Eternium ~ Ch 25!!

“There he goes now. The cheater.” 

Dale whipped his head around, but enough people were looking at him that he couldn’t pinpoint who had spoken. He nudged Hans very gently, calling attention to himself. “Hans, what was that all about? Someone just called me a cheater? What does that even mean?”

“Oh that?” Hans waved his hand dismissively. “They just think that you rose to power too quickly, that you achieved a high rank too young, and that the dungeon unfairly benefits you. I’m pretty sure there is only a nebulous plan to murder you to relieve tension. Nothing to worry about, just rank jealousy.”

Dale stopped short, took a deep breath, and let it go. It was important to have a positive relationship with those around you, but right now he had other things on his mind. Dale was having serious doubts, but he had decided to go into the dungeon with Minya to challenge the Golems. Hans was walking with him for ‘moral support’, but in reality, he simply wanted to see the person that could cause Dale to become so flustered and frustrated.

Minya was getting a lot of attention, and it was obvious that they had seen her before she had seen them. There was a crowd of people around her that she was speaking - perhaps preaching - with. “There is an easier way, everyone! Instead of the need for a huge, unprotected portal, why not simply use the direct method of putting your mind into a Core and giving it to the Great Spirit below us? Why do you need your old bodies?”

“Because otherwise we still die! What’s wrong with you? Of course, we want to go there in our bodies!” The crowd was growing restless, and this comment made the more fidgety amongst them go still… almost as if they expected blood to soon fly. 

“Minya.” Dale softly called, knowing that she would be able to hear him.

She glanced over and smiled at him, sending a bright comment to the onlookers. “The option will always be there! At least for, well… you know what I mean.”

Dale wasn’t sure how to handle the odd mixture of hatred and jealousy he gained simply by having Minya saunter over to him, take his hand, and pull him to the entrance of the dungeon. Hans giving him a thumbs up and salacious wink didn’t help the situation. “Do you have to be parading me around like this?”

“Of course, I do!” Minya’s expression took on a dark edge. “If you’d rather fight through the Tower of Ascension alone, for the first-”

“Alright, alright already!” Dale sped up to Mage-speed, and they left all the wandering eyes behind them. “Plus, whatever he has in here, it can’t actually be just like the Tower.”

“No. It really can’t.” Minya smirked at him. “Cal’s version is far easier. You just need to fight something.”

“Can we just talk like normal people, or do you toss around ominous sayings for a living?” Dale growled, still not looking directly at her. He was still embarrassed by their last encounter; how could he not have understood that she was only after him for his connection to Cal? Dale held out a keygem, and a rift appeared in the air before him. Stepping through, he caught a Cat by the scruff of its neck and chucked it toward the nearest Golem. 

The Cat never reached the target, instead getting caught by gravity Runes and dropped into a portal that opened to the bottom of the mountain. It had a long way to fall before it would reach the arctic waters. Minya shook her head disapprovingly, “You should know better than that. What a waste of energy!”

Dale gave her a flat stare and she turned to the paths, full of annoyance. “Whatever, Dale. What path would you like to challenge? One of the base elements, infernal, or celestial?”

“It shouldn’t matter. Fire?” Dale finally looked directly at Minya, who had her eyes closed and seemed to be counting. “Actually, I don’t know your Mana type. What’s your specialization? Tier?”

“Effervescence.”

Dale waited for more, but it seemed nothing was forthcoming. “I have questions.”

“You and everyone else that ever hears that.” Minya waved him off like an extra-annoying insect. “It’s tier two, wind and water. It’s a valid Mana type.”

Dale could hear the invitation to say something. He ignored the dare in her voice, waving at the path of fire. “Let’s go on that one. What are you after, by the way? What is it that you are hoping to get out of this dungeon dive?”

“I’m trying to get a field of rare herbs.” Minya responded succinctly. “I am a beast tamer, a dungeon explorer, and a researcher. Powerful herbs are useful for all of my jobs and hobbies, but all of my sway with Cal has been used up just by him keeping me alive. So, I’m going to hunt for what I want.”

Nodding along, Dale put his other concerns out of his mind and focused on his immediate goals. “Agreed. I want to secure a stable area for myself and the people I want to be around. I don’t like the instability I’ve been dealing with, and want to find a way to do what I want in safety and comfort. Let’s go fight our way to a better future.”

“To a better future!” Minya shouted, charging into the flames ahead of him. Dale cursed and followed, arriving on the small island just as a torrential blast of flames ignited the air. Minya shifted her aura to deal with the attack, deflecting the fire to either side even as the heat scorched her outfit. Dale burst through the remaining heat, ignoring the minor pain of the Mana-infused fire that penetrated his defenses.

He hopped over Minya, reaching back and translating his momentum into power as he punched the Golem’s torso. The force he exerted cracked the mineral structure, and the Golem went spinning ass over teakettle. It righted itself using a directed blast, riding the momentum and catching Minya’s leg as she tried to dodge. She screamed as it began superheating it’s body by directing pure fire Mana into its hands.

Minya had to directly pit the water Mana in her Aura against the pure flames, and was quickly losing the battle. Dale arrived with a crushing blow, splintering the Mob’s left elbow. It was forced to release the hold it had, and Minya gained distance by kicking off the constructs already-damaged chest. Dale followed her motion with an earth-infused attack with his knee, and the Golem’s Core was broken out of the main body. It rolled nearly to the edge of the platform before Minya caught up and stored the Mana-filled object in her spatial bag.

“Whew!” She wiped her forehead though no sweat had appeared. “That was fun. Should that have been so difficult? That was only the first Golem in the area!”

“Don’t forget that these are commonly set up for a five-person team.” Dale reminded her even as he worked to decide the best path forward. “We are going to need to be careful. I have a lot of raw power and my bodily training, but I don’t have a ton of experience or refined skills. You…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Minya waved off his discomfort. “I don’t have a lot of raw power, so I need to rely on what I have learned over the years. I’m still recovering from multiple years of Mana deprivation, so trust me when I tell you I understand my limits.”

Dale decided against pointing out the handprints burned into her thigh, and pointed instead at the path that connected to the earthen element. “Want to run down the lava path? It would be easy for you to defend since it would be elements opposed to your own. Also, I’m pretty sure I can handle most of the low-tier Golems on my own without too much trouble.”

Minya put her hands on her hips and cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t we just agree not to underestimate them? I’ve been watching these things since Cal made them. They are dangerous.”

Dale let his head roll back while he groaned. “Can we just go before the moon strikes?”

“Fine, lava path it is.” Minya strode away forward, though Dale soon overtook her and stormed down the path at the lava Golem. He used his earth-shattering tech - that is, his spell - in hopes of ending this battle as it began. 

A thick barrier of Mana intercepted his spell, eroding it to the point that only a few thick flakes of stone fell from the construct. Dale was forced to dodge to the side as its retaliatory strike mimicked a small-scale eruption; flooding the space he had been standing with superheated stone. Dale’s skin sizzled as empowered sparks charred his exposed skin. “Son of the abyss!”

Minya burst through the heat, a gout of steam trailing behind her as the protective water coating her body vaporized. A staff appeared in her hands, and she struck the floor just in front of the Golem. The water and air interacted with the suffocating heat and exploded upward, tossing the Tom-sized golem into the air. Seeing his chance, Dale focused his new gravity ‘spell’ and the Golem slammed back to the platform. With the Golem off balance, it was simplicity itself to smash the Core out of the prone body.

Tossing the Core into his bag, Dale looked around at the hazy air, only able to get a general understanding of where he was in relation to the center of the room. “Minya… we’re gonna be here a while, huh?”

“Yup.” she cracked her neck by tilting her head to the side sharply. “Once we get past a few more, the ones at the start come back, so it is also a fight to retreat.”

“Alright, maybe we take a few minutes and figure out how to work together a little better?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”