Chương 322: Waiting Game

"Why the hell didn't you tell the Adventurer Association it was a Fire Cave when you sent the map and told them it was a dark cavern?" Keegan Dunn, the Fire mage, demanded of Damion once they were outside the Unstable Breach.

"I didn't realize it," Damion told Mage Dunn. It was true, Damion had not realized it was a Fire Cave. He had learned about Fire Caves while at Silver Spire Magic Academy, but he never thought he would encounter one. Even after seeing the cave itself set ablaze from his Fire magic, he had not put two and two together. Fire Caves were extremely rare, not as rare as labyrinths, but most adventurers would go their entire life without encountering one.

As Damion knew firsthand, and as their name would indicate, Fire Caves were Breaches that had the tendency to be on fire. The flammable liquid seeping from the walls varied between caves, but one thing was constant, the slightest amount of fire, whether from a spell or torch, could ignite the entire cave system and blow the place sky high. Only after coming out and hearing from the other mages that it was indeed a Fire Cave did Damion realize how lucky he had been with his initial spells.

Ding [Spell Heat Resistance mastery increased to E Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit.] The notification from the Magic System made Damion want to laugh, luckily he controlled himself. Laughing to himself after just escaping a deathtrap would probably not endear him to the other B Rank mages that had come to clear the Breach.

'We go?' Phil asked Damion through their bond. The Demonic Beast had sensed its companion returning from the Breach, but did not want to leave the Simurgh carcass just yet.

'Not yet. Stay there for now. I will call if I need you.' Damion sent back. With Phil in reserve, he had no worries about being ambushed by these mages, but he doubted that was why they were here.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Eddric Laddler, the Earth mage.

"What do you mean what do we do? We wait here for the Breach to either collapse and spew its beasties out here or for it to clear itself and disappear," Water mage Paul Holden said.

"Will it do that? From that little bit of fire we saw?" questioned Mage Laddler.

"Eventually," Mage Dunn told them.

"Usually, Fire Caves get helped along. But given that Mage Wells was already trying to get out of the Breach when we encountered him, I think it is safe to say it was already helped along." The three other mages turned to look at Damion for confirmation. To better answer their questions, Damion took out his tablet and pulled up the map of the Breach to show the other mages.

"I made it this far in," Damion pointed to the first chamber he encountered, which was further than any of the mages thought he would have gone. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"This mapping artifact of yours is amazing," Mage Laddler commented as he looked at the projection.

"This can save so much time in Breaches."

"Leland and Flannery's Artifact Emporium in Saung has them for sale."

"Saung? It has been a while since I was in a Green Zone. They have an A Rank dungeon right?" When the rest of the group nodded in confirmation, Mage Laddler went on.

"Seems like a trip to Saung is in order."

"After we wait out this Unstable Breach," Mage Dunn said, pointedly.

"Why? Mage Wells is here. He responded first. He can wait it out," argued Mage Laddler.

"Speaking of which," Damion cut in.

"I was told there weren't any other groups in the area. How did you all get here so fast?"

"It was a special request from the higher ups in the Adventurer Association. Gave us a one-way Portal trip to close by," Mage Dunn told him.

"Which is also why we can't just leave. We have to wait this one out."

"Special request? Did their request happen to say to keep me out of the Breach?"

"Yes. Not that it matters, since you were able to get here ahead of us. What did you do to make the higher ups in the Association dislike you so much?"

"Grow too fast," Damion half-joked.

"Yeah. I can see that getting under some of those old grouches' skin. It doesn't seem to be stopping you though. But why are you all the way out in a backwater Yellow Zone like this?"

"I'm working to map out the border of all the Red Zones for the Explorer Guild. It gives me a good opportunity to find Breaches."

"I get it. Find your own A and B Rank Breaches to explore and if you can't clear them on your own, send in the location to the Association," surmised Mage Holden.

"I really don't think I can clear an A Rank on my own, but thanks for the vote of confidence." For a while, the group settled into small talk. Discussing different Breaches they had been in and the strangest creatures they had encountered. Damion mostly kept silent, listening to the stories of these seasoned mages while waiting for the Breach to either spew out Demonic Beasts or vanish. Phil was still happily shredding the Simurgh carcass, even though it had located the Demonic Beast's core and consumed it.

Since it had taken the Blizzard King so long to locate the core, it was taking its frustration out on remains.

"Dunn, how long is this wait going to be?" Mage Laddler asked after they had been sitting around for over an hour.

"Look over your shoulder," Mage Dunn told Mage Laddler. The Earth mage did as instructed, looking over his shoulder to where the Unstable Breach was.

"What?"

"Until that disappears we are here." Mage Laddler did not reply to Mage Dunn, but the rest of the group could see he was not satisfied with the answer.

"Is there anything we can do to speed the process up? Damion asked.

"Sure. You can go in and clear the Breach."

"Short of that," Damion replied dryly to Mage Dunn.

"When a fire starts in a Fire Cave it eventually makes it to the dungeon core and destroys it and closes the Breach."

"Even if it is a Stable Breach?"

"Yes. Stable Breaches are Stable because they have a true core. Normally, when you clear a dungeon you are just destroying a fake core, while the true core is hidden somewhere else."

"I am aware."

"Well, because of how widespread the fire in a Fire Cave gets, it will destroy the true core of a Stable Breach and not just the fake core," Mage Dunn explained.

"Which is a good thing," Mage Holden chimed in.

"Fire Caves are too dangerous to keep around and clear. Even if this was a Stable Breach, the Adventurer Association and Mage Association would tell us to destroy the true core. No point in letting a dungeon sit around 'till it becomes a dungeon break because no one is willing to clear it."

"Do the associations do that often? Destroy Stable Breaches I mean?"

"If a dungeon is too hard for its Rank, sure. Maybe one or two a decade for that reason. Not exactly often. But Stable Breaches don't exactly grow on trees." Damion knew Mage Holden was right. Stable Breaches were hard to come by, but so were talented knights and mages. Despite the rarity, any dungeon declared too dangerous for its level just meant it was a dungeon break waiting to happen or a death trap for knights and mages.

However, before Damion could ask if any of them had ever heard of any dungeons that were collapsed, the Unstable Breach flickered and then vanished.