"The Delve Gate is probably the most dangerous part of a dungeon. If we're not counting the Dungeon Boss, that is." ~Shallies Mythernal
Grace screamed, but only for a few seconds. The shock went through her as quickly as it had set in. Like when suddenly missing a step in a flight of stairs, she ended up catching herself.
She was still falling, however. The rushing wind slamming into her back made her aware that she was facing away from the ground. That made the fear creep all the way back to the front of her mind. Not knowing how far away she was from the ground was the first thing that she needed to fix.
A twist, and Grace quickly found how easy it was to lose control of her motions in the air. She managed to stop herself before she went into a spiral, but she ended up right back where she had started. Her eyes had managed to catch a glimpse, at least, though.
She was still far from the ground. Next, she had to hope Arun'dul was around. Before she could try again, however, she realized she couldn't find Chippy either.
Calm down, Grace. They'll be alright.
Her entire body was screaming. Panic had set in a second time, stronger, trapping her in stasis. She fended against it with her sheer will. And she found it surprisingly easy. Not entirely effortless, but she had been dealing with fear since the beginning of her adventures.
'To be an adventurer, is to face your fears.' Shallies' words. Grace gripped those words, determined to survive the fall even without Arun'dul's help. Impossible, but she would die trying.
She twisted again, this time with more awareness and focus, to make sure she faced the right direction. The ground was coming, but it wasn't as fast as she had anticipated. Odd. It looked like she was staying still as far as her altitude was concerned. The sensation of falling, however, was still clearly there.
She leaned to her side, and just as quickly, her drift moved towards it. And the change in perspective gave her depth perception a new angle to see from.
Yep. I'm falling… Trees.
There was nothing else she could hope to land onto. But as she placed her remaining sliver of hope on a bunch of plants, her peripheral view found Arun'dul.
He was unconscious. Chippy was with him. Grace turned just in time to see his clutch loosen, unintentionally releasing the phoenix chick. She quickly leaned towards them.
Grace overshot her drift, but not before she managed to catch Chippy. The bird still struggled to fly and hastily took shelter inside his mother's bosom, regardless of whether he could fit properly or not. She didn't mind. Her focus was now on the seraph.
"Arun'dul!" Try as she might, the rushing air swallowed her voice. She couldn't even hear herself from all the wind.
She straightened, trying to make herself as narrow as possible in order to fall faster. This, it felt intuitive enough, and she instantly closed the gap between her and the seraph.
After a few failures, she eventually got hold of Arun'dul.
There's a pulse. What's wrong with him?
Grace slapped Arun'dul's face. Lightly at first, then a bit stronger next. No response.
The trees on the ground seemed larger now. She didn't dare estimate, but she knew they had precious seconds left.
No choice.
Grace hadn't done it before, but she assumed the operation was the same whenever she ignited her Mana-Edge. With a strong focus, she drove her mana into the seraph's mana-channels.
He jolted awake with a scream.
"Fly!" Grace shouted as loud as she could.
Arun'dul's instincts kicked in. He took control of their fall. His arms surrounded her as he turned and manifested his wings. With a loud grunt, he fought their downward force, eventually slowing down to a glide.
"What?" he said, finally realizing what was going on.
"Get us on the ground first, please, Arun'dul," Grace said, not daring to let go. Chippy squeezed in between them, echoing celebratory chirps but keeping himself neatly secured.
Arun'dul said nothing as he lowered them safely to the ground.
Grace let go as soon as they landed, looked around to make sure they were safe, then plopped on the ground, as if trying to hug it. She took deep breaths, trying to get a hold of herself as the tension quickly faded away. After one final inhale, she finally let her frustrations go.
"I hate this dungeon!" she complained with all her might. The energy she let out had immediately exhausted her. She sat up, opened her Class Inventory, and retrieved a Great Mana Potion of Sustained Recovery. She tried to open the vial but it slipped through her trembling fingers.
Grace tried to crawl and retrieve the potion, but her knees shook and lost her balance. She fell to her side. Tears welled up in her eyes as she bent her knees into a fetal position to try and make herself smaller.
A sob escaped, and then the entire dam followed. Grace silently cried.
Chippy was the first to approach. He had nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be shy about. He only cared for his mother. The phoenix chick hopped in front of her face and sat, nuzzling up on her wet cheek.
The half-orc instinctively reached out and ran a finger over the bird's head. She knew crying wouldn't solve anything, but her emotions were too high to care. Relief had never felt so important as it did right then.
Arun'dul sat behind her. He silently placed the mana potion where she could see it. The most that he did after that was give a single, gentle touch on her shoulder, tapping it once, then silently waiting for her to recover.
Grace forced herself up… Eventually. She waited until her trembling ceased. All the while, Chippy was supporting her, and Arun'dul was simply waiting. He would turn to check on them from time to time, but he wouldn't complain or say any quips. He simply guarded the both of them and waited.
Eventually, the trembling stopped. Grace sighed and took the vial before she noticed she didn't need to drink it. She was almost at full mana. Instead, she returned it to her Class Inventory.
The Spell Sword took Chippy on her shoulder and tapped Arun'dul's arm, before standing up. The seraph followed. Wordlessly, they headed deeper into The Delve.
Shallies cancelled her Spell and reverted back her Astral Lord Class into her Chef Class.
When Arun'dul's Lifeline had plummeted to dangerous levels, she had quickly tapped into her Guiding Star's Celestial Navigation. It hadn't even taken her a second to know that the two had been freefalling.
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She was waiting until the last second to intervene, betting on Grace until the half-orc finally made her move. And when she had jump-started Arun'dul to consciousness with a surge of mana, she had known then they would be alright.
Shallies watched as Grace's marker stayed on the ground for a long while. The half-orc had survived another dance with death.
[You could Scry, you know?] Stachie suggested. [You have it in your Guiding Star.]
Shallies decided against it.
"They'll be fine." She returned inside her Class Inventory. She was done with the drillbull and the crolikin. Now, she looked at her greatest adversary yet. The six-horned noldzwjak. "I have work to do."
[You're not even going to check on why Arun'dul suddenly lost consciousness?]
"We can ask him if we have time later. For now, just keep an eye on his Lifeline."
Stachie made a mechanical sigh. [Fine…]
"Thank you!"
[What would you do without me?]
"Struggle… Struggle a lot."
Despite what she had expected, the monsters Grace and Arun'dul faced were not anywhere near dangerous enough for either of them to be worried about. Hobgoblins, goblin packs, embermane lions, mother slimes, elemental cloakers. So long as the both of them paid close attention to the encounters, they were able to handle them with relative ease.
After mana potions and killing a lot of monster packs. Grace finally gained five more levels. The sun was still up in the sky, but Stachie's timer had indicated the exact opposite in real world time. At the very least, she was allowed to take on the Dungeon Boss now.
Allowed, but not ready. She couldn't shake the feeling of dread, like she had already been defeated somehow, or that she would inevitably fail. She kept turning back as they headed up the Boss Lair, or the direction they assumed where it was located.
"How do you know we're on the right track?" Arun'dul asked, following closely beside her.
"Mana-lines," Grace said simply, pointing towards the skies. "If you tap into your Mana-Affinity, you'll notice some faint lines heading towards our direction. It might get confusing on higher-level dungeons, but it should be straightforward for us."
She shook her head. "Unless, this isn't really a Beginner Dungeon, and everything I know is a lie."
"Well, based on the monster levels, I don't think it'll get any easier than those." Arun'dul turned towards her. For some reason, Chippy just hopped on his shoulder. "Come now, surely there's a reason why The Delve Gate just spat us out in the air like that."
"The ones I think of are all far-fetched."
"Like what?"
"Well, even for Beginner Dungeons, a party should at least compose of five or more members, if they're attempting to enter The Delve. One of them is usually an Advanced Class holder."
"We got thrown into the air because we didn't meet the requirements?"
"I told you it was far-fetched."
[It's because you two forgot to Scan the The Delve Gate.]
Stachie's voice made Grace and Arun'dul stop walking. Because they couldn't look at the System Assistant, they turned to each other instead.
"You can do that?" they asked at the same time.
[Yep. Missed it in your lessons, Grace?]
The half-orc sighed.
[That's fine. Shallies didn't tell you because she trusts you two to figure things out. Whatever dangers there are, Arun'dul could get you out of it. We didn't anticipate you losing consciousness, however.]
"I can explain," said the seraph.
[We'll hear about it when you decide to take a break. If you make a tentative camp, Shallies will come find you and bring you dinner.]
For some reason, Grace didn't find it surprising anymore that Shallies was keeping an eye on them. In fact, the realization that the Godkiller refused to intervene when they had been falling to their deaths somehow gave the half-orc a confidence boost.
"I want two more levels, Arun'dul," she said, turning around the opposite direction to search for monster packs.
"Wait, what?" Despite his confusion, the seraph kept up. Chippy was hopping on his shoulder, cheering them on.
"We have time," Grace said as she started running. "I have ten mana potions left. I want more levels before we face the boss."
"Alright, slow down, Grace. You're gonna trip on something."
"You can keep up! There's no time to lo—"
The half-orc snagged a random root with her shin and fell face flat on the dirt.
"I did warn you…"
As she entered The Delve, Shallies heard the sounds of crackling fire and Grace and Arun'dul casually having a chat about all their loot.
Not caring for The Delve Gate's demands, she had opened the door and ended up in the skies like they had. For her, however, she simply stood there rather than falling. Others would need a Fly Skill, but she was just able to stand with mana-control alone.
Shallies followed the sound and turned, tapping into her Focus to allow her vision to pinpoint at the flickering campfire. Then, with a simple Sight Step, she was instantly right next to them.
Arun'dul reacted first, stepping in front of Grace. But the half-orc was also quick to react, igniting her Mana-Edge +3's concentrated yellow blade. Then they realized it was her.
"Stand down." Shallies raised a hand, gesturing for them to relax. "It's good that you're alert and aware."
"How?" Grace asked first, but Arun'dul had the same question.
"Sight Step," she said, teleporting to one of the open seats that the seraph had thoughtfully provided for her. "As long as I can see it, I can step to it. Tayin has it, remember?"
The two accepted the explanation and sat. Shallies retrieved some Drillbull Skewers with Ponions and Marlic Fried Rice from her Class Inventory. They were already cooked and neatly packed. The two received their portions and started eating.
"Because some of the ingredients are the same, it'll replace your Double Minor-Mana Regeneration," she began. "But you should still have the same overall effect. Just spread out in two Food Buffs. One of them will have the buff from the Drillbull."
"What does it give?" Grace asked.
"Plus ten to your Constitution." Shallies lifted a hand. "That should improve your resistances, your ability to regenerate your wounds, and your overall stamina."
"That's incredible!" Arun'dul said, eating more enthusiastically. Guardian Armorers favored Constitution the most, after all.
"Good job with leveling, Grace," she started. "You've made good progress."
"I never really thought I'd be able to gain levels this fast," she said before chowing down on the skewer.
"It's always fast at first. So don't get used to it." Shallies poured everyone a glass of lemon juice. She gestured towards Arun'dul. "Before everything else, though, care to explain what happened?"
"I saw another vision," the seraph said simply. "I saw you, Lady Shallies. I was talking to you as Fello'resh. You were close friends."
"Probably more than that," Shallies admitted. "But he never made a move, and I never had the time. What did we talk about?"
"It was actually pretty lighthearted," Arun'dul explained. "You were teaching him The Perpetual Method, and he was complaining all the time. It was just you two. Then I woke up. Grace forced me awake."
"Alright. We can just blame that on The Delve Gate causing a sudden disruption in your mana-channels after it transferred you to the skies. If it happens again, you need to recall exactly what you were doing before it happened. This might just be a fluke, but it will be an issue to your adventures if you can't tell when it'll happen."
"But we can wake him up if we push mana into his channels," Grace said.
"True." Shallies agreed, taking a drink. "But there's no telling if it'll work another time, until we can test it."
"I suppose."
They talked some more after that. Grace invested heavily on Mana-Affinity, putting all of her Attribute Points she had gained during this leveling grind on it. Aside from learning Scan, she chose to float the rest of her Skill Points.
Arun'dul, as expected, didn't gain any levels, but he was getting used to just relying on his Advanced Skillset. It was natural, of course. He had been using them since he became an Advanced Class holder. Regulating his output was just a small effort when compared to completely practicing them from scratch.
Just like that, dinner was done. Shallies stood and retrieved another set of mana potions.
"If you want, you can keep leveling before dealing with the Dungeon Boss," she began. "Or you can take care of it now. You can forget the next sunrise deal. I only really wanted to give you a sense of urgency to break through The Delve as soon as possible."
Grace accepted the potions. "We'll deal with the Boss tonight. I don't want to spend any more time in this dungeon."
"That's fair." Shallies waved them goodbye. There were benefits to clearing out the entire dungeon before dealing with the boss, but there were also good things to be found in closing the dungeon earlier. Regardless, she left the choice to them. "Alright. I'll see you back at the camp."
With that, and a few Sight Steps later, she was back to the camp.
"That's a very casual vision from Fello'resh," she muttered.
[You think Arun'dul's hiding something?]
"Probably not. But it's a confusing premonition."
[We still have time. I'm sure we'll find more clues in Thrush'ven Alir.]
"Yeah. We can afford to wait." Shallies stretched out her arms.
Grace and Arun'dul found the Dungeon Boss Lair.
In fact, it wasn't much of a lair. The forest area eventually broke open into a large crater. In the center was a weird tree. No, it looked more like pure mana, in the shape of a tree.
As they approached, the mana-tree changed shape. Still retaining its tree-like features, but creating a different set of branches to point towards their direction. It started to pulse, mana flowing throughout its body as each of the new branches began to glow.
Four beams of mana erupted, heading straight towards them. Arun'dul effortlessly deflected them with his bracers.
"Alright," he said. "Looks like we have its attention."
Grace took a deep breath, and opened her Mana-Edge +3. Despite the large creature's intimidating and repulsive presence, she didn't feel afraid at all. Chippy made a dignified squawk.
"Let's take it down," she said calmly.
With a step, and a Haste, Grace dashed like a blur.
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