Chapter 204: Elven Storage Solutions (1/2)

The cloud house had taken the form of a large two-storey building of desert stone. Jason found Clive and Belinda out front, working on the scattered collection of parts that used to be the skimmer. After getting Jason’s cry for help over voice chat, Clive had used a quick and dirty ritual to overcharge the skimmer. It had brought them to village in the nick of time, but also taken a toll on the vehicle. While Jason recovered, he and Belinda had been trying to repair it using the random collection of materials he happened to have in his storage space.

“How’s it going?” Jason asked.

“We’ve figured out something that should last us the rest of the trip,” Clive said. “It’ll put all the burden on the parts that are still good, though.”

“Which means the skimmer will be well and truly done by the time we get to the river,” Belinda added. “It might not even make it, depending on how much chasing around after monster notices we do.”

“We’ll have it ready to go in the morning,” Clive said.

“Jason, have you seen Sophie, yet?” Belinda asked.

“Not since I woke up,” Jason said. “Was she looking for me for something?”

“No,” Belinda said. “Just do me a favour and don’t be too… you when you see her.”

“Too me?”

“Yes,” Belinda said. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t think he can help it,” Clive said.

“Don’t believe it,” Belinda said. “He might seem all over the place, but it’s a lot more deliberate than you think. I know a flim-flam man when I see one.”

Jason flashed her a grin and went inside the house.

The team looked at the dark hole leading into the earthen bank. It was hard to think of it as a burrow when they could have driven the skimmer into it with room to spare. Henrietta frowned at the dark opening, one of many they had spotted nearby.

“This one is dangerous,” she said. “Dark hunters. Bronze rank, they appear in large numbers and like to dig themselves a warren of dark tunnels.”

“I’ll go,” Jason said.

“I don’t think going in there alone is a good idea,” Henrietta said.

“Going with someone else would be more dangerous,” Jason said. “This is my kind of fight.”

A fight in the dark against powerful monsters was exactly what he needed to push his perception power over the edge. Humphrey and Clive, with their human advantage, had already reached bronze rank with their perception powers, gaining enhanced aura senses. Neil, who had been an essence user longer than Jason, had likewise reached bronze with his perception power. It gave him the ability to sense vulnerabilities in magical defences and detect injuries, both in allies and enemies.

“I’m not sure going into the dark all alone is a good strategy.”

“Going alone into the dark is my best strategy,” Jason said. “I’ve been practising fighting in various ways, this trip. Now it’s time to fight my way.”

Henrietta looked at Jason, seeing the usual whimsy absent from his expression. All that was there was confidence and determination.

“Very well,” she conceded. “I don’t want you to hesitate to call on us if it goes wrong, though. We’ve come close enough to losing you already.”

Jason walked forward, his cloak manifesting around him. As he went into the tunnels, stars on his cloak started floating into the air, turning pure darkness into dancing shadows. The rest of the team waited, with no indications of anything coming from the cave.

“Asano, are you alright?” Henrietta asked after a while.

“Yes,” Jason’s voice came back. “It’s about to begin.”

She concentrated on the hole in front of her, extending her aura senses.

“What is it?” Humphrey asked, seeing her focused gaze.

“Your aura senses are stronger now,” Henrietta told him. “Push them forward, into the caves.”

“You said dark hunters were good at concealing their auras,” Humphrey said.

“They are,” Henrietta said.

Humphrey did as he was told, concentrating his senses of the burrow entrance in front. Sophie and Clive did the same, using their own enhanced aura senses. It was hard to sense anything from within the warren, but they picked out an aura radiating fear and panic. It was coming closer, toward the burrow entrance directly in front of them.

A creature came stumbling out of the hole. It looked like a preying mantis the size of a Saint Bernard but with the stinger-tail and hard black exterior of a scorpion. It had lost a leg somewhere and was leaking dark fluids from beneath chitinous plates. From the darkness behind it came a cold voice.

“Mine is the judgement, and the judgement is death.”

Light shone down on the monster from nowhere, a glorious mix of silver, blue and gold. The beauty of it was belied by the effects of the transcendent energy that rapidly evaporated the monster into rainbow smoke. Jason didn’t emerge from the hole, only the team members with bronze-rank aura senses catching a glimpse of his aura in the moment the spell was cast.

They spotted more monsters emerging from the other holes around them, evacuating their underground warren. The creatures ignored the adventurers as they skittered away as fast as their legs would carry them. Each was radiating an aura steeped in the same fear and panic as the first.

“That’s odd,” Henrietta said, frowning at the fleeing monsters.

“What is?” Humphrey asked.

“They’re called dark hunters for a reason,” Henrietta said. “I’ve never heard of them escaping into sunlight before.”

Some of the monsters were faster than others, who were clearly impaired. The most damaged started dropping dead shortly after making the surface, while the others grew more and more sluggish over time until they too collapsed to the ground. Jason’s exit from the warren was presaged by floating lights that returned to their place on his cloak as he emerged into the light.

He started making his way around the dead monsters, using his blood harvest power on all the bodies before looting them. He didn’t need to refresh his mana any more after the first couple of monsters, but kept doing it to level his ability. Finally completing his rounds, he returned to the group as if he’d been out for a stroll, nodding at the skimmer.

“Shall we?”

It finally happened as Jason meditated on the roof of the cloud house. It began with a burning sensation behind the eyes, which became a sharp, twisting pain until it suddenly stopped.

Ability [Midnight Eyes] (Dark) has reached Iron 9 (100%).Ability [Midnight Eyes] (Dark) has reached Bronze 0 (00%).Ability [Midnight Eyes] (Dark) has gained a new effect.