~ CHAPTER 291

"Is everyone ready?" I asked a final time as our group stood outside the dungeon entrance.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I think," Raya said with a laugh.

I nodded, and Silva stepped forward to be the first to descend the stairs and enter the dungeon. We would be going in with a much larger group than the previous time, but delving in large groups was common for brand-new dungeons. It wasn't until the dungeon was mapped out a little before smaller parties and solo adventurers would explore the dungeons looking for treasures and materials.

The first thing I noticed was the heavy wind as we stepped into the grass. Inside the dungeon was some sort of ruin with an open ceiling and grey stony walls surrounding the stairs up. There was an old door on the other side. The wind howled through the holes in the walls, creating small wind tunnels in certain spots. The air smelled of lavender, and similar looking plants could be seen among the grass, especially in the corners of the room. There were a few lit torches in the first room, but all of us had such excellent natural eyesight that none of us needed them to see in the dark.

"Lots of wind magic here, some water, ice, and nature, but surprisingly no fire mana," Morrigan said.

I caressed my choker. "Mimi, you can come out now. It's safe to breathe here."

The choker sprayed off of me and formed a puddle of liquid metal before reforming back into Mimi's familiar silhouette. She stretched as some of her loose clothes reformed around her naked body. After a moment, she got a weird look on her face and shook her head a few times.

"Are you okay, Mimi? You aren't low on mana, are you?" Bella asked.

Mimi shook her head. "No, I feel fine. Maintaining the constant flow of wind magic was a bit of a drain, but resting as a necklace made it easy to hold for a long time. I'm above three-quarters of my mana reserves still. Do you hear that though? That noise?"

"What noise?" I asked.

Mimi closed her eyes and her ears flicked, but after a moment, she shook her head. "I don't know... It sounds weird."

"I don't hear anything. What does it sound like?" I asked.

Mimi rubbed her eyes. "I can't explain it... I don't know. I'll tell you if I figure out what it is when we get closer to it."

I was a little worried about Mimi, but we couldn't just go back from here. Bella walked over and began to check her over, but it didn't appear to be anything wrong.

"Do you intend to map out the dungeon?" Sibyl asked me.

I frowned. "I'm not sure if it's worth doing, frankly. You know what we're here to do..." I didn't think it was wise to tell the dungeon we were here to destroy it. No one knows precisely how intelligent dungeons are, but it was well known that particular things pissed them off, and i didn't want to take the risk of giving our intentions away too soon.

Sibyl nodded. "Understandable."

"Unless you think a map would be useful for us?" I asked.

Silva squinted through a crack in the wall, and wind rushed in her face before she backed off. "It could be useful. It looks like this may be a maze-like dungeon. A map might make it easier to keep track of where we've been."

I nodded. "I'll do it if you think it'll help. Mimi, can I have the bag with my cartography supplies?" Mimi nodded and summoned the bag before handing it over. I slung it over my shoulder and pulled out a clipboard and a chalk pencil I had found in one of the stores in Goldenhearth. I didn't want to fiddle with ink, and I could clean up the chalk whenever we rested. That might not even be needed, depending on how intricate the paths were.

"I'll get started then, give me a moment," I said. While everyone checked their supplies, I quickly used my [Light Scribing] measurement spells to quickly take down the dimensions of this first room. They were efficient enough that it didn't take any longer than estimating them would have.

"I'm going to start my scouting with Tori," Lori said.

I nodded. "Be careful, you two. Come back after any signs of trouble."

The two nodded in return and slipped out of the first room and began to explore. While the two had gone ahead, Morrigan looked around the room. "I wonder how they were triggering the dungeon break. My first impulse would be to climb the walls and trigger one that way, but the runner was in the dungeon too long for it to be that."

Sibyl peered up one of the broken walls. "Trying to circumvent the dungeon in that way usually summons flying creatures, right? Maybe they were intentionally trying to get ground forces to attack the city."

Morrigan cupped her chin. "That's a good point. There were banshees around that were dungeon-spawned though. Maybe they were triggering a mixture but hadn't done it in front of us coincidentally?"

"Sounds possible," Sibyl agreed.

Torien returned to the hallway. "Lots of traps in this dungeon, but a lot of them have been marked with upturned dirt. We have a good idea of the direction the runner was taking to trigger the dungeon break, but there are two other paths so far. We can lead you to some of the intersections, but do you want to follow the runner's path or look around somewhere else first?" she asked.

"Getting an idea of what the cult was doing is more important, but we're here to clear the dungeon too. We should probably follow the runner's path first," I replied.

"I understand," Torien said with a nod.

"Any monsters so far?" I asked.

Torien shook her head. "We don't think they've respawned since the last time they were pulled. We haven't seen any yet."

"Good. I'm finished with what I'm doing. Is everyone else ready?" I asked.

After receiving a chorus of agreement, we followed Torien out of the door, to the left, and down the path to where Lori was waiting for us at an intersection. As we walked, I used my magic to measure the distance between the walls and update my map as best as I could. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that some of my measuring spells were less helpful than I had hoped. It wasn't always feasible to measure from an actual wall. Sometimes I needed to measure from an intersection without a wall, so some of my light magic spells didn't work without using something to block off the light's path manually. I was able to work around it by measuring from the floor or diagonally from the side of a wall sometimes, but I was already thinking of designs for new ritual spells to better tackle this issue. I didn't even attempt to measure the floor. It was a mix of dirt and grass, and also quite hilly in places, despite being situated between the walls. Measuring the inclines would be a lot of extra work for no real reason, so I didn't bother.

Morrigan's eyes were faintly glowing as she used our ability to perceive magic directly. She was a bit giddy to be using an ability that seemed unnecessary for most of us. For her though, it made identifying environmental mana a lot easier. She could now just look around, when before she had to sense the mana more indirectly. After she had familiarized herself with the 'colors' of mana, when compared to her non-visual sense of mana, she would be able to cast using ambient mana more efficiently.

Our pace was a bit slow since we needed to watch our feet for traps. They had all been marked pretty noticeably, though. Usually a circle had been dug around them, but sometimes there were markings noting the kind of trap it was. The traps were mostly things like triggered arrow or dart traps using pressure plates or tripwires. They weren't too hard to avoid, and with two healers, neither of them seemed that threatening either. The only thing that would make them dangerous was if they were poisoned with something particularly nasty.

"I thought there would be more monsters so far," Raya whispered.

"There should have been. All of them were pulled out in a train recently," Sibyl replied.

"They're not going to respawn behind us, are they?" Raya asked worriedly.

"They might, but it shouldn't be a problem with how large our group is. Just focus on using your magic and dodging any ranged attacks they may have when the fight starts," Sibyl reassured her.

"Okay, I'll do my best," Raya responded resolutely.

"How are you doing, Nelly?" I asked quietly.

"I'm doing okay, I think. I never thought I would be the one doing something like this," she admitted.

"Are you regretting it?" I asked.

"No... truthfully, it's a little exciting. I feel confident in all of you and my knight, Kal'daeryn, to protect me," she said with a timid smile.

Kal'daeryn blushed a bit and pretended not to hear. Her white fur didn't do a great job of hiding it like Bella's did, though. She didn't say anything, but I thought she might have a bit of an extra bounce in her step if I wasn't misreading her.

Lorriene held up a hand as we approached and went back to whatever she was doing while crouched in the dirt. After a hollow click, she dug out a pressure plate and tossed the broken mechanism to the side. "I thought it would be better to disarm this one, since it was right in the intersection."

The intersection had a path that continued in the direction we had been heading, as well as a path to the right. That direction would be north if north was the same as it was outside the dungeon. Despite my efforts, I had been unable to find a compass at any of the shops I searched. I knew they existed in this world, but they seemed to be restricted by this country's navy, and I wasn't able to find anyone selling one. I wasn't even sure if they worked

in the dungeon anyway. Most maps were just oriented in a vague sense of north based on the path of the sun, which wasn't as reliable as I would have liked.

Just as Lori was standing up, we heard a snap come from the northern path. At once, all of us drew our weapons and faced the approaching demon. One of the spider monsters that had chased our carriage was dashing at us along the walls. It was one of the so-called long-legged imitators.

Morrigan's spikes of ice were the first thing to hit the demon, but they didn't even slow it down. A handful of arrows hit it too, but it was shrugging off the damage as it continued to dash at us. Raya unleashed a large fireball she had been charging longer than usual, and it exploded on the demon, forcing it to slip off the wall. The moment it hit the ground, both Silva and Kal'daeryn were on top of it. They quickly lopped off its limbs and made it vulnerable to everyone else. The one who got the final blow was Sibyl, who stabbed her sword deep into the demon's head.

[Your party has defeated a long-legged imitator]

"Oh! I leveled!" Raya said excitedly.

Morrigan patted her on the back. "Good work, charging the fireball that long gave us a good opening."

Raya's ears went back, and she smiled with a guilty look on her face. "I just didn't want to miss so I waited for it to come a little closer..."

Sibyl laughed and hugged her girlfriend. "That's a good lesson to learn, then! Sometimes it's better to make sure you can hit it, rather than miss and waste the mana."

Morrigan nodded. "It's a balancing act. You don't want to wait too long and miss out on damage, but this time, it was probably the best thing you could have done in that situation."

Raya's tails flicked back and forth as she smiled. "Thanks, guys! I'll do my best!"

Torien cleared her throat. "Lilith, I might need another flame imbue. My shadow arrows won't be very effective against the demons in this dungeon, and that imitator was shrugging off my attacks."

I nodded and reached over to touch her quiver before casting the enhancement magic. It would make me feel a bit better since I hadn't had the chance to do anything in that fight. I would have to be quicker with my magic since I'm near the center of the formation right now. I need to make sure I'm ready with an [Ice Shard] next time. It didn't seem that effective when Morrigan used it, but it was the only offensive magic I had other than some of the light magic I could cast. Once the thought had entered my head, I cast [Fireflies] around us. That should help slow them down a little and give us the advantage. I felt a bit stupid for not thinking to cast it earlier, but none of us really needed it for the light.

Lori cracked her knuckles and shook out her hands. "Looks like we'll have to worry about demons again. The demon we just fought off came from where we're headed. The trail of marked traps lead in that direction," she said while pointing.

"Are you going to continue scouting, or should we move as a group?" I asked.

Lori bit her lip and looked back at Torien before shaking her head. "Probably better to stick together for now. We might scout ahead again if the path breaks off. I don't think Tori and I could kill one of those on our own, and they're a bit too fast to outrun. It's safer for us to move as a group."

I nodded. "Good idea."

Nelly cast a holy magic spell that eased some of the tiredness that had accumulated since we left Traehall. It wasn't anything too amazing, but it helped, and it didn't cost her much mana.

We kept moving forward with my cloud of fireflies surrounding us as we continued to avoid the traps. If we could see how the cult was triggering the dungeon breaks, maybe we could do something to interrupt their plans this time.

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