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MAZE - Chapter 1016 - Jarnak
🕑 Added 2025-02-17 12:24:26 +0000 UTCGetting to the journal was easier than Pandora was expecting. She thought Hera would try to push her to fight another monster or she would just go off running in a random direction just to test her as they were supposed to practice. She just walked from one point to another, even warning about a few creatures that could be on their path.
As a result, it took them a little under 10 minutes to reach the area where the Apex Jarnak was located. The creature was in a clearing surrounded by sparse trees which allowed it to bask in the sun on top of a rock. It was a beautiful sight, even if the creature itself was a large snake that was almost 5 meters long. Its body was covered in light green scales with some stripes of deep blue, the color of the ocean. The horns around its face and head were a pinkish hue, almost like a coral reef.
"Is that it? That's the creature we're supposed to fight?" Hera asked.
The dwarf nodded. "But this is one of the variations. I was really hoping it wasn't this one."
"Why not?"
"Because one of the types of Mana that I can use will be worthless now, or at least the effect will be so small that it's not even worth using."
"Water?" Pandora asked.
"The idea was to use some water effects, but this version is water-based."
"How did you know?" Pandora asked, wondering if the leader of the Royal Explorers had some sort of skill that could let her understand the type of magic a creature could use.
Hera blinked slowly at Pandora. "The coral reefs growing over its head? I know that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but that's a pretty big tell."
"Oh, right." Pandora looked away, feeling a bit embarrassed for assuming that everything was because Hera had something special.
Yet, the empress stared at the creature and triggered her [OBSERVE].
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Apex Indigo Jarnak - Level 30 - Ocean Affinity
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"It actually has ocean affinity."
"Wait, what? How can you tell?" Pandora turned to Hera.
"I have a skill that lets me see the affinity of the creatures I find. Actually, scratch that. I had that skill. Now it's just part of my eyes," the Empress explained.
"Does that mean that every Ophidianite will be able to see monsters' affinity?"
"Eventually, yes. But it's not a guarantee that they will be able to do that from the start. It's a specific skill of our species," Hera explained.
"That's really incredible. I kind of want to become one even more now."
"You want to become an Ophidianite?" Hera turned to the dwarf.
"Yeah. Sorry, that wasn't really how I wanted to ask about this thing."
"That's okay. It's good to know that you want that. We can talk about it later, but for now, it's time for you to fight. Can you handle that creature on your own?"
Hera didn't want to confirm or deny the possibility of Pandora joining the Ophidianites. More because she herself wasn't really sure what kind of people she should allow joining. For now, it was just her dad, because he was her dad, and Shane because of her love for the Naga people. The empress hadn't really put much thought into who could join. At some point, it would have to stop being just people she liked or cared about.
"I can handle this one. I was worried it would hide in the territory of another creature that I couldn't fight. For the next ones, I might need some help. I've never fought them on my own, and I don't know if I can handle them. These hunts are not supposed to be done by a single person," Pandora explained.
With a nod, Hera gestured towards the Jarnak, "Show us what you got."
Lurize changed to his beetle form and climbed on Hera's shoulder. 'I am also ready to observe Pandora's performance,' the Royal Tutor the Empress mind.
"Lurize is ready too," Hera smiled at Pandora.
The dwarf nodded, but it was clear she was still a bit nervous about the situation. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she took a step towards the creature with her hammer already in hand. Hera noticed how Pandora was able to move seemingly without making any noise. Recognizing this as a skill that she herself had learned from the Explorers' assassin role.
Pandora prepared a strike, an overhead swing to hopefully damage the creature enough so that it wouldn't be too much of an issue during the fight. Unfortunately, she was too preoccupied with attacking to notice a few loose branches and dry leaves on the ground in front of her. They were not naturally scattered but seemed to be intentionally placed around the area to warn of any approaching predators.
Hera had noticed the trap, and she was honestly quite surprised by the ingenuity displayed by the monster. It also became clear that even if these creatures were just beasts, they were more than able to learn from their opponents. Or maybe this was something that only affected the Jarnak.
As soon as Pandora's feet crashed on top of the leaves the snake jumped up, already facing the incoming attacker. As the creature launched after her, Pandora got out of the way, swinging at the beast while it was in the air. But due to her bad footing, she was unable to hit it, and the momentum of the attack even caused her to fall backward. Not wanting to give a chance for the creature to strike, she jumped to her feet, but the Jarnak was nowhere to be seen. As soon as the monster touched the ground, it used some sort of tunneling skill to go into the earth. Or at least, that's what it wanted to do. Hera was still able to keep track of it by following the Mana that was being leaked out of the creature.
Even more than that, there was a very subtle rumbling across the floor that indicated where the creature was. Whatever skill it was using was unable to completely hide its presence from everything. But since this was supposed to be a new creature, maybe it wasn't old enough to control its abilities to where it was completely invisible. Pandora kept swinging around, trying to see where the creature would come from, and it took a lot of the Empress's willpower not to point out its location. But in the end, this was supposed to be a way to know where Pandora stood, and mistakes like that were exactly the kind of thing they were looking for.
Pandora seemingly recognized where the threat was located and slammed her hammer on the ground, making one of the hammer's chamber to ignite and a small shockwave washed across the forest floor. It was easy to understand the intention behind the attack. If she was able to hit even near to where the Jarnak was located, it would likely be enough to kick it off its hiding spot. But the dwarf ended up falling for a trick.
Despite not being able to completely hide its presence, the snake could understand and notice the flaws in its power. Because of that, as it moved around, smaller tremors would appear elsewhere, trying to trick its enemies into doing exactly that, attacking one of the empty positions and leaving themselves open for a counterattack.
The Jarnak took advantage and jumped out of the ground right beneath Pandora, trying to bite her and swallow her whole. Pandora moved to the side, spinning her hammer and slamming it against the creature's body. The hit wasn't enough to send it flying, but it did some damage as a few scales were knocked loose due to the clash. Her hammer pulled out.
Her relic, a small griffon construct that was mostly made out of smoke or, more likely, clouds with a few pieces on its edges made of metal, shot out from the small bird house on the dwarf's shoulder. The creature flew at the Jarnak and started to peck at its eyes, trying to blind it before it could hide on the ground again.
It took a few tries before it could land a solid hit. But even then, the damage was done. The Jarnak didn't have one of its eyes and lost a lot of its depth perception. This allowed Pandora to go with another attack, this time using the final chamber of her hammer. Just before she finished her swing, Mana flooded her hammer, and the spell was triggered.
A whip made out of water lashed out, grabbing the creature and pulling it closer so the hammer could deliver a powerful blow. Hera was pretty sure that wasn't the original intention of the attack. The strength behind the spell looked nothing like what she saw when Pandora activated the burst of wind or the tremors with her hammer. Still, the attack was successful, and she sent the snake flying towards a tree.
When the creature crashed into the trunk, an electrified net burst from the wood and wrapped around it tightly. Following its rough landing on the ground, a large barrel fell from the branches, exploding on contact. And as a final cherry on top, Pandora charged ahead and went for another overhead swing, this time destroying the creature's head entirely.
"When did you have time to set up all those traps?" Hera asked as the monster's corpse dissolved into the dungeon itself.
"When we were talking to the Eagle Riders. If you ask them, they can set up traps for you. But they only give you a general idea of where they should be. I asked them to put these traps as close to the Jarnak as possible."
"And you were able to see those traps from a distance?"
"Yeah. There is a way to figure out where the traps are located. I can tell you, but that would go against the whole idea of training."
The empress nodded. "Yeah, don't tell me. I'll try to figure it out next time. But now what? Is that it?"
"We do need to be careful in some areas because fights might attract predators. So it's better to just collect the drop and leave."
But as Pandora pulled up her hammer, there was a small pair of earrings on the ground.
"Wait, what?" She reached out but frowned. "Oh man, that's just mean."
"What's the matter?"
Pandora showed Hera the earrings. They were called Earrings of Poison Addition, and it was a common grade item that added a 5% extra poison damage to all the wearer's effects, but if there were any other elemental additions to it, the effects would vanish. It was pretty much the opposite version of the earrings they were searching for.
"Yeah, that doesn't feel great. But what do we do now? We call the Eagle Riders, or we just go walking to the next area?" Hera asked with a sigh.
"We could do both. They gave us that whistle to call them, but if you'd like to walk to the next target, we can do that too. Although walking towards the rocky plateau is going to take a very long time. There are other options, but you need to know what you're looking for before getting there."
"Let's call the Eagle Riders. They said it was going to take a few minutes for them to arrive, right?"
After another nod in response, Lurize appeared in his title form. "If I may, can we utilize thiz time to perform the evaluation of your combat ability?"
"Of course," Pandora said with a smile.
"For that, I would like a clarification. Your hammer, you mentioned it takez Mana after every hit. But how are you able to activate the chamber without attacking a creature?"
"Oh, sometimes I just use my own Mana. I don't have to do that if it's charged, but it's an option I have if it's not. It just takes a considerable amount of Mana from doing it on my own. But at the end there it wasn't the effect of the chamber, I just used it to channel a different spell. The hammer works like a staff for spells too."
Lurize nodded. "Thank you for the clarification. Now, back to your fight. You have made a number of incorrect choices, and I would like to go through them with you."
As Lurize and Pandora chatted, Hera used the whistle to call the Eagle Riders. The first monster of this dungeon was dead, and now it was time to go for the next one. And Hera couldn't help but smile. This was the life, just hanging out in a dungeon and fighting weird monsters. There was nothing else she wanted.
