Sylvie POV
Yummy. I love that meat. 'What exactly is this' I sent to Arthur.
'I think that's Lobster.' he answered me. It was so funny how he still thought that he had to direct his thoughts toward me, so I could hear them. Most of the time his thoughts were about mana and different spells, which sounds interesting, but if it's present 24/7 it gets annoying rather quickly. I also wanted to give him some privacy, so I tried not to listen, when his thoughts were not directed toward me.
I continued to devour my meat, while Arthur focused back on the spell he was testing. After he copied Dargoth's spell some weeks ago he continued to check all the books about runes and tried out every spell they described, also adapting and improving them, like he did with the barrier spell, or 'vacuum barrier' as he called it in his head. He really sucks at naming.
Right now he was trying to learn a water spell that would allow one to feel sources of water nearby, which itself wasn't so great. But with a precision this spell would allow him to feel living things through solid objects and such, because of the higher water concentration in humans compared to the surrounding air.
Someone knocked on the door. Since it seemed like Arthur didn't hear it, I decided to fly over to the door myself and open it. Dad stood there, proud to see me flying. It wasn't too long ago, since he taught me how to control the mana in such a way and he was surprised at the speed I learned it.
"Hey Sylvie. Is Arthur here?" he asked.
"Yes, he is focused on his spells," I told him.
He entered the room, looking at Arthur. "What is it now?" he asked me.
"A water spell to feel life."
"How interesting. HEY, ARTHUR" he broke my bond out of his concentration.
"Oh, I am sorry. I hadn't noticed you." he apologized.
"No need to worry, I see you're making progress as fast as ever. Which is the reason I am here. We have a small problem, that your growth is a bit too fast. We're out of stuff to teach you. You already know all the things one is able to teach you, the only thing you need now is experience.
This is why I would like you to enter the relictombs. You have read about them, haven't you?"
Arthur remembered the name. The relictombs were built by the ancient mages in an effort to conceal their knowledge from the dragons. Agrona had created a whole economy around adventurers, or ascenders as they were called here, who venture into them and get back with artifacts, training and a higher chance of a more potent rune.
It was also the place where the artifact storing the information about Grey, Nico and Cecilia came from, which allowed Arthur to be reborn here.
Arthurs knowledge once again helped me, as I had forgotten about them.
I could also feel how Arthurs heart raced, full of excitement and how his thoughts went overboard, with all the things he could try in there, as well as all the things he could learn.
He really is quite predictable in this regard. Looking at Agronas face he also noticed Arthurs change in mood.
"That would be fantastic." Arthur answered. "But I would have to leave Sylvie behind, wouldn't I?
He was right, in some of the books it was stated that Asuras of any kind wouldn't be able to enter the relictombs. Again, a thing I only knew because of Art's knowledge. I am so thankful that I could just look into his memories, instead of having to learn all that stuff myself.
'That's no problem, Dad is going to keep training me and you go and train yourself' I sent him. I could feel that he wouldn't go if I wasn't onboard with the idea, and I really wanted to support him any way I could. Papa has done so much for me in these past years, so I wanted to repay him as much as I could.
I could feel he was still hesitating.
"I will look after her, you really don't need to worry." Dad said, not being able to hear, that this was the same I just sent him. But this double confirmation seemed to convince Papa.
"In that case I guess I should really go."
"Great. Pack your things, everything is already prepared." Agrona said with a wide smile. I could just feel how he loved to throw Arthur into this new situation, completely unprepared.
"What? NOW?" Arthur asked him, surprised. Dad's smile grew even wider, which told Papa everything he needed to know.
Papa looked a bit defeated and turned and started to pack the few things he had.
"Did you really have to do it this way?" I asked Dad in a quiet voice, so Papa wouldn't hear.
"You know how much I like it, to throw him in the deep end." he said with his devilish smile. I had to admit, it was quite funny to watch Arthur, who was normally so on top of things, so unprepared.
Seris Vritra POV
"It's so nice to see you, Scythe Seris" Corbett Denoir welcomed me. I had informed them that I would drop by, so the whole family stood next to him, his wife Lenora, as well as Lauden and Caera.
I simply nodded to each of them.
"If you could follow me," Corbett said, leading me to a room on the side, which was some kind of meeting room. After we sat down Corbett took a second, before asking:
"Might I ask for the reason for your visit?"
"I am here because I need to borrow Caera. It's time for another accent, don't you think?"
Corbett looked surprised.
It hadn't been long since her blood manifested, which boosted the reputation of highblood Denoir even further, than it had already been. Even before her blood manifested I took an interest in her, since I had a feeling and she was learning really fast. Not as fast as a certain child, but certainly faster than anyone else.
Before her blood manifested she constantly visited the relictombs with her two bodyguards, but since her manifestation her foster parents decided that it wasn't worth the risk anymore. I knew she was burning to go back in there and I had to talk her out of running away multiple times.
As I heard, that Arthur was going to enter the relictombs I immediately thought of letting her accompany him, since he could use a guide and some company in there, and she might be able to learn a lot from him, as well as it would get her out of her house arrest and to the place she loved so much.
Corbett took a second to think about his reply. "While we are thankful that you take care of our daughter and train her, it might be wiser for her to stay here for some time. She hasn't had the time to get used to her new powers, so it would be too risky to send her into that place."
That was my mistake. I had forgotten that I couldn't ask for opinions, and had to order instead. But if I offended the Denoirs too much Viessa would only complain to me, as it was her job to keep them quiet.
But the convincing was quite easy, if I did it right.
I gave him a smile. "That's actually the reason I want her to go. I am sure you heard of a certain young boy in Taegrin Caelum?"
While we tried to hide Arthur's existence, there was no way certain highbloods hadn't heard of him. After all knowledge was power, and every single highblood understood that very well. All of them had their sources in Taegrin Caelum, and a small boy that visited Agrona on a regular basis and had daily training with Cadell was quite the anomaly.
And so every Highblood did their research, of course all of them failing. To them he just appeared out of nowhere. Of course they understood very well that it wouldn't be appreciated to share that knowledge, so Arthur's presence was a topic no one talked about.
But now that I mentioned him, I could see how Corbett's interest spiked. "Yes I have."
He remained silent, waiting for me to spill some information.
"I am sure you also heard of his manifested blood." Again he nodded.
"He is planning to visit the relictombs and could use some company. I have to tell you, he is rather proficient with mana. I am sure little Caera could learn a lot from him."
As expected Corbett's opinion did a 180.
"That is a great idea. I will get her ready at once. If you will excuse me."
He stood up and left the room, leaving me alone in the room. I leaned back and smiled to myself. I could basically see Corbett ordering Caera to squeeze out every bit of information out of Arthur, so he had an advantage over the other highbloods. Of course Caera will nod and tell me about it and I will tell her to ignore that.
Not that Arthur himself wouldn't know that she would be tasked with this. He might not be as good with politics as he is with mana, but that is rather obvious.
I just hope that he warms up to her. They could really be a good team.
Jasmine Flamesworth POV
I really hated this dungeon. The green swamp cave. A group of adventurers went missing here a few days ago and since Kaspian Bladeheart was busy dealing with all the new adventurers, now that elves and dwarfs could also become one, he decided to task the Twin Horns with the investigation.
Of course we knew this dungeon, we ran it a couple of times in our beginning days under Reynolds lead.
I was still wondering how 4 orange core mages could have any problems with this dungeon. The dungeon was known for its low difficulty, and the mages all seemed more than capable enough.
As we entered the cave Durden sent out an earth pulse. "There are no signatures, except for the final room. I can feel the crocodile and the four adventurers there. They're still alive, although not in the best condition."
We all loosened up a little. At least they were still alive. We continued down the tunnel, relaxed, as there were no beasts nearby.
But as we came near the boss room we noticed that there was a lot of rubble. As we walked around the last corner of the tunnel all of us immediately noticed two things:
The water was crystal clear and the entrance to the final room was blocked.
"An earthquake?" Adam asked.
"No, there weren't any notifications and the rubble is only here. It looks much more like a trap had been triggered. As for the water, I have no idea?" Helen answered. "Durden, can you move the boulders blocking the entrance?
Durden nodded and went to work. One at a time he moved the stones, letting them sink into the final room.
"Let's go," Helen said.
We all jumped into the water. Angela cast bubbles around our heads, so we could continue breathing normally and Durden cast a shield, so we had time to reach the mages without disturbance by the crocodile.
As we jumped onto the land on the other side we saw the adventurers. The woman and two of the men looked fine, but the third man had a wound, where his right leg should have been.
"We are here to help you, after a friend of yours reported your failure to report back." Helen said with a serious tone. "What happened?"
An adventurer, his name was Thomas, if I remembered correctly from the briefing, answered in the same tone.
"Everything went according to plan, we were actually surprised how easy it was. That was until this room. As you can see the water is clear. We thought this might have been a spell from a previous group and hadn't thought anything of it.
We entered the room and swam up here and our conjurers started to attack. But instead of swimming up to us it started to ram its head into the wall. We understood it was trying to block our escape route, so Connor and I jumped in. There we noticed that our attacks did nothing to it, the scales were far more durable than they should have been. Additionally we fought much deeper than expected so our conjurers spell couldn't really help.
It was also a lot faster, and so it managed to bite Connors leg off. After that blow we retreated up here and healed him with a healing potion we had brought. But by this time the crocodile had blocked the entrance.
Since then we started multiple attempts to either unblock the exit or defeat it, all being fruitless.
Its scales are just too sturdy."
Meanwhile I had augmented my eyes and looked down to see the crocodile hidden behind the plants.
"Guys, it is gray." I noted.
"We thought that maybe all the plants colored it green, and its color is gray normally." the male conjurer said.
"No, it's green, the scales are used for some armors, and even after every bit of cleansing imaginable the scales are still green, as well as the inside if you cut one." Durden said.
"Maybe a similar but stronger mana beast?" Adam asked.
"Maybe." Helen answered. "Whatever the case is, we have to fight it. If you manage to retreat and defend your friend while doing so, this mana beast shouldn't be a problem for us. No offense. Worst case is, that we also can't pierce its scales, in that case we will defend the entrance long enough for you to escape and follow you and inform the guild, so they can send a silver core. "
Each one of us was at least light orange, with Helen and me at dark yellow and we had a lot more experience, so this shouldn't be a problem.
Angela repeated her bubble spell, while Durden cast multiple spikes at the ground of the cave. Since they did not have to travel through the water the spell was pretty effective. The crocodile snapped out of its daze and started swimming toward us. Helen also started firing arrows now, as Adam and I jumped into the water.
We swam toward it and managed to trap it between us. We both started to attack, with the support of Helen's arrows, Durden's spikes and Angela's air bullets.
Thomas was right, the scales were far more durable then they normally were, but I could feel them weakening with every hit I landed with my daggers.
Its movements were also faster than I remembered them, and it also seemed to have some kind of intelligence, which I also didn't remember.
After a minute or so a scale broke after one of my attacks. I immediately used the weak point and rammed one of my daggers into it. The crocodile spun toward me, as it had its focus on Adam at that moment. I held onto my dagger, busy casting a new spell. After another second I finished the spell, letting my Wind mana flow through my arm and dagger into the beast.
I could feel my mana creating almost a dozen wind swords, which all started to cleave into its flesh from the inside of its body. As I expected its resistance on the inside was much weaker, and so the spell completely wrecked its organs.
It spun because of the pain this attack caused, and stopped after a second. After I twisted my blade for good measure I pulled it out of the body, which was now sinking to the floor.
Angelas wind spell started to lift it up, as the body was quite valuable, not only because of its scales, but also because of the information the guild might be able to extract.
Adam and I started to swim back to the surface.
"Nice spell, Jasmine." Helen complimented me. This was the first time I had used it in combat, as the spell was far too aggressive to be used in a spar.
"Thanks." I said. "Let's get a look at this thing. I want to know why it was so sturdy."
Caera Denoir POV
I was waiting in the entrance room, with my foster brother and mother, while Seris and Corbett went into the meeting room.
After a few minutes Corbett came out.
"Caera, pack your things. You're going into the relictombs."
Finally. I don't know what Seris had said, but I was grateful. I could return to the relictombs, and test my new abilities.
I bowed, as expected of me, and hurried into my room. I grabbed my dimension ring and ran back down.
"Ready!" I exclaimed. Corbett gave me a disappointing glance. I couldn't wait to get back, and did not want to spend another hour outside the relictombs, so I had packed my things right after my blood had manifested.
Seris opened the door. "How nice. You want to accompany me? We will have a short break at Taegrin Caelum to pick someone up."
"Wait, let me contact Taegen and Arian, so they are safe." Corbett said.
"That won't be necessary." Seris said. "They will be more than strong enough to deal with anyone outside the relictombs and inside of them that doesn't matter."
Wait, who did she talk about? Someone stronger than Taegen and Arian? I wanted to ask, but I knew she would explain it to me, once we left the estate.
I could see how Corbett's eyebrows furrowed, indicating he didn't know.
"Anyway, we will take our leave. Pleasant as always, Corbett." Seris said goodbye, while opening the door.
"Bye" I simply said and slipped through the open door.
***
>3k words
Sorry for all the "Kill them" votes, but I have a small relief for you next chapter(or the one after that)
Also sorry for the late chapter, took some time to write it.