Chapter 174: Ready to Heat up!

Chapter 174: Ready to Heat up!

[Music Resonation (Moderate)] [Blessing of the Goddess of Light (Moderate)] [Sanctified Blaze] [Various Spell Buffs] [Insatiable Glutton] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Damn, this is blazing hot.

Floor 15 was, as we expected, a realm of heat and magma. The rocks were colored red and yellow from the glowing streams of magma, flowing like a river to the side of the first chamber. Streaks of flaring rocks radiated like markings on the ground, lightning up for a bit until it turned dim, repeating this ad nauseam. Every breath I took inside this place felt thick from heat, warming my lungs up instead of burning them, like a warm campfire.

I hate to admit it, but I felt right at home here. I wasnt sweating yet, which meant the temperature wasnt higher than my tolerance level. I snapped my fingers to create three colored flames, making sure that I could use my three fire types without any issues.

Ok, Tasianna, cool everything down. Haha, you three are already sweating, I teased the rest of Aurora. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were sweating hard while the garms couldnt help but pant loudly. This place wasnt for them.

Understood, Lady Hestia, with a loud confirmation, Tasianna recalled her catalyst to her hand before conjuring up a cyan-colored magic circle above it, its size growing the more she poured her mana into it. She then sent the circle onto the ground, encompassing everybody in its ring.

Custom spell: Aifli eir Vintral! (Fairy of Winter) The magic circle began glowing, and two butterfly-like wings made out of ice materialized right behind Tasianna, floating around her much like her catalyst. The magic circle began to turn translucent as the inner contents the magic formula disappeared completely, leaving behind only a cyan ring.

The heat began to disappear, cooling down to the point that white fog appeared every time I exhaled. I shivered for a moment, noticing the drastic temperature change, before closing my cloak shut. You know, training wasnt the only thing we did.

Aside from tailoring and potion making, Tasianna also finalized the two custom spells, something shes been working on ever since she got her catalyst. One of her custom spells, the one she cast, was called [Fairy of Winter], a spell meant to cool down the surrounding temperature in case I ever accidently caused it to increase too much for my allies to stand with [Dreadflare Aura] or [Solar Beam], for example.

Fairy of Winter

Create two fairy-like wings behind the back of the caster made out of ice. During the Activation phase, the caster may determine the sphere of influence by pouring more mana, which is then used to drastically decrease the temperature inside this sphere. All ice-based attacks will increase in potency while all water -based attacks will freeze, transforming into ice

The spell was a Tasianna exclusive spell, or rather, to be more specific, a spell only usable for those with [Cryokinesis] and [Frost Body]. The wings, similar to the mana slime made from her catalyst, couldnt be moved by conventional means, requiring her to use [Cryokinesis] to make them float and move with her. She could also attach mana slime to them to have her catalyst move them for her.

In any case, the power of this spell was its ability to decrease the surrounding temperature, much like the spell [Reduce Heat] could, but unlike that fire spell, [Fairy of Winter] also increased the potency of all ice spells and attacks within range. After what I did to the alchemist guilds building in Firwood, literally burning the air, Tasianna imagined she could probably create a spell to make cooling the air down after my rampage easier, which inspired her to begin creating this spell. After we knew we had to enter the magma chamber that was floor 15, she finalized the spell during one week of training with everybodys help.

She also had a second custom spell finished, but that one was designed entirely for combat.

Lady Hestia, are you alright? This is unfortunately the warmest I can set my spell, otherwise, the intense heat of the floor would cancel out my spells effect, Tasianna looked apologetic, despite us knowing the limitations of the spell from our initial testing.

However, I shook my head, blowing a fire to warm up my hands, Dont worry about it. Did you forget? I can control my body temperature with my core well enough to not freeze; besides, its more important you guys keep your stamina up.

I didnt need to be inside Tasiannas spell, after all. I could always leave and enjoy the heat bath to warm myself up. Being a fire dragon is suffering sometimes, especially in the winters where I feel sleepier than usual. Hibernation, ha!

I cannot sense any of the lesser faefolk or elementals around, just like the last four floors. We need the garms to sniff him out, Tasianna stated. Since the dungeon couldnt create faefolk, as they werent considered monsters unless under specific conditions, like treants or onnikais, the ones we met until now came from the surface.

Saori then pulled out one of the [Inferno Resistance Potion]s Grimnir gave us, one of the few items he left behind at camp. We didnt have anything with a more powerful smell for Saori and the garms to track with, since Grimnir carried all his belongings in his backpack. We unfurled the map for floor 15 and began our search for the dwarf.

He should not have gotten that far, but I still do not like how he has been away for this long, Saori worriedly stated, leading the party with Uno.

Kriiiizzzz! After leaving the tunnel leading from the entrance room, a massive magma chamber came into view with a river of magma, complete with small pockets of rock sticking out of the fiery river like islands. The moment we entered the room, a pack of giant red-scaled salamanders hanging on the walls hissed at us before shooting out balls of fire from their mouths.

Flaming Slazzanbal

A giant slazzanbal adapted to life inside fiery environments, mostly found around volcanoes. Able to climb on rocky walls while possessing scales able to resist strong heat, these slazzanabals rain balls of fire created from their spit and mucus onto intruders. Rank D

Magmaspine Slazzanbal

A flaming slazzanbal who has fully adapted to life inside magma chambers, possessing scales heat-resistant enough to allow it to swim in magma. Possessing a crown-like crest on its back to store energy and heat for emergencies, these serpentine monsters lead packs of slazzanbal hunting groups to hunt stronger monsters. Rank C

Krriiiiizzzzaaaah! Fireballs rained at us from the wall climbing salamanders while a one swimming in the lake of magna spat a ball of molten rock at us.

The garms immediately went into evasive maneuvers, sidestepping the fireballs with finesse. Without needing any orders, Ellaine began supporting the team by conjuring [Earthen Wall]s on the walls, knocking each salamander down for Tasianna to pincushion with her ice daggers and [Ice Spike]s.

While those two took down the fodder, Saori and I engaged the magmaspine one hiding inside the magma river like a fish. We could have ignored it after taking down its pack, but the chamber was huge and the river was long enough for the salamander to follow us at a distance, spitting out exploding magma balls at our backs. From this distance, I could see other magmaspines hanging around on islands like relaxing crocodiles, making them a real threat for our continued travel.

Holy crap, how did Grimnir get through all of this?! I exclaimed after dismounting Song, using [Wind Blast] and [Air Walk] to fly over the magma lake with my wings.

Who knows. Did his Mana and Stamina amount fluctuate a all on the party screen? He is a runesmith, right? So he should have a few tricks under his sleeve, especially when he was that determined to get that magma rock, Saori raised a good point. Hestia, do you think you can dive into the magma river and fish the slazzanbal out?

There you go with your risky jokes, again. No, I wont jump into a magma lake even if I possibly could. A part of me believes I could jump into the river and survive it, especially if I turned into my minor or dragon form, but the rational side of me was sensible enough to not go with every single one of Saoris ideas. For example, eating that damn rock when we were still stuck in the Belzac forest was a dumb move.

Besides, why dive into the lake when I can just continue gliding around?

And drop bombs.

Using [Detection Sensor], I pinpointed the salamanders movements, throwing one bomb into its path. With a huge explosion, magma splattered into the air like a geyser, sending the slazzanbal flying up as well, probably unaware of the danger I threw into the river. Unfortunately, as per the System description, these monsters had magma-resistant scales, so my scale-dust bomb didnt do enough damage to kill it in one go.

Stygian Lightning! Saori located the monster hidden inside the magma geyser and shot a continuous blast of black lightning at it, making it easy for me to swoop in to decapitate it with a clean tail swipe.

I grabbed both its body and head, threw them into my storage before turning back to the others. Okay, on to the next! Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, you guys lead and Ill fly around to-

Lady Hestia! as I was about to finish giving out our game plan, Tasianna shouted, interrupting me and pointed her finger to the side where multiple slazzanbals began running away. The magmaspines dived into the magma river while the D ranks skittered into the holes of the walls.

I honestly expected them to be as belligerent as the felgheists, so I was prepared to fight multiple hordes of monsters. That has been how we spent the last four days on floors ten to fourteen. It was a surprise.

Everybody, look, Ellaine called us over to the edge of the chambers cliff, drawing our eyes to what was at the bottom of this place.

What in the-'' I exclaimed but stopped before ending the sentence as the picture of a green-glowing, spotted red mushroom forest entered my eye. A small pond of water laid in the grove of giant mushrooms, serving as a watering hole for a pack of ram-horned buffalos.

This bottom area in general looked more organic than where we currently were standing on, with slopes, stalactites, dark brown vines, and red grass growing around in the area. Herbivores like those buffalos and four-legged pachycephalosaurus wandered around in the area while carnivores like those slazzanbals either relaxed next to a stream of magma or prowled the area for prey.

On one side of the spectrum, magma was falling from the walls as lakes of molten rock flowed through the ground and into small caves. On the other hand, there was a mushroom forest in a red grassy area which made a good home for any monster thanks to a water-filled lake. The difference was there, but it seems so natural for all of this to work.

Wow, all of us murmured in wonder, having not expected another well-working ecosystem like the ones from floor five to nine. I knew this was a possibility for this dungeon, but how could you guess that an area like this would exist after the felwing-infested place we just fought through?

As the rest of us goggled at the mix of green-glowing mushrooms and yellow-glowing streams, Saori pulled multiple maps out from her storage, inspecting them before her eyes widened. That is floor 16.

Huh? The three of us turned around, unsure of what wed just heard.

Thats what the maps say. Now that I look at them properly, starting from floor one until 14, all the floors were connected with staircase-like rooms; however, 15 to 20 is by itself an entire room. We could technically jump down from here and we would have made it to floor 16. I thought it was odd that there was no staircase symbol on these maps, but now I know why, Saori explained, making me wonder if this phenomeon was described anywhere in my dungeon book since I hadnt finished it yet.

Saori continued, Grimnir might have known this, since he was responsible for the maps until floor five. He might have inspected them and already knew this was the case.

That caused my mind to return to our issue on hand. You arent telling me hes exploring this whole giant place on his own to find that damn rock he wanted, are you?! Scouting is one thing, but going further out alone when he could encounter C or even B rank monsters is suicidal! What is that drunkard thinking?!

None of us could understand what Grimnir was thinking, even Tasianna who had minimal knowledge on dwarven culture had no way to explain his actions. All we knew was that he hadn't come back yet and we needed to find where he got himself to and reunite this dungeon party. Leaving him to possibly die would just leave a horrible taste in my mouth.

He could have found a way to enter the next few floors, everybody, Ellaine stated before hopping onto Quatre. However, lets follow the garms noses first before we jump to any conclusions about where he could be in this place. It is far too huge for us to wander around without a clue.

I had no idea why the dungeon created its last few floors like this, but that question could be left for later, after we found Grimnir and lectured his drunken, dwarven ass for being an idiot. Once we remounted the garms, we ran past all the slazzanbals still hiding under the magma river, wary of our party after what we had done to a few of them.

We entered a cavern, diving deeper into it until we found a small cool lake away where a couple of felgheists were sleeping on the ceiling, unaware of us. We werent looking to fight, so we snuck into a tunnel on the other side of this lake, where we found a group of fat, four-legged giant iguanas with tough, bony jaws digging into the ground and stuffing their mouths full with ore and rocks. They looked at us for a moment before returning to minding their own businesses, which we reciprocated in turn.

If you were to tell me this was inside a volcano on the surface, I would believe you without a doubt in my mind. Look at this, the red mushrooms are growing from the rocky soil, I pointed to a colony of mushrooms.

Ellaine, you wouldnt happen to know anything about this place, would you? Did your parents mention this place to you or your brother or talk about trading for any of the materials from here? I would find it hard to imagine the Duke would have no idea about any valuables here, since the hunters guild clearly discovered some when they made these maps, Saori asked as we sprinted through a tunnel.

Unfortunately, I know very little about this. This dungeon, after all, isnt in my houses fief, so it wouldnt exactly have furthered my education had I known, Saori. I know the forest next to Carine village, our fief, well enough since mother and I would follow father and brother on their hunting trips, but that is the extent of my wildlife or dungeon knowledge, Ellaine explained, informing us how nobles love hunting animals in their own fiefs despite, or perhaps because of, the fact monsters exist. Trade, on the other hand, is a different subject, since what we import and export from our land and businesses does affect me. I used to visit the Sarlenzia company quite a bit in my childhood and one thing I do remember, since it wasnt something the company usually traded in, was a type of ore that came from this dungeon. I cant remember anything else, though.

Would that ore be the one? Tasianna interjected the moment the garms stopped moving.

We dismounted and moved closer to the area Tasianna was pointing in, noticing that a small opening about my size was dug into the wall. Small black glimmering splinters were littered on the floor as we approached it. Picking one up, I used [Mana Eyes] to appraise them.

Voldunna Ore

A tough black ore created in the depths of a volcano due to streams of molten rock cooling and warming up again. Possesses high fire and earth resistances from to its creation, although it lacks the ability to channel or store mana in high quantity

Did he-?

I dont know about Grimnir, but I heard dwarves are supposedly natural miners. As a blacksmith, it wouldnt be weird for him to bring a pickaxe with him and begin mining the moment he saw this ore vein. It is not like he was especially well-off when we visited his carriage, Tasianna mentioned, unintentionally burning Grimnirs financial status.

Since the garms stopped here, we decided to look into the cave. Snapping my fingers, I created a small fire to illuminate the dark opening, revealing that the ground had collapsed a few steps in, creating a hole large enough for a person. Looking down, I figured whoever fell down would have a rocky ride before landing wherever it led.

Its large enough for Grimnir to fit into, I commented, to which everybody nodded. Damn, well, I dont think dropping down into a hole leading to unknown lands would be smart.

Because it isnt, Saori chimed in.

I ignored her, even though I agreed. However, we have no other choices. Everybody, Ill go first with [Panzer] activated. With my protective skills and healing spells, Ill be able to survive whatever ambush is down there. Once I give the signal, you guys can come down.

With no one objecting, I withdrew my wings with [Humanization] and cast [Panzer] on myself, cladding my skin in a hardened corrosive flame armor before jumping into the hole. As I didnt want to crash land, I scaled the wall using my claws, hanging onto the rock while sliding down slowly. Smart move, since the trip down was almost like a water park slide, only far harder and extremely bumpy.

The wall looks broken here. And here, too. Heredoesnt this look like a ram horn imprint? Shit, Grimnir.

The moment light came into view, I knew the exit of this hole was close. Instead of dropping down, I hung on the wall like a lizard, peaking out of the holes exit while my body was upside down.

Which floor is this? Floor 16? 17? How deep did our search lead us? Hmm, I should stop thinking of this place like multiple floors, and more like a single floor. Makes it less confusing.

The area under me was a cavern with red-hot rock, literally exuding steam like those rocks those masseurs use in a hot rock massage. Next to it was a medium-sized pond, boiling like a hot spring, while some magma was flowing into the ground of the place, which I guess flowed under the whole pond. A lot of free geothermal energy if somebody wanted to use it like renewable energy. Well, Peolynca uses mana, not electricty, so its not like theres any turbines to make said energy here.

Casting [Humanization] again to bring my wings back out, I dropped out of the tunnel once I confirmed it was safe. A hot spring is here, you guys can drop down! It's safe! I shouted through the tunnel to inform the others before testing the water myself.

Wooo, nice. If we werent in a hurry, I definitely would like to dip in to relax, but I began a reconnaissance instead. While Saori and the rest slid down the hole, I managed to find the way out of this place, where I conveniently found something hacked into the wall.

Sorry was written, uh, carved into the wall. A few drenched pieces of cloth and clothing laid before it with an axe lodged into the ground. The axe was excessively decorated compared to other woodcutters axes, with rune-like markings, but it was undoubtedly the axe Grimnir used to chop the barkwraith into pieces.

Was the reason why he couldnt make it back cause he fell through that hole? It would explain why he never returned for the rest of our party to finish up his fetch quest. Still, doesnt make it less crazy how deep he went into that tunnel instead of staying where he fell and waiting for us. Maybe he really was trying to find that rock by himself and got himself in this mess.

Argh, enough. I shouldnt be thinking about these things when I havent asked his side of the story. Still, annoying to get us-Oh, shit?!

Name: Grimnir Luedbrumdar Level: 61 Job: Blasthammer Gunner

Health: 1891/5791 Mana: 641/1109 Stamina: 3789/5471

How did he lose such a huge chunk of his Health so quickly ?!

Song! The second garm of Saoris shadow pack had been hiding inside my shadow when I went down the hole first. I called her out and told her we needed to find Grimnir immediately, giving her some of Grimnirs wet clothes to track with.

[I understand, Mistress Hestia]

Party Screen! Saori, we need to rush! I shouted as loud as I could before rushing forward into the tunnel with Song. There was a function of the party bracelets which our party hasn't used for a very long time, and that was the ID tracking function, which displayed the direction and distance between each party member if we were close enough. Grimnirs signal had been too far until now, but it suddenly showed the distance between the two of us.

You gotta be kidding me.

Both the slazzigula and I turned towards the newest voice, where we saw the air literally shatter like glass, revealing a party of sevan standing there. At its helm was a man in black robes, wearing a half-mask, screaming his lungs out. KEITH, you fucking bastard, I will KILL YOU! He then ripped the mask off his face, revealing how disfigured it was from old scars.

Talon, oh shit!

While that caught my attention for a moment, my eyes and my nose turned over to a snow-white haired woman in the very back of the group, wearing white armor fitting her hair, looking pristine and regal in contrast to the surroundings. She was holding a white spear and emitted an aura I couldnt possibly describe.

Why does she look so familiar wait, this sweet smell. Hold on, hold on, I know this scent!

As my eyes widened, the woman returned my gaze, her nose twitching the moment she did. I could hear the slazzigula crackling a laugh to the side, possibly at the thought of more people to fight, as I saw the woman raise her hand to hide her gaping mouth while staring back at me..

P-Prince-

Hestia!

Lady Hestia!

Hestia!

Saori, Tasianna, Ellaine, and the garms finally caught up, looking battle-ready as they called out for me. Honestly, what was with this situation? It was so chaotic!

However, it seems like the universe didnt think it was crazy enough for me.

Shriiiiieeeeeeeekkkk!

The ground crumbled, a giant spider emerged, pandemonium ensued as everybody began to fall.

Hestia, keep them safe! Yaaaahhhhhh!

P-Princess Hestia, shit, damnit! Kids!

KEITH!

Oho, Talon, old friend! Join us!

My rock!

Grigrigrigri Grigaaaaaaaaaa!

Why couldnt all of this be simple?

And deeper all of us fell into this troublesome dungeon.

A note from AbyssRaven

ChaosChaos! Chaaaaaaoooooosssss!

Also, a very apt description from The Walrus Transcendant:

"This isn't a raid anymore.

This is Alterac Valley with both Lords up."

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About the author

1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads

Friday, June 18, 2021 12:46:30 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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