CHAPTER 80: DUNGEON HUNTING

"Look out for its stinger." Ames warned Shatun, who was holding the pincers and engaged with a six meters long sand scorpio.

They were in the dune temple dungeon in the Samahan desert. It was an old underground dungeon which used to be a temple for the sun god in ancient times. Now time had buried it under the sands and the broken arched doors and walls were just a reminiscence of its old grandiose, and infested with theses killer class corrupted beasts, the sand scorpio.

Two sand scorpios were fighting with each other, their pincers colliding and the stinger aiming to poison the other.

One of the scorpios’s stinger pierced the hard exoskeleton of the other one, but instead of getting poisoned and writhing in pain, it was completely unaffected, as the dead can neither be poisoned nor do they feel pain.

It was an undead resurrected by Ames and was covered in the dark black naraka. It immediately pierced its stinger on the other and held both its pincers with his.

The scorpio screeched in pain as green blood burst out from its hard exoskeleton back. Naraka flowed out of Ames’s robe and morphed into two spears like forms. They zoomed away and pierced right through the scorpio’s head, killing it on the spot as the sand was soaked green below its head.

"Lend me your power Pretty." Lamia called for her spirit butterfly wrapped around her. Dark green mana flowed out from her robe and passed onto her hands.

Two runic circles appeared at the two sides of the scorpio fighting with Shatun and form there, numerous thick plant shoots emerged and wrapped around its body and bind the pincers.

Shatun was freed from holding it down and he immediately held the scorpio’s head and pulled it out of its body, leading to green blood jutting out like a fountain and bathing him in it.

"Hahaha! Nice. You’re quite useful prison girl." Shatun laughed out as he praised Lamia and started munching on the scorpio head.

"I told you not to call me that bastard!" Lamia glared at him, but he ignored her completely and kept snacking on the beast.

"Bring the bodies." Ames moved back with the scorpio body he killed, being dragged by his undead one and threw it in the pile of almost fifty scorpio bodies packed upon each other.

His shadow extended back and engulfed the undead scorpio, vanishing inside and then stretched back to normal. He sat down beside the pile of bodies and Lamia joined him too, taking a seat beside him.

Shatun teared the body of the scorpio he killed into two and threw the lower half on the pile while started eating the other half.

"I need food too. I can’t do all that energy sucking thing." Shatun scoffed and went back to eating.

Ames laughed it off and didn’t say anything, as what Shatun said was not wrong. He couldn’t cultivate like them, he was a mixed blood and his cultivation was eating mana rich food, the best being the meat of these beasts.

"What a lucky bastard. He can grow stronger by eating." Lamia clicked her tongue, jealous and annoyed at him.

"That’s the advantage of being a mixed blood. Now focus on your own cultivation." Ames then closed his eyes and the black sacral chakra manifested behind his back and started spinning.

Seeing him focused, Lamia closed her eyes and started cultivating too.

Dark death energy rose from the pile of dead beast bodies and started moving towards Ames.

Lamia couldn’t cultivate using death energy as most dark wizards dealt with dark mana. Ames was cultivating the chakra thus he could take the death energy, the naraka to cultivate.

But being around death and darkness, helped taking in dark mana in the air better for Lamia, thus she sat close to Ames.

A vortex had formed at the chakra as it kept spinning fast and taking in the naraka in huge amounts. Ames’s veins bulged as his black tattoos glowed bright. His brows creased as he felt a slight pain in his body, as the tattoos kept devouring the naraka.

"Form a cycle and let the naraka flow between the chakra and your body markings." The ancient voice whispered again into Ames’s mind.

"Who are you? How am I able to hear you directly in my mind?" Ames asked, trying to communicate through his thoughts.

There was silence. It was like he just kept observing but didn’t want to speak with him and would point him to the right direction when it comes to cultivating the chakra.

Ames didn’t mind, it has happened many a times and he was used to it now. The voice had always helped Ames so he decided to follow his advice again.

He formed a cycle between his chakra and the tattoos on his body. The naraka now moved through the chakra to his tattoos and from there back to the chakra, forming a circle.

This in turn eased the pain he was in, the veins relaxed and ease returned on his face. The chakra started spinning faster and glowed brighter. It was like the chakra was reaching a threshold.

But right after, it started slowing down and eventually stopped and got back inside his body. Ames opened his eyes and realized that the death energy from scorpios had depleted.

He sighed in regret, he was just about to reach a new phase in the chakra cultivation, but the lack of naraka dragged him back.

"You’re finally awake." Lamia’s voice came from the back.

Ames stood up and turned around as he saw that she and Kiba were sitting around a fire. The night sky could be seen from the holes in the ceiling of the dungeon. They were cooking the scorpio meat in the fire as Kiba kept munching on it with his excited child like face.

"How long has it been?" Ames asked.

"You’ve been like that for almost eight hours."

Ames was shocked. For him it was not more than a few minutes, but in reality, eight hours had passed while he was lost in meditation, cultivating.

"You’re near...manifest the root chakra and I’ll answer your questions."

Ames was surprised. He realized that the threshold he was about to cross was unlocking another chakra, and the greater realization that hit him was that, there were more than one chakra.

"I guess you’ve rested enough then. Let’s get the dungeon lord." With excitement bubbling inside, Ames moved towards the huge ancient door leading to the lord room.

"Right now? Where is the lord running away, can’t we deal with him in the morning?" Lamia complained.

"Time is running out for us...every second we waste, our enemies live a second more." Ames said with a cold look.

"Call your brother Kiba. We’re finishing this."

Kiba nodded and instantly, his face changed expression, the child like innocent face replaced with the bloodthirsty maniac as he gobbled the last piece of meat and started moving.

Seeing both of them move, Lamia sighed and helplessly followed after them.