CHAPTER 32 – THE FISSURE

  Duncan’s boots crushed loose stone into dust as he finally reached the bottom of the fissure. He immediately went on alert, his gaze darting around the cavern he’d landed in.

  If he had to guess, it was nearly 150 meters from the top of the fissure to where he now stood, and there was a chill in the air that hadn’t been present in the desert above.

  The three-meter-wide fissure had opened up during the last ten meters of the descent, revealing a large, long cavern lit by a variety of glowing vegetation. The walls were uneven, and as he looked toward either end, all he saw were natural twists and turns of a cave system. Thankfully, it looked to be natural. He’d heard stories of giant worms and didn’t want to run into one anytime soon.

  Twenty seconds later, Sonny descended the final ten meters, landing much quieter than Duncan had. The moment the wolfkin’s boots touched the floor, Duncan summoned the bow and quiver his teammate had asked him to hold onto during the descent, receiving a nod of appreciation in return.

  “Any issues?” Sonny whispered as he reattached his quiver to his back and removed an arrow to place on his bowstring.

  “Nothing yet,” Duncan replied in an equally soft voice, though he pointed at one end of the cavern. “It seems like the mana we’ve been feeling is coming from that direction.”

  Sonny nodded his head in agreement. “It’s much stronger down here. There’s no way that's coming from a prime. Even three primes together wouldn’t let off a presence like that from such a distance.”

  Phevona soon joined them, along with a clearly put-out DJ, who had one end of a steadily descending vine tied around him like a harness. The poor wolf’s ears were drooping, and he looked like he’d just had his favorite meal stolen out from under his nose.

  “He doesn’t like heights,” Sonny explained, giving his bond an understanding look as he cut the harness loose with a dagger.

  “Wow, that mana is so much stronger down here,” Phevona said, excitement clear in her voice. Her eyes shone with something Duncan didn’t think he’d ever seen from his adopted sister. Greed. Or maybe it was just the glowing vegetation causing that glint in her eyes. Speaking of…

  “Any of this stuff useful for your alchemy?” Duncan asked, waving his hand around them to indicate the cave’s sole source of light.

  “Not likely, but I can do a quick check,” Phevona said. “I can’t feel any mana coming off any of this, and I’d need tier one ingredients to make anything we’d find useful at this point.”

  They took a short break to let Phevona perform her inspection, each of them eating a quick meal of travel bars and water from the supplies Duncan was keeping in his storage.

  “Nope, nothing worth gathering at the moment,” Phevona soon confirmed. “From what I can tell, any mana these plants gather is used to increase their glowing effect. Once I get a travel alchemy set, I could maybe make some sort of light source with them, but anything I make will be worse than a simple enchanted lantern.”

  While the team lacked such a lantern due to their low starting funds, they would likely have enough money to buy one and other important items after completing their current missions. For now, if they ever needed a light source, they could still create crude torches using a combination of wood gathered from Phevona’s [Leach Trap] Ability and their fire-starting kit.

  “I don’t see a reason not to follow the mana,” Phevona said, looking at her teammates for any objections. Neither said anything to contradict her, so they returned to their usual formation and began moving through the cavern.

  They put bend after bend behind them, all the while relying on the ever-present glow of the local flora to see. The cave was dry and uninhabited up to that point in their exploration. None of them truly believed they were alone in the depths, but they’d yet to find any evidence of monsters.

  Duncan, staying on guard with a bonded shortsword in either hand, continued to put one foot in front of the other. For 20 minutes, they walked through the underground, taking every turn with caution and keeping an eye out for ambushes. There was no sky to worry about this time, but that didn’t mean there weren’t threats hanging from the ceiling or moving through unseen openings from above.

  Every step they took brought them closer to their destination. They could feel the blanket of power growing heavier with each passing minute.

  The moment he poked his head around the final corner, Duncan knew they’d found it. He immediately signaled for his companions to stop, stepping back from the turn to look back at his friends.

  “What is it?” Phevona whispered, moving forward to peek around the corner. Duncan let her go, instead signaling for Sonny and DJ to follow him back the way they’d come.

  “We found it,” Duncan said after they’d moved back three bends. “I don’t know how good the thing’s perception is. Best to be careful for now.”

  “What thing?” Sonny asked, looking over Duncan’s shoulder at Phevona, who had just arrived from taking a look for herself. She wore a complex expression. There were traces of excitement, confusion, and even a little concern.

  “A mud salamander,” Phevona said, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s a big one too. The cave opens up into a massive cavern, at least 100 meters long and 50 meters wide, with ceilings as high as the Kunora Adventurers’ Guild building is tall. There’s a pond against the far wall, and the salamander is sleeping with its body in the water and its heads laid out on the cavern floor.”

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  “Heads? Multiple?” Sonny whispered in disbelief.

  “Yeah, two of them. Certain species of salamanders can mate with hydras,” Phevona replied. “When they do, the offspring are usually salamanders with multiple heads. Like hydras, they are usually born at tier zero with one head, gaining another every tier. They advance quickly until tier four, but this one’s growth seems to have been stunted by the realm’s tier.”

  “Well, tier one or not, it's still part hydra,” Sonny complained. “How big are we talking?”

  “Its heads were both at least as big as me, if not a little bigger,” Duncan answered.

  “How in the world are we supposed to deal with that?” Sonny asked in exasperation. “Maybe if we had more Abilities, but we’re fresh off our Subject Trials. It’s probably gonna have the extreme regeneration that hydras are famous for.”

  Duncan had been thinking the same thing. The moment he’d seen the creature, he’d known it wasn’t a typical tier one prime. He hadn’t seen the creature’s full size, as most of its body had been in the pond, but the two heads sticking out of the water had been intimidating enough.

  “Normal difficulty, my tail,” Sonny muttered. “How did the Guild expect a normal party to handle this?”

  “The Guild can’t often spare their realm surveyors for low-tier temporary realms,” Phevona explained. “They likely didn’t know more than the clear task, and multiple primes usually means fewer normal monsters and more time to prepare for each fight.”

  “What’s a realm surveyor?” Duncan asked.

  “Realm surveyors have Abilities that allow them to glean more information from realm entrances,” Phevona said. “Sonny might actually get some Abilities like that from his WAYFINDER Subject, based on what he’s told me about his intent when choosing it.”

  “Yeah, that’s the goal,” Sonny confirmed. “I figured it would be useful to be able to scout out potential delves before even setting foot inside.” He paused for a moment, looking in the direction of the salamander’s lair. “Would have been useful a few hours ago, that’s for sure,” he grumbled.

  “We can’t think about that for now,” Phevona brought their attention back to the problem at hand. “We need to make a decision. Stay here and attempt to fight the salamander, or search for the other prime and leave after dealing with it. We can report what we found when we return to the Guild.”

  “Don’t you mean the other two primes?” Duncan asked. The realm’s only task had been to eliminate all three prime monsters.

  “No,” Phevona shook her head. “The Realms count a hydra as multiple beings based on the number of heads it has, so I’m betting it’s the same for something like this.”

  At that, Duncan couldn’t help but wonder if that meant the reward for killing the salamander would be doubled. He looked between his teammates, trying to gauge what they were thinking.

  It was clear Sonny was reluctant to take on the monster. Understandable, considering he didn’t have any Abilities that directly affected his potency in combat.

  On the other hand, Duncan was surprised to see Phevona clearly wanted them to take their chances. The look of greed he thought he’d seen in his sister’s eyes earlier was back, and this time he knew he wasn’t mistaken in what he was seeing.

  “Why do you look like you’ve just won an O’Leon family prank war?” Duncan asked, raising his eyebrows when Phevona began grinning at his question.

  “You didn’t see what the salamander was guarding, did you?” She asked expectantly.

  “No,” he replied. “I didn’t take more time to look than what was required to know I didn’t want to just walk in there without a plan.”

  “What did you see?” Sonny asked, his earlier reluctance replaced with curiosity.

  “The pond is a mana well.” At Duncan’s confused look, she continued. “Mana wells are locations where mana gathers naturally, causing more natural treasures and mana-rich resources to develop. Even the water would be an incredible resource for alchemy.”

  As she explained what they’d found, she looked at Duncan, her expression turning from greed to victory. “And we usually wouldn’t be able to transport much, if any, of that water, because it loses its potency extremely quickly when taken from the source. But…” She trailed off, looking pointedly at Duncan.

  “Let me guess,” Duncan said. “It doesn’t lose potency if kept in a time-locked spatial pocket.”

  “Exactly,” Phevona beamed at Duncan. “And we just so happen to have access to a rather large time-locked spatial pocket, unlike most low-tier teams.”

  “Alright, I get it. You only like me for my storage space.” Duncan grinned back at Phevona. “I’ll admit, I’m excited to see what else is in or around the pond.” His face turned serious then, followed closely by his tone. “But just because we’re excited to find some loot doesn’t mean we can actually beat the salamander. Sonny is right. How are we going to deal with that thing? It looked like it had a salamander’s hide rather than a hydra’s scales, but it’s still going to be tough to get through that with our current Abilities.”

  Phevona’s face morphed, shifting from excitement to intense contemplation. It was obvious she really wanted to loot the salamander’s lair. To be fair, Duncan did too, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to think he and his friends were invincible at their tier.

  “Well, as I see it, the main things to worry about from a defensive standpoint are its size and its heads,” Sonny began. He had the most monster knowledge in their group, especially since Duncan had been limited on Earth by what information Corvelin was willing to supply the Academy.

  “Salamanders, and even hydras for that matter, aren’t very fast for their tier. This thing’s size alone means it has to have some power behind any attacks with its claws or tail. That can be dealt with, though, especially if Phevona’s [Leach Trap]s are strong enough to restrict its movements.”

  “If we assume its size is countered by Phevona’s traps, that leaves the heads as the main issue. Some salamanders can use magic through their mouth, and if this thing is part hydra, that only makes it more likely. It’s a mud salamander, so its magic will likely be more useful for battlefield control than damage. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I don’t know.”

  Sonny looked between his friends to see if they had anything to add. “That covers our defensive problems. As far as offense goes, our best bet is to somehow cut off one head at a time. It can likely heal a lot of damage to its body, but there’s no way its regeneration will be strong enough to regrow a head at tier one.”

  First Sonny, then Phevona turned to look at the only member of their team that had any hope of dealing enough damage to cut off a giant salamander's head.

  “Can you do it?” They both asked, doubt on their faces.

  Duncan contemplated the question. When he’d left the O’Leon estate with everything that was truly his, he’d stored four swords in [Quintessential Armory]. All of them were his own creations, made from materials he’d found on monster hunts or bought with the limited money he’d earned.

  The sword he was most used to was his arming sword. Despite his lack of experience as a SWORDSMITH, the weapon had turned out well for his skill level. It was a good weapon to use when fighting other people, and it was similar enough to the sword he’d grown up using that it felt like a familiar friend in his hands.

  He’d also brought two identical shortswords, which he’d relied heavily on since he’d unlocked [Sword Kin]. The speed and quickness he gained when using the Ability on one of his shortswords were too valuable to ignore.

  Then there was the fourth sword he had stored in [Quintessential Armory]. He’d hardly used the thing since he’d made it, but sometimes you had to use the right tool for the job. Or, as Neta would have said, use the perfect sword for the occasion.

  “I can do it,” Duncan nodded, meeting his teammates’ stares with a gaze filled with complete confidence.

  “Alright,” Phevona quietly cheered, fully trusting Duncan’s declaration. The greedy look from earlier was now back on her face. “Let’s make a plan.”