Chapter 140: Below

Chapter 140: Below

Sofia recalled the details about space magic that Astelia had shared, she was a pure space mage so she knew a lot. Her explanation was that there were three main schools of space magic : Space distortion which was anything and everything from teleportation to spatial attacks or storage items; space control which focused on preventing things from moving; and gravity manipulation.

[Graveyard of the righteous] doesnt fit anywhere in there so no space magic component. The graves and skeletons arent actually pulled from the ground, as far as I can tell they are all temporary mana constructs. So it should be fine to enter the pond from below, right?

There was no reason to fight if she could avoid it, cant fly? No matter, dig instead. Or phase through the ground. The skeletons couldnt take her too deep underground, and they struggled to drag Pareth. Still, they both entered the pond that way, from the side underground, bypassing all the monsters above.

Sofia didnt even try to swim down, she latched onto Pareth and sank with him. She was probably immune to the soul-damaging effects of the Silverwater but she held her breath nonetheless. The skeleton ogre carried her, walking to the deepest spot of the thick and cold pond. Without any form of warning, they fell through an invisible hole. It felt like the world had gone upside down for a second. As if it had done a looping around her. She could no longer sense the Silversneers above.

That was the space anomaly! This is the linked underground pond then. I need to swim up. Im almost out of air

The pond wasnt too deep, she emerged and swam to the shore, Pareth teleported to her and helped her out.

There we are.

[You have entered the dungeon : Buried Cathedral - Lv. 200+]

Exactly as advertised. Its good to know the information was reliable and I didnt do this trip through the hell forest for nothing.

Also now that I think about it, 'hell' actually refers to the Recessed plane, doesnt it? And heaven the Gods plane. Yeah, something went wrong there. I cant imagine Scripture being Eh, probably another thing the Heroes popularized I guess, maybe its different in their worlds.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

It's interesting how the Silverwater doesnt stick; my hair is dry already. We should collect some. I have an empty barrel from the vampires

Now the proud owner of a barrel full of rare and toxic soul water, Sofia looked around. There wasnt much to say about the place. The Siverwater pond provided some lighting around it, just enough to see a bit of the surrounding stone ground. Everything else was pitch black. She couldnt see any wall or ceiling, only the pond, and some rough stone ground. Does definitely look like some kind of cave; it is named the Buried Cathedral after all, but I dont think I am in the Cathedral quite yet.

Sofia decided to take a few steps back and let the birds explore the area in more detail. With some of them flying up and searching for holes in the walls or things like that.

She learned that this was in fact not a canyon, or at least, there was a ceiling, a good fifty or so meters above. There didnt seem to be any holes or tunnels coming out of the walls, not nearby at least.

Lets reorganize. I was on a good track with the bird alarm, but a semicircle on the ground is a bit lacking. And I cant be sure that monsters won't drop down behind me from holes I would have missed in the walls on the way. The birds can fly in place anyway and like all other skeletons, their stamina is purely decorative so I dont need to worry about it. Lets make it a bird dome. It needs to be a bit tighter though.

And so Sofia took some time to arrange the birds in a small dome formation around her and Pareth. It wasnt perfect. The limited number of skeleton birds and their small size meant that someone slender enough could walk through the holes in the formation. Still, it was better than nothing. Feeling a bit better about her alarm system, which was her only way to detect things that her mana senses wouldnt pick up, she resumed the exploration.

Then out of nowhere, three birds on the right of the dome died. Shit. Sofia took refuge under Pareth, pretty much standing with her back against his chestplate. She had her armor and runes but the Dungeon said level 200+, so she was expecting opponents that might be as strong as the level 249 Templar she had struggled against in the jungle.

Her mana sense gave her nothing in that direction. The birds had disappeared and died without a warning or a sound. Thats not good. How come I sense nothing? Pareth, grounds.

[Spine of the Black Sun]

She prepared her weapon and decided to wait, the birds spreading out a bit to fill the hole in their formation. Two more birds disappeared on her left, she still felt nothing but lashed out with her whip nonetheless. Sofia clearly heard the resulting Solar burst and something howled in pain as a result. There really is something there! She ordered for Pareth to use a lance to stab in that direction without moving. The creature howled again.

Sofia barely had the time to hear something moving on her right. Something broke, and Sofia recognized the telltale sound of Pareths [Flying shields of light] giving out. She only had time to think that the [Sanctified grounds] wasnt up yet, she wanted to move but it was too late. She felt a weird sensation and pain around her neck, her senses spun around madly.

How?!

*thunk*

Health : -119 / 5900

Her head hit the floor.