Chapter 162: Finisher – Part 2

Chapter 162: Finisher – Part 2

So, Yunia was right. The fucking sap is fucking everywhere. If we didn't have a bunch of wind elementals around or our [Sound Barrier]s up, we'd all be silicon statues.

The dungeon will reabsorb the mess, but we might as well clear the flower path towards the rest area since it got swallowed in a wave of sap. We're the "janitors" of the dungeons in our territory, and it's explicitly our responsibility to ensure that the adventurers can proceed with relative safety.

"I can't eat this!" Aoi complains as she spews out a chunk of silicon glue.

"R-really? Why?" Lina questions, baffled that there's something that Aoi can't swallow.

The little dragon grimaces, which is a fearsome expression on her huge draconic face. "It tastes horrible, and it's too chewy. I can already feel my tummy hurting just from a nibble I had a little while ago."

"Please don't eat any more, then," Ciel kindly requests and casts [Purify Body] on her.

And Aoi continues to whine loudly, her deep double voice echoing across the quiet dungeon, "But this monster's huge! That means it has a huge brain! I want to eat a huge brain! Eat and grow!"

I walk up to her and pat her head as I soothingly state, "I'm sorry, Aoi. This one was a bust, but there will always be the next Aberrant that we'll have to deal with, hm?"

"Yeah..." she dejectedly accepts as she lowers her head, but she'll be fine. She's a big girl, and she can wait for the next big one.

After the quick clean-up, we have a late lunch: a feast of pizzas because they're easy to eat and full of energy to replace what we used just now. I prefer the Brazilian flavor of chicken breast with Catupiry, and Aoi likes to have it that way too. The girls all have their favorite flavors. Alissa enjoys a purple, not-tomato pizza with a rich meat sauce, Roxanne goes with a thin and spicy bell pepper pizza, Hana likes the not-pepperoni one, Ciel prefers the vegetarian choices, Lina is all for mushroomy sauces, Aoi wants them meaty, of course, Yunia savors a simple and classy Margherita, and Gify is down for the thickness.

But after this heavy but quick feast, we return to the dungeon because now everyone wants to see the end of the "mystery" of the battery-gem-key-thingies.

And we have an obvious lead that we must investigate. Where the paths split, they immediately turn away from each other, but they eventually come back together and end at the rest area, creating a very obvious and conspicuous shape: a circle.

The Hollys have scoured everything near both the flower and the metal paths, and they haven't found anything that indicates that we should explore away from them, so our first destination is the center of that circle.

I spread a few Hollys around just to help us triangulate where the center is because there's no obvious clearing or structure piercing through the canopies of the mini High Trees. Then I also spread around a few dogs to help us comb through the mini forest's floor.

But because I've summoned dogs, I have to give the girls some corgis, even Aoi, draining the rest of my MP.

"You shall be rewarded with blowjobs," Alissa gently states as she pats her cute, little, orange, happy doggo. She knows me well.Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

And we soon find our target: a dark-red stone arch with three mysterious slots on the left side, facing us, as if it was expecting us to come from the rest area. And so, I can now unsummon everything but the emotional support corgis.

The girls were expecting a bit more, but Yunia tempers their excitement, "This isn't a very complex dungeon, and neither are we particularly deep in it, so we shouldn't expect a deep mystery."

"It also isn't over yet," I point out, and they hold back their disappointment for now.

Hukarere is quite content, though, and she casually hums, "Well, I'm having fun. I've never been to sky fortresses before, and this little adventure is almost like a stroll through the castle's gardens."

"The way Their Highnesses solved the challenges was already quite the spectacle," a Companion quietly remarks.

And I flash them a handsome smile, which works even though I have a helmet due to my [Sexual Charm] and high "Charisma." Then I extend my armored and clawed hand and request, "The keys, please."

We can't take them out of the dungeon, so we had one of the Companions keep them safe for us while we were back in the castle. And the loyal soldier delicately hands me the three storage-gem-key-thingies, so I promptly slot them in the holes in the arch.

Once the last one is in, a rolled tapestry suddenly grows from nothing at the top of the arch, and after a couple of seconds, it unfurls, covering the arch in the same way as the entrance. The tapestry depicts four cartoony Flower Dancers merely walking past a tree with a bulbous trunk and cute little windows, a traditional home of elves, seemingly with more of these tree homes in the background. It's an elven town, if I had to guess.

I look around at everyone, and I don't even need to ask. We all walk into the tapestry, which ripples as we cross through the portal, just like when entering a painting in Super Mario 64.

We've entered an elven town, alright, except that a heavy gray mist covers everything just a few meters ahead of us while what we can see is blurry, and the colors are muted. A light traffic of Flower Dancers merely walks past or through us as if they're ghosts, or maybe we are the ghosts, as nobody seems to have noticed our presence.

The only thing that looks "normal" is a long shelf behind us full of Flower Dancers' heads, right next to the arch we just crossed through.

"You know I'd love to," Hana answers before I even make the suggestion.

"I don't like the idea of taking off my armor in front of so many monsters," Alissa quietly complains with a frown.

"I have a feeling that these aren't hostile," Ciel calmly remarks as she looks around.

"We already had to go through three challenges without killing the bosses," I point out.

And my prudent little orange fox gives in, "Hmm... fine."

The masks on the shelves are easier to put on since they seemingly weren't taken from the bodies of living beings, and even their face holes fit much more snugly than the ones we carved. But the doll golems look criminally adorable with these disguises, so much so that we take a quick [Instant Painting] of them.

I also unsummon the corgis because it'd be too cumbersome to carry them around in unknown territory.

Once the last of us have put on the mask/hood/disguise, the mist starts to clear, revealing a charming residential district. It seems this town has been "grown" in the grassland elf style, for we're on the ground floor instead of high-up and suspended from huge trees, but the trees used as homes seem to be mini High Trees, as their bark has the usual knitting patterns used in the real High Trees.

This could mean that this town represents both grassland elves and high elves, but that's too big of an assumption to make since dungeons aren't that deliberate with their references.

But the colors remain muted, and the Flower Dancers are still blurry, so I guess we're missing something?

"I only sense Flower Dancers in this town," Alissa reports.

There are no tall landmarks drawing our attention, so I summon four Hollys and have them explore the area for anything interesting. Nothing immediately catches their singular eye, aside from the mist surrounding the town, which prevents us from seeing anything past the tall bark walls. And we also seem to already be at the center, so there's really no obvious direction for us to go.

I send a Holly into the homes, but they're completely empty. The trees are just hollow, and there isn't even any Dancers inside them, making me believe that this is the dungeon saying that they aren't important.

"Let's just wander, then, and hope that something happens," Hana suggests.

And we do just that, but I make sure that my cock is erect at all times while I walk with a proud stride.

But it doesn't take long for something to happen. The third Flower Dancer that crosses our path suddenly jumps out of the way right before it would've walked through us as if it suddenly just realized we were here, but it simply moves on after only giving us a "glance," even though it has no eyes.

"We've been noticed?" Hukarere questions, unsure, as she puts a hand on the handle of her sword, the waist belt holding the sheath the only thing she's wearing aside from the flower disguise.

The other Companions also become more alert, but I don't think we'll be fighting these Flower Dancers any time soon.

We continue walking through the ghost town, but the silence is starting to get eerie. We can only hear ourselves, and there's not even a breeze rustling the grass.

But a couple of minutes later, we forget all about the gloomy atmosphere as we spot a Flower Dancer that isn't blurry. It's merely standing at the center of a flower garden square, and it's "looking" right at us.

Item InfoMaterial'Multi-Element-Attuned Silver'Quality'100'Anomalies'Heavily complex magical patterns deeply ingrained within the item'Enchantments'Irregular mana absorption enchantment; irregular mana dispersal enchantment'Origin Insights'Requires very high [Nature Magic] knowledge'

"Artifact first," I state and start raising my [Nature Magic].

Putting more than 30 points into it starts to strain my soul, and I feel mounting stress with each additional point I add, but it'll only be for a couple of seconds, so I can handle the pain.

Once my [Nature Magic] reaches 100, I feel a headache start to hammer my brain, but I manage to use [Appraisal Eyes], and I'm pleasantly surprised by the updated entries.

Item InfoMaterial'Multi-Element-Attuned Silver; Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Electric, Nature, Light, Dark, Spirit, Space Attunements'Quality'100'Anomalies'Deeply complex magical patterns that elegantly convert any standard system-attuned mana into any other standard system-attuned mana, sacrificing speed for perfect efficiency'Enchantments'Irregular mana absorption and conversion enchantment; irregular mana dispersal and infusion enchantment'Origin Insights'A masterfully crafted farming tool, whose purpose is to infuse the crops with mana and increase their yields. Adapted to work in a small area, as elven farms were always constrained in size'

I immediately take all my extra points out of [Nature Magic], then sigh and lurch forward as relief washes over me.

"Mana-infused food helps boost a person's 'Magic Power' and mana pool," Yunia blurts out, stunned at the revelation as her mind races with possibilities.

But Roxanne retorts, "Only for the magically weak, like the commoners, and we're already way past it having any noticeable effect on us."

"We can use it to raise more mages," the Queen calmly replies with a cool smile.

"And what about us?" Hukarere eagerly chimes in.

Exciting possibilities.

Announcement

Hall of Fame of Patrons

The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:

Prince PreownedFIN.

Prince Owldente.

Prince Definitely not Dio.

Lord Andrew Meyers.

Lord Michale Erwin.

Lord Bakerdea.

Lord Maurice.

Lord Mattirro Draca.

Lord Tenebris Lupus.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Paul Daval.

Lord Tmac.

Lord CopeyDunt.

Lord BlindTactic.

Lord litalmexy.

Lord Philip.

Lord d3235.

Lord William Clark.

Lord SubJef.

Lord GalacticTNT.

Lord Placid.

Lord LiuAnshan.

Lord Black Unicorn.

Lord Brandon.

Lord Duncan Campbel.

Lord Empyrean.

Lord Badger.

Lord School Work.

Lord Patrick_starz.

Noble Salty Panda.

Noble Mild Fracas.

Noble Aclys.

Noble Carl Baxter.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble DND.

Noble Tony Starrk.

Noble Anon A Moose.