Chapter 96: The Dungeon''s Mechanism


    After Finn recovered from that incident, Qi Ling constructed a new ice slide for herself, Yun Xin, Reaper, and Jim, their leader. It connected to the backside of the ind, which everyone else was now on.


    Qi Ling shot Pang Zi and Tian Long a cold look as she passed by, but didn’t say anything and instead worked on creating a new bridge over to the next ind below. Words may not have been spoken, but the disappointment was evident in her purple eyes. Both Pang Zi and Tian Long were unable to say anything in response either, knowing it was their own fault.


    “Heh… she wasn’t worried at all when ya two began fallin’, ya know,” Jim chuckled.


    “Yeah… that’s her nature,” Tian Long replied. “We weren’t expecting her to worry about us or anything either. If we die, it’s our own fault.”


    “So that’s how Lei trains his kids, eh…?” Jim smirked, then nced at Finn and Iris. “Guess ya can see the difference between him and Archon.”


    “… Are we going to move?” Qi Ling interjected coldly, ncing back with an icy stare. “There’s still a lot of ground to cover.”


    “Haha, of course,” Jim replied with a chuckle as the team set into motion once more.


    *****


    The group attacked the next few inds in a simr manner to the first. Qi Ling would create an ice slide for the group, and the rest of the Hunters would jump in and take out all the Phantoms. There was enough space and noise from asteroid belts between the inds that the Ghosts on other tforms couldn’t hear what was going on above them, which made things a lot easier.


    Of course, Pang Zi learned from his mistake and didn’t try to show off his strength again. Instead, the humbled him took it easy and fought like a normal person, though his techniques were still somewhat brash. That said, his Angelica was the simple Brawler Angelica, which empowered and focused on bullish attacks like that.


    It wasn’t too strong of a power at its core, but in the right hands of someone who could maximize its potential like Pang Zi, it could be deadly.


    Tian Long used his ming sword and paired it with his mebreather Angelica to burn any foes that came close to ashes, while Qi Ling — Frostbite — used her scepter to control her power over ice and freeze entire hordes of enemies at once before shattering them. Though her power and Tian Long’s interfered with one another, they worked together quite well.


    And speaking of teamwork, no one could match the ultimatebination of melee and range, Ace and Ivy.


    Finn had gotten a lot better with his hearing abilities recently, allowing him to pinpoint locations of Phantoms without Iris even needing to tell him. In addition, if one of them tried sneaking up on him, he now had Devil’s Timing as well to counter it.


    He could also use his Stormbringer Abilities, but he wanted to conserve his mana right now if possible due to the sheer amount he wasted by saving Pang Zi. There was no point in using them right now anyway, as Iris took care of any faraway enemies with her sniper and none of them were really clumped up together.


    Reaper and Octane were off doing their own things as always, cutting through any Phantoms they encountered with ease. ire was somewhat useless Angelica-wise, but she provided back-up by using a specially enchanted bow that she was surprisingly good with despite her short frame.


    Together, the team managed to tear through all the inds in the matter of about fifteen minutes without any rest. And as they finished up thest one, Jim pped his hands a few times.


    “Bravo, kids. Ya did better than I expected.”


    “You were testing us?” Tian Long asked.


    “Ha! Of course! Matter of fact, this entire bloody Baron Hunt will be a test!” He replied, chuckling boldly. “I didn’t teach ya for nothin’. I won’t interfere in this operation unless absolutely bloody necessary — why’d ya think I didn’t do anythin’ for the past few inds?”


    “… Was that not because you were justzy?” Finn challenged, being brutally honest.


    “H-Hah! Funny joke, kid! Definitely not!” Jim shouted,ughing to cover up his embarrassment. “But uh… anyway, I suggest ya best get ready. That was just the opening encounter. The real fun begins now — look below ya.”


    The group turned their heads to look below the edge of the ind, expecting to see another one waiting there. But instead, what they saw was a massive… cathedral?


    The structure was too damaged to tell and the darkness certainly didn’t help, but it looked like an abandoned church of some sort. Behind and beyond the structure, a graveyard could be seen on a hill. But this scene… it seemed somewhat familiar to a certain two people — though one of them didn’t realize yet.


    “Wait… this church…” Iris muttered, looking at Jim.


    “Heh. Ya realized it, didn’t ya?”


    “Yeah… it’s nearly identical to the one in the map Fin- er, Ace and I fought you in.”


    Jim smiled. “That bloody map was made based on a real ce, y’know?”


    “Then that means…” Iris nced back down at the shattered church as lightning bolts struck down in the dark abyss all around them.


    “… Yep. This Dungeon is based on that same bloody ce as well.”


    *****


    The group lowered themselves onto the ind the church was on via Frostbite’s ice slides and cautiously headed inside, having no other way to go. There weren’t any more inds around, and there was no way around this building but to go inside — unless, of course, they built a path on their own, which was hardly useful.


    “I’m convinced now…” Iris muttered on top of Finn’s shoulders, surveying the interior of the massive church. “This is definitely the one we fought you in.”


    “Ya see, the dimension we’re in right now is called the Paracausal Realm,” Jim exined. “Dungeons and Temples will both be within this realm, but not all will look like this one. Some may look broken like this, some may look bloody distorted, and some may seem perfectly normal as if ya hadn’t stepped through a portal to enter at all.”


    “But how does that exin this ce’s resemnce to a location in the real world?” Iris inquired further.


    “Ya can think of the Paracausal Realm as a mirror world of our own,” Jim said,ing to a stop as they reached the end of the church. “Except… it only mirrors ces where a lotta bloody humans died.”


    But there was no time to discuss this further as a new challenge had opened up before them.


    Above the desecrated statue of a once-holy being before them, three glowing symbolsy side by side. The left one was a swooping falcon, the right was a soaring eagle, and the one in the middle was an owl with its wings spread.


    “Oho…” Jim chuckled. “Interestin’.”


    “… What is this?” Qi Ling asked in confusion.


    Jim chuckled, a wide grin on his face.


    “This, is the mechanism of this bloody Dungeon, my friend.”