[....]
Another hour has passed since their meet up, the whole party then came running in towards the enemy treant in the east of the dungeon, as they hack and slash any monsters coming their way. Of course the path wasn't easy, but with both Shelly and Lilia taking the front, Kaido taking the center, and Alessandro taking care of the rear, the way they bulldoze through the forest was as easy as pie.
That is the case when they are fighting off against normal treants who are at the size of a real tree or even slightly larger. However it is a different story when the other types of treants came joining on the fray of fending off their attackers.
This time humanoid treants double their size then came running out from the deep of the forest as they came wielding in weapons and begun attacking the group in various styles and formation. But despite that, Kaido easily took down a couple of them on his won, while the others on the other hand took care of their own opponents with much difficulty but not impossible task.
naturally Kaido refrained from using some of his psychic power that could ignite fire in this forest, due to that he was once again restricted into using elemental matter not correlated to fire.
After awhile, the group then finally took down about a dozen of those humanoid treants, as they all gasp for breath after fighting for quite a long while. After all ever since they decided to attack the left side of the dungeon, waves after waves of monsters came running in their way, forcing them to exert stamina even from the earlier stage. Due to that they were then completely exhausted even though they only managed to reach halfway of their goal. As if that wasn't enough, the whole sky inside the dungeon slowly dimmed to the point that the whole scenery looks like nighttime already.
With that Alessandro then decided to call it a day, as he asked for Kaido to set up a shelter for the whole group themselves. Understanding what he meant, Kaido then created an earthen dome around them with the only ventilation they have is the tiny hole on top of the dome which is at the size of a infant's head. This is done in order so that no huge monsters could enter the dome even though they find an open pathway inside. Alongside it, Kaido set up a psychic barrier around the dome for extra measure of defenses.
After every was set up, Both Shelly and Alessandro took out items from their spatial storage in order to start a fire in the middle of the dome. Since both of them have titles related to survivalist or hunter, both of them naturally know how sleeping outside works, due to that it didn't take them long to build up a fire which warmed the whole area.
While both of them were preparing the whole groups dinner, Kaido sat on the ground and begun speaking towards Lilia.
"It's quite good to know that you managed to talk to your uncle and auntie that you will be entering the dungeon for a couple of days right?"
"Well yeah! but at most i only gave them an uncertain number of days in which we will be inside this dungeon... at most maybe three days"
"Three days? that doesn't sound like a plausible scenario.... conquering an unranked dungeon in 3 days? It would even be a miracle if we could finish this dungeon in 1 week"
"Huh?"
"Think about it! we haven't even completed about 25% of the dungeon and we already wasted a day for it.... just by looking at it, it will take at us a minimum of 1 week in order to conquer the dungeon and maximum of 1 month"
"We cant have that! I only asked permission for three days, any more than that and i would be in trouble"
IN that moment Shelly joined the conversation together with Alessandro.
"Don't worry about it so much! there may be a chance we can find a return stone from the drops of the monsters in the dungeon... by using that we may be able to exit and return back inside the dungeon halfway through our goal" said by Shelly
"Yeah she's right! if we mange to find that stone, we can exploit it by going in and out of the dungeon as much as we like" added by Alessandro
Hearing their comments, Lilia then agreed upon their decision, while Kaido didn't gave out any further comments from such an idea. After all among the group he's the one who has less knowledge about dungeons in this kind of situation. With that it is much better to cooperate fully to the team instead of going against them. Additionally by a stroke of luck, he may find a path back to his world in this dungeon itself.
While they were talking, the canned food that was cooked for dinner finally finished boiling, as they were served hot and distributed toward everyone inside the dome. Since there is no rice, the rest have no choice but to make do on what they can. On the other hand, Kaido turned his backs on them as he plans to use his psychic ability to produce rice out of nothing. After all everything is made up of matter, in that sense rice is also mad up of matter and anything that is made up of matter, he can easily produce out of nothing.
Rice is a rich source of carbohydrate, and it contains a moderate amount of protein and fat, and also a source of vitamin-B complex such as thiamin, riboflavin and niacin. Rice main carbohydrate is starch, which is composed of amylose and amylopectin. The rice grain constitutes 12% water, 75%–80% starch and only 7% protein with a full complement of amino acids. Its protein is highly digestible (93%) with excellent biological value (74%) and protein efficiency ratio (2.02%–2.04%) owing to the presence of higher concentration (about 4%) of lysine. Minerals like calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and phosphorus (P) are present along with some traces of iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn).
Adding a heat and boiling water as he cooked rice in space, he then soon had a freshly made rice on his plate as he literally created rice out of nothing but his psychic power. In that moment he was never so thankful that he has this ability of his to create rice out of nothing but his own knowledge.
Unfortunately his secrecy didn't last long as Lilia, Shelly, and Alessandro saw his figure and smelled the cooked rice that he had created. Upon seeing that Kaido had created rice out of nothing, all hell break loose inside the dome as they asked for him to provide rice for everyone to eat.
Of course with this commotion and the appearance of a strange dome in the middle of the forest didn't go unnoticed towards the treant monsters around the area, but no matter what they do, the monsters weren't able to pierce through Kaido's barrier, causing a lot of them to gather in that specific point as they tried to get rid of this new obstacle.
That went on for a more than a couple of hours, before the sun finally rose inside the dungeon and shone bright towards the land. Once the sun rises, the group was then greeted by the sight of sea of monsters, which caused all of them aside form Kaido to jump out in surprise, before engaging in a long combat to clear the area.
Once the sea of monster got taken care of and the cores were scavenged from the corpse of the monster for mineral collection, everyone then breath a sigh of relief as they took a couple of minutes to rest from the sudden exhaustion they have received. During those time, Lilia peeked a bit in her systems time clock and was surprised by what she saw which caused an alarm towards her surrounding group.
"What? What happened?" asked by Shelly as she approached Lilia
"Is there something wrong? did you get poisoned?" asked by Alessandro
"It's not that! the time! check your systems time!"
Hearing her words, both Alessandro and Shelly then checked the time in their systems and were relatively surprised by what they saw. In fact they had entered the unranked dungeon during the Friday of the week around the time of 3pm. So based on the fact of the time they had fought, called it a day, and took a few hours of sleep, it should have been already given that they had spent one night inside the dungeon itself. With that the day itself should be around the Saturday of the week.
However after checking the system's time, they had noticed the time and date on the system itself which indicated that it was still 5pm of the Friday of the week. Meaning everything that had happened to them and all the hours they spent inside the dungeon, had only accumulated for only 2 hours in real time. With this it also gave them the idea that the whole dungeon itself had its time altered by some mysterious power.
"The time is altered... this isn't the first case, but this is the first experience for us" said by Alessandro
"Your right! i cant believe that only two hours had passed outside, i really feel like we've spent a whole night inside this dungeon... this is interesting" said by Shelly
" Me too... this is a first for me" added by Lilia
In that moment Kaido interrupted their conversation, as he gave his own point of view towards the others and even gave a word of advice towards them.
"Don't think of it as a positive thing"
"???"
"Altered time may sound cool and all, and somewhat benefits you since time is altered and such, but having an altered time can also be detriment"
"What do you mean?" asked by Alessandro
"Yes you would be able to make the most out of everything with an altered time, but swimming in altered time for too long would take a toll on your mentality and sanity... you wont be able to understand time any longer, once your body got used to altered time, you wouldn't be able to go back the way you are before your body got showered by the time altercation... many people often die inside dark places since they underestimated altered time"
"!!!"
"At first it may seem good for you, but the longer you stay in a place where time is altered, you will then slowly lose your sanity, until to the point that you become crazy enough to end your life... and once you go back, you will feel like seconds as an hour, minutes as a month, hour as a year... you will never be the same again, after all that is tantamount to torture itself... a torture equivalent to eternity"
"... That's bad... really bad" commented by Lilia
"Now that i heard about it, it is bad" added by Shelly
After hearing their words, Kaido then pushed them even more until they realized the graveness of an altered time.
"What's more... even if time is different inside the dungeon from the outside time, the age of your cells would still follow the flow of time on the place where you are currently located... meaning if we stay for too long inside this dungeon, we may all end up as old men and women by the time we got out of the dungeon itself"
Hearing Kaido's words, both Shelly and Lilia panicked a little as they now realized the graveness of the situation. After all for girls looking young is the number one priority of women, almost none of them within their circle would like to look old. Due to that numerous healthcare products were made in accordance to the will of women who doesn't want to look old.
With this, both of them became even more determined to finish this dungeon as quickly as possible for the sake of everyone's age.
Seeing the girls all riled up, Alessandro then approached Kaido as he commented to him through a whisper.
"You really fired them up to finish this dungeon much quicker"
"Well motivation is the key to success" replied by Kaido with a smirk
Now that their age and appearance on the line, everyone then headed deep into the forest, until they finally reached the edge of the fog leading them towards the enemy's base.
Getting to such place wasn't an easy feat. After all the fog gave them quite a hard time from navigating the pathway that they should take to reach the edge of the fog. Truth be told that none of the members of the group are bad in navigating the pathway, much more for Kaido who is basically a human radar. The reason why they got stalled inside the fog for about an hour is because there was some kind of a third force that prevents everyone from navigating the place.
The interruption was so strong that it event hindered Kaido from sensing where they are currently at. At one point Kaido even thought of dispersing the fog by controlling it to disappear within a snap of his fingers, but the moment he did such a thing, the fog itself became clear for a little bit, before it reverted back into its original thickness.
Upon seeing such a phenomenon, Kaido then quickly analyzed the fog and noticed that the very fog itself wasn't natural at all. The fog itself was mixed between natural nature element, mana, and a third unknown force. It's easy for him to deal with the natural nature element, after all such property isn't that quite different from earth and some unknown variables are already learned by him after staying for quite awhile in this world, the only problem is the mana mixed in the air which he is not proficient with and the unknown third force that even he cant identify despite his knowledge.
With such variables, Kaido then stopped his idea of dispersing the fog, since such an idea wouldn't work at all in this dungeon itself. In the end the have no choice but to rely on Sherry and Alessandro's class and title which consist of hunter and detective of some sort. With those class which is proficient in hunting any type of target no matter the environment, leaving the navigation to them is the most sounding solution there is instead of simply going in blind in the fog.
With that, they finally gotten out of the fog and reached the final stage in the east forest.
The moment they got out, they were greeted with a site of a field filled with huge roots all over the area, seemingly coming from the huge tree much taller and bigger than the tallest tower back on earth. Taking note that due to its size, Kaido and the group were able to see the tree despite being about 100 kilometers away from its base, that just show how tall the tree is and how wide of a n area its encompasses.
But upon seeing the tree, a sudden question rose inside their head as they then begun to ask it among themselves 'If the tree was so tall to the point that they can see it even from a far away distance, how come they didn't saw it at the very moment they entered the dungeon?'. Such question lingered their thoughts which made them inavertedly turned around and peek at the area behind them.
But the moment they did such a thing, they were surprised to see a tall wall of fog behind them which encompasses the area and prevent them from even going back the same way they went in. With such a phenomenon of not letting them go back from the way they came in, there was only one thing that indicates them on which they cant get out of, once they entered the room or a subspace.
*********
You have entered the boss room
Kill the corrupted world tree clear the area to get the reward and exit the room
*********
Aside from Kaido, the rest of the guys received the message which indicates them that they had entered the boss room without even meaning to. With such case then the reason why they cant get out from this room and why the huge tree is hidden from everyone outside of its area of the fog is because they had entered the subspace of a boss, the the outside view is hidden behind the cloak of illusory curtain which prevents anyone from noticing the huge tree poking out from the sea of tress.
Now that they cant leave this place without killing the boss, they then had no choice but to kill the boss and fight their way in to this forests of roots.
But the moment they all took their first step into the territory, multitudes of sentient treants popped out of the roots, as they looked down on the group with hostility in their eyes. In that moment they all knew that once everyone took another step forward, all the enemy monsters would flood to them and prevent them from ever getting to the tree, and the only way they could do that is by killing the outsiders as fast as possible.
Once everyone realized that, all of them then understood the assignment without much words spoken in between them, as the only thing they need is to destroy the tree. With an opening act since this is a subspace that is isolated from the outside, Kaido then sparks embers within his right hand, and lightning within his left hand, as he mixed them both together before releasing huge tsunami wave of lightning flames towards the surrounding enemy which burned and decimated a huge area in front of them.
With such a violent flame being flooded into the forest of roots, its destructiveness then burned the treant that got caught by the attacks, as the roots then turned into coal just from its heat alone. Once the flames died down, the once huge chunk of an area of roots were then replaced by a scorched earth which gave a huge hole on the defenses of the treants themselves.
With such an opening everyone then quickly ran forward as they all rushed towards the base of the corrupted world tree in order to cut it down and end this scenario. Taking the lead, Shelly then took command as she gave out orders for everyone in order to fully utilize their capability.
"Lilia you take down anyone that attacks on the left, Alessandro you take the right, Kaido you destroy anyone who blocks our front and make a safe pathway for us to traverse the long distance, and as for me i will take the rear and prevent anyone from sneaking up on us... does everyone understood?"
"I got it! i'll take the left"
"Then i'll take the right"
"Whatever"
With such a spearhead formation, they then charged towards the enemy lines into the forest of enemies itself.