It took a few hours before Naruto was satisfied, but his spending had been well worth it.
Blake had led him around Menagerie's storefronts, herself stocking up on ammunition as Naruto practically invested in his future, purchasing swaths of all kinds of ammunition and other various supplies from the stores that would sell to him. Most of which were only due to Blake applying some significant pressure.
7.62mm ammunition had been far easier to find in stock in the typical surplus store, but it had been Blake taking him to a far more industrial building on the outskirts of Kuo Kuana that Naruto realised why the stores hadn't had all that much variety to begin with.
Menagerie Arms Company, a small but successful Faunus-run weapons company located here in Kuo Kuana, their biggest claim to fame the invention of the .50 GK round.
Which, coincidentally, was the round that Predator, Naruto's sidearm PACK he'd been yet to use, was chambered in.
So, naturally, Naruto bought five-hundred rounds of it, to go with the thousand rounds of 7.62mm he'd already bought.
Unlike the vast majority of the common stores he'd bought from, however, the people at MAC were more than happy to be selling to a human, and Naruto had to imagine that was simply due to them being an international company, even if they weren't the size of many other companies.
Ruby had never mentioned them, or she might have in passing, but it was difficult to drag Ruby away from either Atlas or Vale's main armorers. The SDC-owned Frostbite Arms definitely managed to capture her attention, and Naruto owning Tranquility, one of Frostbite Arms' PACKs, he'd never been surprised her attention had remained fixated on it.
Gods, he missed Ruby. He missed all of his friends, to be fair, but he missed Ruby most of all. Being in a place like this, without her around, it felt… unnatural.
"C'mon, Blake. Let's get out of here."
Blake took one glance at her leader and decided not to press, instead calmly nodding and stepping out of the building once Naruto had finished with his transaction, inventory laden with his recently-acquired ammunition and unladen with the Lien it had cost.
In total, he'd spent 40,500 Lien on ammunition. It was a lot, definitely an investment, but his two longer-range firearms used higher calibers of ammunition, so he was expecting it. Shotgun shells were always cheaper, and he definitely didn't think he'd be spraying a hundred shells at a target.
With Sandstorm, the Light Machine Gun, he was definitely expecting it. Overwhelm the opponent with a swath of fire until they died seemed to be a good tactic, one he'd tried to use before with some of his spells.
Nothing quite had the same DPS as a LMG with a trigger-happy wielder, though.
That wasn't even mentioning Predator, which, ammunition-wise, fell more into the boat of Tranquility. If he was firing more than a single magazine at a target he was in trouble, or just had plenty of better options, or both.
It would serve as an excellent back-up weapon, however, especially for tight, close-quarters situations. Plus, it was a weapon someone else could use in a troublesome situation, even if it was bulky and unwieldy enough that it might prove difficult for anyone to wield, Aura or not.
But, even with all of that, he still kept Crocea Mors on his hip. It just didn't feel right to stop using the sword and shield. It was his heritage, his ancestry. He almost felt like it would have been an insult to do anything else.
Plus there was that mystery quest about discovering more about Crocea Mors, and that meant that he'd have to keep it equipped, just in case. He definitely didn't want to miss out on anything to do with that because he'd kept the weapon in his inventory.
The two of them were on the move, checking their weapons as they moved. They meant business, that seemed to be clear to any onlooker, as neither Blake nor Naruto were interrupted as they moved through the streets.
They'd been given the location of Dustcairn Mine, with all the directions associated. According to the surviving miners that Blake had asked - they hadn't wanted to speak to Naruto - the mine was built into the side of a large sandstone outcropping roughly half-an-hour from the edge of Kuo Kuana, which was a lucky break for all involved.
Moving tonnes of ore through hours and hours of dangerous desert day after day wasn't something Naruto would wish on anyone. Well, anyone aside from a scant few.
The sooner they managed to clear the mine, the sooner they would be able to rescue the inhabitants of Hallowed Quay.
He and Blake were of the same mind when it came to the concept that speed would be preferable in this situation.
They were close to the edge of the desert, now, far enough away from any prying eyes that may have previously been watching him. Far enough away that Naruto could bring out a summon or two, though more than that wasn't only unnecessary, but also a form of punishment. He knew that Cadejo wouldn't exactly enjoy the feeling of hot sand on his paws, summon or not.
Instead, Naruto brought forth Ishara, the dog-sized scorpion chittering quietly to herself as she twisted, checking her surroundings.
"Ishara, scout ahead, let us know if there's anything we need to deal with. Blake and I will follow along in the sky, on Shirdal."
Shirdal appeared behind the two of them as Ishara skittered off, black chitin glistening in the desert sun, and Naruto quickly clambered into the saddle, giving Blake a helping hand into sitting behind him as he ran his other hand soothingly down Shirdal's neck-feathers.
The griffon took off the moment they were ready, powerful wings pumping as they took to the skies, the desert sands beneath them becoming more and more distant, and at the same time, more and more endless. Naruto could see the dusty terrain reaching far, possibly beyond the horizon. Menagerie wasn't immense, especially not in comparison to Sanus or Solitas, but it wasn't small by any means.
"There's the mine, near that ridge!" Blake shouted out over the air that rushed past them, her finger stretching out to point at said ridge, over Naruto's shoulder, and he directed Shirdal towards it.
Beneath them, if one were to look closely, they could see the dust cloud kicked up by the skittering Ishara in her natural habitat, six locomotive legs powering along as she kept up, occasionally simply just dealing with any straggling Grimm rather than warning Naruto.
He was fine with that, she seemed to be enjoying getting to use her stinger in combat, the occasional lance of the pointed barb puncturing sand-coated chitin and straight through to the other side, and if it didn't do that, it was still injecting a rather deadly neurotoxin into the Grimm that she didn't kill on the first strike. They weren't long for the world after that.
He was getting only a small amount of XP from them, but that was about it. A quirk of the System, or some kind of deliberate limitation he didn't know, but he wasn't concerned. It made sense that his summons' kills weren't going to give him much experience, if he considered how experience worked on a more lore-oriented basis.
Shirdal was headed downwards now, swooping towards the mine, and already details were becoming clearer, the heat-haze that permeated the air not necessarily clearing up, but at least becoming less defined with the distance between the objects and his own eyes.
Objects such as the overturned, half-destroyed open-topped truck that still had liquid Dust-fuel in a pool around the fuel tank. Not something he'd want to mess with even on a good day. That was a bomb waiting to go off if he wasn't careful with his shots, but more importantly, it was a symbol.
A symbol that things inside were not going to be any better inside than outside. In fact, they were most likely going to be worse. To be fair, it wasn't exactly surprising, that fact, but having a blatant confirmation was still a bit of a shock.
Naruto still wasn't used to the world. His family had kept him sheltered almost his entire life, and that sheltering had made him long to escape it, to experience the world, to be a hero like the ones he'd heard so many stories about.
Now, having spent so long out there, out in the world… he realised the truth.
Life out here, Menagerie especially, was cruel. It was a harsh, cruel mistress that beat those that rose too high back down to the ground.
Naruto slid from the saddle as they neared the ground, boots pounding against compacted sand, finding what had once been a concrete platform underneath, now windswept and sand-covered from the most recent sandstorm. The security building had a layer of dust and sand built up inside, the door half-open, and a large dune had formed against the side of it, covering one of the windows.
Blake hopped off Shirdal as the griffon unsummoned himself, no longer needed at that moment, and quickly moved off to the side, inspecting the cabin of the overturned truck. "No-one in here, dead or alive. Either it was empty during the attack, or the driver bailed when it tipped."
"Probably empty, if I had to guess," Naruto remarked. "Can't imagine you'd give away an off-road truck to try and escape on foot. Besides, the keys are in the security checkpoint, I can see them from here."
Blake hummed noncommittally, attention already elsewhere. "No footprints, must've been blown away. Annoying, but expected."
Naruto was already moving towards the opening of the mine. "Doesn't matter, I guess. We're here to clear the place out, not reverse-engineer what happened. Ishara's already inside."
Blake nodded and gestured to Naruto. "Lead the way."
He did so, taking a step onto firm, well-worn wooden planks and taking the steps two at a time, Tranquility raised and shouldered, just in case Ishara had missed something.
Ishara had missed something, though what she'd missed was neither Grimm, nor her fault.
[Dungeon Discovered!]
[Raid: Dustcairn Mine!]
[0/5 Floors Cleared!]
Well, at least there weren't as many floors as the Hallowed Bay. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.
Knowing him, though? Probably not.
Speed, as he'd previously stated, was of the essence. The two of them moved with trained efficiency, clearing branching tunnels and expansive corridors of sandy stone, Blake's enhanced senses and Naruto's own brand of Sixth Sense allowing them to effectively sweep through the first floor without too much hassle, the only threat being a cluster of Arachnae, five of them, that had descended from the ceiling of one of the tunnels.
They found them last, and Naruto decided, from prior experience, he wasn't going to wait and see how they'd attack.
He discovered very quickly that no matter the level, in this case 60, Tranquility packed one hell of a punch when he pulled the trigger with the barrel practically level with the target.
One pull of the trigger turned one Arachnae into a black mess against the wall, and Gambol Shroud's sheath quickly carved another into two rapidly dissolving pieces.
Of course, there were still three more, thankfully Naruto hadn't lost his ability to count, and the closest leapt towards him, an attempted bite failing as it instead latched onto Tranquility's suppressor as Naruto finished racking the slide.
It was safe to say the third didn't last much longer as it ate an entire shell's worth of buckshot.
The fourth lost a leg to a shot from Blake, but its survival lasted all of about half-a-second as Naruto quickly stepped forward, slamming his boot down on it as he dispensed one final shell into the fifth, leaving yet another black stain on the wall. He definitely didn't envy the small, weaker Arachnae, and had to be thankful it wasn't the much bigger Alpha variants, or worse.
They were still worth a half-decent amount of XP, possibly due to the ambush-predator nature of them. That venom was dangerous, no matter their size, he supposed, so that would make sense.
[Dustcairn Mine: Floor 1 Cleared!]
[A reward has appeared at the entrance!]
[You've gained 1,260,000 XP and 9,900 Lien! You've acquired 6 Inert Dust, 1 Arachnae Gland and 3 Arachnae Skulls!]
He absorbed the information from the notifications quickly, not pausing to really delve into them in any depth, not that he necessarily had to, and kept moving, slinging Tranquility over his shoulder for a moment as he quickly used the makeshift wooden ladder to lower himself further down into the carved sandstone mine, dropping the last few feet and landing with a firm thud, Blake not only right on his heels, but also landing far softer. He had a couple clever comments he could make, but he kept them to himself, instead deciding to marvel at the large excavation site in front of him. It was, as the rest of the mine had been so far, mostly sandstone, with wooden platforms constructed to give the place a makeshift look, certain spots looking darker than the rest of the stone, flecked with a variety of colors.
"I guess that's all the ore," Naruto mentioned, loading a couple new shells into Tranquility as he did so, keeping one eye on his surroundings.
Blake didn't seem to care about the unrefined metal ore in the walls, her attention already focused on a darker section on the far side. "Grimm. A group of Creep. It's like they're… feeding."
Well, that captured Naruto's attention. He'd never heard of Grimm feeding on anything aside from the odd body for the fun of it. He figured he should clarify. "What are they feeding on?"
Blake took a step closer, a confused-yet-concerned expression gracing her face. "It… it looks like they're feeding on the stone?"
She said it like she wasn't quite sure of that fact, despite seeing it with her own eyes, and Naruto shrugged. It didn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things, and he had enough mysteries on his plate already.
He quickly folded Tranquility up, affixing it to the mag-plate that was sewn into the shoulder of his coat, freeing up his hands for a more magical approach.
The Creep cluster were still yet to notice either of them, and Naruto wanted to take advantage of that fact, edging closer and closer to where they were feasting, one arm outstretched, hand splayed, waiting for the moment they noticed him.
He was almost surprised when they didn't notice his approach, but he was soon to change that fact, aiming carefully at the largest of the Creep, one of the Alpha, he presumed.
He pulled the metaphorical, mental trigger, and a Mana Bullet departed from his fingertips, streaking through the somewhat-dusty air and smacking against the largest form of the Alpha Creep, the one at the far end of the ore chunk that they were feasting upon.
It had all of a single moment to consider its options before Naruto left it with a smoking hole in its head, the Grimm keeling over with a rapidly-halted roar that cut off as quickly as it started, almost like a rage-filled exclamation of surprise.
It was accompanied by a slight ding that only Naruto could hear, indicating he'd landed a devastatingly useful critical hit on the enemy. That only left, by his quick count, 10 of the smaller Creep, and the 1 remaining Alpha Creep.
Nothing he and Blake couldn't handle, or so he hoped. If one of them decided to actually be some kind of Grimm god masquerading as a lowly Creep in some half-baked dungeon in the middle of the Menagerie Desert he was going to be a little mad.
The other Creep performed a joint performance of the previously-interrupted roar, stubby legs propelling them towards Naruto and, subsequently, Blake, gaping maws revealing blackness with bright red tongues, and Naruto quickly took a step back, just out of reach of the first bite-leap combo, Crocea Mors flickering up to deliver a painful retort, more out of habit than any actual choice. It just felt right in his hands, what could he say?
In the midst of the beginning of combat, there wasn't really anything he would have had the time to say, even if he'd prepared to say it or not. Creep may not have been intimidating on their own, but a whole group of them, incensed by the death of one of their own, that was a different story. Ten jaws, or rather nine jaws and one larger jaw, snapped at his heels, his ankles, his knees, his arms; him, in summary.
Naruto wasn't having any of it.
He swung with only the kind of vicious intensity and strength that a Hunter under attack from Grimm ever could, Aura flowing like blood through his muscles as he strained, watching in satisfaction as the first of the remaining Creep fell, Crocea Mors biting through the exposed inner workings of the closest of the cluster, his fist reaching out in a surprising follow-up to the blade, delivering a Mana Blast that blew the remaining nine back, most of them dazed.
The only one that hadn't been nearly killed by the Mana Blast was the second and final Alpha, which had recovered spectacularly well, already lunging for his exposed neck.
Well, more exposed. Naruto wasn't exactly ever defenseless, outside of a few extraneous circumstances, but he didn't retaliate, already aware of the swift end the Alpha was about to experience as it bled out on the end of Gambol Shroud's blade, moments away from kicking the ever-proverbial bucket.
Naruto delivered a swift finisher to the still-grouped remaining Creep, a half-hearted toss of a Mana Grenade proving to be as effective as the spell's real-world counterpart, a blast of arcane energy leaving chunks of stubby Grimm over the nearby rock, splattering even more black blood over the wooden structures.
[Dustcairn Mine: Floor 2 Cleared!]
[A reward has appeared at the entrance!]
[You've gained 352,814 XP and 9,240 Lien! You've acquired 10 Inert Dust, 3 Creep Hides, 1 Alpha Creep Hide, 5 Creep Bones, 1 Alpha Creep Bone, 2 Creep Skulls, 2 Crimson Keys, 1 Citrine Key and 1 Cobalt Key!]
Another reward at the surface, huh? Naruto had a couple reasons in mind as to why that would be, but he stowed those thoughts away, deciding instead to focus on the task at hand.
Which, at the present moment, was descending further into the mine, into the hastily-hewn tunnel that lay directly in front of the two Hunters, the rickety wooden supports doing nothing for Naruto's rapidly waning courage.
Sure, he could carve stone with his bare hands, but that didn't mean he wanted to do it at threat of death. He didn't think he could survive a cave-in, even with the arsenal at his disposal.
Combining that with the scaling threats, however small in comparison to the only previous dungeon he'd been in, he knew it was only going to get harder from here.
"Ladies first?" Naruto ventured.
Blake just stared.
"Up ahead, past the excavator wreck."
Blake's voice snapped his attention away from loose thoughts, and Naruto quickly withdrew an arrow from his quiver, hooking it into the bowstring, holding Telum at the ready.
"Grimm?" He whispered the question as quietly as he could manage, trusting Blake's physical proof of her heritage to pick up his words.
She did, a shake of her head indicating a negative. "Not that I can make out. A person, though I think they're dead."
Naruto accepted the grim fact with a small sigh. He wasn't a fan of loss of life, that was for sure, but there was nothing he could do now. "Any idea what kind of Grimm killed them?"
Blake shook her head once more. "Not from this distance, but I can get closer. We're going to have to get closer, actually, it's the only way forward."
Naruto nodded, following close behind as the two advanced, step by step, taking it slow. If there were Grimm hiding nearby, Naruto didn't really want to blunder into them without any preparation. He'd learned his lesson, after it had been drilled into his head a thousand times. From the Emerald Forest to Mountain Glenn to deep within the Hallowed Bay, Naruto had experienced that particular blunder so many times. Too many times, if he was being honest.
He kept his head on a swivel, as his father used to say, whilst Blake investigated the body. "Puncture wounds, but not bites, and discoloration under the skin. From what I remember from Port's lectures, we're dealing with something with a stinger. Definitely venomous."
Naruto couldn't help the sigh that escaped him. "Great. I love the venomous ones. Deathstalker?"
"If it is, it isn't too big. Definitely not as big as the one from our Initiation." Blake stood back up, checking the chamber on Gambol Shroud. "All we have to do now is find it."
"Shouldn't be too hard," Naruto remarked, before immediately regretting his statement. Why did he constantly feel the need to test his luck?
"You know you're inviting remarkably painful irony, right?" Blake asked him, quirking one eyebrow.
Another sigh. "Yeah, I know. The universe just does it to spite me, I think."
"To be fair, I'm pretty sure your semblance is directly spiting the universe on any given day."
"True," Naruto replied. His next witty comment died on his lips as Blake held up a hand to silence him, and he crouched lower, sighting down Telum in the direction his teammate was pointing.
He couldn't see anything, as dark as the corner was, devoid of any of the still-active lamps that haphazardly littered the tunnel, so he quickly channelled Mana into his eyes, activating Mana Sight.
It didn't make him see in the dark, unfortunately, but it did at the very least help him when whatever was there did come into view, a yellow-highlighted leg passing within his vision, and quickly the yellow spread, coating the shape of a dog-sized Deathstalker, nearly the same size as Ishara.
He could see it now, tagged as it was by Mana Sight, but he had to guess there was more than one, from the way it moved.
He had a bright idea, slowly letting the bowstring return to its default position, placing the arrow back in his quiver silently.
"I'm going to toss a Mana Flash," Naruto whispered to Blake, warning her of the impending lightshow. "Once it goes off, we need to attack quickly, take advantage of the guaranteed critical hits."
Guaranteed critical hits that he hoped would come into play by delaying the stealth attack with a Mana Flash. He had no actual evidence that it would work how he was saying it would, but it made a certain amount of sense in his head. He was still in stealth as long as he wasn't spotted, right?
Naruto waited a beat as Blake quickly placed her arms over her human ears, cat ears tucked tightly down on her head, eyes shut tight, and then he threw, the Mana Flash arcing over until it thwacked against the wall behind the two Deathstalkers that he could now see, and he shut his eyes.
The Mana Flash went off in a blast of concussive sound and luminescent light, and the ungodly screeches and chitters of two blinded, deafened Deathstalkers filled the tunnel.
Blake and Naruto moved like how they were trained to, Gambol Shroud and Telum pointed towards the targets that Naruto could now see in a very clear red outline, names and HP bars projected above their heads as Mana Sight worked alongside Observe.
His arrow shot forth from Telum, the bow adding an incredible amount of power to the projectile, and Naruto watched in no slight amount of awe as it went straight through the front of the nearest Alpha Deathstalker, the ding of a critical hit sounding out to only Naruto's ears as he watched the health-bar drop down significantly quickly, going from 27,450 HP to 0 HP in a matter of moments.
His eyes strayed to Blake's attack, where the blade of Gambol Shroud punctured the chitin, causing the other Alpha Deathstalker to screech in pain, thrashing about as Naruto's second arrow hit it under the plating on the left pincer's joint.
It died not nearly as quickly as the first, stealth having been dropped for Naruto after his first shot, and Blake's attack having not done quite enough damage to kill it instantly, but as it writhed and twitched, Blake withdrew her blade, flicking it free of black blood. "Good shot."
Naruto gave his teammate a quick smile, before he found his attention distracted by the sudden notification.
[Dustcairn Mine: Floor 3 Cleared!]
[A reward has appeared at the entrance!]
[You've gained 2,083,858 XP and 10,736 Lien! You've acquired 17 Inert Dust, 5 Alpha Deathstalker Eyes and 1 Grade III Water Dust Crystal!]
[You have leveled up to Level 63 and gained +5 Stat Points!]
"Hey, Blake, I got a Dust Crystal!" Naruto announced. With this he could get a new elemental. At least, if he had the required Soul Orbs, which he had to imagine he could at least create.
Blake gave a non-committal 'mmhmm', turning to look at her disintegrating handiwork, face rapidly blanching. "Naruto… these are all bodies."
Naruto joined Blake in paling rapidly taking a step around to peer into the gap where the Alpha Deathstalkers had come from.
It was less of a gap and more of a breach in the sandstone, cracked and scorched from what looked like mining explosives, dark up until a certain point, where light seemed to shine in from the other end of the short passage.
However, that wasn't what captured either Hunters' attentions. The numerous bodies of miners did. One fox faunus was disemboweled on the left wall, another bear faunus, or what was left of a bear faunus, shredded on the right. A lizard faunus of some kind was missing their lower legs, and Naruto could make out their tail on the opposite side to where they lay.
"Shit," Naruto muttered, Blake already turning away, fighting the urge to throw up. System Mind had triggered the moment he'd looked, but Blake didn't have that advantage, and he placed one reassuring hand on her back, making small circles as she evacuated her stomach's contents onto the stone.
Once Blake had recovered enough to speak, she did so, still avoiding turning back to facing the tunnel. "We need to give them a burial, or something. We can't just let these bodies sit here."
Naruto couldn't agree more. "I'll do what I can. It won't be much, but it's better than letting anyone else see this."
He stepped over to the passage. "Is there something I should say?"
Blake shook her head. "Words would never be enough."
All the same, Naruto wasn't going to let them go without at least something. "I'm sorry."
Terrakinesis took ahold of the sandstone, and with some effort Naruto moved it, twisting it into place, encasing the corpses, leaving the passage itself without much reminder of what had happened.
He repeated his apology and his earth-shaping with the lone body from before, dusting his hands off, sand dropping from his palms. "We need to keep moving."
Blake nodded. "I'm okay, now. I just…" Never one for words, she stopped herself. "I'm ready."
The two of them moved deeper still, stepping into the now empty passage.
Despite the despair that lingered in his mind, Naruto couldn't help but be both startled and amazed as to what was on the other side of the small passage.
The light had been a little confusing, but originally Naruto had assumed it simply came from one of the Dust lanterns that populated the mine. Stepping through, however, proved that to be not only wrong, but so far off from the truth that it was almost unbelievable.
"How is this even possible?" Blake asked, one arm stretched up to cover her face from the bright light.
It was a gigantic cavern, entirely encased in sandstone, as the rest of Dustcairn Mine had been, but that was where the similarities ended. Instead of sand on the ground, there was thick, lush grass, large green trees jutting out from multiple places, creating what was effectively an underground forest. The light was the second-most interesting part of the cavern, just in front of the greenery.
It was a gigantic Dust crystal in the ceiling, glowing furiously, illuminating the cavern and casting incredibly detailed shadows onto the ground.
The most interesting part of this large cavern was the gigantic tree trunk at the far end that seemed to stretch into the roof, ancient wood nearly petrified from age. It was distant, surprisingly so, and Naruto knew it would take at least a few minutes to reach if there weren't any obstacles in their path. With the thicket of trees on all sides, however, that wasn't going to happen.
"This place is incredible," Naruto uttered, eyes wide with disbelief. How a place like this could even exist was beyond him.
He soon caught sight of the walls of the cavern, noticing something. "Blake, those pillars of sandstone are carved. Either the miners decided to become stonemasons, or…"
"Or someone created this place. Incredible," She finished his thought, looking at one of the closer pillars. "Who could've made a place such as this, though?"
Naruto didn't have an answer. "Maybe Doctor Oobleck would have an explanation. Or an aneurysm," He added, a rueful smile crossing his face. "I'm not sure we could keep up with him to find out, though."
"Any bet on our destination being that tree trunk?"
Naruto let out a small laugh. "No bet. It's practically given us an invite." His gaze lowered somewhat as the reality of the situation reaffirmed itself in his mind. "Keep your eyes open. Whatever killed those miners is still here, somewhere. There was no way a couple Deathstalkers could do that much damage."
Almost by habit, Blake checked the chamber of Gambol Shroud, nodding to herself, content that a round was in fact loaded. "You should send out a summon, get us a bird's eye view."
Naruto nodded. "Good call. Apollo, you heard Blake."
Apollo appeared in a singular moment, taking flight with ease, powerful wings beating as he took to the sky, his form casting a shadow across the landscape.
Naruto closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his Bound Senses and Soul Scout to activate as usual. Apollo would let him know if he saw anything, and he had complete faith in the Nevermore-soul's ability to do so.
Of course, Apollo couldn't see through trees, so he needed a more land-based scout. "Cadejo, wanna help out?"
The wolf formed quickly, Naruto reaching out to run his fingers through Cadejo's fur, almost out of habit. Not that the wolf minded. "Keep an eye out for anything interesting, or hostile. Blake and I need to clear this place out. Bark if you find something."
Cadejo gave a quiet half-'woof', turning and bounding into the undergrowth, padded paws and remarkable mobility making short work of the terrain.
Blake was patiently waiting, and he turned to her, gesturing his head. "C'mon, let's get moving. As amazing as this place is, I want to get out of here as soon as possible."
"Finally, something we agree on."
Naruto rolled his eyes as he reached into his inventory, withdrawing Predator, placing it on the mag-plate on his hip, returning Telum and its quiver back into his inventory. Sue him, he wanted to experiment.
He kept his hand on the large sidearm, his other hand free to cast spells if necessary, and began walking, ducking under the lower branches, Blake close behind.
It wasn't hard going, by any stretch, but their pace was still significantly hampered. They could move, but not freely, restricted by both the undergrowth and the branches above it. Pushing through took effort and slowed them down, but even still, they were making progress.
Strangely, neither Apollo nor Cadejo had spotted anything hostile, and Naruto was worried. Blake hadn't mentioned hearing anything, and his Sixth Sense hadn't triggered at any point, but there had to be something out here. He hadn't seen any quote-unquote skill checks, as he'd tentatively named them, such as the locked door in the Hallowed Bay, but he wasn't entirely sure.
His nerves were starting to get to him. Shadows in the bushes that didn't exist flickered by his eyes. A sound to his left had him reaching for Predator, but there was nothing there, and Blake hadn't heard a thing.
There was something… wrong, with this place. Down here, something felt almost unnatural. Like it wasn't supposed to exist. The feeling was pervasive, he could feel it down in his very bones, and yet Blake seemed unfazed by it.
There was something following them. Naruto sensed it before anything else, the unnatural feeling ramping up to a level that was making him physically sweat. He could feel his perspiring brow against the back of his hand as he wiped his face clear, eyes going wide the moment he moved his arm.
He moved as fast as he physically could, a Flash Step taking him just far enough out of the way that the Grimm missed, but only just by a fraction. If he hadn't felt it, sensed it, he'd have taken those razor sharp claws directly to the face.
Blake snapped her aim up, squeezing the trigger, but the Grimm was already gone. Naruto had barely had a moment to Observe it before it disappeared back into the undergrowth.
[Elder Bashenga]
[Grimm, Rare, Level 61]
[HP: 36,600/36,600]
Naruto didn't know what a Bashenga was until today. It honestly resembled some kind of Grimm panther, with sparse Grimmbone plating on it. It was also, without a doubt, one of the more terrifying Grimm Naruto had ever gone up against.
Not because it looked intimidating, it looked like any other Grimm, really, but the fact that not only could he not hear it, see it or do anything but sense the latent negativity it was exuding, but Blake couldn't pick it up at all, even with her incredible senses.
Even his own Sixth Sense hadn't picked it up, and it was really only thanks to dumb luck and his improved reaction speed that he'd managed to get out of the way.
It was stalking them, waiting for the right moment to strike, the right angle to catch them in surprise.
And he had no idea where it was.
His finger rested against the trigger guard of Predator, his stance lowered, other hand ready. Blake did much the same, keeping her center of mass lower towards the ground, the sheath of Gambol Shroud in one hand and the rest of the weapon in the other.
They waited a moment, eyes tracking across the plant life in a vain hope that they would catch sight of the predator that stalked them, to no avail.
It was effectively invisible. Or it had departed. Naruto wasn't sure which, but erring on the side of caution seemed like the smarter play.
"Stay close," Naruto whispered as he began to move, pushing through the thicket carefully. "If that thing comes at us again and we don't see it…"
Blake didn't need any explanation as to what might happen. She'd seen plenty of evidence prior. "I'm right behind you."
A bark sounded through the underground forest, cutting off halfway as the noise was snuffed out. Naruto felt a sharp pain in his forehead, feeling Cadejo unwillingly return to him. Naruto nearly retched, the feeling of pain lancing through his body without doing any actual, physical damage.
Blake paled. "Is Cadejo-"
Naruto shook his head. "He's okay, thank the gods. He was sent away, not killed. Hurts like hell, though. We need to kill this bastard." He voiced the final part with a harsh growl to his voice, frustration and anger leaching into it.
Blake understood that feeling all too well, giving her leader a sharp nod. She was so used to being the predator that she'd honestly forgotten what it felt like to be stalked like this. It was aggravating, knowing it was out there somewhere, and being unable to do anything about it.
"It's coming closer," Naruto muttered, feeling the cold sweat break out once more. "Fast."
Blake didn't know how Naruto could tell. There was no sound, no visual cue that might lead him to think that, but he had quite a bit more going on under the surface, so she imagined it was some kind of skill.
Naruto knew better, of course. This was just his Sixth Sense picking up on latent hatred rather than any actual sensation.
The Bashenga burst from the trees above them, catching the two off-guard, even if they had been expecting an attack. Verticality hadn't been in the cards until the Bashenga pulled it off, and Naruto quickly enacted his hastily-thought-out plan.
His Mana Field wasn't going to be enough to completely halt the Elder Bashenga's attack, but it would be enough to at the very least block the vast majority of the damage, and possibly disorient the beast, because Naruto wasn't just creating a regular old Mana Field.
He didn't remember ever trying this before, and he had to wonder why, as his Lightning Infused Mana Field crackled into reality, sparks of arcane lightning lancing off and leaving scorch marks on the ground.
The Elder Bashenga, mid-air as it was, could do nothing to dodge, and committed to the strike, shattering the magical dome beneath its claws, the discharge of electricity jolting it's foreleg.
It hit the ground hard on three legs, making to leap away once more, but a round from Predator caught it in the left hind leg, the same side as the foreleg that was limp from the Lightning Infused Mana Field, preventing it from making the leap as it fell on one side, knocked off balance from the high-caliber round as it ripped through the flesh.
The Elder Bashenga rolled with it, though, attempting its best to get clear, but Blake quickly pounced, a devastating blow from her cleaver-sheath cutting straight through the already weakened rear limb, severing it with a spray of black arterial blood.
Naruto ignored the spray even as it hit him in the face, stepping close and unloading three shots into the Grimm's head, watching in grim satisfaction as each round hammered home, leaving the creature's head a mess, the final shot ringing out through the forest, accompanied by a quiet ding, the critical hit indicator.
Both of them slumped backwards, adrenaline still pumping through their veins.
If Naruto had been a split-second too late, it would have been bad. Very, very bad. Possibly lethal, though Blake was in far more danger that Naruto was of being one-shot. He knew his Aura was significantly more than Blake's, simply just from the array of perks he had at his disposal. He'd have to see about fixing that, or at least doing something to help out. Another thing to add to his to-do list.
[Dustcairn Mine: Floor 4 Cleared!]
[A reward has appeared at the entrance!]
[You've gained 2,083,900 XP and 6,710 Lien! You've acquired 17 Inert Dust, 1 Elder Bashenga Claw, 1 Elder Bashenga Pelt and 1 Crimson Key!]
[You have leveled up to Level 64 and gained +5 Stat Points!]
More notifications, more items, more levels. All in a day's work, he guessed. Not an easy day, by any stretch, and not a day that was done. There was more to investigate, and that gigantic, near-petrified tree trunk was calling him. There was something in there, there had to be.
First, though…
"Let's… let's take a break."
Never had Blake agreed with Naruto faster.
It was a makeshift camp, no doubt about that, but Naruto was proud of it all the same. Terrakinesis continued to prove its use as a utility skill, flattening the ground out, pushing much of the thicket back to give them some space, and leaving only soft grass atop, a raised stone dais serving as a table, two empty ration packs sitting on it.
It wasn't the most delicious of lunches, but what it lacked in taste it made up for in sustenance.
Considering one of them was chicken and the other had been tuna until Blake had gotten a hold of it, Naruto could say it was at least satisfying, but that was more from the exertion and less from the food itself.
The other side of the table was occupied by Blake, who was doing field maintenance on Gambol Shroud, the slide of the firearm detached from the rest of the weapon, amber eyes inspecting it for damage.
Naruto ran another hand through Cadejo's fur, the wolf having been resummoned just to relax. He owed him some rest, at the very least, and definitely some pampering.
Which, for Cadejo, was just giving him attention in the form of pats, rubs and scratches. Occasionally a belly rub, if Cadejo was feeling like it.
Blake replaced the slide onto Gambol Shroud. "I'm done. We can keep going now."
Naruto yawned as he stretched, causing Blake to do the same. "The sooner we're done, the better. This place is making me tired," He said, dismissing Cadejo and quickly checking he had everything he wanted equipped on his available mag-plates.
Predator on his right hip, Crocea Mors, in sheath, on his left hip. He was still undecided on his shoulder mag-plates, though. "Blake, should I take Telum, or should I try out Sandstorm?"
Blake shrugged. "Might as well, I guess. You can always switch back if you need to."
Blake, as usual, made an excellent point, and Naruto quickly equipped Sandstorm on his left shoulder, wincing slightly as the weight hit him. He was more than strong enough to carry it, of course, but that didn't mean it wasn't a pain in the ass.
He finished off by equipping Tranquility on his right shoulder, just to see if balancing the weight would make it feel any better. It didn't, but it was the thought that counted.
He did like the idea of being fully equipped, though, or as equipped as he could be at the moment. He still had room to get mag-plates put on his clothing, if he wanted. Now wasn't the time to be considering those ideas, though. Now was, instead, time to be restarting their trek through bushes, trees and other plant-life towards a giant semi-petrified tree trunk to find whatever it was that was near/at-the-top/inside it.
Man his life was strange without context.
Apollo was still in the air, maintaining his orbit, and Naruto used the link he shared with his summons to orient himself, once again beginning his pathfinding, one foot in front of the other as he pushed his way through the nearest branches, Blake close behind.
They weren't too far, thankfully, and less than five minutes passed before they reached their destination, the tree stretching out far above them. Without forest-cover, Naruto could actually see it clearly, and most prominent was the distinctive door-shaped door nearly half-way up the trunk.
"I think we've gotta go up there."
Blake glanced up, the glare of the giant glowing Dust crystal making her squint. "Looks like it. Are we climbing?"
"I mean, you can, if you want. I've got a couple ideas, if you'd be willing to stick around."
"If your idea doesn't involve having Apollo fly us up to the top I'm not staying."
Naruto slumped. "Aw. I had so many plans."
"Weiss is right, you are like a child. Fine, let me hear one."
Naruto pondered for a moment, looking up. "Well, if I use Surface Walk and carry you-"
"Not happening."
Naruto filed that idea under 'maybe', and continued to think. "What if I launch us into the air with Terrakinesis?"
"Wouldn't it just be easier to make an elevator out of the ground rather than a launchpad?"
"Huh. Amendment; I use Terrakinesis to lift us to the doorway. Sound good?"
Blake let out a slight chuckle, before her eyes wandered to the base of the trunk. "Naruto, if this tree is petrified, wouldn't you be able to shape it? Why not just make some stairs?"
It was a question that hadn't occurred to him, so he took a step closer, resting one palm against it, willing Terrakinesis to begin controlling the petrified wood, just so he could get a grasp of the situation. "It's not all petrified, only the top-most layer. I could probably make some stairs, but it'll take a bit of time."
He willed Terrakinesis to begin doing just that, stone panels extruding from the surface, creating a 'floating' staircase that would make interior designers salivate.
Blake tested her weight, finding them more than sturdy enough to take two of her, and began climbing, Naruto trailing right behind, one hand maintaining contact with the petrified wood as they began scaling the side.
It wasn't too far up to actually travel, and they arrived in a short time, not even having to double-back on themselves with the stairs. For a moment he'd been worried about that, but it seemed to work out conveniently for the two of them.
Blake stepped up onto the ledge first, and Naruto clambered up after her, taking a look at the doorway.
"I can honestly say that I wasn't expecting this," Blake remarked, and Naruto couldn't help but agree. After all that effort, all the pain, suffering, all the trials and tribulations of getting this far, to be faced with this was almost a slap in the face.
"It's just a big wooden room with a chest in it," Naruto stated, as if saying it would change it. "An Opal Chest, looks like."
He took a tentative step inside, as if worried that it might explode, but there was nothing. "I don't even see somewhere for something to hide, unless it's small enough to hide behind the chest. Are you seeing anything, Blake?"
Blake shook her head. "Seems a bit anticlimactic, in my opinion. Not that I'm complaining."
Naruto shrugged. "Well, the chest doesn't have a lock on it, at least. That's something. I'm going to see what's inside."
Blake stepped inside behind him, one hand still on her weapon. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
Naruto shrugged. "Can't see why it would be a bad one. If anything, opening it is probably the trigger for a Grimm to appear from somewhere."
He stepped close, kneeling down and flipping the lid on the chest, reaching into the shadowy depths like usual.
Naruto's hand touched the bottom.
"Wha-"
The sharpened edges of the lid shut on his arm in an instant, and Naruto screamed.