86
1064 Words
Checking the compass that had led them this far, Matt found it pointing at the palace doors, so stored it away before alerting the others to the change in the treasure chest.
Hiding around a craggy part of the cliff-like palace wall, they inspected the chest to find that Matt’s AI was correct. The engraving of a key was starting to gather Genesis Energy.
Susanne was the first to speak. “Anyone want to take odds we need to feed this Genesis Energy?”
Liz scoffed. “No way. That’s clearly what this is. Question is, do we go killing or give up what we have? It’s the same thing, after all.”
Matt looked at Aster and shrugged, not caring. Killing the octopodes and their puppets earned them a good deal of Genesis Energy.
In the end, they decided to spend the Genesis Energy they had gathered. Or, at least a portion of it.
They had gathered a lot but they also refused to go down to empty on what was essentially their mana.
But as they poured their accumulated Genesis Energy into the chest, a key popped out almost instantly.
Taking it near the door, the enchantments that caused the door to glow with power vanished as if they had never existed.
Matt almost expected the door to open to a troop of octopus-controlled guards, but nothing of the like happened.
As he and Susanne replaced the chest on their elephant, following Liz and Aster into the chamber, the door closed behind them with a slam.
15
Luna watched Minkalla without blinking.
Waiting.
Carol and Kurt were like statues alongside her.
None of them had said a word since the children left.
There was nothing to say, after all.
They had done everything they could, and now it was up to the children.
All of them had gone through this a dozen or more times, but it never got easier.
Not that they didn’t do anything else during the time; even Luna used her AI to get work done. But their charges entering Minkalla was something to be respected, even if they couldn’t do anything.
After a month and a half inside, the kids should have been on the second floor of Minkalla by now, but the normal cultivators would start reaching the dividing line any day now and the anticipation of discovery hung in the air.
When one of them came out, they would finally learn what the first-floor effect had been.
Another two days passed as the three of them watched the planet of copper and steam churn away. It was beautiful in an impossible way, and while Luna would never seek it out, she did appreciate the view when she was forced into the planet’s presence.
Then, there was a fluctuation on the Federation’s moon.
Every Tier 35 or higher in the star system teleported or ripped spaced apart at the same time, appearing over the moon in question.
When a cultivator left Minkalla, they were allowed to teleport anywhere in the star system, and most chose their Great Power’s moon.
With tens of thousands of Tier 35s hovering over the moon, they waited for the first news of Minkalla’s layout this cycle. Everyone’s spiritual perception blanketed the area that the man appeared in, not willing to miss even a single word he said. None of them tried to block the others, as they all wanted to know the same thing, and couldn’t risk being frozen out when the next floors were discovered.
Tier 35 or higher fights were common here, when tensions ran high, and they had no power to do anything about their charges. Minkalla always survived, but the moons orbiting it needed to be replaced regularly, and occasionally, the planet itself would move to a new star system as the surroundings if its latest position were utterly destroyed.
The question was simple, what floor had Minkalla pushed to the top this time?
It being their planet, the Federation Tier 45 was the fastest to collect the boy, but that didn’t stop everyone else from catching a glimpse of what they were looking for.
Normally, they needed to wait for the delver to say what floor they had encountered, but this time, it wasn’t necessary.
Hearing the boy weep and blubber at seeing the light was all they needed to know. A first-floor Eternal Darkness.
Luna used her Aspect and ripped a hole back to her home, returning to her vigil over Minkalla.
Returning to their previous positions, none of the managers said a word, but their minds raced.
First floor Eternal Darkness. Not a bad floor, all things considered.
The children were well prepared for it, which would give them a distinct advantage and help them pull ahead of the pack.
Them gaining some ground meant a degree of safety that Luna could have only hoped for them. They were strong and would have no problems with the monsters of Minkalla, unless they got a bad floor combination.
Now, as long as nothing slowed them down, they could take that lead and compound it, pulling further ahead and keeping out of the inter-delver fighting that would happen as people struggled to find monsters to kill on later floors.
As the planet spun, Luna watched, not even blinking.
Patience was second nature to a cat, and it hadn’t even been two months.
Matt gasped as he tried to draw in air through burning lungs.
His hands were bloodied, and while most of it wasn’t his, a good bit of it was.
Standing up, he walked over to Liz and Aster.
They stood over the corpse of a giant crab that they had taken out together.
Susanne was still lying in the puddle of goo from the jellyfish she had been fighting.
The start of their trip into the palace mountain had been uneventful, but when they finally figured out the maze-like layout, they started getting attacked. Not by just one or two monsters, but by dozens of fish and other underwater creatures.
At first, the fights were easy enough to win with a little care.
Even with Liz’s elephant summons being out of the fight, while still carrying the incredibly heavy treasure chest, they did fine.
At first.
By the fifth floor, the monsters started to outnumber them five to one, then by a dozen to one.
- Writer
