The noise of the Loberaas swirling above the hole was deafening. Paley had to make a decision. Leave everyone up here to fend for themselves or take them into the mortal danger below.
"Paley!" Negie pointed up at the flock of Loberaas. They all stopped whirling around the hole and were now flying towards them at full speed. Paley quickly checked behind them and discovered Bikis cautiously approaching them.
"We have to go in the dungeon!" He shouted over the shrieking Loberaas getting closer with their talons drawn.
"Can you wait a sec? I need to prepare myself." Ott begged, terrified for his life.
"No time for that. Trust me. I will not let anything happen to any of you." Paley put them all under a flight spell and dragged them into the hole with him.
"I trust you, Paleeeeyy!" Libon shouted over the others who were screaming in terror.
The hordes of monsters below dropped the animals they were bringing back and attacked everyone. Though, it was mainly Koldunis that posed a threat to them since they could cast long-range attacks. They cast spells with their staffs and threw sharp icicles at them.
Paley blocked the icicles with a relatively weak barrier as he formulated a plan to deal with the other monsters below, who would tear them apart when they landed. He quickly created a platform of earth below them, not to break their fall but to break the bones of the monsters below.
He stopped everyone's momentum a few meters before they would've hit the ground. The platform landed before them, crushing a dozen monsters into a bloody mess. There were about twenty monsters left in the hole, and many more Liberaas were coming their way from above. The walls down here were pure blue ice instead of pale frozen stone.
"Paley, over there!" Hig pointed to an archway in the side of the hole leading into a cave system. That was probably the entrance to the dungeon. He flew everyone into the archway, barely avoiding the flock of Loberaas' attack and making them all crash into the ground. Though, some of them got back up and chased them into the caves.
The caves were spacious, with dim flames lighting them. There were two lines of monsters, either hauling in food and resources or hauling out waste from excavation and such. It was even colder inside the caves. But not even Paley could use three magics at once and so couldn't stop everyone from nearly freezing to death.
He flew forward with everyone as fast as he could, hoping to find an area without any monsters where they could rest. To avoid the Koldunis' relentless icicles, he flew in long zig-zags, throwing off their already terrible aim.
"Paley! Stalactites ahead!" Ketto shouted. He looked ahead to see long ice stalactites hanging down from the ceiling. If Ketto pointed them out any later, they all would've crashed straight into them and died. Paley managed to weave everyone around the tight clusters of stalactites and continued forward.
"Thanks." He didn't have to shout anymore because the monster numbers were decreasing. They flew at a calmer pace now, taking in their fantastic surroundings. Once there were no monsters in sight, Paley dropped everyone on thick snow and ice next to a wall. They were in a giant cave room with five large columns of dense blue ice around.
Paley heated everyone. Their skin was nearly as pale as his from the freezing temperatures down here. After a few seconds of warming, they returned to their natural color.
"Mother trucker, dude. That hurt like a buttcheek on a stick." Ott rubbed his sore ass. He'd crashed into the wall with it when they landed.
"Let me see." Paley walked over to him, concerned.
"No, no, no. I'm fine. You don't need to check it."
"What're we going to do?" Homar asked
"I don't know. But whatever we do, we have to do it quickly." Paley listened to the cries of the monsters in the distance, "We need a way to get through these caves; find the leader and kill it quickly. Otherwise, we'll never get out of here alive."
A long thin eel-like snake had slithered down as Paley spoke. It had light greyish blue scales and big wet eyes.
"Watch out!" Hig spotted it and blasted it with Air Magic before it could wrap around Paley and shock him to death.
"Thank you, Hig." Paley watched the Sherv jerk around as it died.
"Eugh," Negie felt repulsed by it.
"About finding a way through these caves. I can help with that." Iji stepped forward, "I can draw a map."
"What do you mean?"
"I use- Cartography Magic. So I can draw a map of this entire place." He didn't feel great about telling them he had a lame magic type, "As long as it's not too big." He added.
"Okay, can you do that, then?" Paley asked, showing slight excitement to see a completely new magic type.
"I-I need some pen and paper," Iji said, surprised to see Paley excited over something.
"We don't have any. Can you use anything as long as you can draw on it?"
"Yeah, but it might not be as good."
"That's fine." Hig cut in, "As long as we have a rough idea of where to go, we should be fine, right?" He looked to Paley for confirmation.
"Yes. We should." Paley nodded and created a large sheet of sand to the side, "Here. Your pen and paper." He made a sharp stone stick and gave it to Iji.
"Okay," Iji lodged the stick into the sand and lightly pressed his fingers onto it. "Deen Lesceil. Show me the way to the boss of this dungeon." He said the spell, and his hands and the stick began emitting a faint glow before moving.
Slowly, he drew the map, but he realized about halfway through that the dungeon was too big for his mana to map.
"I don't think I can draw the whole thing." He started breathing heavily, and his eyelids drooped with exhaustion. Paley wanted to try and replicate his magic but decided that would probably hurt Iji's feelings. So, he did the next best thing.
"Let me help you." He crouched down behind him and hugged him. Iji felt a sudden, cold yet warm feeling flood him. Paley was transferring his mana to him. Everyone can transfer their mana to others, but it is exceedingly dangerous because if the receiver's mana rejects yours, then you'll both die instantly.
It was a huge gamble, and maybe it was because Paley was a Quimnia, but it paid off. Iji felt Paley's frightening raging mana; it bought a feeling of great power as well as great dread. He ignored the terrifying feeling and proceeded to draw up a map of the entire dungeon.
He split it into five sections ordered in a column. The sections represented layers, the top layer being the highest one, the one they were in right now. A thin line marked the path they needed to take inside the caves, but Paley couldn't memorize it in just a few minutes.
He could now feel the ground shake from the swarms of monsters looking for them. The boss room was in the lowest layer. So he just planned to keep going until he eventually reached it. Their time had run out; a few monsters came into the room and spotted them.
"Let's go," Paley took everyone into flight without warning, and they all started screaming again. He flew clumsily and anxiously because he had no idea where to go. The caves split and twisted so much he thought he got lost already.
Until a strange yet pleasantly familiar voice called out to him.
"This way." It seemed to echo in his head. He briefly stopped flying and looked at the others. They hadn't heard the voice. As the monsters started to catch up, he continued flying, though not in the direction he felt the voice tell him.
"I said this way!" The voice suddenly yelled, frustrated. Paley corrected himself and flew forward with great confidence. It didn't speak again, but he felt like he was flying and taking all the right turns.
"If only we had more time. I could've memorized the path for you." Tugas held onto his glasses as Paley dragged him along with his flight spell.
"It's alright. I know where to go." Paley navigated through the caves perfectly, taking them down the five layers the map detailed. It grew colder and colder. The glowing blue ice around them became white ice, barely lit by the occasional torch.
Everyone was shivering intensely from the icy temperature. Paley felt guilty. He was freezing too, but it didn't seem to affect him as much as the others. The caves grew in size as they arrived at the doors that led to the boss room.
They were two huge open doors and beyond them was a gigantic bear, about thirty meters tall. It was called an Arkuda, and Paley could already tell that it was a tier III monster from its enormous mana presence. It had thick greyish cyan fur and black eyes with glowing blue irises.
Inside the tight grip of its paw, a woman was flailing helplessly, screaming and biting at the bear's paw.
"Let me go! Someone! Help me! Please help me!" She cried out.
Paley landed everyone and activated Lightning Magic, bolting forward with incredible speed. He entered the boss room, a spherical room with blue ice walls. On the sides, there were piles of animal and human bones. As the Arkuda opened its mouth to eat the woman, Paley slashed its wrist with a blade of rock covered in fire.
It let go of the woman for a brief moment, enough for Paley to snatch her up and bring her back to the others. When he was in the air, he spotted a few people on the other side of the bear, guarded by lesser ice monsters.
"Help us!" A man yelled and revealed himself.
"That's Ferhund, Paley!" Hig shouted, but Paley was already sprinting at full speed toward them. The Arkuda slammed its paw down, but he dodged around it and continued running.
The monsters guarding the people tried to stand in his way, but he just fried their heads and picked them all up. There were only eight people left there; the bear had eaten the rest.
Paley dropped them off at the others. One of the women grabbed at his shirt.
"It took my son!" She cried, "It took my son..." She fell to her knees, still holding onto Paley's shirt. "Kill it!" She demanded angrily.
"I kind of have to." Paley walked toward the bear, ready to fight.