Chapter 693 - A room full of life (Patreon)

"Thanks for the ride, Nimbus," Alex smiled as she got off the Griffon, who returned to his bipedal form immediately.

"You're welcome. And with this, I'm done. Right?" Nimbus turned to Hera.

"Yeah. Everyone is here. Thank you, and sorry for working you so much," the Empress smiled apologetically.

"Don't be. I'm glad to be of service, but. Since you are already going to recall everyone as we enter the dungeon, I would like to rest for a few minutes. I'm not in peak condition anymore," the Sentinel approached Hera and kissed her hand, giving the mana back to her. He still had quite a bit left, but to complete the Royal Quest, this is what he has to do.

"Of course," Hera nodded and dismissed him.

"Right, so if the dungeon asks us to move around the pillars, we will need to find another way to go about that," Shane said.

"Pretty much. Then again, if we were going to be dependent on Nimbus for everything, we would be in trouble," Blue walked closer to the tunnel that seemed to be the entrance of the dungeon.

"We don't even know if we are going to need to fly between the pillars. Maybe the dungeon goes on in the middle of winter with the entire ocean frozen, or maybe we will see what actually made those pillars," Hera followed the controller.

"Let's just go. It's not like we can figure out what we will need to do from out here," Alex went along to the tunnel, but all three stopped before walking inside. They checked to see if they were all at a party using their tablets. It was thanks to this that they could join the same dungeons.

Without anything else to say, they all moved forward, going inside the tunnel that headed up. Everyone created a few lights to help them see until a notification appeared in front of them.

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You have entered the dungeon, The Last Moonless Night.
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"I guess it doesn't ask us if we want to enter," Adriel sighed.

"Not every dungeon does," Helena tried to calm him down but was startled by a noise from above. The room was too quiet, increasing the impact of a new sound that didn't come from the crashing waves or their own voices.

"What was that?" Shane asked.

"Wings, maybe?" Hera looked around, trying to hear it again but couldn't. It seemed like whatever made that noise had stopped.

"Be careful, everyone," Alex pulled her daggers, and everyone followed, getting their weapons ready. Hera, instead of calling her court, made a couple of hand axes using her Venomous Arsenal by spending 5% of her mana on each weapon.

They walked slowly toward the light and the source of the sound. Once more, on top of one of the pillars, they looked around without being sure what was happening. Suddenly, a large creature came flying up from the side of the mountain. Whatever it was, it was large enough to cast a shadow over the entire party. Even so, the creature didn't seem to care or notice the group. It just continued flying and joined another of the same types of monsters already high in the sky.

"Is that... A dragon?" Alex was still staring at the large creature, which should be about 3 meters long.

"No," Hera and Shane replied at the same time, making the entire party look at them.

"Dragons have four legs and two wings. That one has two back legs and wings attached to the arm. It's a wyvern," Shane pointed to another monster who was closer, and they could see their bodies better. Another thing they saw was how the creature had blue scales, "Like that one"

"Is it that big of a difference?" Blue turned to the enchantress.

"Yeah. Wyverns are, basically, giant flying lizards. They generally don't have anything else going for them. Maybe some poison in the talons, but that's it. Dragons have some type of breath weapon based on an element. They are also much smarter, and some can even talk," Hera continued.

"Wyverns behave more like animals, while Dragons have big egos. Some are kind and benevolent, while others are angry and cruel. People used to think that the color of their scales would tell them what to expect, but that theory was aggressively disproven," Adriel added.

"Really?" Helena turned to the elf.

"Oh, yeah. Someone found a room with a yellow dragon expecting them to be kind and caring, but the creature just started attacking everyone on sight. And it wasn't because it was afraid or anything. It was having fun. The stories are horrible," Adriel shivered.

"So that's a dragon?" Alex pointed to another creature, one much larger than the one she had seen before, with green scales, four legs, and a pair of wings.

"Yep, that's a dragon… this might be harder than we expected," Shane had a worried expression. Dragons were considered powerful monsters, it didn't matter where they appeared. Be it in a dungeon or out in the world.

"Everyone, focus! We have incoming," Blue called as she saw a small silver wyvern approaching. Small by comparison, the monster was the size of a Great Dane.

The wyvern came flying and tried to land but failed and tumbled forward, stopping a few meters in front of the group while rubbing its nose with one of its wings. Small tears seemed to be forming in its golden eyes.

"Ouch. That hurt," the wyvern spoke before looking up to the rest of the group, "Why are you guys waiting here? You are going to miss all the good fish. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen you here. I'm Luna."

Hera and her friends looked at each other. They had yet to find the dungeon quest, but if a monster spoke to them, this should be a part of it.

"Hi, Luna. I think you can say we are new, and we don't know exactly what is going on," Hera spoke up.

"There is nothing going on, but since everyone is starting to eat, we need to go soon, or we will end up only being able to grab the small fish. They are tasty, but it takes a lot of them to fill you up," Luna spoke, her voice was high pitched, but it shifted every now and then, like a teenager when their voice changed.

"I see. And we would need to dive into the water to get it?" Hera asked.

Luna giggled, "Of course. Where else did you expect to find fish?"

"Aren't the currents really strong?" Blue asked.

"Not really, the sea is very quiet here."

"Well… Ok," Blue turned to everyone looking over to the ocean, seeing how they were all on top of a pillar, "I guess that wasn't the biggest problem anyway."

"What's the problem then?" Luna tilted her head.

"We can't fly. We are going to need to figure out a way to go down," the controller replied absentmindedly.

"Oh. Yeah, you guys look young. That makes sense. Hang on," Luna took a deep breath and puffed her cheeks.

"Hera, didn't you say Wyverns didn't have a breath attack?" Bonnie stepped back

"They are not supposed to," Hera assumed a defensive position and triggered her rock elemental armor.

Luna then blew towards them. Nothing actually happened, they just felt a gust of wind, "There you go. Now you can get used to the feeling."

"What did you…." Before Alex finished speaking, a pair of small silver wings appeared on her heel. One pair on each foot. Then, she started floating above the ground, "What is this?"

"That is a way for the young ones to learn how to fly when their wings are still not strong enough," Luna turned to the rest of the party, "Each one of you will get a different kind of wing. One that is similar to the one you will get naturally."

Just as the wyvern spoke, everyone else got their own wings. Blue's was just some small clouds around her wrists, ankles, and waist. Adriel had a pair of rotating motors like the ones he used in his drone attached to his shoulder. Mylo had some lotus leaves on the back of his arms, almost as if he was wearing a carnival costume. Bonnie didn't change at first glance, but as she moved, a silver trail of light appeared like she was a comet. Shane got some gloves and boots that worked like the propulsion jets of a mech suit. Helena's entire body started glowing, very similar to what happened when she fired that light arrow, but instead of moving around, the particles just floated softly like an aura. Lastly, Hera got a pair of feathered wings like the ones Nimbus had but with even more feathers.

"This is just unfair. I get a cloud belt, and you become an angel," Blue pouted.

"I mean, it fits. If this is what it's supposed to be, our wings, it would make sense for it to match things we can do. More or less. That's why I have drone motors as mine," Adriel said.

"And this is why Shane looks like a superhero?" Blue turned to the enchantress, who was already testing out the flying capabilities.

It was very intuitive and simple to do so. All they had to do was think about moving to one side or another, and they were able to move without any problem. Another thing that became apparent was that flying was very much like a muscle. The more they practiced it, the better they would be at it. Some minutes passed, and everyone flew around a bit, but Luna started to get anxious.

"We really need to go. The fish are going to run out, and we will have to wait till the sunset to get more!" the wyvern gasped.

"Right. We need to go down the pillar… How long will this effect last?" Helena floated closer to Luna.

"Until you can fly on your own. You don't have to worry about this running out until that happens. I can't do that with anyone else until all of you learn to fly, but that's not a problem," the wyvern replied as she jumped and took flight, moving towards the edge of the pillar before doing a loop and diving towards the water, almost a hundred meters below them.

Everyone else flew to the limit of the mountain, but they all stopped before crossing the edge. Hera quickly asked Nimbus if he could still come out if things went south, and the Sentinel confirmed that he could pop out. With a mental nod, the Empress flew off the mountain, moving around with the ocean far below her before moving down. However, she didn't dove like Luna and instead just slowly lowered her alttude. Soon the rest of the party joined, and they all followed Luna to catch some fish, which was supposed to be their meal. As they were all moving down, Bonnie took a chance to confirm one thing.

"No one got the dungeon quest, right?" they all shook their heads, "This is weird, isn't it?"

"A little, but not unheard of. I've run dungeons that ended up only showing the quest in the end, or when something was triggered," Adriel was going down in a spiral just to practice the movement.

"So, what do we do then?" Blue asked.

"I think we should follow Luna. She… I think it's a she, at least. Anyway, Luna came towards us and interacted with us. There has to be a reason for that," Hera didn't know how to explain that the guide told her to take care of Luna.

"I agree. For now, let's follow Luna. We can figure things out as we go. Just… be careful. There are a lot of Dragons and Wyverns around," Helena looked to the side where a couple of Lung Dragons were flying with their snake-like bodies and no wings.

"Yeah, for now. Let's go fishing. I'll stay outside and carry everyone's bag if you want. That way, they won't get wet," Bonnie suggested.

"Are you saying this just because you suck at fishing?" Blue snickered.

"No! It's because I don't want to get my hair wet again," the researcher huffed, and they all laughed.

They were getting close to the water already, and despite what the quest was here, just being able to fly was already a lot of fun.