World Sphere - 192 - Mystery Prize (Patreon)

Chapter 192: Mystery Prize

The cyclops cave was deeper than the first one I had taken to the second level of the dungeon a month ago. Kiara and Adrial were at my side. I just wanted to check what the next level was like. The portal itself did not look unusual. Kiara asked through our bond, “Fight. More.”

I looked at the white feline and nodded uncertainly. “Yes, we are going to check and see if it is different than the last time,” I told the cat. I entered the portal and found myself in a dark room standing on a softly glowing blue bridge. Looking up, dozens of blue bridges crossed above us in a cylindrical chamber. Adrial and Kiara appeared at my side. Bleiz appeared first and then the others. There was little concern as the entry area for new floors was always safe.

Freya’s voice echoed in the chamber, “Where are we? Isn't the second level supposed to be an open plain with forts?”

The elf dungeon expert, Orion, spoke, “This is a secret side treasure chamber in the ninth level, I believe; at least, it fits the description as I have never seen it. Delvers rarely get access to it, just like the black-eyed Cyclops. It is a climbing progression to a unique treasure. At the end of each bridge are stairs up to the next bridge, and a challenge waits on that bridge. Reach the highest bridge and claim the chest with a reward of much higher value than normally would appear on the floor.”

“Can’t I just fly up there and avoid all the bridges?” I asked, counting twenty-three bridges in total, including the one I was standing on.

The elf seemed to consider for a moment. “I don’t know. This treasure room is so rare that I don’t have a lot of information in it. The two rewards I can recall were a powerful tier three dungeon essence and an adamantine dagger. However, the delve team never registered what the essence actually was, and the adamantine dagger was never seen as the team left Myththorne to sell the prize dagger as soon as they exited, not wanting it confiscated.”

You couldn’t see what was waiting on each bridge since we were at the bottom. With the aether recovery belt, it was clear, at least to the expert, that the dungeon was trying to help me stop the World Walker. A World Walker that hadn’t appeared yet. “I am going to climb alone, then.” I said making my decision.

Bleiz objected, “Storme, you are acting stupid. There is no need to go alone.”

“Freya is not coming, and I want you to exit with her. I will stop my climb if I do not think I can win,” I said, looking up and wondering what was at the top. Bleiz looked doubtful.

“You don’t get a better reward for climbing by yourself.” Captain Delilah said tersely. “My job is to make sure you don’t die before you finish the array.” I almost rebuked, questioning if it was okay for me to die afterward, but I held back.

Aelyn, who had tried the belt on, said, “Send Neoma, Tibault, and the cats out with her. Bleiz and I will climb with you.” We locked eyes and stared defiantly at each other. Aelyn was a good delver but more of a support member. Hyperion, with his force-restraining ability, was the real power in her delve team.

“No. Leave. Fight.” Kiara also voiced her opposition to my plan. I had a mutiny on my hands.

“I have my lightning elemental and enhanced reflexes. I far exceed everyone here in combat ability,” I said aggressively but caved. “Kiara and Bleiz can stay with me. Everyone else leaves.”

Freya started to speak, and I eyed her warningly. Aelyn removed the belt and slapped it into my hand, “If you die in here, I will resurrect you to kill you again. Freya, let’s go look at the upcoming auction catalogs and spend Storme’s gold.” Freya’s eyes went wide as the auction was a few days away, and the Adventurer’s Guild was supposed to distribute the catalogs today for what was being offered. The city of Myththorne was selling numerous items to pay for the array—well, to pay me and gather the materials for the array.

Adrial's head snapped back and forth, trying to figure out why everyone was yelling. “Adrial, protect Freya,” I commanded the large black phantom cat calmly. It was a command she knew, and she plodded after Aelyn and Freya. Neoma and Tibault gave me a short nod and followed. At least some people did what I asked without arguing. Captain Delilah was harder to convince, and Orion clearly wanted to document and advise our climb.

“Captain Delilah, while I appreciate your duty to protect to ensure I finish the array, if anything happens to my sister, I will return the coin and leave Myththorne.”

The stern Captain stared at me long before barking an order, “Orion, advise him and make sure he lives.” She then spun on her heel and exited the dungeon to catch up to the others. Orion looked a little relieved.

I walked the bridge to ascend the stairs to the next crosswalk. In the center of the crosswalk walk, a glossy black-skinned humanoid was trapped in a blue aetheric sphere. The dungeon creature had sharp fangs and solid, milky eyes. It was nothing I was familiar with. Fortunately, Orion had stayed with us. “It is a Hellion from the tenth level of the dungeon. They usually roam in packs. This has not evolved as it does not have horns, and the eyes are white. They are a little fast and fairly strong, but a single one should not present a challenge.”

I took a step forward, and the bubble disappeared, allowing the hellion to sprint at us. “Don’t waste your confusion attack, Kiara.” I dashed forward, and the head of the creature soon rolled off the bridge.

“Well, like I said,” Orion sputtered, “Just a single lesser hellion. Just a minor demon.”

I leaned over the corpse and used my tissue extraction spell. It struggled with the tough flesh of the creature before yielding a tier four green aether crystal the size of a pea, maybe ten units. An excellent material for lesser enchanting. That was an excellent haul for a creature that easy to kill. “Tier four crystal?” Orion said, confused. “Well, I suppose it makes sense. Usually, they yield a tier three crystal but much larger. I wonder what the next bridge will be?” He asked in a scholarly, thoughtful tone. “Not much else useful on the hellion. The evolved ones have harvestable horns.”

I walked to the stairs, and the same creature was trapped in the middle of the bridge. “Ah!” Orion said excited. “An evolved hellion! See the yellow eyes! It will have incredible strength.”

I dashed forward again, beheading it. “It didn’t appear to get any faster, though.” The aether crystal was only slightly larger, maybe 15 units. We walked the bridge and ascended. The next hellion had red eyes and some fire magic. It could hurl a small fireball and erect a fire shield. Kiara’s fur got slightly singed from the slash effect of the fireball, but the hellion died just as fast as the others.

“Four floors are done and nineteen to go!” An excited Orion stated. Bleiz just grunted as Orion was a passenger. The next hellion had wings as the flight was added to its abilities. A single arcane web grounded it and it was quickly ended. A twenty-unit crystal was harvested.

Orion warned me not to get complacent. “It seems the dungeon is progressing the evolutions. The next hellion should have the horns. If it does, it will no longer be a lesser demon. They have control over their aether core and can manipulate aether shields and enhance their physicality with aether.”

Orion was right. The next hellion had stubby horns. I let Kiara loose, and she stunned the hellion, and I beheaded it quicker than the last. Orion was speechless as I just walked forward, harvested the crystal, and walked up the stairs to the seventh bridge. The horns on the next hellion were almost a foot in length and curled at the tip. It slammed against its confinement to get out and charge us. As soon as the bubble disappeared, it unfurled massive wings and dashed toward us, fireballs forming in each of its hands. Then it crashed into the bridge, Kiara’s tail twitching in amusement. I didn’t have to rush but used lightning reflexives anyway to behead the demon quickly. A grape-sized tier-four aether crystal made the effort worthwhile.

“So, what’s the next evolution?” I asked, picking the stone in my dimensional closet.

“That was the highest evolution for the hellion. That was the elite evolved form and the challenge creature for the tenth floor to proceed to the eleventh. It would give a group of gold adventures a headache to take it down. Though, there are six lesser hellions in support.”  He pointed at the head, “Don’t forget those mature horns. They are worth ten large gold each to alchemists and bone carvers.” Kiara’s tier four confusion ability was extremely strong, and I guessed that the last creature was tier three in strength.

I kneeled over the odorless demon and used my tissue extraction spell to gather the horns before taking a break. Bleiz released his invisibility and joined us. I took a break for a drink. “Are you going to put on the belt?”

“When we leave the dungeon, I would need to balance the increased flow of aether into my core.” He nodded in understanding. I had developed a unique flow pattern to my core to draw in aether and prevent spells anchored inside the core from interfering with each other. Increasing the aether gathering by such a large margin would endanger my dimensional closet, one of the permanently anchored spells there. I also had absolute time and aether fortress constantly drawing aether in my core.

Orion drank with us and speculated on the next creature. “You just killed every demon presented on the tenth floor in the first eight bridges. The eleventh floor is a black sand desert with chaos sand elementals as the primary monsters. Although that wouldn’t make sense since the elementals draw sand from the desert for their attack.”

“Let's just climb the stairs and not conjecture,” I said, sending the jug of grape juice back to my closet. When we reached the next bridge a larger version of the hellion was contained in the aetheric prison. Its body was a pristine white and not a glossy black. Its eyes were at least a glossy black, and it stood patiently waiting for us to step onto the bridge. “What are we dealing with Orion?”

When he didn’t respond, I turned to him. “I…I don’t know. That creature is not documented. It is shaped like a hellion but…”

Kiara was unafraid, “Kill. Again. Easy.”

Bleiz was not as confident. “Unknowns in dungeons are how delvers get themselves killed, Storme.”

I studied the creature, “It doesn’t have wings or horns, and the eyes are just black. Let’s try this one.” I dashed onto the bridge, Kiara at my side.

Kiara’s voice rang in my head, “Attack. Fail.” I nodded as her mental attack failed. She still darted forward with a roar using her haste. I overtook her and slashed into the white demon. It blocked my attack with its arm, and it still was much tougher than the black hellions, and the falchion only cut to the bone. I pulled the blade free, and before the demon could react, my falchion stabbed into its throat, and I was passed, corkscrewing the blade to free the head.

Kiara slammed into the body, the head falling away. It was much stronger that the black hellion but still no match for us. Bleiz appeared at my right, two blades ready to assist. I looked at Orion who came to inspect the creature. “It is at least a tier four creature since Kiara couldn’t stun it.”

Orion was more concerned as he carefully looked over the creature. “This is not good. Not good at all.” He was mumbling to himself as he worked over the creature. I let him work and waited. He stood and explained, “It is a new creature. The dungeon is getting ready to evolve. It is the only thing that makes sense. I know what is going to happen. Dungeons are not stupid. They don’t think like you are me, but I am certain this dungeon plans to evolve and seal its entrance before the World Walker arrives.”

As if in confirmation, the bridges above us flashed briefly. “And that means?”

Orion shook his head, “If it just seals its entrance and reopens after the World Walker leaves, then it means little. Suppose it seals its entrance and reopens elsewhere then everything. Myththorne is only here because of the dungeon. If it moves, then Myththorne would shrivel up and the effort to create the city shield is meaningless. I need to inform King Nirhaan.”

“Shouldn’t we see where this leads?” I indicated the bridges above us. “Maybe the reward is a clue?”

Orion was torn on leaving immediately but slowly nodded. The following floors had the alabaster demons, Orion’s name not mine, get progressively harder as the hellions had. The only real surprise was the twenty-third bridge with the final alabaster demon. This demon had an aura that slowed down its opponents. It didn’t completely nullify my lightning reflexes, but it did force me to cast a pair of lightning elementals to distract it while I finished it off.

The finished demon had impressive silvery wings to go with the pale body and pearly horns. I spent some time harvesting the wings, horns and tier five aether crystal. The blue aether crystal was slightly smaller than the size of my fist, maybe five hundred units, and capable of powering a small skyship on its own.

Bleiz arched his eyebrow in question at my fascination. “It is worth between fifty and sixty thousand. Five times the aether stone from the last alabaster demon.” If this creature had been a final challenge monster for a dungeon level, it would have had support and been in an environment to maximize its strengths. Instead, we faced it on the bridge and were able to prepare while it was held in place by the dungeon.

Kiara just said, “Pretty. Rock. Shiny. Chest.”

There was a reward chest on the bridge. I had ignored it to the consternation of Orion, who looked ready to burst. I walked to the chest and picked up the heavy, silvery chest. My senses penetrated the chest, and I was disappointed that it was made of just silver and not platinum and appeared to be a complex set of gears inside to open it. The relief work was exceptional, and Orion commented that there were representations of every floor boss in the Cavern in the Thunder Witch. “It is beautiful, and to the right collector, the chest could be worth thousands of gold.”

“Right now, I am more interested in what is inside it. Should I melt the metal, or do you know how to open it?” I asked. Orion took the chest from me and held it in his hands.

He finally pressed the eye on the cyclops, and an audible click sounded. It was still locked, but he quickly found the lizard man fort Captain and manipulated its tail to another click. Orion was excited. “A mechanical lock! Fascinating! It looks like you need to find the floor bosses in order and manipulate a body part.” He turned the box, and click after click sounded until, finally, the lid sprang open. He nearly dropped it in surprise at the shifting of weight.

I took back the box and found a single book inside. Was this some knowledge on how to defeat the World Walkers? I tilted the box to get the tome out. Dungeon books generally did not have anything on their binding, and this one was blank with a clean, tough black leather binding.

I opened the book to find the first page blank page. Dungeons were notoriously efficient in everything they did. I had never heard of a spellbook or any other book from a dungeon having a blank page before. I turned the page, and the familiar runic script was there, and I relaxed. This was a spell book and not a book of knowledge.

“What is it?” Bleiz asked impatiently as I had been paging through it quietly for minutes.

My brow furrowed in disappointment, and maybe Sana would know more about the utility of this particular spell. “I am not one hundred percent certain, but I think it is a tier-four spell that helps you locate dungeon entrances. Kinda of a big disappointment.” There were plenty of artifacts that could do the same thing. This spell might have interesting evolutions to it, though. But my words had Orion pale as it fed to his theory. If the dungeon was going to relocate if a Word Walker arrived, it would give Myththorne a way of finding it again.

Orion no longer waited and descended the stairs to run to exit the dungeon. There was no exit on this bridge, so Bleiz, Kiara, and I followed him down at a much slower pace. When we exited the dungeon, Captain Delilah was waiting for us with her guards, and Orion was nowhere to be seen.

“Do you want to be escorted to the next tower or rest in the palace?” She asked stiffly. I guessed Orion hadn’t told her his suspicions and just rushed to inform the king.

“The palace. I am sure King Nirhaan is going to want to talk after Orion reports. I need to acclimatize to the aether restoration belt and replenish my aether.” We walked through the city, and the populace had the same hopeful eyes when we saw me. They still thought I was their savior.

When I reached the apartments I had been assigned, I found Nemora and Tibault standing outside, guarding the room. Inside the room, Aelyn and Freya had a massive catalog book and pages of scattered notes all over the place. Freya looked up, “Storme, I know what I want for my birthday!” Of course, she did. However, it remained to be seen if Myththorne would still employ me to work on the city shield array. 

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