-Chapter 20- Flaming Tunnels II

Arthur Leywin P.O.V.

Looking at my party members closely waiting for their choices. Some are thinking intensely while some are just waiting for the other to say something.

Suddenly Derek bursts out saying, "Of course, we should continue! This is a once-in-a-lifetime option to research such a change in mana beast's physiology up close. We can't let this opportunity waste away!" He cries out enthusiastically.

"I guess I'll have to agree with Derek, although I'm not interested in learning about these mutated bastards, I just want to flaunt to the people at the Dragonspire inn that I took these sons of bitches down." Adam proclaims.

Of course, Adam would say something like that. The rest slowly also said yes for different reasons.

"Ok, we will continue. We will be on the lookout for any more traps or anything like that though, if you see anything call it out." I say to all of them.

I turned around back to the direction we were heading. We continue to descend further. Along the way we kept finding and fighting more of the mutated Flame Salamanders, the further we went there seemed to be less of the red ones and only the purple ones left. After defeating another horde of them Derek gets a sudden idea and decides to yell out, "I got it, let's name these things. Demon Flame Salamanders." He says the name mysteriously to add more effect to try to get us intrigued. But none of us are even fazed by what he says, giving him silence to his idea. "I get it, too tacky. I'll keep thinking."

"You do that," Adam says.

Taking a right on a corner we find a tunnel that descends to the third level, cautiously we venture forward heading down entering the third level of the dungeon. This was the final level of the dungeon, where we can expect to find the boss's lair. Warily we look around the tunnels, we use mana to augment our eyes to peer down long and dark tunnels to see if they will lead us in the right direction.

We come across a split in the tunnels, three separations in the tunnel, we could go left, right, or continue heading straight. Looking around each of them Derek is the one who makes the final decision on which path we will take.

"Straight ahead!" He confidently roars.

We decide to head in that direction due to not having any reason not to, while passing the other tunnels suddenly a mutated Flame Salamander jumps out at Derek making him squeal in fear.

"Eeeek! Get it off me!" Derek cries out in fear, He was a mid-ranged fighter using a whip so this up close and personal attack on him was not targeted for his small skill set. He falls on his ass trying to claw the beast off of him.

I am the first to react and I augment my leg and kick the Flame Salamander to the wall, I draw my sword and pierce its stomach with it still pinned on the wall.

Looking over to Derek that very clearly spooked him, I helped him up and pushed him towards Adam so there would be someone to protect him. I couldn't blame him for being scared like that, being jumped on like that by such a terrifying creature would surely scare anyone who isn't a veteran adventurer.

We decide to continue forward, this is no place for us to take a break. Exploring the tunnel we headed down we soon find a large open space, it looks man-made.

"Perhaps the previous adventurers had made an area to take a break-in, it is convenient timing too since I think we should let this fool settle down." Jasmine points over to Derek who was practically hugging Adam for safety.

"Sure, but let's not stay for too long. Any roaming mana beasts that find us will probably call for their friends," I reply.

We sit down near the wall and take a short break to recoup our mana supplies and let Derek regain his composure. During this time I look over to see Lilia is purifying her mana core, at this rate she will probably break into dark orange before the break is over. I decide to watch this event occur using my mana to sense her mana cores progress. Slowly but surely I can sense the cracks on her core break apart to soon reveal the glow of dark orange color, replacing the light red before it. I was happy for her, but suddenly I sensed something wrong with the core. It looked alright but I couldn't help but sense something deeper, 'Was this the side effect of using beast cores as the base for her mana core?'

It was obvious that she saw the problem as well, deciding to get a closer look. I asked her if it was alright if I checked her mana core. She was confused at first but then sensed my mana peering at her core. She says I can so I place my hand on her back near where her core was formed and begin to use mana to inspect it.

The dark orange stage mana core looked normal so I decided to look within it. People's mana cores when they aren't in the white stage still have plenty of impurities in them, what I was doing was trying to see what was among those impurities. Doing this I can see the ratio of what attributes make up someone's mana core, it can influence stuff like what attributes someone uses. For example, a person who uses fire attribute mana, their mana core will have a higher ratio of fire compared to the others, that was one of the reasons why people can't transfer mana to one another.

Being a Quadra-Elemental that didn't apply to me so I could just adjust the amount of each element I include when transferring mana, it was a more advanced version of how I helped Lilia and Eleanor start to make their mana core formation.

I sense the ratio of mana attributes but what I found confused me, normally there are 5 different things it can be split between, pure mana, fire mana, water, earth, and wind. But for Lilia, I can sense a sixth mana signature, (Not Aether, I'm not buffing her giving her aether, nor is it any of the asuras mana-based skills like creation or decay. It's different.)

It reminded me of the kind of mana you would find in a beast core, does this mean her core is similar to that of a mana beast? I am seriously out of my realm of knowledge here, could this turn into a problem or can it be a useful asset? Worst case scenario is that her beast core is rejected from her body and she can no longer use magic, but that's just using my current knowledge, there may be more to this.

Realizing Lilia can see my look of concern I decide to stop investigating to not make them worried. We will need to deal with that later but for now, we need to finish this dungeon.

Looking around and seeing everyone is in good condition we decide to continue our exploration. It has been a few hours since we first entered this dungeon so hopefully, we can finish this and get back soon.

We walked down the tunnel and surely enough there was a large door, so this was the entrance to the boss's lair. We pry open the door to reveal the boss's lair.

Behind the door is a large circular room, the ceiling is quite low for a boss lair, probably only around thirty feet high. The ground is mostly just dead grass and dirt.

But it's the dungeon's massive monster that grabs our attention. The snake, which was forty feet long and coated in scales, had a line of fire emerging from its back, giving it the appearance of a full-body mohawk. It was a Flame Serpent, an A-class mana beast, but like the Flame Salamanders, it had transformed.

Its scales, which had previously been a brilliant red, had turned a dismal, lifeless gray, and the flames on its back, which had previously been orange or yellow, had turned a dark purple. Its eyes, which had a threatening reddish light earlier, were like looking into the eyes of death, glaring at us with their crimson glow.

While we were astonished we couldn't just sit there and let the beast attack us, I decided to take initiative and lead the group. "Everybody get ready!" I yell to snap the rest out of the trance of fear. This thing was an A-class mana beast, possibly stronger from the mutation. We can't let our guard down, everybody gets into battle position with Jasmine and me in the front leading the group.

Lilia begins to chant a water protection spell to protect us from and flames the Flame Serpent decided to use. I unsheathe my blade and swing for an attack, I had augmented my entire body including the sword in my swing, but to be met with what sounded like metal meeting metal. The edge of my sword bounced off the mutated scales of the beast, Its corruption must have made its scales stronger because my blade would have normally been able to cut through a beast of its ranking.

It swings its tail to try and hit me away, I jump up and use the incoming tail as a foothold to jump away. Now after jumping to a reasonable distance I am closer to the group. I see Jasmine's attack unable to penetrate its scales either, so I decide to switch to my rapier. I enhance the sword and run in for a second attack, this time higher up closer to the head, I jump off the body of the snake, and while midair I get close enough to the head for this attack to work. Using the rapier as a point of concentration on focus mana and fire out a concentrated shot of lightning magic at its face.

The Flame Serpent flicks its head back in pain and violently swings its tail around to try getting me away. I was still midair so I was easy to hit and the tail smacked into my body, knocking the wind out of me and launching me back into the nearby wall.

"Arthur!" Jasmine yells out in concern. She begins to run toward me in a panic.

'Damnit, she used my real name,' I chuckle to myself, I slowly get up in the pain. Jasmine gets to me and asks if I'm alright.

"I'm fine, I think I have a way to beat it. I just need you guys to stall it for a short bit." I say.

"Fine, but you shouldn't push yourself," Jasmine says concerned. She rushes back to the group to make sure they are ok.

I see Lilia mostly casting protection spells to support the rest of the group, She had cast a buff spell on Adam and Jasmine who are fighting the Flame Serpent up close to no real avail besides just pissing it off.

With the serpents' attention off me, I begin to chant the word to a spell I was still unfamiliar with using. "May the water flow and freeze, listen to my command and trap the foe. ICE AGE" Ice freezes the floor of the boss's lair, slowly spreading till it reaches the boss. It came in contact with the serpent's scales before spreading upwards to the rest of its body. Soon the entire beast was encased in ice.

Exhausted I fall to the floor, I was still inexperienced in Ice magic so doing something like that took a lot to do. But I was on the right track, soon enough I can hopefully use my deviants easier and hopefully as if they were normal elements.

Still weak from the serpent's attack I limp over to the group. It didn't take long before Jasmine rushed over to me and helped me walk. Back at the group, Adam is celebrating the battle was over, while simultaneously complaining about how strong the thing was even though it was supposed to be an A-class beast.

"That thing was an AA-class beast if I ever saw one. There is no way it could be A-class, no way. Adam says.

We suddenly begin to hear cracks and water dripping from behind us. I turn my head to look at the beast and I can see the ice was melting, 'How?' the thing shouldn't be alive let alone use mana to heat the ice.

But sure enough, the cracks spread on the ice before the entire casing shatters, releasing the Corrupted Flame Serpent. It roars out in anger.