Chapter: 212
“See what?” another replied, playing with a small wisp of blue fire.
“Some guy just literally ran in from the forest and went right into the dungeon…”
“Ha, really? Just then? Wow… should we tell someone?”
“I don’t know… he was pretty quick, I wonder what he was thinking…. Do you think he was some kinda high level prodigy or something?”
“I don’t know.. I know there were a few unique classes after the 7th that no one has seen since so maybe they’ve just been put into some kinda crazy training regime and that was one of them?”
“Yeah, maybe…” he shrugged. “ Or maybe it’s just some idiot.”
“Heh, maybe he just has no life.” another chimed in with a chuckle, as he continued slinging rocks into the nearby forest.
The adventurers all chuckled for a moment outside the dungeon before they went back to their normal conversations, checking their gear and talking about their varying battle strategies.
“Hm, I guess it’s permanently overcast here” looking up at the rolling clouds, Jay sat down for a moment.
“I’m still not back to full mana, so I’ll summon the boys to protect me while I rest for a while. This time, I’ll at least make it into the first pyramid.” he challenged himself.
Shifting his ring, he summoned Red and Lamp. The gas pulled some extra bones out of the ring, snapped a few others and popped some cartilage, and before Jay’s eyes, their bone bodies were all back to their normal shapes once more, no more dents or caved in rib-cages, and their health back to 100%.
Jay took out the bone hammers and threw them on the ground before his skeletons.
“Protect me.” he simply commanded before beginning to meditate, sitting cross-legged and alone in the dark dungeon.
– – –
“Mnnh, mmm” Viladore woke up from his deep afternoon sleep with a grumble, rubbing some gunk from his eyes as he slowly woke up.
“Well, time to prepare for my next student, that heat manipulator.” Viladore got up from his desk, having a glass of water from a jug on his desk and unwrinkling his clothes.
“Now, my notes for this kid…” he looked around his desk for a moment before setting his eyes on his cube – which currently appeared to have a lump on it.
“…” speechless, his eyes bulging as he leant closer in shock, seeing that his cube had a growth on it.
“RE- REPORT!” he slapped his hands on the desk, wanting an immediate response from the cube.
“Master, mana was detected 2 times out of 328 iterations. Successful absorption happened one time. Appendage growth reached 13%. Mana sense practice resumed, shall I continue master?”
“YES!” Viladore celebrated as his hands began to shake lightly, beginning to jump around the room – as much as an old man like him could anyway.
“Yes yes yes! It’s working! Progress!” He walked back and forwarth, rubbing his hands in joy before gazing lovingly at his cube again.
“It’s just a lump, sure, but this is proof of concept.” he shook his head “I can’t believe it’s finally working.” he felt a sense of completeness in himself.
“Finally…” he picked up the cube, poking at the lump on the side. It was rock hard with a smooth surface.
“Brilliant…” He gasped, “So, when did you sense it?”