Published at 16th of February 2024 2:21 pm

Chapter 27. On Deaf Ears

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Nothing attacked the party during the night. Nox believed the rift's residents weren't nocturnal. Lizards were mostly cold-blooded and slept at night. Annabelle's magic detected movement during the night. She spotted giant worms covered in glowing moss in the distance. They stayed away from the cavern, feasting on lizard corpses the party had left behind. Nox still left a line of ground shadow essence across the entrance, and the party had instructions to ignite it if anything came close.

After their watch ended, Annabelle crawled into Roque's tent. Meanwhile, Nox slept outside with her warming stone. Lillin and Victor insisted he use their tent, but Nox was more than happy to sleep outside. Plus, he didn't want to sleep where his closest friend and a man he despised had not long engaged in carnal activities.

When Lillin woke him five hours later, it felt as if only a minute had passed since he closed his eyes. The party had already packed up their tents and eaten their breakfast. Lillin and Annabelle had shared Nox's portion of work, letting him rest an extra hour.

Before continuing their delve, Nox had a stamina pill. It dulled the sleep-deprivation headache and left him feeling somewhat refreshed. The party started their journey following quick breakfasts of cured venison sandwiches and oat bars.

After an hour's march, the party walked into a battle between lizards and worms as long as palm trees were tall. Blood and viscera covered the floor. Roque wanted to rush in straight away, but Annabelle stopped him. She insisted they wait and watch. The aspiring Aether Warrior obeyed. The worms won the skirmish. They had the size and strength advantage, and their hide resisted the acid-spitters' attacks. Only the juggernaut’s powerful claws and fangs successfully inflicted any damage to them.

Once the last of the lizards fell, the party descended on the worms. The beasts were long and powerful but slow. The battle had tired them out as well. Roque, Viktor, and Lillin massacred the beasts, letting Nox conserve his mana.

"I can't help but feel things are going much too smoothly," Nox commented. "This might be an F-ranked rift, but the orange mana density left me expecting greater difficulty."

"Perhaps we're too effective a team," Victor said. "Between Annabelle's foresight and danger sense, and your pills, we're not limited by factors lesser parties would encounter. We don't have to spend ages looking for traps and avoiding them. Injuries that would force most parties to turn back only slow us down for a few hours." He nodded at Roque's arm. The acid burns were mostly gone. He had new scars with pale marks sticking out like sore thumbs because of his dark complexion. Then he looked at Lillin and smiled. "Not many parties our rank have control mages as effective as Lillin either. I don't like how close you get, though."

"Hopefully, I'll have a Manipulation planet sorted before our next delve," she replied.

Roque looked on like a dutiful retainer while Annabelle rolled her eyes.

It surprised no one when the fights got more challenging deeper into the cave system. The lizard groups grew bigger, and the acid spitters attacked from elevation or from around cover. They spat globs of violent green acid and hopped behind boulders for cover. Dodging them in the narrow passageways proved problematic, too.

Annabelle continued to show her value. She didn’t just warn people of attacks but physically pushed Nox and her brother out of the way of acid globules. During the second fight of the day, he experimented with the essence glass by giving her a fragment. As predicted, her slingshot injected it with mana, and the projectile shattered on impact, blanketing an area in shadows. The move forced a pair of hiding acid-spitters out from behind their boulder, and Nox took them out in quick succession using ordinary arrows. Unlike the projectiles created by Ratra’s Bow, they didn’t pierce through the beasts and spray corrosive bodily fluids everywhere.

Unfortunately, Nox struggled to inflict significant damage to the giant lizards. The mana arrows failed to penetrate the thick, scaly hide, and the ordinary essence glass only left scratches. He supported the team by infusing Slow into his projectiles. On a couple of occasions, Lillin and the melee fighters pushed the behemoths into narrow side passages. Then Annabelle launched vials of Trap Foam at them. The quick-hardening material didn’t just stick to the lizard but the nearby walls, too. Then a well-placed two-handed chop put them down.

Victor’s creative use of his longsword left Nox wondering why he limited himself to one weapon. The lordling would often use a spell to Repel the blade from his hand and made it shoot at foes. Then he’d summon it back with Attract. The longsword inflicted damage on both legs of the journey. Nox didn’t ask about his mana system, but he didn’t doubt Victor had a planet dedicated to Manipulation and a large Mana Zone.

Victor’s combined spell gave him a lot more power and speed than freeform telekinesis. However, he lacked maneuverability and control. If Nox had the same gifts and the riches of a noble house’s heir, he would’ve had an artificer make throwing blades, darts, and similar weapons with special holsters or a catching device. Nox would never risk himself by entering melee range. He would launch the projectiles straight out of their home and return them to the receptacles without ever touching them. Poisons would only make them more deadly.

Even though it would make the fights quicker, Nox resisted using more essence. He had only enough powdered frost essence left for one more arrowhead. Combustive and explosive essences were too dangerous to use in a cave system, and he struggled to predict how the others would react when combined with Galvanising Touch’s ignition. Nox mostly worried that he’d produce effects that benefited the beasts.

Annabelle stopped them six hours into the day’s delve. “My danger sense is going crazy,” she said. Her skin paled, and her body stiffened. “The mana signatures ahead are huge. Maybe we should turn back.”

“We’re doing just fine,” Roque said. “Let’s challenge the boss. You have more anti-toxins and acid neutralizers, don’t you, Nox?”

“I do.” Nox focused on the scout. “You said signatures. Plural. How many do you sense?”

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“Six,” she answered after spending a couple of minutes with her eyes scrunched shut. Annabelle looked at her fiance. “I saw you ripped to shreds.” Her attention switched to her brother, who sat with Lillin. She tousled his hair while his hand rested on her thigh. “Something tells me you’re in danger, too. Maybe whatever is down there is too difficult for melee fighters of our rank.”

“If it's six that you sense, they’re probably elites,” Victor stated. “We can deal with elites easily. Are they clumped together?”

Annabelle shook her head. “They’re moving independently but in the same tunnel network. I doubt—”

“We’ll try luring them out of the tunnels then. Let's isolate them or challenge a couple of them at a time. If things get too difficult, we can just retreat.” He looked at Lillin. “You’ll keep me alive, won’t you?”

“Of course.” She giggled and pecked his cheek. “We’re strong enough, I reckon. If things get too dangerous, Annabelle can find us a way out. My magic will trap and slow pursuers. We got Nox’s brews, too.”

The conversation remained one-sided. Annabelle’s fiance and brother ignored her warnings, and they descended a tall rock face using a narrow, natural pathway jutting out of it. Annabelle took the lead, using her danger sense to look for unstable footholds and hiding holes.

Nox guessed the entity ruling over the rift was either stupid or weak. The only traps Annabelle had highlighted were false floors with stalagmites on the bottom or explosive cacti. The caverns had patches of black rock that abruptly turned smooth and slippery just before a sharp fall. Then there were the beasts. The conflict between the worms and lizards told Nox that the lord had poor control over their realm. If the beasts worked together, the delving party would have no chance against them.

The first elite found the group just as they finished their descent. The lizard they encountered wasn’t big or overly threatening. Instead, it appeared almost humanoid because of how it walked on two legs. The creature stood around six-and-a-half feet tall and had a sleek frame. Green fluid tinged with flecks of luminous purple flowed out of its mouth as soon as it saw the party. The fluid didn’t fall to the floor. Instead, half of it collected in a fist-sized sphere while the rest solidified in a long serpentine length. The first shot at Annabelle while the creature grabbed the latter like a whip.

Nox moved without thinking. He leaped in front of the party’s scout and raised both of his hands in front of himself. Nox conjured two mana elongated mana discs large as tall as him and one-and-a-half times his width. The first stood six inches from his hands and carried a potent Slow cantrip. Meanwhile, Nox actively weaved Crystallize Essence into the second.

The projectile lost half of its momentum the second it touched the first barrier. When it touched the second, all the luminous purple flecks solidified and clattered on the stone floor, along with a few green fragments. The rest of the vile fluid splashed on Nox’s face and hands. Hot itchiness spread across all patches of exposed skin like an angry allergic reaction. Lillin was on him a second later, emptying a large vial of alkaline solution on his face. It instantly killed the enzymes eating away at his skin and neutralized the acid. Nox took a healing pill as the melee fighters rushed the elite.

Victor’s mysterious spell launched him along the cave floor. It looked as if he had cast Attract on the elite lizard and made himself the spell’s focus. He raised his sword in front of him as he flew. The creature whipped its acid whip. Green and purple droplets rained on the floor. All contact points sizzled and released plumes of smoke. Victor changed trajectory mid-flight, landed in a controlled crouch, and relaunched himself. He shot past the elite, and his sword ripped through a shoulder.

A high-pitched screech burst from the humanoid lizard as its whip-carrying arm fell to the ground. Much to Nox’s horror, several similar calls echoed through the cave system. Annabelle stiffened as loud, scraping footsteps followed.

While the party engaged their reptilian opponent, Nox raced toward the cavern’s entrance. He skidded to a halt as a second elite emerged, but the creature ignored him and sprinted to its friend’s aid. Instead of helping the others, Nox took two Trap Foam vials from his coat pocket and smashed them on the ground. White bubbles grew and expanded like enchanted lather and spread through the entrance and across the floor. It hardened the floor instantly, and the entrance was just big enough for a human. A heartbeat later, two elite heads shot through the entrance, and the beasts chirped, struggled, and snapped at each other while trying to get through.

Even though it was dangerous, Nox risked his bottled essence. Powder left over from the Tincture of Sigil Awakening pulsed with orange light reminiscent of magma. Alchemists called it burning heart essence. Its source came from the heart of boss-class beasts who specialized in concepts like living fire and purging through burning. Nox emptied the ground glass into a spherical essence cage, fused it into a rough, cloudy ball, triggered it with Galvanizing Touch, and threw it at the monsters.

Thundering screeches filled the cavern as scales, hide, and flesh caught on fire. Nox leaped out of the way as flaming streams of acid burst from the heads and bathed where he had stood moments ago. The attack eventually stopped, and the thrashing heads went still. The flames didn’t die but charred and melted the remnants. The surrounding Trap Foam blackened and crumbled under the bodies’ weight, too.

Then the world tilted. The cavern entrance rippled and extended like a mouth opening wide for an extra big spoonful. Roque had successfully beheaded one elite while the one-armed specimen continued to bounce around, spraying venom at anyone that got close. Everyone, including the surviving lizard, lost their balance and slid down the now-tilted floor. The tunnels wriggled ahead of them like serpents. Dead ends and forks moved out of the way, removing opportunities to find footing.

They passed through the cavern entrance and down a long corridor. The bioluminescent patches grew blindingly bright. As they picked up speed, the amorphous clusters of light shot by, creating almost disorienting patches. Nox closed his eyes and tried to decelerate but failed. He resisted casting Slow on himself since it would only delay the inevitable and separate him from his friends.

Only Victor succeeded at slowing. First, he used Attract to bring himself and Lillin together. Then Repelled himself away from boulders in the path and then pulled himself toward the wall. Gravity orbs slowed their descent, but something in the air destabilized the magic, and it flickered in and out of existence. Meanwhile, Roque hacked at the ground using his handaxe. Despite his strength and the arcanically sharpened edge, the weapon failed to find traction.

After several heart-pounding moments, the descent ended. The world righted itself, and the party slid through another cavern entrance into a giant, domed space. A tall humanoid lizard stood at its center. It was sleek and almost elegant, unlike all the specimens they had encountered so far.

Roque didn’t waste a single breath and launched himself at the creature as soon as he landed. He moved with the speed of a fighter enhanced by Haste, and his raised axe glowed bright enough to blind.

“Watch out!” Annabelle screamed. “It’s the boss.”

Her warning fell on deaf ears. Roque didn’t slow. The corners of the upright lizard’s mouth curled upwards, revealing long, sharp teeth. When Roque leaped into the air, its mouth opened, and a long tongue shot out. It wrapped around the aspiring Aether Warrior's neck. A panicked look flashed across his face. He raised his axe, but it was too late. The creature jerked its head backward, pulling him off balance. It leaped forward as soon as the axe fell out of his hands. The long narrow mouth opened and grew much like the cave mouth, and it snapped close around Roque’s head. His decapitated body crumpled to the floor a moment later.

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