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Chapter 317 - The other side of the chasm
🕑 Added 2021-09-24 13:00:09 +0000 UTCHaving an idea of where they could find the ruins, the group headed towards the chasm they had found a few days ago. The rock staircase made by Hera, Silah, and Bonnie was still there. In fact, it was even better than before. Every time they walked through it, they would improve the structure a little. At first, it was just some railing, but then they made the stairwell wider, and Silah even added some decorations and a pattern on each step. They already had let the guild know about that path, but no one had gone there aside from Hera's group as far as everyone was aware. People seemed more interested in the dungeons that were being discovered. There were three so far, one for each type of bug that one could find in the room. However, none of the dungeons gave away bonus rewards for the first time ever completed, which confirmed that other civilizations had come here before, presumably the naga.
That only made Hera appreciate even more the rewards she got back in Boothudurn. Finding an unexplored dungeon was something extremely rare. On their way back, she wanted to search the rooms they came through to see if there was any other dungeon for the party to take advantage of. Either way, now what they had to worry about was how to cross over the chasm.
"Soo... Alex, can you make like some hot wind or something to help my mount glide to the other side?" Blue asked.
"It has to be something weak. If the wind is too strong, it will break the griffon apart," Hera added.
"I'm not sure. Can you summon it so we can take a look?" Alex asked.
"Sure," Blue picked up her Sky Ruler Whistle and blew on it. Smoke started to come out of it and take the shape of a large cloud griffon almost the size of a horse, "So. This is Sunny. Say hi to everyone."
Sunny lowered its head as if to greed the party. Hera knew that it was just Blue telling it to make that motion, but it still made the construct feel somewhat alive. Mylo, Shane, and Bonnie got closer to the griffon and started examining it.
"Can I pet it?" Mylo asked with a big smile.
"Sure. I'm not sure if it will work that well, though. It's basically a cloud, but we can mount it somehow. Also, it's technically not alive. It's more like a motorcycle than an actual animal," Blue's voice sounded a bit disappointed. She then turned to the side and stared into space for a while. Hera understood that she should be listening to Stormcloud and tried to distract the others by summoning her own mount.
"This one is mine. Even if she's smaller, everything else is the same, including the weight she can carry," Hera explained.
"It's a she?" Mylo asked."
"Yeah, but like a car she. Like Blue said, it's a construct. It doesn't have any emotions or reactions unless we ask them to. Oh, I call her Nimbus, by the way."
"I'm getting a lot of mixed signals here. You say that these are just objects, but then you gave it a name and call it 'her,'" Shane looked at Hera.
"People make emotional connections to anything. I mean, c'mon, people give names to those robot vacuum cleaners. If I'm wrong, then so is society," Hera shrugged.
"I… can't argue with that. I think I had a teddy bear for years that I treated like a brother," Shane nodded.
"It's so cozy!" Mylo gasped as he petted Nimbus.
"Oh, so petting works too? Well, that makes sense, but mounting it is amazing," Hera smiled.
"Hum… Shane, Mylo. Can I trust you guys?" Blue asked.
"What?" Shane turned to the controller.
"If I tell you a secret, can you keep it?"
"Sure, I mean, we are trusting you with some pretty big things here. If you tell me a secret, I'll just feel like were are more or less even," Shane shrugged.
"Blue… are you going to tell them about that?" Hera made an egg shape motion with her hand.
"Yeah. There is something important that I have to tell everyone."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Hera pressed.
"I am. This will help a lot," Blue turned to Shane again, "So… when Hera and I got stuck in Boothudurn, I got a legacy."
"Ohh, which one?" Mylo asked.
"Is it a court legacy?" Shane followed it up.
"No, it's not a court one. It's called Stormcloud, and it lets me control heavy clouds. Now that you guys know, I can help more with some stuff that I was hiding, but that's beside the point. Do you know what the Heralds are?"
Shane crossed her arms and thought for a moment, "They are kind of like mentors for the legacies, correct?"
"Mentors, assistants, squires. I think any of those fits. Anyway, Stormcloud just told me that I can probably merge my mount with the legacy."
"How would that work?" Hera asked.
"Well. The mount should be weaker at first, but it should be able to fly. Like actually fly and not just glide. But I would lose the whistle, or at least it would lose all the effects it has. Maybe not the thing in the wooly plains," Blue explained.
"Well. It's your item and your skill. Do what you think is best," Shane replied.
"Ok, then I need a few minutes, ok? If you guys want to start, see if it would work with Hera's mount," Blue walked to the side and started talking to Stormcloud, which only worked for her. For everyone else, it looked like she was having a heated discussion with herself.
Hera turned to the group and explained the intricacies of her mount. Alex shook her head, "Yeah. I don't think any of my spells will be able to help with that. They are all too offensive. It's more likely that it will damage it than help it glide."
"Maybe I can make some fire follow under it. Using hot air to help it stay up," Bonnie suggested.
"I think that's the best way to go about it. Let's try it here on the ground first," Hera looked over the chasm. It should be around 100 meters wide, and even when they were on the lower floor, they still couldn't see the bottom of that abyss. It could be because it was hidden by the thick layer of fog, or it could be hundreds of meters deep. Either way, doing a test directly over that pit wasn't something anyone was willing to do.
Bonnie created a carpet of fire on the ground while Hera made a small pillar of stone under Nimbus to give them a bit of a higher starting point. After taking a deep breath, the explorer commanded her mount to jump and glide forward. Nimbus spread her wings and started floating along. The speed was much slower than it could run, but it was to be expected. Bonnie pulled the fire towards her, and when Nimbus was finally above it, it was able to maintain its altitude without going down, but that was it.
"So, I guess you would need to create a path of fire covering the entire chasm. Can you do that?" Hera asked.
"I don't think so. I might be able to make it pop, but maintain it for a long time is impossible," Bonnie replied as she dismissed the spell.
Blue walked back to the group, "Yeah. I won't be able to help with the mount either. Adding it to my legacy messed it up a little. It's much weaker, for now, so weak that it can't even carry me."
"Blue, can't you make clouds that we can use as platforms? Like the ones you used during the Sky Ruler fight," Silah asked.
"Maybe, I don't know if that works for other people," Blue prepared a footing cloud and created it about a meter above the ground, "Here. Someone try to climb it."
Alex placed her hands on the cloud and climbed up. The platform was very bouncy, but it was solid enough to hold the assassin without much trouble, "It seems stable enough. How much weight can you carry with this?"
"About 300kg, and… let me check one thing," Blue created another cloud and placed it in the chasm. After a moment, she turned back to the group, "Yeah, I can keep this up for a while. Like at an hour without a rest."
"How much rope do we have in total?" Bonnie started gathering the rope that everyone had with their climbing gear. She started tying all the rope together, creating a single 120-meter long rope. While she prepared that, the researcher explained her plan, "Here's what we are going to do. Hera, you make a large stone pillar here. We tie this rope on the pillar, Blue creates a cloud large enough to cover the chasm, and someone crosses over in your mount Hera. It would be better if you went in first. That way, you can make another pillar on the other side, tie the rope there, and we use this as a safety line while we all cross using the cloud."
"I think it might be better if we all use the mount, and we go one at a time. I mean that along with your plan Bonnie. The mount moves fast, and since it can glide, the rope won't be tugged out off the blue," Helena added.
"Yeah, that works, just one thing first," Hera told Nimbus to step on the cloud platform that Alex was standing on to see if the mount would be able to walk over it. Everything seemed fine, and they started the plan.
It took Blue a couple of minutes to create a cloud large enough to cover the chasm even if it was a bit narrow, it would be enough for a single person, or cloud griffon to walk over it. After that, Hera climbed on her mount to cross. The rope was tied around her, just in case something happened. Luckily, she reached the other side without having to use that safety measure and created a second stone pillar, tying the rope around it. Nimbus was sent back, and it started doing its back and forth, carrying the party members one by one to the other side. Helena's idea helped a lot with the time it took for everyone to reach the other side. They wouldn't be able to cross so quickly by foot since walking on a cloud was an odd feeling that triggered a danger response for most. However, Nimbus didn't have something like fear. It would only do as Hera commanded without hesitation.
After everyone was through, Hera turned around and took a good look at the area. It was much similar to where they were before, with massive walls that went to the sky, making the area where they were extremely dark. The second thing she noticed was the dust and the number of spider webs all over the place, but no spiders. It seemed like this place was an abandoned nest.
"What could make a spider colony run away?" Blue asked.
"I don't think they ran away. Maybe they just migrated to search for food," Bonnie suggested.
"That's the thing. What do they eat? It's not like there are other animals or vegetation here," Blue continued.
"They eat the scarabs, sometimes other spiders too," Shane nodded.
"Some monsters also eat mana from the air," Mylo added.
"Really? That's weird," Alex crossed her arms.
"Not really. Eating the mana in the air is kind of a regular thing. That's why monsters can have special organs with mana. Like the boss from the frog valley," Bonnie explained.
"Anyway, is this abandoned just because they were searching for food, or is it because of something else?" Helena asked.
"It's hard to tell. There are no signals of a fight or something like it. Still, we should be on the lookout," Bonnie said.
"All right then. Hera, since you are the one who has more or less of a clue on where the ruins are, lead the way," Shane nodded to her.
Hera nodded back and led the group deeper into this side of the chasm. According to her map, they would still need half a day before arriving at the corner of the room, and that wasn't even considering everything that could go wrong during this trip.
##### Author's Note ####
We are back everyone. I'm really sorry about monday, but I'm feeling all better already. Expect things to get back to normal. (I forgot to say this last chapter, my bad)
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Comments
Perizou
Thanks! I messed that up
mpop
Chapter should be 317 instead of 137
