Chapter 267: Two down, three left
The group came to a halt before a spiraling staircase made of stone descended to the next floor. "Let’s go." Damon nodded, and everyone took the stairs. The group made their way to the next part of the dungeon.
The second floor was surprisingly empty, with nothing coming running at them. Kaelthorn took a step forward to explore further when suddenly Ellora pulled him back with a whip made of blood magic.
The next second, an arrow whooshed past the space where Kaelthorn was standing. If Ellora had been even a second slower, the arrow would have definitely hit him.
Ellora’s whip retracted into her hand, still shimmering with bloodlight. "You’re welcome," she said dryly, her crimson eyes scanning the shadowy edges of the corridor ahead. "If I am not wrong, then the entire place is filled with traps."
Kaelthorn blinked, looking at the spot where the arrow had just sliced through the air. "Huh," he muttered. "That would’ve pissed me off."
"It would have done more than that." Damon pointed to the arrow where some sort of poisonous liquid was oozing from the tip.
Kaelthorn’s eyes narrowed as he crouched beside the arrow and gave it a cautious sniff. "Yeah... that’s not just poison. Paralyzing poison. Would have made me just like that idiot."
The alchemist wandered up behind them, humming. "Hmm. Mildly necrotic. Faint hints of basil. Oh! That’s my recipe!"
Damon ignored the old fool and stepped forward, scanning the hall with narrowed eyes. "Paralyzing poison again? Hmmm." He looked around, wondering what was going on.
Normally, dungeons would have more lethal poisons. He thought about it for a moment and then looked ahead. "We need to assume every step is a trigger. Let’s be careful. There might be more lethal poison traps ahead."
Ellora gave a small nod, fingers already weaving subtle runes into the air around her. Blood magic flowed smoothly from her fingertips. "I can take care of this." The next second, a small bat fluttered in the air in front of them, one that was completely made of blood.
"Go, baby, make your mama and daddy proud." Ellora blew it a kiss, but not before winking at Damon seductively.
Damon arched an eyebrow, unimpressed. "That thing better be more useful than your flirting."
The blood bat chirped indignantly as if personally offended and took off down the corridor in a flutter of red mist. It flitted just above the ground, triggering trap after trap. Bolts, blades, darts, and even a brief gout of fire, all sprung in vain, chasing the nimble creation.
Ellora quickly followed it up with power-packed blood balls, completely demolishing all the trap mechanisms.
Kaelthorn let out a low whistle. "Okay. I take back half the things I said about witches."
Ellora smirked, not even looking his way. "You should take back more. My bloodlings have feelings, you know."
Riven, finally awake and now trailing behind like a disgraced intern, watched the traps erupt ahead with a pale face. "Are we sure this dungeon wasn’t designed by someone with a deep hatred for adventurers? Why can’t it be simple fighting?"
Ellora shot him a glare. "As if you are any good at simple fighting."
"Hey, it’s easy for a C-ranker like you to talk." Riven sulked, kicking a stone on the dungeon floor, which coincidentally triggered yet another mechanism. "Sorry. Sorry. I will just keep my mouth shut." He nervously backed away.
Ellora took the lead on the floor as she soon destroyed every single trap. The corridor grew quieter as the final trap mechanisms lay in ruins, gears still twitching in their final moments.
Damon followed behind Ellora, eyes scanning the scorched walls and scattered rubble. The traps were nasty, yes—but the ease with which Ellora tore through them was even more telling. She wasn’t just powerful—she was efficient.
"Good work," Damon praised her.
She didn’t reply, but her lips curled into a smug smile as she walked ahead, crimson light still flickering around her fingertips.
Kaelthorn stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. "Now that the hallway of death is behind us, can we please fight something? My axe is starting to feel unused and sad."
At the end of the corridor, the path split in two—one side veiled in a thick green fog, the other pulsing with faint mana runes etched into the walls.
Damon paused, studying both. "Fog or mana runes. One’s probably poison, the other’s probably monsters."
The old alchemist stepped forward, sniffing the air like a hound. "You should take the fog."
Kaelthorn looked at the man, once again, a small smile appearing and disappearing on his face. Damon was about to ask him about that when suddenly he had an odd feeling.
"Ellora, wait!" He hurriedly tried to stop the woman from stepping forward into the rune path, but it was too late. She was already there, and the last trap of the floor had activated.
Damon used whatever blood energy he had in his command to quickly form a shield around her, but it was too late. An arrow appeared out of nowhere at top speed, a speed even a C-ranker would find difficult to dodge.
Damon’s shield was not enough to block it, but it was enough to warn Ellora. She hastily tried to dodge it, but the arrow grazed her arm.
Ellora hissed in pain, stumbling back as the arrow’s tip tore through the edge of her armor and cut a thin line across her upper arm. Blood welled immediately, but more concerning than the wound itself was the green shimmer trailing the arrow’s path.
Nasty poison spilled out of the arrow, and the green aura was not helping. It was strong enough to cut through her armor and directly enter her skin.
Damon immediately took out a healing potion and a poison antidote from his spatial ring, coincidentally, the same ones he had looted from the old man.
"Aw..." Ellora gave a painful wink and tried to maintain her usual seductive eyes. "I will be fine, my lord. No need to waste these potions on me." She barely finished speaking when she swayed on her feet and collapsed forward into Damon’s arms.
He caught her effortlessly, but his jaw clenched as he felt the heat radiating from her skin. Her blood was reacting violently, boiling beneath the surface, her crimson aura flickering with unstable arcs of magic.
Whatever was in that arrow was an extremely strong poison, one strong enough to have such an effect on a C-ranker.
"What the hell is this dungeon?" Damon thought out loud as he looked around. It was a quest dungeon, alright, but it seemed extremely unique, especially the varying difficulty levels. "I should put these arrows in my inventory. Might come in useful sometime later."
"I got it, boss. Let me get them for you."
Damon snapped out of his thoughts and turned around, about to warn Riven, but it was already too late. The damned idiot once again got himself knocked out by touching a poison arrow with his bare hands.
Damon sighed. That’s now two out for the count.
Kaelthorn raised an eyebrow, looking at the two unconscious bodies sprawled dramatically on the floor. "Let’s just leave them here and come back to pick them up later. Both their healths are stable, and they are only paralyzed."
But Damon firmly shook his head. "Ellora should recover soon. It’s better to wait." Next to him, the old man sat down comfortably on the floor, not caring about anything.
Kaelthorn, on the other hand, cracked his neck and walked forward confidently into the path on the right, the one with the runes. "Suit yourself. I don’t want to sit still, so I am going ahead to find something worth hitting."
Damon didn’t stop him. He knew Kaelthorn was more than strong enough to handle anything in this dungeon, and the man was far too cunning to fall for more poison traps. It was not a coincidence that he hadn’t stepped into a single trap ever since he stepped inside the dungeon.
Kaelthorn vanished into the corridor etched with mana runes, his axe resting casually on his shoulder, humming some offbeat tune. He heard sounds of loud hissing, snake monsters, no doubt. However, a steady series of notifications told him that Kaelthorn was rampaging through them.
Soon, minutes passed by, and twenty minutes later, Kaelthorn returned with a smug grin on his face. "All done. You don’t have to wait here like a princess, my lord."
"You are very eager to prove yourself, my good follower." Damon chuckled. He glanced at Ellora, but unexpectedly, he stood up. "Alright, let’s go."
Kaelthorn shrugged and led the way. The old alchemist followed them.
The three of them descended deeper into the dungeon, passing through the now-cleared rune corridor.
Snake monster corpses were littered everywhere, their blood essence still very fresh.
Damon helped himself to the blood essence, and coincidentally, he received a couple of boosts on his poison resistance skill. The poison here was also pretty strong. A single hit could take out even a pretty strong player.