Chapter 73: CHAPTER 73(The Forest Hidden Above)
Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
Discord: https://discord.gg/K7f8qGpvuk
pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
Sitting with legs crossed in front of him, Yang glared hatefully at the cards in his hand, looking up he was greeted once more by Thalie's cocky smile as she waiting for him to make a move.
*CLANG*
The sound of metal weapons clashing reached the duos' card game from their spot at the top of the 37th floor Collesium.
In the fighting arena, Welf could be seen covered in sweat, a deep gash on his left arm as he parries and counters the last three spartoi soldiers, monsters comprised of a tough humanoid skeleton with their crystal where the heart would be. With all these monsters being level 3 and 4, they thought it best to allow him to train as much as possible between the major fights as they tend to take the lead during those times.
As Yang finally decides to draw another card, he groans and drops his hand.
"HA, I WIN AGAIN! Thank the gods your good at killing monsters since you suck at this hehe." Thalie giggles as she begins shuffling the deck.
Glancing down at Welf, Yang takes a moment to survey the battle.
"Hm, he's doing pretty good considering he's underleveled for there, solo at least, TWO MORE HOURS WELF!" Yang yells out as Thalie begins dealing cards once more.
"Ugh, it's already been three hours, can't complain since we all agreed to this crap..." He mutters while looking at the new monsters rising from the floor.
No potions, no assistance, overcome or die. That was their agreement and he approved of it. After a few days of constantly increasing the intensity of his training by extending the time he's finally at the point where he has to survive five whole hours.
Yesterday he had to survive 3 hours, according to Yang, the increments have to be big so his body doesn't get used to it thus allowing his Falna to avoid stagnation.
After watching Thalie break her daggers, then her sword, then lastly her arms as she forced herself to solo a smaller earth elemental than what they'd previously faced earlier that week, then having Yang clear the rest of the valley floor, his pride wouldn't let him be the first to admit that their agreement was too much for him.
"You know, it's been a week and no sign of the weird Ore we need, we got some adamantite at least, but I think it's time..." Thalie says as she cast a side-eye at Welf, seeing him fight 6 new Spartoi soldiers.
"Hmmm, yeah, not sure what's at the top of the valley but we shouldn't put it off anymore, we'll head there first thing tomorrow. Let's update tonight if we're going up there, we can see if that potion really works," Yang says, agreeing that it was time to get their next step out of the way.
"It'll work, Hephaestus doesn't deal in duds, and she certainly won't give them to her familia," Thalie responds.
---Later that night, Floor-39 Safe Zone Campsite...
"So, you two ready for this?" Tsubaki asks as Yang and Welf give her a nod.
With his shirt already off Yang lays on his sleeping bag to allow his captain to use the Status Snitch item on his back.
The same sensation occurs as when Hephaestus herself checks his Falna, the sound of a pen quickly writing down some notes on paper can be heard for a few minutes before Tsubaki tells him she's all done.
Handing him the paper she immediately moves to update Welf's Falna.
Staring at the paper in his hand, with the standard three letters representing each base stat and some hastily written number indicating the number, he can't help but smile at the page.
"Hm, everything's at least C, not bad for two weeks give or take a few days..." he mutters under his breath, only to be answered by a groan from everyone in the tent.
"Why can't you be normal for once..."Thalie says, rolling her eyes dramatically.
"I'm just glad he's on our side honestly hahaha," Welf says as Tsubaki hands him his sheet as well.
"Hmm, got some Bs here, hell yeah." He quietly cheers, making sure not to alert anyone outside their tent.
"So what's the big move tomorrow, I assume there is one seeing as you actually used this," Tsubaki says before handing Yang the bottle to place into his inventory, away from prying eyes or shifty hands.
"I think there are, things? At the top of floor 36." He says casually.
"Hmm, above the walls huh, well you can fly so I suppose that's fine, but remember you can't all fly so be careful ok," Tsubaki warns while rising to her feet.
"Yeah got it, don't let em go splat," He replies with a cheeky smile.
"Haha, that's one way to put it, anyway let's get to bed sis, sounds like you've got an adventure tomorrow." Tsubaki cheers while dragging Thalie over to their own tent.
"You sure you'll be ok tomorrow, those cliffs are what, 200 feet high?" Tsubaki asks while getting under Thalie's blanket, casually making herself comfortable.
"Ohhh, now you're worried about what kicking me out of Babel's window did to my brain huh..."
"Hey you were trying to rob us, not my fault you landed like a brick," Tsubaki says with a cocky smile.
"Maybe because you broke my leg before you threw me outside..." Thalie responds through gritted teeth.
"Sigh, well, miracle boy can fly so no worries right," Tsubaki says while covering her head with the blanket, wrapping an arm around Thalie, "Night Lil sis."
"Yeah, hopefully, he can catch too..." She frowns deeply before closing her eyes, trying not to dream of tomorrow's challenge.
---Dungeon Floor-36, The Valley Floor...
Standing in at the halfway point of the floor, the Trifecta can't help but stop and stare at the monsters in front of them.
"I can smell them from here," Yang complains.
"They look so human it's weird..." Welf says with furrowed brows.
"THAT, looks human?" Thalie questions incredulously.
Laying in a heap roughly fifty feet ahead, five Ettin can be seen piled onto each other. Massive humanoids standing at twenty feet each, grotesque and rancid bodies lacking genitals, but sporting two heads and a club in each hand.
"They're called Ettin, basically an Orc or Troll with an extra head, same old same old," Yang says with a shrug before walking forward.
As he closes in on the sleeping monsters, they all immediately spring into action, each of the five brandishings a club in each hand.
"Right, forgot only one head sleeps at a time, annoying..." he murmurs while taking a fighting stance, his blue flames and purple lightning appearing on his body for all to see.
As the monsters rush toward him, a devious smile spreads across Yang's face.
"Let's see if the same strats work here."
Rearing back his right fist, he condenses the flames on it before meeting the descending club head-on.
"Prometheus Strike!" he yells out just before impact.
His flames blaze through the natural weapon, firing a line of destruction directly into the creature's right head. Immediately capitalizing Yang leaps onto the side of the now missing head, taking advantage of the classic strategy of attacking the headless side, the remaining head instinctively isn't used to having to look that way or operate that half of the body and gives a good chance to finish the fight.
Slamming his still blazing fist outward to his right, he incinerates the remaining head while standing on the shoulder of the monster.
"I FEEL SO DUMB CALLING OUT MY ATTACK NAMES!" he yells out while boosting himself to meet another monster's weapon mid-air.
"Get over it, it's the best way for us to know when to give you space!" Thalie yells as she slashes the ankles of another monster, causing it to immediately fall forward and become an easy kill.
"Yeah I'd rather not---" Welf stops speaking for a moment as he amputates a monsters wrist, dropping into a slight crouch before removing one of its legs as well, evidence of Thalie's training showing in his strategy, "As I was saying, rather not get caught off guard by a Pressure Damage like attack again so you'd best call them out!"
"Yeah yeah I get it," Yang groans while landing on the shoulder of another monster, placing both his hands onto it's shoulder.
"Freeze!"
A wave of cold rushes through the body of the monster, at first it slows the monster, barely but still working. After a moment, Yang frowns and pours more magic into the attack, immediately overwhelming the monster and freezing it solid before smashing down with his fist, shattering its body.
Gently landing on his feet as his teammates walk toward him, he can't help be sigh at what just happened.
"What's eating you?" Welf asks, noticing his annoyed expression.
"Cold takes a bit more time to work, to build the magic for it at least," he confesses.
"Well fire is your most natural so that makes sense, practice enough and it'll come naturally," Thalie says as she walks toward the valley wall, both men quickly falling into step behind her.
"Yeah and honestly man, hard to tell you aren't good at it considering you almost froze me that first night in the tent," Welf says with a shrug.
"Ugh, lets pretend that didn't happen please,"
As they stop walking, they notice Thalie staring up at the 200ft sheer cliff in front of them.
"Ready?" Yang asks as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Uh-um-yeah sure..." She sputters unconvincingly.
"If you're afr---"
"I'm not afraid!" She yells at Welf, cutting him off, "Sorry, just. We can't all fly ok," she says with a sigh.
"Then it's a good thing you've got the adventurer that can, if anything happens I've got you, trust me..." Yang says as he extends a hand to her.
"Yeah and besides didn't he fly with us before, over those exploding rock things in the floor before this one?" Welf asks.
"Yeah, but 50ft and 200ft are way different ok..." Thalie mutters out.
"Mmm, yeah, only one way to get past it you know..." Welf says as he grabs onto Yang's right shoulder.
"I-I know," Thalie sputters once more, uncharacteristically meek from the ever-confident woman.
Grabbing onto his left shoulder, she takes a deep breath before Yang wraps an arm around her waist as well as Welf's before slowly ascending with his fire and wind.
As they ascend the stone cliff, Thalie's breathing becomes shallow and ragged, almost to the point of hyperventilating, her eyes squeezed shut tightly as she tries to think about anything but the drop below her.
The moment their feet touch the ground she drops onto her hands and knees, covering her mouth to keep her breakfast down.
"Hey, you---" Yang's words are cut off as she raises a hand, signaling him to give her a moment.
Giving her space, he looks out at the trees ahead of him, the true ceiling of this floor extending for hundreds of meters above as one massive tree, stands in the distance like Babel does over Orario.
The tall and thin trees of this hidden forest reach high above but the distance between their trunks is vast, allowing for easily two dozen meters between them whilst their canopies never touch.
The crystals embedded all around the floor giving an appearance similar to under-resort during its day cycle, leaving the Trifecta speechless.
"Yang check this out!" Welf calls out, a few meters away at what appears to be a raised mound of stone. Many more are spread along the edges of the cliff at the top on both sides of the valley.
"It smells sweet, I think this is why the monsters are so docile until you get close, look," He points toward the gas leaving these vents, blue gas that becomes invisible the moment it's hit by light and falls into the valley below.
"Hmmm, think the guild could use this?" Yang asks, truly curious.
"Don't see how they can harvest it honestly," Welf replies with a light shrug.
"For the record, I wasn't always scared of heights," A shakey voice calls out closer to the treeline.
"You don't have to explain to us..." Yang responds meekly, earning a nod from Welf.
"When Tsubaki put me in the hospital, she kicked me out of Hephaestus's office, out of Babel through a window..." the woman admitted, earning a wince from both men.
"Can't think of many reasons better than that, you?" Welf asks Yang.
"Nope."
"Alright, I've caught my breath... let's go," Thalie says, legs still a bit shaky as she marches into the treeline.
After almost 10 minutes of walking, they finally happen upon their first encounter.
Standing before the Trifecta, a large black and red beetle, 10 meters long walks across the floor before noticing them.
Standing on guard immediately, weapons drawn, or in Yang's case hands raised to fight. The beetle immediately rushes them, pincers extended forward.
As Yang's flames blaze to life, the monster lunges forward, its looming shadow covering the adventurers, rearing back his fist, flames gathered and ready to shoot forward.
Suddenly, a gust of wind tears through the area as large black talons snatch the beetle out of mid-air, the wind pushing back the trees, blowing the adventurers off their feet and causing them to ragdoll across the grass.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Yang yells out, completely confused as to what the hell just happened.
"Ouch.." welf groans as he rolls over onto his back.
"Yeah, what the fuck?" Thalie questions as they all now look up at the massive tree in the distance.
Flying around the canopy of the tree before descending into it, a massive Roc, 200ft wingspan from tip to tip and 30meters(90ft) tall, its white and brown feathers giving the image of a massively overgrown eagle as it dominates its own sky within the dungeon.
"Well, we might be fucked..." Thalie says as she walks to where the beetle was grabbed out of mid-air.
"Please, for the love of Hephaestus tell me that's not what I think it is," Welf says while looking at the little black rock in her hand.
"You tell me," She says before tossing it toward the smith.
With a casual catch he barely even has to glance at it before his face falls.
"Shit, so... you called it a...Roc?" Welf turns to Yang.
"Yeah, I really really really hoped I'd never have to meet one, this is gonna suck," he groans out, staring at the massive tree in the distance.
END CHAPTER---
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
keanu_eugene
keanu_eugene Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.
Monster Sources: Ettin(D&D 5e Ettin)
Roc(D&D 5e Roc)
---Thalie scared of heights because of Tsubaki... if you go back the foreshadowing about the fear was there :)
---My other favorite D&D creature, the king of the skies is here XD
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone