[D'sP] Wall Of Water And A Bloody Nose - Chapter 449

Ace did not find the cause. That would have to wait for a little while. For some reason, when wolves stalk the shadows and myconids are puffing spores, people don’t spend much time looking up.

Then again, the old meme about people never looking up wasn’t just for show. Nevermind the awkward positioning. Floor seven didn’t have much going for it.

There weren’t any unique resources on the floor and the people who delved it tended to be heading towards the tenth floor boss. After which, they skip it entirely.

What Ace did finally get to see, is the next floor. The introduction of the two kin leaders and their families into the inner circle meant a bunch of time intensive tasks had finally wrapped up.

Though honestly, it wasn’t that it took a lot of time, but rather a lot of segments of time spread out over the day. You can’t really get a good delve in if you’re needed up top every few hours. Now Ace and the others were free of those things.

Jim’s team is the first. They made their way through the kobolds and traps of 17 and now stand in front of the portal. Jim gestures, “Let’s get a move on. I have a bet going with Ace on whether floor 20 will have a boss and the sooner we get there, the sooner I win my gold.”

Tess laughs, “Talking about gold when everyone is using copper and silver. You’re basically betting hundred-dollar bills.”

Jim nods, “Yep, that’s about right. The coppers are like pennies and silvers are dollars. A little awkward that there aren’t other steps, but that does make a gold the equivalent of a C bill.”

Tess sighs in frustration, “You’re missing the point on purpose.”

Jim shrugs, “Eh, more like I don’t feel the point matters. The pre-apocalypse financial situation was skewed because those at the very top had all the money and those below couldn’t ever break into that level. At least not reasonably.

“That isn’t the case anymore. Though we have exchanged a mediocre life with paper thin safety for a world where you can reach the top of you, don’t mind life threatening danger. Anyone of age can enter the dungeon and earn more money in a day than they could working a regular job. It is only once we get highly skilled crafters online that the math won’t be quite so brutal.”

Jay shakes his head, “My world had nowhere near as developed a financial system as yours. However, from everything I’ve heard you’ve basically just switched to something equally bad. I can’t even say the environmental danger has gone up, given that whole global climate change stuff you had coming your way. If anything, monsters are simply a more immediate threat compared to the creeping threat.”

Kellinger claps his hands, “Not what we’re here for! Let’s head on through.”

The others snap out of their chat and realize he has a point.

And once they’re through the portal, it is all business. At least to start as the portal dumped them somewhere a bit out of place. Most previous floors have a safe room. Well, 17 opened into a forest so not there, but this place could have easily started with one.

Instead, they are welcomed by a canyon. The walls eroded sandstone, or at least it looked close enough, and they went all the way up to an open sky. Below the floor’s floor, was of the same material and moderately flat with a dusting of sand and the occasional wind carved pile.

Jeremy runs his hand against the wall closest to him. “Yeah, still a little damp. This is either a really accurate depiction or there are actually waterworks on occasion.”

Jim raises an eyebrow, “I’m sure you’re making this judgement right now and have no other experience with the floor.”

Jeremy shrugs, “I’m glad you understand.”

Kelly scoffs, “Dump the dance. We have a floor to delve.”

Jim nods, “Well, we don’t have much choice of direction, so let’s move forward.”

Though it isn’t long before the path curves to the side and reveals a room to them. The gap in the ceiling continues through the room, but besides that, everything else changes.

Jim slowly raises his bow. “Back into the corridor.” Then let’s fly.

The arrow zips across the room and into a shadowed alcove visible above the tall grass that has made the room their home. An angered squawk echoes out and around the room, windbreaker axebeaks all rise up out of the grass or stick their heads out of similar alcoves.

Tess is tensed up and Jay puts himself in front of her as the rest of the party repositions. The monsters now stalking towards the group. A weak whistling sound hiss across their ears.

Kellinger only just gets behind Jay, before he begins casting a spell. The birds are almost on them by the time he finishes, but it is well worth it. His choice of spell? Web.

The sticky web sprays out over the tall grass, coating the area closest to them along with the two nearest monsters. This prompts those axebeaks to try and charge. Except the web is strong enough to anchor them to the grass.

Which some might assume wouldn’t be much of a problem. This, however, was not normal grass. It was practically designed to resist being torn apart and the roots well prepared to resist being pulled out.

The monsters fall over as the grass holds them in place and Jay’s poleaxe takes the head off one of them. All the while Kelly lobs a ball of fire over the fighting at the front. Though this signals the end of their first delve of floor 18.

Her fireball does wonders at blasting the birds. However, it also blasts the grass. Which doesn’t burst into flames, way too damp for that.

What it did do, is start the grass smoking and the dry tips smoldering. Visibility falls and the party is forced to retreat. They didn’t even manage to finish off all the windbreakers before leaving the floor.

Of course, the inner circle didn’t let this actually set them back. A straightforward fight? Floor 12 had held them back so long because of a hidden condition!

So two days later, Ace’s team made it to the floor. Admittedly, Ruby wasn’t the best choice for the floor, with her focus on fire magic. Not that she only knew fire spells.

Though knowing what they’d be facing, the first room ended up falling to them. Sammy and Jack positioned themselves at the entrance of the room, while the others stood back and took down the birds.

This strategy didn’t work for the next room. While the windbreaker axebeaks did stand up, on their backs were kobolds who quickly ordered their mounts to duck under the grass again.

Now out of sight, the monsters easily advance on the party. Sure, Sammy and Jack managed to hold the line. Except it was a close thing.

Ace frowned as they waited for the monsters to despawn. “That was too close. We need to better set up the fight.”

He turns to Ruby, “Do you have something to clear the grass?”

Ruby shakes her head as she tugs at a stem. “Tough stuff. I can send out a wind blade, but it wouldn’t go far. A waste of my magic.”

Ace sighs, “I’ll focus on crowd control.”

Og laughed, “For someone with magic perfect for it, you certainly prefer to cast anything but CC.”

Ace shrugs, “Defensive magic and general enhancements feel better. The further from me I need to throw my magic, the less flow I feel. It’s one of those personal hang ups and I really should work on it.”

And he really should, as in the next room Ace proves he’s quite decent at the role. With a stomp, a knee-high wall of thorns rises up a couple paces in front of the group.

Now, the wall was something the birds could easily step over without notice. Except it wasn’t just a wall of thorns. As the first axebeak takes the step, thorny vines reach up and wrap around the legs. The thorns are hardly pricks to the bird, instead providing grip.

This slows the bird down and provides time for the team to shoot the kobold off its back. Now, the fight wasn’t easy. Once they knew of the danger, the birds could leap the wall. Except in doing so, they put themselves off balance when reaching Sammy and Jack. The thorn wall was truly well placed.

Though as they clean up after the fight, Susan hears something. “There is some sort of horn. Like an air raid horn or some such?”

Ruby frowns, “So not the kobolds blowing a horn, but a continuous noise?”

Susan nods, “Yeah.”

Ruby, “That’s bad because the kobolds won’t have done that on their own. It must be some kind of warning the dungeon had to put in as a warning.”

Ace looks around the room, “I can guess what sort of situation would need a warning.”

Ruby begins to cast a spell, “Give me a moment.” And lines for fire form in the air.

The complexity increases till it releases a pulse. A red wave passes through everything as it spreads out, growing faster the further it has gone. Seconds tick by and Ruby’s nose begins to bleed.

Her eyes snap open. “Up into the alcoves. Now!”

The others don’t question it, dashing to the cave where a windbreaker had come out. Sammy and Jack get there first and one by one, toss the others up. Once that is done, they both scramble up the wall easily enough.

Up in the alcove, Ruby brings up a small fire light, revealing more of a cave than they expected. The dig out arrow continues upwards to a nest area big enough for them to stand in.

Ace turns to Ruby, “So, what’s coming?”

Ruby shrugs, “Well, I assume we already know what’s coming. Susan and Jeremy hinted at it more than enough. There’s an enormous wall of water rushing towards us.”

Ace, “So, can that magic also tell us what monsters are ahead of us?”

Ruby shakes her head, “Living creatures have an innate protection from magic like that. Not that you can’t, but the range is quite restricted. Also, what I did was only sensing for movement. I technically don’t even know for sure it is water coming. I’m just making an educated guess.”

Ace sighs, “You know what? I knew that already. I’ve asked it of others. I just irrationally hoped you’d have a different answer.”

Ruby holds her hands up, “I’m not saying it isn’t possible. You’d just need to get it right. I’m sure the rest of the universe has some proper detection spells.

“You might have noticed, my nose bled from casting the spell. I don’t have the spell calibrated well enough and it provides too much information. If I tried a life sensing spell?

“Well, I guess if I tried it here it wouldn’t be too bad. Not much complex life to ping the spell. Though that grass would probably do a number on me.

“Outside the dungeon? Every blade of grass, every insect, and even some of the most simple multicellular life forms would be pinging me. A quick way to knock yourself out and bleed a bit too much from your head.”

She is about to go on, when outside a loud roaring sound gains volume.

Susan frowns, “Well, here comes the water.”

Ace turns to her, “How long till it passes?”

Susan shakes her head, “We don’t know that. Though presumably it won’t be too quick. The water needs to pass through. Now, I presume we could probably go out once the water is only shin height, but do you really want to test that this time around?”

Ace shakes his head in return, “No, no I don’t. In fact, we should probably head back after this is done. I doubt another flood is coming soon, but we should report this.”

A Mural - Chapter 448

Magic Is Like Gravity - Chapter 450