Chương 110: [2.36] DemonDash (Part 3/5)

Crap, was it other Demons or something else? Gelic's body shivered. Since she hadn't received the Worth or Attunement notices with her Suspecting Skin level, that could only mean one thing. The DGS now considered her to be in combat. And her carapace was practically rattling. Something dangerous was after her, after them. She needed to join up with Gawk as soon as possible. No time to play around in the maze.

She turned to the direction he should be in, since she shouldn't have lost her bearings after a single turn, and used Swipe on the fungal stalk directly in front of her. Her claws clanged, bouncing back with heavy reverberation to the point that she had to tuck them under her other arm to cease the vibrations. Were these mushrooms made out of metal?! Probably not, since her attack had left a slight cut with the insides like she'd expect, but no way was she getting through it anytime soon.

"Gawk!" She called again as she began sprinting through the maze. Then she remembered it was silly to be calling out loud and called him through the Accomplice system.

"Hey, Gelic, this maze is so cool, isn't it?!"

"Not really!" she complained, a little annoyed by his carefree attitude, but maybe he didn't understand the full situation.

"Are you safe, Gawk? I think there's something else in this maze."

"Hmm, yeah, I'm fine. Just kinda been flapping around, looking at all the cool mushrooms."

"Stay where you are! I'll find you." So she said, but the path and turns she'd taken seemed to be leading her farther away from the entrance and where he'd been.

"Oh, maybe I can help with that. Let me see if I can get my eyes on you. I'll fly to the top and see if I can spot you through the mushroom cracks." That was a good idea, and she tried to do the same, but the ceiling was too tall for her version of Bumble to get that much height. Just when she was about to bounce and try Fluttering, she caught the glimpse of her friend's eye a bit away before it vanished again.

"Alright, I've locked onto you with my Skill, so now I can track you through it. How about this, we'll keep trying to work toward each other, but if we get to a junction, we stop and try to guide each other there."

"Okay, sure." While she'd prefer him to stay still, and leave it to her, it wasn't a terrible idea. And she had a bit of a trick herself. Is this the right path to him? [There is only a dead end in your future] Well, that was a bit more annoyingly cryptic than she wanted, not sure if it meant a literal dead end, or it ended with her death. But either way, Divining Ear told her what she needed to know, so she skipped that path and went to the next.

"Gawk, I see you!" After several more twists and turns, the floating eye was straight ahead, waiting at a junction as promised. He'd helped her a bit with how close they were to each other, but sadly, it wasn't extremely useful since the paths would weave toward and away in random directions. Whoever came up with this maze was a Demon indeed, one who probably relished in the struggles of those who got trapped. [You should watch your step] [Divining Ear Lv. 4] The Skill suddenly spouted a warning of its own volition, literally a step too late. Well, it had actually been timely, but it just took Gelic a moment longer to process what had been whispered to her. There was something like a click beneath her foot, followed by a rumbling. And then the mushroom forest, in one grand gesture, if it could even be described as such… passed gas. Fumes, spores, and all other sorts of unpleasantries flooded the space in seconds.

There wasn't even the chance to react or bolt back the way she came to try to outrun it. [Plague Resistance Lv. 3]"Gelic. Aha, Gelic, what is this stuff? Hahaha. I can't stop. Aha." Apparently Gawk had been hit with some sort of laughing fume. That was better than what she could have hoped, especially because she wasn't feeling the same effects. Her insides felt like they were burning. Maybe this was the same poison that Succor had mentioned that he used for heat, but sadly, her Heat Resistance wouldn't help here.

Checking her Health, it was slowly dwindling, but not at a breakneck pace. Ughk, damn, she should have saved some of that poisoned food from earlier, but it was just too delicious. Second Stomach told her she was currently carrying a few poisoned dishes, but if she ate those meant for the Legion Heirs, they'd fail the trial. Of course, if it came down to an emergency, she wouldn't hesitate. Or more likely, she'd just cast Return to escape. Except, she couldn't at least not until Gawk was safe.

"Fly up high, Gawk," she directed.

"It looks like the poisons aren't reaching all the way to the ceiling." Or at least she hoped that was the case. The mist of spores and fumes had completely blinded her otherwise, only able to barely see the gaps of ventilation above. She couldn't see her friend anymore at all, and only thanks to their telepathic communication did she know he was safe. Fortunately, it didn't seem the intent of these traps was to kill, more to obfuscate and torment.

Either for the amusement of the Cultists, or to give them time to come and capture any intruders.

"Eehehehe. Okay, I just bought the Clarity Skill!" Gawk suddenly announced.

"I can see you again, Gelic! Hey, haha, what's that behind you?" Behind her? She whirled around just to see something flying straight toward her. She pulled up her arm and managed to block the hit with her carapace armor, but apparently that wasn't the best choice. The projectile was goopy and clung to her. It both stung and burned, as if it was trying to eat through her arm, maybe some sort of Decay. But the pain started to fade quickly, despite the thing still stinging her, and her limb went limp.

[Passive Skill: Paralysis Resistance Lv. 1 unlocked] [Would you like to Graft Paralysis Resistance to Plague Resistance?] Uhh, sure. [Paralysis Resistance has been Grafted to Plague Resistance] Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. That suddenly felt a lot better, and she got some movement in her arm back, probably since it had been boosted from its base Lv. 1 to the collective Lv. 3 of the Grafted Skill.

It was different than when she was paralyzed by Gawk, which had targeted her whole body and had a timer until release. This was a local paralysis, affecting only her arm, and when she checked the DGS, it showed a percentage of potency that was ticking down instead of a timer.

"It's shooting another one at you!" Gawk called just in time. She swiped away the first shot off her arm with her claws, then followed it up with a tuck and roll, temporarily shifting into her bug form's ball-mode for just a second before popping up a few feet away, dodging the second goo shot. Acting quickly, before whatever it was could fire again, she spawned one of her elegant ice axes, attempting to fire it at the foe with Seeking Projectile, but the weapon sadly clanged to the ground instead.

As it turned out, if she couldn't see the target, or at least know where or what it was, the Skill wouldn't activate, not even its ability to build force. Scrying Eye didn't work either. Maybe she just wasn't looking at the right spot. But she had to try to fight back, so she quickly morphed to a human, unable to pick the axe up with her claws, and chucked it with all her Might.

"Ahaha, yeah, you missed," Gawk commentated, going through another giggle fit, not free of his poison's effects entirely.

"Up high!" Thanks to that warning, she shrunk down back to a Puck, dodging the shot that was aimed right at her human head. In an attempt to block any further shots she held out her good arm and manifested as much ice as she could, constructing a wall that probably looked horribly misshapen. Since she couldn't see either side of the corridor, she just let the magic run wild until it was stopped by the mushrooms. A moment later, she heard the sizzle of another goo shot, having hit the ice and starting to melt it.

There was then a rapid pelting of a few more.

"Ohoho, it didn't like that. Now it's coming toward you. Heh, the ice makes it look wonky. Well, even more wonky than before." Gelic's body tensed when she heard a thud, the rattling of her ice wall. Fortunately, even after a few more hits, it seemed like it was holding up. Or maybe not.

"Your ice is cracking!" Well that was cause for concern. Maybe she could make another wall, except, "Oh wait, it's running away?" There was a moment of silence before he corrected himself.

"Ah, no, it was just getting some distance for a running start. Incoming!" Gelic backed up a few feet, thinking about what she could do. Onto the ground, using Frostbite, she spawned a whole slew of poison caltrops, then she backed up further, making a second ice-wall, but this time, it had poison spikes on the enemy-facing side. She heard the trampling coming her way, so she turned back into a human and readied a handaxe. With all of her Cold Resistance levels, it no longer hurt to touch at all.

Sadly, though, since her other arm was still recovering from its Paralysis, she couldn't count on it to throw. At least it was her non-dominant left arm. There was the bash of ice shattering, followed by a hissing roar, probably pissed about the caltrops. Though its momentum had clearly slowed, it still charged forward, ramming into the second wall which shook, leading to more pained cries. But it still persisted. There was repeated hammering on the ice, followed by more bashing on a single spot.

A broken shard went whizzing past Gelic's head as the shadow of some sort of limb pierced through. It vanished, and she took a hesitant step closer, trying to get a look with her limited visual range. A face filled the hole that had been created, if it could be called as such. The monster's head looked like a melted mushroom, perhaps what she should have expected, but it was still startling. Through the opening on its face, which she had to call its mouth, it pursed, likely to spit out another goopy shot.

She didn't hesitate, not even wasting a moment to scry the thing. The handaxe went tumbling through the air, its head going right through the hole in the wall, chopping straight into the beast's visage. Another roar, and it reeled before vanishing out of her sight entirely.

"Oh, it actually is running away now. I'm tracking it. You did a good amount of damage to its Health. Sixties. Looks like it's hiding now so it can heal or try to hunt us down again."

"Is it poisoned?" She asked, wondering how effective it was. Crap, wait, he wouldn't be able to see the stacks she inflicted, so she rephrased the question.

"Is its Health still going down?"

"Uhh, a little bit, not fast." Damn. Since it was some sort of fungal creature, it likely had high Poison Resistance. Not only that, fungus usually did fine in the cold, so she probably couldn't freeze it to death either.

"Just what the hell is it?!" Probably not the right swear, being in Hell and all, but her guttural frustration didn't have the wherewithal to think of anything better.

"It just says it's a Spawn. My Scrying Eye isn't high enough to see its level."

"A Spawn? So not a Demon or a Malignant?!"

"Uhh, no, they're monsters made by Skills," Gawk explained.

"Conqueror Attunement usually. Doesn't seem like it's enhanced by Sloth, or it'd be way stronger. Still, was probably made by one of the Legion Heirs, possibly even a Ghoul since it was kind of weak. I don't think Morgo Gorgo made them, or no way we'd survive." Really, that was weak? But the confidence in her friend's voice was kind of reassuring. Yeah, if she'd done that much damage, and honestly hadn't taken too much in turn, it probably wasn't a huge worry.

Her Skills were just a bad matchup, and honestly, without Gawk's guidance, she would have been way worse off. Gelic kind of wanted to pursue the thing, to not give it a chance to heal if it could or get the jump on them, but she'd rather not rely solely on blind directions if possible, even if he'd done a decent job. She tried using Hunting Nose, but it didn't lock onto anything, the Spawn's scent likely too diluted by all the gasses. It likely would have only worked if she had gotten a whiff of it when up close.

Hmm, maybe if? She flapped her wings as hard as she could, trying to blast away the fog that was still burning her, though less so, probably with another Plague Resistance level. It actually sort of worked, but using them so much when she wasn't used to it wore her out quickly, and as soon as she stopped, the mist was back, clouding her sight once more. [You are attempting something similar to a Skill you currently have available for purchase. Would you like to hear about it now?] Would it be helpful?! [Unlikely. However, as a reminder, you currently have 5 unknown Skills you requested to be informed about previously] Okay, would any of the others help?! [Yes. One would greatly assist you with your situation] Great, then— [But you cannot currently purchase it] Aghk, you suck. Then why did you bring them up at all?! [Because you are not thinking properly. While these Skills would not assist you at present, you're still thinking with limited scope, and not considering those also available to you that you do not currently possess] What the heck kind of cryptic frits was the DGS spewing?! She should file a complaint, and… and then it dawned on her, what it was referring to. That had actually been a huge hint, one that could possibly be even considered overreaching compared to the system's usual assistance.

"Gawk, use Ocular Transmission on me!"

"Ehh, are you sure? You didn't seem to like it too much last time."

"I'll deal with it." She assured him and also herself in the process.

"I know you're not great at fighting, but I'm useless without your help right now. So with your sight and my power, we'll beat this thing together!"