Chương 25: Corrupted Dungeon

He stood at the base of a hill, the ground rising ahead of him. The scout led them toward the dungeon, and Adolin followed behind. The hill was steep, rocky, and thick with trees. He wouldn't have noticed it if not for the sharp incline. He was excited. It was time to learn more about the world. About dungeons. He just hoped they would explain it, and not act like everyone already knew. He didn't. The second scout and Clay walked beside him, the others trailing behind. Revel was somewhere in the middle with Edrin.

She had calmed down, but Adolin knew better. She was acting. He had seen it before. Bloodthirst, barely contained. He would keep an eye on her. Before she got herself killed.

"Here," the scout pointed toward a rocky formation, covered in black with green dots. Moss. The rock was covered in moss, but it was corrupted. It did look beautiful. By the looks of everyone around him, he was the only one who thought so. He studied it, and found the opening. Cave. It was a cave. Did he misunderstand the language? He didn't think so. There was a word for cave. Pescher. He felt some mana coming from the cave's entrance, but that was it. And mana inside caves wasn't rare.

Dark magic users usually died there. He wasn't sure why, but it seemed like dark, narrow, and wet places attracted them. He shrugged. He didn't really care about them. Edrin walked toward the entrance, so Adolin stepped back. He stopped where he could see the entrance, keeping Revel in his peripheral vision. It was time to keep an eye on her. She stood at the back again, looking toward the entrance like everyone else. A device appeared in Edrin's hand. Wood, with metal… or stone. Maybe both.

He stopped in front of the entrance and extended the device toward it. After a whole minute, he spoke.

"D Tier. Five people can enter as a group. After entry, the groups will be split inside the dungeon." So it was a magical cave? That helped, but he wouldn't mind getting more information. He stepped back, his hand on his chin.

"It's corrupted, so we can't trust the readings. With the corruption increasing the strength of the monsters, it should be around C… or even B tier."

"Do we enter, my lord?" one of the soldiers asked.

"We have to," Edrin said.

"Revel, has your family cleared corrupted dungeons?"

"No. It's my first time seeing one," Revel said. Edrin looked at Clay. The latter shook his head.

"We send a group to scout it out. They'll check the first room, maybe the second," Edrin said.

"The others burn the forest. We don't leave until everything is purged." Revel nodded. Edrin looked over the faces of his men.

"Sir William will lead the scouting party. You have two hours to explore."

"Yes, my lord," Sir William said. He stepped forward and picked the two scouts, along with two more men Adolin didn't know. William was the first name he had heard so far. They took five minutes to prepare, then stood at the entrance.

"We're ready."

"Good luck. Two hours. No more," Edrin said. They entered the cave. Adolin waited for something magical to happen. Nothing did. He clicked his tongue. Edrin looked at him and Revel.

"Fire magic?" Revel shook her head. Adolin knew fire magic. Quite a lot. He had learned many spells before his revenge. And burned a lot of things toward the end of it. He could be called a Fire Archmage. But he didn't like it. He had only learned it because his village was burned. So he wanted to burn the church. It was poetic in a way. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. It had also made sense at the time. He hadn't used it since. Well…

that wasn't entirely true. But using it to burn corruption sounded like a good idea.

"I know some," he said.

"West side is yours. Take Revel with you." He did say some, right? Why was he given a whole direction to burn? At least Revel would enjoy the fire. Maybe even lose some of that bloodthirst along the way.

"Clay, go with them. Act as their protector." Lord Ashvale was a thoughtful man. He gave him reinforcement, in case Revel lost control again. Adolin was beginning to like him. Really thoughtful.

"We start from the beginning of the corruption and burn inward," Edrin said.

"Make sure not to leave anything behind. Everything must be burned. If we miss something, it will recover and start spreading again. Am I clear?"

"Yes, my lord," his men said in unison. Edrin split them into groups and left one by the dungeon, in case something happened to the team that entered it. Adolin was already moving toward the edge of the corruption, Revel behind him and Clay next to her.

"Rel, you good?" Clay asked.

"Yeah," Revel said.

"I'll be better when everything is burned." Well, at least she wasn't hiding it. Not too much.

"That's enough for me," Clay said.

"Just don't… don't lose control again." Revel didn't say anything. They moved in silence after that. Clay looked uncomfortable the whole way. Like he wanted to say something, or do something, but wasn't sure if he should. The boy was struggling. The only way Adolin saw to help Revel was to burn. To burn the corruption. She would be back to her old self after that. Of that he was sure. And he could help her with that. Quite easily. Her half-smile was starting to annoy him.

They arrived at the edge of the corrupted forest and the healthy one.

"So?" Adolin asked. Revel walked around the area, analyzing the healthy trees. It took her some time, but she finally spoke.

"We need to start with a few rows of the healthy trees. There's a small chance they're already corrupted. We shouldn't take unnecessary risks." She walked past seven rows of trees.

"Here should be enough. The first three rows are infected. Rows four and five have a high chance. And there's a small chance at row seven. After that, there shouldn't be." Adolin agreed. There was no need to take risks. He walked behind her, stopping at the tenth row, and used Analyze on a tree. [Analyze Complete.] [Wislberow Tree.] [Interference level: Not Found.] Well, that did nothing. He focused on the mana already inside the tree, and spread it. Through the whole tree at first, then into the roots.

He didn't find anything. The tree should be free of corruption. Now he had to burn the whole section by himself. He also didn't want to waste more mana than necessary. There were a couple of ways to do it, but the best ones were using spells for the first time. So mana control was out. He needed a strong fire spell that could burn the trees quickly. There were a few options. Fire Shower. It was the same as Ice Shower, but with fire-natured mana.

But it would drain his mana fast, and it wouldn't cover the entire forest. There was also Fire Wall. No, it wasn't wide enough. Was there a spell wide enough for the task? Probably not. Not with the mana he had. Ugh. He would have to do it section by section. Unless he used Fire Wall, then spread the fire-natured mana further with mana control. Add wind spells to push it in all directions. That would get the job done. Three new spells. And a level increase.

"Step back," Adolin said. He cast Fire Wall, adding more mana to increase its length. A wall of fire appeared in front of him. It formed and started spreading lengthwise. Increasing until it was over twelve meters in length. Clay blinked, while Revel smiled. Once it was done spreading, he controlled the fire-natured mana particles, pushing them further. The trees caught fire and started burning. The particles spread, and the next twelve rows began to catch. Moments later, over thirty rows of trees were on fire.

The corruption burned, and the unnatural feeling increased. The urge to tear it apart grew as well. A defensive mechanism. The smell in the air turned to rot. An awful smell that threatened to make him vomit. He glanced back at Revel. She was smiling.

"What are you looking at?" she said.

"Burn it." He obliged, casting Wind, but adding fire-natured mana within it. He cast it two more times, each from a different direction. The fire spread unnaturally. From thirty rows it grew to fifty, then to a hundred. The black smoke that followed made it harder to breathe. He cast Air Bubble around his head, keeping the smoke away, only allowing pure oxygen in. Revel had cast a similar spell, but from shadow. He wasn't sure how it worked, but it did. Clay had one too. Revel's laughter followed.

Fire was the perfect element for revenge. And it seemed Revel agreed. He had to cast the same spells three more times to cover his region. He added a third Wind spell to mix things up. He interfered a few times to stop the fire from spreading in the wrong direction, but it didn't cost him much mana. After that, they just walked behind the fire. It burned fast and left nothing behind. The only thing he added was Wind, to help it spread faster and burn hotter.

The added fire-natured mana made the Wind spell more effective, letting the flames burn even hotter. It took him two hours before they returned to the dungeon. The others weren't back yet, only the group that had stayed behind, with Lord Ashvale standing among them. A small magical field surrounded them, isolating the smoke.

"Are they back?" Clay asked as he stepped into the barrier.

"No, but their time is up. They should be back soon," Edrin said. Revel had stopped laughing when they were halfway through. She probably got tired, but some of the bloodthirst was gone. Most of it. After the dungeon, she would be back to normal. He hoped. Clay looked pleased with the progress. He had calmed down as well. Well, it wasn't that hard to babysit teenagers. Not with a whole forest to burn. He smiled inwardly. He did like burning. An hour passed. No one came out of the dungeon.