"As much as I'd like to rest, we have a limited amount of ti. Shall we proceed right now?" Aria lowered the girl down from her back and huffed her breath. Her body felt worse than ever.
Ever since they stepped into this dungeon and t their enemies, she had never gotten to take a proper rest. She was sure that her body was going to collapse after her adrenaline runs up. Whether she would make it out of the dungeon before that happens, it wasn't certain yet.
Aria actually felt threatened, and she was wondering whether this dilemma was going to cost her a lot more than she thought.
Trying to stay positive, Aria began to look left and right in order to get a clearer grasp on where they ended up in. They had ran around quite far, but Aria rembered running in circles for quite so ti in order to manage the dodging. She traced back her steps and asured roughly how much they had gone deep into the forest, looking at the corpses and trails.
"Yes. I think so too. We should finish this before it's too late," Alena checked her status to make sure everything was alright. The repercussions were dulled down to just feeling like she's subrged in ice water, unlike the previous round where she couldn't breathe at all and fell into a comatose state.
She won the 'battle', but she still wouldn't use [Ilyin] unless needed. The catch was that if she wanted to call out the ice spirit one more ti, she would have to go through the pain again. This ti, she wasn't sure if just willpower could last her through.
The pain that she felt wasn't just ntally straining, it wasn't just a haunting feeling. It also affected her physique, leaving her trembling uncontrollably even after the ice spirit had returned into her space. The spirit was noticeably quite angered and irritated, making Alena feel even worse.
Their states were terrible, but they were able to go on. Because they wanted to live on. Because they had to live on.
Why would they die inside such a dungeon?
'I've gone through worse than this.'
Once, she had even lost a limb, but it was imdiately treated by one of her colleagues. Even so, she couldn't help but rember the vivid feeling of having your limb cut off out of nowhere.
In this case, only a boss fight was left. This dungeon was quite odd.
Normally, one would consist of several stages before jumping into the boss stage. However, this dungeon's stages were all held in one place, without being separated by any gates. That ans, when they continuously faced against the insect hordes, those were the stages being hurled at them without a break. They had already passed several stages even without them knowing.
Thus, Aria took the opportunity to assu that there was only the boss stage left now that the hordes stopped.
This was their perfect ti to relax, but they had to rember the three hour ti limit Gin set them up for. Also, if Aria rested for too long, then her adrenaline would end and beco a burden for her.
"Did you do what I asked you to?" Aria inquired as she borrowed Dianthe's power to create fresh water for her to drink, gulping it down in large amounts and offering the child so.
The child refused the offer, then brought up a bottle of her own and presented it to Aria. This bottle did not contain fresh water to drink, however.
Right after Alena recognized the rain as [Crystal Water], Aria had instructed her to contain as much of the water as possible.
Thus, Alena was currently holding a decent amount of [Crystal Water] stored into a bottle.
This was because Aria realized that if the insects were crystallized creatures, then there was a high chance of the boss being the sa case. If so, then they had to preserve this peculiar water to use it for the boss.
"One bottle, huh? That's pretty good.. But if the boss is a moving insect, it'll still be pretty hard," Aria pursed her lips.
Higher-leveled insects were known to have high agility and a hardened carapace to make up for their frail body. This carapace, if removed, will lower the insect's defense by a mile's worth, but when it is still attached, it will create a huge problem for them.
They followed the trail Dianthe had created. It brought them to a tree.
Standing in front of a gigantic willow tree, Aria narrowed her eyes down on the middle of the trunk. There was a large chunk that was dug out and emitted a crimson hue. Crystal covered the object, which proved that this was related to their enemies, or at least had a connection with this dungeon's solution.
"This thickness.. I'm afraid that just pouring it over the surface wouldn't be enough to lt it," Aria knocked on the object and sighed. She drained their wet clothes that had been drenched by the sa rain and poured every drop into the bottle, adding it up to around two liters of liquid.
"Still not enough. This type of thing needs a strong.. force to be shot towards the core. Only then would the thing be shattered," Aria frowned, not finding any suitable solution at the mont.
Musing on the problem, Aria suddenly thought of an idea after thinking about it.
"...Actually, there might be a way," Aria looked at Alena with gleaming eyes.
The child tilted her head innocently, wondering what Aria was trying to imply.
Aria giggled slightly before starting to tell the child what her plan was.
"You're telling to... let the sli drink all the water, and shoot it out as a jet?" Alena raised her brow at the plan Aria disclosed, wondering how the woman ca to such a solution.
"Do we have any other option? Slis are very flexible, they can double in size. Even your small little guy enlarged itself when it attacked back then, right? Tell it to do the sa thing, but this ti.. we'll use this water and shoot it!" Aria proclaid.
"Ahh.. I suppose there's no other option. If you think that this will work.. then, we'll just try it," Alena also couldn't provide the elder with a better solution and ended up going with the suggestion Aria gave.
She let out her obedient puppet, the Silver Sli. It was currently quite tiny, but it was still sowhat larger than the usual wandering slis.
"Haah... Here, drink this water, but don't digest it. Keep it in yourself," Alena commanded.
The sli obeyed, coming near the bottle Alena gave and sipping from it. Its body absorbed the water and stored it inside, the slimy texture slowly increasing in size as it drew more liquid.
Then, after it finished drinking up until the point Aria marked, the sli took off and began to stand before the tree. It awaited Alena's next order patiently, keeping the liquid inside its body.
Alena looked at Aria, who gave her a nod as ans of motivation. The child took a deep breath before channeling more mana so that her sli could work. After gathering the necessary energy, she began to lead it towards the sli.
"[Compress]!" Alena shouted, commanding the sli to shrink in size. The water pressure inside the sli significantly increased, containing all of the stored water into a bomb that would explode at any mont. The sli beca very tiny, until it couldn't compress any further and was on the verge of exploding.
"Now! Shoot it!" Aria bid her ti, getting into her stance.
Her eyes were locked onto the crystallized tree. To be exact, the being that laid inside the tree. She had already made guesses on what the boss was going to be, and she gripped her sword [Halvargg] tight. Her sword was already laced with so of the [Crystal Water] they possessed to deal more damage in case the boss was weak to it just like the other guys.
Their plan turned out to be very successful. The jet the sli unleashed had quite the great force, and ended up drilling a clean hole into the chunk. The hole increased in size, starting to corrode altogether.
The mont the crystal fully lted and the boss gets let loose, it should go into berserk mode.
Aria was not going to belittle a C-ranked dungeon boss, even if it was an insect type that was known to be weaker. She had just ca back from Leonis' dungeon, and she also rembered Rallaka's dungeon. Even beyond the scales people placed onto these mysterious gates, there were exceptions.
There was nothing that guaranteed whether a certain dungeon would be one of those exceptions or not.
The only comforting fact they knew was that they should be able to get one free blow on the boss for the panic mode it'll enter after being revealed. In this period of ti, they had to land one good blow.
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