Chapter 253 - Nimbus (Patreon)

The entire team was staring at the place where the scavenger ruler once was. Not because of the pile of loot that had appeared after it died or because of the crater on the ground. But because of the captain of the guard, who was now covered in blood with an eerie smile on her face.

"Ca..captain?" Sevaris called.

"Yes? Are you injured, Sevaris?" Naka replied.

"No… are you ok?"

"Better than I ever been in a long time," Naka said with a smile.

There was another moment of silence, with the entire team staring at her. Seeing the captain smile in itself was a rare occurrence, but this was different. Her eyes were cold even with the seemingly warm expression, and her presence was twisted. To a certain degree, it reminded Hera of the wendigo she had fought during the rampage. How the creature seemed to enjoy toying with people. When it felt like it had the upper hand, the expression it showed was very similar to the one Naka had.

Before Hera could take a step forward, several notifications appeared in front of everyone.

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You have completed the dungeon quest inside the Wooly Plains - Alternate Timeline

By defeating the strongest griffon in the Wooly Plains, the region can now accept a new kind of life.

Rewards:
Wind Feather Spell
Cloud Feather Item Box (B)
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You have completed the Dungeon Quest as the first to enter this dungeon.

Rewards:
Advanced Griffon Whistle
+1 Level
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You have leveled up
Current Level 10
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Griffon Whistle in your possession.

Whistle never used during the dungeon.

Reward Updated.

Griffon Whistle upgraded to Sky Ruler Whistle
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"Why did we get a B box?" Blue gasped.

"What do you mean b box?" Totrak asked.

"It's kind of like a grade. Since we got the B, it means we could've gotten something better. The grades go from D to A, and then there is the S grade above that," Blue explained.

"Why S?" Lija asked.

"I don't know. Some people say it means super, others supreme or superior," Blue shrugged.

"I remember someone telling me it was special," Hera added.

"Well, anyway. It's something better than A. So this box is the third-best we could've gotten. Even though the boss of the dungeon died in an instant," Blue huffed.

"Right, but where is the box?" Naka asked.

"Oh… right," Hera looked back to her tablet. Despite not being able to use all its functions here, she still carried it to the fights. Right now, there was the familiar chest icon with a 1 on the side, showing that she still had a reward to receive. When she opened that one, the box would open and give her the item. However, she had no idea how the dwarves could get that part of the reward. It didn’t make sense for the system to be locked with the tablet. After all, this was something relatively new.

"Oh, I got it. Just wave the notification off," Lerynn was already holding a white box in his hands.

The dwarves activated their item boxes, but Hera was more curious about other parts of her reward.

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Sky Ruler Whistle

A small whistle made of crystalized clouds.
By blowing the whistle, you can create a cloud griffon.

The griffon can move at 30km/h, carry up to 120kg, and glide through short distances.
The griffon can last for up to 2 hours, and it takes 10 hours to recover.
If you dismiss it prematurely, the recovery time will be lessened proportionally.
If the griffon is destroyed for any reason, it takes 20 hours to recover.
In areas of strong wind, the griffon cannot maintain its form and will be destroyed.

Additional effects: When used inside the Wooly Plains, it can call the next wave of griffons from the mountain instead of summoning your griffon.
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"Blue! We got a mount!" Hera cheered.

"What? Where?"

"Check the whistle."

"Sorry, I was checking my spell. I got a barrier," Blue replied as she picked the whistle, "This is awesome! Who needs a car?"

"Cars are still faster, but yeah, this will help so much," Hera turned her attention to her new spell.

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Wind Feather
Rank: Novice – Ancient

Creates a feather made out of wind mana to attack your target.
The caster can control the strength, size, and speed of the projectile.

Base Mana cost: 10 mana
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"This is neat, a low-cost spell. It might be useful to stagger enemies," Hera mumbled. She turned to her tablet and was about to take the reward box, when a loud noise came from Ganek's direction.

"Too big," he was brandishing a spear that seemed to be made out of the beak of a griffon, but the weapon should easily be 3 meters tall.

Seeing such a big thing come out of the reward box, Hera decided to open it later. They still had to check the rest of the loot. The scavenger ruler had left a dozen of items for them to loot. Among them, there were 9 pieces of chicken weighing between 8 and 15 kilograms. The remaining three items were a bundle of very large feathers, one of its talons, and a cumulonimbus core. Unlike the storm one they got, this one created cloud mana, but at 100 points per second, and could store a whopping 100 thousand points of mana inside. If the storm core already made the mages' day, this one would make their year.

"Do you know what this ancient thing means? I'm talking about what appeared in the spell," Lija turned to Hera and Blue.

"Yeah, it just means the spell was made in a way that was lost through time. Maybe it was a different language, or some forgotten runes," Hera explained.

The mages started discussing the possibilities and how they could find more information about the new spells. At the same time, the rest gathered the items and walked back towards the boneyard. The rotting corpses were gone, but there was more loot to be picked up. There were several pieces of pink butcher paper and some bundles of feathers in the places where the fresh griffon bodies were previously located. It was nice that the feathers came all wrapped around a string, at least in the hard mode. Having to pick them up one by one was very tiresome. There was so much stuff to gather that Lija had to make a couple of extra stone baskets.

"Hang on. Why are we carrying this?" Blue took out her whistle.

"Blue, wait!" Hera called, but it was too late. The controller already had blown the whistle.

A very low sound came out of it, almost like a dog whistle. Hera instantly turned around, getting ready to fight any monster that might pop up. Naka and the other dwarves also got prepared to fight, but nothing came. Instead, from the whistle that Blue was using, a white fog came out of the small griffon's mouth carved in the crystalized cloud. The mist became denser and denser, turning itself into a cloud that took the shape of a griffon similar to the sky ruler spawn, but it wasn't quite the same. The wings seemed smaller, and the beak didn't have a very defined shape. It had four bird-like legs and a muscular body that was more similar to that of a lion or a tiger. The head resembled something like an eagle, but it had a mohawk made of feathers that rose above the neck and the top of the scalp. However, it was still a cloud, giving the griffon a fluffy look that made Hera think of Capri.

"This is so cool," Blue gasped while watching the mount take form.

The dwarves took a step back, worried about what the creature would do, but the monster didn't move. Blue waved her hand in front of the cloud griffon's face, but the mount still showed no response. Hera approached it and triggered her [Observe].

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Cloud Griffon – Mana Construct
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"Oh, I don't think it's alive," Hera said.

"Really? Well… it's still cute," Blue replied.

"Not everyone agrees with that," Hera looked back to the dwarves, who were all moving away.

"Will that thing attack us?" Naka asked.

"It won't. It's an item like the orb. Besides, I don't think it even can attack," Blue jumped on the mount's back. Despite its appearance, she managed to mount it without an issue. The clouds held her up as if she was sitting on something solid. She asked the griffon to move around and started getting used to riding it, "This is so smooth. It doesn't bounce like a horse."

"Are you going to name it?" Hera asked.

"Of course! His name shall be… Sunny!"

"Sunny? You are making a cloud named Sunny?" Hera asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, I'm just asking," Hera smiled. She summoned her own mount. Instead of the pure white cloud, hers had a greyish color, and it looked a bit smaller than Blue's. Aside from that, they looked just the same.

"What's his name?" Blue asked.

"Hers, and it's Nimbus," Hera replied.

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Name Registered
Sky Ruler Whistle updated
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Hera was a bit surprised that even the system recognized the name she gave to it. Shrugging it off, she jumped on Nimbus' back.

"How can you tell it's female?" Pyrrick asked.

"Oh. I can't, actually. I mean, since it's basically a vehicle, I just choose to say it's a girl. Humans do that. We name random objects that we tend to use. It's like naming your sword or a weapon," Hera explained.

"I see…" Pyrrick replied with a confused expression, but the guards nodded, seeming to understand the concept.

After seeing the humans walk around, everyone tried to call their own griffons. Each mount had a different shade, with Naka's being the darkest one. Instead of the fluffy white you would see on a sunny day, it looked like a heavy storm cloud. The ones owned by the dwarves were also smaller, more similar to their height. Even with that, only Lija and Totrak kept their mounts active. The other dwarves seemed uncomfortable when around the cloud griffons. Despite it all, everyone agreed that having them helped a lot to carry their loot.

Before they left the dungeon, Naka asked everyone to dismiss their mounts. Having those creatures appear in the city would surely create some unnecessary panic. Outside, they talked with Silah about how things went and discussed strategies. They also made sure to distribute the attribute points that each had gained. Hera had earned 14 points to use. That meant she could increase all her stats by another 2 points. They all also opened their Item Boxes. Unfortunately, some were pieces of armor that wouldn't be better than what they were already using. In contrast, others got rare materials that could be used for other things. Blue got a pair of boots that could purify the air in a small area around them, and Hera got a large vial of a clear oil.

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Blank Smell Oil

If you apply this oil under your nose, you become unable to smell anything for 1 hour.
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Everyone understood how that could help the dungeon. It would be even better if there was a way for the mages to reverse engineer the oil. After some time resting, they headed back inside the hard mode, with Silah coming along. Things went down a bit differently this time. For one, the spinning round cloud barrier protected the Scavenger Ruler. However, two types of creatures didn't have that protection, the bloodbeaks, and the cloud rulers. After a couple more runs and tests of the dungeon, two things became clear. First, to complete the dungeon, they had to kill all the monsters inside except the bloodbeak. It didn't matter which of the rulers they killed first. While one of them was alive, the quest was still incomplete. The second thing was that when only a single species of ruler was alive, the cloud barrier wouldn't appear in that spinning invulnerable form, allowing the dwarves to attack the griffons.

By the end of the day, Hera gave the oil to the mages for them to try to replicate the effects. She and Blue had used during the runs to avoid dealing with the rotting smell, allowing them to kill the scavenger ruler before the other monsters. Despite still having a good amount of oil, it would be even better if they had more. Blue and Hera also pulled Lija aside and asked about the path to the Sky Ruler that she mentioned before. Fighting the different types of griffons gave them many ideas on how to deal with the monster, but they had to understand which creature from the hard mode would be closer to the actual ruler.

"I don't know, guys. I don't want to get into more trouble," Lija mumbled as they left the guard headquarters.

"You won't. Just tell us where that passage should be, and we'll sneak there. We won't fight it. We just want to know more about the…" Blue looked around and got closer to the mage before whispering, "Sky Ruler."

"Why do you want to rush so much?" Lija asked.

"We want to see our family," Blue replied.

"And when we open the room, we can have more mages coming here and helping you guys learn about magic. I have a friend that can take away your senses with shadow magic," Hera said.

"Really? How does she do that?" Lija turned to Hera.

"I Don't know. We need to ask her."

Lija stared at the two, "Ok, fine. I don't know where it is exactly. But it's near the mines by the lake. I guess it is somewhere high up because I've worked in the mines, and there is not a single passage in the lower areas. That's all I can tell you."

"Right, so all we need now is a way to get Pyrrick's buff," Blue turned to Hera.

"What if we say you two are doing some late-night practice with the buff? You say you still feel weird and want to get used to moving around with it," Silah suggested.

"I'm not a part of this, but yeah. That could work," Lija replied, "Now go make your plans away from me. I don't want to know, and if you die there, it's not my fault!"

"We will be careful. I promise," Hera replied as Lija split off from the group, "So, does anyone want to take a stroll by the mines?"