That feeling vanished the second Ferry rose to her feet. Roy yelped in a very un-manly way as he lurched forward, twining his fingers deep into the long fur at the base of her spine. His cheeks burned red with embarrassment as the ferret turned to give him an amused look.
“Wow, even the ferret thinks you’re acting like a child. I’ve never seen her do that before,” Geon commented, not making the situation any better.
Roy didn’t have any time to retort as Ferry’s body bunched up, then exploded forward in a burst of motion. Clamping his jaw shut, Roy leaned forward as far as he could, clutching desperately to the fur in front of him and hugging as tightly as he could with his legs. The next three days were not going to be pleasant.
Contrary to his belief however, Roy became accustomed to Ferry’s movements pretty quickly. She ran smoothly, winding through the trees with more grace than a creature her size should have had. Within thirty or so minutes, he was comfortable enough to relax his grip, and by the end of the first day, he felt as though he’d been riding his entire life.
Now, it was nearing nightfall on the third day of their journey. He and Geon had spent the majority of the time discussing mostly mundane topics, and Roy couldn’t have been happier. He’d never had someone he could call a friend, and although Geon wasn’t technically a person, he was still a living and intelligent being. Geon, for his part, simply enjoyed the company. He’d never spoken with anyone inside his Dungeon while he’d been running it, so this was a first for him as well.
Roy didn’t waste all his time on idle chatter. Whenever they stopped so he could take a break - Ferry never seemed to need one - he would spend some time cultivating the meager Power Essence in the air. The majority of his time was focused on mastering the basics of martial combat.
He practiced the same maneuvers over and over again until they’d been drilled into his muscles and brain, then he would practice some more. And while he was eager to move on to the more advanced techniques, he knew that a strong foundation was important for everything, especially the Martial Arts.
Though he pushed himself day and night, Roy still required sleep, though he found that he could now function on less than six hours a night. Ferry stayed awake and kept watch while he slept, so he did so with a sound mind. More than once, they’d come across a wild Beast, but they all steered clear of the oversized ferret.
The pain of keeping his senses open all the time was slowly diminishing by the day, though it was still a constant distraction. But it was definitely getting better. He, in turn, was also getting better at gaging the power and rank of those around him in return.
After the second day, he’d correctly identified Ferry’s level of advancement at 1st Dan Yellow. Geon had refused to tell him how strong she was until he’d correctly identified it, and had refused to answer when he began guessing. He’d even guessed a few times correctly, but Geon had not responded, due to his not actually knowing.
Holding the breathing technique shown by the parchment was still difficult, to the point where he’d nearly given up, and more than once at that. Geon had once again been his saving grace, forcing him to keep going despite the pain and discomfort. In the long run, it would benefit him, but he still harbored some resentment against the Dungeon core, for now.
“I think I can see the Dungeon entrance up ahead.”
Geon’s voice cut through Roy’s thoughts, snapping his mind back to the world around him. It really wasn’t good that he went off like that. If an enemy had attacked while he’d been so distracted, he could have been killed. Roy wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he still didn’t have enemies. If the Shah clan ever found out that it had been him who’d stolen their Dungeon core, they would hunt him mercilessly.
Ferry’s sprint slowed to a walk as the trees up ahead began thinning, and the swirling portal came into view.
“How is it possible that no one has found this Dungeon yet?” Roy asked. He was in the middle of nowhere and hadn’t seen a single human being in days, but still. Something as conspicuous as a swirling colorful Dungeon portal should have been discovered by sheer chance. Besides, couldn’t the other Martial Artists feel it? He certainly could.
“There are literally thousands of Dungeons spread throughout Buryoku,” Geon replied as Ferry came to a stop, then crouched so Roy could dismount. “Out of all of them, I doubt even half have been discovered. And I know what you’re going to ask. The answer is no. Martial Artists can’t sense Dungeons. If they scanned this area with their senses, they would feel nothing out of the ordinary. Seeing as you have me, though, sensing Dungeons is easy.”
Roy grinned, glad to finally find that he had something that other Martial Artists didn’t. He also only had twenty-six days left to live and wasn’t getting any closer to advancing than he had before.
“What kind of Dungeon do you think it is?” he asked, approaching the portal and stretching his arms above his head.
He was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to do right now, was walk into the Dungeon. From his experience with the last Dungeon he’d been in, he knew that he could exit the same way he’d entered, so taking a quick look around wouldn’t hurt him. Or so he hoped.
“No idea. You’ll only be able to tell once you’ve gone inside, since the Dungeon itself is housed in a different dimension- yet another reason that Martial Artists can’t sense them. They’re not technically here.”
Nodding in reply, Roy walked up to the portal. It was set in the trunk of a long-dead and half-rotted tree stump. While the trees around the area were noticeably thinner than the rest of the forest, there were no special defining features about it. Perhaps that was why no one had noticed it before.
Well that, and the fact that the entire entrance was only about two and a half feet tall. Roy’s outfit was already shredded and filthy, so it didn’t bother him one bit when he dropped to his knees, and the damp soil stained his pants a dark brown.
Crawling through, Roy felt the familiar tingling sensation running down his spine as he entered. What he saw once he reached the other side surprised him. He’d been expecting another dark cavern. Instead, he’d crawled right onto a sandy beach. He’d never been to a beach before, but he’d heard about them often enough to know that this was it. The beach was set right near the ocean, which was the greatest naturally occurring source of Water Essence in all of Buryoku.
Better sources of Essence could, of course, be found, but those would have to be inside Dungeons or powerful Water cultivating Beast cores.
The smell of salt hit Roy as soon as he’d finished climbing through the portal and got back to his feet. The entire area was warm, but it had a pleasant breeze. The sound of the ocean hit him next, and his eyes widened in awe as an endless sea of water stretched before him. The air was coated a vivid blue to Roy’s senses, the Water Essence so thick and condensed that he almost felt as though he were drowning in it.
However, there was something else he sensed. Walking down the stretch of open sand, Roy had his suspicions confirmed just a moment later. Right on the surf line, where the waves crashed into the sand, was a thick band of gold Power Essence.
“It would appear that the ocean is a source of Power Essence. Who knew?” Geon said as Roy walked quickly over to the area in question.
“I feel like you should know this or might have known this,” Roy responded as he stopped right on the edge of the dry sand. “Just by looking at it, I can tell that the ocean seems to be vastly powerful. Every time the waves wash in, crashing against the shore, they create force. Force is one of the aspects of Power, as far as I can tell, so it makes sense.”