Chapter: 679
Usually a gemstone would be socketed into a purpose-made item to give the item various effects, such as flame, sharpness or even sense, but these were themselves the item and the gem. The power and the conduit.
Only the mage hunters had access to such exquisite and expensive gems.
Precious as they were, these arc stones were also fragile because of it, and had to rest inside a regenerative compartment built into the mage hunter suit.
Number Three worked quickly and diligently, hoping he would be able to cut away all these tendrils before his arc stones would need to be repaired by the suit.
He didn’t want to wait here for hours as they repaired, and it would truly be embarrassing if Number Two and Number Four caught up to him and found him in this sorry state, so he carried out the tedious process as quickly and precisely as he could.
A few times, he did try to break off the red growths attaching the tendrils, but it seemed that these plaques were further enhanced by the mushrooms, which provided them with an unknown nourishment and helped them to further solidify.
About thirteen of these tendrils were currently attached to his body, and unfortunately, each had to be cut.
A few times he tried to simply tug at them, hoping that something would snap, but even the mushrooms seemed to be made of something much stronger than even his own armour, as they didn’t so much as budge.
He was sure now that they had a form of physical damage immunity, so his best option was to cut them.
“They probably became like this after rock slides.” he guessed.
Suddenly, the tendrils got shorter. He was only half-way through cutting the fifth tendril away when he noticed that they began to pull on him.
Despite his armour weighing as much as a house, they managed to tug at him without much effort at all, soon even pulling him off-balance.
He took a step forward to stop himself from falling over, but in the sand where his balance was reduced, combined with the large balls of red plaques on his feet, he had no choice but to fall into the sand.
A heavy thud, and he fell to one knee. It was better than falling over completely.
Taking a deep breath, he remained calm.
He noticed ever more tendrils were just attached to his body as he was pulled into them.
“Looks like I’m stuck for now.” he thought bitterly, seeing his five minute job just turn into a three hour slog.
Following procedure, he took out his communication crystal.
“Number Three. Environmental hazard. Temporarily hindered. There’s a beacon at where to cross the desert for Two and Four.”
“Acknowledged.” another voice sounded back, “Hazard type?”
“… Obstruction.” he replied.
“Acknowledged.”
Stashing away his communication crystal, he calmly went back to cutting.
Unfortunately, he was soon back on his feet.
Normally this would be a good thing, but in this case it was not because he was pulled to his feet.