Chapter 16

Dive Deep, Vynk.

My companions were in awe. I let them pass the spellbook around. I was absolutely nervous about this and I began to worry what might come of this. Whatever the risk might end up being, I just couldn’t stand having to deliberate using the spellbook.

“This is incredible,” Lep said. “I don’t understand. You can absorb the mana right?”

“Yea, everytime,” I said.

“What do you mean every time?” Arris said.

“I mean every time. The crystals grow once a day on the outside of the book.”

“That explains it!” Pelle said. “You lied to us when you said you stumbled upon a bunch of crystals once!”

“I don’t blame him,” Foli said. “I wouldn’t want everyone knowing that I had a spellbook which grew crystals in my possession.”

“I was warned by a couple of experienced adventurers to keep quiet about it. That’s why I lied, which I feel bad about. I just needed some time to process it all and come to a decision on how to carry it. Did I want to be open about it, or secretive. In the end, I hated that I was constantly thinking about keeping it safe. So I just needed to get it out in the open and off my chest.”

“That’s awfully trusting of you,” Robern said.

“I can’t help it,” I said, “and before we go on, I’d like to spend some time absorbing these crystals–mostly to replenish my mana bar. If that’s alright with you guys.”

“There are eight clusters on there,” Arris said. “That’ll take you about four hours.”

“That’s kind of annoying,” Vynk said. “I’d rather we only take short breaks. I want to get to the good parts of the dungeon.”

“Why don’t you soak in the springs for a few hours then?” Pelle said. “That wouldn’t be a bad way to pass the time, right? I think you’ve been enjoying yourself quite a bit doing just that already.”

Vynk was taken by surprise with that idea, not having considered it as an option to pass the time. It was quite agreeable to him, and he went off to go soak. Meanwhile, Arris and Foli each cast Elder Azure Mana Totem while I sat cross legged and cultivated mana. I’d nearly replenished my mana pool entirely on my own. With the help of the ancienne’s totems, it was back to full once more and we were ready to drag Vynk from the springs.

“I’ve never been so relaxed,” he said dreamily.

“Your hands have probably never been so pruned either,” Lep said.

“Eh, it’ll make for better grip, that’s all. Nothing to worry about. ”

“Alright guys,” Robern said. “We were taken by surprise earlier. It’s only going to get more difficult the deeper we go. Let’s be extra cautious.”

We returned to the door and passed through a short tunnel. It opened up into another grotto. This one was nearly the same, except for the sleeping mats and possessions that must have belonged to all the frog imps. There wasn’t much to loot. My companions had their bags with them and although I could expand the slots of my inventory pouch, I didn’t really see anything worthwhile.

There were only three hot springs in this grotto, and something felt off about them. Vynk dipped a foot in and his face paled.

“Poison,” he said, holding back a gag. “I recognize this feeling. Horrid.”

I checked his health bar, and sure enough, he was poisoned.

“If you crouch down,” Robern said, “you can see that the steam from the spring starts off being very green.”

We scouted the rest of the springs and found they were probably all corrupted. We couldn’t see the bottoms very well and therefore had no idea whether there was anything at the bottom or not.

“It would be nice if you could cure poison, Tosin,” Vynk said, holding his stomach.

“No,” Foli said. “Not yet. Why don’t you dive into all three springs and see if there’s anything down there? That way Tosin and Pelle don’t waste mana curing you each time. They can just do it all at once after.”

Pointing to Arris, Vynk said, “Can’t we get your spider to do that?”

“I’ve tried something similar before. He just floats and squirms,” Arris said.

“You wanted to be the diver of this operation,” Robern said.

“I regret my decision,” Vynk said.

With a little support, Vynk made the first dive into a corrupted spring pool. His dive was a bit longer than the last which didn’t bode well. The springs would surely get deeper and deeper. Vynk’s dive earned another key. The next corrupted spring pool earned us another key as well.

“Hold on Vynk,” I said. “Before you go to the next one, how are you feeling?”

“Sick to my stomach! What do you mean, “How am I feeling”?”

“I have to cure you before you dive in the next one,” I said. “It looks like the poison is stacking. I’m worried you’ll faint in a dive, or puke and drown.”

“I almost puked in the last one. The pressure was too great on my stomach when I was near the bottom. Felke! I think you’re right, Tosin. I’m starting to feel dizzy now that you mention it.”

For now, Vynk was able to do two dives before the effects stacked and started taking a threatening toll on him. Were it not for my mana, this dungeon might have taken a lot longer from having to wait and replenish with the ancienne’s mana totems. I still had roughly 1000 points left.

We kept finding keys at the bottom of the spring pools. The first two had keys, and the third had another broken piece of metal that sheened metallic. Instead of a bar, it was a flat piece, and we still couldn’t figure out what it was.

“I think it’s obvious we’re going to have to put this together when we collect all the missing pieces,” Lep said.

“That remains to be seen,” Vynk said. “Meanwhile, I think we’re done here. Looks like there’s another door so we’re in for another fight. Shall we?”

Foli figured out which key worked and she backed off to cast Steed of Elwohire. We took our positions for battle and gave Vynk a final nod to open the doors. He unlocked them and threw the door wide open.

“What?” the warrior said.

There was a tree just behind the door. It was smooshed. Just behind the tree was another door. It seemed as if the tree had lived its life, smashed between both doors. However it survived, it had done so by tangling in on itself. There were even leaves, though they were yellow and drooped sadly.

The tree blinked, revealing green and white eyes. It began to move with sounds of warping, splintering wood.

“A disturbance in the grotto!” the treant said with a voice that came from striking hollow wood. It stepped forward from its cramped space. It rose to its full height, a perfect three meters. It stomped forward with legs ending in roots and swung an arm ending in branches and leaves at Vynk.

Our warrior was fast, slashing his greatsword up at an angle and lopping off the branch. All six of us quickly put an end to the treant. The monster had no time to fight back. We had him pinned and we coordinated our assault without receiving a single injury. Lep’s Hand of Flames blinded and scorched the shrieking treant. Vynk lopped off piece after piece. Foli and her steed kept the treant pinned back. Arris had cast Oakbeard and wrestled a leg until it snapped. Robern shot a multitude of bolts that pinned the creature’s other arm against the door. I speared it through its stomach. Pelle hung back with her spells at the ready.

“If only all our fights were so easy,” Arris said.

The next door required another key, and we prepared once more for either a flood of frog imps, or another treant. We were beginning to see a pattern after we fought off another horde of frog imps.

“Every grotto is going to be filled with frog things,” I said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the rest of our keys are going to bring us face to face with more powerful treants,” Foli said.

We took our bearings of the newest grotto. Vines covered the ceiling and dangled low, just above our heads. We parted them like curtains as we cautiously explored. At the end was another door. This one was at least twice as large as the previous ones.

“Alright, so we counted seven spring pools this time,” I said.

Vynk sighed heavily and we followed him back to the first one. He dove in and it turned out to be much deeper. For a moment we were worried. At last he surfaced and handed off a key to Foli.

“The bottom’s filled with rocks,” Vynk said, pausing to catch his breath. “The key was under one of the rocks. It took me a bit to hunt through them. It might be a little deeper, but I can’t really tell. It sucks that these are all poisonous.”

The second spring pool was troubling in a different way. After three consecutive dives, Vynk was positive that there was nothing at the bottom. Half of the springs seemed to have nothing at the bottom, which wasted both time and mana. Only two other pools had keys. The last one had another piece of broken metal. It looked like a ring had been snapped in half.

The treants we came across were increasing in power. We were no longer able to avoid receiving damage. We kept to the same plan and dispatched them easily enough. We even had a plan for the frog imps that dealt with them efficiently. The grottoes were getting bigger and bigger and the spring pools were getting wider and wider. Vynk was having to dive several times for each of them. Still only half of them earned us a key, or a piece of metal.

By the fifth grotto, we had enough pieces to assemble what seemed to look like a massive key. It was still incomplete and it seemed we had between three and four more pieces to acquire.

Vynk started to run into problems diving by the sixth grotto. Their depths had changed drastically, almost doubling. With the help of massive stones found elsewhere in the grotto, he was able to sink quickly to the bottom. At the depths that he was diving, another affliction assailed him. His health bar became covered with a blue circle that started emptying clockwise. It stopped when he surfaced.

“Any ideas what this could be?” I asked Pelle.

She was worried about Vynk. I could tell because of her frown and the fact that she was biting her lip.

“I-I have no clue,” she said. “Could it be a drowning affliction? Something with deep water pressure? Something affecting his breathing?”

“I think it’s gotta be one of those things,” I said. “I just wish I knew for sure.”

“Even if we knew, we’d probably lake a cure.”

Vynk was on his back at the edge of the spring. He was rubbing his temples and having a hard time catching his breath.

“Sorry guys,” he said. “I need a break for a bit. Give me, like… an hour or so.”

“You take all the time you need,” Foli said.

While Vynk laid there to rest, not wanting to move from his spot, the rest of us conferred.

“This isn’t good,” Pelle said. “If these springs get deeper and deeper, I’m worried Vynk might drown. How do we get him if something happens?”

“He’ll be fine,” Robern said. “He’s a warrior. He’ll do alright.”

“No, I think Pelle’s right,” Arris said. “We can see if spider silk will do the trick. We can maybe use it as rope. That way we could pull him out if anything goes wrong, or if we think he’s been there too long.”

“Might be a good time to use the water breathing potion,” Lep said.

“What if we need it for a really deep dive that’s important?” Robern said.

“I understand what you’re saying,” I said, “but that might very well mean that these springs are the deep dives we need the potion for.”

“Maybe we can stretch the potion and save a little bit for more to come, if there are more to come?” Pelle said. “Maybe Vynk can use only a little at a time for now.”

“We’re talking about someone’s life here,” Foli said, as if the rest of us were all insane. “I think that should be the determining factor. We can’t keep pushing Vynk. Let’s let him use the potion.”