Chapter 56: Cleanup crew (2/2)

- Elos Standard language - lvl 5

Status:

Vitality: 550

Health: 5122/5500

“Alright people good work but let’s move on, there are other groups that might have been ambushed. We’ve lost enough people already...” Jasper said and walked out of the room. All of them had gained at least one level from the fight. Ilea herself had certainly enjoyed the fight but afterwards the deaths of the other adventurers she’d seen happily playing music or cards started weighing on her. She hadn’t known any of the ones she’d seen dead but still they were people.

‘Focus on what you can do...’ she thought and followed Jasper. The group ran through the dungeons trying to find other adventurers by following the trails of destroyed guardians. Jasper was luckily the one who had planned on where the groups would be going and they quickly found the traces of a recent battle.

“He’s still alive...” Ilea said out loud and blinked to one of the piles of metal. The destroyed guardian was removed with ease and Ilea quickly started healing the man who had been caught below the wreckage. Twenty seconds of healing later he opened his eyes.

“You’re...Lilith...the others...” he coughed up blood but Ilea just kept on healing.

“Where are they, centurion?” she asked after he had stopped coughing.

“Yes...straight ahead...” he managed to get the words out between the blood. Ilea ignored the smell of urine and nodded to the others. She had put on her helmet again after defeating the centurion.

“Go ahead, I’ll stabilize him. Need another minute or two.” she said and the others left immediately, whatever buffs they had for speed were applied. Ilea was done with the man a minute later. “You better stay here, it should be safe as long as you don’t move. If we’re not back in an hour go for the elevator.” the man who was a warrior at level 160 nodded to the woman, her reputation likely convinced him.

Applying both State of Azarinth and Form of Ember, Ilea rushed forward. She dodged the strewn around destroyed machines and finally reached the biggest room she’d seen so far in the dungeons. ‘The mess hall...’ she thought and focused on the centurion that was currently engaged by Agor, Jasper and several mages that were protected by a bulky woman, some warriors and Jasper.

A little above the group flew Inström, his eyes blue, firing down lightning at the machine. ‘The Thor is here...’ she thought and was surprisingly elated at the fact that there were no more corpses in the room. They had held off the centurion and might’ve even destroyed it in time. With their help it wouldn’t be a problem to deal with this.

Ilea blinked towards the group of adventurers and checked them quickly. None were badly injured. She looked upwards as she saw drops of blood falling down from Inström. She sprouted her wings and flew to the man before starting to heal him.

He just grunted and gave her a quick glance before concentrating on the enemy again. Spells were fired from the group of mages that now had two tanks to protect them against any ranged attacks. Some of the present warriors again would’ve only been a liability when fighting the centurion.

Fire and ice hit the centurion while Agor and Jasper kept the machine busy up close. Ilea stayed in the air, watching the overwhelming victory unfold. She didn’t feel like engaging the enemy anymore and simply stayed in the air. ‘Just get it over with already...’ she thought when the centurion reached its final phase and kept getting battered from ranged attacks.

A minute after it started to glow and everyone retreated behind the tanks before the explosion shook the room. Ilea stayed in the air and tried hard to push against the shock wave. Partially successful, she landed again, a couple meters behind where she’d been floating.

‘ding’ ‘Your group has defeated [Taleen Centurion – lvl 305]’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated an enemy one hundred and

‘bing’ ‘Azarinth Healer has reached level 184. 5 Stat points awarded.’

‘No wonder people have difficulties leveling in groups...’ she thought and put her points into wisdom.

“Anybody injured?” she asked as she approached the group but none seemed to be more than battered or simply tired. Some people looked at her, one of them even nodding. Inström didn’t say a thing about her healing him.

The group was still recovering when she reached Agor. “I’m gonna continue with clearing. You feel up for it?” he just nodded and motioned her to march on.

“Thanks for the help Lilith.” Jasper said as he reached her. “You saved some lives today. We’ll regroup and get the corpses out of here, feel free to clear as much as you like...” he said almost in a resigned way before going back to the group.

“Let’s go then...” she told Agor and led the way. It would likely take a while until the expedition came down here again and there probably wouldn’t be as many of them so she decided to slow her pace a little. “So ever found an ancient item?” she asked the man while they were walking through the dark corridors.

The lights in the dungeons were actually less bright than in the rest of the dungeon. “No, sadly not but I’ve seen some. Why do you ask?”

Ilea gambled a little but at this point she was pretty sure she could get away from the expedition if she tried and Lorcan didn’t seem like he really cared about the others. “Well let’s just say that there’s something the Forkspears won’t be getting from this place...” she told him.

“Hahahaha...well I for one think whatever you found is better in your hands than theirs. What is it?” he asked but Ilea continued in silence for thirty seconds. “Come on Ilea...what iiiis it?”

“It’s a storage necklace...” she said and prepared for any reaction he might have.

“Eh, well that’s disappointing. I mean sure it’s useful and if it’s ancient it probably has a ton of space inside. Just you know...I was more hoping on a great sword or something...I hope you’re not angry that I would’ve taken you out for that...” he said, continuing onwards without even pausing.

“On a date? Well you can do that anyway if you like...” she said but he didn’t respond for a while after that. The mood had gotten a little heavy after that and Ilea wasn’t quite sure what to say anymore. The sword guardians they soon came across were quite the welcome distraction.

After destroying five of them the two walked on, Lorcan breaking the silence after a couple minutes. “I apologize but I have to decline.” Ilea waited for a while too while thinking his words over.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you have your reasons. Do tell if I can help somehow though.” she said but didn’t wait for a possible response. Trying to change the obviously unpleasant topic for Lorcan, she continued on the necklace. “I have another question on the ancient item...is why I mentioned it in the first place really...it asked me to claim the necklace. Do you know what that means?” she asked.

“I do...well what I heard and I think this should be reliable...it’s bound to your mana. If you die someone else can take it. If someone steals it from you and you were bound to it for a month, the person would have to wait for a month to be able to claim it...as long as you’re still alive. You can also will other people to be allowed to use it or to access certain items inside. Someone I worked with did that once so I’m somewhat familiar with the enchantment...and of course this.” he gestured to the bracelet on his arm.

“Thanks for the explanation...glad to hear people can’t just steal it. There’s no way to access anything inside otherwise?” she asked.

“None I’ve heard of but there’s magic for nearly everything you know. Now stop talking, we have company...” two sword guardians stood up from their deactivated position and approached them slowly as Ilea’s slit in her helmet started glowing with a colorful mixture of blue and fire.