Chapter 39 – Pillars and Spikes

They found some free space in the resting area and sat down together to take a breather before diving further. Miria and Selene jumped back to their realm, what naturally left Rudy in awe of the possible utility from such a skill. They soon came back. Miria brought some snacks while Selene took a jug of apple juice and a rug for them to sit on comfortably.

Before they dug in, Asterios drew a runic circle the size of their new blanket and filled it with various sigils. They then laid down the material and he invited his partners to take his sides. When both of the girls were close, Asterios activated the technique and they were enveloped in a faint, warm greenish glow.

It was Rejuvenating Ground. A simple spell that very slightly boosted regeneration and fatigue relief. Since it didn’t require much of his input and focus, it was a perfect ability to lay down during breaks like this. Unfortunately, it had no effect on Rudy and everyone was aware of that. 

The person in question was feeling more surprised than down. Almost all the Summoners her party met before did barely anything else besides relying on their familiars to fight or help them. She wasn’t aware that Summoners had access to such a wide range of techniques to support their partners. They were just like certain specialized Mages but with a quite limiting restriction of their spells working only on contracted entities.

“So, what do we plan on doing after we deal with the 5th floor's boss? Are we trying to get as deep as possible? Maybe conquer uncharted floors?” Rudy asked.

Miria glanced at Asterios with gleaming eyes. Exploring the unknown was a fascinating thought. She couldn’t wait to see and experience even more things she had not come across yet.

“No.” 

But Ast’s instant reply immediately shot her hopes down. He noticed that and moved his hand to cheer her up with some gentle scratches.

“This temporary team lacks in too many areas to think of such endeavours,” he continued.

“Why? I’ve seen how much you can do. I must admit, I’d have never thought Summoners are this diverse in their techniques after my previous encounters.”

Asterios shook his head. “You are now well aware that my magic works only on these two. While we would be fine, I would have no way to either relieve your fatigue, deal with your injuries or even support you with fighting in any way.”

“But—”

“I understand your drive for adrenaline, and your curiosity too,” he turned to and smiled at Miria,” but I’m not going to risk the life of my quite freshly acquired companions. The deeper we go, the more dangerous it gets, but that’s not all. At some point, the core will start perceiving us as a threat when we delve deep enough, and as you can remember, Miria, its main priority is its own safety. It will start throwing literally everything it can at the strong invaders, and while it can’t just like create a hole with deadly spikes under our feet in an instant, it will riddle all our paths with the most ferocious traps and monsters it has, just as close ahead of us as it can, mostly relying on the shuffling mechanic and its ability to slowly reshape the dungeon too,” Asterios explained and took a sip of juice.

“I’m all for going deeper as the rewards increase, but not like this. First and foremost, there’s no healer in this party. I don’t count. It takes too much time to passively heal Miria and Selene or prepare a correct technique, and I can’t do anything to you. Second, you are not a defender even if you act like one right now. Without someone fully dedicated to soaking hits and attacks we will quickly tire out and accumulate injuries. And last but not least, as good as the senses of my beast girls are, we have no Scout or Thief with us, nor even a Ranger. It’s not monsters that pose the most threat but the traps I mentioned before.”

Rudy pondered for a moment. “Are you really a newbie? That mindset is closer to a veteran adventurer. Hard to believe you just started and know so much even about other professions.”

Asterios smiled wryly. “When your daily life is nothing but a practical failure, you tend to reach for theory a lot as an escape.” Seeing his expression, she decided not to pry more, but he continued. “And it’s not like I know more than just the basic stuff about others. Maybe besides some magical ones.”

They decided to stop after dealing with the boss for now. They still had to return back up after. The dungeon wasn’t as hospitable to provide teleport circles to the surface and there was no way Ast had enough money or connections to have scrolls or artifacts with such abilities on him. At least not yet. Most of his consumables were self-made or self-gathered.

Finished with their break, the girls and Ast tidied up after themselves and started walking towards one of the corridors leading out. Most adventurers didn’t really care about leaving trash and leftovers around since the dungeon would ‘clean it up’ after some time, but it just wasn’t in line with Ast’s upbringing. Unfortunately, that’s just how the smaller dungeon’s safe areas were. Littered with trash everywhere. Only those strictly managed were different.

The fourth floor didn’t look much different from the ones above. Like the first, it had mostly earthy and muddy aesthetics, with a lot of moss and tree roots covering the walls all around. It didn’t seem like any new monsters appeared too, or the party just didn’t stumble on them yet. Their main formation was Miria on the front, Rudy at the back and Selene by Ast’s side.

While they were making their way through it, Miria at some point stopped and started glancing around.

“Something wrong?” Asterios asked.

“It’s weird… I can feel something like… a weak air current here, but we are in the middle of the corridor…”

Selene walked closer and also examined the space in that spot.

“You are right. The smell is different. Closer to a stone than earth. Is that perhaps some kind of a trap, my Lord?”

Asterios thought for a moment. “Could also be a hidden passage from what you are saying. Can you locate the source?”

Both girls began to move around and sniff air until they met together by the left wall. Nothing seemed special about it from the first glance, just a tree-like pillar of bark. Miria hit it with her fists a few times but it was tougher than it looked.

“Let me take care of that,” Selene asked and she stepped aside.

The foxkin grazed over the trunk for a moment and nodded her head. Using her right hand, she started tracing a medium-sized circle in the air just above its surface. A blueish trail followed her fingers. Finished, Selene placed her left hand against it and withdrew her right, closing it into a fist.

Realizing what she was planning, everyone quickly found support with nearby walls and braced themselves.

“HAP!”

A moment later, Selene hit the spiritual circle and it burst out with energy from the other side. The blow was strong but nowhere close to her attacks in Awakened form. It was enough to shake the surroundings just a little and create a gaping hole in the wall, which was now visible to be not that thick.

She quickly dodged to the side just in case, but nothing happened. After most of the dust fell down, Miria took a careful peek inside.

“It looks like a stone chamber, Master. It’s not that dark. And I don’t see any monsters. It’s quite long and… partially without a floor?”

Everyone walked to the hole and confirmed her words. It was a long cavern of slightly polished stone, definitely imitating man-made structures. Miria jumped through the hole and the others joined her soon after. The moment Selene made her way through it as the last person, the wall slowly repaired itself.

“Are we locked?” Rudy stared at the process.

Selene examined the fixed surface. “Doesn’t seem to be different from before. I should have no problems with creating another entrance.”

“It’s another Trial. A hidden one. Or we just found an unintentional shortcut to it,” Asterios spoke.

“Why do you think so, Master?” Miria asked and he pointed further into the room.

A few meters from their position, the floor ended in a drop. The huge space was filled with sharp spikes. A few of them were big enough to count as pillars and had flat tiles on their top, positioned at different distances and heights. There was clearly a similar shelf on the other side of the eighty-meter-long path of death.

“There’s no way I can pass that…” Rudy informed with a sigh.

“Master…” Miria walked closer to Ast.

“You want to give it a try?”

She nodded.

“It definitely is not as easy as it looks. There may be traps.”

“I think we will be fine,” Selene joined.

“We? I see. Just be really careful.” He patted the excited panthergirl and nodded at the smiling foxkin.

The beastfolk duo glanced at each other and nodded too. Asterios let Miria go and joined Rudy on the side. He started preparing a few sigils and techniques on the ground just in case.

Both girls filled their bodies with mana and walked to the edge. There were many platforms to start from. Selene jumped at the closest one on her right and Miria chose a middle one. They landed on their respective tiles safely and attentively looked all around, but nothing happened.

Miria was the first one to make her next move. She aimed for a ledge which was a few meters higher than her own ground and crouched, activating Physical Strengthening. She pushed herself off the stone surface and managed to jump far and high enough to grab the edge of the targeted platform. Not wasting any time, she quickly pulled herself up.

The moment she stepped on top of it, her ears twitched and she instantly bent backwards into a bridge. Three arrows flew through the air above her and hit the wall on the side. There truly were traps, just as Ast said, but those weren’t that bad.

Meanwhile, Selene sped through three plates of a similar height without an issue. She glanced back at Miria in a weird position and sent her a mental smile. A feeling of competitive rivalry answered her back. She accepted the challenge, reminding her new friend to not lose focus of what was important and make their master worry. Miria agreed and their small race began.

The foxgirl lunged forward, towards another platform, which was slightly lower than the previous one. She planned to push herself off it and quickly jump onto the next one, but something suddenly cracked under her feet.

“Woooaaahhhh…”

“Watch out, the pillar was fake! It’s another needle!” Miria informed Selene from the side while that tried to balance the square on a thin point.

Fortunately, she managed to calm the shaking. Unfortunately, she was now pretty much pinned down, unable to easily jump at any other platform as they all were much higher. The height of this one was not an accident.

“Do you need help?” her black-haired friend arrived at a nearby pillar and asked.

“Shouldn’t you be using this chance to move ahead?”

“You said it yourself. Safety first. Besides, my trap was way less dangerous.”

They smiled at each other.

“I’m fine. I’ll join you in a second.”

Saying that, Selene closed her eyes and joined her hands, leaving an open circle with her fingers as if she was holding onto a pole. Some spiritual energy then started to gather in that spot and she moved one hand up and the other down, shaping an actual staff of pure mana. After it reached a satisfying length, Selene pulled it up and used her left hand to split the ending into a square-shaped fork, creating four evenly spread spikes.

Finished, she opened her eyes and aimed it at a nearby pillar. Selene then threw it with all the strength she could muster without breaking the balance and the spiritual spear lodged itself into the stone post. It was too far for her to grab or jump towards, but it was enough for what she was planning.

Smiling to herself, she used the platform to push herself forwards as much as it was possible. The tile tilted instantly and began sliding off the spike, but Selene already jumped off it. Starting to fall, she focused the mana in her feet and thin circles of blue energy appeared under them.

Selene used the small barriers as footholds in the air and made four hasty steps until the last one broke into particles just as she reached her weapon lodged into the pillar, catching it with her hands and ending up hanging down from it. This structure didn’t seem fake so she freely used her strength to swing back and forth until she was able to launch herself upwards, landing on the tile above.

Miria clapped a few times and they resumed their little competition. Jumping right and left, they pushed forwards. Most of the traps weren’t a threat thanks to their keen senses, but unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any pattern or rule to figure out which platforms were safe, and they did end up on a few fake ones.

On the very last line of tiles, Miria was slightly in the lead and was already starting to smile to herself. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. With victory almost in her grasp, the platform that was the closest to the other side’s edge literally turned to dust the moment she set her foot on it, not being able to even feel the weight of her body for a second.

“Ah!”

It was close enough for her to quickly grab the ledge before she sank down completely. That little hiccup allowed Selene to jump onto the proper surface first and her hand soon arrived above Miria’s face. She sighed dejectedly and grabbed it, letting the foxgirl help her up.

“You almost won.”

“I should have expected that the furthest one will be a trap too. Congratulations. Those were some nice moves,” Miria answered with a smile.

“Oh, thank you. Let’s try again on our way back.”

Miria nodded and they walked further to check if there was any reward. They found a small, stone rectangle, similar to an altar, with a leather bag lying on top of it. Selene moved it around using her spiritual energy to check for more traps, but nothing happened so they picked it up and checked the contents.

“These flasks… potions?” Miria asked after pulling out a tiny vial with greenish liquid.

“Maybe.” Selene picked up a bigger one with yellow contents. “Perhaps Master will know what these are.”

“Huh? Didn’t you call Master 'my Lord' usually? Why the change?” the panthergirl asked, slightly confused.

Selene chuckled a bit. “It just feels more natural when we are speaking like this. I like to call him ‘my Lord’ to show my respect in front of others or when I’m talking directly to him.”

“I see. I guess this makes sense. I know it kind of means the same but… our Lord sounds a bit weird to me, hahaha. But I know Spiritual Foxes are used to speaking like that.”

Miria took the bag and quickly left it in their realm after Selene put her vial back in. They could just return to Ast’s side by coming out from a portal through their world, but they decided to have a quick rematch, knowing well which platforms were safe.

With that knowledge, the two of them arrived at the start pretty much at the same time and Miria playfully showed dissatisfaction with a grumpy expression. She strolled towards Ast and nuzzled herself to him with a slight blush. It still was embarrassing to do it in front of others, but she was slowly making steady steps forward. Selene brought the reward while he played with the cute cat-like ears.

“The green one is most likely poison. I don’t think it’s extremely lethal,” he said after examining the smaller vial. “Not sure about the other one. Might be an antidote. It wouldn’t be stupid. We’ll have to check it properly outside.”

“So, what now? Are we punching our way out agai—”

A weak rumble interrupted Rudy’s question and everyone turned around. Part of the wall crumbled and made enough space for them to return to the previous corridor.

“This is still quite high. Looks like the core didn't assume that those who completed the Trial would be dangerous enough to not let them out,” Ast commented.

They walked through the hole and resumed their journey towards the 5th floor's boss.