Chapter Twenty One, Flamehold.
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The Dungeon door's were pushed open by a party, a presence sliding in alongside them.
"Good luck! Come back in one piece!" A guard chuckled, calling out to the group.
"Psht, it's Flamehold, everybody knows this Dungeon like the back of their hand. What happened yesterday wont happen again..." One of the party members replied, smiling as the doors closed behind them.
"[Flamehold... So this Dungeon is a fire type... I wonder who...]" Ana questioned, Jora ignoring all the humans sorting through their gear within the Safe Room.
Despite them and their equipment smelling so good.
Jora shook his head, ridding himself of all the tantalizing magics behind him.
He could feel some of the sensitive, glancing in his direction.
He fed more effort into his concealment.
He took a deep breath, passing by the rest of the humans.
He absorbed the elements, not consuming them, but letting them run through his body. Grazing past his soul
Skill [Stalker] has leveled up!
He smiled, feeling the prying eyes disappear.
He was one level away from evolution.
At this level, he was capable of near perfect concealment, like the World considered him a part of the environment. The elements obscured the area around him, rendering him nigh-invisible.
He would surely become unperceivable when it was boosted beyond it's current limit.
He would just have to test it. Keeping it active, concealing not just him, but his attacks, and his energy.
He stepped forward, landing at the end of the corridor out of the Safe Room. The cave system branched into three separate paths, he could see it would follow a similar structure as Ana's Dungeon.
He sniffed, his nose lingered on the east tunnel.
And then he disappeared down it.
With two Flash Steps, he crossed hundreds of feet, coming face to face with his first subject.
His eyes flared, his concealment still not having broken, despite the two movement skill usages. So far, the only evidence of his existence within the Dungeon would be the two foot imprints he left behind when Flash Stepping.
Slight disappointment, but he moved past it.
He locked onto the animal before him, his head tilting.
"[Dungeon Fire Bear...]" Ana labeled.
It was far larger than him, but far weaker as well.
A brown bear, with fiery fur lining it's spine, fire atop it's head as well. It was surely far monstrous than the average bear.
"[It's hard to tell, but It's safe to assume this Dungeon has progressed farther than I did. Perhaps B-rank... It would make sense, I'm sure that A-rank is the one that has monopolized this place, he's likely boosted it to at least that rank.]" Ana spoke.
Jora circled the creature, continuously melding into the world.
The bear was within the cave clearing, lapping up lava from a small pond.
And his hand reached out.
He focused himself.
Moving, but leaving the world undisturbed.
He inhaled.
And then his hand exploded outwards.
It traveled through the mana within the air, leaving it un-displaced. Like tendrils, his hand came to the Fire Bear, bursting open with a dark maw surrounding the bear in it's entirety.
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And then it was gone.
Mana and the elements eagerly filled the absence of the creature, filtering through his body as if it wasn't there.
He was all the bit closer to an evolution.
He put the added Attributes on the backburner, skipping over the unimportant things.
The moment he digested all of it's skills, his hair burst into flame, disturbing his concealment and making his presence flicker to life for a moment.
But he didn't let it be a bother. He silently snuffed out the flame with his newly ingrained knowledge of the [Fire Touched] Talent. And he quelled the elements around his head that had become a whole lot more rampant with the induction of the fire element particles.
"[...Too little time for the Dungeon to fully notice I hope. But now it may attempt to track you, depending on how large this place is... If it has multiple floors, our chances are better.]" Ana spoke.
Jora rolled his shoulders, hiding the brewing annoyance from the mishap.
"Let's clear out this floor." He spoke, controlling the sound escaping from his mouth, stifling it with his mana, and forcing his mana to meld into the world, as if it belonged.
"[Ooh... Good improvements! Shithead...]" Ana spoke.
Jora could only sigh.
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A group entered Flamehold, their gear decked, and their moods unusual.
It was a mixture of sour, sadness, and... Perhaps just the want for one last ride?
"Separating our trio is completely unfair." Annaliese spoke, her shield rattling on her back. The three moved forward, passing up all the readying parties.
"Sarcosa died. They need someone to fill his spot. And they're traveling to the capital... It's our lack of power for not getting chosen." Troydan sighed.
"I don't think we should beat any of ourselves up over this. Nor should we dwell on it. We've made it far together, and without me, you two will still go far! We'll be separated for now, but we'll reunite. I'm sure you two will make it to the capital your own ways." Elizabeth replied.
The three ignored the whispers from those surrounding them. They often visited the Dungeon, and they often received these murmurs from those who didn't see them.
"I guess..." Annaliese groaned. It was clear that she was torn by the decision made by the uppers of Tilmont.
She would miss her friend.
"Don't worry... Just visit Guildmaster Freid, or even Union Head Fent, they'll have communication crystals for us to converse across the distance." Elizabeth smiled.
She led the group down the center corridor, delving deeper in.
They continued their conversations until they reached their first Fire Bear, Troydan tackling it himself.
The starter monsters of Flamehold were only high D-rank, the whole first floor not having a single monster past that. The Boss of the floor was high D-rank, and only at the second floor did C-rank monsters start to show up in moderation.
Floor three was infested with C-ranks, with a high C-rank boss, and the fourth floor is when B-ranks could be encountered.
Only the fifth floor had a plethora of B-ranks, with a Mid B-rank boss.
The group would miss diving past the third floor and being forced to retreat when they couldn't handle it anymore.
The three of them were approaching B-rank, Elizabeth approaching the formation of her own Soul skill.
Currently, they were having the time of their lives, taking turns slaughtering the Fire Bears with extreme ease.
Troydan danced around the beasts, swinging his sword through them like a hot knife through butter. Elizabeth toyed, locking specific limbs in space and laughing as the bears tried to attack.
Annaliese taunted the bears into attacking, parrying their swings and countering with her own fists, not even bothering to unsheathe her sword.
It was an interesting sight, and they were surely being watched.
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A Fire Bear disappeared, it's companion showing intense confusion at that notion.
And then it was gone all the same.
The third and remaining Fire Bear had it's eyes widened, fear filling it's body.
It turned tail, hoping to run, wary of what had happened to it's friends.
And then it was gone all the same.
Jora stalked the Dungeon, turning foe after foe into nothingness, Fire Bears being sent into his pocket world unsuspectingly.
Only those he could smell a greater portion of power from, earned their rightful spot in his digestive system.
His Fire Magic had been boosted up one more level, with [Fire Claw] rising up a whole two.
[Fire Affinity] had reached level five, thanks to the ranging innate talents the bears possessed.
Slowly, he was reaching deeper into the Dungeon, and he could smell something new just around a corner.
He turned the edge, his head peering around before his body followed.
'Here we go...' He muttered to himself.
He stepped into the clearing, popping his knuckles as he approached the glowing wall.
A red portal, gleaming with energy.
"[Wait. Before you take on the boss, I want us to carry out with the plan. Limiting your Health and Mana, starting an influx of energy into our World. You're level 99, consuming this boss should push you over into B-rank, the small amount of experience you need for it. Your soul energy should experience a minute change in quality, and it'll nourish our World better. From there you can consume wildly and fuel us up so that you can dilate time and warp space even further within. That way you should have those two magics at your disposal before the next boss, assuming there is one.]" He had to stop his step midair, taking in all of Ana's words.
"Shit, why not." He chuckled.
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