Chapter 33 - Sunshine Maze II: Before a Hell

[Luz Leywin POV]

I was now inside my crumbling ice dome after the aftermath of the super blast I made was over. I was next to the strange mage who was still passed out from me freezing him. Along with my prisoner, I leave that part of the dungeon, returning to one of the corridors that were the recommended way to go to the boss room. After dragging him, I lay him on the floor and pick up another communication scroll, calling out to Kaspian.

"Hello again, Kaspian. As you can see, it took less than half an hour for me to fix the problem. Is everything okay up there?" I said calmly.

"Diamond, great to hear from you! Are you all right there?!? And we are fine, just listening and feeling a strong earthquake in our makeshift camp." Kaspian said in a worried voice.

"Oh! It's okay here. And I'm sorry for the tremor, that was the aftermath of the fight I had here. I made them keep attacking specific points from where we were and ended up causing a collapse around here." I lied.

"And I have here with me one of the members of this Dark Guild who can control mana beasts. He is passed out, but alive for interrogation." I continued to speak and could hear a sigh of relief coming from Kaspian's side.

"That's fine. From the timing of those tremors and your call, I must assume you've just left where they were."

"Exactly, I've looked at all areas of the dungeon, according to our maps, with the exception of the boss room. I'll be heading there now." when I said that, I could hear agitated voices besides Kaspian and him complaining to the voice owners. Apparently he was with the Backup Party members nearby when I called him.

"Look, we will now enter the dungeon to clean up anything you may have missed. I would ask you not to enter the boss room until we arrive. We don't know if this Dark Guild has done anything to its species there, or whether it remains common." Kaspian said in a voice as if it were a request, not as if he was ordering, maybe it was because he was used to my ways or because I was his niece's mentor.

"Alright, I'll be waiting for you in the area before the Boss. Please be careful. And if you need anything, you know how to call me." I said in a calm voice and soon after, before finishing our message, I continued. "I hope the Backup Party is very hungrey, because I'm going to cook a little here for y'all." Kaspian seemed to have a great laugh at my last answer and finally the object turned to ash.

"Are we really going to wait for them?" Zalgnity said, his voice slightly confused.

"Do you have some problem with this?" I told my companion, taking a breath with the icy breeze coming out of my mouth

My prisoner there seemed to be trying to move and I gave a sadistic smile, watching him while he was confused, looking around and then looking at me. I could feel him starting to cry in fear, but it didn't take more than 5 seconds, and his expression changed to anger.

"What the fuck?!? You there! You worm! I demand that you get me out of here immediately, or your entire bloodline will perish!" He said with anger in his voice as he tried to free himself from the ice handcuffs that were on him, ending up letting out some groans of pain, failing in his action.

"I think you didn't understand your situation..." I said looking down at him, my green flames getting darker and my voice being frightening due to the sound magic in it.

"YOU WHO DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION! YOU MISERABLE-" I stopped him from continuing to scream by using a hard attack to his head, using the Redyspier handle. He passed out again.

"I hate people who talk like that..." Zalgnity said, reminding me of several other times I found myself in a similar scene.

"Let's wait for Kaspian and his Party... I don't actually like this idea, but I need to..." I said taking a long breath.

I grabbed my prisoner by the collar of his uniform, with the ice around him melting and now his handcuffs would flip over. This was to still keep my disguise as a Mystery Elf, after all, elves can't use ice magic.

I start to walk towards the boss room, so I would wait for Kaspian at the appointed place. Ending up finding a spacious area, where all roads led here, symbolizing that one way or another, they would have to go through here. With that I created a bed of plants for myself and I started to arrange things.

I'd done it too fast, so I just stood there, waiting while I practiced cuts with Redyspier and quick changes to the shapes of my magic ring, the MW.

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[3rd Person POV]

After receiving the second message from the adventurer, Kaspian and the Backup Party went together to enter the Sunshine Maze dungeon. The adventurers were very attentive to what they were told. The group was divided into a 3-part formation: Front, Center and Back.

In the front there was a Fire Augmenter and an Earth Conjurer, both Class B. Besides the only Class A there, the Water Augmenter. In the central part was the AA-Class Adventurer Kaspian, along with the Healer and Diane Whitehall, both Class C, and Alexander, a Wind Augmenter Class B. In the back of the formation, there was a Fire Conjurer, an Earth Augmenter and a Wind Augmenter, all Class B.

"It will take a long time?" Alexander said, holding tight to his equipment, it was a large sword with a black blade.

"Not really, this dungeon is known as a horror for newbies only. It has numerous paths, but there is a specific path that leads to the boss room in 30 to 90 minutes with careful steps." Kaspian said.

"I don't think we'll be that fast." the Water Augmenter said, as they approached a part of the dungeon that had some rocks blocking the way.

"Apparently our 'investigating adventurer' ended up making things difficult." the Earth Augmenter spoke and heaved a long sigh.

"Relax, according to the maps we have, there are still several paths to the boss room and there are others that interconnect with the rest of the short path. Let's go that way." The Fire Augmenter said while pointing to another path to the left of the group.

Everyone was following there, while the Healer kept the map and indicated which way was the fastest. But they ended up finding something quite intense ahead.

In front of them was a corpse with vines around its head, which was lying on the floor against the wall. Across the hall from the cave, there seemed to be an entire path of the dungeon that had been buried by the quake.

The Water Augmenter approached carefully and touched the corpse's wrist. "Yeah... it's dead."

"Hmm, so our investigator managed to create vines that scratch the enemy's head causing him to die from lack of blood? That was a slow death... Is he a sadist by any chance?" Alexander said, but his face showed a smile, unlike his voice, which showed concern.

"Maybe the main idea of ​​the spell was to interrogate him while he was trapped like this. But there's a chance he refused to say anything, ending up dying from lack of blood." Kaspian was telling his theory about events, he was taking into account Diamond's personality, or at least what he knew about him.

"Can we confirm the type of tattoo Adventurer Diamond mentioned this new Dark Guild had?" The healer gave the idea and everyone calmly accepted it.

The Water Augmenter turned the corpse onto its stomach and lifted its clothes, revealing to everyone a set of symbols in the coccyx area all of the same color. Everyone there could see Kaspian's answer to that, he just gave a long and heavy sigh, thinking about the problem that would be yet another Dark Guild around.

"Well, let's get going! We told him to wait for us! And I wouldn't even want to wait so long just to be able to attack a boss!" Alexander said, causing some to sigh and others to rejoin the Party lineup.

The Party continued to walk, now seeing corpses of mana beasts around, all with fire marks, which destroyed part of the skin, and some plants surrounding each of them. This was making Diane and some other members of the group disgusted, while only making the others look curious, after all the investigating Adventurer, according to information they received, was a pure elf.

"Brother, how did he set all those mana beasts on fire?" Said the Wind Augmenter, next to Alexander, his likely brother.

"He must have used the plants as a guide for flames.. But where did the flames come from? That's the right question to ask Jay." Al responded to the Wind Augmenter, called Jayden.

"As far as I know, Diamond always has a lot of emergency equipment, maybe he used a Fire Starter for that." with Kaspian's answer, everyone confused, got a look of boredom.

"But there are so many different species... I mean... This is pretty abnormal." The Earth Conjurer pointed out that fact to everyone.

"They must have been brought in by this new Dark Guild and were being dungeon guards." Kaspian answered the doubt that appeared in everyone's mind.

Some were going to the mana beasts to look for something, but getting close to them, they realized that the mana cores had already been taken away. Kaspian laughed a little at this scene, as he knew very well that the adventurer at the end of the dungeon is the type that gets all the loot after killing. The most loot the Party managed to get was fangs, scales and fur.

After picking up the rest of the loot, they walked and followed the directions on the map, whenever they found an area that had collapsed, they turned around by going through another entrance. It took a full 3 hours to get to where Adventurer Diamond was.

"Hm....? Hi guys, it's already night, isn't it?" He said watching them arrive.

Diamond was sitting on top of a makeshift bed of plants, with the prisoner he'd managed to capture, still passed out and tied from head to toe with vines, pinned to the wall. Unlike normal, the masked adventurer was wearing the cloak inverted, so everyone saw only something that resembled a starry night, while the inside of the cloak was cyan and green.

In front of him there was a fire burning, and it looked like he was already preparing something to eat, there was a boiling pot, hanging above the fire with the help of vines that came from the ceiling, and some sticks with pieces of fruit that were still being cooked.

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[Alexander POV]

"At night? What do you mean?" I looked up and saw quiet lights coming from crystals on the ceiling of the hallway we were in.

That's when I noticed, we had entered the dungeon around 6 pm, so it was now between 9 and 10 pm. But the lights and the way they show made me lose the perception of time and think it was daytime. Really, the name Sunshine Maze makes sense. I looked at the adventurer who had been here before us, and he wasn't even answering me, perhaps imagining that I'd realized the answer to my question.

That girl, Diane Whitehall, was approaching the masked man and they both gave each other a tight hug. Looking at them, it was noticeable that he was quite short for a human or elven man. Without a way to measure it exactly, I'm guessing this guy is 1.50 meters tall.

"I can't believe I felt 'threatened' by such a little one." I sighed as I had that thought.

The two broke away from that embrace when Kaspian caught their attention. "So Diamond, are we going to camp around here?"

"Of course, this is the last area slightly open before the boss room. And as it's late at night, it's recommended that we rest before going to face the boss with all our stamina." He responded, his voice sounding strong and powerful.

Even though I wasn't a Sound Deviant yet, I felt the wind mana shimmer around him when he spoke, he was masking his own voice. Cautious he, no?

"Fine. You can come over for dinner, I had actually just finished eating before you arrived. So it's all for you." He continued to speak, his voice changing to something more upbeat and comfortable.

All the Party members approached the heat of the fire and we were fed with what was there. Apparently, what was inside that pot was a meat stew. I had taken two sticks of cooked fruit and was eating them while observing the surroundings.

I couldn't feel any mana beasts near everyone, which was strange, due to the smell... Wait a minute... The smell!

Neither I nor anyone from our Party smelled the food until we got very close to the makeshift camp. Was this little one using wind and sound magic to hide us from any mana beasts? Very cautious.

"So, is it great for everyone's taste buds?" Said the masked boy, sitting next to us around the fire.

"It's great to be honest." Diane said taking the stew.

"Oooh! Really? Because this recipe is your family's special one, I just made some changes." he said to the girl, and she was all red in the face.

"Hahaha! What are you talking about?" Said the Water Augmenter, with his shiny gear almost blinding me.

"No big deal, it's just that Diane and I already participated in the same Party a few months ago, and she showed a soup recipe that she said was something from her family. Honestly.... She cooked badly." With what he replied, Diane slapped him hard on the shoulder and everyone laughed.

"But then I realized that it actually could be improved in a few ways... So I made this stew." He continued to say, getting another slap from Diane.

Everyone started to laugh about the situation and soon we decided to go to sleep. Some brought sleeping bags and others had forgotten, my brother was one of those who were so eager to enter the dungeon, he ended up forgetting his sleeping bag.

"Hm...? Is there a problem?" The masked man said looking at 4 of the 10 people who entered there after him.

"Kind of, we forgot our sleeping bags..." Jay said sheepishly.

"Ooh! Relax, I can do this for you." he answered it confidently.

That mysterious guy put his hands on the earth and strangely we can see a green light emerging from his palm, and soon after some vines are created that intertwine, in order to create two rows of plant mats. There are also several flowers on the sides.

"You can sleep here. The flowers are to delimit the space between you." He said going back to sit on his makeshift bed.

"Thank you" Jay said sitting down on that rug. "Oh! It's very comfortable, it doesn't even feel like it's above the ground."

"Guys, because this dungeon has been taken over by a Dark Guild and we don't know if more of them will appear today or if they were detonated. I would like to have 3 people with me to stay awake on guard." Kaspian spoke in his powerful voice to get our attention.

My brother and I both raised our hands, but we noticed that Diamond also raised his hand, making Kaspian look curious.

"Wouldn't you be better off getting some rest? I mean, you've been here longer than us and even made a little camp." Kaspian asked.

"Yes, I can understand your point of view, but I have to be on guard so if the prisoner wakes up I can interrogate him or arrest him if he tries to escape." When Diamond responded, I remembered, we had a passed out prisoner between us.

"Let me take care of it." the Water Augmenter warned, he was another above Class B in our group, besides Kaspian and Diamond.

"Okay.... But I want one of you two to wake me up when disaster strikes. Just inject me with mana and I'll wake up right away." Diamond said looking at me and my brother.

"Okay" Jayden said.

"Whatever" I answered him.

That way me, Jay, Kaspian and that other Class A stayed up for nighttime protection while the rest slept. Diamond seemed to curl up inside a plant cocoon, from afar I could see the intensity of mana protecting him there. Contrary to what we think, there was nothing much for that period.

After 4 hours, Diamond seemed to wake up on his own and watch us all. Getting up from his bed of plants, he went to the other Class A.

"I've rested enough, you can go to sleep dude." He spoke to the other adventurer.

"Hm? But it hasn't even been 6 hours I think, are you sure you rested well?"

"I'm absolutely sure, if you ask Diane, you'll know that my sleep in dungeons usually lasts 3 to 6 hours." Diamond answered him, and so the other adventurer went to get himself a bed.

"What about you? If you want to go I'll cover your shifts." Diamond asked looking at us.

"We're fine." my brother spoke.

"Yeah. In fact, we got a lot of sleep before your first communication with Kaspian." I said scratching the back of my neck.

"I see..." He was approaching us. "They call me Diamond, but you already know that."

"They call me Al, this one is my brother, people call him Jay." I said pointing to my brother.

"Hmm... From the mana around you, I guess it's the two Wind Mages I asked for."

I got a very confused look at his comment, but soon Kaspian invaded our conversation. "Oh! Are you getting along, guys? Great, because we need this for a good team fight."

"Sure. So is there anything I need to know from you two?" Diamond asked us.

"Well, we're both duo-elementals, he's wind and fire, and I'm wind and water. We're ice and electricity deviants." I answered him.

"Then why are they categorized as Wind Augmenters?" the masked man asked.

"Because it was the first element we discovered we had." Jay replied.

"That and the fact that our family only has wind elementals and that we only use our other deviant elements and forms at extreme times." I continued.

"I can understand that, I'm also an duo elemental and I just accept being called as a Wind Augmenter. We're in the same boat." He said extending his hand, my brother did a High five, after a few seconds, I did that too.

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It seemed that everyone was waking up and a sunstone that Kaspian was carrying began to glow, this symbolized that it was already morning.

I had slept for like 2 hours, while Jay seemed to have stayed an hour longer than me talking to Diamond. The masked adventurer apparently hadn't slept, because there he was, delivering to everyone, and even to me, some sticks with smoked meat, possibly from some mana beast that he killed, since, even though he found several types of mana beasts in this dungeon, some were easily known as edible species.

Along with the meat sticks, for drink we had the option of a strong coffee or a juice, both made by Kaspian and Diane while we slept. I accepted the coffee, to wake up faster, while my brother chose the juice and sat next to me drinking it.

"Didn't any mage appear from that Dark Guild that invaded the dungeon?" The Healer and Fire Conjurer asked Kaspian.

"No. I was using a sonar spell every 20 minutes during my time on guard. And no movement, neither mana beast nor humanoid." Diamond replied before Kaspian could say anything, he was just showing his mouth as he ate 5 sticks of meat like a hungry man.

"Like Diamond said, it doesn't look like we're in trouble. Everyone ready to go check out the situation in the boss room?" When Kaspian said that, everyone raised an arm in agreement.

As most of the things in the makeshift camp were made by Diamond's Plant Magic, we didn't have anything to take apart, just the cooking kits we'd brought with us. I looked to the side remembering a small detail, and that's when I noticed, from the fire element and the earth element, there were only the Conjurers, the Augmenters of these elements were not here, nor the prisoner.

"Hey! What happened to our prisoner?" I asked as we walked towards the boss room.

"Well, two of our mages took him outside and said they were going to use one of the carriages to deliver him to our Guild's investigation space. I figured it would be a problem if he was here in the middle of the fight and started controlling the monster we are going to face. I specifically asked them to have my personal secretary along with all security guards keep an eye on him and any suspicious person with a glow coming out of his back." Kaspian gave me all this explanation so that none of us would have any doubts.

"Yeah. I also trapped him in some tighter vines just in case, by the time they left, the prisoner was still passed out." Diamond spoke as we entered the boss room.

The room was huge and looked like an open sky landscape, with some trees growing with their roots on the walls, a strong luminous crystal on the ceiling, which gave the real feeling of being outside the dungeon, and a small waterfall on one side that looked like flow under the earth.

In the center was the boss, a kind of immense snake, with an intense red on the underside while the back was a strong black with spines, and fangs so long that even with the mouth closed, they were still visible. I was confused for a moment, thinking and trying to remember what kind of monster that was, until...

"That... No... Why is there a Lava Serpent here....?... What does a..... Class A mana beast doing here....?" These were the questions that came out of Kaspian's mouth.

I took a good look at the monster, now realizing what it was, but it looked like they changed it, where it was black, it was supposed to be red, and where it was red, it was supposed to be orange, and it didn't have fangs that long to the point of curving and are exposed outside the mouth.

We were all slowly getting our equipment, when suddenly the mana beast opened its eyes, it was supposed to be yellow eyes, but for some reason they were completely white.

"Corrupted..." That word came out of Diamond's mouth as a whisper, but because I was right next to him, I could hear it.

That being the last word to be said, before we go into battle.