It’s been three days since we entered the dungeon, and we’re almost at the halfway point of this floor.
The cold threw us for a loop at first, but we’ve been advancing faster since the second day, so we’re ahead of schedule. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re pushing ourselves too much.
Eventually, we see it.
“What’s that?”
“A crystal… Tree?”
Chris answers Rurika’s question, sounding not entirely convinced of what she’s saying.
Yes, it does look like a crystal. And the way it’s transparent tells me it’s not just a tree covered in frost. I can actually see behind it.
But wait, are crystals even that transparent?
“Ah, Hikari. Sera and Rurika too!”
As I think that, I hear Chris’ flustered voice.
I face forward, and see those three advancing towards the tree.
Their steps look unsteady, because they’re getting their feet caught in the snow, but they’re still not stopping.
I rush to go after them, but the distance between us is growing.
As I run, I also give orders to the golems, but they stop along the way. Then I turn their way, and notice I can’t feel magic energy coming from them.
“Sera, get a hold of yourself!”
Chris is ahead of me, and grabs Sera’s arm while yelling. But she loses her balance, and both fall on the snow.
I see that out of the corner of my eye as I use Transfer to move next to Hikari, but the moment I do, I just dive into the snow. It’s so cold.
I push my head out of it, and notice that I only moved a little bit from where I was.
I try to use Transfer again, but it doesn’t activate.
After I give up on it, I run forward, but I’m attacked by a languid feeling after just one step .
And it gets stronger the closer I get to them.
When I stop running and walk instead, the languid feeling disappears. This means that running would actually make me advance more slowly, but regardless, I doubt I’ll catch up to them.
When Rurika and Hikari reach the crystal tree, they reach out and touch it. It starts shining more brightly, giving off an even stronger light, and the two girls fall on the snow.
I have to keep advancing towards them without rushing.
When I do reach them, I shake Hikari, but she doesn’t respond. But she is breathing, and has a pulse. Rurika is the same.
I carry Rurika on my back, and Hikari in my arms, and get away from there. I think there’s very little room to doubt that the crystal did this.
As I go back, I see Sera sitting down next to Chris.
“Is Sera all right?”
“She’s a little languid, but she’s awake.”
Sera slowly gets up, and walks while leaning on Chris’ shoulder.
She speaks while walking, and says that she felt her consciousness grow distant when she looked at the crystal.
The next thing she remembers, is the cold snow. That’s when she came to.
I retrieve the two golems that still aren’t moving, and we rest again, after taking some distance from the crystal tree.
“Are you okay, Chris?”
“Y-yes. Being close to that crystal was a little rough though.”
“So it really is the crystal…”
After laying Hikari and Rurika on wooden boards, I cast Appraisal on them, which shows me the status effect magic energy depletion.
“It looks like their magic energy was taken from them.”
That has to be why Transfer failed too. And why the golems stopped moving. They just ran out of magic energy.
And Chris and I were the only ones who could move freely because we have a lot of magic energy?
“Let’s just rest and wait for them to recover.”
“It’s almost lunch time anyway.”
“Hikari might wake up when she smells the food.”
Says Sera, and I laugh without thinking. That’s actually possible.
That softened the dark mood.
I make a snow hut, drink a mana potion, and call the golems again.
Then I start cooking, while Sera keeps watch with the golems, and Chris looks after the other two.
I ask Sera if she’s all right, and she says drinking a mana potion made her feel better.
It doesn’t take long for lunch to be ready, so I call Sera, and start serving.
“They’re still sleeping.”
Sera’s right, they don’t wake up even after we start eating.
Will they recover if we let them rest like this?
“Do you think they’ll be all right if they rest, Chris?”
“Considering the situation… I honestly don’t know.”
“Then how about giving them mana potions?”
Sera proposes the obvious, but would that be the best option?
I check with Magic Energy Detection, but it doesn’t look like their magic energy has changed since before.
Actually, to be more precise, I don’t sense any at all.
Chris and Sera both hold one of the girls up and feed them mana potions, but it just drips from their mouths. We can’t make them drink like this.
Then, I guess it has to be that other method. I should leave that to them.
I catch on to what they’re thinking, get up, and go outside.
Ahh. It’s cool out here… No, cold.
“Sora…”
I start checking our surroundings with Map and Presence Detection, when Chris comes out, looking like she’s about to cry.
“What happened?”
Did their conditions take a turn for the worse?
As that thought passes through my mind, she tells me with a red face that they couldn’t make them drink the mana potions.
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Thanks for the treat.