Chapter 355: Reaching Dark Sky (1/2)

Meanwhile, as they exited the tunnel of the Deep Wall Stratum, the frontliners reached the Dark Sky, the third stratum of the Elven Synchronized Intellect Nation (SIN).

“It is clearly below, so why is this place called ‘Dark Sky’?”

Gou Dan asked, perplexed as he looked at the stone wall barrier over himself.

The exit from the tunnel which they just left protruded downwards, resembling a stalactite hollowed out at its center.

Twinkling radiances were spread across the walls too, and a closer look would reveal that those were luminous ferns.

Aside from the one from which they exited, they could also see that there were other stalactites in other areas, meaning that there might be more tunnel entrances into the Dark Sky Stratum from the Deep Wall Stratum.

But that was all their vision could see.

The luminous plants growing on the stone walls notwithstanding, the Dark Sky Stratum was filled with darkness. While there were faint starry sparkles inside, those only extended for a certain length to pierce through the darkness and weren’t actually too bright, to the point that you almost can’t see your own fingers within the Dark Sky Stratum.

“No one knows what the high elves were thinking,” Edward muttered. “Anyway, by logic, the so-called Steel Earth should be below, right?”

Although the party was still going downwards after entering the Dark Sky, their descent had become remarkably slow that they felt a curious buoyancy. That was why Edward simply turned his Blackfire Dragon into a fireball that enveloped everyone as the first line of defense.

“Edward, can’t you use your peerless fire magic to come up with something and brighten the area around us?” Joe mumbled. He was stretching his eyes as wide as he could but he couldn’t see a thing, and became even more flustered after summoning his spirit familiar, only for it to turn out that having four eyes didn’t help matters either.

That said, he wasn’t really afraid of the dark

-after learning to use fire and its light to dispel the darkness, the discomfort in dark became inscribed into their instincts.

“Let me try something. Multi-cast, Flame Convert,” Edward murmured softly, conjuring a white fire out of thin air. “Flare Strike!”

With Flame Convert, Edward attached the Flare Strike that should have been shot out to his helm, keeping the white flames blazing on it.

Since the helm was imbued with a Zoffy rune as well as Edward splitting his attention to control the flames and increased the fuel (mana) to maximum output, it slowed down the decrease of durability of his own helm.

The reason Edward would use Flare Strike was also because a white flame-like ‘flare’ was the brightest fire spell he had at the moment.

And that was very much the truth: while normal flames illuminated a circle of around a meter radius, the flare illuminated a circle with a radius of five meters, increasing the visibility considerably.

But the Players didn’t realize what would happen to them for doing something like that in a pitch-black environment.

“Hold on, Edward, snuff out the fire right now—”

Gou Dan appeared to sense something then and shouted urgently, but was promptly dragged out of the protective circle formed by the Blackfire by his navel and disappeared in the darkness outside.

(Player Doug Ag has been killed by Limulus, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, Sky High, and Sky High)

“?!”