Chapter 52
The rest of the day was taken easy. While Lamy and Aloe secluded themselves to figure out what sort of spells the succubus 'inherited' from Nislak, the rest decided to look around. The first stop they dropped by was Pekora's workshop.
"Konpeko, Konpeko, welcome to- hello! What brings you here again?" the artificer greeted them the moment they stepped inside, "Have you found either material?"
"Not really… but, we have this basilisk eye," said Botan as she held up a squishy, leaking glob.
She made a face and pointed to the stairs, angrily saying, "Drop it down the toilet! Go!"
As the lion girl hurried upstairs, the rabbit princess turned back to the other two and asked calmly, "Okay, so any reasonable requests? And one at a time. Enchanters can't do multiple at a time and an artificer isn't all that different."
"Umm, I guess… me?" piped up Nene as she stepped forward with her rapier, "Can you enchant my rapier?"
"Yes, I can!" she declared. Then, she asked, "While I'm handling this, do you have a back… wait, you still have Anya, so I guess you're covered. Okay, come back in five days and I'll be done."
"Uh… alright, I suppose," the bard replied hesitantly as she handed over the rapier.
"It will be fine," she assured with a grin.
After saying goodbye, they headed off to the market to look around. There weren't that many things interesting even though they found many different kinds of adventuring gear for sale. There was one minor altercation with a pickpocket but Polka had that handled well enough as she took back her money pouch.
"What do we do now?" asked the lion girl after they left the market.
"Well, it's getting late so meet up with the others at Chicken's Delight?" suggested the fennec fox girl.
"Yes!" the lore bard agreed with a grin.
"So, we figured out a few spells today," Lamy told the rest as they took in their meal, "She has a bit of each; healing, disease removal, freedom of movement. A very good range of things."
"That's great," exclaimed Nene before taking a cut of lamb.
"Erm, we also almost blew out the walls of the house," Aloe admitted sheepishly, "I think I also got something like your explosion of sound, Nene."
"That can help quite a bit," praised Botan, sounding impressed, "Sounds like the spells are all over the place. I guess we're lucky that we didn't stick we fought her."
"Yeah, and after all that, from what I can feel in my head, I have one spell left," stated the succubus with a frown.
"No worries," assured the cleric after taking a mouthful of her drink, "I shall pray for guidance tonight and perhaps I shall be given some insight as to how to help identify that spell."
With all that settled, they moved on to other topics to go along with their dinner, including their meeting with Pekora. After everything edible and drinkable was polished off, they went back to the dorms to turn in for the night. However, sleep was not fitful.
The sound of water dripping was quite loud, loud enough to wake Nene. She sat up with a start and was surprised to find herself on a warm, sandy floor. She was in a cave illuminated with glowing green moss over its walls. Gingerly, she got to her feet and looked around. She spied a foggy exit to the cave, the wisps of fog flowing out from the bottom of the entrance. As she took steps near it, she could see the wisps of smoke flowing out and dissipating into the air.
"Woah, do I go through?" she wondered aloud in surprise and wariness. Yet, something inside her was telling her to step into the foggy barrier, even if her instincts were telling her to be careful.
After some contemplation, she made her decision and stepped into the fog. Suddenly, she found herself seated at a large table with all her friends, with a teacup and saucer in front of each of them. Around them was an inky void dotted with twinkling lights. And the person serving them tea was Priestess Ina'nis.
"Hello, and thank you for coming to my tea party," she greeted as she poured the tea for the surprised party members.
"Er… you're welcome?" muttered Polka.
"Humu, humu," the priestess sounded as she set the teapot down and took her place at the head of the table. Clasping her hands and placing them on the table, she then said, "Now, I wish to ask for your help. There-"
"Apologies for the interruption, but should you not go through the guild?" asked Lamy, getting over her surprised state, "It might be possible to request certain groups through the guild."
"Perhaps," she replied with a nod but proceeded to explain, "However, sending a request from here to Silicasa will take a long time. My request to you has a certain urgency to it. Now, on the main continents, there is a hidden place southwest of the main cities where my cult seals things we prefer not to see the light of day. If you intend to ask, the one near Rivirapolis is still sealed. However, the one near Silicasa has been broken into. I do not know who, but I believe the intruders have died due to the traps and guardians placed there."
"What was sealed in there?" asked Botan.
"I shall have to dig further through the records to find out what was sealed there," she informed them, taking a sip of her tea, "If you can find any clues to what was there, that will help me to figure that out. So, will you please go there and cleanse it, so that it can be reused again? Then perhaps, we can reseal what was in there in the first place."
"Alright, we'll do it!" declared Nene as she stood up, her chair tipping over and falling on the ground.
"That itself is a little worrying," muttered Aloe softly at the same time. Then, she asked in a louder tone, "Well, like she said, we'll do it. When do we start?"
The priestess chuckled and said with an eerie smile, "Right now, of course. After you wake up. Oh, and succubus? Your last spell is for dispelling magic. Goodbye."
Nene woke up with a start. She was thankful to find herself in her own bed in the dorm room. She took a deep breath and thought back to what she dreamed last night.
"Was it all real?" she questioned herself as she got up and headed to the toilet.
She found herself lining up to use it with the others. Granted, while this was a dorm, there was only one toilet. However, she took this chance to question the others.
"Hey, Aloe, I had a dream last night and-"
"Creepy dream," the succubus immediately stated as the others looked at the two, "Unfortunately, I think it was real." With a shudder, she continued, "There were a few times when she was talking, I thought I saw shadows moving about her. Shadows darker than what was around us."
"You felt that?" asked Lamy with a frown, "There was something very off about her during the last words she said. Very off. But, when she talked about her request, there was a sense of urgency in her words. And should there be something dangerous breaking loose, we have to find out about it and let the relevant authorities know."
"Hey, Polka's gone in," said Botan as she walked past them, "I'll see everyone downstairs."
"Okay!"
"Älright, we get ready for the day and then figure out what to do," stated the half-snow elf, "Then, we make preparations for it."
After double-checking their stuff and buying what they need, they went to the branch office to let Reine know they would be leaving the city for a few days. Then, they hired passage to the southwest by wagon. However, much to their surprise, they were asked to get off after about half a day's journey. Much to their surprise, they were standing before a desert.
"Er, what?" muttered Nene in surprise.
"Sorry, but I can't take you past here," explained their horse-folk driver, "The wagon can't go through all that sand. Gets stuck and stuff, you know?"
The lore bard sighed and replied, "Yeah, I can see that. I should have asked first. Well, thanks for bringing us this far anyway."
"One tip when crossing, keep an eye out for the sand sharks," offered the driver as she steered the wagon around, "They say to run like hell when you feel the ground moving."
"Thanks for the advice," she said gratefully as the wagon went off. Turning back to the desert, she continued, "Well, I guess we have to walk."
"Obviously," snarked Aloe, but trudged along with them anyway.
Fortunately, having traversed a desert before, they were somewhat prepared for it; Aloe had a few extra waterskins. After a few hours of walking, they came up to an abandoned fort. They decided to take a few minutes to explore before moving on. It looked to be a minor fort, more of a large outpost, with thick brick walls and a single main building to the right of the entrance. The double doors had already fallen off and eaten away by time. Several tent skeletons were scattered around the compound along the left side, around a sizable pit. Inside it, there seemed to be a gate built into the stone foundation. They didn't bother with exploring the building as they assumed it was empty as well.
With nothing else to see, they continued on their way. After another hour, the sun had moved from its zenith and was heading to set. However, a few of them felt very faint vibrations on the sand.
"Do you feel that?" asked Polka in surprise.
"Feel what?" asked Botan curiously.
"The sand feels tingly," muttered Aloe with a frown.
"Wait, are we under attack?" asked Nene anxiously, "I mean, our driver said there were sand sharks."
"Look out!" shouted Lamy as two bulettes leaped out of the sand at them, jaws open wide.
They landed right in front of them, their jaws snapping shut and clamping down on the monk's and the cleric's arms while ramming the rest backward. The bard was the first to recover and the first thing she did was strum her lute and sing.
"Under pressure, walls closing down on me, surrounding my life, looking down on me..."
"Time for you to break and shatter! Be ground to dust!" chanted Aloe, clutching her new crystal focus as she pointed between the large monsters, causing an explosion of thunderous sound.
The blast staggered the beasts and caused them to release their jaws from the arms. The half-snow elf quickly retaliated, smacking her mace into its snout after getting up and calling forth a spectral sword. The fennec girl did the same, sending rapid punches into her enemy's side. The sand sharks were enraged and persistent; they continued to try and attack their chosen victims, opening their jaws wide for another bite. The cleric smacked her shield into its cracked snout as the first one snapped empty air.
The second one was much luckier, clamping down on the monk's whole left arm and it tried to drag her into the sand. She yelled out in pain and surprise before hammering on its armored snout in an attempt to get it to let go of her arm. Thankfully, it did let go, after an arrow landed in its eye. As it roared out loud, The succubus let loose another Shatter spell and the rest of the party went in while the sharks were disoriented. The bulettes did not survive.
The party stood there for a moment, breathing heavily. The heat of the desert didn't help. Then, Botan groaned.
"What's wrong?" asked Polka tiredly as Lamy healed her arm.
"Um… is it wrong that I want to mount this up as well?" the lion girl said sheepishly.
Everyone else groaned and sighed in response. "Okay… we can't carry this with us," stated Nene with a frown, "Umm, maybe we'll get attacked again and we can get something for you then?"
"Hng… maybe," muttered the archer as she nodded, agreeing with the statement.
"We better get to the sealed place. Then, we can rest a bit before going in to find out what happened there," reminded the half-snow elf.
"Right, right..." Botan continued to mutter as the party went on their way, leaving the bodies behind.
It was evening when they reached the entrance, which was built into a mountain. They took some time to rest before going into the open doorway. The stone doors were just opened outwards with no indication of what moved them. Inside, they followed a set of stairs down. Pausing to let Polka use her driftglobe, they ventured deeper into the dungeon. It wasn't as dusty as expected and Nene wondered why there weren't any odd prints in them.
"Was something really imprisoned here?" she asked out aloud before pointing out her observation.
"I have my misgivings… but let us look around before jumping to conclusions," reasoned Lamy as they reached the end of the stairs.
It was a circular room with four pillars that held up the roof. And scattered around the room were a lot of strange stone statues, several with oddly shaped hands. To their right was the continuation of the passage, leading deeper into the dungeon.
"Weird statues," muttered the fennec girl as they walked through the room, glancing at the strange statues as they walked past them.
"Wouldn't it be surprising if they suddenly… came… to… life..." trailed off Aloe as she stepped near one of the statues to get a better look when it suddenly moved its head and looked at her.
She shouted in surprise as it took a swipe at her, and as she yelled in pain, the other statues began to move. She then tried swiping it with her claws but the magic from the statue's hands surged through her body and both slowed her down while petrifying her from the inside. Calming down, she then focused on flushing out the foreign magic flowing inside.
"Tch, of course there are guards here," groaned Lamy as she brought back the spectral sword to help the succubus while she pointed a finger at another stone statue and sent a ray of frost at it after chanting. It stopped moving as it became frozen solid.
As Botan finished off the one attacking the succubus, Nene's voice rose in crescendo as a thunderous explosion of sound shattered two more stone statues. Meanwhile, Polka ran up to the nearest one and pretty much destroyed it after several punches.
"Woah," she exclaimed as she looked at the broken pieces in surprise, but then she yelped and jumped back as the last statue approached and swiped at her. It was then destroyed when the spirit weapon slammed into its head.
"Guh, I'm never going to say that again," grumbled Aloe as she kicked a fist-sized obsidian skull that was part of the stone remains of the statue.
"Well, it's good that we need to remember to be careful," stated Botan as she looked around at the other statues that didn't move, "The other statues were probably victims."
"Eee, creepy protection," muttered Polka with a shudder.
"...It makes you wonder what kind of cult Priestess Ina'nis is leading," said Nene, trying her best to get over her unease, "Well, we already agreed to help. Let's… let's go on in."
With that, they headed in deeper into the dungeon. The passage was another set of stairs, leading to another set of open stone doors. Past that was a curving passage leading to the right. There were also two side passages; one directly next to the doors heading to the right while the other was a short flight of steps that led to the left.
"So, which way?" the lore bard asked.
"Unfortunate that we do not have a map of the place," muttered the life cleric,
"Let's just go forward," suggested the monk, "We can worry about the sides later."
With the others in agreement, the party headed on to the curving passage.
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back to the next arc.
Lamy has offered to help Aloe with her little problem while the others visit Pekora. Most unfortunate that the basilisk eye is now rotten. Not very viable anymore. Nene will have her rapier being enchanted (upgraded) and so will be using Anya as her backup for now. However, what was supposed to be a time of rest and recovery, Priestess Ina makes an appearance. Very spooky setting when meeting her, hopefully. And thus, they get sent on another long quest. We get familiar encounters in different settings. And make use of a new monster.
Next chapter, Holo5 will get into some trouble. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.