As agreed, the party had had a nice meal at the tavern they decided to spend the night at, and after plenty of food was consumed by Rex and Danica, the duo earning quite a few stares of disbelief at the sheer amount of food they could put away, the party retired to their rooms, to rest for the night. Rex and Danica, obviously trained before sleep. They both expended the entirety of their mana pools, either by powering their rune networks to strengthen their bodies, or in Rex case- expanding his space storage. Then, once all of that was done, they did have a little bit of fun before properly retiring for the night. Then, the next morning they had a proper breakfast and once that was dealt with, the group departed the city, the dungeon only a couple minute walk from its walls.
They did run into the old buttler again as they were exiting the gate, the older man bowed and greeted the trio. And, unlike the last night, he was clearly given different orders, as the man went straight to the heart of the matter.
"My master would like to know whether sir Rex has already decided to represent someone in the tournament? If not, he would like to ask for a meeting to where a quest might be issued. He promises quite the generous rewards."
Out of the corner of his eye, Rex noticed the slight flinch Eve made at the mention of the tournament, though he was sure that without his incredibly sharp senses, both physical and ethereal, he would have missed that reaction.
"I am still on the fence about it, besides, I still have a standing quest to be finished before anything new could be considered. If I decide it is worth my time, I will contact your master."
"Understood sir. may fortune favours you." the old butler said as he once again bowed and excused himself, and once the butler was gone, before Eve could speak, Rex added. "As I said beforehand, this quest first, then I will listen to what you have to say."
"Understood." Eve replied, following along with the duo.
The dungeon gate was two, enormous oaks, tilting towards one another, joining together some sixty meters high and forming a passage where the portal block the path in between the two giant trees. Long, long time ago it had served as a landmark separating the lands of two tribes of humans, until the dungeon sprung up, causing a new conflict, resulting in the absolute extermination, or enslavement of the other one. Then, centuries later, the remaining tribe was defeated an absorbed into the kingdom of Sol. The two oaks, forming the gates had only grown larger and larger, oddly enough expanding only outwards, not reducing the size of the gate whatsoever.
"Lets go, shall we?" Rex smiled at the two women with him and after affirmative nods, he took the lead and crossed the gate. And just in case something could go amiss, he extended two blood chains and grabbed ahold of the two women hands. While extremely rare, there were some dungeons that would spit people out at random locations, splitting up parties. This one was not like that, though there were also tales of the same happening to normal dungeons, albeit extremely rarely, so much so that many people even consider it just superstition and nothing else. Still, better safe than sorry and so, with caution he proceeded.
Moments later, the group stood on the other side, a small elevated platform under their feet, and further out, a savanna like fields of mostly grass, with a rare tree every now and then, serving as some sort of a landmark to use for ones orientation. Even from the gate, Rex could clearly see the first few packs of bovine creatures. Much like cows in stature, the creatures were pale grey, with two sets of cow horns, growing from the same base but in both directions, forming a rather odd sight, looking much like a set of horns on both sides. Rex assumed they were extremely impractical, though since the animals were part magical, who knows what additional function said horns fulfilled. Regardless, these creatures were not what they were here for, and thus, moments later, they left the platform and advanced deeper in, following an established path towards their desired area.
A large baobab, the only one in sight from the gate, was their guiding marker as the trio trekked through the waist high yellow-green grass. With his senses on high alert and mana scan active every now and then, alongside Danica's sharp hearing and Eve's archers expertise, they proceeded further in a decent pace, encountering quite a few bovine packs, though because they kept their distance, they in turn were not disturbed. And, the party also saw quite a few other, B ranked, parties, farming the animals, clearly on some meat collection quest of their own. Though the further away from the gate they moved, the less people they could find, until eventually, they ran into the first predators of the place.
A pack of rose thorn lions blocked their path, rushing towards them as soon as they got a whiff of the trio. The animal was the size of a horse, with large, majestic, poison green and leafy mane as well as thorny vines covering its back. A few rose flowers were blooming at the base of the animals necks as well as a few flower buds closer to the animals rear, though the latter were not blooming yet. And it seemed to have particularly thick fur on its underbelly, clearly there to ensure the male does not hurt itself too much during the mating season. The females had no mane, though there was a rather more notable of rose growth on their backs, with even more thorns and flowers, most if not all- still buds.
And as expected, unlike the herbivores, the predators were not just content with live and let live, their instincts and dungeons influence working in tandem for even greater effect, and so, the moment the party was noticed, a rather loud roar resounded, courtesy of the only male within the group, at least as far as Rex could tell, followed by the lions charging straight towards them. With practised ease, Rex called forth his chains, and with practised ease controlled them, like winding and coiling chinese dragons the chains shot forward to both accompany Danica, who was already charging forward as well, and envelop Eve in a protective chain cage, leaving plenty of room for the archer to deliver arrow after arrow from safety.
Well aware of the people in the distance, observing the newcomer group while they themselves looted their recent kills or whatever else that required their temporary attention, Rex toned down on both the quantity and size of his chains, seriously obscuring his actual capacity in this particular subject as well as maintaining secrecy of his other skills. Though, to be fair to Rex, he rarely dipped in that particular bag of tricks lately, mostly focusing on developing his ability to protect his team and control the battlefield.
With practiced precision, his chains seemed like coming to life, swirling and rattling as they shot forward, as if living and breathing snakes had emerged from the ground, hell bent on serving his purpose. The chains blocked, hindered and all around interfered with the incoming monsters. Some of the chains were equipped with razor sharp teeth of sorts, cutting the incoming predatorial monsters. The blood that seeped out of the wounds, be they inflicted by Rex, Danica or Eve, fell to the ground and there, like having a mind of its own, was slowly flowing to one and the same spot in the very center of the small battlefield where it would form an ever growing blood red orb.
While notably limited in scale and scope, his actions nevertheless produced the expected result, mightily assisting his two companions do their thing. Danica, as usual, would use brute strength combined with great speed to pummel the bodies of their adversaries, tearing muscles and breaking bones. Eve too was working hard, though it could be seen that it was harder for her shots to find purchase against their current enemies, each and every arrow, while connecting with targets, left rather shallow wounds in their wake, something Rex would help remedy as soon as their were done with this pack of creatures. And, due to their combined effort, no more than a few more minutes later, the group stood before empty field, devoid of bodies and signs of a recent battle, only the drop items and pulsating, basketball sized orb floating just slightly above ground. As the girls went on to collect their drops, Rex beckoned the orb, holding it in hand just a few moments later and a few moments later more, the orb disappeared, absorbed and stashed away for a time it would be necessary and used.
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With the current engagement over and their spoils collected, they continued on towards their destination- the large baobab in the far distance, leaving their observers behind, none willing to risk following the new group. Sure, they were well aware the numbers this group of three ran with were somewhat risky and none would ever even consider such risks themselves, but the relative ease as well as the skills displayed as the group took down the ambushing monsters painted a clear picture. They were skilled and dangerous, explaining why they were dungeon farming with the low numbers that they had, extinguishing any hothead's plans to approach them within the dungeon with malicious intent.
Another thirty or so minutes later, the group was notably closer to the enormous baobab they had been walking towards, avoiding most of the herbivore groups while dispatching another group of predators. Much like the first one, the second group was another pack of rose thorn lions, though slightly smaller in size, exuded more dangerous feeling, indicating the general superiority of each individual members might.
And much like before, the group got back in formation, with Danica taking the lead once again, her desire to pummel yet another monster group apparent, Eve now following Rex's instructions to imbue her actual arrows with mana charge, making the impact much more devastating and dangerous and Rex doing his things, the chains coming to life at his mental command, shaping the battlefield to his liking, like a puppet master pulling the strings and deciding how the show is going to go, telling a story that only he knows.
As the monsters fell one after another, some with shattered skulls, some bleeding to death due to lost limbs or deep cuts along their sides, or due to explosions that tore half their faces off, the group was getting more and more in sync with one another. Rex served at the centerpiece of their whole strategy, enabling his two companions to attack with almost reckless abandon, disregarding their own safety for the most part. Danica exploited said advantage Rex provided, diving on any enemy that came close enough for her to reach, splattering blood and the sound of crunching bones accompanying her every advance. Eve on the other hand, maintained her position near Rex, staying in the safest place on the battlefield while raining arrows upon their enemies. Her positioning came with another boon in the form of tips and hints on how to make her current choice of attacks more efficient and deadly. What started as somewhat awkward infusion of her arrows with fire based mana, something Eve seemed to have the most affinity towards, had already become quite skillful and beautiful display of elemental archery- something Eve had always hoped to at least attain. Now, well, she might even aim for lesser mastery of the discipline. How envious would her siblings be. Eve could not contain her growing smile with each successful arrow launched.
And then there was Rex, standing next to Eve, keeping track of her mana flow, movements and noting down any mistakes she make with her mana flow, then explaining ways of correcting said mistakes to make her more skillful and valued member of their party, all the while protecting Danica from any incoming attacks, be it from the front, or blind spots as she charged ahead and splattered their adversaries. And on top of that, he also spent time observing their surroundings, ensuring no unexpected danger catches them by surprise as well as limiting the amount of monsters that can actually reach Danica, who was their only melee fighter at the moment.
Once the group of monsters they were engaged in battle with was wiped out, they quickly collected the loot, and moved on ahead, untill, another fifteen minutes later, they found the first pack of bullmors. A group of eight, mighty looking bovine creatures were grazing on the grass, seemingly at ease and not at al worried about any possible predator attacks. A smile bloomed on Rex's face as he glanced at the girls one after another, speaking.
"Well then ladies. I hope everyone is ready for some nice and productive grind session. We are going wild." Much like Rex, Danica also grinned, still not satisfied with the amount of blood she had spilled so far in this dungeon dive. It seemed that her wolf's bloodline was quite keen on slaughter, almost reveling in the hunt itself as much as Rex did, even if for seemingly different reasons. Danica seemed to enjoy the hunt itself, while Rex grinded for the rewards like a proper ARPG junkie would. Eve just thought of the hunt as another practice session, allowing her to elevate her skill beyond what she could have ever hoped to achieve while also forming deeper bond with Rex and Danica, both things being incredibly beneficial to both her and her her nation in extension.
"I have not forgotten about that tournament thingy mind you." Rex added before they started "I expect a long and proper explanation, for it seems you might have both a stake as well a request for me regarding the event, or am I wrong?"
"It would be a personal request, yes. I will explain everything the moment you ask again." Eve replied, receiving a nod from Rex in return. With that out of the way, the party advanced towards the group of bullmors, their grind starting.
----------------------------------
"So?" Rex asked, the trio sitting around a campfire at the base of the large baobab they had been moving towards all day long, slaughtering numerous groups of bullmors as well as quite a few packs of not only rose thorn lions but also rainbow tailed jade tigers and crying virgo hyenas. The yhad barely reached the tree with the last rays of light, the darkness of night taking over, forcing the group to make camp. There were a number of platforms made on the ginormous tree, serving as mostly safe spots to rest for the night, out of reach of most, if not all predators. Once done with their meal, they could get on one of said platforms and rest.
"So, regarding the tournament." Eve began "As you might have guessed, it is directly related to summit that will be held in our nation this time around. As is tradition, there are quite a few events that each host nation hold, though most are boring parties and that kind of stuff for the ones attending the summit itself. Still, a few of the events are public, one of them being the grand tournament. If you ask the masses, it is made to ensure exchange of knowledge and friendly sparring between the mightiest of warriors from the participating nations. It is large and enough that sometimes members of lesser forces from inner continent visit to spectate, likely here to scout promising talents for their forces."
"But?" Rex asked, already expecting a certain answer. Eve did not disappoint, with her answer.
"But those in the know will tell you that some of the decisions are made based on the results of the tournament. It is, after all, a contest of power, allowing for the strongest nation to push their weight around a bit more. And the larger the disparity between the champion and the runners ups, the more they can get away with. Of course, there are lines not to be crossed, but that is hardly of any interest to you I presume."
"Correct presumption." Rex nodded in agreement. "So, what is your stake in this all?"
"You might not be aware, but just before your arrival in the capital city when you returned with your falcons, one of the families from the members of the summit sent out a marriage proposal, asking for my hand. Normally, I would defer to the decision of my father. Such is the fate of a princess after all. And while both father and me agree here, neither of us willing to accept the proposal due to the sheer incompetence and pathetic character of the supposed groom, I have a growing suspicion that more is going on behind closed doors."
"The noble funding the slave ring I destroyed must be working hard to assist them, likely pooling resources and favours to draw in some proper powerhouses to get rid of you. I'm guessing their champion would perform exceptionally well and then use said leverage to strongarm that marriage to go through, getting rid of you in the process." Rex assumed.
"I suspect so. And since no one has any proper knowledge about our current status, likely considering me as a glorified guide at best, they will most likely proceed as I you have estimated. They don't have much other options at the given time."
"So, your request then would be?"
"As you have probably guessed by now.." Eve replied, her voice quieter now and a bit more timid, clearly a bit worried to ask for the favour she had yet to properly earn "I... I was hoping you would take part in the tournament as my associate, if not our royal families." Her eyes suddenly widened as if understanding something and she went into some sort of panic burst mode, words near exploding out of her mouth "It was not my intention to begin with, I really wanted to experience the life of an actual adventurer, not the usual training in dungeons I can get my father to agree. It is just that now that I have seen what you're capable off. Well, a girl can hope, can't she?"
