Sosshi Village

[Bloodedge]

Sosshi 「ソッシ」 is a village in the Forsaken Region of Clover Kingdom. It is located near the northwest border.

[Apollymi]

Dior answered the curiosity that apparently Junon and Asher were both holding on to, and his answer made the girl's brows draw together underneath her hat. "Sou..." she said thinking about it. She was just clever enough to realize the implication that the treasure was the reason for the actual phenomenon but she'd never heard anything about it. Perhaps there was something specific to the ability to collect the treasure or something like that, but at the very least they had a goal to follow. Go through the dungeon, find your way to the treasure room, touch stuff until you find something you can take, which also disrupts the entirety of the Dungeon. "Arigatou gozaimasu," she said in response to having received an answer, something she apparently remembered after the fact. Still she was content to take in the sights as they flew towards their destination. She could only hope, this wouldn't be a completely boring trip. Her left leg bounced atop her right, as she waited for their arrival.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai," Dior replied. For the duration of the trip, the veteran Magic Knight remained standing atop the eagle's back, with his eyes on the horizon. A few words were exchanged here and there as the group traveled, mostly from Dior explaining the nature of dungeons. He took care to inform these two of his own dungeon experiences, including types of magic traps, the great density of mana within, and the varying levels of danger regarding the creatures. He managed to conclude these tales before they ultimately descended to a location where this dungeon unmistakably was. The mana in the area was among the thickest he'd ever felt in his life, so it was no difficult task to find the entrance. Overall, this dungeon's exterior looked like a destroyed old castle made with the largest of stones. Walls and towers were crumbled and caved in on each other, to the point of looking as if one would only be able to witness a portion of the entry hall within. Dior guided his eagle down to the open gate, where shadows blocked all visuals of the dungeon within. "Here we are," he said as he hopped off the eagle, giving ample time thereafter for Junon and Acher to dismount it before it disappeared. Asher did so with haste, keeping his position slightly to the rear of Dior. This place was just what he expected from the stories told, but he somehow felt like this wasn't his first experience being at this sort of location.

[Apollymi]

"Sugoi!~" Junon hopped off the bird as they landed. She'd never seen anything like this and it wasn't just the look of the place which made her excited. "I've never felt so much mana before, this place gives me tingles!~" she squealed, her ability to sense the mana around her, let her know exactly how much was in this place. It was stunning to her really, but she hadn't ventured off or anything. No, she'd gotten to know a bit of Dior in their time traveling and figured he wouldn't just allow her to wander off so she contained herself. Instead she pointed to shadowy part of the open gate and felt no fear from it. In fact she seemed a bit giddy at the prospect. "Can we go that way?" she asked. Though it was beyond her how they were meant to approach the task of finding the treasure room, she was all for the experience of trying, as much as it would add to her wealth of knowledge and reasoning behind becoming a Magic Knight.

[Bloodedge]

While Junon was pointing at the dungeon's entrance, Asher was walking forward with seemingly no purpose. His pace was too slow to dictate an obvious attempt at entry, but too quick to be movement for the sake of moving alone. Dior watched the boy, but looked toward the entrance itself when Junon spoke. "We can. We should be careful, though. This entrance looks pretty standard, but... I've never seen one this dark before. It might not brighten up very much for a while after we enter. Asher, you should let me take the lead," he concluded, knowing well the earful he would get later if he allowed the younger male to wander in first and have negative repercussions from doing so.

Asher heard Dior's warning, but this didn't stop his forward movement. In fact, he casually raised his left hand, forming in front of it a sphere of light to illuminate the entryway. Dior was stunned, bearing a pride he could not readily express. "You use light magic?! Well, I suppose we're clear then. Lead the way; I'll follow close behind," he said, prompting Asher to enter the longer-than-expected hall of the dungeon, with Dior indeed falling in line behind him. There didn't seem to be much to this dungeon initially, but the walls themselves were laced with mana. Little did one such as Dior know right away, that they had already stumbled upon the dungeon's first trap. If the group did not find the secret and proper entrance to the dungeon, they would be doomed to walk down an endless corridor that always seemed to go straight forward, whether they turned around or not. If they separated, they would likely not meet again in this hall... unless perhaps they saw one another as one of the many skeletons - the bodies of those who became lost forever - littering the endless corridor.

[Apollymi]

Soon enough, Asher was approaching the entrance to the dungeon, and though Dior had said that he should take the lead, Asher's ability to use light magic, would make him a forerunner, with Dior traveling close behind. Junon was also walking along slightly behind Dior bringing up the rear but she felt ill at ease even with the light provided by Asher. "Ano... this place," she started to say as she caught sight of a skeleton as they walked. And the further in they went, the more of them she saw. These were strange as they appeared to be out of time, some of them even looking backwards from the direction they'd come. Given they'd died in this manner, Junon was innately suspicious of looking back. Instead she allowed her finger to trace along the wall. "It feels stagnant," she said. Perhaps it wasn't wasn't the right word though. From Junon's perspective and given her own affinity for the wind, this corridor felt stale, like there was everything here, but also nothing. Like a cool breeze hadn't entered this place in eons even though they'd so recently entered the front gate. The density of the mana would have confused the senses, but for the pink haired girl who felt the wind in every corner of her being, she began looking for it. "Silva-senpai, Asher-kun, you should stop twenty paces ahead," she mentioned, if they did so, she would end up slightly in front of the group and turn to the right staring at the wall there for several seconds.

"There is wind coming from between these cracks. The rest before were too dense but here... is perfect~" the girl chimed. "I'm just going to..." the wind surrounded the girl's palm and created something like a bullet, but instead of forcing it outward and blasting through the wall, she pulled backward shifting several loose bricks at once allowing an opening that looked strangely like an archway to become visible into a lit and airy part of the temple. She took no immediate steps forward as the sight itself was something beyond belief. It was as if it existed as several breezy staircases, but not at all in conventional directions. Some went up or down, side ways along walls. Water ran up, down, left right and in and out of apparently empty tunnels and poured down waterfalls to end up on the ceiling. Tiles and stone were molded and crafted in ways she'd never seen before. Her eyes widened just a bit as she came to a full realization. That unlike the place they'd just been in... this place was brimming with moving magic, it was like their previous place was on a loop and this magic was free flowing.