Ch.31 You wanna build...

The scholar stopped near the entrance of the ninth room, drained of most of his Elemental Mana. Having to use a third circle spell inside a Dungeon that is able to absorb your Element is dangerous, and prone to go out of control.

He couldn't use the environmental Wind mana to aid with the spell casting, all of the small nuances needed his complete control. The shielding area was not able to extend past his Life Aura, Elemental Mana that escape past it would ignore his command and be completely devoured by the Dungeon. Only spells that are shaped into a completed form can maintain themselves, not coming apart, and joining the Dungeon's reserves.

Although training inside Dungeons of your own Element can be useful, this is an entirely different monster. Even in the strongest Dungeons I have trained or been sent to capture, would not absorb the mana so quickly, and unknow interference slowing the core down. But this? Is like a vacuum where you can only depend on your own talent.

The Dungeon was still able to change so much with the shackles in place. I wonder if they even work on a Prismatic Core, are there Elements apart from Earth that can't be contained, is that why other Dungeons are so much easier to conquer even when they're your own element?

The Scholar started to worry, the unknown Elements would give the dungeon many unpredictable ways to attack, not to mention the structures that demanded your attention, or they would gladly kill you.

Out of the three hundred men army, only ninety-seven were left, eighty-five mages and twelve soldiers. The mental state of the whole group was off, something to do with the Specter Wolf most likely.

My attempts to remove the vile Mana inside them have proved useless, however, the mana is slowly being rejected by their body. After around four hours my Mana was refilled, and the remaining forces are now fully stable.

The scholar took out a glass bottle and drank the grayish-green liquid inside, "to be forced into drinking one of my Elemental Wind Hi-Potions before even seeing the boss is humiliating."

He turned to the group, protecting his mages, as well as the remaining Earth soldiers, was his goal. As for the dead soldiers, well, Sir Knight will be coming soon, once he sees the danger this dungeon poses he will not say much.

The Scholar turned to one of two lucky wind soldiers that kept themselves alive. "Go and check what has changed from last time." The Soldier was terrified, knowing that he was being used as a disposable pawned but had no way to reject.

He gritted his teeth and moved forward cursing the Scholar the whole way. Upon entering the room, he saw strangely beautiful runes, like those of the Shackles on the floor, walking over them he suddenly felt like every part of his body had frozen over. His instincts told him if he stayed here for too long he was going to die.

Looking around the small room he saw four glass cubes with the same runes on the top. Inside he saw what looked like a snow pile with strange grayish-blue circles and triangles, one of them had what look like sticks coming from the sides. The whole room was cover in a whitish-blue glow that you swore was entering your body.

On the walls of the room, there was a message in the language of the common tongue, the church had made it so all its people must go to school, so he was able to read it.

[The weather inside is frightful

But the snow slimes are so delightful

And since you have no place to go

Let's build a slimeman, while it snows]

[Man the snow shows no signs of stoppin'

And you brought warmth, that leaves you without stoppin'

Your time is running low

So make a slimeman to save you from this freezing cold]

[Oh, no, you're slowly dying

And, my slimemen, are still not sliming

But as long as you'd dare to struggle

The snow slimes will drop the curtain on your pitiful struggle]

The soldier did not know what this all meant, but he saw the doors to the left and right had more of the runes on the floor. It clicked in his head that they might be those traps that spring out blades of ice, was this a trap?

The writing on the walls and the feeling that you are slowly dying made you risk it all to escape. Running back outside as fast as your freezing feet could take you did not trigger the runes, you sight in relief, and went back to the Scholar.

Moments later the scholar entered the room, his face becoming grim then quickly turning to shock.

"T-this is-s an Elemental Ice Domain?!" It wasn't till this moment that it really hit him what it meant to invade a Prismatic Core, not one that is a brainless abomination spewing broken husk, but a true completed product, with all the Elements to its disposal.

Fear, anger, and greed cross the scholar's face. Thinking to himself that if somehow he can obtain the core, and use it as a magic focus, he could really become a noble or even an Arch-mage. The original plan to force the core's soul to aid his research, and learned about the other Elements was now the only thing in his mind.

Waiting for Sir Knight was quickly tossed aside, his new goal was to take control of the core for as long as possible studying the Elements inside. The Knights' patience would run out eventually so he needed to hurry.

The Scholar quickly tried to figure out what the writing meant. After a quick brainstorm, he was able to get the idea, his time was limited by the constant drain of his lifeforce. The exit would be blocked somehow, and the Ice element coming from those runes should be the cause, an ice wall of some kind most likely. Lastly, there is a punishment if I 'dare to struggle'.

Looking at the glass box with his mana field the thing inside was a slime of some sort, he had a bad feeling this thing was a slime of the Ice element. Remembering the writing, these must be the snow slimes mention on it. Ignoring an unknown species because is a slime, and they are all weak, could be potentially dangerous.

The scholar hesitantly brings out a book covered in purple eye drawings and stares at it for a while, with a shake of his head he places it back inside his ropes. "Using the (Analyze) spell my teacher gifted me on such a small fry would be an insult to him." He thought about using it on the strange dog, but now he was in a race to get to the core and learn as much of its secrets as he could.

He orders his group to follow behind him, and explored the remaining rooms, as soon as they walked past the second set of runes, the first set glowed a mere second later. The result was a tall wall of ice several times thicker than the one seen before blocking the entrance. It would take a long time to break thru the sturdy blockade.

Suddenly mana quickly gathered toward the ceiling, looking up the scholar paled, thousands of icicles could be seen just outside all the mages mana field. Runes of ice were glowing behind them snowflakes slowly falling, exacerbating the Ice domains drain further.

Focusing his own field outwards to its very limits of his control the Scholar realize what that was! Slimes, they were all Snow Slimes, at that moment the last part of that writing struck him.

'The snow slimes will drop the curtain on your pitiful struggle'

The Scholar screamed in shame.