Chapter 23

Every passing moment instilled a deeper worry into my heart.

When I first exited the boss room, I had no concerns whatsoever that I would be able to meet up with the rest of panacea. I mean, if Bern and Hallie could basically kill the golem with just the two of them, I was sure that the rest of our team could take it on in other instances.

Now, the minutes ticking away drained my hope, I wracked my brain for any reason why they wouldn't have come from the room. Worse off, why they may have left us for dead.

I didn't want to believe that to be the case, but it was beginning to look more realistic.

I couldn't see a universe where they continued on with the contract, in the case they could even see it. Even if they could decipher it, the rules were far too dangerous for any of the levelheaded members of my party to accept.

If anyone had gotten injured inside the room, it only made sense to bring them back outside. Then they would have been able to conjoin with the rest of the members to give them the best possible treatment-

Oh.

I had to leave, now.

A sense of urgency jolted my body awake.

I hastily picked up my belongings and started in the direction I came in. I didn't have Fie's map here, but I didn't need it. I was the one who led us through the dungeon in the first place.

Even when I was hazy on where to go, it wouldn't matter. I had my handy dandy Tal poisoning.

[ Skill Acquired ]

- Tal Sensing ( Beginner )

The user senses the differences and flows in the Tal around them. This can be useful when manipulating, absorbing, and harvesting Tal.

[ Skill Upgraded ]

- Tal Sensing ( Adept )

The user senses the differences and flows in the Tal around them. This can be useful when manipulating, absorbing, and harvesting Tal.

Subskill: Tal Tracking

The user uses the different concentrations of Tal to track major Tal sources. The accuracy of this increases with respect to the user's Tal Sensing competency.

[ Skill Alert End ]

I quickly glanced down at the alerts as I jogged through the previously conquered halls. It seemed to have given me these abilities late because this was the first time I had used them since activating the system.

I quickly dismissed them and kept running. I had to be incredibly careful as I ran through these halls. Even though we had already defeated the denizens up unto here, I wasn't confident that they wouldn't respawn, furthermore, there were many traps along the way that we avoided rather than disarm.

I didn't have Hallia or Lail here to help me out. One mistake could cost me my life.

As I jogged, I cursed at myself under my breath.

"Shit, Harper, how could you forget it?"

I had totally forgotten the most important aspect of this expedition.

Time.

Approximentally 7 days after the expedition began, the entrance to the dungeon would be sealed. Before the boss incident, I was confident that we wouldn't have to resort to that, but now that our party had met such disaster, I wasn't so sure.

If the scouting party emerged with a third of their members or more mysteriously missing, it would be difficult to convince anyone that the dungeon was ready for conquest.

If anything, the sheer quantity of teleport traps in the dungeon was doomed from the start. There wasn't a chance in hell that it would be left open.

We entered the boss's chamber on the 5th day.

I trained and waited for nearly 7 hours, so it should be around midnight right now.

My body was ragged and tired, stripped of nourishment, rest, and sleep, but I couldn't rest now.

I had 24 hours to cross the dungeon which took us 5 days.

-

"Are you serious, Gabe?" A bespectacled blond mage stood in the sand with a mask of anger.

"Yes, Rhea, that's what they said. Let's do our job." Across from her stood a young white-haired man, no older than 25. He didn't meet her fiery gaze.

She didn't break her stare, "So you're telling me we traveled 2 weeks into this hellscape, just to make a damn boulder?"

He sighed with contempt and gestured towards the entrance, "Well, Rhea, that wasn't the plan, but it is now. So if you would like to help us get out of this wasteland, then lets do this thing and get on our way."

The man named Gabe reached beneath his sandy tan robe and handed her a scroll of pristine parchment.

She eyed him angrily but didn't talk back. She snatched the paper from his hands and started reading over the contents.

Gabe looked at Rhea and sighed inwardly, she was outfitted in black witch's garb from head to toe. He bemused that maybe the reason she was really grouchy was really because of how hot it was beneath all of that gaudy leather. It didn't even match her luscious yellow locks.

She would have skinned him alive if she had heard that, not to mention his simple drab robes and unkempt hair. He looked like a wizard far more than a mage, if it wasn't for his smooth skin and soft eyes, one would wonder what age he truly was.

She handed back the scroll and crossed her arms, "So are we doing this or what?"

Gabe simply grimaced at her.

The two of them took positions at either side of the massive entrance, the boulder needed to be tall enough to at least dissuade human entry.

They closed their eyes and began chanting beneath their breaths. A boulder of this magnitude would require a large amount of spell complexity to remain Tal efficient. The chant could take nearly 10 minutes if done carefully.

It was like this that the two of them became entranced in casting.

Philumphallitundretidra-

pss.

Dralutalinatum-

pss.

multibali-

pss.

Gabe's rhythm was continuously interrupted by the sound of something hitting the sand. A vein enlarged above his eyebrow in frustration, he did not want to have to start this convoluted chant from the start.

Pss.

His eye shot open, looking for the source of the interruption.

About 3 feet out from the inner entrance stumbled the figure of a person.

"Calibarumhidra" Gabe could still hear Rhea chanting under her breath.

"Psst, Rhea."

Gabe got no response from the overheating witch.

"PSST, RHEA."

Again, no response, but he could see frustration etched on her face.

"RHE-"

Her eyes shot open, ready to kill.

"WHAT? GABE." She screamed.

He simply pointed to the figure exiting the dungeon as it collapsed onto the sand.

Her breath caught, "A survivor."