Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Chapter 87: Cave Depths

Damp moss covered rocks covered the cave floor as water dripped down from its ceiling. The path in front of them was so dark that without detection magic there would be no way to move forward. The upper floor of the cave had no demonic beasts in it so they did not have to worry about being attacked. But even still Alicia still had an eye floating around her that acted as night vision to pick up any heat signatures. She was on the lookout for any demon spawn.

After around twenty minutes they finally reached a shaft that led down to the next level of the cave, "Bleh! Mother it stinks!"

Alicia frowned the smell coming up from the shaft smelled rancid. It was so bad that Rose and Starla were gagging. "Frey, you go play in the space with Claire." Alicia did not want Frey to have to deal with such a horrid stench it would be too much for her little nose. 

"Young Miss, call me if you need help." Claire said before disappearing with Frey.

"Okay, I will go down first and clear a landing area for us. I will yell up when it's safe." Alicia said.

Alicia wished she could use fire to see her surroundings better. But she dared not to in case she somehow alerted the whole floor of monsters to her location. Alicia secured a rope to a rock before dropping the other end down the shaft. Nodding her head at the others she slowly descended down to the next level. When her feet touched the ground she could feel her boots sticking to the ground which made Alicia frown even more. Her current surroundings only had a few demonic beasts so she drew her sword and dashed out towards them. But what she saw when she got close to the first demonic beast surprised her and also sickened her at the same time. 

"A large maggot!?" Alicia's face turned ugly she did not want to use her poor sword to kill such a thing. Instead, she waved her hand and shot out a few wind blades that sliced the maggot up into many pieces. But the stench that came after turned Alicia's stomach even more. She quickly retreated and climbed up the rope back to the main level to get a breath of fresh air.

"Alicia, what happened?" Rose asked, seeing Alicia's face slightly pale.

"The area under us is full of large maggots and when you kill them they release a horrid stench. We will need a way to stave off the smell otherwise we will be losing our lunch before we make any progress through the tunnel. Hopefully, this is the only level that is like this..." Alicia explained.

"We can just use fragrant magic to keep the small away." Loeri said as she waved her hand and a blast of a strong floral scent filled their noses. They were no longer able to smell any of the scents that were coming up from the shaft.

"Loeri if you had such good magic, why didn't you say something earlier! You have no idea how bad those things smell!" Alicia complained. She would not have had to smell that horrid stench if she had known such magic existed! 

"You never asked!" Loeri said while sticking her tongue out at Alicia.

"Well since we got a way to stave off the smell let's all go down. The large maggots are easily killed with wind magic." Alicia walked back over to the shaft and climbed back down. With the fragrant magic, the smell was no longer an issue. The other three quickly followed behind her as they made their way down as well. 

They did complain about how sticky the floor was but after making their way down the tunnel they came to a huge opening where the floor was no longer sticky. This room had three more openings to it one to the left and right and another straight forward. "Which way should we go?" Starla asked.

"Mmm Not sure." Thinking for a minute Alicia called out: "Blake, I know you're there, so come help me decide a path!" 

Blake walked out of a dark corner and over to Alicia. "Why do you need my help?"

"Because I see something strange in my detection magic and I am not sure if we should go check it out or not. Well, t's more like a heat signature." Alicia waved her hand and a large map displaying everything she could see showed up in mid air. Alicia walked over to the map and pointed to a small dot. "You see this?" 

"That is strange The other paths only have a few demonic beasts in them but the area with this anomaly is overly packed with them. I'd say check it's worth checking out. But just be careful. There is no telling what this dot might be. Not to mention the number of demonic beasts in this area." Blake said.

"Alright, then it's decided we will go check it out." Alicia said while giving Blake a smile. She had finally reeled in the feelings she had for Blake enough so that she did not blush just looking at him. Since he already had someone in his heart she would treat him like a friend or big brother. "Blake since I already know you are following me there is no need to hide anymore. Just stay with the group."

"If that is what you want." Blake said without any hesitation, his expressionless face showed a hint of warmth in how he looked at Alicia. He liked this idea better anyway. If something unexpected happened he could immediately take action.

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