Chapter Ten, Follow?
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A woman sat in her... Lab? Spellroom? Library? It was hard to describe, but it was a spherical center with bookshelves lining the walls, and a strange circular platform in the middle.
She currently stood in the center of this platform, dumping crystals into her hand. The fingerless glove she wore, didn't deteriorate one bit underneath the burning energy emitted by the rocks. Her messily tied back hair cleared up her face. There was a vertical scar embedded over her left eye, another embedded beneath her right eye. She wore a crazed smile, observing the massively dense mana emanating before her face.
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This woman was Agatha Fent, Head of the Magic Union in Tilmont. A-rank human, and [Archwizard]... One of the three strongest residents of Tilmont, a woman who helped push the city to where it was now, alongside her two childhood friends.
As the Magic Union Head, she had countless responsibilities. One of them was magic anomalies.
With her power, her [Mana Sense] could spread across the entire city and farther, and it did.
Her ear twitched, eyes widening in confusion and surprise.
At the same time, a crystal on her hip buzzed with green light.
"Agatha." The voice of Zenor Freid, her friend, sounded through it.
"B-rank mana fluctuations in the Dungeon." Agatha replied, dropping the rocks in her hand and unlatching the communication crystal from her hip. "Tell your adventurers they have fifteen minutes to continue their search. If they cannot find Tilmont's party in that time, pull them out..." She said.
Her foot stepped off the platform.
"I'll be going in myself." A small smirk emerged.
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Jora slumped against the Dungeon wall. His body had regenerated for the most part, having consumed three spiders to get refilled to this point. Unfortunately, he still lacked three fingers on his left hand, needing to find one more body to consume before he could top it off.
He gripped at his hair, rubbing his brain through his skull.
"[Soul Skill]?" He questioned.
His [Devour] was impeded by a skill that ranked higher than it... Jessica Bruchard had an extra category in her skill list, though he couldn't peer into it at all with the portion of her he devoured.
He doubted he would've been able to understand even if he ate all of her...
"My [Devour] can be blocked... That's key information..." He mumbled.
He took this moment of rest to sort through his mind.
The hazy memories of Jessica that he devoured were barely decipherable. A load of jumbled images and things he couldn't interpret. He would make sure to favor the consumption of the brain from now on.
"Mana, replenish my body. [Heal]." He cast the most basic, and one of few spells he had obtained from her. Casting it with his right hand, he could feel the familiarity, but he instantly noticed the discrepancies.
"Mana... replenish my body. [Heal]." He cast with his left hand, attempting to regenerate what little the spell had missed.
But it wasn't as smooth. It was more unfamiliar, albeit still possible.
"I lack the muscle memory from the side of her I didn't devour... Adaptation is smoother when devouring similar structured creatures, but missing full consumption means I end up lacking... The Orbweavers skills had to be entirely restructured to fit my body so there wasn't much of a difference with it's body being destroyed or not." He understood, shaking his head.
He frowned slightly at that revelation, but he didn't think it would be too restricting.
With the moment to still ponder on recent events, he thought back to the Orbweaver.
Melding it's memories with all that he currently knew, and the understanding he was forming.
"That... The sphere, must've been the Dungeon Core..." He mumbled. And then, a small pain urged its way into his brain.
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At the same time, he could feel the elements parting for a creature just a ways away.
He was forced to shake away the pain, putting it into the back of his mind once more.
With [Dark Vision], he could clearly see the approaching creature, and it made him frown.
"At least this will be a good meal." He muttered.
"Observe, [Analyze]."
"Way weaker than the last one..." He frowned further.
He thought it would at least be something worthwhile...
The spider stopped moving roughly 50 feet away, staring straight at him.
He stood up, rising to his feet. With a small exhale, and the utterance of a word, he blasted forward.
"[Leap]." He soared towards the spider, two silk webs shooting out of his hands and attaching to the ground next to the spider on each side.
With a tug, he was yanked towards the ground, his momentum picking up as he released the webs.
"Ice, freeze, solidify, and sharpen. Stab my enemies. [Ice Shard]!" He mumbled the chant, mana gathering in his hands that were above his head, as a spike of Ice manifested within his grasp.
He was mere feet away from colliding with the Orbweaver when he noticed something was off.
His brows furrowed.
And he missed.
His body contorted, and the shard of ice slammed into the ground to the right of the Orbweaver. He rolled, quickly finding his footing.
He glanced back towards the spider that he had now passed by.
Slowly, it scuttled around, facing him.
But not attacking.
He frowned.
"Are you going to fight me?" He questioned, confusion plastered on his face.
The spider in response, hissed.
His head tilted, and the spider started to move.
He stood straight, glancing down towards the shattered ice beneath him, and then back up to the spider.
He didn't need the spell anyway, he just figured he would try out new things.
Two fists raised up towards the approaching spider, his spinnerets opening in preparation.
And then it just walked straight past him.
His eyes followed the spider, watching as it continued to crawl away.
He was deeply confused.
He continued to watch, looking as the spider moved nearly 30 feet away before stopping.
It turned around, staring at him for a moment.
He stepped forward.
It stepped forward.
"I am supposed to follow?" Jora questioned aloud.
The spider nodded.
It then returned towards where it had been facing, it's spindly legs trotting away.
Deep, deep confusion.
But, he followed.
'Aren't Dungeon monsters supposed to attack on sight? What is happening? Is this... the Core's doing?' His inner conscience questioned.
He wasn't entirely sure... But he didn't feel any danger. His [Sensitivity] surely would have alerted him if there was.
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They stepped over the hundreds of spider corpses, far more exhausted than ever before. Luke carried Ryan's body, Clara led the way, and Arjae had a barely conscious Jess clung to his back.
"Will she be... responsive? Any time soon?" Luke questioned.
They still didn't understand exactly what had happened, and they had countless questions.
"I doubt it. You didn't see what I saw. It's a miracle Jess is even alive still. She must have... I don't know. It was... insanity. My dad has to know about this." Arjae replied.
"So mine as well should then? Jess' aunt surely is going to be notified right? Only those three should have the answers, since they're the ones watching over us, we should be allowed to understand everything." Clara added in, the dark circles under her eyes really showing off how tired she was.
"Yeah... Agatha and Zenor would be even more helpful than my dad probably... We need to take this directly to them. They're the only ones that... should know what really happened here... None of that was normal at all. None of it..." Arjae emphasized. His mind fell back onto the creature that emerged from the dark. He didn't get a look at it, only it's mouth, and it didn't sit well with him.
He had never seen something like it.
It surely wasn't a spider type, but he couldn't place it into any category.
"People." Clara spoke, taking Arjae out of his mind.
The three glanced forward, greeted by the visage of another trio, fully decked out in gear, and emanating power far above theirs.
"Is that?..." Luke whispered.
"Elizabeth Randall, Annaliese Becker, and Troydan Bower." Arjae named.
"Three C-rankers?" Clara questioned.
"Holy shit what have we gotten ourselves into?" She added.
"Tilmont! Freid! Wa-Wait, is that Bruchard?" The center figure, Elizabeth Randall, happily greeted the group, until her gaze fell upon Jessica.
With a distortion of space, she appeared directly in front of the three, causing them to reel back.
"She's at full health? Her mana is empty... How is she not... dead?" Elizabeth questioned, examining the young girl that was heaving upon Arjae's back with pained expressions.
"Sh-" Luke started, "Okay! Let's get out of here! We're on a strict time frame, designated to specifically get all of you out of here as quick as possible! We don't know what's lurking within the Dungeon and it's been reported that we C-rankers may not be strong enough to handle it! Lady Agatha herself is coming to deal with the matter!" Elizabeth clapped, cutting off the parties tank.
At least it didn't seem to be very purposeful, so Luke didn't have many qualms.
He knew her too after all...
"Hurry it up, hurry it up! We have 7 minutes left until Lady Agatha arrives. It'd be better if the three had time to debrief her on what they encountered." Annaliese Becker, the rising star of the Tanks, spoke.
"Right, right! I have set up waystones on the path back to the safe room, we'll be there in no time!" Elizabeth smiled.
And then, everything distorted.
In less than fifteen seconds, all eight bodies, appeared within the safe room.
Clara shifted, misplacing her footing a bit. It was easy to tell she was... a little queasy.
Luke sucked in a deep breath, Arjae doing the same.
And then he stepped towards the Dungeon door.
"Oh okay. We can meet her outside! Why not!" Elizabeth smiled.
The trio of adventurers exited the Dungeon, accompanied by some C-rankers, an unconscious friend, and a dead one.
It hadn't been that long of a time, less than five hours since they entered, but it felt far longer than that. In just five short hours, their lives had changed permanently, and this moment would mark a new beginning for many people.
Many people...
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