Chapter 78: Mist Biome
The next day came and Terrence left his room after making his preparations.
He made sure to leave the inn early in the morning to slim the chance of encountering Noli along the way.
And just as he had wanted, he didn’t encounter Noli at all this day.
He had originally planned to enter an A-Rank dungeon rift while he was in the area, but with the specific things he wanted to experiment on, he couldn’t do so if he was going to be bombarded or constantly bothered by Noli.
After visiting a nearby Contribution Agency establishment, he went straight out of the Looming Bridge, taking mental notes on three active rifts nearby: two C-Ranks and one B-Rank, all located at least a kilometer away from each other.
’First, I will grind for beast cores and observe the Evolution Booster in action.’
Summoning both his Shadow Hound and the Sky Dragon, Terrence stepped directly into a red portal, making this his first C-Rank dungeon rift of the day.
As his environment shifted and his body reacted to the spatial transit into another dimension, Terrence was greeted by a biome smothered in dense mist. There were no trees in sight, but the ground was lush green and filled with wild grass reaching up to his knee height.
The thick mist completely covered the surrounding area, making it terrible to predict any incoming beast attacks from any direction.
Terrence gently caressed the toddler dragon, thinking about where to start with understanding this new beast.
The Shadow Hound wasn’t difficult to understand, as its traits were similar to most common beasts tamers contracted. However, the Sky Dragon was the very first of its kind among discovered flying beasts.
As the blue-scaled baby dragon hovered at his shoulder level, Terrence wondered what else it could do apart from its known active skills.
’The Shadow Hound can detect nearby enemies within a wide perimeter, giving us enough time to prepare. Almost all beasts have that basic detection capability, differing only in their effective range.’
"Can you clear this mist for us?" Terrence asked the blue dragon, making it blink its large eyes as it tried to comprehend his command.
The dragon faced away from Terrence with visible reluctance, clearly unsure of what it was capable of doing.
This reaction only strengthened Terrence’s hypothesis that this Sky Dragon was still just a young kid after all.
The Sky Dragon’s small face bloated, puffing its cheeks as if sucking in air from its thin nose, before breathing it directly out in one direction.
A sudden gust of freezing cold air mixed with the mist, making the moisture freeze instantly upon contact with the cold breath the Sky Dragon produced.
Terrence couldn’t help but smile widely at what he had just discovered.
’The Sky Dragon possesses natural cold properties!’
With the thick mist slowly disappearing into solid, falling droplets of ice, the space that cleared provided them with a proper view of what lay directly ahead.
There was a faint, small light dancing far in the distance, growing noticeably stronger and weaker with each passing second. Terrence pondered deeply on what this visual phenomenon could possibly be.
’Is that fire?’ It was his first logical guess, but he couldn’t just blindly believe it was fire without seeing it up close.
As the path they had cleared slowly began to shrink as the dense mist spread back over the open area, Terrence instructed the Sky Dragon to clear the space ahead once more, taking his first confident steps forward.
They trekked through the clearing with caution toward the unknown danger. They hadn’t encountered a single wild beast so far, which made the trip feel somewhat like a waste of effort.
’By this time, we should have gathered at least ten beast cores. But since there aren’t any beasts appearing at all... I think we’re just wasting valuable time here.’
However, they had already traveled too far from the entrance exit of the dungeon.
’It would also be a total waste to leave now without seeing that distant light up close.’
They established a steady pattern on their way toward the source of light. As they took steps forward, the Sky Dragon would routinely clear their path, leaving a distinct trace of frozen ice droplets behind them. Then, as the space before them began getting covered by mist again, the Sky Dragon would repeat its cold breath exhales.
Terrence began to feel impatient. Despite how the source of light grew steadily stronger and bigger in their vision, he felt as though they were just traveling mindlessly through the dungeon with no proper goal.
’We came in here specifically to hunt for beast cores...’
Terrence let out a heavy sigh, the cold, damp air of the mist touching his nose and lungs as he tried to think of a better way to utilize his time here.
’Should I just test out the Sky Dragon’s combat limits? But test it against what? There are literally no foes here.’
"Can you scout the area from an aerial view?" Terrence instructed the blue dragon. "If there’s still mist above, continue to clear the path ahead and inspect that source of light for us."
The blue-scaled dragon acknowledged the command with a small squeak before flying straight upward with wobbly, unrefined wing movements. It quickly disappeared into the thick, dense layer of overhead mist.
"Stay on high guard," Terrence commanded the Shadow Hound, his heart beating faster with each passing second that transpired without the Sky Dragon present.
He turned to his remaining beast. "Can you do something similar to clear the view?"
The Shadow Hound tilted its head in confusion before obeying the command, clearly unsure if it could replicate the Sky Dragon’s freezing breath.
The beast released a deep exhale to clear the path, but nothing happened to the surrounding fog. However, the Shadow Hound refused to give up.
Since the task was simply to clear the physical path ahead, it swung its paws and released three small shadow slashes through the air, cutting directly through the dense mist and pulling the foggy moisture along the direction of the attack momentum.
This time, the path directly in front of them was successfully cleared.
Terrence smiled widely at the ingenuity, but as his eyes looked forward into the cleared space, his smile slowly vanished and his heart grew tense.
"Enemy!"
Standing directly before them was a massive beast with a huge body made of gray rock, covered with patches of green moss across its thick shell. It was as large as a two-story house, featuring perching, dimly glowing golden light for eyes set within its small rocky head. It looked very much like a giant turtle, but its thick front arms resembled massive boulders.
"A Golem Turtle," Terrence recognized the beast instantly, finally realizing what specific type of dungeon biome they were currently trapped in.
"This dungeon is extremely dangerous," Terrence hissed under his breath, taking a cautious step back. "Beasts in this biome are ridiculously tough and practically immune to standard physical attacks."
Terrence gritted his teeth, realizing that this specific dungeon was suited for mental or elemental offensive skills—and as obvious as their current situation was, neither he nor his beasts possessed those specific types of attacks.