Chương 372: Going Back In

Damion's eyes narrowed when he read through the text the Magic System flashed in his head. Giving him a quest after he asked for it. Was this a new and helpful System, or was it just being forgetful, or maybe stubborn.

'System, how about a quest to have a happy meal with my family.' {Error: Quests must relate to main objective.}'How does killing Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts relate to your secret main objective?' {The greatest concentration of Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts are during beast waves or inside Realm Breaches. Inside Realm Breaches host has the greatest chance of encountering the other races.}'Alright, but why can't you just tell me what the main objective is?

Wouldn't that make it easier for me to accomplish it?' {Disclosure of the main objective before host has achieved the prerequisite knowledge may adversely affect host's decision-making process and result in faulty premises and actions.}'So, you are afraid I will rush off and do something stupid when I learn what the main objective is.' {Affirmative.} Damion gave up on arguing with the Magic System. If it did not want to tell him what this main objective was there was really nothing he could do about it.

While waiting for his mother and Elicia to finish cooking dinner he read through the text of his new quest. The part that caught his attention was 'the legends and tales of a noble race of wise leaders.' As much as he had read as a child, he could not say he had ever heard of the Alfar before Mage Teft mentioned them and the Iblis to him. Were there stories about them? If there were did those stories perhaps contain a clue as to what the Alfar wanted with the Realm Breaches?

"Elicia, have you ever heard of any old legends or stories about the other races?" Damion asked. He kept his question generic, not because he was trying to hide his intent, but because he had the thought that if there really were stories about the Alfar he had never heard before, then perhaps there were stories about the other races as well.

"There are, but after graduating from Silver Spire myself and even sitting in on your classes with Mage Teft, I don't put much stock in them. After all, if there were any truth to them I'm sure we would have been taught more about the other races than simply that they exist."

"What do you remember about them?"

"Not much. Honestly they were more like bedtime stories or stories told to keep little kids inline. You know, eat all your vegetables or the evil Iblis will come and snatch you from your bed and force feed them to you."

"I think you and I had very different parents," Damion remarked.

"Duh."

"No chance you remember any of those stories is there?"

"I tried to forget them as soon as I heard them. You aren't looking for bedtime stories for Helge are you? Cause I won't let you sca…"

"Nothing like that," Damion hastily said.

"I'm just trying to figure out what the other races want." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"That's easy. They want to kill us all." Despite Elicia being sure of her answer, he doubted that was the case. After all, the Magic System did not chime in and tell him he had figured out their motivation. The next morning, Damion headed out with Phil first thing, eager to start exploring the E Rank floors. His hope was that with an earlier start, he might be able to move through the floors and maybe reach the D Rank floors before it was too late in the day.

"Heading back in?" Ethan asked Damion at the entrance to the containment chamber.

"Yes."

"Well, take these with you," Ethan offered Damion a spatial stretching box with cores in in it.

"I was able to trade your Lightning Cores for 161 D Rank cores and 120 C Rank. The rest are all the other F Rank cores from your spoils." Damion accepted the box and quickly pretended to empty it into a spatial artifact while actually pulling the cores into the Magic System Inventory and converting the cores to credits as fast as they poured in. With the boost of trading the F Rank Lightning affinity cores for D Rank and C Rank cores, he gained a decent 79, 390 credits.

"I really wish I could afford a spatial artifact," Ethan lamented.

"What good would that do you?" Damion asked.

"As soon as someone saw you, a C Rank with a spatial artifact they'd chase you down and take."

"Then how is it that I heard you hung onto not one but two spatial artifacts while you were at Silver Spire?"

"Because I was at the school. Nobody would dare cross Silver Spire to try and steal my rings while I was there."

"But what about now? I heard you sold those, but you got another one. How is that even fair?"

"Ask Arica, maybe she or her master can make you one. Apparently, they are making much better ones now. Maybe the price on the old small ones will drop."

"What good will it do me if I can't store an entire shipment in one," Ethan pouted.

"Then pay a Spatial mage to follow you around everywhere." Ethan looked at Damion as if he had just given him the single greatest piece of advice ever before rushing off. Shaking his head, Damion turned towards the labyrinth portal and decided not to waste any more time and headed inside. Inside he immediately cast Ice Sword and flew with Phil to the entrance to the second floor. Then the third and fourth, completely ignoring all the Demonic Beasts along the way.

Finally, once they reached the entrance to the sixth floor, Damion slowed down and flew through with Phil to discover what awaited them on the next floor. To his surprise, they appeared on what Damion could only describe as a tropical beach. There was a large sandy beach on one side, the hill where he appeared with Phil gently sloping down to the waves gently splashing on the sand below and a jungle on his other side, filled no doubt with Demonic Beasts.

Pulling up his tablet, Damion took a quick look at the map his auto-mapper generated. To his surprise, the beach looped around, and it was not the sea he was looking at, but a ten kilometer across lake. As far as he could see in all other directions on the map, was dense forests, but on the other side of the lake, almost directly opposite the entrance to the floor, was the core. Damion guessed the lake must be dead center of the sixth floor.

Switching to the projection mode he found that everything sloped down to the lake. It was not a severe slope, but it was fairly consistent all the way around the lake, which made Damion somewhat wary. Nature rare built in straight lines or perfect shapes. There was something off about the lake, he just was not sure what it was yet. In the forest there were plenty of Demonic Beasts, and since he was in projection mode, Damion could see they were mostly in the trees.

To him this meant they were likely either tree-dwellers, or predators hiding there, waiting to strike. He was curious to find out which they were, but first he wanted to figure out the lake. To his surprise, there were no Demonic Beasts in the lake or even coming down to the lake anywhere around to drink or swim. This made no sense to him.

He could see if there was a strong Demonic Beast in the lake that the other Demonic Beasts would avoid it, but if there was no stronger beast, or any at all for that matter, why were they avoiding the lake. Walking down the shore, Damion looked around the shore and even checked his tablet again. There were no signs of any Demonic Beasts. He just could not figure out why the Demonic Beasts of this floor were avoiding the water.

Taking a good look at the lake, the water was clear, no sign of contaminants nor was there any foul smell. Picking up a rock, he tossed it in. Nothing happened. Whatever was going on with this lake, it was not obvious. Deciding he had no other choice, Damion carefully walked to the shoreline and put one finger out to catch the next wave as it washed in. As the wave rolled across his finger he jerked his hand away, causing him to fall on his backside and as he cast Minor Heal on his finger.

Now he understood why all the Demonic Beasts in the area were avoiding the lake.