Sofia found the previous staircase’s hole in the ceiling without too much difficulty, but she ended up flying back down as she was curious about something. When she was down on the ground searching for her lost tail, it felt like she was stepping on glass chunks, and considering what she had recently learned from Everelle, she was wondering if her bolt could have created diamonds. She picked up a handful of the things in the dark before flying back up to the middle of the cavern where the darkness had yet to set back in.
“Ah. Definitely not diamonds. What is that?”
The things Sofia held in her hand were small glassy blue pebbles with a bubbly texture.
[Cobalt Trinitite]: Glass created as a byproduct from a formidable explosion in the presence of Cobalt. No particular use but it is a bit pretty.
“I see. Didn’t expect the walls here to be filled with Ogre treats. Hmm... Well, maybe I could use these as blue eyes for bone statues or something...”
Sofia pocketed the blue glass and flew back up. I wonder if that means I can make different glass by blowing up other minerals?
Is Mithrium Trinitite a thing?
Ah but the explosion surely has to at least be able to melt it for it to become glass... How big of an explosion do I need to melt Mithrium?
Considering that even Erredis used a Mithrium weapon, it meant that it could be used in a battle between level 500 people and survive at least a little bit, so Sofia quickly dismissed the idea of trying to blow it up. Maybe later.
Her curiosity sated, she flew up the spiraling staircase, which was in complete darkness and full of debris, as her explosion’s shockwave had wrecked everything nearby and snuffed out all the candles. I hope the entire palace isn’t like this... Didn’t have much of a choice though. And now I found out what happens when my mana heart is shattered, so I have a quick way to kill myself again. Neat. [Relocate Core] worked overtime here to try to keep the heart safe, but that guy was just too fast. At least it knew to keep the heart behind the dagger.
The spiraling stairs stretched up for hundreds of meters, Sofia had been very deep under the surface, which was the reason she was comfortable blowing things up in the first place, or she would have been worried of potentially harming the others with the shockwave. She could feel that Pareth and Bookie were much higher and quite far, so everything was fine.
Eventually she reached the top, where a single lit candle was waiting for her on a small pedestal placed next to a tiny wooden chest.
Sofia stabbed the chest.
“Not a mimic.”
Opening the chest, Sofia found a small round rock inside.
[Fake mana stone]: It’s just a carved rock imbued with some lingering magic. ‘Heart of Velania’ is carved in Ancient Human on the inside.
“Right, I get one of these after every encounter, but since the dwarf was an intruder they give me a fake like this? Well, whatever works. Confirms that these are important, at least.”
Besides the chest, and the candle that certainly would extinguish itself if Sofia touched it, a closed iron grate led to a dark corridor. This was already up far enough that the damages from the bolt explosion were minimal, but Pareth and Bookie were still about two hundred meters above from what Sofia could feel.
Sofia finished recasting her unlife runes before she teleported to the other side
The corridor stretched quite far, rows of empty rooms on both sides making Sofia question what that place was for. It felt a bit like a prison, but then, the ambiance changed quite suddenly as Sofia opened the final door at the end of the corridor and found herself in a well-lit, clean room, with a skeletal dog wearing a loose bowtie sitting on a tall stool behind a counter.
SO CUTE!
She approached top pet him, but as she walked closer, she couldn’t help but notice the softly-glowing mana heart floating inside of the dog’s skull, so she sent the skeleton dog a quick Identify.
“Yes... Sorry,” Cinthia answered, still a bit shaken, as she looked up at the hole in the ceiling, quickly closing by itself, “that surprised me... I expected... I don’t know, not this.”
“Same. I was expecting you to get teleported here, but I suppose this works too. Did you meet the dog?” Sofia asked.
“The Dog?” Cinthia repeated, a confused look on her face.
“Guess not, then. There was a skeleton dog here when I entered, level 350+, no less. He just barked and disappeared.”
“No, no dogs...” Cinthia said, her eyes busy reading her chat, “Guys, I’m going private for a minute, alright? Don’t leave, I’ll be right back before we start the fight.”
“Huh? Aren’t you going to miss out on token donations doing that?”
“I might, but whatever, they can handle a few minutes of silence, I needed to speak with you, well, privately,” Cinthia explained with a hushed voice like she was doing something shady.
“Sure? I don’t really mind either way. You got news on the others?”
“I do,” Cinthia said with a nod, “ a lot more than that, even. The viewers have been chatting a lot, and typing while I’m fighting and they think I’m distracted, but I’m already at a point where I can read while fighting, they just don’t realize it yet,” she explained, “I managed to overhear a lot of interesting things about the palace,” Cinthia finally said with a wide grin.
“Ahahah! Nice. I wonder if mom will be fine with me cheating like that, though?”
“Sorrow is more perceptive than the rest,” Cinthia answered, “Although I think Death also knows, but Sorrow did send me a private message with a donation quest... Basically she bribed me so that I wouldn’t tell you everything.”
“She did? That’s great! You get paid and I’m sure I do things correctly. Couldn’t ask for a better deal; so, what can you share? Or do you want me to tell you about my adventures here first? I even killed the dwarf who botched Domination’s apostles’ ritual.”
“OH! That’s what they were freaking out about?! I didn’t get what they were going on about with a black-hearted dwarf! They’ve been talking about it non-stop for the last half hour at least.”
“Yeah, he was the fourth boss I had to fight, somehow. Entered as a helper and chose to hinder my progress, if I understood everything correctly. Now he’s in my ring waiting to get eaten by Bookie,” Sofia explained, taking out the dead dwarf’s mana heart as proof. “I got this and that Asterite chest from him, all his other stuff was soulbound, sadly...”
“You should get used to every high-level person’s belongings being soulbound because they often are. Even my boots are soulbound,” Cinthia answered with a giggle at Sofia’s disappointment over lost loot.
“Most of my things are, too, but it’s still sad to see it all disappear... I got some orichalcum and mithril scraps from the guy’s destroyed shovel, at least...”
“Better than nothing. Anyway, I should start explaining things and get out of private mode before the viewers get angsty... I can tell you everything about what me and the others are going through, but for your own trials I can only tell you what Sorrow allowed me to say which is not much at all...”
“Gonna repeat your own words: better than nothing.”
“True, well, so for your own trials, while I know a whole lot, all I’m allowed to tell you are my personal recommendations on who to call for help when. In order, me, right now, then Bookie, Pareth, Everelle, and Ihuarah.”
“Ihuarah last? Not Pareth?”
Cinthia smiled in response. “Do you trust me?”