Chapter 79: Team Weareagreatteam-40
The next day after the banquet and a good beating, the five hatchlings who named themselves "Team Weareagreatteam-40", left their living quarters in the afternoon.
They all wore their EESOP trac suits, the standard uniform for missions more popular than combat gears among students. At the front was Kyrios, the one responsible for the rather particular team name.
Besides him, Kyriaki walked with her unique elegance.
The other three hatchlings, who had gone through a lot several hours ago, kept their mouths shut and tag along.
Guiding them was Xunli, their unconditional Phoenix guide.
Soon, they left the city through a massive drake drawn carriage.
The scenery of the volcanic belt appeared in front of them like a silent giant in sleep. The city is under the foot of the highest peak. And their destination was the lowest peak far away.
It took them less than an hour before they reached their destination. The carriage made of volcanic wood and the magma Drake who drew it made it possible.
Along the way, Theodoros took a nap despite the needlessness, so the carriage ride was rather peaceful. Although a bit awkward, their ears were protected at the least.
"This is the place."
And finally, what they stepped into was a place made of obsidian. The ground made up entirely of glittering magma glass wasn't the prettiest they had ever seen. However, it was enough to be praised for its unique beauty. Lava trees and prettified wood were the only possible things left after obsidian, indicating that a lot of time had passed since the last volcano eruption.
The hatchling however, only glanced at the scenery with perfectly unimpressed looks before paying attention to what they came for.
In the middle of the obsidian world, a gate of cyan blue hue silently dominated the surroundings.
"...An S rank gate?"
"That is correct."
All the hatchlings stared at the gate. Then they turned to look at Xunli in sync, like poppets. Xunli in return tilted his head to the side as if asking; What's wrong?
The hatchlings once again moved in sync and stared at the cyan blue gate. Half a minute passed before a reaction came from the children.
It was Theodoros who made the first move. He burst into laughter, clutching his stomach in the process as if he had heard that Euclid had pulled feathers from Professor Astrape's pelican form.
Sirius, for the first time in a while, frowned his dark brows. His violet eyes flashed as if he was displeased with something. Euclid on the other hand, was as expressionless as ever. But the dragon aura he faintly released was as cold as the winter's coldest breath, ready to freeze anything at any moment. Those two looked like their roles were reversed.
Kyrios' kind golden eyes were anxiously looking back and forth between the gate and Kyriaki. Kyriaki just watched the cyan blue of the gate surface swirl around like a spooned tea cup, taking Theodoros's sarcastic laughter as a background white noise. She sighed lightly after another half a minute of no emotions.
〘I wonder if there's something wrong〙
〘Her Majesty told me to make the dragons clear this gate. I've inspected this one before. There's no problem with it〙
〘Do they think this is not the place they are supposed to be?〙
〘I really want to say I wouldn't have make any mistake and led them to a wrong place〙
Calmly taking in Xunli's thoughts, Kyriaki smiled at him with a hint of gentleness.
'Ignorance is a sin.' She thought. 'But I'll forgive him just this once for treating us better than I expected.'
"Thank you for your help, lord Jia Xunli. I appreciate the Phoenixes giving up such a resourceful dungeon gate for us students to train. I will not forget this help."
"Yes. You are welcome, Your Highness." Xunli nodded, clearly proud.
"Hmmm… by the way Lord Jia Xunli," Kyriaki flicked her wrist.
A golden envelope appeared in between her fingers like a magician's card trick. The envelope was thin and small, sealed with magic. A faint aroma of Yellow Azaleas flowed from the cover as if what was hidden inside the envelope was a banquet of flowers.
"Could you deliver this letter to Queen Xuelian?" She extended the letter with the same gentle smile.
"Eh? But—"
"It's really important. I wouldn't want to entrust this to someone else except for someone as trustworthy as you, My Lord." Kyriaki weighed the word 'really' as she looked straight at Xunli's Phoenix eyes.
Her serious tone made Xunli speechless for a few seconds. After a while of mind-battles, Xunli nodded his head.
"I'll send someone else to guard this place. Someone trustworthy. And do not worry about this letter. I'll deliver this to Her Majesty without delay."
"Oh, it doesn't matter if it's delayed. You can take your time." Kyriaki's smile widened.
"... didn't you say it's important?" Xunli tilted his head.
"It is important. But neither me nor the queen would lose anything if it's a bit delayed. As for the gate guard, I suppose someone you chose would be trustworthy enough, My Lord. Well then." Kyriaki bowed her head with gratitude before glancing at her team.
"Y'all understand what we are about to do, right? Is there someone who wants to chicken out before it's too late?"
At her calm question, Theodoros scoffed. Sirius frowned even more. Euclid and Kyrios shrugged their shoulders. Seeing none of them wanting to back down, Kyriaki nodded with approval.
"Very well. Let us conquer another gate yet again!"
With that, they all stepped into the gate as if they were taking a morning walk to digest breakfast on a random weekend.
The moment Kyriaki stepped into the dungeon through the gate, the first thing she noticed was the smell. Her dragon senses picked up the smell of sulfur. Her golden eyes were filled with the image of a burning world filled with grey ashes.
The air itself seemed to be on fire, rendering any attempt on breathing. Kyriaki, including her teammates, stopped breathing all together. It was just mimicking anyway, hence the uncare in their actions.
Kyriaki surveyed the place with cynical eyes.
The landscape was flat and charred, stretching endlessly as if there was no end. The mosaic ground below was as black as a starless night sky, decorated by glowing veins of magma.
Kyriaki crunched down and cautiously touched the ground, including the hot, burning magma. To her, it felt hot, yes. But not enough to burn her. At most it felt like extremely hot bath water.
Though, she knew Sirius was in a different state as his Death attribute seemed to be resisting the unfavorable environmental condition to the best of his abilities. He was also only A rank. The beads of sweat he was shedding was proof that he was having a bit of a hard time.
On the other hand, although Euclid's affinity was completely opposite of the environment he was in, his Holy power combined with the weather attribute as well as his Storm Born title seemed to be in effect, all together with his SS core rank. Though, Kyriaki was certain he too would face resistance once he starts using elements like water or ice.
Kyrios was fairly free from the environmental effects as he had the Fire affinity that came with his fire attribute. Kyriaki was the same. And Theodoros didn't even look like he cared. He appeared to be in his home as he looked around thoughtfully.
Rumble!
Just then, the ground groaned and shivered. The five hatchlings immediately took their battle stance, full alert of their surroundings. However, instead of the expected monster attack something entirely different happened.
Geysers of magma shot up from the ground into the air with a speed barely naked to the eye, arching like liquid fire before crashing down. The magma bathed the ground with splashes of liquid fire and ashes, turning the air more heavy with pressure.
This same thing happened over and over to a systematic rhythm. It felt like an invincible hand was at play.
[Ding!]
Just then, the usual bell sound of their system rang inside their heads.
Theodoros, Sirius and Kyrios glanced at their sky-blue system, whereas Euclid glanced at his unique pure gold and platinum system screen. Kyriaki on the other hand, stared at her always holy-looking system with no emotions whatsoever.
[Welcome to the dungeon;
[Jungle From Hell
Rank: SSS+
Type: Dungeon Gate
Theme: Lava
Description: A unique piece of land mostly made of Lava and leftovers of volcanic activities. The topography system of this dungeon is completely heat-friendly, unique to this place only. You can find rare species, minerals and plants inside as it had been a part of the Void for centuries. Be careful of the Forest keepers; The Fire Mane Lions.]
Kyriaki absorbed the information like a sponge absorbing water, taking the warning in the last sentence into account as well. She had been getting warnings like this since the first day she stepped inside a dungeon. For the full five years now. And it had helped her many times from many troubles.
"What the hell…" Theodoros mumbled beside her, clutching his Rod with a frown.
It seemed everyone had already realized.
"Didn't Xunli say it was S rank? Even our information and mission data said this dungeon was S." Kyrios muttered softly.
Kyriaki extended her hand and patted his head. His soft golden hair threaded around her fingers before slipping like silk threads.
"Don't complain, everyone. All of us knew from the beginning this dungeon wasn't S rank. I mean—how could we not when the space around the gate had clearly been trampled with?"
"True. Since they knew illusions don't work on us, they thought changing and bending the space would work. How foolish." Euclid smirked.
In truth, all the hatchlings sensed the changed space around the gate. They knew from the beginning that something was wrong. But none of them said anything. After all, they were Dragons. Fooling a dragon was as hard as finding a needle in a haystack. And above all, forcing them like this by going as far as trampling space to push them into a dungeon was really a bad move.
Instead of complaining or pointing out fingers, dragons would take it as a challenge.
That's how dragons operate.
Kyriaki checked the temperature with keen interest.
'2500°C' Kyriaki nodded to herself.
The last time she faced something hot was when she entered the Trial of Wrath. However, what faced that situation there was her soul. Since it was immortal, there was no way temperature could affect her soul.
But here, she was facing this environment in her real body. Although her fire and magma affinity, Holy power, core rank and her dragon physique helped, if it was a normal human in her place, they'd have died in half a second.
"I haven't gotten into Magma or Fire manipulation yet." Kyriaki mumbled.
Not too loud, not too soft.
Enough for her teammates to hear.
It was an intentional action. An action born out of desire to bait a fish.
"Haha…leave it to me, Kyriaki!" A chuckle came from her side.
Snap!
The fish took the bait in a second.
Kyriaki watched as Theodoros snapped his fingers. The magma formed a thin strand and flowed upward like a creeping vine. He manipulated hot burning magma in a liquid form with ease.
"Good," Her tone carried the approval of a superior. "Now, Kill those things." Then, she gestured to something far away with her chin, like a teacher pointing at a pile of homework that had to be done right away to a bunch of lazy students.
The hatchlings moved their heads in sync to look at the place Kyriaki gestured.
"Ggggrrrrrrrrr…."
"Fxxx."
She heard Theodoros curse under his breath. Kyriaki chose to ignore it as she locked eyes with something from the other side of where hatchlings were looking.
"You guys take care of those. I'll play with this."
Gold stare met Deep crimson.
"Hrrrrr."
Bam!
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