111: The Fifth Floor’s Cursed Relic

You have entered the Leafair Dungeon’s fifth floor. Level recommendation: Level 55-60.

This was where Aidan had to actually lock in as the floors changed once again. It expanded outward to reveal a cave system that nearly blinded his eyes from the brilliance. Mostly because the entire ceiling that made up the cave system was nothing but glittering yellow-white gemstones that lit up the entire floor.

As for the floor size itself, it expanded quite a bit. He could even say that the floor was equivalent to the massive second floor of the dungeon, if just a bit more convoluted as there were large hills and towering structures. Even from a distance, he could see an actual waterfall flowing off of the cliff, revealing a beautiful color spectrum that flowed in the air thanks to the brilliant light given off by the gems.

The ground and walls were beige-colored, giving off a rather relaxing atmosphere as though someone created this cave system by hand. The soil on the ground was also a bit different, vibrant with mana. He wasn’t sure whether it was the natural nature mana or whatever mana that consisted of the dark corners and shadows that encompassed the cave.

“Wow, beautiful…” Haley commented. “Looks pretty big too. You think this might be a good spot for another hotel?”

“I was just thinking the same,” Nina answered. “You got a good eye, Haley.”

“Well, who wouldn’t want to come out to see this beautiful sky up there?”

“You know that’s not actually a sky, right?” Van said.

“Oh shut up, let me enjoy the moment,” Haley huffed.

Van just shook his head. “This is the floor where the cursed relic is held, right?”

“That’s what Miko told me,” Nina said.. “Aidan, go search the area with Haley.”

He didn’t bother complaining as he knew this was important. He and Haley got together and then put his finger up to her forehead. Closing their eyes, they mixed talents and let their vision fly through the cavern system.

Glittering stars flitted through his vision, and he wondered if perhaps this won’t work as well considering Haley wouldn’t consider the cursed relic to be any good treasure or something like that. But as soon as he started to wonder whether this would work, he sensed something insipid a few miles away. The edges grew dark, slowly and encompassing, before a retching stench hit him like a wave.

His vision broke and his clarity returned, forcing him back to reality before seeing Haley kneel to the ground, gasping frantically.

“Haley!”

Van kneeled then and there to hold Haley up, her shoulders shivering while a cold sweat poured from her brow. Her eyes looked frantic, her breaths short.

“W-W-What was that? That wasn’t normal…” Haley muttered to herself, but everyone could hear as they gathered around her.

Nina knelt down to her, her hand placed on her shoulder. “Haley, what happened? Aidan?”

“I think we just found the relic,” Aidan said, seeing that Haley wasn’t able to answer back. He gestured his head over to the direction where he knew the relic was at. “I think she got a feel of its aura from trying to sense it with my power.”

“Did it do something to her? Will she be alright?” Van asked frantically, getting Aidan to calm him down with a raised hand.

“Of course. She’s just a little shocked. It’s not easy to get through that aura if you can feel it.”

He certainly didn’t like it when he first found the cursed relic back when he and Nina snuck into the Red Riot’s base. It was also when he first got the vision when the town would be destroyed, pretty much scarring him mentally since then.

Still, this particular cursed relic was powerful enough to almost send Haley into a spiral of panic. He looked back down to see Van calmly rub her back, whispering that everything will be alright. It was probably the way he always did to calm her down. Thankfully, the action proved fruitful as Haley visibly calmed down, her soul turning from a frantic rattling bird in a cage to a calm and soothing burning flame. Still agitated, but enough to at least look visibly calmer to everyone else.

“T-Thanks…” Haley closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then sighed. “I-I don’t know what came over me.”

“Sorry you had to go through that,” Aidan said. “Nina, you think we can give her a break from searching for any treasure until we find this relic?”

“Of course,” Nina answered. “I don’t want her to keep getting frightened like this. Even if it might be good for her to get used to this thing in the future.”

Aidan had to agree, even if Van looked ready to fight her for those words. Even he knew how essential this was, after taking a moment to consider, before reigning in his expression.

“I’m fine now,” Haley said, staring at her brother with an affirming smile. After getting helped back up, she faced Aidan. “Is that the sort of thing you usually sense? How do you handle that?”

“It’s like every fiber of my being is saying it’s bad news. I’m scared of it too, but more than that, I want to get rid of it.”

Finally, he knew the reason why he felt that way. It was his race that was telling him that such an existence needed to be erased for the sake of nature. It was like seeing a buddening plague beginning to form, ready to spread and corrupt everything it touched and infect the people living here. If it was contained and hidden somewhere, it was only natural to get rid of such monstrosities before they could be unleashed. At least that was what his race was basically telling him.

He didn’t like the idea of being told what to do by something he didn’t understand, even if it was a part of himself such as his race. Still, he knew the danger first hand, especially after seeing what it did when it called forth the demon to attack the town.

“We’re gonna go to it,” Aidan said softly to Haley. “Can you keep up? If you don’t feel like it, you can stay. You can even go back to the second floor and stay in the hotel if you want.”

“No! I’m fine, really!” Haley quickly affirmed. “That’s such a waste of time, and who knows when that Selene girl is gonna come and get it. I’ll stay and help. I’ll just get over it and be ready for it next time.”

“Don’t pressure yourself, Haley,” Van said. “You’re still not used to being an adventurer and all.”

“I’m fine! Haley almost snapped. “I’m getting stronger, and getting levels and good gear too. I can’t just accept all of this without doing any work. Ugh, I shouldn’t have overreacted like that if you guys are gonna baby me like this.”

“We’re doing this because you reacted like that,” Van stated. “We’ll obviously worry.”

“If Haley says that she’s fine, she is,” Nina said, ending the conversation. “Haley, we’ll take your word for it. But if you react like that again, we’ll have to take Aidan’s option as a consideration.”

“I promise I’ll keep myself firm, Nina,” Haley insisted. “I swear.”

“Good,” Nina nodded. “Then let’s keep moving. Let’s just head straight to where the relic is, and be done with this entire thing.”

“Aww, no more exploring the rest of the dungeon?” Aidan moaned. He really wanted to get more levels under his belt now that he was getting on the roll from the last floor. He pulled up his notifications from the last floor upon mentioning it.

Level Up! From Level 55, you became Level 56!

You have gained:

+1 Free Attribute point

+3 Free Stat points

+2 Intelligence

+1 Toughness

+1 Endurance

+1 Speed

+1 Dexterity

+2 Vigor

…..

Level Up! From Level 56, you became Level 57!

You have gained:

+1 Free Attribute point

+3 Free Stat points

+2 Intelligence

+1 Toughness

+1 Endurance

+1 Speed

+1 Dexterity

+2 Vigor

He pretty much put everything into Intelligence again, feeling more power rising from within. He knew he was getting beyond his usual balance between Strength and Agility, but he wanted his main stat to be at least beyond his Vitality a little. 

He kept raising his Strength and Intelligence, his Class bonuses instantly boosting his already high Intelligence even higher. While the chance of getting another title upgrade if he pushed his Vitality over to a hundred was nice, he wanted to keep the risks to a minimum by at least updating his physical stats to keep up in combat.

“The business at the hotel is more important. Besides, we might even expand here on this floor. Of course, once we settle with this relic and see if there is another safe zone we can build a hotel in.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually considering another hotel,” Van uttered. “How are you even going to find any people willing to work there?”

“You’d be surprised by how many would take huge risks for a well-paying job with benefits. Having room and board on top of getting meals is enough for people to settle for it for life.”

“...I hate the fact that it’s the sort of job I would also pick up before I met you guys,” Van muttered. “Can the workers bring their families with them?”

“If they wish to work as well, of course,” Nina simply stated.

“Figures,” Van nodded. He wasn’t even that upset about it, as though he heard the obvious. “Still, isn’t that too much for Aidan? He’s the one that has to teleport so many times, and between the two floors too…”

“We’ll leave that sort of talk for later,” Nina said. “This is if we can even find a zone for us to make another hotel in the first place. Aidan, lead us to where this relic is.”

“Righto, follow me guys.”

Taking the lead, Aidan moved forward with his group following behind. With his swords already out acting as relays, he could spot whatever threat that could come after them, unless they were like the rats where they could hide underground, so that could take a while to find with his sensing.

They passed over rough terrain and large obstacles, often relying more on their physical stats to get through. Sometimes they had to cast magic to fly over certain distances, where a wide river split across the land and made it difficult for them to get around. That did eventually get them targeted by the creatures living within the river as flying spear-like fish tried to skewer them on flight.

Spearhead Tuna, Level 61

They were the size of motorbikes that flew into the air, ready to pierce them whole. Thankfully, Aidan knew they were coming and finally crafted the water element by letting the river water fly up and catch them, becoming tendrils that wrapped around their large bodies before pulling them back on the ground.

That unfortunately wasn’t enough as the fish flew back out again, actually commanding water on their own. But Aidan immediately spotted the flaws that came from that.

While these Spearhead Tuna were capable of using water magic that allowed them to use it to get themselves on land, that didn’t mean that they were invincible. If anything, against Aidan, they became mere targets for his magic.

But seeing their high level, he decided to let the siblings handle this one with Aidan simply pinning the fishes down with his harmony. They were dealt with quickly, and the experience rolled in, getting them to level up.

He didn’t get a level himself, but it was a quick and easy progress for his friends, so he was glad for that. They kept moving forward, this time ensuring that they kept to the walls and the hardened surfaces, which eventually led them down a wide tunnel that expanded downwards into the depths.

The strangest part was that this was nowhere near the exit of the floor. While he still hadn’t found the thing thanks to how large the floor was, he knew enough that where they were going was just the natural part of the floor itself, so that meant that with this, this floor was even larger in size compared to the second floor.

Some of the walls opened up, revealing the outside from deep within the depths of the floor, showing a splendid sight of the gem-riddled ceiling above, so far ahead that it might as well be acting as the sun from their location. A cascade of shimmering yellow water fell beside them, the roar of the waterfall loud enough to make it difficult to hear, but they have good enough hearing to not let that bother them.

“Hey, look at the water,” Haley commented, pointing at the water. “It’s all yellow!”

“I was wondering about that,” Aidan said. “What makes it so… yellow? You think it’s piss?”

“Dude…” Van said in disgust. “Come on.”

“What? It's a genuine question,” Aidan said in defense. Though he also wished it wasn’t that. Then again, there wasn’t any stench of urine, so thankfully it wasn’t so.

He tried to see if this water was anything different than the clear blue water they were used to. Scanning it, he was surprised to see a notification that followed.

Crystalline Terrain Water (Rare)

This water was constantly filtered with the energy of the crystalline source from the origin of its location, dipping small earth affinity mana into it for long periods of time. It contains powerful earth affinity which can be helpful for most creations.

“Hey, this stuff looks pretty good,” Haley pointed out. “Aidan, can you do me a favor real quick?”

“Way ahead of you.”

Aidan went ahead and used up one resource ball from his pack, crafting three large barrels which he then lifted up to gather the falling water. Thanks to his Strength stat, he was able to easily lift the barrel and gather the water enough to fill up all three barrels in one go.

After making a lid and sealing them, Haley came over and sucked each barrel into her storage bag, all within the span of a minute or so.

“Thanks, Aidan! This will be useful for alchemy, especially since it said it can be used to increase earth elemental spells.”

“Really? The scan said that? Mine just said that it was useful for most creations.”

“That makes sense. It’s my Alchemy skill that allowed me to see that kind of information.”

“Huh, so you can see different results depending on what kind of skills you got on hand?”

He took a moment to consider this new information. This felt so small, so it was no wonder that he wouldn’t know about it. But if that was the case, perhaps actually attaining a crafting skill would be a good way to increase his Craft spell rank if he could learn more about the materials he’s using.

“If you’re interested, I wouldn’t mind teaching you about it,” Haley offered.

“Thanks, I’ll take you up on that. At least enough to know how it generally works.”

“We should get going soon,” Nina said, taking over the topic. “The sooner we get rid of it, the less burden we’ll carry.”

Haley apologized to Nina for taking the time, but Nina didn’t mind it as she would also take this chance to do something if she had the skills necessary for it. Thankfully, Aidan could see that Nina was fully genuine with that, but he did sense that Haley didn’t know about it, her soul still a bit anxious for making the group stand around to get her necessary crafting components.

He kept reminding himself that only he could see the true state of a person’s emotional state through his special senses, but he also knew that he couldn’t just always appease Haley or anyone else on how the other person feels. First of all, it was a bit invasive to always be able to know how a person feels, and second, he wasn’t the sort to just share that important information to just anyone.

They kept going further into the tunnel system, eventually facing monsters that crowded the area and taking care of them as easily. Not only was Van and Haley getting stronger in levels, they were also getting used to combat as well, which was entirely different from the first time they fought with each other in their first dungeon. It got to the point where Aidan actively fought alongside them, not really taking the brunt of the fight but to actually work in cohesion with one another. He could just as easily become part of any role, but it was good to have shared roles with one another to lessen his burden a little.

Soon the interior of the tunnel started to shift a little. The walls became somewhat darkened and misaligned, and the ground became somewhat brittle. He noticed that the color around here was becoming paler or darker in some aspects, and his skin started to prickle.

Subtle vibrations of wrongness echoed around them, finally making Aidan pinpoint the source of this strange sensation. He immediately turned to the side, noticing a pathway down one forked path that seemed to radiate maliciousness.

“It’s close,” Aidan said. That got the others to turn serious as they followed him into the pathway where the energy resided.

They found themselves inside a large dome-like structure, but the surface area of the place felt decrepit. It was as if everything that made up naturally in this dungeon completely died out, leaving nothing but a rotting part behind. He noticed that there were some gems encrusted into the earth and walls, but they were void of any light that could’ve been given in this room.

Yet there was light inside. The light was dim and dank, all flowing from the one source at the center which was the reason why everything around it became this way.

A single spear lay standing, its hilt dug deep into a small pedestal presenting itself. The spear itself took on a curved edge with a blunt side on the other side. Red and purple were the main colors that coated the staff. It was a simple looking spear, but everything about it was wrong on so many levels.

He noticed Haley turning pale at the sight, grabbing onto Aidan’s side with shaking fingers. He glanced to see her staring at the spear with dread in her eyes. The experience from earlier still shook her, and it was apparent for everyone.

“Aidan, go and take care of it,” Nina ordered. While she looked calm on the surface, Aidan could tell that her soul still had that small fear from what happened to her back at the hideout. She almost died were it not for Aidan getting rid of the spell the dark mage cast to try and take her out.

“Alright,” Aidan said, turning to Haley. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.”

Haley nodded in understanding before letting go, forcing herself to keep her fingers curled within her palms while Van rubbed her back for comfort. He nodded at him to continue for her sake, getting Aidan to do just that.

He cracked his neck as he prepared his mana while moving himself forward to the cursed relic. He wanted nothing more than to get rid of it right now before anyone could get their hands on it and then call forth another demonic attack. Right when he was about to cast his boosted Rend spell at it, something surged from beside him.

He jumped to the side, only to avoid an explosion that occurred right where he was standing. It was an obvious attack meant to get his attention first, making him land as he stared at the one who dealt that spell.

“Fuck… they’re here.”

“Hey, hey,” A voice called out from the other side, revealing the same group he feared would come after it. “How about backing off, eh? I’ve been looking for that thing for ages.”