[384] 5.8 The Atlantean Trials V

“Are you okay?”  Chloe wastes no time in waiting for an answer.  The moment the System notification fades and the immediate danger passes, she’s already flying down, wrapping me into a hug.  “Nothing wrong with you?  No injuries?  No–”

I return the hug.  “I’m…  Well, I’m a little worn out after that, but I have no injuries that can’t be healed through natural regeneration.  A few lingering burns on my arm, but I’m sure–”

“You know that was risky, Sera!”  Chloe grabs my head with both hands and pulls it down to look me in the eyes.

“I know.  As is the mere fact that we’re here as opposed to being back home, resting, having dinner with Mom and Hank.  It’s kind of what we signed up for when–”

“Don’t you go spouting reasonable arguments when I’m trying to express my worry about you, Sera!”  She leans in and kisses me.  “I don’t really care how reasonable you try to make it, I still have the right to fret about my fiancée, thank you very much!”  She kisses me again.

“I know.”  An awkward moment passes between us.  “Do you think we should head back right away, or–”

Chloe pulls out two flasks containing a magenta-colored, rancid-smelling liquid.  She downs one of them, shot-style, and hands the other one to me.  Before I can start taking my medicine, she’s already got a piece of chocolate in her mouth, grinning like the cat who just got the cream.

I follow suit, though with some mint candies as the palate cleanser of choice.  Still never going to truly acclimate to how absolutely vile most elixirs and potions taste.  But the effect is well worth the suffering that comes with taking one’s own medicine.  I could confirm with my [Artificer’s Glasses], but there’s no need.  I remember quite clearly what this unsavory tincture does.

[[Mental Regeneration Potion]: Doubles [Ether] Regeneration rate.  Duration: 1 Hour.]

Simple, straightforward, and yet effective.  The overall impact is not immediate as it would be when activating an [Ether Canister].  However, in situations where time is not of the essence, the efficiency gains are astronomical.  It is, so I’ve heard, much easier for an [Alchemist] with a modest amount of skill to brew something like this, than for an [Engineer] to build an [Ether Canister], or something that approximates the effect of System-generated ones well enough.

I suspect that it takes an [Alchemist] with much more skill to concoct one that does not taste like absolute piss water.  If only we were so lucky.

Bless the goddess, I manage to avoid gagging from the bitter aftertaste that overpowers the mint and clings stubbornly to the back of my throat.  Even despite this, if the effects stacked, I’d be tempted to down another one.  Tempted, but…  Probably not.

“So, what now?”  Chloe sheathes both blades and rests her head on my shoulder.  “I’m a little worried about rushing back there so suddenly.”

“We wait,” I say.  “The treasures here are valuable, but nothing is as valuable as our lives.”

“Thank the goddess you can admit it now at least, Sera!  If only you started saying that more often when you’re throwing your body into the meat grinder or taking demon attacks to the face or nearly getting bitten in half by a literal hellhound!”

I wisely say nothing more that could and most certainly would have been used against me, either now or at a later point.  Instead I just wrap an arm and a wing around her as the two of us wait for at least a few minutes before we head toward whatever it is that awaits us.

A glint of gold catches my eye from the bed where Kerberos previously lay.  I hope for some sort of valuable treasure for our trouble.  Instead, it’s just a simple golden coin with an odd design that looks ancient.  I examine it with my glasses.  Alas, no special properties; just an ordinary gold coin.  I take it nonetheless and slip it into my [Inventory].

Footsteps approach from the path leading back to the central area of the dungeon.  I step forward to protect Chloe.  She gives me The Look, and I ultimately relent.  It’s still in my nature to want to protect her with everything I have, even though I know she’s every bit as capable in a fight as she is.

Two men step out from behind the rocks.  One is tall, built like an absolute freight train, and carries a long, thick, and heavy partisan that just screams ‘compensation’.  The other is shorter, with a pair of twin daggers at his side.  The weapons are still sheathed, but the man’s black cloak and distorted image together with his more slender figure tells me that he’s specialized in speed and stealth.  The stealth, I can deal with.  The speed, however, makes him very much not the sort of combatant I’m well-equipped to deal with.

The two men look at each other before taking fighting stances, staring us down.

The shorter one all but growls before barking out, “Qui êtes-vous?  Qu'est-ce que vous foutez ici?”

“Do you know what they just said?” I ask Chloe.

“I think they’re asking who we are.  Maybe something about what we’re doing here.  But I’m not confident; French is only similar to Spanish, and his dialect is heavily accented.”

“Wait,” I say.  “Do we have to fight?  Can we talk things over first?”  I don’t know if we’ll be able to stop this fight from occurring altogether, but the longer we can delay it, the better our tactical situation will be.

The taller man spits toward us.  For some reason I’ve only completely enraged the man;  His already hulking muscles bulge further, the veins on his forehead protrude outward, and he looks like he’d explode if a feather landed on his nearly-bald head too hard.

The shorter man shakes his head.  The two whisper more words to each other, too quickly for Chloe to make any sense of it.  Then he turns back to me.

“Stupid Englanders,”  He speaks in broken English, just as accented as before.  “Always thinking themself so superior!  Even now with the System, they hide on their island, as though–”

Chloe and I just blank in confusion as he continues with a long diatribe that dips back into French far more than it stays in English.

“Did you kill Kerberos?” he finally asks after regaining some semblance of composure.

I take a moment before answering in the affirmative, assessing his and his partner’s capabilities through [Valkyrion’s Perception].  Both are as strong as we are, maybe a bit stronger.  I don’t believe they are quite at the third ascension.  I also don’t want to risk negotiations breaking down so suddenly.

“Hmph.”  Despite the growl, there’s the barest hint of a smile on the sides of his lips.  “Then we should hurry or we will be late.”

“Late for?” I ask.

“The others,” he says.

My earlier speculation proves to be correct.  There were at least two groups.  Moreover, it appears that the groups aren’t working together.  I’m feeling a bit better about the situation than I was before.  Had they all been working together, that would have meant their fighting power was much higher than our own.  But two groups means their power is fragmented.  There are opportunities to turn this to Chloe’s and my advantage…  If only I had gained any sort of diplomatic tact over these past three years.

“We should get going.” I say.

I don’t trust either of them a hundredth as far as I can throw them, though I don’t object to following just behind Chloe as the two of them take the lead.  I can see perfectly well what’s going on behind me, and my [Valkyrion’s Perception] has thus far had no problems piercing through Shorty’s attempts to veil his movements.  If he tries something stupid, I’ll not hesitate.

None of us say another word as we approach where that strange monolith had been earlier.  Now it’s gone.  In its place is a set of stairs that descend to the depths of this island.  All four of us share a brief look before heading to whatever lies beneath.

The sound of running water continues, joined by bubbling of some sort.  My first instinct is some sort of magmatic underground chamber, but I don’t smell any of the sulfurous fumes I’ve come to associate with geothermal activity.  I do, however, faintly pick up multiple gargantuan [Ether] signatures coming from deeper within.  Then everything goes black.

“Are you okay?” Chloe asks.

“I’m–”  I feel fine, but I’ve been through this before.  Normally there would be some absolutely killer migraine that slams into me the moment I realize I’ve come to.  This time, I manage to escape the agony.  Even when I stand up and blink and perform a couple of stretches to confirm, no pain follows.  “I think so.”

“Thank goodness.”  She hugs me.  “You just passed out all of a sudden.”

“I–  I remember.  I was scanning the area ahead for signs of what was down there.  I found something tremendous, then I must’ve passed out.”

“That’s not good.  Someone strong enough to overwhelm your [Valkyrion’s Perception] is…  We should make sure we’re fully prepared for battle.”

“I’m not sure that it was a ‘someone’.  More likely a ‘something’.”

“Like a boss monster?”

“Maybe, but it didn’t have the same feeling as any boss we’ve fought to this point.  Also, to change the subject, where did those other two go?”

“They went on ahead to try to find the treasure that they thought were confident was down at the bottom of the depths.  They didn’t seem to care either way if we joined them down there or stayed here or left the dungeon.”

“And, I suppose I should have asked this at the beginning, but how long have I been out?”

“About ten minutes, give or take.”

I look down at my [Ether] reserves.  Still just over a quarter of my maximum, and with no opportunity to charge my engagement ring either.  If we do get into a fight, I’m going to be minimally effective.  At best.

We decide to make our way down slowly, Chloe in front while I keep [Valkyrion’s Perception] active but reduced to a more minimal range in the hopes that I don’t trip whatever force knocked me out earlier.  I don’t like it.  It’s a reminder of my complacency and my weakness.  That I’ve focused perhaps a little too much on research and grown soft in these past three years.  Fortunately, I shan’t have to remain this weak for much longer.  Less than a million Experience until my next ascension.  I can scarcely wait.

We find our way into a chasm far larger than should exist inside of this dungeon, in yet another instance of the System kindly rewriting the laws that govern space and time.  The walls themselves emit a dim and gray glow, bathing the entirety of the land in a noiresque monochrome.

Chloe’s hand finds its way into mine.  Warmth radiates through it and through [Angelic Bond] and my [Ether] increases by another 3,000.  Still not anywhere near what I would like to be, but it’ll have to be enough.

Deeper within is a massive river.  My first instinct is to fly over.  A strange force prevents me from doing so, rebuffing me from crossing the threshold of the shoreline, extending up to the top of this realm that is feeling more and more like an underworld with each passing moment.

Swimming through it is a nonstarter as well.  Even dipping my toes in the water drains my health at the rate of nearly a thousand points a second, completely bypassing Chloe’s [Saintess’s Cloister] due to its dealing damage directly to my soul.  I do not know if even [Death Defied] will save me from this stygian liquid.

So we do the only other thing we can.  A short way away along the coast is a small hut beside a pier with an equally quaint little boat tied to it.  I pull the gold coin from before back out of my [Inventory], recognizing the myths well enough to know the ferryman must be paid in order to assure our safe passage.

As if responding to a call I have yet to make, the ferryman emerges.  He is cloaked from head to toe, only a single bony hand slipping out.  I can make out no details of his face, nor peer through his veil.  Even pointing [Valkyrion’s Perception] in his general direction subjects me to nausea strong enough to make me keel over.

I deactivate it for the time being; Chloe has also confirmed that there are no other life signatures nearby, and I do not think the man is so poor a host as to allow his guests to be injured while en route.

He nods as I place the coin from Kerberos into his hand.  We follow him onto the boat, and soon we are off, deeper into the underworld, toward whatever final trial this dungeon has in store.