Rangers Endgame

Chapter 88: Stone Cloud Valley

On the fifth day, they were forced to venture on foot as the terrain became more treacherous. As their journey continued, Yakeru gradually began to tolerate the pestering from Daichi and his party of odd characters. However, his last one on one interaction with Daichi left him with mixed feelings.

There was something else bugging him too.

'Why did they want to hunt a Crystal-fanged Weaver specifically?' He wondered.

There were plenty of other high-ranking missions available at the guild that could've netted them a bigger reward. The same memory of him and Akari resurfaced only this time he had more pieces to fill the gaps.

It was a time when she'd come home from another one of her adventures with him eagerly awaiting her arrival. She'd delved into a story that mentioned her party members and the monsters that ambushed her, but he still couldn't figure out the relevance. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Haruki's complaint.

"How much further?" Haruki asked, carefully sliding down a steep ditch.

"We're closing in on it now," Itsuki responded, periodically checking the mission sheet.

Glancing back, he made sure to keep an eye on Yakeru who lagged behind slightly. The kid noticed the gradual change in the scenery and was taking more time to admire it. Pebbles and rocks the size of a fist drifted inches off the ground, spinning wildly as they passed.

Larger rocks floating higher in the air became more abundant the further they went. Eventually, the towering cliffs gave way to a spectacle that made Yakeru halt in his tracks, his jaw agape and his eyes wide in awe.

Before the group of rangers was a mesmerizing sight that defied the laws of nature. A vast valley came into view, filled with floating stones and boulders meandering through the light perpetual mist that hummed with a soft, ethereal glow. Pillars of sunlight streamed through the valley, the boulders hovering at various heights casting elongated shadows.

"Here we are," Itsuki confirmed. "Stone Cloud Valley."

Yakeru snapped out of his trance and began following the others into the valley. The light mist reacted to their presence, parting gently to make way for the travelers. Larger stones drifted lazily while the smaller ones spun and twirled gracefully, urging their visitors to join them in their dance.

Flocks of tan feathered birds glided overhead, hovering beside the levitating stones to drink the water puddles that had accumulated on their surfaces. Bipedal humanoid creatures clad in dull armor that stretched with each movement used their powerful legs to catapult themselves from one boulder to the next until they reached their nests they'd carved out of the rocks. As one of them crawled out of its nest, its clawed hands pulling its body out of hiding, all four of its gleaming green eyes locked onto Yakeru.

He held its gaze a moment, unflinching before it turned its attention to another floating boulder and leaped to it out of sight. Although the memory was a bit foggy, he remembered the important details of the story his sister told him, the time when her drunk party member accidentally provoked a family of these types of monsters.

"So these are stone hoppers." He noted, admiring their incredible agility as they effortlessly maneuvered through the field of floating boulders.

"You know your stuff, kid." Itsuki glanced over his shoulder.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Haruki asked, his hand hovering over his longsword.

"They're harmless unless agitated." Yakeru briefly explained, rounding a boulder that rudely drifted in his path.

After an hour of walking through the valley, they'd finally found what they were searching for. They stood over a burrow in the earth that had a diameter of around ten meters. Peering inside, they found nothing but endless black.

"This is it," Itsuki said as he turned to the conjurer. "Can you see how far it goes, Kai?"

Kai nodded and stepped forward, aiming his wand into the abyss. Its tip flared with amber as he fired off a basic projectile, the light from the soaring ball of radiance briefly illuminating the narrow path spiraling down the rough stone walls. Eventually, the darkness swallowed the light and a faint explosion echoed back to the surface from what they assumed was the projectile colliding with the bottom.

"Deep," Kai said vaguely, blowing the non-existent smoke from the tip of his wand.

"Thanks for that obvious observation," Haruki responded, rolling his eyes.

"Enough. Kai, get us down there." Daichi ordered.

Once again, Kai channeled radiance into his wand, twirling a pattern in the air. Ambient radiance moved according to his will as it swirled at the burrow's mouth. Thousands of amber motes aligned themselves at his command as the soft symphony of crystalline tones grew more intense. Moments later, the gold filaments threaded themselves into a platform then solidified.

"All aboard." Kai gestured elegantly to his makeshift elevator.

Yakeru boarded the platform with the group, surprised by the sturdiness of the construct. Kai followed after the group then tipped his wand downward. The platform began to descend into the darkness, its luminosity carving a path through the inky blackness of the burrow.

As Kai lowered them further into the depths of the earth, a faint speck of white became visible below. The light grew brighter until they their platform plunged into an open cavern around fifty feet wide with cylindrical stones floating at intervals in the room, their luminescent runes painting the walls a soft white.

"Woah." Yakeru looked around.

The group came to a gentle stop and stepped off the platform onto solid ground, the radiant construct dissolving back into the atmosphere as Kai dismissed his spell. Yakeru walked up to a floating cylinder to observe it but when he got within a certain proximity, its color, once a relaxed white, shifted to a harsh red.

He stopped in his tracks, uncertain what that could mean. From what he'd heard, gravity dysons would emit a white light before turning red if you approached as well. He thought this cylindrical stone would've had similar abilities to that of a dyson but nothing happened. Instead, it turned back to white as Yakeru cautiously stepped away.

"What are these things?" Yakeru asked anyone who could provide an answer.

"They're probably relics that act as motion detectors." Haruki assumed, inching his hand in and out of range of a cylindrical stone, causing it to fluctuate.

"But what about those up there?" Kai pointed to other floating relics high along the walls that were already red.

"Maybe they're malfunctioning?" Daichi suggested. "Who knows how old these things are."

"Regardless, it's probably best if you don't touch them," Itsuki warned as the group began following the light.

"Noted," Yakeru responded as he followed behind them.

Without further delay, the rangers pressed forward into the dungeon. As far as terrain went, the dungeon was similar to that of past dungeons Yakeru had raided, rough and unpredictable. However, he quickly took note of a couple of differences this time.

The first being the levitating cylindrical relics scattered throughout the tunnel. He initially thought they served as a source of lighting but each one they stepped too close to shifted blood red, implying they had some secondary function to them.

His second observation struck him as strange. The dungeon was seemingly devoid of life unlike his past experiences. They'd been walking, sliding down dips, and climbing over boulders for almost an hour yet they hadn't seen a single monster. Still, Yakeru kept his eyes open and his ears strained, leaving no room for error.

Daichi, Kai, and Haruki were at the rear while he and Itsuki took point. Even if the lack of monster presence suggested they were alone, Yakeru knew better than to let his guard down. As he tuned out the whispered conversation behind him to listen out for signs of trouble, Itsuki nudged him.

"Stick close, kid. I have a feeling we'll need to watch our backs." He kept his voice to a whisper.

"I know," Yakeru said, still scanning for anything out of the ordinary. "Even slimes can get the jump on you if you're not careful."

"True, but that's not what I meant." Itsuki glanced back to see the others keeping a good distance between them.

Before Yakeru could ask him to elaborate, he stopped, his ear twitching.

"You hear it too?" Itsuki asked as he stopped to cautiously peer around a corner.

"Yeah." Yakeru responded.

Faint scuttling in the distance reached his ears, too far to estimate how many were causing it. He looked behind him to check if the others heard it too only to lock eyes with Daichi. He felt his blood chill as Daichi's hollow gaze met his for a brief second before life returned to his eyes again and his once dark expression dispersed, replaced with a cautious look.

Yakeru wasn't sure how to respond but it didn't matter since the scuttling gradually grew louder and they were able to pinpoint its location. Daichi turned around and drew his sword while the others followed his lead.

"Well, this is an interesting twist," Daichi remarked, raising his sword at the ready.

"How'd they get behind us?" Kai aimed his wand down the cavern.

"We can worry about that later." Haruki drew his longsword, holding it close.

Itsuki and Yakeru joined them, weapons drawn and their backs to them to cover the front. It was impossible to hear just how many were approaching. What baffled Yakeru was the fact that they hadn't seen any monsters along the way yet they were rushing towards his group from the way they entered.

As he glanced back to check on Daichi and the others, his thoughts were cast aside when he spotted distant red gradually fanning in their direction. The cavern trembled and dozens of silhouettes soon followed but even when they'd gotten close enough for the light to reach them, he still wasn't sure what he was looking at.

It was as if the cavern itself was pulsating toward them in a contorted wave, compressing and expanding abnormally. It wasn't until they came close enough that he got a decent look at the creatures barreling towards them. Their hunched bodies were a mixture of muted earth and rocky textures that blended seamlessly with their environment. Jagged horns of various shapes and sizes protruded from their heads, framing their obsidian eyes reflecting primal hunger.

They used their bulky arms to gallop with relentless speed across the floor, others clinging to the walls, and a few swung from the stalactites along the ceiling. The dungeon's wide cavern quickly filled with a horrible cacophony of screeching stones and husky cries as the creatures barreled towards the rangers.

Daichi dropped into a defensive stance as he roared, "Earth Devils!"