"I can't believe I'm Rank E already! So what do we do now?" Asked Jenny. "It's quite late but not too late though… Are we going somewhere important?" She wondered, suddenly caressing her belly. "Agh, after doing all that smelting and shaping inside my belly still hurts a bit… I never thought I could do that to begin with, being a slime sure has its pros!"
Jenny had helped more than any of us expected, as she was able to absorb fire magic into her body, shapeshifting into a slime-like form and not humanoid, and inflating like a balloon, gathering the warm in her slimy body and smelting metals inside.
This process was not only incredibly fast compared to the normal smelting methods, but it allowed her to mass produce ingots for us at a much quicker pace.
Their quality wasn't the best compared to hand-made ones, but it came with unique traits inherited from her slime used as an ingredient, giving it a shinier luster, while weapons could inflict poison sometimes, and armor and shields could give poison resistance to the wearers.
She was also able to shape ingots into forms inside of her, but she sucked at it so she only did it a bit before we took o the job ourselves, letting her just mass produce ingots.
Yeah, she helped more than we imagined, she could become a very useful apprentice for my forge back in the Forest of Beginnings, all things considered.
"I think it hurts because you ate too much." Rita said. "Seriously, you ate like… over three times what we all ate! You're such a glutton, Jenny."
"Eeeh? Well, I've got a bottomless stomach!" Jenny said. "Another benefit of being a slime."
"It isn't bottomless if it hurts." Mark laughed. "Anyways, are we going to the sewers, I assume?"
"Yeah." I nodded. "I already contacted Angelina and her group, who had logged-off some time ago due to being busy IRL, and now they have logged back in and will go investigate the shabbier area of the streets that the spirits also indicated, so we can explore both at the same time."
"And here they are, the entrance to the sewers."
We turned around another street, finally making our way into an enclosed alley that looked very dangerous. There were stairs sealed by a door, which I smashed with my hands.
[You've discovered the [Hidden Dungeon: Luminous Kingdom's Dark Sewers]!]
"Wow, t-that was fast!" Lily clapped happily. "Let's go- eeek! It smells so bad down there!"
"Well, they ARE sewers after all…" Rita sighed. "I hope there's a good reward for doing all of this though!"
"Yeah the reward will be freeing these people from those cultist bastards…" Mark nodded. "And well, all the EXP and Loot we can find too."
"Hey, sounds good enough! I'm in!" Rita quickly started walking downstairs. "Come on! Hurry!"
"Alright!" I quickly walked behind her, and everyone else followed us.
The surroundings were like a huge ancient sewers, there was little space to walk through, huge amounts of water flowing around, nasty, smelly water I didn't wanted to think about, and rats and other critters wandering around.
There were several paths leading to different areas, it was like a maze by itself, a smelly maze at that! And well, it was also a Hidden Dungeon, interestingly enough.
[You've entered the [Hidden Dungeon: Luminous Kingdom's Dark Sewers]!]
[As the first Players to discover and enter the Hidden Dungeon, you will be rewarded with special and improved rewards once you defeat the Dungeon Boss.]
[There is a strange, dark energy lurking around…]
"Alright, we're here, looks like if the Cultists are truly in here, it means they're hiding inside a dungeon, somehow…" I said. "But why? Or…"
"They made this place into a dungeon?" Wondered Mark.
"Is that even a thing to begin with?" Jenny asked.
"I know that Elayne got her Dungeon back in the Forest of Beginnings, so if Players can get one I don't know why NPC wouldn't be able to create them somehow, though they might need special items for that, or powers." Rita said, rather intelligently so.
"Right, the Mushroom Hero Grave Dungeon?" I wondered. "It was the first one we ever explored, it brings back memories~ Aside from getting water and a few other resources out of it, I haven't managed it that much… Maybe I should go back to it eventually."
"I wonder if there are other Players that possess Dungeons." Mark wondered. "Well, it wouldn't be surprising if you're the first one anyways." He gave out a small giggle.
"A-Anyways!" Jenny said. "Where should we even go? This place's an endless maze!" Jenny complained, walking around the ceiling with her sticky slime powers.
"We should follow the Spirits themselves." I said, closing my eyes. "{Spirit Talk}"
As I conjured that very simple spell, spirits quickly flocked around me. Despite this place being a hidden dungeon, there were many spirits everywhere due to its close proximity with the Dragon Veins.
"Can you guide us to where the dark energies are coming from?"
[The Spirits near you are beginning to slowly recall the {Memories of the World}…]
[They are beginning to slowly detect the Mysterious Dark Energies.]
[A Path leading to their Origin has been made by their sparkling bodies!]
The spirits immediately nodded, generating a path of sparkling light, crossing through several sections… It was surprisingly easy!
"Wow, is this cheating or what?" Rita laughed.
"It sure is amazing!" Lily said. "Not even I that can speak a lot with Earth Spirits would be able to get this much of a detailed path! In fact, Earth Spirits are quite rough, this is most likely wind spirits working! They're usually very efficient."
"Well, Rita, I think you should had asked that question much earlier in our adventure, for a while you knew my combination of Class and Race was arguably broken." I shrugged.
"Huh? You're getting cocky already?!" Rita gasped, quickly laughing a bit.
"There's nothing wrong with a little more of self-confidence sometimes." Mark laughed as well.
Although I always have a good time with my friends, sometimes I think we are a bit too carefree…
After all, we're infiltrating a Cult just now!