427 Jermines Secre (1/2)
When Jermine and Truen were close enough, Zero stopped and told Bob to take a break.
”Go and meet them, tell them to set up camp near the bedrock but not inside or after it. I'll join shortly after I confirm some things. Also, take these.”
Bob didn't question why Zero was giving a bunch of pre-drawn emergency talismans. He only asked where he should put the anchoring point to evacuate if something went south.
”Oh, don't worry about that,” Zero smiled. ”They'll simply teleport to the surface and create a mana barrier that will last for five minutes. It's enough time for me to open portals and bring everyone back to safety. Stick some of these on the sand walkers too, will you? I don't want to walk through the desert on foot. We don't know how far the city of gnomes will be.”
With a salute, the dragon returned the pickaxe and transformed into his human form. Nobody wanted to scare Jermine too much, the poor mole girl had too many things to cope with at the moment. Zero didn't have the heart to tell Bob these talismans were something he made in Magnus Hilda after copying thousands of talismans for the royal family. They are experimental stuff that Zero simply forgot to get rid of during his stay. Luckily, they proved useful in the most unexpected situations.
Truen finally arrived at the dungeon ”entrance” that Zero and Jermine talked about and blinked. He used magic to light the place up and felt that the rock was siphoning mana from him slowly but steadily. There was nothing Truen could do to stop the leak and mana recovery here was slower than on the surface of the desert. What did Zero find again?
”You're here,” Bob greeted them and passed everyone a talisman before sticking a talisman to the butt of every sand walker. Jermine held onto the strip of paper and wondered what that was.
”Keep this close to you at all times,” Bob explained and told them that it was Zero's instructions. Jermine didn't question it and Truen examined it. The runes looked slightly complicated but it was nowhere near the level of impossibility that Zero was capable of.
”It's an emergency evacuation talisman,” he explained and Jermine nodded, feeling nervous about the dungeon that Zero was in. Why would they be given evacuation talismans and told to wait outside?
Once Bob, Jermine, Truen and the sand walkers were outside settling the campsite, Zero took that chance to sneak away. After working on the walls for a long time and trying to locate the source of the pained moans, Zero finally had an idea what this dungeon was.
Wii sensed that something was wrong while Mii busied away in the mindscape library. Likewise, Lily was receiving some really weird system usage graphs. Zero was meddling with her authority and overwriting some preset limits. At once, the flower fairy reported back to Mii who scowled.