43 Entering The Dungeon of Fireflies

A magnificent view of a beautifully crafted tower arrising from the ocean depths could be seen.

With etchings of firefly like creatures and gates made of bone on its stone like and old looking walls, it was a sight to behold as the nearly 2,5 km wide and 20 km tall tower had water flow down from its top like multiple waterfalls.

Truly a marvellos sight, if anyone where to have seen it that is.

From the nearest continent, if one were to look very closely at a certain spot, they would only see a dark shadow slowly rise.

Currently the entire world was moving to subdue this tower.

The first to arrive, was the sun hero party.

They had used an onboard Aerokinetic to always have the wind on their side and reached it with only half a day, suprisingly enough.

"I don't see any other ships, I think we are the first to reach it." Etherea said while looking at the huge stone tower infront of them.

"That is both good and bad. No one knows what the first floors topography is like so we will most likely have the hardest time." the man accompanying them stated.

"Well let's go. If we got here first then let's enter first. If anyone else arrives after we come back later, we can provide them essential information." Hayden rashly stated.

"Well we don't know if we can come back out after going in either." Etherea said.

"Stop questioning everything. Hayden is right. If we got here first then it's our duty to provide the people late to the party with information." Maya spoke over everyone to get their attention.

"Let's just go. I'm sure Hyaden will keep us all safe." she said.

"Fine.." Etherea agreed after a long sigh.

The man with them looked up towards the tower. He narrowed his eyes.

...

The second to arrive was the demons along with a few other nearby countries best warriors.

"Sir. I believe that the hero is currently inside the Sanctuary as we speak."

"So?"

"Sir, if we were to meet inside. Do we engage?"

"No. Our objective is to clear the Sanctuary so the world won't end. I'm sure the Lord would also have trouble with beating the last floor boss. Thus he sent 10 out of his 15 knights. Even if we kill the hero, with no world the Lord will have nothing to govern over."

"Forgive me for my idiotic question."

"It is fine. Besides. If we do happen upon the hero at his time of need, we do not need to provide our help."

"Yes sir. I will continue with the preporations."

"Call the other 9 as well. We will be leaving shortly."

"Yes."

...

The next to arrive was Mizukis crew.

"I think this is the place." Tomi said.

"No sh*t." Eric commented.

"Hey Shigoto, go wake the captain." Natyr said as she looked towards him.

"Why me again?" he complained.

"Because you seem to have the closest relationship with her. Besides, after her sudden appearance change, all other guys would blush and stutter." Natyr said while glancing at Eric and Tomi.

"I still don't believe that The Captain was a little girl a week ago."

"That's fine. I myself wouldn't believe it either. Anyway, get going."

"But, what about Salon?"

"That quiet old fart doesn't really interact with people much. He's shy."

"..Him?"

Shigoto looked towards Salon who was practicing his sword arts with fury and anger in his eyes.

"He gets like that."

"Fiine... If I die then don't bury me." Shigoto said as he stood up.

"There won't be any need to bury you. Just don't die."

Shigoto sat back down as the voice that said those words came from captain Mizuki herself.

"C-Captain.. I was just about to call upon you believe it or not." Shigoto stuttered.

Within the last 2 days of travel, he has come to slightly fear Mizuki more and more. Chasing of the Southern Wind Hydra with 4 cannonballs does not sound normal at all.

Looking at the tower, Mizuki narrowed her eyes.

'It is packed with magic circles. I can't decipher any from this distance, but I can see that they get bigger the further up you go.'

The Sanctuary had hundreds upon thousands of strange magic circles etched into the air around it, they are invisible to the naked eye and almost unseeable to anyone under tier 5.

'From what I can tell from the sudden change in density and size of the magic circles this Sanctuary should have about 5 or 6 floors, with every floor being covered with the same size and density of magic circles from outside.

"Start getting ready, we'll enter within the hour." Mizuki said as she returned to her quarters to make some final preporations.

"Hey Tomi. Have you noticed how a lot of the other ships are looking towards us." Eric asked while Shigoto, Natyr and Salon staryed getting ready.

"Yeah. I wonder why."

"Hm. Well let's ask the others in a bit and get ready for now."

"Alright."

Back in Mizuki's quarters, she was currently focusing on making a few item's with create.

Interestingly enough, if she condensed her mana by a large amount it would become liquid.

Making it took a lot out of her but she gained the [Mana Condensation] skill out of it along with nearly 4 small vials of pure mana.

[Mana Condensation - By condensing your mana, you're spells and magic will receive a 10% boost in effectiveness, along with a 5% increase in power and 2% decrease in mana cost.]

Besides the mana vials, another item she was making was a throwing dagger with a simple magic circle on it.

When mana is applied and the dagger thrown, it would activate the engraved circle on it.

The magic circle can't be too complex or else it would just implode or malfunction.

The last of the items she was making were a few modification pieces for her gun along with a few bullets with the same magic circles from the daggers. Although the gun is the source of her trauma, it is also still her current strongest one hit weapon.

What she made was an attachable cylinder, red dot sight and hard grip.

These 3 attachable items took the most time due to the complexity and the lack of good technological knowledge.

She also changed the guns looks by a bit. What before looked like a mish-mash of different gun parts was now a fully functioning deadly firearm.

A fully black and grey gun with an upside down clubs mark on its grip that looked like a fusion of a revolver and a 9mm Luger.

The gun had one long barrel, two different triggers, a glowing, bright, white cylinder that was constantly rotating at a fast speed and a small red dot sight which had its red dot replaced by a lingering, moving, black flame. If anything with a heat signature different to the environment would appear in this weapons sights, the flame would try to move towards it from within the sight while glowing red, almost like aim assist and infrared.

Hanging the knives on a belt she made, she opened the cylinder on her gun and inserted her bullets. The cylinder was almost floating next to the gun, only holding in place due to the gravity and lightning magic that was installed in it so that it wouldn't be separated from the main body.

The first trigger of the gun acted like a railgun of sorts that constantly drained mana in order to launch a beam of highly consentrated mana that took on the element of the magic circle on the bullet that was currently loaded without wasting it. while the second trigger used the bullets in the cylinder.

Walking out of her quarters and sitting near the wheel, she was wondering.

'I haven't been wearing that captain hat since waking up yet no bad side effects are showing to me or the crew. It was most likely taken by Hinami, I did not get a clear look at her back on the mainland. But if she is wearing it, then does she consider us a part of her crew? Curious.'

As Mizuki was simply thinking like that, she ignored the constant stares of the crews on the other ships that were admiring her.

Noticing that everyone seemed to be mostly ready, she teleported herself and her crew near the entrance of the dungeon, pushed them in and followed.

Moments later, the last of the raid parties arrived. Hinami included.