Chapter 71 Locating The Moonstone Gem
As Izroth swam through the Orkallion Trench, he did not come across that legendary boss Scagmag again. Maybe it was never really there from the very beginning and what Izroth experienced was just something left behind by Scagmag.
After all, it would explain how a legendary boss could be in such a low-leveled dungeon. However, that was simply a theory.
While he was swimming, Izroth used the opportunity to view the skill he received from Scagmag before he was made to watch the events that previously unfolded inside the throne room. He did not have a chance to inspect it before experiencing what appeared to be an event from the past.
Skill Name: Scagmag's Whale Song
Skill Level: MAXED
Skill Rank: Unknown
Active: Unleashes Scagmag's whale song dealing 25,000 Damage to all enemies within a 100 meters radius. This skill ignores all enemy defenses.
Uses: 0/4
Special Note: This skill can only be used while inside of the dungeon Sea Palace Graveyard. Boss level monsters damaged by this skill do not grant the user EXP or loot drops.
'A temporary active skill that deals a fixed amount of damage. It only has four uses but... What purpose does it serve?'
To Izroth, the system would not randomly gift him such a powerful temporary active skill out of the kindness of its heart. It also did not make sense that it was just to make the dungeon easier for him to clear. Wouldn't he be able to defeat any boss instantly with this skill?
Though when he thought about it, the deterring factor of using it against a boss was that the player would not gain any EXP or receive loot drops from it. One of the main reasons players ran dungeons was to level up and acquire better gear. Why would they give up a profitable target like a boss monster just for some additional damage?
Even though it could only be used a total of four times, it still deals 25,000 damage that ignores all defenses and has no cooldown time to it. That's a grand total of 100,000 damage at his fingertips. If he acquired this skill before his fight against Calder it would have been an instant kill.
Even if Izroth used the Second Baneful Sword: Kill with Lightning Field and landed a critical strike, he would still be unable to deal 25,000 damage, let alone 100,000 damage.
Then again, he could just be overthinking things and everything that occurred was simply a normal part of this dungeon. Izroth had no way of telling until he completed the dungeon, which is exactly what he plans on doing.
Izroth was currently following the same path as the numerous Rainbow-Coral Fish. Not a single one of them drifted off on a different course. It appeared that something was pulling them towards the same location.
Although the Orkallion Trench was massive, there were really only two choices for players to make when it came to which way to swim. They would either have to travel down or forward. Izroth chose to go forward due to two reasons.
The first was that the Rainbow-Coral Fish is the only proper source of light in this trench. If he were to take a chance and swim off from near them then it may prove challenging for him to find his way around, even with his heightened senses. The second reason was just a small gut feeling of Izroth's.
After swimming for ten minutes straight, Izroth almost started to believe that maybe he chose the incorrect way and the Rainbow-Coral Fish was taking him nowhere. The time on his temporary passive skill Equalizer was being wasted which was problematic.
However, the surrounding waters started to warm up. Izroth noticed all the Rainbow-Coral Fish swimming into a large crevice.
There was a warm blue light coming from within the crevice, which was surprising given how bound to darkness this place appeared to be. When Izroth arrived in front of the crevice, he saw that the light seemed to be emitted from the symbols carved onto the walls.
The pressure of the water was shooting up like an underwater geyser. When the Rainbow-Coral Fish swam into the crevice, the pressure from the underwater geyser made them travel upward. The crevice was more than large enough to accommodate several players at once.
Izroth swam into the crevice and began to follow the same path as the Rainbow-Coral Fish before him. His journey up the geyser was fast and short-lived as he was soon shot out of the water and into the air by the pressure from the geyser.
〈System Alert: You have entered the region «Nerita's Cavern»〉
'Nerita?'
Izroth remembered that it was the name of one of the 14 individuals within the throne room he viewed a while back. Specifically speaking, it was the name of one of the people called out by Kashysh to accompany her to what she referred to as the Overside World.
Since he was currently inside of the Underwater World, Izroth could hypothesize that the Overside World Kashysh was referring to signified the land outside of the water of this sea.
Izroth examined his surrounding environment and realized that he was inside of an underwater cavern. The location he was shot out of by the geyser closely resembled that of a lake with many stones protruding out of it. He adjusted his body and landed safely on a sizable stone that was nearby.
Scattered around the cavern were crystals that were solid white in solid. There was nothing special about them besides the huge amount of them and the fact that they appeared to provide a natural source of lighting for the cavern.
The cavern was spacious and had pathways that one would be able to walk on, however, they were narrow and only two players would be able to fit side by side at the same time.
The Rainbow-Coral Fish were swimming around in different sections of the lake. They were not moving any further as if they had successfully reached their intended destination.
There was a trail of stones that were spaced apart from one another that lead deeper into the cavern. The stones were big enough for someone to step onto, but it would be easy to lose one's balance trying to jump from one to the next. Izroth, however, had to trouble as he followed the trail of stones.
The deeper he ventured into the cavern, the more numerous the crystals. It was as if Izroth was getting closer to the source of whatever was causing these crystals to form in this location.
'There's something here.'
Izroth felt a strong source of energy nearby, it most likely had something to do with the creation of the crystals inside of Nerita's Cavern. He could feel the presence of multiple creatures up ahead, which for Izroth was a good sign. It meant that he was on the right path and he would be able to put the Equalizer skill to use.
There were no sea creatures within the Orkallion Trench besides the Rainbow-Coral Fish and that colossal legendary boss; if it was really actually even there in the first place. Therefore, he was looking forward to his encounter with these sea creatures.
When he reached the end of the stone trail, there was an open and quite spacious area. However, that depended on how one would define spacious. While the area itself was sizable, white crystals covered up nearly every part of it.
At the center of the room was a huge white crystal that at least twenty times the size of all the other crystals. Though there was something unusual about this crystal. There was a small oval-shaped stone with a faint glow placed inside of the very center of the crystal.
The Sapphire Gem within Izroth's inventory suddenly started shaking intensely. It was trying to get Izroth's attention and he immediately understood the reason why. That small oval-shaped stone was definitely one of the gems he required in order to travel to a deeper level of the Underwater World.
Judging from its familiar appearance, it was the Moonstone Gem. It looked just like a normal moonstone gemstone except, there were tiny crystals floating around freely inside of it.
'Found it, though I doubt they'll just let me walk up and grab it without a fight.'
Hiding amongst the crystals were monsters that would be challenging to spot for most players. The creatures blended in with the surrounding crystals, however, there was a distinct difference that would allow players with good attention to detail to differentiate between the two.
Izroth examined the creatures and as he expected, their HP was not that impressive. But what really surprised him was exactly how unusually low its HP was. Usually, monsters that launched sneak attacks would not be well-known for their durability, but this was a little extreme.
It's HP was actually less than that of a level 15 Mountain Golem!
This is what made it so that Izroth would not let his guard down, as monsters like this tended to possess specific traits to make up for that weakness. If its HP was that low then that meant its strength in other areas would be boosted greatly. Either that or...
'It's a pack.'
Name: Inglipsm Crystal Walker(Elite)
Level: 21
HP: 3,350 (100%)
After further scrutinizing his surroundings, Izroth discovered that the Inglipsm Crystal Walkers were each in groups of eight.
Izroth wasted no time and immediately engaged the closest group on the way to the Moonstone Gem.
Krrrrrrreeeeet!
The Inglipsm Crystal Walkers made a strange screeching noise. It sounded as though someone was dragging their nails down a chalkboard. After having their cover blown, the monsters turned into a dark green color and revealed their true appearance.
Their appearance was the fusion between a lizard, fish, and bird. They possessed rough looking scales covering their entire bodies and was around 1.3 meters in length. Their eyes were similar to that of a reptile and they had extremely sharp claws.
Its tail made up nearly half of its total body length and morphed into that of a fish-like tail fin when it showed itself. On its back were a pair of small wings that could not have spanned more than 75cm, it hardly seemed to be durable enough to allow these creatures to fly.
'Even though their HP is extremely low for a level 21 elite, each of them still has 3,350 HP. It'll be a bit troublesome to fight each group one at a time.'
In total, there were at least twenty groups of eight Inglipsm Crystal Walkers. But, if Izroth wanted to grab ahold of the Moonstone Gem he only needed to defeat five out of twenty of the groups.
Izroth thought about using his newly acquired skill, Scagmag's Whale Song, to clear out all of the creatures. However, after thinking about it for a bit he decided that it was best to hold off on using the skill for now as it may come in handy later on.
There was another reason why he preferred to use his own abilities. It was due to the fact that Izroth could feel that he was extremely close to breaking through to the next level of the Heavenly Golden Body physique. He was just a half-step away from reaching the next stage.
In order to level up the Heavenly Golden Body physique, Izroth needed to experience actual battles. The last time he managed to make progress on the skill was during his fight against the boss in the dungeon Goblin's Paradise.
Since then, Izroth had already journeyed throughout the dangerous mountain regions, to the Shadahi Realm, fought against a rare boss, and was currently soloing a newly discovered dungeon. After being in so many battles, he just needed a little push until he managed to make a breakthrough.
'I'll use this opportunity to advance to the next stage of the Heavenly Golden Body physique.'
Luckily, Izroth simply needed to drop each creatures HP down to a certain amount before using his First Baneful Sword: Destruction skill. After all, now that it was maxed out, as long as Izroth eliminated a monster using the skill the cooldown on it would reset.
Izroth unsheathed his Blade of Lightning and began his assault against the Inglipsm Crystal Walkers.
...
Meanwhile, not too far from Amaharpe in a village called Raumutan, a meeting was taking place amongst ten players. One of those players was someone Izroth had personally met. He was a member of the top guild known as Blue Oasis, Niflheim.
Seven of the players present, including Niflheim, were the seven captains of the Blue Oasis guild. Two out of three of the remaining players were the guild leader and vice-guild leader of Blue Oasis.
The last player was just a low-ranking guild member with no real standing. Though that may improve after the information he just delivered to the upper echelons of the guild.
"Are you sure? You realize the consequences of betraying our trust don't you, Vanter?" The one who spoke was Niflheim. He was speaking to the lowest ranking guild member present. The reason Niflheim was verifying the matter for the third time was that this low ranking guild member was a part of his squadron.
It would reflect badly on Niflheim as a captain if one of his own members led him and the entire guild on a wild goose chase.
However, if there was a single thing Niflheim was confident of, it was his ability to judge the character of a person. The player who came to him with this information was not one to make such wild accusations with no evidence.
"Of course, captain! You have my word, there really is a territory that's going to be available to claim soon!"