Chapter 554: Caught In a Sea of Flames (2)
"Those damnable magical flames, those damnable adventurers, that- THAT DAMNABLE DUNGEON CORE! WHO DESIGNS A SEA OF FLAMABLE MAGIC GRASS!?" Having just escaped through the magical flames after losing half her life in the process, the necromancer stood on top of her now completely black bone construct yelling out filled with anger.
Just looking back down at the charred state of the formerly pristine white bones of her now black colored bone construct filled her with even more anger as she yelled out another string of curses directed towards the dungeon core and the adventurers behind the prairie fire that had swept through the sea of tall grass and consumed any of the monster who hadn’t managed to escape from the magical flames in time.
Of course, her anger wasn’t just because her skeleton was now charred black and showed no signs of its former glory but instead had to do with the fact that the magical flames had directly damaged the internal magic inscriptions hidden within the bones of the bone construct and allowed it to exert strength above the SS Rank.
In its current state, although its strength could still be considered to have surpassed the SS Rank, it wasn’t in any way shape of form comparable to what it had been capable of doing before.
For one, if she ended up fighting the mist serpent again, the mist serpent wouldn’t need more than a few minutes to dismantle the bone construct. Not at all like before where the bone construct could fight equally against the mist serpent.
But worse than another potential clash with the mist serpent she doubted had survived the expansion of the dungeon, she was far more worried about the adventurers who had forced her into her current state and ended up weakening her bone construct permanently by such a large margin. After all, in her eyes, this entire situation was because the adventurers had already set her up earlier using the unique environment, something she became fully convinced of after seeing how they had seemingly already prepared a way out for themselves by escaping underground.
In other words, to her, the fire vortex that had been thrown towards her was a trap they had specifically designed for her. Having her break the fire vortex apart and having the cinders and smaller flames scatter all around her to fully encircle her.
Even worse, to ensure she had no way to escape from the deadly trap, those damnable adventurers had even stayed behind pretending not to know about the danger of the magical flames closing in on them. Making her lower her guard and not pay too much attention to the approaching flames.
The blue color of the flames might have aroused some suspicion normally, but a unique colored flame wasn’t exactly uncommon and was just something she had attributed to the tall grass being a bit unique compared to normal tall grass.
Only when the flames had gotten too close for her not to notice had one of those damnable adventurers yelled out loudly like she was panicking. Drawing her attention away for another few seconds once again, while allowing the magical flames to draw even closer. Another vile trick from the adventurers to draw her attention away from the deadly situation she had found herself in.
"Curse them all! I swear I will make sure they regret making an enemy of me! Just you wait, the Eternal Life Sanctum will make sure to reduce this little city outside to rubble and bury you along with it!"
Having already given up on advancing to become a lich and claiming the undead kingdom within the Swirling Sands Dungeon for herself after the magical flames destroyed her most powerful trump card, she was fully intent on ensuring these adventurers wouldn’t make it out of the Swirling Sands dungeon alive. Already planning to hand over the information of the undead kingdom to the higher ups within the Eternal Life Sanctum and having them mobilize for the dungeon before the Adventurers Guild had the chance to react.
Although she knew the changes within the dungeon should already have drawn over a senior whose strength surpassed the SS Rank, she also understood this person alone would be far from enough to stop the Eternal Life Sanctum.
If she managed to get out and inform her superiors about the situation and they moved to secure the area before the guild had time to properly mobilize, everything would be fine.
Now... The main problem was finding the way out of the dungeon, something that was far from simple and involved its own slew of problems. Still, it was at least better than not having any goals or trying to claim the undead kingdom inside the dungeon for herself. After all, though that had been her original goal, it was one that was far more difficult than simply contacting those above her and having them deal with the situation.
...
"Wooo! Look at those flames! Damn terrifying!"
"Indeed... I wonder if that necromancer managed to escape. After all, the intensity of these magical flames should be more than powerful enough to kill someone above the SS Rank if exposed long enough. Not to mention, the necromancer hasn’t surpassed the SS Rank and relies entirely on that bone construct..."
"True, but those necromancers are the hardest to kill. My guess is that the bone construct ended up taking the brunt of it during the escape, but the necromancer is fine."
"My guess as well, necromancers are close to impossible to kill at the level, but that bone construct should have sustained some permanent damage being exposed to those magical flames. It won’t be surprising if its strength fell below the S Rank if exposed long enough."
Having just barely escaped from the deadly magical flames now raging above them, the group of adventurers were happily chatting about the unfortunate fate of the necromancer and her bone construct as they sat a few dozen meters from the entrance they had dived through earlier while watching the magical flames raging outside without any sign of stopping any time soon.
"I don’t think those magical flames are going to go out any time soon... Maybe we should think about heading deeper inside before they melt through the ground above us and bury us alive." And after a few minutes of conversation about the necromancer while watching the blue flames raging outside, one of the adventurers finally stepped forward and informed the rest while pointing up at the rocky cave ceiling above them that had already turned red hot from the magical flames raging above.
Of course, it wasn’t just the fact that the ceiling above them was starting to melt, but also the fact that the heat inside the cave had already become unbearable to the few mages and would soon reach the point where they could no longer endure and ended up fainting from the heat.
"That... I forgot not everyone has fire resistance... My bad..." Only now realizing that one of the mages looked like she was about to keel over at any second, the leader smiled somewhat wryly as he said this before motioning for everyone to start moving deeper into the cave system, they had ended up stumbling their way inside during their escape from the magical flames.
The main reason why exploration had been put on hold after getting a few dozen meters inside mainly having to do with him wanting to wait for the flames outside to die down before leaving to search for the necromancer who should have ended up severely weakened state after being caught in the magical flames.
Unfortunately, the magical flames outside were truly magical and showed no signs of stopping as they continued ragging outside.
On the contrary, they didn’t just show no signs of stopping but also showed signs of absorbing the ambient mana in the air to fuel themselves. Although it wasn’t to the point where the flames could spread wantonly throughout the entire ninth floor of the dungeon, it was clear that the mana absorbed by the magical flames was more than enough to sustain them.
In fact, it had reached an eerie balance that seemed to allow them to continue burning without end forever without any outside intervention.
This kind of situation was undoubtedly a plan laid out by the dungeon core to seal any passages to the underground world where the dungeon core had sealed itself away. After all, though the flames were terrifying, they could be crossed. The fact that the caves leading down to the underground world existed within this sea of flames that had formed was a coincidence that just so happened to make it close to impossible to enter the underground world where the dungeon core existed. After all, one wouldn’t just have to brave the sea of magical flames but also had to search for barely visible caves that would have melted beyond recognition.
Still, as a passage had to exist somewhere leading to the dungeon core, some of the caves had undoubtedly been made from heat resistant rocks and other minerals. Unfortunately, the cave they found themselves inside wasn’t one such cave...