Eliona's War 3: Lethal Healer

Ch. 27

Time Elapsed: 2:01:32

The dungeon entrance lay at the face of a tunnel, roughly 100 feet into the Ironback Mine. It wasn't hard to find, if one dared to venture into the abandoned side tunnels, but no one bothered to visit it. Not only was it located in the unfriendly Ironback Mountains, but everyone who knew of the "Deep Mines" dungeon considered it to be broken.

And now Severance finally understood why: it needed a key.

"I've heard of this place," Kiah said. "No one's been able to get past the first room."

No one answered. They watched as Severance approached the dungeon entrance.

Unsure of what he was supposed to do, Severance gingerly touched the swirling gray-purple light. It made his fingers tingle, like he'd caught a mild electrical current. He frowned and pulled his hand away. None of the other dungeons had made his skin prickle like that before. It had always felt like just walking through a bright light, along with the faintly disorienting feeling of being teleported.

The System chimed, and a familiar voice spoke.

Keybearer recognized.
Name: Severance
Clan: ...
...
Error. Clan unlisted.
Affiliation unknown
...
Keybearer registered.

Welcome, Severance. Your team may enter Instance FX3N8.

It is recommended you prepare accordingly before entering. System access is limited within Instance.

"Whoa." Snow's pale eyebrows lifted. "You all get that?"

Kiah looked thoughtful, her gaze upon Severance. "Yes, I did. What does it mean?"

Though she spoke lightly, he could feel the weight behind the question. It made him remember that she was an outsider to the team and didn't know what everyone else did about his mysterious clan. Which wasn't much, really, but still.

His gaze slid to Jack Coyote. As if knowing what he was thinking, those golden eyes narrowed into a warning glare. Don't, they said.

Severance looked away. Sometimes, it made sense for Jack's caution. Other times, it felt entirely unreasonable. He made a silent promise that if things went well this run, then no matter what Jack thought, he wasn't going to keep a teammate in the dark.

He ignored the tiny voice that accused him of already doing that.

"That means we're going in," Jack Coyote said. He moved to stand near Severance, so that he too, was right next to the dungeon entrance. "From that notification, we can assume that we won't have access to some System features. Most likely communications or teleports, like in this area."

Snow shrugged. "You can't teleport in a dungeon anyway."

Jack ignored the comment. "We'll go for an hour and test things out. Severance, play it safe until we know what we're dealing with. Snow, you're on crowd control. Kiah and Valentin, you'll be our main attackers."

Kiah's gaze shifted from Severance to Jack, and she looked like she wanted to say something. But in the end, she didn't. Instead, she drew her twin short swords from her Inventory. They were single edged and along the style of a gladius, with dark leather braided along each hilt.

"I'm ready," she said.

"Same." As a cryomancer, Snow didn't exactly have weapons. He wore a set of bracelets that acted as foci, allowing him better control over his skills. It meant he never had to bother with stashing clunky weapons in Inventory.