Chương 83: The Big Wisp

No one had any arguments about continuing. By now, all experienced divers had it beaten into their heads that mana equaled power. Now, for the first time in a long time, the prisoners had mana for the taking. Jo and Tiny knew most of these people, so they set about dividing jobs according to ability. The guy who was supposed to be dungeon feed was set as watch while others gathered the mana crystals and looted the bodies of the guards.

Sure, Thomas knew that some people were taking crystals for themselves instead of adding to the pot, but there was a bounty here, and he didn't begrudge them any of it. Okay, yes, he absolutely did, but he firmly told himself this was all level three stuff, and there were bigger problems on his plate. Also, if the prisoners were focused on keeping their own thefts secret, they weren't thinking hard about how exactly there were so many crystals lying around.

For now, it seemed that most were willing to accept the excuse that there must have been a previous team wipe which had juiced up the dungeon for them. That wouldn't continue if anyone noticed that Thomas' kills, specifically, dropped a lot of loot. Sometimes his Gift could be really inconvenient. Thomas played up the part of "healer" and swept the group with his Healing Sight as they worked.

He was still getting used to all the new colors, but he didn't think he saw anything that a healing crystal wouldn't heal and would need his Living Architecture skill instead. Just a lot of exhaustion. Most of these people seemed to be running on fumes. The exception was Courtney, who was perfectly rested, with the exception of her head wound which had knocked her out. Thomas gave a significant look to Twitch, who still stood by her. The man hesitated a moment, then stepped aside.

Kneeling by her, Thomas grabbed her shoulder and shook her hard.

"Wake up." Hey, just because he could heal people didn't mean he had to be nice about it. Courtney woke with a gasp, though she was clearly disoriented. Her eyes were vague and unfocused as they darted between Thomas and Twitch, who stood nearby.

"Absorb this," Thomas said, pressing a level 3 healing crystal directly into her palm. She did, he thought, more out of instinct than anything else. He watched with his Healing Sight as the power of healing mana rushed through her and fixed the wound in her scalp. She exhaled the excess on the next breath. As she did, her eyes focused, and she seemed to instantly take in her situation.

"Wait—wait, you think that I...? No, I wasn't really with them!" She spoke quickly, her voice growing more high-pitched with panic.

"Fred's people, and... and those elves blackmailed me! I didn't have a choice. I swear, I'm on your guy's side and tried to help where I could—""Save it," Tiny barked, marching up to them. Zach and Jo were close behind. Tiny stared down at her, his massive arms crossed over his chest.

"That's bullshit. You weren't looking too blackmailed when you helped push us all forward to clear out the dungeon so you and your buddies could pick up the drops."

"She did her job as a guard just fine, from what I saw," Jo added, her expression merciless. Thomas, however, had focused on another detail entirely.

"Wait, you and the other guards collected the loot, right? How? You didn't, like, put it all in your pockets?" Courtney looked confused.

"No, they had bags, but I wasn't trusted. I wasn't allowed--" Thomas's eyes widened, and he abruptly stood up.

"Excuse me," he muttered. Leaving the group to deal with the problem of Courtney, he walked quickly back to the corpses of the fallen guards. What was left of their limbs had been repositioned from the last time he'd seen them. Someone had already done the job of searching the bodies. Not that they expected to find much, seeing as they had just stepped into the dungeon. Those prisoners didn't have his Eyes of Riches skill. Thomas blinked slowly, shutting off his Health Sight and activating Riches.

As he hoped, the right pocket vests of the guards flared a brilliant purple-silver color. It took a couple of moments for him to discover what was going on because it wasn't obvious, but each had hidden pockets on the inside of their vests. Those would be easy to overlook on a casual search. He kept his movements small and did everything he could to try to stay uninteresting. Luckily, everybody was either interested in the trauma with Courtney or picking up the last of the mana crystals.

Nobody seemed to care what he was doing. He pulled a black fabric bag out of each hidden pocket. At a glance, the bags looked plain with no decoration at all, but they practically glittered in his sight. They were extraplanar storage bags, a lot like his backpack of holding. Carefully, he stuck his hand up to the wrist and felt the good zing of level three Light mana and... there it was, Wellspring mana. Still level three, and so not comparable to the crystal he had, but it wasn't nothing.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. These guards had been skimming off the top and hiding prime drops from the rest of the family. He bet there were items in there too, and it took almost all his willpower not to go through it right then and there. People would notice, and that was prime ground for fights to break out. He trusted his team, not everyone else. The bags folded flat, and he stuck them in his own pocket.

Yeah, the prisoners had gotten the majority of the loot off the ground, but he had the real prizes. He returned to Courtney, trying not to look suspicious at all. Clearly, a consensus had been reached among the group while he'd been gone.

"We aren't going to kill her," Jo was telling the others with the weight of authority, "but we certainly aren't leaving her to go back through the safe room door and let the others know what's going on." Tiny seemed to be waiting for that moment. He stepped forward, holding one of the ankle monitors. The irony wasn't lost on anyone as he snapped it securely around her ankle.

"You step out of line, or just piss us off," Tiny said, "and we give you a dose of what you've been giving us." He held up the metal remote control meaningfully.

"I won't, I swear I'm on your side," Courtney said, looking back and forth, her eyes wet. Notably, Zach, who probably knew her best, said nothing.

"Yeah, I don't believe you," Jo said.

"Just stay quiet and don't cause us any trouble. We will make it out alive." Thomas glanced at Twitch to see what his reaction was, but he stood back with his lips pursed. He might feel some sympathy for Courtney, but he wasn't an idiot. This was a life-or-death situation, and being under control of the ankle monitor wasn't that bad of a fate, especially considering Thomas was pretty sure he had destroyed the thing with his severing beam. Courtney didn't know that, though. Zach nudged Thomas's arm.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" He nodded with his chin toward a quiet corner. Thomas nodded and followed him over there. It was clear what the other man wanted. His eyes kept darting back to Antonin, who was sitting on a rock and staring blankly out at the prisoners.

"Look, I hate to ask you," Zach said, the second they were out of casual hearing range from the others, "but do you think that you can help fix him? Maybe reset his core somehow?" Thomas looked at Antonin, then back at Zach.

"You mean with the purge?"

"Yeah, maybe if you think it'll work? I saw what it did for Jo. Antonin was forced to take too much Corruption mana too fast, and..." Zach's shoulders slumped.

"He wasn't always like this. I was just hoping for a way to reset him."

"I don't know," Thomas said.

"Maybe. It might clear out some of the toxins at the very least. But if you're talking about burning down his core, he can only do that if he has the ability to absorb Healing mana."

"He doesn't," Zach said immediately, proving he'd already been thinking from that angle too.

"We can try the purge," Thomas said.

"Just not here where we're surrounded by enemies. And... Zach, I can't guarantee anything, but I think it would be better for him if we got Akilah on the case. He is an actual practicing healer. I just sort of throw mana and my abilities at the problem and hope for the best. Your cousin might need more than that, you know?"

"But you'll try?" Zach said.

"Of course I will." As if he'd say no. Zach nodded, and it seemed like a little weight lifted from his shoulders. Thomas hesitated for a moment. He tried not to ask Zach often about his family since it was clear it was a painful subject, and he'd done everything to leave that life behind him, but he had to know.

"Is that why you left your family? The corruption mana?" Zach half shrugged, looking sad.

"I was part of the main family, man. We weren't expected to poison ourselves like that. Antonin was supposed to be part of the main family too, but..." He shrugged again.

"I was kind of a true believer, but seeing what happened to him? It made me think."

"You were just a kid, right?"

"Sixteen," Zach confirmed.

"Old enough to know better. My dad didn't want most of us who were supposed to lead the next generation to dive until the System was announced. Gifts were supposed to be stronger after that date, but Antonin--""Hey!" someone yelped from across the cavern. It was the guy who was supposed to be used for dungeon feed. He had been set to keep watch near the bend in the cave.

"Hey, something big is coming at us fast!" He backpedaled rapidly, lending weight to his words. Nothing was visibly apparent, but nowadays people had all sorts of Gifts, skills, and abilities. Case in point, Thomas switched back from his Eyes of Riches to his Healing Sight and cast out as far as he could. Uh... yeah, something big was barreling straight towards them. Beyond that, this dungeon was wisp-central.

Perhaps he'd been stupidly optimistic that they'd cleared out a good chunk of the things in the first fight since there had been multiple waves, but now he realized that wasn't the case. This was a really tough level 3 dungeon.

"He's right," Thomas muttered under his breath.

"Let's get ready." He and Zach quickly joined the others.

"It's probably a sub-boss," Tiny called. He had a voice that fit his body and seemed to effortlessly boom across the space. So much for not alerting anything else where they were.

"If we work together, we can defeat it. We're not going to lose anyone today!" That spoke of the usual lethality of this dungeon. Then again, the prisoners, with the exception of Jo, were all below level 3, and Thomas was a level 4. He felt his optimism rise again. Later, looking back, he'd realize that none of them, not even him, considered the saferoom door an easy out. That should have been a sign. Around them, the gems embedded within the cave walls flickered.

Thomas had already scanned those with his Eyes of Riches, and they came back as nothing special. They were clearly meant for decoration, and now it looked like a bit of ominous scare tactics. The entire group gathered together with Antonin placed in the back. Then they heard a crackling hum. It was a different pitch than the wisps, but no less loud, as a massive form drifted around the bend.

"Jo, what are we facing?" Thomas asked. She was the expert here.

"Tough fight," she grunted.

"We normally try to avoid these things unless the guards screw up or want to risk wiping out the entire team." She glared at Courtney, who had been allowed one of the rusted swords and was looking scared.

"All right." Thomas stepped forward with his halberd in hand, ready to charge up his Severing Radiance.

"Be careful," Jo said.

"They don't react well to a lot of offensive attacks and are completely immune to poison." She sounded rightfully bitter about that. As she spoke, the humming crackling increased and their enemy drifted into view. It was a wisp, vaguely humanoid in shape, but nearly the size of an SUV, and so bright that it was almost blinding to look at. On seeing them, the creature let out a high-pitched shriek that seemed to rattle the dungeon around them and cut them to the bone.

Everyone winced and a few doubled over, covering their ears. Thomas hit it with a good old-fashioned Severing Radiance right to the face. The good news was that it stopped the terrible noise. The bad news was that his Severing Radiance split the head into dozens of different rainbow-colored wisps, all larger than the ones that had attacked them the first time. With teeth bared, the swarm flew straight for Thomas in revenge.