Azarinth Healer: Book One - A LitRPG Adventure, page 47
Then, looking toward the archway with a determined look on his face, he whispered, perhaps unaware Ilea was still close enough to hear, “There’s one here, I’m sure of it. We’ll get you soon…”
Ilea shrugged and continued eating.
FORTY-TWO
Sushi
‘ding’ You have been poisoned by the coco fruit. -25 HP/s for 30 seconds. Sense of smell has been suppressed.
Quite potent, eh? Nonetheless, Ilea continued eating. The damage was nothing compared to Reconstruction. Maybe some light poison resistance leveling while I’m here?
Thinking more about it, she glanced over at Edwin. “What do you think of resistances? Worth going through the pain to get them and level them up?”
He looked at her. He seemed a bit distracted, but then he focused again.
“Oh, most people wouldn’t want to go through the pain. You gain some through class changes. Pain resistance would help a lot in getting them, but as I said, generally people don’t do it.”
“I have pain tolerance in the second stage,” Ilea said simply, continuing to eat her fruit.
It took a while for him to comprehend her words.
“What…?” He shook his head. “I know like ten people who even have the skill and only two who might have the second stage. They never confirmed it though. What does it do?”
“You can turn off pain at the second stage,” she said and smiled.
He stared at her, and she could almost see the cogs turning in his head. Then he started laughing. Deep, bellowing laughter. Edwin was caught in a fit and only stopped after a solid minute. Wiping away a tear that had formed in his eye, he slowly calmed down to faint chuckles.
“Oh that… that is… thank you for that, Ilea. That is useful information indeed. So, you’re basically perfectly equipped for getting resistances then? What should we start with?” he asked, still smiling.
“What do we have?” Ilea answered, matching his smile.
However, there was nothing that could be gained from Edwin’s swords. Nor did he have any other skills that would contribute to any possible resistances. The obvious ones that could be gained were Aliana’s water magic and Felicia’s wind magic.
Sadly, neither of them could be convinced to spar or use their time to shoot spells her way just yet, so Ilea decided to join Felicia in having a nice bath. It wasn’t a warm bathhouse, but as soon as Aliana was done cooking, that would be changed in a heartbeat.
It took around half an hour for her water magic to heat the lake, and the group followed up the swimming with a proper portion of meat. Ilea was actually craving some potatoes and vegetables, but she felt her life was in sufficient danger as it was and thus refrained from mentioning this desire to Aliana.
That woman has something about her… Ilea thought as she looked at Aliana, who was intensely chopping up the next portion of meat. She looked quickly away when their eyes met.
“So, Ilea wants to train some resistances,” Edwin said to the others once everyone had had their fill. “She can apparently turn off her perception of pain – which, by the way, is the second stage of pain resistance.”
“Well, let’s get started then,” Aliana stated in a matter-of-fact way, and boiling water quickly formed around Ilea. As soon as the water touched her, she received a notification.
‘ding’ Heat Resistance reaches lvl 10
Guess that one was close to leveling… not surprising considering my near-death floodgate bath from before.
She had gotten better and better at keeping up her sphere skill and her Magic Perception in the past couple of days. Magic Perception sometimes got in the way a little, but with a conscious effort, she could dim the light somewhat, which helped a lot with noticing magical attacks before they actually happened. This had allowed her to disable her pain before the water had hit her.
Over the next couple of hours, boiling water was constantly poured on her, only interrupted by razorblade-like slices of wind that tore at her body. Felicia actually turned away so as not to look at the constantly melting and reforming flesh. Aliana, on the other hand, had an incredibly unsettling expression on her face that Ilea only saw glimpses of between losing her eyes and healing them again.
Not feeling pain is very weird.
In fact, she was getting a bit bored of the whole process. There was a difference between grinding something like this and actually fighting against things that were trying to kill you. Edwin apparently thought something similar and eventually motioned for them to stop the training so that they could continue on their way.
Ilea checked her messages and was rather happy with the results.
Although fighting guardians is certainly more effective…
‘ding’ Heat Resistance reaches lvl 11
‘ding’ Heat Resistance reaches lvl 12
‘ding’ You have learned the general skill Water Resistance – lvl 1
In your time, you have learned many things. One of them is that water pressure is not a joke. This resistance helps a little with reducing the damage.
‘ding’ You have learned the general skill Wind Resistance – lvl 1
The ever-elusive magic of wind can cut from any side. You have learned that it might have been a good idea to become a Void Mage. This skill helps you resist the power of wind a little more.
‘ding’ Heat Resistance reaches lvl 13
‘ding’ Water Resistance reaches lvl 2
‘ding’ Wind Resistance reaches lvl 2
‘ding’ Water Resistance reaches lvl 3
‘ding’ Water Resistance reaches lvl 4
‘ding’ Wind Resistance reaches lvl 3
‘ding’ Water Resistance reaches lvl 5
“Yeah, I’m with Edwin,” Ilea commented after she’d finished scanning through her notifications. “Let’s move on. As much as this is beneficial to me, it’s boring as fuck.”
At this, Felicia let out a big breath and opened her eyes after Ilea had finished completely healing. They packed their things, most of which went into Aliana’s ring, and walked toward the exit.
The next room had runes on each wall and was quite similar to most interiors they had seen so far in the dwarven ruin. It was also carved in the white stone that seemed to be the norm inside what Edwin had called the Great Hall. It was rather spacious, and in the middle of it was a rectangular stone platform with a pressure plate in the center.
“An elevator of some kind?” Ilea asked. Edwin glanced at her.
“Maybe. Can you activate it?” he replied, motioning for her to go on ahead.
Ilea nodded solemnly and stepped onto the platform. Mechanisms sprang to life, and the stone platform dropped downward with a screech that indicated it had not been used in quite some time.
Suddenly the tight elevator shaft was replaced by a view extending for several dozen meters in all directions. A vast space lay below, filled with water and illuminated by white light from crystals growing on the walls. The elevator descended further toward the water below in what seemed like a magically induced free fall.
That’s filled with water… shit!
Ilea started to blink upward to the opening where the elevator had come from. She reached it in four blinks and dug her hand into the white stone with a jab to keep herself there.
The platform kept falling for another five seconds before finally impacting upon the still lake. Waves broke the glassy surface, and Ilea watched as a set of massive tentacles shot out of the water and dragged the platform further downward. She was too far away to identify the creature though, and she couldn’t see through the dark water to make out its shape.
“I know just the girl for this job,” she said and blinked upward once more to emerge out of the top of the shaft again. The others were already busy with their own things. Edwin was sketching the trap rooms when he turned his head to look at Ilea.
“Already back? No trap down there then?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Not exactly…”
She explained what she had seen down below and suggested her idea. The other two in the room overheard the conversation, and Aliana accepted Ilea’s proposal immediately.
“If I can control the water, I’ll be able to cook it just perfectly,” she said, licking her lips. “It’s been long enough since we ate some fish. Ilea, a hand?”
Aliana extended her hand, which Ilea grabbed, and they started to climb downward. Edwin and Felicia followed close behind, also climbing down with their various abilities, weapons and magic digging into the stone to keep them from falling.
“Do you need to touch the water to use it?” Ilea asked.
“No, I just have to be close enough to send some of my own magic into it. The heat will spread through it all. Depending on how much water there is, it could take a while. It’s also gonna be difficult to get a perfectly cooked monster in the end. Do you have any idea of how big it is exactly?” She looked disappointed when Ilea shook her head.
By now, they had reached the point where Ilea had hung while clinging to the wall. Felicia was hovering a little to the side with her wind magic. Ilea saw with her perception how Aliana’s power flowed downward before touching the water. Bubbles instantly started to form at the points where her magic touched it, and they started to spread quickly, just like she had described.
Ever so slowly, the massive hall filled with water that boiled in the unnatural way typical of Aliana’s powers. It reminded Ilea more of an infection than simply boiling water. Three minutes later, in one of the corners of the room, a tentacle lifted itself out of the water, soon followed by two more.
First the monster seemed to be confused and testing the changing environment, but quite quickly it started panicking and thrashing around. More and more of the behemoth became visible as horrifying screams filled the room with noise.
The heat in the room rose as well, and steam soon filled Ilea’s vision. Her heat perception turned into a blinding light, and only her magic perception let her determine where the beast was.
Ilea looked at Aliana’s concentrating face, sweat dripping from the nearly spent woman’s forehead. She didn’t want to interrupt the cook or distract her from her hobby, so she simply waited it out. Eventually, Aliana changed into a meditative state, only moving slowly while recharging mana.
“Is it dead?” Felicia asked finally, quite bored of the process.
“Oh, it’s been dead for a while, but it’s so big it’ll need another three hours for the meat to be cooked to perfection,” Aliana answered.
Felicia groaned and started to fly back upward, but Edwin stayed back.
‘ding’ Your group has defeated [Caller of the Deep – lvl 318]. For killing an adversary 200 or more levels above your own, you receive bonus experience.
Two hundred? I’m glad I didn’t go down there then. No level-ups though? Guess it was mostly Aliana, although I did hold her up!
“So, I just wait? You can’t hold yourself?” Ilea asked Aliana, but she didn’t receive an answer. Oh well, guess I’ll meditate too then.
Watching on from the side, where he was standing on one of his swords he had inserted into the wall, Edwin shook his head.
“It’s done.”
Ilea immediately opened her eyes and looked on as Aliana let herself fall downward. A wave of water formed to embrace her and carry the powerful mage safely to her destination. Ilea followed behind, while Edwin clambered upward to get Felicia.
Quite a lot of the water had evaporated in the cooking process, and what remained was only about four meters deep. Much of the monster that had owned the hall towered above the waterline. Although it might’ve been more impressive had it not essentially been a giant plate of calamari. One that, to Ilea, smelled surprisingly nice. The rising steam hadn’t bothered any of them much, plenty of resistances of that sort had built up with Aliana in the group.
“Want some squid?” Aliana asked with a smile on her face. Ilea had blinked to the wall nearest the dead monster and was clinging to it after smashing her hand into the rock.
“I mean, it’s been hours since our last meal, so why not?” she answered and smiled back. When she looked at the creature from close up, she gulped. It looked like something straight out of an Eldritch story with spikes, tentacles, and likely more teeth than the whole student body of a college had in its entirety.
Although Ilea didn’t really think the beast compared to something like sushi, in the end, she didn’t dislike the notion of adding some rice to her plate. Soy sauce would be glorious… and wasabi…
Felicia and Edwin had joined them in the meantime. The three were now sitting on top of stone rubble previously under water while Aliana chose to swim.
Upon Edwin’s request, Aliana kept boiling the water until nearly all of it was gone. More and more of the room became visible as time went on. Ilea, of course, decided to stick her feet into the boiling water to level her resistances, and she got a nice message in between the resistances leveling up.
‘ding’ Reconstruction reaches 2nd lvl 16.
I just keep on growing, she smiled to herself. Half an hour later, almost none of the water remained, and Ilea had leveled up Heat Resistance one more time. Felicia used her wind magic to disperse most of the vapor.
“Ilea, please check the whole room for any mechanisms that look a little like traps to you. At least compared to the rooms before,” Edwin said, sitting up. “Although I believe that with all this water and that monster here for so long, they may not work anymore anyway.”
“How did that thing even get here?” Ilea asked, but Edwin just shrugged.
“We’re in a Taleen ruin and former city, but it’s also marked as a dungeon now, so the rules are a little bent,” Edwin answered, starting to sketch the room they were standing in.
Ilea shrugged and walked through the still boiling hot water with her sphere active. There was indeed machinery below the ground, but it seemed that the monster or something else had already worked hard to destroy most of it. There were cracks and gashes in the ground, rendering the exit points of whatever unholy hell the dwarves would’ve unleashed here unusable.
“I’m done,” Ilea said after checking the hall carefully for around twenty minutes. “Most of it seems destroyed, and if we steer clear from the edges of the room, we’ll be fine.”
Edwin answered by getting up and giving his notebook to Aliana for storage.
“So, we have three exits from here. I do believe we’re getting closer to the armory,” Edwin said as he walked closer to the biggest door. “This should be it,” Ilea heard him mumble with her enhanced senses.
Should be what? she wondered, but she didn’t bother asking him. The trio had been completely silent about why they were here up until now and had never once answered questions about it.
Edwin looked intensely at the rune above the door before motioning for Ilea to continue on.
She nodded and set off down the corridor that led further down from the hall that had been filled with water.
Let’s see what they’re looking for.
As she walked, she thought about her situation for a while, hoping there wouldn’t be a trap that actually managed to end her.
That’s no way to think. They’re just more opportunities to grow and collect near-death experiences. And if not traps, then I’ll come across more dangerous monsters. There are plenty here that could’ve killed me in different circumstances. If I simply continue to wander and explore, I’ll come across more creatures, some maybe that could kill me in an instant. Why does that excite me?
Or maybe I can find a way to at least escape creatures or people hundreds or even thousands of levels above my own. I already have a teleportation skill. I just have to become faster and even harder to kill. Following a strange group of adventurers with dubious motives down into a dungeon is certainly not the best way to stay alive. It is fun though, and I guess that’s the point.
She grinned. And I suppose once this is done, I can really figure out the new skills I got from that class evolution. Mark would freak out if he saw me now.
She paused, realizing that she hadn’t thought about Earth in quite some time. Ilea looked at her hand and made a fist.
Feels like I’m finally alive. I’m sure you’d understand, old friend. If we meet again someday, I’ll be sure to bring you here so you can experience it yourself.
She soon reached another opening that led into a spacious room with stone chairs and even some tables. Checking through the whole thing, there was no indication of a trap. On one side of the room were several gates that were blocked by a grid of silvery green metal rods.
“I think we’re in the clear here!” she shouted back to the others. A smile formed on Edwin’s face as he entered the room, but it vanished as quickly as it came. He walked toward the grids and surprised Ilea when he simply cut them apart. Ilea was sure that he wasn’t using his full speed as she could follow his swings completely for the first time.
But what surprised her more than that was that Edwin walked through the grid and continued on alone. Ilea and the other two women followed him down the tight corridor after a couple of seconds.
No more traps then? Either he knows or he just doesn’t care anymore.
After a brief walk, they came out in an artificial cave that was bigger than even the one with the lake in it. A similar white crystal protruded down from above and lit the area with a bright light. Ilea saw no further doors in the cavern.
In the middle of the cave was a slightly raised circular platform made of white stone, and a small slab of stone stood to its side. Strange runes shimmered on its surface. Compared to anything else she had seen of the dwarven architecture and machinery, the thing before her seemed the most unnecessarily decorated.
