Calen summoned a small fireball and let it hover above his palm, ready to detonate it at a mont’s notice.
According to Alfred the temple was made entirely out of stone, so letting out a bit of fire shouldn’t endanger its structural integrity.
He looked at his companions one last ti, and plunges into the darkness of the temple.
The inside was... unpleasant, to say the least.
Everything was damp and the air slled like rotten eggs, nevertheless Calen endured, waiting for the slightest sign of movent or any suspicious sounds.
He waited.
And waited.
But nothing was happening, no ambush, no trap - simply an empty room.
Very confused by the situation he walked out to explain what happened to the rest. His companions didn’t seem particularly bothered by the fact that he didn’t get attacked, but Alfred was another story - he had a deep frown and started pacing around, mumbling to himself.
"You look a bit too worried, sotis plans just don’t work out, there’s no need to stress yourself out." Calen tried to calm him down.
"I know that." He sighed. "It’s just, if there’s no ambush then they might have sothing more complex in store for us - and if they are capable of this level of planning then they might have..."
Alfred shook his head.
"No, you’re right, if I stress about it too much then we won’t be able to do anything. The plan still stands, we go in slowly and carefully, as a team."
Calen entered the temple once more, now accompanied by the rest, and using his power he properly illuminated the room.
"What the...?" Cassian looked disgusted.
And he had every reason to be - all the surfaces on this floor were covered in a yellowish mucus, most likely the source of both humidity and stench.
"Do you know what that is?" Elira asked Alfred, carefully prodding the sli with her quarterstaff.
"I’m afraid not, I’ve read about Krakee in a bestiary, but there was no information about their nests."
When Elira tried to retract her staff she found herself unable to do so - the mucus was apparently a very strong adhesive.
"Um, any ideas how to get it out?" She grunted, still struggling to remove her staff from the sli.
Calen summoned a small fla, and as a test flicked it on a particularly large pile of the yellow substance. Just like he expected the mucus disappeared almost instantly, leaving behind a strange dust of the sa colour.
"Can I?" He pointed at the quarterstaff.
Elira nodded and let go of the weapon, allowing him to grab it - once it was in his hand he simply covered it in fla, destroying the sli and freeing it.
He extinguished the flas leaving only the enchancent, and returned the weapon.
"At least we know what it is now." Alfred chuckled. "Seems like they stopped using the ambushes in favour of glue traps."
"How do they get their prey out of the mucus though?" Cassian frowned.
"Maybe they don’t, and just eat it here." Isara suggested.
"Wouldn’t they get stuck themselves?"
"Considering what we know about them it’s safe to assu that they beco food when it happens."
While they were discussing the hunting habits of their targets, Elira was crouched over the pile of yellow dust.
"Don’t get stuck again." Calen teased.
"I won’t - probably." Elira smiled. "Could you help with this? I have a theory, but I need so water to test it."
"Sure, how much do you need?"
"Just a few drops."
Calen mumbled a spell, and a small spray of water fell on to the pile of yellow dust - the mont they ca in contact the liquid was absorbed and the substance changed its consistency.
It wasn’t quite like the mucus, and had more of a rubbery feel to it; when Elira touched it the thing wobbled and her finger stuck to its surface, but she was able to free herself with minimal effort.
"This thing has great potential, I want to gather as much of it as possible."
"Should I dry the entire floor then?"
"I won’t be able to gather that much, and the barrier created by the altar will clear it anyway." Elira shook her head. "This corner will be more than enough."
A few monts later all the mucus in front of them was turned into dust, leaving Elira to gather it.
"Let give you the dinsional bag, your not going to keep it in your pockets after all..." He reached to take off the storage item, bit she stopped him.
"No need, I have my own." She untied a small pouch from ger belt and opened it.
When she pulled on the string holding it together a powerful gale swept all of the dust, and transported it inside the pouch.
"Since when do you have sothing like that?" Calen’s eyebrows shot up.
"Since we left Mountainfall, it was Sylara’s farewell gift. It’s smaller than our main storage, but can separate substances even if they’re mixed into one - i thought I was going to use it for alchemical ingredients, as I would rather not occupy common storage with them."
"Fine by ." He nodded.
"I have bad news." Alfred called out from the other side of the room.
They all quickly approached him to see what was the issue.
"There’s no stairs to the next floor." He explained, pointing at the opening in the ceiling.
"That’s it?" Isara raised an eyebrow.
"What dou you an ’that’s it’? We have no way of getting to the next floor."
"I think you might have forgotten that you have two mages with you."
As if to prove her point, age marched up to the wall beneath the opening and chanted a long spell - when she finished a stone suddenly protruded from the wall, then another, then one more.
Soon enough there was a beautiful stone staircase standing as if it has always been there.
"I stand corrected." Alfred stated. "If we had people with your skill we would have rebuilt this place by ourselves."
"Yeah, yeah, now let’s go kill so lizard monkeys."
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