Chương 63: Don’t Touch

The creature that leapt out of the underbrush at Damion was huge. Considerably larger than any Wind Wolf and it had antlers. Damion did not have time to properly identify the Demonic Beast as he had to jump out of the way or be skewered by those antlers. As Damion rolled out of the way of the beast he slashed his sword along the creature's side opening a large gash from its front shoulder to its midsection.

Just as Damion was taking a second look at the Demonic Beast, that he had now identified as some sort of elk, Christine put an arrow through its eye, downing the beast for good.

"That is a Pimeys Elk," Arica told them as she collected the corpse.

"No one else has encountered one in here. They are incredibly rare."

"What makes them so special?" asked Ethan.

"They have an affinity for the Shadow element, and if you make a cloak or a full body set of clothing out of their hide, you can become almost invisible in the shadows."

"If they can be invisible, why did it crash out of the underbrush?" Damion asked. He had thought it was a group of wolves charging at him, but it had turned out to be just one, enormous, elk.

"The Wind Wolves must have driven it out of its hiding place. Perhaps the wolves were even using it to test us." Theodore offered. Just as Damion was considering Theodore's idea, another set of howls erupted. Damion could tell the wolves were not far away and they had nearly surrounded the party as the howls were coming from all around them.

"Come out and fight you cowardly dogs!" Damion shouted towards the underbrush where he thought one of the howls had come from. Arica was about to chastise him, when a Wind Wolf leapt out of a nearby thicket towards Damion. The Demonic Beast quickly closed the distance on Damion, but he easily cut it down. After having seen a Wind Wolf in action before, Damion had no trouble following this one's movements. As soon as Damion cut down his first Wind Wolf of the Dungeon, three more leapt from nearby hiding spots.

Damion did not know if the wolves were hoping to ambush him, but they had no chance. Just as fast as they appeared, one of them took an arrow to the neck and keeled over. The two remaining were evidently distracted by the sudden death of their comrade and Damion was able to end them in two quick slashes with his sword.

"Well, that is five Wind Wolves and one Pimeys Elk," Damion counted as Arica collected the corpses.

"Think the rest of the wolf pack is going to come after us now, or run away?"

"Most likely come after us, but only once we move and are more vulnerable," Arica answered.

"Wind Wolves are quite intelligent. They have seen that we are able to handle ourselves and we are in a fairly defensible position, they will wait to attack, but they will attack."

"Good to know," Theodore said clapping his hands together.

"I say we head further into the dungeon. We might just be able to come across some other beasts the previous teams did not encounter. Maybe even find some rare plants." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Damion had no objection to the plan, so he shrugged his shoulders and then started walking.

The underbrush was fairly thick in the direction Damion headed, which was the same direction the wolves had come from, so he was using his sword to cut a path. As Damion was cutting the underbrush he could not help but mumble.

"This would be so much easier if I wasn't worried about accidently destroying something valuable."

"Your discretion is appreciated. Look what I just found," Theodore said as he bent down and plucked a yellow mushroom from the base of a tree.

"A Beese Mushroom. Quite the important ingredient for healing potions."

"Where there is one there is more," Christine said looking around the base of a nearby tree.

"That's odd, it appears to be the only one," Theodore said as he finished checking the tree where he found the Beese Mushroom.

"Perhaps the Demonic Beasts ate them?" Damion suggested, which brought a stare from everyone.

"What?"

"Beese Mushrooms are very toxic," Arica told Damion.

"I thought you said they were used in healing potions," Damion turned to Theodore.

"You have to process them and only a small part of the mushroom is used. The rest is quite deadly, even for Demonic Beasts."

"Then do the rules of a Breach affect how plants grow? I mean this is only an E Rank dungeon, and the mushroom seems to be pretty rare right?"

"Damion does have a point," Arica agreed.

"Finding a Beese Mushroom in an E Rank dungeon is practically unheard of, usually they need a higher density of magic." Theodore scratched his head for a moment before handing his prize to Arica to store.

"I guess you are right. This is a very rare find, and a large specimen. Perhaps a low Rank dungeon like this can't support too many high-quality ingredients."

"Even so," Arica said turning to Damion.

"Still be careful, it might just be one rare ingredient per a certain area. We might still find other rarities. So, no torching the forest."

"I wasn't planning on it," Damion said defensively as he started cutting through the underbrush again. Though, he had thought that maybe he could, since they found something so rare and it was unlikely anything else was nearby.

"Do you really have that much mana, that you could torch this place and still be able to fight?" Christine asked cautiously.

"I guess. The only time my magic was tested I broke Dean Thorn's test crystal thing."

"I can do that," Theodore boasted.

"Those things are pretty fragile; an overload of mana and they shatter. You are supposed to just let the crystal read you, but if you pump your mana into one, you will destroy it every time."

"I was six when he tried to test me," Damion said bluntly.

"I had no control over mana. I barely even understood what mana or magic was." Theodore stopped and looked appraisingly at Damion for a moment. When Damion looked over his shoulder and saw that Theodore had stopped, Damion stopped as well. Before Damion or anyone else could react, Theodore's hand darted out and grabbed Damion's free hand. White light enveloped Damion and Theodore's hands, and Damion guessed Theodore was casting a spell of some sort.

It only took Damion a moment to realize what Theodore was trying to do, but it was a moment too long.

"Don't…" Damion cried as he tried to pull his hand away, but before he could free himself Theodore was sent flying backwards.

"What the hell!" Christine yelled and rushed over to where Theodore was thrown to check on him.

"You could have just told him to stop. You didn't need to attack him."

"I didn't attack him," defended Damion.

"The hell you didn't! You think he just threw himself backwards!" Christine shouted. Theodore was coming around, after having been knocked out by the blast, though he was clearly in pain. A white light enveloped all of Theodore's body as he cast a spell on himself, and Damion was thankful the man could heal himself.

"Damion didn't attack," Arica said and raised her hand to stop Christine from interrupting.

"We can discuss it later, right now we have other things to worry about."