Chapter 57: Fifty five

Crouched down in a hallway leading into a four way intersection, I waited impatiently for Kip to return from scouting the hallway to our left, which the trio of thieves were expected to appear from. 

According to Pia, the path the girls were on would lead to this intersection in a straight line from the entrance. Unlike our own path, which offered two intersections we’d needed to navigate through to reach this point. My team had been in the desert for four weeks before my arrival, and in that time became very familiar with the layout of the first three levels of the maze, which was rumored to be four levels deep. 

None of the bronze ranked hunting teams had discovered the fourth level yet, which was where the Pharaohs tomb and the boss of the dungeon would be found. It was the goal of every team to be the first to not only find the entrance to the fourth level, but also to defeat the boss. The team who succeeded in that task would be promoted from the training rank of bronze, to a fully fledged silver ranked hunting team. 

I’d never paid much attention to team rankings in the past, beyond knowing they were ranked as either Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum, with their ranking increasing based on their guild contributions. Killing a boss-level mob would give a team two hundred and fifty contribution points, which was the minimum needed to reach silver rank. With the points required for the following rank calculated at ten times that of the previous, which personally I found a little outrageous. At that rate, we’d need to accumulate almost three hundred thousand contribution points to reach platinum rank. 

This left the newer teams formed after the guild transferred to Kaledon at a disadvantage when compared to the teams who’d come from Avalon. Though, the guild bumped the previously platinum ranked teams down to gold, in order to balance things out and give those teams some motivation to train more. In the seven months since the guild transferred to Kaledon, Rodericks team, which was one of the best, had only gathered half the points needed for their gold to platinum promotion. Which went to show just how difficult gathering the needed contribution points was, and they’d need only half the amount my own team would to reach that rank. Also taking into consideration the state of said ‘best team’ on their return from the dungeon. I seriously doubted my team's ability to defeat the dungeon's final boss and gain the needed points for the silver rank promotion. 

The sound of light footsteps in the hallway alerted me to Kips presence mere seconds before he appeared, and ducked around the corner to join us. 

“They’re dead.” Kip informed us, and Pia let out a scoff. 

“Seriously?” She whined, a pout forming on her lips. 

“Yep, fell into the furnace.” 

“What’s the furnace?” I asked curiously and got a wicked grin in response from the dwarf. 

“It’s a pit trap. Once you fall in, the floor closes back up, and you’re trapped in a dark room. So of course the first thing you're going to do is try to relight your torch or lamp, and that’s when,” Kip’s explanation was abruptly cut off by Pia, who threw her hands in the air. 

“Whoosh, the whole room goes up in flames.” Pia exclaimed loudly with a broad grin. 

“Gas or liquid?” I asked with interest, getting blank looks from the Faun and Dwarf in response. 

“The walls are coated in a sticky substance, so liquid.” Rainy informed me, and I nodded, glancing down the hall with interest. 

I wonder what flammable substance the dungeon is using? If we come across another trap like that, I should take a sample. 

“We’ll get them another time then.” Victoria declared, straightening and jerking her chin at the intersection. 

“Let's get moving.” 

We progressed swiftly through the first level of the dungeon with Kip in the lead deactivating traps, and me burning every mummified corpse we came across. Victoria decided I needed to practice for combat situations, and the group would dart around the room weakly hitting the mummies, as I flung fireballs at them while doing my best not to hit my team as they ‘fought’. 

The first level contained a mixture of mummified creatures, among which were rats, dogs, and even what had once been some kind of large cat. I’d been horrified when the first plague of mummified rats had come pouring out of holes in the walls of the corridor, and entered a frantic state where I’d mindlessly flung fire ball after fire ball at the swarming mummified vermin. Normal rats wouldn’t have been so bad, but skeletal bandage wrapped rats with glowing red eyes was a big nope on my part. 

“Alright, remember the first level boss is a Lich, so don’t look in his eyes, and don’t let him touch you.” Kip warned as Victoria led the way into the room, her shields circling around her. 

“And don’t step inside the circle,” Pia added. 

I was about to say something in confirmation to the pair's warning, but the scene inside the room shocked me into silence. Seeing the bodies of three women hanging over the circle, blood dripping from their slit necks onto the runic scripture engraved onto the floor had my stomach churning,  bile fighting its way up my throat. 

A skeletal figure clad in dark robes stood at the center of the runic circle. Seemingly unaware of our presence as it read from a book, its voice deep and echoing across the room as it spoke in an unfamiliar language. 

Dashing forwards, Kip leapt at Victoria’s shield, clinging to the back of it with one hand around the handle and his feet pressed against the heavy wood. As Victoria punched the air to send her first shield flying across the room towards the Lich, she sent the second one Kip was riding towards the hanging women. 

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As the dwarf worked to cut down the first woman, and weaken the Lich’s circle of power, Pia bolted across the room towards a smaller glowing circle in which a mummified creature shaped like a large dog had appeared. Three more circles formed around the room, each with their own mummified canines, and I conjured a trio of fire balls sending them towards each circle. 

I stayed where I was, flinging fireballs at the three canines who began rushing in my direction with guttural snarls. When the first one drew within five meters of me, vines shot across the ground, coiling around the mummified canine which yelped and writhed in their hold. The other two quickly suffered the same fate, and with the canines now easy prey I ended them with more fire. 

Finished with our three foes, I glanced over to see Pia had also finished her fight and was running towards Victoria. Kip was on the second woman now, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity for them. Even though I knew them to be only constructs created by the dungeon to set a scene. 

The women were dead, and according to my team no one who entered the room had ever seen those used as sacrifices alive. There were rumors that those strung up to fill the Lich’s spell were the bodies of those who’d died in the dungeon. Some even claimed to have seen their friends in the room after having died in the earlier parts of the maze. 

As that thought crossed my mind, I took a second look at the bodies hanging over the circle. Wondering if it was Viv, and her friends, but they all looked to be normal human women wearing leather armor. As the second woman’s body was cut free, the Lich who was being knocked around by Victoria’s flying shield let out a loud shout, and I quickly ran to press my back to Victorias as I’d been instructed to do. 

While Rainy and Pia stood back to back nearby. I conjured up three balls of flame to hover in front of me as I waited for the jackal headed humanoid mummies that I’d been warned would be part of the second wave. A red circle came into existence to my left, and I sent a fireball towards it without even waiting for the mummy to fully form. Six more circles appeared in the room, and I felt my heart rate pick up, while my palms grew sweaty as I sensed my core reaching its limit.  

I’d already learnt in an early encounter with the mummified creatures that none of my poison darts were effective, and the dart itself did so little damage it was laughable. Hands clenching around my wagasa, I prepared myself to face the nearest mummy as I directed my last fireball at the creature. Only realizing at the last minute that what I’d sent flying at the creature had been my wisp and not a fireball. 

The spherical wisp slammed into the mummy that had been charging in my direction, and I watched mouth agape as the wisp engulfed the jackal headed mummy in a fiery inferno. As another mummy drew close, I ordered my wisp to attack it and that creature too became consumed by fire. In less than a minute, my wisp had destroyed all but one mummy. With the remaining mummy having been killed by Rainy and Pia. 

“Damn Kadia, why weren’t you doing that before?” Pia asked as she bounded towards me, Rainy close on her heels. 

“I didn’t know I could.” I said dumbly, staring at the wisp who hovered in front of me. 

The places where the jackal headed mummies had been were still burning, though I couldn’t see any sign of the creatures among the flames anymore. 

“Throw it at the Lich.” Victoria ordered, and I nodded, glancing at Kip who was about to cut the third body free. 

As the third body fell, my wisp slammed into the Lich’s head and the robed skeletal figure let out an ear-piercing screech that had my fur standing on end. 

“Wow, I’ve never seen it do that before.” Pia commented, leaning against her spear as we watched the Lich rolling around the floor as flames covered every inch of its body. 

As the Lich rolled across the ground, every section of the floor it touched began burning just as the Lich did. Mentally calling the wisp back to me, I watched as the chubby ball of flames sluggishly flew back and landed on my outstretched palm. 

Ignoring the still burning Lich, I lifted my wisp up to my face, staring at its form, which was so unlike that of Yuki’s fire wisp. 

You’re not a normal fire wisp, are you? I thought at the wisp, who just blinked its eyes at me in response. 

The wisps' body was more solid than Yuki’s fire and air wisps. Though, the other Kitsune’s ice wisp did have a more solid form, with shards of icicles growing out of it like an icy porcupine. Each type of wisp looked different, their bodies resembling the element they were attuned to. Yet, while my wisp burnt like a fire wisp, its appearance on close inspection reminded me of the squishy stress balls my old maths teacher liked to keep on his desk. 

With my free hand, I pinched the jelly like substance that made up the wisps body beneath the flames. To my surprise a small portion of the gel-like substance came away from its body. Flames coated my fingers, yet did not burn me, just as the wisp itself did not burn me. How could it? When it was technically a part of me? 

I rolled the gel like substance between my fingers, staring at it in fascination. So many questions filled my mind, and in that moment I wanted nothing more than to be back in my lab so I could investigate these new discoveries further. Hearing Victoria impatiently call my name, or my new nickname as it were, I pressed the burning marble sized piece of jello to the wisp's body, and watched as it absorbed back into the main body of the wisp. 

Descending the stairs to the second level of the dungeon with my team, a slow smile curled over my lips as I stroked the wisp sitting in the palm of my right hand, the flames coating its body curling playfully around my fingers as I did so.

Let’s hurry up and get this little adventure over with, so I can get back to my lab. I thought determinedly, as I entered a wide hallway and found my team already engaged in a battle with half a dozen jackal headed mummies. 

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