended up in after dying. It even featured the seemingly unending horizon with a barely discernible contrast between ground and sky. There was one large difference however.

Floating in the air behind him was a large, complex structure, roughly five meters in height, that was incredibly confusing at first glance. It looked a lot like someone had built a model tower with translucent walls and ceilings, allowing viewers to get a bird's eye view of the entire building. As he watched, he noticed that there were tiny figures moving through the hallways, and he leaned forward to investigate.

In one section, near the bottom floor, a tiny group of humans was in the midst of fighting a larger group of fishmen. He was marvelling at the life-like movements for a few seconds before he realized that this must be some kind of representation of the dungeon, or maybe the dungeon itself, somehow.

[Alright, this is pretty trippy.] He thought, before shaking his head. The mysterious dimensional model could wait. Right now, he needed to concentrate on his familiar.

Looking around again, he quickly spotted the little dragon perched atop a red glowing orb the size of a beach ball. The unusual object was in turn resting on an intricately carved pedestal that was surrounded by meters upon meters of complex arcane runes. Based on what he could tell from the bits his Communication Magic could make sense of, these two objects formed the center of the dungeon realm, and were somehow involved in maintaining it. Using Appraise would probably give him more information, but he didn't have a chance.

This realization struck home about the time he saw Audra open her mouth with the intention of biting down on the orb. A sudden premonition of danger had him using every ounce of his Tier 4 speed to launch himself at the little dragon in a desperate attempt to stop her.

Moving faster than he even thought possible, he barely managed to grab his familiar and pull her away from the orb as he blazed past the pedestal, sliding to a halt several meters away.

He was just about to sigh in relief when he noticed the glowing orb wobbling. For the briefest of moments, he saw it balance on the very edge of its perch, and then it fell, crashing into the stone-like floor with a loud crack.

Wincing, he waited for the thing to explode or shatter or cause the world to implode, but nothing apparently happened. He glanced down at the orb, noting that a large crack had appeared along its length, and that its glow was beginning to fade.

"Maybe we should get out of here before anything else-" He started to mutter before he was thrown off his feet by a massive shockwave.

The dark realm he was in was shaking violently. Even the air itself seemed to be shuddering uncontrollably in the wake of the disastrous calamity.

A mechanical sounding voice rang out, seemingly emerging from the pedestal itself. "CRITICAL CORE DAMAGE DETECTED. INITIATING DUNGEON PURGE. EVACUATING ALL USERS."

"Time's up, let's go!" He shouted while exploding into motion. He didn't completely understand what was going on, but he knew enough about these kinds of scenarios to make an educated guess. Their best chance of survival lay in quickly re-entering the dungeon and hopefully catching a ride on this evacuation the voice mentioned.

Before he'd even crossed half of the distance to it, however, the tower-like construct shattered into millions of specks of light that slowly disappeared as the realm continued to collapse.