They decided to skip past Peddle Town and went straight to the Trinity Mountain to see what they could learn about the dungeon. It was large, built along side the mountain, as they entered the town, it was massive, the buildings were large and made of a solid stone rather than bricks, and there were lots of stairs that led up the mountain to other parts of the city. This was their first time seeing another race in this world, that being the Harpies who lived hire up on the mountains, they could be seen flying around the top, some flying from the top of the town to the bottom to deliver packages to people. The stone of the town was a shimmering white and the buildings were similar, others were green and from a distance it looked as though they faded into the mountain a bit. They had a statue in the middle of the lower town of one of the heroes of old, that helped seal away the evil king from so long ago.
After getting over the beauty of the town and the size of it, they decided to split up and start asking around about the dungeon. But it didn't really take all that long, as all the people in town knew of what they were speaking of and gave them a lot of information about it, including rumors of what was inside. This was all very strange to the group, as the King made it seem as though information on it was hard to find, they weren't sure if he was simply playing them, if he didn't want to help, really they weren't sure of his motives but it put them all on edge. That feeling got worse as they recalled the nights events and realized that there were no knights in the city helping when the Legion attacked, it made them all wonder exactly who the King was and why he seemed so shady.
"Are we thinking classic villain king?" Art asked around as everyone nodded.
"What else could it be, I mean, maybe that's how they actually found us and that rat guy was just trying to capitalize by giving them an exact location." Fenix let out a shaky breath as he thought about that.
"Maybe that's how the story plays out, maybe he is a part of Legion." A shrug from Vixen, not really caring either way.
"No, if it was him, wouldn't he have taken the seal from us then?" Razah made a good point which confused the group more as they looked around and realized that people were starting to stare as they randomly huddled up in the middle of town, blocking the lower staircase to the second level of the city, forcing people to squeeze past them. There eyes got wide and they broke up and started walking.
"We should find an in and rest and go over all of the information we got about the next dungeon, see if anything matches up." Vixen looked around and realized she hadn't seen an inn anywhere. They decided to stop and ask a random person who happened to be walking by who told them that the Inn could be found at the third and fifth level of the town. Meekle and Razah looked up the others dreading the thought of climbing so far. It wouldn't be an easy climb and to get to the top, the six level of town most people would take two days to get all the way down. So they just started climbing, the sun already low in the sky and them very tired as they dragged their bodies up each step, holding the railing and almost having to pull themselves.
As they made it up to the third floor, their chests kept rising and falling fast as they tried to get air in them, there eyes half opened and their arms slinking to the floor as they saw one light on through the town, it was hard to see much else, with how dark it got, even with the moons in the sky they had tunnel vision as they all walked like zombies to the light that shined over the sign that said Inn, in big letters. The door opened, letting off the sound of a bell, through the small cozy entrance, it had nice hard wood floors and lovely purple plants growing around the place, giving off a calming and sweet sent that made them all feel like passing right out. The room itself had got more expensive as they learned from the kind older man at the front desk, as he set the key to their one room on the desk, they were all to fond of sharing a room at this point and if it saved them on coin they were all to happy to do it.
Again there were three beds set up, as if by magic they knew just how many people were in their party and how they would arrange to sleep. Something that really didn't cross their minds, but inside the floors were nice and cool, while the air was filled once more with that sweet sent and the beds were softer than any other they had felt, the blankets and pillows filled with feathers that gave a soft cloud like feeling to each of them as they quickly fell asleep.
As morning came, so did the song that played each morning at sun rise, waking them from their sleep, but with it a knock came to the door and as they opened it slowly their was a large tray with six full meals set on it for them.
"Well, at least we know why the Inn got more expensive this time." Vixen pulled in the try and smiled as they all gathered around to eat.
"Totally worth the extra coin." Meekles mouth full of food as he blurted out his sentence. The food of this world always tasted so good to them, they wondered just how the AI system was able to transfer it into real energy and create the actual flavors, for that matter how it made the smells and everything else so real. They all looked at Fenix for a moment and then shook their heads.
"Never mind, please it is to early to start hearing that." Meekle was to busy enjoying his food to want to be brought down by Fenix's tech talk. The rest agreed, though Art's brow rose to the thought and figured he could always ask him later when the rest weren't around, or if he just really wanted to get on their nerves, a soft laughed came over him as he covered his mouth so that he wouldn't lose food. Vixen and Razah's eyes squinted at him and their eyebrows narrowed as they had at least some idea of what he was thinking, what went through their minds will be left up to your imagination.
"So we found out just by talking to people that the dungeon is actually at the top of the city and there is a special way to get inside right?" Vixen wanted to make sure they were all on the same page.
"Yeah, they said that the two moons align in the sky and its so bright and it will shine on the door, opening it for a few minutes and that's when people can enter." Art still talking through his food, his hand hovering over his mouth.
"There was talk about demons and evil Dwarves dwelling inside." Tophuu joined into the conversation.
"I heard that it was giant bats and vampires that were inside." Razah put her fingers next to her mouth, trying to imitate a set of fangs. Which made Art and Fenix start to chuckle as the others tried to act a bit more serious about it all.
"So we know where it is and how to get in. The real issue is it doesn't really sound like anyone knows what is actually inside." Meekle held his laughter back well enough to get out a full sentence.
"Right, so the next thing we should find out is when the moons are going to align again so that we can be ready for it." Vixen was quickly answered by Art.
"The elder lady that I talked to said it is two weeks from now. I guess its a pretty big thing around here, they all party and set off fire works, apparently they look amazing in the moonlight." It was a shame they wouldn't be able to see it, they all took note of it, so that they could one day come back and see this festival that the people through.
With that, they knew just what they had to do, it was time to train as much as they could, the Legion was so strong and they didn't want to admit how bad it would have been if Ana didn't make them run away or if they got trapped under ground with them. So they trained hard, finding monsters in the wild to fight against. This time they all went their own ways, decided it would be best to grind out some levels on their own, some went to the beach, others went to the mountain tops, via the harpies who were more than happy to fly them up, for a price. The harpies in this world were quite friendly and seemed mostly interested in money, with their ability to travel quick and higher they were often the delivery system to much of the area in this kingdom, they couldn't fly over seas as they needed time to rest and it was dangerous to head out into open waters.
Near the ocean there were lots of monsters that came up onto the land, some where shark humanoids as well as whale like humanoids, usually holding anchors on ropes and occasionally holding some sword or other weapon made of wreckage of a boat. Art trained often here, he wasn't always able to win but it taught him when he should run away and when he could push on. After some time he obtained one of the swords which was a Coral Sword, strong but odd looking, it was pink in color and put out better damage than any sword he had, it was quite a rare find for him.
The others fought along the same area, other than Tophuu and Fenix who wanted to try out the monsters on the mountain, one called the ShellBoar, large boar with a turtle shells on their backs. They were tough and hit hard and a rarer monster that showed up that both of them had to run from a few times was a tiger with a large t-rex head on it, its spine was rippled and grew out into a large tail as well, its roar would echo through the mountain and it was quite fast. A few times it almost threw them clean off the mountain top. Tophuu had obtained turtle shell armor from the ShellBoar and Fenix gained boar shoulder armor, as well as a sash that strapped to his chest from both shoulders and wrapped around his back. Thanks to the Harpies they were always caught when they had to get off the mountain, as they knew of the beast and didn't leave anyone alone on top of the mountain.
Finally the weeks had passed and they were all set, their levels grown and their skills along with it. They found themselves at the top of the mountain, just above the top floor was what looked like a shrine, an alter with an orb stood and behind it the door to the next dungeon. They sat, waiting for the moons to rise, once it did the moons shined together, making a blue light that shot to the orb, the ground lit in carving, like the bluest water you had ever seen was filling each piece of this carving and it ran all through the floor and up the door. Once it filled the door opened, sliding up and revealing a path, a few steps down and then a long hall that led them to a large opening, There was walk ways and a bridge that formed and leg to a large castle in the mountain, once standing tall on top of the mountain, but through some for of magic was now hidden inside of it.
The castle was beautiful, covered in black stone and vines and moss grew all over it, as though it was untouched for some time. Gargoyle statues lined the top of it and what looked like a large garden grew on both sides of it, covered in plant live that seemed to me moving around, event with how far away they still were. The bridge was old and the wood was weak, they all walked across as slowly as they could, but Tophuu still finding his way to have fun, jumped from one plank to the other, skipping over the middle ones. As he hit one a cracking noise sounded and he fell through, panic rushed through all of them as they heard Tophuu scream, then nothing, it went silent.
"Woah, that was weird." Tophuu standing at the beginning of the bridge once more, his body was blinking, as though he was turning solid and then to transparent over and over till he finally solidified. All of them watched in confusion as he laughed a bit about the weird feeling he had.
"You scared us man." Meekle's voice rose with a bit of rasp to it, as though he was about to start crying.
"Interesting, it would seem a large fall does not kill us, but it most likely takes some health away from us, explaining the blinking. Like going through a teleport at the end of the dungeon he appeared back at the start of the bridge, so he has to complete it to actually get past. We all got lucky enough to miss the spaces." Fenix was more interested in how it worked and how they got him back to the top, just like a video game would but still, he wondered if it was that way for all falls or if this one was simply because their was nothing down their.
"Who cares Fenix. Tophuu you need to be careful coming across this time. No jumping around." Vixen wasn't sure she could take other scare like that. None of them considered what would happen if they were to fall off something like that.
Tophuu made it across this time and they headed towards the castle and were quickly attacked by large plant monsters, they walked along the floor using vines like an octopus would and it stood three feet tall, some taller at four feet. They had different and very vibrant colors to them, their peddles lined with teeth, they seemed to be able to open and close them at any time, like a flower blooming and then reversing the bloom to close itself. The bigger ones had a pink vine that fell from the middle of the flower peddles, like a tongue hanging from a dogs mouth.
"I am so glad we stalked up on those antidotes before we came in here." Razah stepped back as more and more started coming from the gardens.
"Just try and keep distance and not let them bite you." Vixen readied her bow but with her words one of the flower monsters spit out a ball of green that flew through the air and hit her, her skin tinted and bits of smoke coming off of her as she started feeling sick.
"Guess it wont be that easy this time." Art's empty hand reached out and a sword appeared to him like magic, it was the sword he held before the Coral sword and he was ready to fight as he swung the swords around doing small combos, making leaves fly around off the plant and turn digital. He ended it with a shout, "Dragon Claw." His swords slashed, crossing them together and leaving dragon like scratches all over the plant before it fell to digital squares.
They had powered up quite a bit to prep themselves for this dungeon and the Legion, giving them all much more power and ability to fight off these plants with much more ease than they expected. Seeing how easy it was they decided to just clear the whole area on the outside of the castle, splitting up and taking the chance to grind on some more monsters that seemed to be easy enough. Art, Razah and Tophuu going one way and Vixen, Fenix and Meekle going the other way seemed like the quickest way, they split and started attacking at the plants, losing view of one another every now and again.
Art was going along, as he was seeing less and less of them, as though they were running from them or something, or they had just got rid of enough of them they were few and far between. As he walked along he stepped and heard a creaking, before he could move he fell into a cellar door, that would have led to a long hallway, but in front of him was a large plant person, vines fell from her and her skin was a light green, with her hair a much darker green. Her vines filled the area and Art barely got out a slight scream before he was wrapped in her vines and dragged away. Razah just barely heard it as she ran in that direction looking for him.
"Art, where are you?" Her voice getting louder with each call, till she had got everyone's attention and they all rushed over looking for him. Fenix found the hole in the ground and though they looked in, it seemed as though it led to no where.
"What is happening? These doesn't feel right." Meekle's hand wrapped over his stomach as his nerves started making him feel sick, all of them wondering where Art could be in this moment.
"Do not worry so much." A voice sounded from above them, as three long legs made their way over the wall, revealing a large spider figure that started creeping over. The group pulled their weapons out and aimed at it as it simple made a laughing noise.
"Wait, that is the spider from before, from the labyrinth." Fenix stepped forward looking at it, making sure he was correct in his assumption.
"That would be correct. I have been watching you all, ever sense you left the labyrinth, you are all very interesting creatures. Most would have raided my nest and taken what they wanted from it. But you all walked away." It almost seemed like this spider was happy and smiling at them, but really it just looked to them like she was hungry and about to eat them.
"So, why shouldn't we worry?" Vixen's voice was shaking as she tried to step closer to the spider.
"He was taken, yes, but you can get him back. The one who took him, she is the queen of plants and rules over this castle." It seemed so simple but still made them nervous. "You see, when she finds something or someone she likes, she will take them." None of them wanted to imagine just what that meant but they were thankful for the knowledge.
"Why are you helping us?" Fenix asked, very upfront about it, while the others didn't seem to really care, he was curious.
"It has been quite a long time sense I was entertained and you all seem like you would be fun to play with one day." A laughing noise escaped the spider once more as it crawled away, "I will see you around." It said in an ominous tone as it vanished into the darkness of the mountain. None of them sure how it even got in, they feel they would have noticed it following them.
It was no time to think much on that, some of them just thankful that Art wasn't there or they may have never got the answers they needed. They rushed the castle doors, breaking them open and looking around, the inside was as covered in plant life as the outside, even more monsters around and much larger ones as well. The castle seemed very confusing, having an upstairs and many doors all throughout the place, they started with the top floor, thinking it would make it easier to find him, but some of the rooms were locked. Those that weren't had large monsters that rushed them, shoving them back and making them fall to the ground below, back in the main room they faced off with this beast, that looked like a giant frog with a flower attached to its head.
Fenix rushed it, being the front man now that Art was gone and Tophuu backed him up, having better defense with the turtle armor he was wearing. The others stayed back casting spells. He was going down as easy as the others but with some work from them all they were able to beat it back and win the battle. Vixen was able to make flame arrows that did extra damage to it and helped a lot in the fight, Razah's magic coming in just as handy though still at a slow pace and not ready to use her new skills but those that she had didn't seem to take away as much magic as it did before.
Once the flower frog digitized they went back to the room to see what it was guarding, it seemed to be a normal room, however as they searched for a key of some sort Fenix accidentally pulled pulled on a book that flipped the bookcase around and opened up a large path way for him. He flipped it once more, everyone watching and waiting.
"Man, can you not do that, we just lost Art, we don't need to lose you too." Meekle gave him a loving shove to the arm.
"Yeah, sorry about that but you need to see this." They all gathered as he pulled the book again, they followed the path. It didn't go to far before they turned a corner and then a longer hall that turned and looked the same as the entrance, when they got to the end there was a switch on the floor that they stepped on and flipped them around, they found themselves in one of the locked rooms, it was empty, except for a pedestal in the middle of the room that had a stone slab laying on it. It looked broken at both edges and they were curious as to why this was. The door that was once locked made a click sound and the door cracked open for them.
"It would seem that we have to find these slabs for something. But the door unlocked when we found it so we don't have to keep going in circles." Fenix was interested to what the slabs went to as he exited the room and looked around. There were many long halls that led away from the main room but the one that stood right across from the entrance was much larger than the rest.
"Why don't we go check it out, yeah?" Vixen started down the stairs, it seemed that the whole hall was covered in vines, making it much darker, a light from the other side and their side was all that lit the way. They slowly started moving along the wall, as they got farther into the hall there was a large hole in the ceiling, Vixen was the first to try and step past it, a large plant bulb falling down as its jaw ripped open and was about to eat her. Fenix pushed her out of the way, leaving her on the other side alone.
"We will have to time it and be quick about it." He watched as it went back up, it seemed to not have eyes and only went by sense, the vines all over must connect to it some how. Fenix rolled across as fast as he could, the plant shooting back down to try and catch him but just barely missing, with that the rest didn't feel so sure, Vixen and Fenix were the two fastest in the party and they started backing up.
"Why don't you two take the slab and see where it goes to and we will start looking for the others?" Meekle gave out a good plan, really they just didn't want to cross the plant. Not thinking that sooner or later they would have to anyways. Still they split up, Fenix and Vixen doing away with the plant monsters on that side of it all, though it took a little more for these ones and they had to use a few antidotes to get by, they still did well and soon came to a circular room that stood tall, in the middle was a round pedestal that sank in at the top, it looked as though it was missing a piece, in front of it was a large opening that had a blue tinted glass wall in front of it, it seemed to be blocking their way.
"Interesting, some type of magic to keep people out. It looks as though not only can magic be used but it can be held in objects to create barriers. I wonder what other things it could do, such as magical weapons. If that is so, then there is no real limit to the magical items we could find or come across."
"Fenix, please don't nerd out on me right now. We have bigger things to worry about, like finding Art before something bad happens to him."
"You are right, I got carried away. I am sure he is fine, he did a lot of training, maybe he already beat the boss by himself." This helped calm Vixen, though she didn't think it true, she could only imagine the face Art would have on when they found him if he did beat it by himself.
The others went to another of the unlocked rooms, this time there was no monster guarding it, which made them nervous but still, they took a few steps inside and the floor started shaking, tiles fell from under them. Their eyes opened wide, looking under them as they started running across the room towards the bookshelf, not having time as the floor fell more and more. Tophuu summoned his new ShellBoar that slammed into the shell and they all jumped in behind it, the ShellBoar being recalled in a matter of moments as Tophuu hung onto the side. Razah and Meekle grabbed his arms and pulled him up quickly.
"That was close. Why would anyone have a falling floor, it makes no sense." Razah looked over the edge as she spoke and her eyes squinted as she looked down. "It looks like there is something moving around down there." They didn't stay to find out as they rushed through the halls, fearing they would start to fall too and into one of the other locked doors, this one matching the last exactly.
They gained the second slab needed and headed out the door that was now unlocked for them and took a deep breath. That seemed to be the two locked rooms on each side, though it didn't add up as they headed back down the hall and shouted out to Vixen and Fenix.
"We got the other one." Meekle kept a good distance from the monster flower and tossed the slab across."
"Great, what about the other two?" Fenix waited for a reply as it went silent.
"There are more?" Tophuu asked before they all dropped their heads and turned around to keep looking. Fenix added the slab, now making up half of it that started to look like some kind of coin, with a hole in the middle of it, this was what Fenix was focused on, unsure of why there would be that piece missing.
The others started checking the downstairs rooms finally, having been solely focused on finding the other piece and hoping it was only that one last one. All the rooms seemed empty, making them all confused, they split up and started searching even more so, but still they were finding nothing.
"Maybe its just to dark." Tophuu started lighting up the torches in the main room, a total of three on each wall, "Magic flint is awesome." He said as he continued, after lighting the last one the chandelier that hung high up at the top of the main room started lowering, on top of it were two chests.
"This didn't go so well last time we opened a chest." Razah poked at it with her rod but nothing seemed to happen.
"Well, lets just open it and hope for the best, besides that one was just laying around, these came down after lighting the torches." Meekle gave a confused look at Tophuu, wondering if he knew it would do something or if he simply got lucky, they might never find that out though. They opened the chests, slowly and with caution to find the other two slabs inside. The whole time they were Tophuu was dancing around the chandelier, happy he had found them.
"Lets get these back to the others and try and find some way past the plant monsters." Meekle turned and looked down the hall and took a deep breath. They headed down and tossed the other two pieces across and when added the shimmering glass door did nothing, as though they were missing a piece.
"You didn't happen to come across a small circle piece did you?" Fenix asked as his finger pressed against the hole that was left. None of them knew what he was talking about and it seemed as though it would be to hard to find something so small.
"What if and I hate to say it, but what if the monster has it." Fenix turned and looked down the hall at all of them, none of them seemed excited to try and fight a giant plant monster that hid in a wall.
"Maybe this wont be as hard as it seems." Razah started chanting her small sun spell, but the chant kept going, making the sun bigger. Vixen caught on and readied a fire arrow and Meekle began to use his curses to give them strength. Meekle still finding it odd that he could curse them to power them up, his new spells worried him even more but he was excited to try them out.
Razah released the suns and Vixen took the chance to make it a combo as she shot off arrow after arrow. A roar came from the ceiling as digital blocks fell from the whole over and over, the fire magic leaving it burned, making it do damage over time and letting it simply lose to that rather than trying to get it to come out, only to be able to hit it a few times as it went back up. Finally after the blocks stopped falling an orb fell out and Fenix smiled and grabbed it, rushing back and placing it in the center. The door turned a bright blue before it broke apart and the glass shot everywhere, it seemed to pass right through them and fade away as if it was never there.
They rushed down the hall that led to a large room with a throne at the far end and a pit in the middle of it. On the throne sat the plant queen who glared at them.
"Uninvited guests. With the nerve to just barge in and ruin my show." She hissed at them and soon the would hear Arts voice, it sounded like he was fighting.
"Art, are you okay?" Vixen rushed to the edge and looked over, he was trapped in their with a bear like creature, but its whole head covered up by a flower that seemed to be attached to it.
"I have been better." He laughed a bit as he continued to fight off the rather large bear. They went to jump in but were quickly stopped by large vines.
"No, no, that would be breaking the rules." The queen said as she lashed at them with her vines. The boss continued as flowers opened up all along her vines and started releasing some powder into the air. They tried to avoid it but it was everywhere at this point and it made it hard for them to speak, their tongues went numb and this was a problem, effecting Razah and Meekle the most, keeping them from being able to do any magic as if they were silenced.
The plant queen cackled at them as her vines continued to whip them, making roll up into balls and try and protect themselves. Tophuu tried to summon his beasts but with out some way to say which he was summoning he was having a harder time than he thought. Vixen started running for it, placing down traps as she ran around the pit and fired a few arrows off at the queen who blocked them with large vines that picked up off the floor. As the vines moved over the traps small explosions went off, she had set some kind of bomb that cleared the air so they would stop being silenced, but without something to heal them they were unable to stop the effect it had on them.
"Wolf fang slash." Could be heard through the room as Art slashed at the queen, catching her off guard as she was hit with blow after blow from Arts swords. Back in the bit all that was left here was the digital remains of the bear monster. He rushed her again, "Vixen now." One of the arrows that laid at the queens feet lit up, it had a trap placed on it as it caught fire and soon took over the queens body. Art rushed in and did a massive combo of attacks. "Secret art, slashing winds." His sword moved over and over as if a whirlwind took her over, making the flames rise around her more and covering her till a burst of digital blocks burst out and left nothing.
They had finished the queen and got Art back, though they were all pretty beat up as the gathered, there was no light on the floor this time, no seal either. As the blocks faded a shaking started and the sound of grinding bricks started to echo through the room. Where the throne originally sat there was now a set of stairs leading down.
"Looks like that wasn't the real boss?" Fenix tried to get up but stumbled around as he took a large amount of the blows from earlier to help protect Razah from them.
"So then she was just a mini boss?" Art downed a potion and started healing up as he stepped towards the new path. "No one said it would be easy right." He laughed a bit, feeling bad that he must have had them all worried. They all quickly tackled him in one big group hug, showing how thankful they were that he was okay.