Chapter 420: Chintamani’s Palace

Chapter 420: Chintamani’s Palace

When Svanya came out of the Gula, she immediately located what she was looking for. Her senses picked up on the floating island far into the distance better than even Rakna had.

"...I see," she grimaced when a terrifying presence abruptly concentrated on her. She didn't have to do anything to counter it since Lilia's buffs resisted it for her. Without wasting a second, she rushed forward and her speed peaked instantly. It was as if her movements had ignored all forms of wind-up or acceleration.

She blitzed toward the Dungeon dozens of times faster than sound. As soon as she did so, a barrage of multi-colored gems shot out of nowhere. One of those had been enough to punch a hole through Rakna's torso before he could react, but Svanya simply waved her hand with a sneer.

"I may despise this affliction... but do not believe I failed to harness its power," she mumbled.

Without fanfare, they all disappeared out of view as if erased from Existence.

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A large draconic silhouette with six arms, wearing a dark robe, stiffened inside the Dungeon. "That girl..." The Chintamani Lord's oddly soft tone echoed and he fully turned his head in the direction of the 'offender'; his jewels illuminating his slitted white and black eyes.

"Empirical Dissociation Syndrome?" The creature muttered to himself. "Even Systema who draws upon the Laws of the Spiritual Tree cannot sustain the life of a mortal like this..." He said and then noticed something else about the woman. "Ah... a half-breed. A World Sage...? That explains it. She seems of royal lineage as well. Quite a unique human."

The Lord chuckled as she watched her approach. "Well, should I entertain myself a little?"

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Svanya's pupils narrowed and summoned a sheathed longsword in her hand. It looked ceremonial in appearance with all the expensive decorations it possessed. She gripped the handle and clicked it out of its scabbard right as a giant carved jewel flew at her from above like a meteor.Gett your favorite novels at no/v/e/lbin(.)com

And, incongruously, as if the time taken to swing the weapon had been ignored, Svanya sheathed the sword back and the jewel was slashed in two. The two halves whizzed past her and crashed into the ground below, releasing yellow trails all the way.

'...the energy packed into them didn't detonate,' Svanya thought warily and glanced down at the cut jewel. She shuddered when she saw dirt, stone, water, and air gather around each half. Before long, two giant golems made from earthly elements were raised with the divided jewel as their cores.

She was sure that there wasn't such a spell imbued into the precious stone when she cut it. But it somehow spawned a golem; one for each of its split parts. That wasn't normal. It was as if the very nature of the jewel automatically created a body with what it could get its hands on.

Wordlessly, she allowed them to swing their colossal arms at her and held her sword vertically in front of her. She waited for them to be as close as possible and then revealed the pristine blade of her weapon for half a second before it was retracted with another metallic click.

On cue, the golems' arms split as if peeled in two directions. From their knuckles to their shoulders, hundreds of meters worth; all of it was neatly sliced.

Svanya's eyes flicked toward the Dungeon and she activated her power again. This time, what was ignored was the distance between her and her destination. Not unlike teleportation, she traversed the rest of the distance in one instant.

Truth was, while it was a fool's errand to do so, she was one of the few in her guild that could have actually made their way to this place without Rakna's Gula. For most, teleportation would have compensated for the distance.

For her? Making the trip with her innate speed would have indeed taken potential years, but the power earned from her affliction was a different matter altogether. She existed, and at the same time didn't. This bizarre state she lived in was eventually exploited for herself.

If she had to get rid of a projectile, she could switch its existence from real to nothing. If she had to swing a sword, she simply did so while in a state of 'inexistence' and when she returned to 'reality', the world would catch up to her action. If she had to go somewhere, she could erase her existence from where she stood and reform herself somewhere she had a spatial awareness of.

This was the power of the Unseen One that had unnerved Ensis himself. Of course, it had its limits and could be overcome with raw power, but the latter was something she also possessed.

"You use it well, child," a voice boomed outside of the Dungeon and Svanya shivered. She gazed at the floating island from up close, renewing her impression of it.

The dirt seemed like amber, the stone was silver, the vegetation was made of emerald and jade, the water looked like liquid sapphire, the fruits were rubies, and the citadel built in the center of the island had at least a hundred more types of gemstones incorporated into it. Even the clouds in the direct vicinity of the Dungeon resembled diamonds and quartzes more than anything else.

Fascinatingly, Svanya wasn't overwhelmed. The combination of brilliance and color somehow felt natural to the eye and blended in with its organic counterpart.

"Are you a friend of that young wolf?" The voice asked and she scowled.

Svanya remained silent and extended her hand, touching an invisible barrier.

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Hidden Dungeon, Chintamani's Palace, discovered!

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Entry Requirements: None.

Level Limit: None.

Party Limit: 10.

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Do you wish to enter?

Yes/No

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Please select a difficulty:

"{It could be related to the Lost Era,}" Fray chimed in. "{The more I hear the term, the more I have a hunch that it relates to those times. Hans told us, didn't he? That back then mana was something you breathed in like air. Maybe to us, you could classify that mana as the 'original one'.}"

'Hm, that's reasonable. But what would the Chintamani Lord be in that case? Is he a relic of the past like Hans and Gulon, or... is the Chintamani itself the relic, and he's just the holder?'

"{You could always ask the Wailful Nightmare if he knows anything about it.}"

'Will do.'

"Hey. Efficiency master," Lila suddenly said and Rakna slowly looked at her.

"Are you... calling me?"

"Yes."

"...please don't call me that."

"...master?"

"That's worse..." He facepalmed. "Hell, if you start calling me that way after returning from my territory, your father might seriously murder me."

She blinked and then shrugged. "Chat," she simply said.

Rakna sighed and opened the Guild Chat.

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<Credo ><!-- --> Obsidian, how many places out of the ten will you need in the party?

<Blood ><!-- --> Damn, the boss is really trusting the kid... wait a minute... That's discrimination! No one cared about my opinion when I first joined!

<Clown> I believe... you being you is more than enough for an explanation.

<Blood > Fuck you!

...

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"As lively as ever," Rakna deadpanned and focused on the message Ensis had pinged him in. He was asking how many people he would bring to the Dungeon. "...can't help it," he muttered to himself, and without warning, gray lines began to fume under his skin, startling Svanya and Lilia.

"Lanata, Hans, Ceresta, Fiora, and Kaelith..." The therian frowned as he listed the names. The roster suggested to him by Founding Intuition wasn't that surprising, but there was something else the ability was trying to tell him that he couldn't quite understand.

He was about to answer Credo's question when a realization hit his mind. "Of course..." He smiled to himself and then replied after disengaging his Firmament Monarch ability.

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<Obsidian ><!-- --> Give me four slots; me included.

<Credo ><!-- --> Understood. We'll discuss a date for the raid later on.

<Obsidian > Got it.

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"{Four?}" Fray asked in confusion.

'Think about it for a while and you'll get it,' Rakna snorted.

"{...?}"

"Well, my work here is done," Svanya sighed and returned her longsword to her storage.

Lilia hummed audibly and looked up. "Stay. Socialize," she nodded with determination.

Rakna sweatdropped. "Knock yourself out... but if you want to socialize, I don't recommend going for Hans, or Cura, if he visits. Try Ceresta or Evelyn, I think you could be good friends."

The young woman mused for a while before nodding.

"You too, Svanya," he followed up and the blonde's expression shifted as if she had heard something totally unforeseen.

"You probably don't... 'socialize' a lot, as Lilia eloquently put it, but try if you don't have anything else to do. In fact, consult Hans about a method to make others remember you. If it was up to me alone, I wouldn't be confident in developing a solution any soon, but he might be able to come up with something."

Svanya gawked at him in a mix of hope and uncertainty. "I... will try," she muttered. "However, are you not coming up with us?"

"Nah, I have a few things to review with my status and items," he said and sat cross-legged on the floor once again. "And most importantly... I'm going to finish a Quest right now."