After gathering enough water hyacinth, I took the time to meditate underwater for awhile. With the purification of the corrupted being and the extinction of nearly every species in the lake it gained a feeling tranquility that seeped through my pores. When I first entered the lake I felt the corruption more forcefully than usual, and now I felt the pureness and peace more forcefully as well. I believe that my maximum aptitude with Water Elemental Energy is to blame for this, which makes the danger of corruption far worse than I'd previously realized. It's one thing to corrupt animals and humans, they can be killed and sources destroyed. It's a completely different game to corrupt the very Elemental Energy around us, and I have the feeling that if the giant mouth succeeded in it's goal to eat those statues this lake would've been turned into a vat of pure corrupted Water Elemental Energy.
I shuddered at the thought even as my consciousness slowly faded away and I became one with the slowly moving water of the lake...
*DING*
I was awakened by a message notification from my implant nearly 8 hours later.
*The Procrastinator's are the first group to have cleared a dungeon in MSE, congratulations!*
Looking at the time, I cursed as I realized that between running out here, purifying the pearl, and relaxing in the water I only had an hour to run back to the fort before daylight ran out.
I swam upwards as fast as I could, ignoring the peaceful call of the lake. I could've spent days down there meditating, it was so comfortable now that all the cannibalistic fish were dead. Moments later I'd surfaced and started running through the forest without looking back.
An hour later, I ran up to the fort panting. In my haste I hadn't paced myself, and no matter how strong you get running as fast as you can for an hour will exhaust you. Luckily, the vast majority of the beasts and monsters tainted with corruption ignored the wood bridge and trudged on the ground. Their consciousness was so far gone that they sent wave after wave into the alchemical mine field, melting into nothingness. They were so focused on breaking into the fort that they didn't even notice as I ran up behind them. It was simple for me to fight my way onto the wooden bridge and use elemental strike to call a gust of wind, blowing those lucky enough to have walked onto the wooden bridge to the ground below, joining their melting comrades.
The drawbridge lowered and I was across, running into Captain Evelyn grabbed Matt in a crushing hug while yelling in excitement. "This will save us at least a day!"
Glancing up at the timers, I noticed that nearly 20 hours had passed with 2 days, 10 hours, and 20 minutes left before the giant corrupted being arrived. However, despite only 20 hours having passed, nearly 3 days had been pulled off the timer for completing the fort with only 3 days, 23 hours and 20 minutes remaining on the completion time. At this rate, our best bet might be to distract the giant for a while instead of rushing for the mothertree to get the final ingredient.
Matt didn't seem to know where to put his hands, they were flailing in the air and he started to turn blue after a while, unable to breathe as his face was crushed into her chest. Normally, I'd be jealous of him, but Captain Evelyn was wearing leather armor with chainmail covering her bust, and as he gasped for breath I could see the red marks crisscrossing his face where the chainmail had dug into him.
"What'd you do?" I asked him.
"I found a way to upgrade the formations already laid down, the original plan was to pull them up and replace them with better formations but by upgrading them instead we can save tons of materials and time." Matt said, looking a little better though I had to work hard to keep from laughing as I got a better look at his face.
"That's..." I coughed, trying to cover up a giggle, "That's great, at this rate we won't even need to complete the potion."
Behind me, a commotion broke out at the top of the wall and I just heard Beth's voice as she screamed, "DECAPITATOR'S!"
"How long is it going to take her to let go of that?" I asked, turning to watch as the drawbridge lowered.
Rick, Connor, Sarah, and Gunthar walked across the bridge looking worse for the wear as Beth dove into a new group of enemies tearing them apart for fun. "Just close it!" Rick yelled up at the bridge operator, "She'll be out there for at least another hour."
Rick's armor was half gone, it looked as if a massive claw had ripped it to pieces and even with the self repair function it hadn't managed to heal properly. Gunthar was being carried by Sarah and Connor, his right arm missing from the elbow down. While Sarah's gorgeous red hair had somehow been ripped out on the left side, leaving her half bald. I winced, hoping there was an alchemy potion to regrow hair, if there isn't then Sarah will be impossible to live with.
Surprisingly, out of all of them Connor was the only one who looked normal. In fact, he looked better as if whatever had been bothering him since he entered that legacy zone had been cleared up. He was smiling happily, no longer wincing whenever he moved his head. That made me happy, I'd been worried about him for a while.
"How'd it go? I saw the message that you completed the dungeon." I asked, walking over to help Sarah and Connor out with Gunthar.
"Alright, thankfully there are potions to help regrow limbs here." Connor said as I took the Gunthar from him. "We got two cores, the rest were unusable, along with several herbs that the Alchemist Guild will find useful in defending the fort. It wasn't without difficulties though."
He pointed to Rick's armor, and I winced in sympathy. Even with my barriers, I'm not sure if I could've survived that kind of damage.
"What did that?" I asked
"Worms. Giant, carnivorous, corrupted worms that shot out of the ground and bit whatever they could get their teeth on. That's how Gunthar lost his arm, it was the first attack and we didn't know what to expect." Rick said as he walked over, a look of worry on his face. "The man's a beast, even without an arm he kept fighting until we finished the dungeon."
I shrugged as I helped carry Gunthar over to a tent where healers had set up shop. "I found something at the bottom of the lake, I want you to take a look at it."
"Oh? You went back to the lake?" Connor asked in surprise.
"Yeah, by the time I logged in you guys had already left so I figured I'd get the water hycanith since I'm the only one who can breath underwater anyway." I handed Gunthar over to a healer before grabbing Rick and Connor, leading them to a secluded area. Looking around to make sure no one was watching us, I reached into my bag of holding and took out the pearl. "This was being used to house a corrupted being, even after being squashed multiple times by the statues in the lake it kept coming back until Patrice purified the corruption and now it's like this."
The pearl was glowing, a holy aura coming off it and Rick stood there poleaxed a look on his face.
"What is it?" Connor asked.
"A pearl of rebirth. When an extremely strong being of the Holy Element dies, and find themselves unable or unwilling to be reborn their souls drift through the aether, protected by the Holy Element. These stones can call one to you and if the soul finds you worthy it will transform into a Holy Spirit that binds with you."
Without second thought, I handed the stone to Rick and said, "Good luck, Spirit's can be incredibly strong."
Connor nodded saying, "Yea, the only reason Sam's so strong is Patrice."
I punched him in arm as hard as I could, but didn't deny the statement.
"Are you sure?" Rick asked staring at the pearl as if it were the most precious thing he'd ever seen. "My mentor told me that these were incredibly rare and precious, you could sell it for tons."
I nodded, "It won't be long before I have to rely on you to save my life on Earth, we all need to become as strong as possible as quickly as possible."
Connor nodded in agreement, "Tanks are the most important member of any squad, without you we would've died before we made it out of the first room of that dungeon and I have the feeling that was an easy one."
Rick shuddered as I looked between them, "I'll have to get you guys to tell me the full story, just as soon as we kill off the Giant."