Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
---Dungeon Floor 67...
Walking atop dozens of feet of snow. Yang keeps everyone on the surface with his Water Walking as they shuffle along.
Their pace was slower than ever, cautious of the unknown.
The ice storm they'd been facing for three floors now wasn't even trying to be subtle anymore. Intense winds, almost like that of a hurricane. Flakes of sleet mixed in with the snow being hurled through the air.
Yang grinds his teeth and furrows his brows. Frustrated at the little progress they'd made that week.
Every day his headache grew more and more. He felt as if his mind was trying to tear itself in two and crawl out of his skull.
At the edge of the warmth zone, barely 10m around him in every direction, a screen of white was all they could see.
Snow battered against it and fell to the ground as water if it didn't evaporate.
They could see nothing past this border therefore they had no choice but to move slowly from chamber to chamber.
Taking a deep breath he squeezes his eyes shut, trying and failing to will the pain away once more.
"Hey, you ok?" Thalie asks. Quickening her pace to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, Welf matching her on his other side.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just sick of all this snow..."
"I think we should stop, you look like you need some rest," she says. Noticing the bags forming under his eyes was easy enough. His slumped shoulder and difficulty focusing only growing more and more as they went further.
"We've already been walking for 14 hours today," Welf points out. "Let's make camp and get some rest."
"Yeah, I guess we can turn in early today. Let's get to the end of this area and find a spot," Yang says. Stopping to take a deep breath as he massages his temple.
Not too long after, with Yang's consciousness very slowly but surely slipping away, Thalie has to be the one to stay sharp for all of them.
"Wait," she holds her spear horizontally across Welf and Yang's chests, stopping them from walking.
"Huh?" Yang gives her a confused look, not sure what's going on.
Welf doesn't speak, only drawing his sword and immediately igniting it.
Thalie points forward, only a few meters away from them the snow is becoming steam. A dull red glow emanates from the now-forming hole in the ground.
"Oh," Yang withdraws his weapon from his inventory, holding the axe on his shoulder ready to act. His eyes now wide awake, still fighting the searing pain in his head.
"What...is that?" Welf asks, a disgusted look on his face as a massive blue centipede monster rises from the snow.
Rising up to easily 20 ft high. With a body covered in blue scales, 50ft long with dozens of legs below it. Large spikes protruding outward from its back with a row of red glowing spines running down the middle of its back from head to tail. Black beady eyes and a mouth that opens up to multiple pincers already motioning as if it were pulling food down its throat.
"Ugh...bugs," Yang shivers at the sight.
"Focus, what is it," Thalie keeps him on track.
"Remorhaz, immune to fire and ice. The body produces a lot of heat so be ready for that."
"Immune to fire, of course," Welf says, groaning at another fire immune monster as he draws the regular adamantite greatsword from his back.
"Let's make this quick," Yang says as he rushes forward.
Breaking into a sprint as four more monsters rise out of the snow behind the first, purple lightning crackles around his body as his Mage Armor flares to life.
Not even two steps later, his vision becomes foggy, a sudden cold hits his face.
Pain like white-hot nails being hammered into his skull wrecks his mind.
"AHHH!" he cries out, tears flowing from his eyes as he clutches his head on the floor.
The moment he fell, his Heat Barrier dropped.
Cold like never before washed over the entire team. Even Yang was feeling it nipping at his skin.
Welf and Thalie each already had frost forming on their bodies as they looked at him in shock. Reeling in pain on the floor.
"Wha---huh?" Welf was a hair from panicked, not sure what the hell was happening.
"You stay with him!" Thalie says before rushing off toward the monsters.
Seeing her disappear into the white screen of snow. Welf can only make out her silhouette against the glowing figures as they fight. Wind and ice pulling at his skin as if it were trying to flay him alive. Small cuts forming as he can feel his body losing against the cold. The muscles in his arms becoming more numb by the second.
"Yang!" he yells out, kneeling down. Sinking a few inches into the snow as he reaches out to check on his friend.
Placing his hand on Yang's shoulder, he doesn't feel the heat that's normally there.
"Shit!" he immediately reaches into his elixir belt within his armor and uncaps the vial, holding it above Yang.
Nothing happens.
Welf's eyes widen as he looks at the vial only to see it completely frozen.
Within only a few seconds of the Heat Barrier being down the storm completely froze their medicine.
Holding out his sword he creates a powerfully flame, strong enough to fight against the cold environment and easily heat the medicine, allowing it to fall onto Yang.
Welf can feel his magic struggling to stay active in this weather, the cold itself was eating his magic and stamina rapidly. For the past three floors, the past weeks they hadn't felt the cold at all. Yang was always between them and the dungeon in this way, always shouldering this burden silently.
A minute later and Yang steadies. The pain subsiding enough for him to at least focus now.
The snow blows violently around them as he forces himself up on one knee to look at Welf, struggling to keep his eyes open.
"You ok man?" Welf asks, not sure what he's supposed to do here.
"Go...help...her," Yang says between deep breaths. Trying to ignore the pain in his head.
Giving him a serious nod Welf rushes off to help Thalie, still worried about Yang but understanding that the man would probably be fine now.
Ten minutes later, Thalie and Welf arrive at Yang's location to see him sitting in the snow clutching his head.
Sitting in a hole so he's somewhat shielded from the harsh winds they both drop down to join him.
Thalie groans causing him to look up at her. Seeing her face slightly iced over and her armor cracked. Welf had similar injuries but his neck was purple from the cold.
Without a word, Yang gets up and gives them another serious look before speaking. "We need to get to the closest wall fast."
Less than an hour later and they've made camp. Two stories high above the ground in a pillar of ice attached to the dungeon wall at the end of the chamber.
Yang lays in the tent on his back. Breathing heavily and holding his throbbing head.
Thalie and Welf are both treating each other with frostbite medicine as they go over their wounds.
"So...what was that all about?" Thalie asks. Frowning as she looks over the cracks and chipped pieces of her full plate armor with Welf.
"Dunno," Yang answers.
"You gonna be ok?"
"Dunno."
"Did the elixir help?"
"Kinda."
"Well," Welf joins the conversation. "Has that happened before? The headaches I mean."
"No, it just. It's been there since this stupid storm got strong. Whatever is causing it is pushing me really hard. It's like fighting a hurricane or something," Yang admits, sounding defeated.
"Yeah my flames were...suppressed, the moment your zone went down it hit me pretty hard. Like fire can't exist here," Welf points out.
"So it's beating down on you and the result is...headaches?" Thalie questions.
"Considering he's fighting a snowstorm, that's pretty good," Welf points out.
Moving a hand to his face Yang withdraws his message ring and holds it up. "Hephaestus."
"What're you doing?" Thalie gives him a concerned look.
"I have no idea what the hell is causing this, so might as well ask a god."
A moment later and the sleepy voice of their goddess answered, frantic and concerned.
"Is everything ok? Why're you calling me? What happened?"
"Relax, Welf is perfectly fine," Thalie says. Speaking loud enough for the goddess to hear.
"That's... I, uh---" Hephaestus wasn't sure what to say to that.
"I'm the problem actually. I think my magic is reacting with some kind of magic ice storm down here and messing with my head. I passed out for a moment mid-fight today," Yang says.
"Uh-huh?"
"Whaddya mean 'uh-huh'?"
"Well, what else?" Hephaestus asks.
"That's it. I was using my magic to protect us as we walk and then that happened."
"Oh ok...no idea," Hephaestus casually says. Not sure what to do in this situation.
"How don't you know. You're a literal god," Yang says. Frustration coming through in his voice.
"Ok, so? Before you three idiots I didn't have any children with Magic so this is all new to me. And maybe you haven't noticed but none of you have normal magic. What am I supposed to do here?" Hephaestus bites back.
"Ugh, just... just get me Freya already."
"Freya?"
"She has two mages second only to Riveria. Maybe she can give me an explanation," Yang explains.
"It's 2 am," Hephaestus reminds him.
"If it's for me she won't mind," Yang reminds her.
Half an hour later Yang's ring pings. Sitting with a bowl of warm soup each Thalie and Welf turn their attention to him as he answers.
"Hi."
"Are you ok!" Freya's erratic and panicked voice sounds out through the tent.
"Yes babe, I'm fine," Yang says.
"Don't you dare lie to me!"
"I'm not lying, I'm already feeling better."
"Hm, if you say so..."
"Stop pouting, I'm fine jeez," Yang rolls his eyes.
"I'm not pouting," Freya bites back.
"Yes she's pouting," Hephaestus immediately snitches on her sister, her voice reaching the ring held so carefully in Freya's hands.
"Sigh, did Hephaestus fill you in already?" Yang asks.
"No, I didn't get a chance, almost lost a finger when she snatched the ring fr---" Hephaestus's voice becomes muffled, what they can only assume is Freya trying to hide her embarrassment and silence the goddess.
"No, I haven't been informed," Freya returns to the stoic goddess she is mostly known as.
"Right...ya know that heat thing I do to keep you warm when it snows?"
"Yes, what about it?"
"I was doing that for a while and I think it reacted badly with this magic ice storm and I passed out for a bit. Serious headaches too, felt like someone was tearing my brain out or something."
"Mhm, did any medicine help you?" Freya asks thoughtfully.
"Just elixirs, Hi-Potions didn't do anything," Yang informs her.
"Mhm... and how many hours a day have you been doing this?"
"18 hours a day for over ten days."
"I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner, quite impressive," Freya muses at the thought.
"What happened?"
"You experienced Mind Down," she says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"But he's still awake," Thalie points out.
"For now. Mind down isn't when your magic actually hits zero, it's when your mind hits zero. That's why it's called mind down not magic down," Freya says.
"And for the people who don't know what that means please," Yang says.
"It means...having no magic doesn't cause mind down. Some weaklings can use all their magic and keep fighting. It's caused by the strain magic puts on your mind. Like building stress over time and every spell keeps stacking more and more stress, that's why the cure is simply sleeping it off," Freya explains.
"And elixirs restore some mental stamina so it helped me out a bit," Yang realizes.
"Exactly. Unlike you, most people can't tell when they're close to mind down so they do one last spell and immediately faint. But you can use magic in such minute amounts that you can slowly reach that threshold... quite interesting."
"So what, I need to sleep it off?"
"Ideally yes. Your mind needs to recover," Freya agrees.
"Fuck...give me a minute," Yang says as he cuts the connection.
"What's the plan?" Thalie asks, seeing the conflicted look on Yang's face.
"Only one thing to do, we head back to Orario," he says.
"Already, we're like one chamber from the end of this floor," Welf points out.
"Even if I was in top form, we can't keep going," Yang looks over to Welf as he explains. "We only have a few more vials of frostbite medicine so in the best case of us miraculously clearing this floor it could cost some fingers or toes at the very least. Plus we'd need to walk maybe 12 hours at most every day from now on. I think it's best we head back to Babel and restock, better safe than sorry."
"Hmm, yeah that makes sense. Losing my fingers would really suck," Welf admits.
"And this is why we aren't the ones in charge of expeditions," Thalie reminds Welf with a light chuckle.
"Hey, babe you there?" Yang asks into his ring once more.
"For you my love...always," her sultry voice answers from the other side.
"Can you just...focus for a minute. We're coming back to Orario. Expedition complete," Yang says.
For a moment complete silence rings through the tent. No response comes from the ring until Hephaestus's voice calls out. "Glad to hear you're all ok. How long until you're back at Babel?"
"Uh... maybe 10 days depending on what spawns in the dungeon," Yang says.
"Alright, stay safe and get back here in one piece," Hephaestus says as she cuts the call.
---Freya's room...
Hephaestus rolls her eye at her sister's antics. The most beautiful and dignified goddess in Orario was currently jumping around on her bed like a child. Excitedly waving her arms around.
"Can you please settle down already..." Hephaestus growls out.
Freya stops. Standing on the bed she looks at Hephaestus with a wide smile.
"He's coming back, this is perfect!" the goddess cheers loudly.
"Yeah, what's the big deal?" Hephaestus asks.
Stepping down from the bed, Freya walks up to her sister and holds her hands. Delicate fingers wrapped around the rougher hands of a blacksmith.
"After basically living with him for a while, my bed is impossible to sleep in. I haven't had a full uninterrupted night of sleep since he left," Freya frowns slightly at the memories.
"You're so dramatic, he's only been gone two months. You slept fine before him."
"Mhm, but once you've had a taste of what the good life is like it's so hard to go back, you'll understand when you drag that Crozzo boy into your bed. Sleeping alone will be torture afterward," Freya explains, earning a bright red blush from her sister.
"I-It's not like that, not at all," Hephaestus feebly defends herself.
"Mhm... you can't even lie to yourself much less me," Freya holds Hephaestus by the shoulder and looks right into her one visible eye, "we're all rooting for you."
"Thank you," Hephaestus says as she pulls Freya into a tight hug.
"Hmph. And you called me the dramatic one..."
"You are the dramatic one," Hephaestus says as she breaks the hug.
"Hey, can I ask you for something, a special item request?" Freya asks.
"Hmm, you've never asked me to personally make you anything...what is it," Hephaestus narrows her eyes at the goddess.
"One of those," Freya points at the message ring on Hephaestus's finger.
"A Message Ring?"
"One that's only connected to one other."
"Uh...if you give Yang a ring he's gonna freak out. And he'll probably be really really annoyed with me for encouraging it," Hephaestus points out.
"If he's going to be in the dungeon his much then I'd like to at least be able to talk to him," Freya says.
"Freya..."
"You get to hear your beloved's voice whenever you want... please?" Freya gives her a pleading smile.
"He's gonna be so mad," Hephaestus says before mischievous grin forms on her face, "give me two weeks..."
END CHAPTER---
Expedition complete! Only like 8 chapters compared to the 30 of the last one. Like I said, the pace is speeding up from here since characters are already set up now :)