Phoenix Flight [Lite LitRPG - Dungeon Diving - FFM Romance]

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Plan


Finding the dungeon had been shockingly easy. It annoyed Davi a bit since things were going way smoother than they usually did for him.

He had the trait Danger Sense, which allowed him to get a bad feeling when something was about to target him with an attack, but that was the only sensing-based skill he had, and it wasn't very good at locating things. Because of that, in the past, he would wander around until he happened upon the dungeon or the monster came to him.

With the help of Cain, though, locating the dungeon was child's play. Cain led them through the forest and away from the village. The trees became dense and sturdy, yet that didn't stop the silver-haired man, who casually carved through them with the sword he carried with him. Davi debated on stealing it but decided against it for now.

Eventually, trees opened up, leading to a small section of the woods that had been carved away by human hands. All the trees were already cut down, creating a small plot of land. In the middle of the land, an abandoned home resided.

It was a small brick building that was old and worn down. The chimney was torn to bits, and the roof was practically caved in. One of the walls looked like it was about to come down, and mold as well as vines clung to the stone. Grass grew out of the ground, thick and long, coming up to everyone's waist.

It was likely that this home had once belonged to someone years ago. Perhaps they wanted to live on their own, or they were an outcast of the village; Davi didn't know, but it was clear nature had reclaimed this place. Just by being near it, he could also feel the thick mana that coated the air. It felt like he was walking through water. The energy was about the same as the Salamander one had been in Fri. This was it. The dungeon had been found.

"So it's in that house?" Ruby asked.

"Yep." Cain nodded. "My Moonlit magic doesn't allow me to send my particles out as well as I can in the real world since the dungeon space lacks an actual moon. I have no idea what the dungeon is going to be like, but I was able to brush the door. It's near the back. No monsters are guarding it."

"Are goblins strong?" Ken asked, cocking her head to the side.

"No, they're quite weak and dumb." Ruby shook her head. "Still, I'm not going to go in gung-ho. A cocky mage is a dead mage." She glanced back toward Jack, who stood several meters away, leaning against a tree. "We're going to show him just how good we are, but in order to do that, I need to know what you can all do. What are your types of magic and any notable traits?" She shot a look at Davi. "You go first, mutt."

"Hawk actually." Davi corrected her. "I have shadow magic. Only have two—make that three—spells, though. Anyone want to be put in a sexy witch girl outfit?"

"What can you do?" Ruby sighed. "Like, what are you good at? Bring up your traits." She lifted her finger, and the blue box appeared out of thin air for her. "Since we're wearing these metal bracelets, we have access to the advanced grimoire that the Knights use. These ones can be brought up with just a thought and even work in dungeons since the tech that powers them was made out of a recycled elf tower. Just think about your traits, and it'll show up."

Ruby's own blue box listed her trait page, showing off all the grades she had and what she could do.

Traits: Nature Core: Grade A, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade C, Wall-Walking: Grade C, Water-Walking: Grade C, Hand-to-Hand: Grade D-, Flawless Beauty: Grade A+.

"This is what I can do." Ruby puffed her chest out, clearly proud.

"These suck." Ken snorted.

"What was that?" Ruby growled.

"I said they suck." Ken folded her arms. "All your traits are just as good as or worse than mine. Hand-to-hand is pathetically low. You don't have a martial arts trait or any weapon traits and their styles either. Seriously, can you even fight?"

Ruby huffed and turned her nose up at Ken. "I'll admit, I'm not a muscleheadlike you, and I lack physical power, but I more than make up for it with my magic and the spells I have. Don't underestimate me. If yours are so much better, go ahead and show me."

Ken pointed a finger up casually and summoned her box. Traits: Flame Core: Grade A, Sprint: Grade A, Stamina: Grade C, Wall-Walking: Grade C, Water-Walking: Grade C, Hand-to-Hand: Grade A+, Way of the Sun Open Palm Martial Arts: Grade S, Heat Immunity: Grade A+ Bearer Of The Title Of Ken: Grade C-, Loved By Spirits: Grade S+, Sealing: Grade A-. None of it had changed since the exams started, which she was more than fine with since her stats were still far better than Ruby's.

The sight of so many high-level traits actually managed to silence the arrogant noblewoman. "I told you I should have been the leader," Ken smirked.

Davi let out a low whistle. "Oh, cool, you have an S grade also; that's the best, right?"

"That's right—" Ken stopped and instantly turned to look back at Davi. "You have an S-grade path of cultivation?"

"I don't know what the hell a cultivation is, but I have an S-grade trait." Davi nodded.

"Pull it out," Ruby demanded. "I refuse to believe some dog has one."

Traits: Shadow Core: Grade A, Master Hoarder: Grade B, Sprint: Grade B, Stamina: Grade A, Sword-Wielding: Grade B+, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade C+, Hand-to-hand: Grade D, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade D, Cold Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Resistance: Grade A+, Danger Sense: Grade B, Loved by Mana: Grade A, Fishing: Grade S+.

Davi rubbed his chin as he stared at his sights. "Neat." Fishing, Sword-Wielding, and Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword had all gone up by one.

"What the hell is 'Loved by Mana'?" Ruby asked.

"I dunno, but check out my fishing skill." Davi clicked it, and the box expanded and opened further.

'You've improved your use of the Sky Cutting Sword Style and continued to ignore most of the lessons in favor of improving your ability to fish.'

"The words changed; it said something slightly different last time." Davi nodded.

Ken and Ruby shared a deadpan look before Ken reached out and grabbed Davi by the wrist. She forced his hand to close out the fishing skill and then made him click on the Loved by Mana one. Both women watched as the box changed again and new text appeared.

'You are the child of (error), and that allows you to use (error). When the right conditions are met, your (error) will open.'

Most of the text was unreadable due to static and lines that crossed out the words. Ken looked back at Ruby. "Is that normal?"

Ruby's eyes scanned the weird trait. "Not really. It does happen sometimes. Usually, it means it's a trait the user doesn't know. Our traits are things we can do, and so naturally, if we can do something but do not know it, it can confuse the trait list. It's rare, but I've seen it before. I never heard of one called Loved by Mana, though. It might be a placeholder name that the system itself chose? After all, your Core is way too low for someone who is supposedly loved by mana. Loved could mean something else in this context, or mana could even be the name of someone else? Maybe some entity or something? Honestly, I have no clue. This is one weird mutt."

"Hawk."

"Shut it." Ruby glanced away from Davi and looked toward Cain, who was the last one left who hadn't shown their traits off. Cain let out a sigh and nodded. He held his palm up, and his box appeared, shimmering into the air.

Traits: Moonlit Core: Grade S, Spring: Grade A, Stamina: Grade B, Sword-Wielding: Grade A, Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword Style: Grade A, Way Of The Moon Divider Style: Grade A, Hand-to-Hand: Grade C, Way of Self Iron Martial Arts: Grade C, Radiation Resistance: Grade A+, Heat Immunity: Grade D, Wall-Walking: Grade B-, Water-Walking: Grade B-, Flawless Beauty: Grade C, Fishing: Grade C.

Everyone was silent as they took in the impressive number of traits Cain had. Davi felt a frown tug its way onto his face when he saw Way Of The Sky Cutting Sword and Self Iron. Those had been things that were taught to him by his mother and father? There was only one other person in the world who would have those traits since he had taught them to her. What made him more ticked off, though, was that Cain's were of a higher grade than his! He had the original, and no doubt Cain had been taught them by 'her' of all people. Just how high had 'hers' gotten, Davi wondered.

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Ken didn't look as impressed, but the girl did have a shit-eating grin on her face as she glanced back at Ruby's pathetic list. "Wow. So you're rocking the smallest, huh?"

Ruby gritted her teeth, and her face turned a little red. "I-It isn't the size that matters, but how you use it!"

"Something tells me you don't have the skill to use it well enough." Ken's grin only grew. "Look at it, all tiny and pathetic."

"Are we still talking about traits?" Davi questioned. "Because this kind of sounds like you're describing a d—"

Jack Larison cleared his throat, getting the banter to stop instantly. Ruby shot a look toward the Knight and could tell he was growing annoyed by the lack of action. She closed her trait screen, as did the others, and she nodded back toward the hut. "Alright. We're going to enter the dungeon now. Since we don't know fully what we're expecting, let's enter a basic formation. Davi, you're going to go first since you're the Defender. After you will be Cain. He should be able to fight alongside you easily enough. I'll take up the rear behind Cain as the Face. I'm more suited to medium range, and my magic takes time to build up. Lastly, that leaves Ken Yuan; you'll be all the way in the back, and your job will be to support us. If you have any attack-buffing spells, use them on Cain while casting your healing magic on Davi. I'll use my own healing spells to try and close any wounds Cain gets since he isn't as durable as Davi. Understood?"

Ken wanted to argue. She wasn't suited for the support role and only had the basic spell of Flame Feel. She would have preferred the role of Attacker or even Face, but she was stuck with the hand she was dealt, and they had all agreed to play their roles the right way in an effort to do their best. That meant she'd have to suck it up.

She could ignore the orders and do what she wanted, but truth be told, she actually liked Davi a bit and didn't want to throw him under the bus because of her arrogance. Ken gave a hesitant nod when Ruby looked her way.

"Row Shadow Vault." Davi held his hand out and summoned his new fish sword—

"Yeah, no." Ruby shook her head. "Get an actual weapon."

"I literally have none." Davi sounded almost sheepish.

"Cain," Ruby said simply.

"Row Moonlit Sword." Cain clasped his hands together and then slowly opened them. Silver light danced between his fingers, and as his hands fully came undone, a sword appeared out of thin air, forged from the glowing particles. He gripped the blade by the handle and then handed it out toward Davi. "Here. I can maintain this spell for four hours. Less if I have to cast multiple high-level spells, but it should last at least one hour no matter what."

Davi placed his fish back into the vault and took the sword. It felt weird to hold. It buzzed in his hand, vibrating softly, and felt warm. It wasn't like carrying a real sword and instead felt more like the air itself had become solid around the blade. It was a simple longsword, and aside from the fact that it was glowing, it didn't seem all that special.

"What even is Moonlit magic?" Ken questioned. "I have the path of fire and use flame qi thanks to Yujin, and understanding the path these two follow is easy." Ken pointed her thumb at Davi and Ruby. "One controls shadows and the other nature, but what is moonlit? Is it just moonlight? How is that different from light magic?"

Cain reached out, and he ran his finger along the edge of the sword he made for Davi, not minding the pain as he sliced it open. "It has a bit to do with moonlight. The light of the moon is reflected sunlight. In this case, though, it's what the light carries that is actually important. Moonlit magic is solidifying the light of the moon that carries cosmic radiation. It's like how ice magic is the solidification of water magic. I'm taking that radiated light and giving it a solid form."

Davi suddenly felt uncomfortable holding the glowing sword. "Do I need to get tested?"

Cain shook his head. "Don't worry, I can control how toxic the radiation is. The dose is trillions of times weaker and smaller than the radiation you'd be hit with from an X-ray. Even if you carried that sword for a hundred years, you wouldn't be affected. That said," Cain's lips quivered slightly. "If I wanted to, I could make that bit of radiation so potent it'd give you every type of cancer in the book. Just remember that if we ever go up in arms for whatever reason."

"Noted." Davi nodded. "I'll be sure to kill you before you can cast a spell."

That caused Cain's smile to falter. Before the man could say anything else, Ruby pressed her hands to both Davi's and Cain's backs. "Alright! Seriously, no more talking! Let's get this stupid mission over with!" She glanced back at Jack, who gave her a nod. "We're going to put an end to these goblins."

***

Nori twirled through the air, flying through the skies. Long wings forged out of shards of glass grew from his shoulders, giving him an almost angelic look. His eyes reflected everything he saw as he danced through the forest. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.

"Ms. Olivia, I believe I've found it." Nori spoke to the air, but the very fabric of space twisted, sending his words down to the forest below.

Emma had her hand out, and the air bubbled as she used her spatial magic to shift the place of the sound waves around her and that of the sound waves around Nori, allowing his voice to appear next to her. Standing in front of Emma were Olivia and Ash, who both looked slightly uncomfortable at the many air bubbles that kept cracking into existence around Emma, but this was the best way to communicate with Nori at the moment.

After speaking with the people of the village and learning what type of goblins were attacking the place, Olivia had set out to find the dungeon. After getting far into the forest, her phone had gone completely offline, the battery within shutting down. That meant the dungeon was nearby since its field would be canceling out all magitech. After learning it was nearby, she had sent Nori into the sky so he could scout out the place from a better angle. Due to the phones being dead, they couldn't call each other, and so they were using Emma's spatial magic to bend and twist space itself to allow their voices to bounce around one another.

"What do you see, Nori?" Olivia asked.

"It looks like an old home," Nori replied. "It's trashed beyond belief. I can feel the mana coming from it."

"Okay. Land somewhere safe, but stay away from the building in case it's a trap. We're on our way." Olivia looked to Emma. "Can you teleport us?"

"You want us to get there in one piece?" Emma asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes?"

"Then no. I can't teleport us." Emma fiddled with her guns. "My magic is hard to control. I can't properly teleport living matter. Voices and stuff like that are easy, but moving a person is harder. I'm more likely to teleport them but not their skin."

"That's a horrifying thought." Ash's face turned a little green.

Olivia nodded and turned to Ash. "Make a disc of air for us to all stand on."

Ash looked like he wanted to argue, but he glanced at Sune, who was leaning against a tree, and held his tongue. He pulled his wand out and muttered a spell. The air came together and formed into a large square-shaped platform that could fit him and the other two girls. "You'll have to walk." He called out to Sune.

"That's fine." The woman nodded. "I'm faster than all of you anyway. I can keep up."

With that settled, Ash caused his platform to lift off the ground. It was extremely slow and wobbled. Olivia felt like she'd slip off any second now, but she forced herself to stay standing on it. Emma seemed unbothered. Because of how slow they were moving, Sune beat them toward the dungeon and was standing next to Nori when Ash finally set them down.

"Took you long enough." Nori teased. His wings were still attached to him, but they folded back and wrapped around his waist, forming a bit of armor. His look grew serious, and his glassy eyes looked toward the broken-down brick house. "It's there."

Olivia felt her hair stand up slightly. She couldn't sense mana, at least not the way other mages could, but she could still feel that something was wrong. The air was the same as the Salamander.

"What's the plan?" Ash asked, glancing at Olivia.

Olivia gripped her wand tightly at her side. "You and I are going first."

Ash raised an eyebrow at her statement. "The Face usually is in the back? The Attacker and Defender go first."

Olivia shook her head. "Emma is an Attacker, but she's a long-range one. She uses guns."

"Olivia is right." Emma sighed. "I can't really do much up close. I prefer to keep my distance."

"It's the same for Nori as well." Olivia nodded to the glass mage. "He's a Support, and glass magic won't be suited for defending all that well. The role of the Face is not just to be a leader but also to be a sub-role. In this case, I'll fill the role of a sub-Attacker. I'm also the weakest here, so I think I'm expendable." Olivia chuckled darkly.

"I won't disagree with that." Nori laughed. "All you have going for you is your good looks and that fun mana feel. Try not to die, but if we have to lose a member, you'd be the best bet!"

Olivia looked a little annoyed at Nori's harsh words, but she had agreed with him. Instead of arguing any further, she took charge and marched toward the building. In one hand, she held her wand. In the other, she gripped a sturdy knife made out of solid glass, which Nori had given her. Hopefully, it would let her save her a spell or two and prevent her from passing out before the boss.

Ash followed, and she motioned for the door. He understood what she needed and used a weak blast of wind to blow the door down and put up a barrier in case any goblins came charging their way. None did, and after a few moments of waiting, Ash entered the hut. He looked around and gave the all clear, allowing the rest of his team to enter.

Olivia glanced at the inside of the house. It had been what she had expected. It was totally destroyed and run down, with cracked walls and debris scattered everywhere. Dust coated every inch, and her lungs ached a bit the further she got into it. Spiderwebs hung from the rafters, and furniture was ripped to shreds.

The thing that stole the show, though, was in the kitchen. Like the rest of the house, it looked like a bomb had gone off, but one thing was still shockingly fine. The oven was clean and spotless, not an ounce of dirt on it. It was also open. A crawl space stretched out going forward an impossible distance.

The dungeon had opened up and appeared inside of the oven itself. The oven was now the door to the goblin's lair. Luckily, the oven itself was large, but it'd still be a bit hard to crawl into it, and getting out would also be tricky…

"Why did it have to open in such a stupid place?" Olivia sighed.

"I think it's kind of funny." Emma cracked a rare smile.

Olivia walked closer to the oven, and she dropped to a crouching position, staring into it. The crawl space was narrow and thin. Once they went into the oven, they'd have to shamble across the stone and dirt on their bellies just to get out on the other side. Past the stone, the path kept getting more and more narrow before it finally opened about twenty feet away and dropped down where the rest of the dungeon would be.

Since it was a low-level one, it wouldn't have that many floors in it. At least that's what Olivia hoped.

"Alright." Olivia looked back at everyone, and she forced another smile. "Let's do this." She forced on a brave face, and then, against her better judgment, she began to crawl into the oven.

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