Shingi sent a ssage to everyone, letting them know of the creature heading towards them. They had recruited An into their party the other day to communicate with her through the chat function.
Shingi and Little Phoenix cast their INVISIBILITY Spell at everyone to hide, except Syra, who could hide by herself. Casting INVISIBILITY was expensive, and keeping it active was for a long ti also added to the amount of mana needed, especially when using it on so many people. But Shingi, who had most of the party targeted with his Spell, had enough mana to keep the Spell active for quite so ti.
They all used their STEALTH Skill even if at so wouldn't make much of a difference, but any help would be helpful.
After a couple of minutes, the creature Shingi detected entered the part of the cave, reaching their camp. They had stored their tents and the rest of the things in their Spatial Rings and Spatial Bags, but there were signs of soone being around if a person paid attention.
The creature was a male humanoid but wasn't a human. His head was that of a white eagle and had a pair of wings attached to its back. His whole body had feathers, but he wore a rope very similar to the ones Shingi had seen Netsu wore when he had activated SCRY MODE on Annoue before her disappearance. Another of Mikhail's people.
Shingi quickly detected the sa burn mark at its neck, even if so feathers were in the way. But with a quick inspection and having Nivlek's mark fresh in his mind, he could detect so slight differences between the two.
"I know you are here. So just show yourself, I am not here to fight you." [Eagle Man]
Shingi could detect that this person had no Mana Pool, but no weapons were out in the open. He also could tell that the man hadn't detected their location.
Shingi showed himself but first sent a ssage to everyone to stay hidden and wait for a signal. He had his staff out on his hand, as he didn't know how strong the enemy was. He was also more comfortable if a report reached Mikhail about his equipnt to be about his staff and not his sword.
"Who are you? What do you want?" [Shingi]
The birdman turned towards Shingi and raised his hand as a sign of him coming in peace.
"Na is Gua. I am part of the Eagle Tribe, but if what Master told about you is true, you should know this already. I am here to pass a ssage." [Gua]
Shingi had heard of the Eagle Tribe and other bird kinds, like the Owl Tribe, who were humanoids with bird characteristics, but it was rare for one to have as many characteristics as the Gua. Most could have talons, or a pair of winds, or just a bird-like head, etc.
It seed like Mikhail was taking under his wings people or rare cases of their races, as Netsu's appearance was also rare for his kind.
"What does Mikhail want to tell ? I am certain he could just send a telepathic ssage whenever he wanted." [Shing]
"I never said that ssage was from Master." [Gua]
This response confused Shingi. Then he thought of a possibility.
"Nivlek sent you?" [Shingi]
"She actually went with that na? She had ntioned it, but I thought of being stupid. But yes, she sent to deliver you sothing." [Gua]
He checked one of the inside pockets of his robes and brought out a box. It was identical to the one Harbin gave him as a gift from his mother.
"She said you might find more about how to open it. By the way, don't think of this as helping you or being at your side. Master had said we aren't to fight you unless you try to sabotage his plan, but that doesn't make us friends. She also said 'good luck'" [Gua]
He let the box down and then brought out another stone that Shingi recognized, having so Teleportation circles on it. It seed to be self-powered, as he didn't have any mana of his to use. He had just pressed an area of the stone to enable it and open a portal that he went through and closed behind him in an instant.
Shingi didn't feel like being monitored, but he asked Syra to check just to be certain. Everything was clear.
Shingi examined the box and was identical to the other one, so he thought it was sothing his mother used to make for many of her things. He cut his palm and 'fed' the lock's seal to get it open.
After the seal got disabled, he reexamined the box to make sure that he had missed nothing. Nothing seed to be different from what was expected, so he opened the box.
Inside, there was nothing. He checked in case it had a fake bottom or sothing, by there really was nothing in the box. He used all his detections Skills and found nothing.
As he closed the box and was ready to store it at his Spatial Ring, he noticed a slight movent of Spirit Elent mana from the lock heading into the box. He opened the box, and nothing had changed.
He brought out a blank piece of paper and put it in the box. After noticing the energy doing the sa, he waited for it to finish and then opened the box. The box was empty once more, as the paper was nowhere to be seen with any of his senses.
He felt around the box to be certain that the paper didn't just beco invisible, but it wasn't the case. He closed the box once more, but this ti the lock didn't interact at all. Shingi waited a bit, and after close to five minutes, he noticed so spirit mana going in the opposite direction from before. It headed from in the box to the lock.
When it finished, Shingi opened the box, and he saw his piece of paper being in it but wasn't blank anymore. It had written on it.
================================
Hello
- Nivlek
================================
It seed this was used to teleport things he put in this box to Nivlek, and she could send them back. Of course, Shingi couldn't be certain that Nivlek was really the one behind it and wasn't just a trick of Mikhail. But either way, he wasn't trusting Nivlek yet, even if she sohow was his Mother, or at least the mother of his NPC self.
He found it suspicious that Gua ca here without Mikhail knowing about it, so he didn't let his guard down. He stored the box in his Ring because in the case it worked to monitor them, it wouldn't work since it was in a pocket dinsion.
Before they start his travel, he tried using his SCRY MODE at Annoue, which unfortunately failed and checked on Dormon. No changed on Dormon, who seed to be in a coma-like state. And Shingi noticed that at the nearby cells, there was only Netsu and no sign of Nivlek. Maybe she didn't get punished the sa way as Netsu if she got punished at all.
After being certain they forgot nothing at their camp, Shingi and his party started their way down the mountain. The only Eagle left seed to be Dark Shadow unless so had moved in a different place on the floor. But this mountain was their ho by instinct, so if there were still so alive and had moved elsewhere, this ant that sothing drew them away. Sothing quite strong.
If they all were gone by sacrificing themselves for creating the egg from which Dark Shadow ca from, one question was born from that action. For what reason, they progressed with the creation of sothing like that?
They started their way down the mountain, still careful and trying to detect any living creature or scouts of the rest of the Floor creatures.
The next would have to go to the lake of the forest where they would face many of the beasts gathering there to have so water to deal with their thirst, or so even took a bath in there.
There may be a big number of beasts there, but they wouldn't be on guard, or at least not as much as usual, since they considered it a safe area.
The lake was on the opposite side of the floor than where the mountain was, so they had to travel for so ti. The plan was to investigate what each type of creature's state currently was since it seed whichever way the current Boss was balancing things. But if that was the truth, even if the Boss wasn't killed even one ti in those 10 years, Aanum was gone; if the Boss was sharing all the energy equally, that ant its own developnt would be much slower. Even so, if it had that long to develop, it would have grown compelling.
They tried to avoid any scouts they detected, but so cases killing them was the only option, so Shingi, with the help of Dark Shadow, for it to earn so experience in combat.
Everything went smoothly, as they reached the lake.
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