The small clay doll rushed towards the back room, away from the party, and closed the door behind him. "Did we scare him?" Blue asked.
"Maybe, I"m not sure," Hera just shrugged. The thing moved so fast that she wasn"t even able to trigger her [Observe].
The group walked towards the door and tried to open it. It wasn"t locked, but it seemed like something was holding the door. They kept pushing and slamming at the door. When they finally busted the door open, several clay dolls fell from behind the door. The puppets scrambled away and hid behind various wooden dollhouses.
Careful, Hera and her friends stepped inside the room. Ready to fight the creatures. As they crossed the threshold to the door, one of the dolls appeared in front of the group. Leo froze, his eyes stuck to the small creature. Hera took this time to use her [Observe] on it.
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Minor Earth Elemental - Clayman
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The clayman took out a flower from behind his back and pointed towards Blue, who was in front. The controller opened a big smile and kneeled down to receive the flower.
"Blue! What are you doing?" Leo gasped, looking at her.
She just waved him off, "Relax. I"m they are adorable," she reached out and took the flower, "Thank you, little one. You are really cute. You know that?"
As she spoke, the clayman jumped and started waving his arms. Soon about twenty other small claymen appeared on top of the dollhouses. Unsure of what would happen, Hera stepped in front of Bonnie to protect the researcher from any attacks.
The claymen all started shuffling in place, stomping their feet on the roofs of the houses. Suddenly, a series of trapdoors in the ceiling flung open, and the group was showered in flower petals. A line of small earth elementals came marching towards Blue, carrying a large necklace made of flowers, and presented it to the controller.
"What is that?" Blue asked.
"It looks like those necklaces we get when we go to a paradise island. If I remember correctly, it means friendship," Bonnie replied, still unsure of what to expect.
Blue took a moment looking at the necklace, having the same expression anyone would have while using their [Inspect], "It seems harmless. In the description, it even says that it is a gift of friendship," Blue said, picking the necklaces and placing around her neck.
"What if that"s a trap? Or if there is some type of poison in it?" Leo gasped.
"But it seems fine, and they don"t seem hostile," Alex said.
"Hera, you have a thing that shows when there is danger nearby, right? What do you feel?" Leo had his eyes open wide, with a small glint of panic on his face.
"Not quite, it tells me when monsters are closer than 5 meters away from me. Yeah, right now it"s going off like crazy, but it doesn"t mean that they are bad."
"But these dolls are possessed, how can that be ok?" The hunter cried. A few of the claymen looked at each other with worried expressions.
"Leo, did you check their name? They are not dolls, much less they are possessed. They are earth elementals," Alex said, placing her hand on the man"s shoulder.
"What?"
"You didn"t even check it?" Hera asked, raising one eyebrow.
Leo looked down, then towards one of the clayman atop a house, " My bad. For a moment I thought this was the spirit room,"
"Dude, are you really that terrified of spirits?" Blue asked while she gave head pats to the claymen around her.
Leo rolled his eyes, "Oh, sorry for not liking the idea of something that can enter my body and make me do things I wouldn"t do."
"I think you are seeing too many movies. Spirits don"t do that. Not down here, at least. Some spirits are capable of possessing people, but they are only seen after the 12th layer. Even then, they can at most just keep talking to you and be a bit annoying, nothing life-threatening," Bonnie explained as she started to play with a few cleymen.
Leo kept mumbling while the rest of the group interacted with the elementals. They were very friendly, not only they offered flower necklaces for everyone, but they showed their houses and the garden they tended to. Hera felt like she was interacting with a village of enthusiastic children. Looking around, it didn"t seem like there was anything controlling tower"s magic or making it change.
The elementals lead the group to a set of stools and even proceeded to ma.s.sage them using their tiny arms. Leo still protested the idea, but that only lasted until they started. The small hands were perfect for the job. After around one hour, the group said their goodbyes to the elementals. Not only feeling refreshed but having received a buff from the claymen. They went back to the center room.
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Cleymen"s Boon
The ma.s.sage of the cleymen helps your body relax. Due to the magical nature of the elementals, it also reduces the amount of energy you spend by doing physical tasks and improves your natural stamina recovery.
Bonus Recovery + 20%
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The room now had another different lighting. The one in front of the earth door now had a yellowish-brown hue. Not only two lights remained blue, the one from the entrance and the one from the spirit door. Leo tried to check the exit, but it seemed that they still haven"t completed the quest.
"Leo, do you want to stay in the middle of the group?" Alex asked.
Blue held out her hand, "You can even hold my hand, we won"t laugh. It"s just like Alex and the frogs."
He thanked them and accepted the offer. Entering the spirit door, they reached the familiar book room. This one had some type of crystal designs, but they couldn"t tell what it would do. After a few minutes, they confirmed that all the books had the same problem, like those in the other libraries. If they touched them, they would turn to dust. Hera walked toward the back of the room and found a simple wooden door. However, the door had several white runes along its frame.
Hera tried to open it, and the door was unlocked. In front of her, there was a hallway with several tiles making a path. The floor wasn"t a straight line, but a labyrinth-like a trail that would lead to the other side. Besides the tiles, there were holes that seemed to lead to an infinite abyss. Picking a piece of a power bar, Hera tossed it into the chasm and tried to hear when it hit the ground. Sadly, there was no sound. Still, the path was simple enough. It shouldn"t be hard to cross it without falling.
She took one step towards the hallway, and as soon as she crossed the threshold of the door, the tiles vanished. Hera had taken one step forward, and she still could feel the floor beneath her feet. But looking down, she only saw the dark abyss.
Showing the problem to the group, they decided to use Leo"s spear as a cane to feel the path ahead. Going on a single file, Blue was in front, followed by Alex, Leo, Bonnie, and Hera. They were moving carefully, but around the halfway point, Blue couldn"t find a path forward.
Before making any decisions, Hera tried using her [Pulse] as her mana expanded. She could feel the invisible floor with a different type of energy. Moving carefully, she started to lead the group to the secondary path, avoiding any route that would lead to a dead end.
She had to use the spell several times before reaching the end, almost depleting her mana. But they arrived at the circular room with the carvings on the wall. This time, it was a mage, in the same pose as the others, with some energy coming off her hands. The energy turned into a sword, then a skeleton, and above the other door, there was a picture of the Grim Reaper.
"That"s not ominous at all," Blue said as she felt Leo tightening the grasp on her hand.
"Are you ok?" Alex asked.
"I"m fine. Let"s finish this soon," the hunter replied.
They stopped for a few moments so Hera could replenish her mana, then the group walked into the room. It was utterly dark, but as they moved away from the door, a set of torches lit up with a pale green light. After a few moments, other light spheres in a similar light started to appear from the ground.
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Ignis Fatuus
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"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Leo gasped, getting ready to attack with his spear.
"Those are will"o"wisps, ghost lights. They are harmless, but some folklore says that they help spirits find their way," Bonnie said, getting ready to fling some spells.
As if waiting for their cue, a group of eleven spirits came through the wall. They were very large and moved as if they were covered in a white sheet.
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Artificial Poltergeist
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"Ok, those are ghosts," Bonnie started to create a Cold Bomb in front of her.
As the creatures approached, Leo got increasingly agitated. When one poltergeist moved quickly towards the group, the hunter stabbed it with his spear. The apparition showed a deep red gash in the middle of its form and started to shiver and shake violently. As if resonating with the wounded one, the rest of them began to have the same reaction. The torches around the room shook and fell to the ground without losing their light.
With a loud wailing noise, the ghosts rushed towards the group. Bonnie flung her spell, but after the small explosion, the creatures showed no signs of slowing down. Hera and Alex slashed at the ones approaching, creating more red marks. The smell of burnt hair quickly filled the room.
"Oh G.o.d, this is awful," Alex said as she slashed once again at the creature. She couldn"t feel anything while her dagger pa.s.sed through it. However, the reddish-orange glow in her blade turned brighter when it cut the monster.
Hera was having a similar experience when she used Iris to attack the ghosts got lightly burned. Her chakram, on the other hand, was different. They would not merely burn, but the slash would catch on fire and spread a bit before stopping.
Leo was being less than helpful. Every time a phantom would come close, he flailed around wildly, almost hitting his friends. Blue, who had to duck down to avoid his strike, grabbed his spear.
"Gimme that. You are freaking out too much to be helpful," Using the spear, the controller finally had a way to deal with the ghosts. The dagger she had was too small to be used in a fight.
Bonnie used the Air Fist several times, but it only pushed the creatures back slightly. It wasn"t much, but if she timed it right, she could help the group avoid the attacks. The ghosts seemed to be showing some wear and tear, but it didn"t stop them from advancing towards the group.
The spirits had an odd way of fighting. They would try to do something close to a body slam to hit their enemies. However, there was no contact. When they pa.s.sed through someone, they would feel as if an arctic wind hit them.
Moving forward, Blue was pushing two of the ghosts away. Alex managed to push back one. Seeing the other eight closings in, Hera attached the chakram to Yarnball and threw it in a line, hitting three approaching spirits. They started to burn as the explorer pulled the chakram back, blocking others with her axe. Even so, it wasn"t enough to deal with all the ghosts. A couple managed to pa.s.s by at attack Hera and the group.
One of the spirits didn"t pa.s.s through like the others. It latched onto Hera, keeping her inside it. Hera started to feel colder and colder, as if she was in the middle of a blizzard. Her body seemed to stiffen up, and she began to shiver. Not only that, but her arms felt heavy like they were underwater. Alex slashed the ghost on top of Hera a couple of times and managed to make it go away.
"We should go to the door, that way they only have one way of coming through!" Blue yelled as she stabbed a ghost.
"They pa.s.s through walls if we do that, they can appear out of nowhere!" Leo gasped
Worried there might be another ghost coming from beneath them, Hera activated her Pulse. She was unable to feel anything past the grey rock around her, but the spirits had a line of mana going towards the torches and the will"o"wisps. She turned around and threw the chakram towards the closest Ignis Fatuus that vanished along with one of the creatures.
"Aim for the torches and the other things. They are sharing mana," Hera shouted.
The group scrambled towards the lights and hit them with their weapons, finally making the other spirits disappear. However, during that time, two of the poltergeists latched on to Hera. By the time they were gone, she had felled to the ground, shivering with cold.
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