26 Months gone bye

After my first couple months in the Beast Glades I returned like I told everyone I would. I had reached just into A territory before the time was up to head back, but I also decided to stay for longer next time. Which I'm currently on my 2nd month of this 6 month excursion.

A blast of flames came shooting at me from the sky and just behind it a large bird swooped down toward me. Sending a wave of wind I made the flames divert to either side of me, and I jumped with wind mana propelling me and stabbed the Flare Hawk in the chest. Because I'm traveling by myself now, I can use my wind and sound mana more freely.

My string training in this time has come along greatly, I can now wield a string on each finger as well as easily pump an element into them. The mana beasts seem to be able to sense the strings, but they also don't seem able to see the strings. Which has proved quite deadly in my encounters.

I had encountered a fire based baboon mana beast called Hell Boons. They travel in packs just like the Terra Pumas I fought on my first day, except even more. Almost as if they bring their whole group with them. There were 20 of them, some shooting fireballs at me and others coming with flaming fists and legs. At first I was just holding them off with my sword, but then remembered my strings I had been training.

Letting go of my sword with my left hand I generated mana strings of my fingers and shot them toward the closest baboons. Expecting them to be able to see it like, I thought they would dodge and then I would bind them. Instead however I saw them become wary of an attack but they couldn't see it! The strings pierced them in various locations and even managing to catch the closest in the head killing it instantly. With the others immediately wrapped the strings around them before sending a surge of lightning mana through the string, frying them.

The other Hello Boons looked on in shock and using their pause to my advantage I began whipping my strings coated now I'm wind mana and sliced them to pieces. I'm only in the A rank area at the moment, and Hell Boons alone are only considered B rank cap I'm still not sure how sharp these strings really are. Or how they will hold up against stronger mana beasts

I've also been working on improving my dexterity and precision with the strings as right now I just kind of throw them around in enemies general direction. So I've started making patterns with strings and shapes as well as other things. Another thing I've done is hardening the string so that it's like a second sword. I'm still not where I want to be with the strings though, they have the ability to be a great ability as long as I keep an open mind on their uses.

Just like with the Hell Boons I would have never thought to just shoot their limbs like that, but now I feel stupid having not thought of it. I could shoot string through their bodies and have them all connected or like how I killed the first one. The string just pierced the head and killed it, that's better than my high powered wind bullets as those can be seen.

But today I would be putting that all on hold and go back to concealing my wind and sound mana. The reason for that is I'm joining a dungeon dive of a AA rank dungeon, one of the 2 that sits in the A rank zone. With the dungeon being AA rank that means only A rank adventurers and above are allowed to participate, and if you're an A rank adventurer you have to come with a party of other A rank adventurers.

So I wasn't really surprised when I saw the Twin Horns standing outside the dungeon with 4 other people. I would round out the group being the 10th member and the 2nd AA rank adventurer in the party.

'Tuk the dungeon will not be a good place for you, so stay out here and wait for me.' I sent to Tuk as I continued to approach the other adventurers.

'Agreed hatchling, but call for me should you need it. I'll be near.' Was his reply as I saw him fly up into the trees.

Once I get close enough the other adventurers finally take notice of me or rather Jasmine did which alerted her party and subsequently the rest.

"Ah Rez you made it! Bout time, we were about to dive in here without ya!" Came the ever loud Adam as he waved to me. The rest of the Twin Horns just settled for smiles and waves as they were used to Adam handling the small talk.

"The dive starts at noon, and it is not yet noon. I believe I'm early." Came my response and a cheeky grin was showing under my mask as Adam faltered in his bubbly tirade.

"Well, I suppose you're not wrong, but you were still the last one here so you're late." He said feeling he had won.

"I guess those Hell Boons slowed me down more than I expected." I said with a shoulder shrug, and I almost laughed when I saw his triumphant face melt away.

"You fought Hell Booms by yourself and got away?" He asked incredulously and now the other 4 adventurers were listening along with the Twin Horns.

"I didn't 'get away' I killed them all." Was my response, putting up air quotes when saying get away. Everyone seemed surprised, which honestly confused me a little. These guys are A rank adventurers can they not take down a measly group of Hell Boons.

(AN: sorry for the break but I feel I need to apologize. As even I am cringing every time I write Hell Boon. Please forgive me because I won't be changing it. I'm in too deep at this point.)

"How many of them were there? Surely it couldn't have been too many." One of the unknown adventurers spoke this time, I turned my head towards him and shook my head.

"Nope, not that many I don't think." I see everyone breathe a sigh of relief, before quickly spoke again.

"Only about 20 of them." I said while waving my hand as if it's no big deal, but judging by their faces it was a big deal. Helen was the one to step forward next.

"20?! Hell Boons, the fire breathing and throwing monkeys in the A zone?" At my continued nod she just huffed and went back to where she was standing beside Angela. Another new face stepped forward this time with a disgusted sneer on his face.

"You can't possibly think we would believe that you killed 20 Hell Boons by yourself, maybe if you were a conjurer like me, but a lowly augmenter could never." Are all conjurers going to be like this, I muse to myself as I look at this… creature that has stepped forward.

"Whether you believe it or not is no issue of mine. However people like you rub me the wrong way, so I'll show you." Focusing on my dimension ring I start spilling out Hell Boom beast cores one at a time counting slowly for the conjurer.

"16… 17… 18… 19… 20... 21" I could see the smoke coming from the conjurers head at my obvious jab at him, but I spoke again just to fuel the flames.

"What do you know, I killed exactly 21 of them. It's hard to remember when you kill so many." I say while putting a palm to my forehead.

"Well there you have it Mr…. Oh a dark yellow core Water conjurer! Good for you. Now lets get introductions out the way. I'm Rez AA rank fire augmenter, and as I'm sure you've heard the rumors I can use bright blue flames and I'm a lightning deviant. Currently a light yellow core, and have been traveling through the A rank zone of the Beast Glades solo for the past 2 months. I look forward to diving with you as this is my first dungeon with a group." I say with a slight nod to everyone, and just sit back with my left hand resting on my sword hilt and the other hanging by my side.

Everyone just sort of stared at me, but a few of the Twin Horns were smirking widely at all I had said. Then a man with buzz cut style hair stepped forth with a big greatsword strapped to his back. His hair was a light brown and his eyes were as well, with a gentle face that contrasted his adventurer occupation. You would almost picture him being a pastor or a doctor rather than a monster slaying, greatsword wielding adventurer.

"My name is Mikail, also AA ranks adventurer. I'm a solid yellow core Wind augmenter, as well as the Captain of this diving party. Lets try to keep the jabs and infighting to a minimum as they lead to mistakes inside the dungeon. Also Rez just in case make sure you keep your fire usage to minimum especially as we go deeper, since it could burn up our oxygen." He says while staring at me seriously.

"No worries Mikail, this isn't my first dungeon dive." He looked at me confused when I said that.

"I thought you said this is your first dungeon dive?" I just shook my head at his question.

"This is my first dungeon dive with a team. All my others were solo dives in B rank and once in an A rank dungeon. This is my first AA dungeon so I figured I should test it out with a group first. Ergo my first dive a with a party." I finish and can see more disbelief spread on some faces, but I just shrug it off.

Next a long red haired woman stepped forward, her eyes were bright green and her form fitting attire made me immediately think augmenter.

"My name Bree, A rank adventurer. Light orange fire augmenter, which I mostly use for my magic archery." Hmm so she's like Helen then, looking between them they even look a little similar besides the hair and eye color.

Mr. Dark Yellow core stepped forward next.

"The name is Krenshaw Dreyl, as the brat said I'm a dark yellow core water conjurer. While I'm only A rank at the moment it won't be long with my skills and I'll be AA rank, so try to not to weigh me down." The name sounded vaguely familiar, but even his reddish blonde hair and green eyes did nothing to help me figure out why it resonated with me.

Dreyl is a noble family, but other than that I don't know why the name would ring any bells. Finally the last adventurer stepped forth and had a gentle, soothing aura, but she looked very timid.

"I'm Clara, A rank adventurer. I'm only a solid orange core mage, but I'm an emitter. Please come to me for healing." She was gripping her staff tight, though I think it's just social anxiety. Which honestly I'm not surprised from a healer type as they are very rare. She had dull dark pink hair that came to her shoulders and pink eyes to match, she wore dark black robes which heavily contrasted her pink hair.

"Alright, you seem to know the Twin Horns already and as they have introduced themselves to us already we can head in." Came the commanding voice of Mikail.

"Augmenters to the front, mage archers in the middle and conjurers to the back. We don't know each other well, so we will stick with standard formation. Make sure to keep Clara safe because as long as she is fine the rest of us can be healed. Any questions?" When nobody said anything he nodded and walked into the dungeon, i and the other augmenters followed right behind.

There were only 4 of us on the front lines, as the rest were either mage archers or conjurers. It was me, Adam, Jasmine and Mikail on the front, Helen and Bree on the second with Durden, Angela, Clara, and Krenshaw bringing up the rear.

This dungeon was a snake themed dungeon, which gave it its AA rank because of the lethality of the venom produced by the various snakes. The dungeon hadn't been explored to the boss room, so this was another reason it was AA rank. Fire Fangs, Death Rattlers, Bridesbane, as well as Hazy Cobras were the known snake variants in here.

Fire fangs were as the name implied a snake known for alighting its fangs with a flammable venom. It felt like the fire traveled in your body when but and brought intense pain, though usually non fatal by the venom alone. Death Rattlers, were a rattle snake variant that would rattle their tails when they were about to strike. Their venom was slightly caustic, so if they bit you the venom would eat away your blood vessels as it made its way to your heart. Also know as Death Rattlers because of the 'death rattle' the victim gives out as they die.

Bridesbane was a bit trickier, they were an earth mana snake who would cause you to stumble right in front of them. They do this because they are quite slow and weak other wise. However their venom is by far the most lethal and kills almost instantly. No known antidote, 100% death rate if bitten. It got the name Bridesbane for killing so many young and new adventurers who left a wife at home while they adventured for money.

Finally we had the Hazy cobras which was the ones I was the most worried about. As someone who is still learning the vast uses of sound mana I know that any mana beast that can use them can be very deadly. They use their wind portion to move fogs, and create a hazy atmosphere, then they produce sounds that mess with and dull the senses. If not found and dealt with quickly, there have been cases where a single Hazy Cobra has killed an entire 10 man A rank party.

Of course there is normal snakes as well as some different types of lizards which we are facing right now. Rock Lizards as the name applies use earth magic, and they cost their bodies in large quantities of stone rendering most swords useless as they just deflect off. However Mikail uses his wind mana to sharpen his sword, cleaving through lizards with powerful swings.

Jasmine is taking on a couple and dealing with them by enhancing her daggers with wind mana. Though it takes her a few precise cuts still to cut through the touch rocky skin. I have taken the approach of just cutting the rock by softening it with heat. My blue flames, dimmed as to not harm my teammates, meet resistance for only a brief moment before slashing through.

After about 15 minutes of fighting rock lizards and smaller snakes, they finally stopped attacked and we got to rest. Most of the A ranks were breathing heavily from the mana usage, as well as Jasmine since she had to swing her daggers so many times to cut through.

"Good job everyone, that went cleanly and the conjurers were striking at the right times to hold off excessive enemies." Mikail spoke out with a grateful voice.

"Lets take a break here for a while and then we will continue onward. There is a room that the mappers made it to where they installed a heavy door to keep the mana beasts out. We will be able to get some sleep there before trying to find the dungeon boss." This drew nods from everyone as we sat down around each other. I set to cleaning my blade, even though it didn't need it. As well as getting a bottle of tea out of my ring that best when chilled, and felt refreshing after a fight.

Around 30 minutes later, everyone had recovered from their fatigue and we were off to find this safe zone that the mappers had made. Apparently they didn't map the whole place because one of their party got bit by a Bridesbane so they decided to retreat. Which lead to us being here as they formed a party of strong adventurers to both map and clear out the dungeon of the Bridesbanes.

We could see the door just ahead, but more rock lizards popped out as well as several Fire Fangs. Krenshaw immediately targeted the Fire Fangs with some water orbs, and I finished them off with slices just below their necks. The remaining Rock Lizards were taken care of swiftly and we entered the safe room. With what seemed to be the adventurer standard we had 3 people stand guard while 6 slept, and then rotated through the night. Only Clara slept the whole night as everyone agreed her being well rested was most important.

Tomorrow we would continue past the point that the mappers had to turn back from, and we knew at least one Bridesbane was in there.

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Author's Note

Part one of our little dungeon dive. Im sorry for the description paragraphs but I try to keep them short, and even brought the Twin Horns back so I wouldn't have to describe 9 new people. Also hopefully all the mana beasts besides the Hell Boons had decent names. That's actually the hardest part about this arc, coming up with different types of mana beasts and names for them.

Don't worry, Krenshaw is not as deranged as Maverick was. He's just your typical arrogant noble conjurer, and I'm sure some of you recognized his family name. I decided to make him the older brother of Nicolas, the guy that tried to attack the dwarf after the duel ended in the academy.

Also fun fact I almost named Mikail, Mikail Maythers. As a small little reference to Eminem that I'm sure most wouldn't even have thought twice about since his first name is Marshal not Mikail. But I just decided to not give him a last name, as I try to only give them to merchant or noble families. Since they're usually not important.

Also there will be a reveal as to why Jaron can use his flames freely in the dungeon with negative effects. It may not be scientifically correct, but it's a FF in a magical world anything's possible.

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia