Chapter 47: Darkness (1/2)

Ilea woke up refreshed after two hours of sleeping. The waitress lay next to her and would likely continue her slumber for quite some time. ‘I’ll definitely visit again...’ Ilea thought as she got up and dressed herself. She decided to steal the woman’s panties, they were a considerable amount less ruined than her own after all. Something told her that Chris would agree to the trade.

She touched her backpack and blinked out of the room to make as little noise as possible. Walking down the stairs, she stopped at the bottom and walked over to her mace that was still stuck in the ground. Yanking it out, she left the inn.

The Root looked the same as it had the last night. Being underground had that effect on a town. Still it seemed like most people were still asleep as Ilea looked at some of them knocked out right in the street.

She walked to a nearby store and bought provisions for her next go at the Taleen great hall. ‘Made myself remember the centurion...’ she frowned a little but the food placed in her backpack and the past night’s activities brought a smile to her face again quickly.

Another half an hour was spent looking for a comfortable leather armor, which she found in the only armor store that apparently opened this early. It only cost her ten silver coins. After that Ilea was decked out and ready to go. ‘I forgot the books I left at Alice’s...oh well.’

She walked back towards the cave that led to the Taleen dungeon and soon changed into a jog and then sprint. More and more buffs activated as her speed increased. She reached the entrance to the dungeon a while later and found only the remains of a camp in the big room where the group of adventurers had gathered the day before.

Checking the street outside with her sphere, she didn’t find anybody there. She walked towards where her first encounter with the guardians happened and started moving the bodies left behind. Half an hour later she had moved all of them out of the dungeon and buried them a couple meters deep in stone and dirt. ‘Hopefully they’ll decompose in time...’ she thought and closed her eyes for a minute. Touching the closed up stone, she got up and went back into the dungeon.

The residential area was big enough for thousands if not more people to live and Ilea quickly ran the exact route they had cleared up on the way to the great hall. The healer only encountered a couple guardians on her way whom she left alone to not attract anyone’s attention. ‘At least no corpses found so far...’ she thought as she reached the chasm that led to the great hall.

Inside nothing seemed disturbed but she couldn’t be sure if nobody had managed to get there yet. ‘So I assume that one means teleportation or something similar...’ she looked at the symbol near the door where Edwin led them through before.

There were two doors on each side and one door facing the entrance where Ilea had come from. “So obviously I chose the side doors first...don’t wanna face a boss yet...not before I destroy a centurion...” she said to herself and thought about which door to chose. Edwin had mentioned a prison and she didn’t see a reason for him to lie there. She knew the teleportation one so chose the door immediately to the right of the entrance.

It opened upon her usage of mana and Ilea found herself in the familiar environment of stairs again. Activating all her buffs, she ran downwards for fifteen minutes. ‘Quite a long way...’ she thought and finally reached a small room with four sword guardians in it.

They were upon her right after she had managed to drop her backpack and activate Shroud of Ash. The fight itself took only fifteen minutes until Ilea stood victorious above the dented machines.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Taleen Guardian] x4’

‘diing’ ‘You have defeated an enemy fifty levels or more above your own. Additional Experience is granted.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 146. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 147. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Ash Wielder has reached level 140. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Ash Wielder has reached level 14

‘bing’ ‘Ash Surge reaches lvl 6’

‘bing’ ‘Wave of Ember reaches lvl 10’

‘Not quite as much anymore eh...although I assume gaining four levels from four enemies is quite spectacular for most other people...’ she thought and went onwards. Next were further stairs that led downwards again. Only twenty steps thought before a similarly sized room lit by green magic light and made from white stone opened up to her.

She could make out the traps in the ground and walls from experience by now and simply walked in to receive the spears. Without Edwin and co though, Ilea simply decided to blink through the place and found herself behind the closed door leading further down.

It was the right decision she quickly found as four more similar trap rooms followed with an increasing amount of spears and fire. ‘Well this is boring, not even anything to fight?’ Ilea asked herself when the next room finally showed something different.

A big hall with plants and trees growing in selected spots and guardians stationed on the walls and kneeling near them on the ground.

‘The plants couldn’t grow further in all this time...’ she looked upwards and couldn’t find the ivy that was so prevalent on the stone in the residential area.

“Some of those guardians...” she started but was interrupted when one of them moved and looked at her. It was a bigger model but not an unfamiliar one. It’s whole torso area was a massive cannon and the loud bang that resounded woke up all the other guardians from their centuries long rest.

The projectile fired was quite similar than the ones fired from the normal ranged machines but simply bigger and presumably deadlier. Ilea smiled and dodged to the side. “This is gonna be so much...” she jumped again before the slug impacted the ground behind her “...easier. With heavy artillery on my side.”

Around a dozen sword guardians moved in on her position while ten heavy and five normal ranged machines started firing her way. ‘Not gonna waste this precious experience...’ she thought and blinked a couple times until she reached one of the heavy ones. She attacked and found that they were much slower than the normal smaller ones.

“Hahahaha” dodging several blades coming her way, Ilea laughed and blinked away as three massive slugs smashed into the group of guardians near her. “Your programming sucks guys!” she shouted and blinked again into the fray. Ilea would’ve thought differently about the machines if any of the Taleen had remained to control them. What she faces was simply the autopilot.

Ten minutes later, three of the sword guardians were already down when a careless strike from above let one of the sword guardians pierce through Ilea’s leg. Immediately following was a massive slug that impacted her side and crushed some ribs.

The healer was sent flying into the nearby wall and only another blink saved her from the incoming projectiles. ‘It broke so easily through the ash...man what would’ve happened if I didn’t have the skill...’ she thought as she danced around the projectiles while healing her injury.

‘Don’t get too cocky Ilea...’ she reminded herself of Dale’s words after her first battle with people and breathed in deeply. ‘Don’t forget you’re not immortal Ilea...’ she told herself and continued on. The smile never left her face though and got even brighter as the danger of her situation seeped in again.

She wasn’t hit again but had to flee the room twenty minutes later to regenerate her mana. Moving out and meditating was much faster than using Azarinth Reversal but she still used the skill sometimes in between punches to make sure it would at least level up.

The next fight finished up the remaining guardians and Ilea meditated in the room again after waiting for additional traps or enemies. None came.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Taleen Guardian] x27’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated an enemy fifty levels or more above your own. Additional Experience is granted.’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated an enemy forty levels or more above your own. Additional Experience is granted.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 148. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 149. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 150. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 151. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 152. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 153. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 154. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 155. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Ash Wielder has reached level 142. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Ash Wielder has reached level 143. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘bing’ ‘Ash Wielder has reached level 144. 5 Stat points awarded.’