Spirit Taming

Chapter 575: Bubbling Pools

"Then everyone is coming. Good." Maria made a very clear stand so that everyone understood that ehr intention was heading inside the dungeon.

With a driving force behind them, the group didn't have any reason to sit and wait. The time of day didn't have any effect of the dungeon and how it would work for them entering. Therefore, heading in now that the day was shifting to night was actually a better idea.

The group would not have to worry about keeping watch since they would be within the dungeon already. That meant that they would all be on alert. This was also another benefit of being stronger than they should at their age.

The stronger the tamer and the more they had bonded with their beasts, the more energies they had. This was in the sense of battle, but also in the sense of staying awake. Many of the strongest tamers could go a month without needing sleep or rest. That was why their training was often completely based on energy and how they used it compared to exhausting themselves. Not that it didn't happen.

"I can take the lead." out of everyone, Ella took the lead. She and Isa were the two that had the best way to combat the steam. They had multiple elemental beasts that could protect them if need be. Isa was the best, but Ella pushed her to the side since she knew that Isa would be the best attacks compared to her.

It was the simple fact that Isa had a unique body. The fact that she could bring her beasts together with her to use the elemental energy was better. If there was an attack or a beast waiting to ambush them in any way, Ellla had the ability to defend long enough for Isa to strike them down. Therefore, it made a lot of sense.

Clark looked at the hole that was different from other dungeons. He had his own theories of why it looked different. The fact that it was in the deep wilderness and rarely used, the fact that it was part of nature too now which was similar to the last dungeon they encountered, and simply because this dungeon was very small.

It was only one smaller floor and was not growing nor had the ability to be larger.

But thww idea that really hit him harder was when they left, this would be harder. The hole was a dungeon entrance, and the rocks that would have normally been the walls accompanying the stairs were clearly moving upward. But if they were to leave the dungeon, they would be stuck climbing. It would be somewhat frustrating.

But that was all behind him for the moment. Clark leaped in to the dungeon and felt the flash of warm steam. Before he had another chance to take in what the walls looked like, he found that he had landed in a different environment.

The clouded sky above blocked some of the sun. it was still allowing a lot of heat through too. When he glanced around, he saw many bubbling pools of water while the ground was filled with unique grasses. They were not very tall, but they were still tall enough to hide most beasts. It was already a good thing that the entire group was tall enough to see over the grasses making their sightline better.

The steamy air that caused the mist outside was surprisingly not stopping their own visibility. This fact was pure luck since Clark was sure that if there was a colder breeze of air from outside, that this would change. For now though, they had the bonus of being able to see a decent distance away from them.

"Oh, this is easier. My cloud sprite can handle this." Ella called out her cloud sprite and the group watched as it went a little higher above them. When it moved some of the wind and water energies, they were amazed to see that it was taking in the clouds from the sky.

While the strength that the cloud sprite had was not much compared to the battle prowess of other beasts within the group, it was enough here. The clouds were pulled closer to it and the size of the cloud sprite grew. But the entire dungeon seemed affected.

The heat was cut down slightly since there was lesser source of heat from the dungeon's light. It also decreased the harshness of the steam further increasing the visibility. The light wasn't cathign the steam and makiign thor visibility worse at all.

"Good decision. We don't  need to worry about seeing a smooch as before. But look at that," Clark pointed up at the dungeon entrance. The hole was wrapped in a mysterious smoke like steam that none of them could see through. The cloud sprite instinctively avoided it as well, proving the strangeness of space and dungeons overall.

"That is a unique entrance and exit. We can easily reach it to climb out if we need to. I will record this when we leave." Ella felt that it would interesting to examine this mire. Yet, when she thought about it, she had a feeling that she could not understand it unless she had more strength and an applicable beast. She knew that this was somehow magical in nature.

The dungeon itself and whatever force creating them was pushing these feelings on her. It was smarter to let it be.

"So we can get out. That's good. We should look around here first though. Right?" Isa looked like she was proud to have easily entered this place. But looking at everyone, Clark saw some relaxing expressions. They had all feared they would have been somewhat stuck here.

That was why Maria had prepared herself to pull out a rope from her spatial ring if needed.

'Survival sub quest- steaming plains dungeon

Requirement: challenge the steaming plains and completely explore the small area within.

Reward: one random gotcha ticket, five random small energy crystals.'

Clark double checked the sub quest that he had gotten. He knew that he had to survey the entire dungeon, looking at the size of the steamy plains, he was sure that he could manage. The steam at the very edges became so thick that it matched the odd way the dungeon entrance just seemed to float in the sky. So that was one worry out of his mind.

The difficulty that would come while doing this thigh, was what stuck with him. The pools of bubbling water were not just water. This was something that Clark had heard of before. Geyser pools would be filled with minerals and other things that had leached out of the stones around the bubbling pools.

These minerals would be corrosive and very dangerous for anyone that got them on their bodies. The reason they were able to leach out of the stones in the first place was the perfect combination of heat, water, and movement because of the heat. Therefore, this would make the water pools much more dangerous than what they looked like to the naked eye.

"First off, don't touch the water in the pools. We can't drink it because it is toxic." The entire group looked at Clark then away. "And we also know that the water we might get attacked with is the same." Now they paid more attention to him. It was common sense not to drink seemingly perfect bubbling water. They all knew better.

However, knowing that the beasts might attack with the same water was a worry. If this was toxic water, then it made sense that they could be blinded. "Lit and I are not strong enough to heal eyes or organs yet. We can somewhat repair limbs, but that is still not enough," Maria's warning to everyone was due to her lack of strength as a healer.

Some healers could recover organs that were damaged, but rarely any of them were at that level without being snapped up by powerful groups or families. Maria had some training still to go. If she focused only on healing, she might get there sooner. But alchemy and battle training were in the mix so it would slow her healing growth.

"Is that one of the beasts there? One of the ones that might shoot water?" Jerold spotted some movement. It was far enough away that they could barely make out anything in the grass. But from what they could see, they could make out the brown coloring of the skin on the beast.

"That looks like a steam toad. Its brown skin lets it hide in mud and it is able to use the hot water. But I can get a better look at it so that I can tell more." Clark wanted to get the system to use the analysis on it before he approached. However, he was uncertain of the range that this beasts could attack at. He had to take things slower and more carefully.

They were the intruders within the dungeon. They needed to be more careful than normal.