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Chapter 692 - Flying Coach
🕑 Added 2023-07-12 13:00:10 +0000 UTC"Ok, everyone ready?" Adriel looked around.
"I mean, we will do our best, but it's pretty windy here," Alex scratched her head.
"I know, I think it will work, but if the drone is swept away, I ask you guys to try catching it. Maybe Nimbus could try to reach it if it goes over the edge," Adriel turned to Hera and Nimbus.
"I can try, but if they go too fast, I wouldn't be able to catch it," the Sentinel changed to his griffon form to make sure he would move as fast as he could.
"As we talked about. I gave him a Royal Quest with all of my mana. But remember that if he moves too far away, that might be a problem to carry people to other pillars," Hera added before stepping to the side and getting into her position.
Everyone was forming a circle around the elf and his now single drone. That way, if the wind blew it in any direction, they would have a chance to stop it. Adriel took a deep breath before he activated his relic, bringing the rotors to life. Increasing the power, the drone lifted from the ground but was instantly pushed to the side. Thankfully, it didn't shift too much, moving just about a meter to the side, before stopping as the strength of the fans increased enough to fight against the wind on top of the pillar. With a smile, he started to test some things. First, he stepped on top of the makeshift helicopter to see if it would be able to handle his weight. Then moved around, still just a few centimeters above the ground. Only when he felt confident enough that he slowly moved out of the pillar with Nimbus flying by his side, just in case something happened. When the elf finally moved his flying device to open air and was able to maintain its height, everyone let out a large sigh.
With that stress out of the way, he started making more tests, including to see how much weight the drones could handle, but since now they knew that plan was working, Hera started to pay attention to other things. More specifically, the sounds. She could hear the motors of the relic and the voices of her friends, but aside from that, the only thing that reached her ears were the crashing waves against the pillars. By itself, that wouldn't be odd, but the heavy wind should be making some noise. Yet, it was completely silent. She stepped closer to the edge, asking Lurize to hold her hand to stop her from falling as she leaned over, but she couldn't see anything aside from the water far, far below. Not even fog or something between the top of this pillar and the ocean. Now that she realized this, another thing became evident. There were no clouds here. For some reason, the entire room was just that, an ocean with hundreds of pillars climbing into a cloudless sky. She also noticed the odd orange moss she had seen the previous day growing on the side of the cliff. Taking advantage of the situation where Adriel was now making some tests related to how much weight the drone could handle, she called Nimbus over to gather some of that moss. To their surprise, it wasn't actual vegetation but a sort of magnetized mineral that latched onto other types of rocks, behaving almost like some sort of ferrofluid.
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Liquid Vitrine
A material that gathers in places with an abundance of light, seawater, and specific minerals. This material can be attracted to other minerals and has a behavior similar to that of a parasite, absorbing other minerals to grow itself.
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"Making a weapon out of this might be interesting," Hera said to herself before the rest of the party called her over.
Adriel was done with all the tests, and there was only one left, "Here is the deal, the drones can hold two people and move slowly but on their own, or three people but only manage to keep the height. So, we can either make four trips to move us between here and wherever we need to be. Or two trips if Nimbus can drag us behind."
"But do we even know where we are going? Also, does Ruby count as a person?" Bonnie asked.
"How much does she weigh?"
"About five kilos."
"Then no, she doesn't count for this. But I wouldn't put you and Mylo on the same trip. I think Helena and him would work out better. Between you, Ruby, and Shane's gauntlet plus the bags, I think that's how to distribute the weight better. If we are doing the two trips," Adriel continued.
"Isn't it better to do four trips? Like, I know it will take longer, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Our endurance is not going to make us survive this fall," Hera glanced at the ocean from the middle of the pillar.
"I think that's up to you and Nimbus. The whole plan is for him to go back and forth. Right?" Adriel turned to the Empress.
Nimbus, who was already in his bipedal form to gather the Liquid Vitrine, stepped forward, "That is correct. The number of trips shouldn't be a problem. How much I'm carrying and how far we are going are the big variables."
"And where are we going?" Blue got closer to Hera, already expecting to be shown the map.
"Here," the Empress opened the pap on her tablet and pointed to where the dungeon was located. It was just three pillars away, but the actual distance didn't show in her 'Treasure Map,'" Unfortunately, I have no idea how far it is, so I was thinking about going with Nimbus alone first to make sure we can get there without a problem."
"Then do you mind going now?" Blue pressed.
"You are really anxious, aren't you?" Hera gave her friend a comforting smile.
"Yeah. Sorry. I just really want to go home."
"Don't worry. I'll go there now. And if you guys can make some food when I get back, I would appreciate it," the Empress was already climbing on top of Nimbus in his griffon form, "We will be right back."
This time, Nimbus did take the scenic route. They flew far from the pillars and would stop when Hera noticed something in a cave or anything, but the room was simply barren. The opening on the sides of the pillars, which were prime locations for actual life, was completely empty. No markings, no signals of plants or bones from long-dead creatures, nothing.
'Something about this place doesn't sit well with me,' Viper shook while they were flying. The Empress asked who wanted to come out during this trip just so she could hold on to some weapons. She was also feeling uneasy about this room.
'Why do you say that?' Crimson asked.
'Things just don't sit well. The place looks lived in. I mean, the caves are perfect for some type of bird to make nests out of, but it's empty. The only explanation would be that something happened with those monsters,' Viper explained.
'And if there are no bones, that probably means they fell into the water,' Scythe added.
"Or that a monster caught them and dragged them under," Daskka was wrapped around Hera's waist, as she would be every time Nimbus was going at high speed, with her head looking to the ocean. After a moment, she looked back to the rest of the court, who were all staring at her, "What?"
"We don't raise flags," Hera replied with a stern voice, even if she was half joking.
"That wasn't a flag. I didn't say anything like, 'But whatever it was should be long dead,' or 'But it's not like it could catch Nimbus.'"
Just as the herald spoke, a loud sound of splashing water echoed through the pillars, causing Nimbus to rush to the top of one of the mountains. They took a moment to look around and found out that it was one of the whirlpools in the water. It seemed like the currents made it stronger and revealed it to the outside, but that only lasted for a moment before the counter flux of water weakened it enough to hide it again. When they felt like it was safe to continue, Hera climbed on Nimbus' back again and turned to Daskka.
"You don't talk about the water again. Deal?"
"Deal!" the snake replied right away, still worried that she might have pushed their luck.
Soon they arrived at the three caves where the dungeon should be located. Hera didn't want to walk inside just in case, but she could see what the entrance was. In the back of this opening, there was a tunnel leading up. That reminded her a lot of the dungeon in the Wailing Valley, the one where she met Darni, the old Naga hero whose legacy was now in Shane's possession.
"Ok, let's go back to the others. In a straight line this time. No detours. We need to know how long this trip will take."
Nimbus just nodded and flew back to the pillar where the party slept. They had the option of going over another pillar or around it, and since they were worried about weight, he decided to circle the stone platform. It took them just a bit over 20 minutes to get back, which meant that a round trip should take 50 minutes or so, counting the time to set everything up. Maybe longer if the weight of the drones slowed the Sentinel down.
When they arrived at the pillar where everyone was, the group had already prepared a meal using the rations they had. It wasn't the best lunch, but it was better than just eating power bars. After the meal, they started their journey to the dungeon. Adriel would create a leash of sorts from the drone that could be wrapped around Nimbus so he could drag it while the relic focused on keeping the altitude. They tried to have three people on each trip, but as they started to move away from the pillar, the drones fell a few meters before Nimbus was able to pull them up. In the end, they decided that Adriel should be accompanied by only one person at a time. However, they wouldn't need to do so many trips. The Sentinel was still doing a Royal Quest, and that would allow him to take someone else instead of Hera on his back. This would reduce the trips from 4 to 3.
"Actually, there is one more thing we can try. Give me a moment," Helena stepped to the side and made a shadow bow. She notched a light arrow and stopped turning to Hera, "You said it was three pillars away. Right, sweetie?"
"Yeah," Hera pulled her tablet, "We go here, then here, and here is the dungeon."
"Ok, can you send that to my tablet?"
"Sure."
"Either way, I'll wait for Nimbus to move to the next area," Helena smiled and drew the bow aiming high in the sky. She fired, and everyone watched as the bright white projectile moved through the air, but unfortunately, her aim was off, and it dropped before reaching the pillar, hitting the water. Helena clicked her tongue and tried again, only to overshot, making the arrow fall beyond the mountain. Her third attempt, however, was successful, and she was able to hit the middle of the pillar, which created a small glowing spot, clear for everyone to see. She turned back to the party and smiled, "See you all in the dungeon," and with a wink, she turned into light and followed the path of her arrow, arriving at the spot she hit.
"Did she just… teleport that far with an arrow?" Alex asked.
"Yes. Yes, she did…" Hera said with a big smile. This seemed like the type of spell that would take a lot of mana, and something told her Helena was only able to do it because of her new skill. After all, when the mage turned to light, Hera could see the mana in her body. A mana that, despite being a shadow, was behaving as if it was light.
"Well then, let's get going then. We are going to need 2 trips now, right?" Adriel asked.
"I think so. One with you, Mylo, and someone on top of Nimbus, then another with you, me, and whoever is left. Alex and Blue can get there on their own, right?" Hera turned to the two, who just nodded and started moving. Blue was fine, using her own mount to fly, while Alex would have to follow Helena's idea and go from pillar to pillar while taking breaks in between, "I'll stay in the last group so we don't have to worry about Nimbus running out of mana."
Having a journey that would take around 4 hours cut down to 2 made everyone feel happy, and they soon gathered in front of the dungeon, ready to attempt it.
Comments
Kensyi
I don't like the "moss", I feel like that is what happened to the stuff in the room.
