The sun has started to rise marking the 18th hour since the group has gotten trapped in the underground caverns beneath the dark forest. Elise and Damion are inside the small cavern in the ceiling that Elise created.
Elise-"How you doing on mana?"
Damion-"About half"
Elise-"Same, wasn't able to get a full night's sleep because of taking shifts"
Damion-"We were only able to sleep for around five hours each"
Elise-"I can get by with that, I don't need to sleep for eight hours. It just sucks those monsters kept attacking all throughout the night. Anytime I was on lookout I had to deal with that"
Damion-"You could just punch them, I have to use my magic to kill each monster"
Elise-"Punches still drain mana you know"
Damion-"You wouldn't have used so much mana if you just hit the monsters hard enough to kill them"
Elise-"That's what I did"
Damion-"You punched holes through them"
Elise-"I was just making sure they died. Sorry that I can't just drain all of the mana out of them. These things are more like golems than monsters and plenty of golems can regenerate. Honestly I'm surprised these ones don't"
Damion-"Maybe because there's so many of them"
Elise-"That makes sense. But why bother making so many weak monsters that don't regenerate then some stronger ones that do"
Damion-"Strength in numbers"
Elise-"That's like saying defeating one hundred toddlers would be more difficult than fighting ten adults"
Damion-"...Why would you fight a hundred toddlers?"
Elise-"I didn't mean it literally"
Damion-"So it was a hypothetical?"
Elise-"Yes, at least you get that now"
Damion-"But why would you pick toddlers and adults"
Elise-"Stop"
Damion-"I mean with how strong you are, you could beat ten average adults just as easily as a hundred toddlers"
Elise-"I'm ending this conversation"
Elise jumps down from their hiding spot in the ceiling.
Damion(shouts)-"Are we heading towards the voice now?"
Damion jumps down from the ceiling.
Elise-"Yeah, it's possible that the rest of our team is there. When we find whatever made these caverns, (Slams fists together) we'll crush it to a pulp"
Damion-"Alright"
Damion walks around the cave looking into the different tunnels. Damion then stops and points into one of the tunnels.
Damion-"I think the voice is loudest this way"
Elise-"Well lead the way then"
Damion steps into the tunnel and begins walking through it with Elise following close behind him.
Elise-"I feel like it's starting to get a little foggy in here. Maybe it's morning dew?"
Damion-"This fog has holy magic in it"
Elise-"It does?"
Elise stops and cups her hands together. She sees a small trace pf holy magic within the mist.
Elise-"You're right, do you think this is from Marigold"
Damion-"Either her or somebody else who uses holy magic"
Elise-"She has water magic too so it seems like a combination. But why would she be filling the tunnels with holy water mist? She must be trying to give us a way to find her, but how would we track her down with this"
Damion-"If we go wherever the fog is the thickest then we would find her"
Elise-"That's true, but we have no idea what direction to go in first, we don't even know if she's above or below us"
Damion-"If the fog gets thinner we'll know we went in the wrong direction"
Elise-"You're right, I just know this will be a lot of backtracking"
Damion-"What about the voice?"
Elise-"We'll go to it after we regroup, for now it seems to be in the same direction so hopefully it won't be too much more walking"
Meanwhile Adam and Joe are still inside of their hiding place high up on the wall of their cave.
Adam-"It's been a while... the sun must be up by now"
Joe-"I wasn't able to get any more sleep"
Adam-"At least you got a couple hours, I only got about an hour of sleep"
Joe-"Well I don't know how I was supposed to get anymore sleep after seeing that... thing"
Adam-"I didn't even see it, but the mana alone nearly made me pass out"
Joe-"I've never encountered a monster with that much mana before, that lightning wyvern didn't even compare"
Adam-"It's way stronger than those other plant monsters in these caverns. It must be the thing that created these caverns"
Joe-"It must have gotten tired of us killing so many of the plant monsters that it came out looking for us"
Adam-"We have to find the others immediately before that thing finds them"
Joe-"Do you- think Julius could take it down? He's really strong"
Adam-"Even if Julius used that massive attack he used back against prince Magnus. I doubt that would even hurt that monster"
Joe-"We have to regroup, and get out of these caverns. Do you have any mana left?"
Adam-"A little, after that big one showed up the smaller monsters became much less frequent"
Joe-"Same, let's locate the others and warn them"
Joe and Adam climb out of the hole in the wall. They climb down the vines along the wall trying to be quiet.
Adam-"Do you know which tunnel that monster went down?"
Joe-"No, once it got close I hid inside of our camp so it wouldn't see me. But I think it went that way"
Joe points forwards towards a group of tunnels"
Joe-"As long as we don't go through one of those tunnels we should be okay"
Adam-"Alright, let's go this way then"
Adam and Joe go left and head through a tunnel that takes them downwards.
Joe-"Do you think we should be heading upwards, what if our friends are going towards the surface"
Adam-"Elise would probably go downwards to fight more monsters. And Julius would be flying around looking for us so he's probably down lower by now and somehow missed us"
Adam hops down into another large cave.
Adam-"That's strange, that tunnel seems very short"
Joe-"This room seems to have a lot of fog in it"
Adam-"Do you hear that?"
Joe-"Hear what? Is that monster back!?"
Adam-"No, it sounds like a hissing sound"
Adam cups his long elf ear to try to locate the source of the sound.
Adam-"This way"
Adam takes off through the think fog. Joe follows behind him running through the cavern and into another one of the tunnels. Very quickly the two enter into another cavern.
Joe-"You're right, the tunnels seem a lot shorter now"
Adam-"Shush... this way"
Adam runs straight forward into another tunnel.
Joe(in his head)-"I think I'm starting to hear what he's talking about. It sounds kind of like a tea kettle"
Adam stops as the tunnel connects to another short tunnel.
Adam-"Look, on the ground"
Adam bends down and finds the source of the sound is a long hose with mist spewing out of segments of it.
Joe-"What is this?"
Adam-"I don't know but it seems like maybe some kind of machine thing, and it looks like this mist it's spewing out is made from holy water"
Joe-"Julius and Marigold"
Adam-"If we follow this hose, we'll be able to find them"
Joe-"It's about time we get out of here"
Adam-"I've been waiting for some good news"
End of chapter 84