Chương 289: Crimson Waste Part 2

The Crimson Waste dungeon was aptly named, the landscape Damion appeared in after stepping through into the Realm Breach was a dark red wasteland. It was not a barren wasteland at least. There were trees scattered about, but the soil and grass and even the leaves of the trees were of varying shades of red, orange and brown. If it wasn't for the trees and grass, Damion might have thought this dungeon was connecting to Mars.

This was the first time Damion was going into a dungeon where he was not expected to do the bulk of the work. Unless his life was in danger, all he had to was sit back and collect the spoils. He might occasionally get to cast a spell, but for the most part he was just along for the ride. The first dozen beasts the team encountered were mostly E Rank, with a few at F Rank and some others at D Rank. Which meant for Damion, he made no progress on his quests.

Still, he knew that the further into the dungeon they went, the stronger the Demonic Beasts would be and eventually they would encounter C Rank and stronger creatures.

"Any chance I can get paid in Demonic Beast Cores from the spoils?" Damion asked as the team was walking.

"You want to get that kid at Leland's shop to upgrade some gear for you too huh?" Simon Beck asked.

"The thought had occurred to me," Damion replied.

"I hear he took back the mission from the Association. Might be done for a while," Peter Beck added.

"Maybe he just needs a break," Mage Abney said, after sending a jet of water through the eye of a Demonic Beast that looked a bit like a tiger.

"It can't be easy to work on so many artifacts at a time."

"I heard he made some kind of mapping artifact, should have bought one of those for this dungeon, used it to find all the Demonic Beasts ahead of time," Mage Young chimed in.

"I've done this dungeon a few times," Mage Phinn scoffed.

"I don't need an artifact to tell me where to go to find things."

"Not saying you do," Mage Young replied.

"Just thought it might have been useful is all."

"Mage Wells is likely to get himself in serious trouble if he keeps upgrading artifacts. Luckily, he seems to be only able to work on low and mid Rank artifacts."

"Why do you say that?" Damion asked.

"Because the S Rankers and A Rankers don't like artifacts made at their level, unless made specifically for them," Mage Young clarified.

"You've got that right," Mage Phinn said.

"Why would we allow anyone to create an artifact that could be used against us? But since it takes an A Rank or an S Rank to make an A Rank artifact, I don't think Mage Wells has anything to worry about. Once he gets to A Rank, the S Ranks will sit him down and have the talk with him."

"The talk?" Damion questioned. He was at B Rank, but no one had mentioned a special talk for once he reached A Rank.

"S Ranks and A Ranks are the frontline of humanity, Mage Picard. No doubt as you've gotten stronger, you've realized certain things. You've probably even seen some strange things in dungeon runs over the years. If you ever get to A Rank, you'll get the talk too, but getting there isn't easy." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Now Damion was curious.

He indeed had seen some unusual things in dungeons and the quests he had from the Magic System strongly hinted at something going on he needed to figure out. Would getting to A Rank get him some of those answers? As much as Damion would have liked that to be true, waiting until he reached A Rank to find out if an S Rank was going to stop by and give him the answers he needed to finish his quests was not feasible.

There was no telling how long it would take him to reach the 50, 000 magic power threshold for A Rank, especially not when it took him a year to go from C Rank to B Rank and that was only a 5, 000 magic power increase.

"Not curious what the talk is about?" Mage Abney asked Damion after he remained silent.

"I figured it wasn't something you were allowed to share. Besides, like you said, if I ever get to A Rank, I'll 'get the talk'."

"Hold!" Mage Phinn suddenly called out. Damion looked around and saw in in the distance, a bit downhill from them, a group of C Rank Demonic Beasts. He counted eight in all. When he first looked at them, he would swear he was looking at some kind of dinosaur. The Demonic Beasts were reptilian looking, standing on their hindlegs, with a long tail that became whiplike as it narrowed.

Their front legs were suited to let the creatures run on all fours or for use slashing through armor and people with the long talons they had in place of fingers. Their elongated skulls had a set of sharp teeth in their mouths and a powerful set of jaws that Damion could imagine were capable of crushing bones easily.

"A pack of Balaurs," Mage Abney said when she spotted the Demonic Beasts. Standing about a meter and a half tall, the Demonic Beasts did not seem to be too much of a threat, not when they were C Rank and the group had two A Rank mages, but Mage Phinn's hesitation seemed to indicate care was needed when facing these creatures.

"Mage Picard, these creatures like to hunt in large packs. Stay close to Rodney. I think once we start fighting these, another group will try to sneak in behind us," Mage Phinn told Damion. Looking around, Damion could not spot another group of Balaurs. Even with True Sight letting him detect the Ranks of beasts and people up to 100 meters away. Either Mage Phinn was being overly cautious, or these creatures were very good at hiding.

"Understood, I can avoid most anything if needed," Damion said. He was actually hoping for a chance to make use of his Blink spell to teleport short distances. If he could Rank it a bit, it could become an excellent tool in his arsenal.

"Good. Lois, hit them from range. These things are fire breathers and don't like water. Get them nice and wet."

"Sure thing," Mage Abney replied as she started channeling a spell. A moment later Damion recognized the spell Mage Abney was casting, Driving Rain. The rainstorm she conjured though, was much stronger than what he had seen Mage Martes cast. Water poured out of the sky and the dry ground of the Crimson Waste began turning into a mud pit. If it was not that the group was on higher ground, Damion would have been worried that the water would have swept his team off their feet.

As it was, the Balaurs were swept off their feet, but they quickly regained their footing, starting up the hill towards the group against the flow of water as they clawed their way forward on all four feet. Seeing the Balaurs make their way closer, Mage Abney resorted to another spell, Water Cannon. The tier 4 water spell blasted each Demonic Beast it hit off its feet, in some cases even cutting clean through the creatures.

"Easy there Lois, we want to be able to sell the carcasses you know," Mage Phinn told the Water mage after she blasted two of the Balaurs apart.

"Then maybe you should finish the rest off. They are nice and wet now," she responded. Mage Phinn's answer was to cast Chain Lightning. The tier 3 Lightning spell hit the lead Balaur and then bounced to each of the others in sequence. In addition to the spell hitting each of the remaining Balaurs, the Lightning magic electrified the water and mud the Demonic Beasts were in enough that when the first beast was struck, the rest were already being fried before the main attack made its way to them.