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Chapter 683 - A lesson to be taught
🕑 Added 2023-06-26 13:00:06 +0000 UTCGoing down the steps of the valley only accentuated the stark difference between the past and the present. Despite the appearance of the room being a dream place for anyone who enjoyed hot baths, this place truly felt like paradise. Between the trees, the bushes, and the soft wind hitting them, it felt like they were on a tropical island. The hot pools of water were also considerably colder. They were still warm, but it wasn't the scalding heat that turned their skin red in just a few moments. Testing these waters felt more like just a warm bath and not a sauna like the ones in the actual room.
The group was about halfway through the valley when they saw the Steamweaver again. This time, it was running away from one of the Centepybaras, who seemed angry at it. However, the steam-wielding ferret was too quick for the other rodent. It jumped back and forth between a couple of floors, each hop that the Centepybara tried to follow made it get farther and farther behind until the monster gave up and returned to the place it came from. Once more, the Steamweaver looked at the creature that was chasing after it with a cocky expression. Then it started running again, vanishing inside one of the many caves in the valley's walls.
"Do we know what we are going to do with it?" Blue asked.
"I hate to say this, but the only idea I came up with is beating the crap out of it but leaving it alive. The name of the dungeon is Steamweaver's Struggle, and I can only think of that as it that being the struggle. Like it's struggling because someone hurt it, you know," Alex sighed.
"I was thinking the same thing, but if the quest is to teach it a lesson, we would have to wait for it to do something bad, then we pounce," Shane added.
"Is this how you guys think we should teach someone? I'm worried about your future kids," Bonnie stared at the two.
"You say like I want to have kids," Shane rolled her eyes.
"What is your great idea then?" Alex huffed.
"Maybe we can do it with what it is doing to others," Bonnie's idea just got blank stares from everyone.
"Really?" Blue asked.
"What?!" Bonnie crossed her arms, "They asked for a new idea, I gave one."
"Yeah, a very obvious idea, but how will it understand that this is why we are 'punishing' it?" Blue asked.
"I don't know! It looks smart enough to realize that this is only happening because of what it did."
"The problem is that if we do things like that, we won't do something right as the Steamweaver pranks another monster. I think in that scenario, it will only see us as invaders who are stealing its things. If it even has things," Helena added.
"I think it has things. The rewards mentioned the Steamweaver's shiny treasure, so I'm guessing it's like a crow. It sees things it likes and brings it to a nest or something like that," Hera added.
"Look at that. On the other side," Mylo pointed to the opposite end of the valley.
Somehow, the Steamweaver emerged from a small hole in the wall and looked around, finding a family of the Two-Faced Monkeys. It made some oddly shaped and colorful pieces of steam and used that to lure one of the children closer. The small monkey walked slowly, curious about whatever those shapes were, and when it was close to the hole, the Steamweaver jumped out, moving its mouth in a silent roar as if it was about to strike. It also made some dark steam appear around it to give a more imposing feeling. The baby monkey fell backward and tried to run, but the steam grabbed it and started to drag it toward the hole. It tried to scream, but the steam wrapped around its head, stopping the monkey from making any noise. The group saw as the baby became more and more scared, trying to claw away from the grasp of the Steamweaver, believing that the monster was truly about to eat the creature, yet, it didn't. After pulling the baby monkey almost completely inside the hole, it let go. The small creature scrambled away, crying until its parents came along to see what had happened. The baby just cried and gestured toward the hole, but when the parents looked, the place was empty. As they walked away, and the baby monkey was the only one looking at that small entrance, the eyes of the Steamweaver appeared again, surrounded by red glowing steam, making the baby shiver in fear and start crying again.
Some time passed, and the family of monkeys walked away from that area, that's when the Steamweaver popped out of its hole with an amused expression. Making a replica of the baby monkey as it struggled to run away with steam and jumping around it as if it was happy. Then, it stopped using the steam and just walked off in the opposite direction of the family.
"Did… did that thing just traumatize that baby for fun?" Blue asked.
"I… I think so?" Adriel replied, still unsure what they just saw.
"You know… I don't feel as bad about my idea of beating the shit out of it now," Alex added.
"You never said you wanted to beat the shit out of it," Hera looked to the assassin.
"I'm adding that now. That thing is an ass."
"Yeah, it was one thing if it was trying to eat the baby monkey. I mean, it sucks, but that's just nature. Doing that was plain mean," Hera nodded.
"So we beat it?" Nimbus asked.
"Yeah, it's odd that is zayz we zhouldn't kill it. I'm worried that killing it would fail the quezt," Lurize was still tracking the monster with his eyes. It was now just swimming in one of the empty pools of water.
"Well… we are assuming that this dungeon is about the past, so maybe that is what happened. Someone got pissed, beat the crap out of that thing, and then it… made that loop?" Bonnie frowned.
"It's a bit of a reach, but it does make sense. The loop seems to be something to make the waters better at healing. It's something that tries to concentrate the effect, so maybe the Steamweaver figured that out somehow and then tried to make it on a large scale. The trigger for that might be being wounded or beaten," Helena looked to where the monster was right now.
"So we fight it?" Mylo asked.
"I think so. But I feel like it will try to run away," Blue turned to watch the monster too.
"Shane, do you have any ideas? Any enchantment that might work?" Adriel asked.
"Honestly, no. At most, I could make someone more likely to be targeted by it," Shane sighed.
"That can work. I have a spell that makes it focus on me," Blue smiled, "Do you all want to go there now?"
"I mean… sure. Do you have a way to get us there?" Adriel asked.
"It's been a while, but yes," Blue looked to the other side of the valley and gestured with her hands as a cloud bridge appeared in front of them.
"Oh, this is what you did back in the Wailing Valley, right? For us to find the Naga temples," Hera asked.
"Yep, I think I can make it sturdier now. And let everyone walk over together," it took just a few moments for Blue to complete the structure. Luckily, they were all far enough away from the pool where the Steamweaver was playing for it to notice, "Let's go!" the controller called, and they all rushed behind her while still keeping some distance from each other, just in case.
They arrived on the other side in less than two minutes, and Blue dismissed her cloud construct.
"Here," Shane enchanted the controller to make her more easily targeted by a specific creature. In this case, the Steamweaver.
"Ok. I'm going to use a stronger version of what I can normally do. When it comes at me, just wail on it. And try not to kill it," she turned to Hera, "Right?"
"I think so. The wording is a bit confusing, so it's hard to tell for sure if killing it will fail the quest or not," the Empress replied.
"Let's go then. I have a feeling no one will try to help it," Blue nodded and started walking toward the Steamweaver.
It didn't take long for them to get closer to the pool where it was currently playing, and the moment the monster saw them, it stopped and became weary but also curious. Its eyes darted around, almost as if they were analyzing the new creatures that just appeared in front of it. It jumped up and down excitedly when it saw Hera's court floating around them.
Blue waited for a moment when it locked eyes with her and said, "I'm here. Come and get it."
The Steamweaver froze for a moment, and its eyes glowed red briefly before it raised its body while keeping its head low and growled. Blue stepped forward, a storm cloud forming around her, almost like armor, and the two jumped toward each other. The controller dodged to the side just as she was about to get hit and punched the monster in the stomach, making it spin in the air, but it was still able to land on its feet, forming some steam around it to prepare for something. Not wanting to give it a chance for it to hurt her friend, Alex jumped into the fight, slashing the creature and using her new legacy to purge the buff that the monster was using. She wasn't even sure if it was a buff, but it seemed to have worked perfectly. The steam lost its shape and was dragged by the wind, making the Steamweaver confused, but it still focused on Blue.
Hera knew that using her poison was a bad idea, so instead, she sent out her court to attack the monster's many legs. The Steamweaver saw that coming and turned partially into steam, evading some of the blows but not all of them. Helena tried to use her shadows to grab the monster, but the hands passed through the steam, just like some of Hera's attacks.
Nimbus and Lurize started their attacks, hitting the monster's sides. It had a thick hide, but Lurize's sword had an edge that seemed to cut through its skin. He was using a version of poison that, instead of dealing damage, would just slow down its transformation power and deal no damage whatsoever. Since he was the only one attuned to poison, he was the only one proficient enough with it to attack without risking killing the Steamweaver in the long run. Viper and Crimson were also fighting, but they were very close to the Royal Tutor, following his moves and doing their best to keep the flow of battle to let the [Battle Dancer] and [Synchronized Battle] skills do their job.
Mylo, Adriel, Bonnie, and Shane were trying to join, but it was hard to do something like that against a single enemy that wasn't all that big. There were too many people moving around quickly, which meant that they would likely get into each other's way, and hitting someone with friendly fire was not something anyone wanted to be responsible for. They had an even harder time when their enemy kept changing shape, growing, and shrinking as if it was trying to decide what form it should take.
Nimbus was hit by one of the steam attacks and became unable to use ice to attack the monster anymore, not that it was working well anyway. Most of his frost abilities were stopped by the intense heat coming from the Steamweaver. Suddenly, the monster's red eyes vanished, and it realized how it was being trapped by these people. It glanced to Blue again, who tried using her taunt skill one more time.
"I'm here! Fight me!" the controller yelled, but to no avail; the Steamweaver jumped into the heated pool and turned completely into steam, vanishing in the small cracks that were responsible for bringing the actual water from the underground to the surface.
"Shit!" Alex gasped as she realized the monster was truly gone.
"Maybe this is already enough?" Hera said, expecting the quest to pop out and let them know that this was over. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and with no notification, it meant they had yet to 'Teach the Steamweaver a lesson.'
"Is this going to be a chase dungeon?" Adriel asked with a groan.
"It seems like it. Thinks you can have your drones scouting the area?" Shane turned to him and looked around, trying to see if she could locate the monster.
"Yeah, yeah. And here I was hoping this would be a quick one," the elf sighed, pulling out his drones and letting them fly around before changing some settings.
At the same time, Hera shook her bracelet and sent the snakes from the Viper Pit chasing after the Steamweaver. If the creature wanted a chase, she was happy to oblige.
