Chapter 455: Crumbling Temple?
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[Item Name: Umbravine Bloom]
[Item Description: The Umbravine Bloom is a miraculous species of flower that could only be found either deep underground or in the blessed garden of the Flower God. A certain Corruption has been known to avoid this particular flower.]
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As Lillian read through the flower’s description, she felt the temple of the Cliff God shudder for a moment before shaking violently.
Rumble...!
It was beginning to crumble!
"W-woah!" Lillian immediately lost her balance.
Although she was aware that such an event would happen, she didn’t expect it to be this difficult to remain upright!
The roof above her crumbled and fell towards her, dust falling like waterfalls and crashing against her arm, which whipped towards the falling bricks.
With a wave of her hand, she blew away the falling stone debris before feeling herself lose her footing. Not because she had fallen over, but because the entire ground beneath her cracked open and fell.
Captain Righthook analysed the situation.
After putting away one last piece of furniture, he grew a pair of wings from his back and immediately dashed towards Lillian with his hand stretched out.
Unfortunately, he was just a single millisecond too short as Lillian just barely missed his hand.
Lillian fell down, descending at a rapid rate as everything around her had rapidly turned to dust and broken stone. Wherever she looked, it was nothing but the same sight.
She grimaced at the recollection of her barely missing the Captain’s hand, but sighed, she wouldn’t be taking any damage from the fall, so it didn’t matter.
Thinking that, Lillian slowly controlled her mana throughout her body and prepared to transform her body into water.
But.
That was until...
Swoosh...!
The Jungle Lord suddenly appeared from behind the curtain of dust around her.
With his battle axe hung on his back with a sling made out of vines, he leapt between each large stone that hadn’t yet turned into dust and quickly made his way over to Lillian’s immediate location.
Moving with sheer dexterity and skill, the Jungle Lord managed to catch the falling white-haired girl before raising his other hand high up into the sky.
Following his action, the two of them were suddenly hit with a wave of mana that washed over them, sending back information of their location to the source.
With his hand raised high into the air, the Jungle Lord noticed something bursting through the curtain of dust with profound speed and catching his hand.
In the span of mere moments, Lillian and the Jungle Lord had managed to escape from within the world of dust and outside of it.
The two watched the remnants of the temple that had completely crumbled before turning their eyes up to the Captain, who had sprouted a few extra wings to support their combined weight.
Lillian gave him a grateful smile before brushing her hand through her hair rapidly.
She was covered in dust...
Feeling something get into her mouth, she spat it out before feeling herself being lowered.
The Captain flew down and lowered both of them to the ground.
All three of them then looked back at the crumbled temple and where it previously stood before being met with a large tsunami of dust that crashed into them.
...
After all the dust had finally settled, what emerged from it were three figures covered head-to-toe in dust—nowhere that wasn’t visible wasn’t covered in it.
One was 8ft tall and had a pair of glowing eyes that flickered slightly from white to dark green, as though irritated by his current state.
Another had a large beard, which was stroked by a hand that seemed rather calm and relaxed despite being covered in a ridiculous amount of dust.
And the last of the three splashed water onto their hands before wiping their face.
What was revealed underneath was the cute face of a girl who was twitching with sheer annoyance at what had just happened.
Spitting out the dust that had managed to enter her mouth, Lillian yelled towards the fractured moon in the sky while stomping on the ground:
"This is why I hate places like sand! This SHIT is everywhere!"
The Captain laughed at Lillian’s aggravated yell before being hit with a torrent of water, which caused all of the dust on his body to wash away.
Lillian, having just cleaned herself, washed away all the dust on the Captain and Jungle Lord’s body before stopping and rubbing the back of her head.
She couldn’t help but feel as though it would’ve been a good idea to inform the Captain beforehand of this.
Lillian sighed.
’No point in saying it now...’
After being cleaned of the dust, the Jungle Lord began to shake his body violently like a dog, causing water to spray out and hit both Lillian and the Captain.
When he finally finished, the vines on his body drank the remaining drops of water before becoming still again.
He then looked towards Lillian and the Captain and found them even more drenched because of his action.
Lillian groaned in irritation, while the Captain could only laugh at what happened, completely ignoring the uncomfortable amount of water absorbed into his clothes and weighing him down.
The girl held up her hand and caused the water stuck to their bodies to emerge and move towards the centre of her palm.
Once draining all of the water that was stuck to their body, Lillian chucked away the large orb of water that had formed before sighing again.
"Welp... That went as plan, I guess..."
"KAHAHAHA! Yar lookin’ a bit too brilliantly annoyed for someone who had their plan go through as expected."
"I think you used the term brilliantly wrong here, Captain." Lillian muttered with a slightly annoyed expression as she watched the bearded man stroke his beard.
"Did I know? Hm... KAHAHAHA!"
"Ugh..."
Lillian continued to listen to the mocking laugh before pulling out a certain mana core from her ring. She gazed at it for a moment before holding it towards the Captain.
"Hey Captain, what sort of item do you think would go well with this?"
If Lillian recalled correctly, the main property of the core was Vines, and the sub-properties were Living, Parasitic, and Pierce.
The Captain grabbed hold of the core and wondered for a moment, checking its description using the system.
"A whip would make for a fine decision, I believe, matey!" The Captain concluded, "Or perhaps a chestplate that could grow vines and operate on its own. The possibilities truly are endless, crewmate!"
"Is that so?"
’I suppose a whip is the most likely option for such a mana core...’
As Lillian was about to retrieve the Mana Core that was being handed back to her, she suddenly noticed a swift blur shooting towards her.
Flinching and stepping back, she watched as the Mana Core that was once in the Captain’s hand disappeared with the blur, which slowly revealed itself to be the Jungle Lord’s doing.
Lillian tilted her head slightly as she watched the Jungle Lord slowly turn around... And what she found caused her to widen her eyes.
C-crack...
Held within the mouth of the Jungle Lord’s skull was the Mana Core—it was cracking...
The Jungle Lord was biting into the Mana Core that once belonged to it!
Lillian frantically held up her hands as she rushed towards the Jungle Lord. She needed to get it out of its mouth!
She then yelled out:
"W-wait! Don’t you dare eat—!"
SHATTER...!
But she was too late...
The Mana Core shattered into a fine dust and was swallowed down the throat of the Wendigo, who seemed quite rejuvenated from such a meal.
Lillian’s right eye twitched repeatedly as she watched that happen with a blank expression.
The girl then heard the voice of the Jester whisper inside her ear:
{The Jester had identified the completion of a requirement.}
{The Jester had now unlocked the next feature of the system for you.}
Lillian ignored the Jester’s words as a furious sensation welled up inside her heart.
She was glad that she had unlocked the next part of the Jester’s system, but...
"THAT WAS MY FIRST EVER CORE, DAMNIT!"
Lillian would rather have unlocked it with a Mana Core of much lower quality.