-Radiant-

As soon as I stepped through the stone doorway, I felt space stretch around me like a bubble and carry me towards another place. It didn't take long, just a second or so, before I felt the space bubble pop and I appeared next to Lucky and our guide/overseer.

We stood in what appeared to be a cave/tunnel with a deep trench of water flowing slowly through the middle, and pathways of stone with patches of dirt on both sides of the tunnel. One would expect such a cave to have no light, at least in most cases, but this cave network seemed to have glowing moss growing along the walkways and walls of the cave. The pale blue glowing moss didn't provide too much light, but it was better than nothing, and the sounds of our footsteps were absorbed by the moss, preventing echoes and distortions in the soundscape.

The guide spoke up, "Alright, now that we're in here, I'll give you your task." He pulled out a cell from his pocket, "Looks like you lads got lucky and unlucky with your task. Your task is to collect 10 Vermilligator teeth, 10 Water Skater legs, and 10 Water Elemental cores. So all you have to do is hunt until you acquire the right amount of loot for each animal."

Lucky nodded, seemingly understanding, "Well we seem to be in Vermilligator territory right now, so I guess we should focus on that first."

Lucky started walking, following the slow flow of the water. I was surprised at how decisive he was, it seemed that he had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

I quickly caught up with him and started to flow some mild physical augmentation through my body, allowing me to follow his faster pace granted to him via his higher physical stats.

I caught up to him and said, "So, what is this about Vermilligator territory?"

Lucky seemed to jolt a bit as he seemingly remembered he was in a team with me, "Right, I should probably tell you the plan. I guess I just assumed you'd know."

He slowed his pace as he talked, "Well a Vermilligator is kind of like a cross between a fish and an Alligator. It's vermillion colored, or I guess sort of a light red or pink color, and it swims around and ambushes those walking by the river-"

*Splash!*

My mind automatically accelerated as I sensed something coming straight for me from the water. I habitually started to enhance my whole body as I turned and put my arms up to face the threat, but my wrists started to burn since my Magical Physique hadn't fully recovered from yesterday. However I didn't have the luxury of caring about that right now, as the vermillion fish/alligator was almost upon me.

The first thing I thought of was a mental link attack. It was one of the things I was most practiced in, but I wasn't sure if I had enough time to complete the magic necessary. However, just as I was thinking of linking with the Vermilligator, I felt a new sensation I had never experienced before. It was such a foreign sensation that it would've taken me a while to understand where it was coming from if not for The Cloud helping me pinpoint it.

Tracing the strange sensation through The Cloud, I found that the Restless Ruby Tree that I had recently linked with was trying to help me out by sending out its own mental link. However, since the Restless Ruby Tree was inside my Internal World, there was no way for its mental link to actually get to the Vermilligator.

So, without much effort, I used my spatial coin pouch to open a spatial rift next to the Ruby Tree. The link the tree was sending out immediately locked on to the opening and sent out a mental link through the coin pouch towards the Vermilligator.

Since my link with the Restless Ruby Tree was still so fresh and new, it was difficult for me to send anything through the tree's link with the Vermilligator. However, the Tree sensed my desire to stop the Vermilligator, and sent out its own mental attack, similar to the one I had seen it use when I first met it.

The attack wasn't powerful or very skilled, but I wasn't expecting much from what was essentially still a baby Tree. However the attack confused the Vermilligator enough that it faltered for a moment and lost track of what it was doing.

Seizing the opportunity, I safely got my hands around the animal and threw it towards the wall of the cave. Thankfully that was all I had to do. With the animal stunned from both the mental attack and the impact with the wall; Lucky, who had already taken his sword out on his own initiative, rushed up to the Vermilligator and stabbed it through the neck/spine.

I let my mental acceleration ease up as the Vermilligator stopped moving, but as I eased up on the physical enhancement I felt my wrists continue to burn even after I completely removed it.

Seeing my shaking hands Lucky said, "That sure gets the adrenaline pumping huh? I'm impressed with your ability to react quickly, for a wizard." He must've thought my hands were shaking because of adrenaline.

"Yeah, well it sure would've been nice to know that there were hostiles in the water before entering the Dungeon."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Lucky winced, "Oof, yeah that's my bad, I should've mentioned it before."

I shook my head, "No, it's alright. Just try to remember to inform me if you know anything about any dangers ahead, before we encounter them."

He nodded, "No problem. There are a few more things to look out for. First of all-"

I put my hand up to stop him, "It's fine. You don't have to say it all at once. Just make sure to mention it as we go along."

"Oh, you got it."

The proctor didn't even move the whole time, seemingly not even worried for my safety at all. I didn't know if I found that comforting or chilling.

In any case it was nice to know that my link with the Restless Ruby Tree was useful, beyond just reinforcing my mental defenses. I hadn't completely settled on a name for it yet, since I wanted to give it some thought, but currently I was leaning towards the name Rebee. (Reh-Bee)

I took a deep breath, "How about this Lucky. Why don't you focus on the water for Vermilligators, and I'll focus on the front and back."

"Sure, sounds good."

He didn't sheath his sword, but kneeled down next to the dead Vermilligator and used the tip of the sword to pry a tooth out of its mouth. The tooth came loose, but after Lucky did so the Vermilligator started to fade away into wisps of mana, leaving behind just the singular tooth.

I said, "That's pretty stingy. It must be a fairly newly spawned one."

"Yeah, I've read that the skin is actually fairly valuable, so the Vermilligators are actually still fairly well hunted despite their low Tier. The teeth are only given out as a quest since otherwise people would only harvest the skin."

"I see. You really are well informed about everything. What are the teeth used for then?"

"I'm not sure about everything, but they are primarily used for ingredients in magic rituals that need their unique magical and conceptual alignments. Apparently it's a pretty cheap and effective ingredient for temporary water breathing magic circles."

"Hmm, I haven't gotten too into magic circles, so I wouldn't know, but I guess I can understand."

The proctor did a fake cough, breaking us out of our train of dialogue, and I said, "Right, we should probably get going. Any idea which way we should go?"

"Yeah, we should follow the current. The whole level's water supply eventually flows into the exit portal, so as long as we follow the current we will find the exit eventually."

"Alright, let's get going then."

-Break-

Just as we discussed, Lucky and I walked side by side, with Lucky keeping track of the water and shielding me from any more potential ambushes. Along the way I experimented more with the Restless Ruby Tree's ability to easily link up with targets, and found that it was actually a very short ranged ability, only extending about five meters from the tree, or essentially my spatial pouch. So although it was very useful in fast paced combat situations, it wasn't really feasible except for short ranged combat.

However, for Lucky, it was like making every fight easy mode, to the point that he actually asked me to stop doing it after we secured enough Vermilligator teeth.

"I appreciate your ability brother Silver," He had taken to calling me brother as easily as his easygoing personality, "But if we're going to be graded for our performance then I would like the chance to display some more of my skills as well. Since we've already completed the Vermilligator part of the task, can you refrain from using that mind ability on the vermilligators?"

"Well, I guess I could do that, but do you want me to refrain from helping at all?"

He rubbed his chin which barely had any hair on it at all, "No, I'll still require some help, but your mind ability is too potent."

"Alright, that sounds fair." I thought about it and said, "I can heal minor wounds with my magic, so do you want me to stay out of it and just heal you if you get hurt, or do you want me to help you fight and stop you from getting hurt at all?"

"You can heal?!" His eyes nearly popped out of his skull, "That's awesome, if that's the case then this would be a great opportunity to train in a real combat situation." As always he talked more than necessary, "You know, you don't look old enough to be a certified healer though. And if you are good enough to be called a healer, then why would you want to be an adventurer? I'm sure you could be getting paid big instead of hunting monsters for money."

I sighed, "That's not currently in the cards for me. Plus, even if it was, I'm more of a healer out of necessity rather than profession."

"A healer out of necessity? Man I wish I could just conveniently become a healer just because I needed to. It must be nice, being able to learn magic and spells and stuff for all kinds of things."

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Yeah, I didn't have any teachers, but I had access to a lot of books."

"Wait a minute, you're telling me you became a healer through self study? Are you kidding me?"

"Oh, um, don't worry, there aren't any problems with my healing or anything. I would know since I've healed myself plenty of times."

Lucky shook his head, "No, I wasn't worried about that. I'm just impressed at how much work you've apparently put in."

"Well, thanks I guess."

Lucky nodded and said, "Sure. Now that we've completed the Vermilligator part of the task, we can start to look for paths that lead to the others."

He handed the Vermilligator tooth to me, and I put it in my spatial pouch.

He said, "Based on what I know, the Water Skaters and Elementals should be easy to locate if we find a water chamber. The water chamber is colder than other places on the level, so we should be able to find it by following whatever pathway feels cooler."

He shrugged with his hands out, "It's not the most precise method, but it should lead us to one of the water chambers eventually."

I nodded, "Seems doable. Let's try to get this done as quickly as possible. I have something I wanted to do later today."

Lucky gave a thumbs up, "You got it brother Silver. With you and me as a team, I'm sure we can get it done in no time."

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