Frontier Online

Completely Different Part 49

Rydr's descent through the mineshaft was hardly the black, terrifying affair that it was last time. Within the first few meters of his drop, the Titan found the shaft lit up around him, even without activating [Aetheric Eye].

Before the giant had the chance to take in the mine's splendor, his avatar approached a series of scaffolds. More goblins loitered around on the rough wooden structures, staring upward, wondering what the disturbance was.

The Titan plummeted to their level in a heartbeat, catching the goblins off guard. With no time to think, Rydr reached out and ripped two goblins off their scaffolds, one in each hand, collapsing the structures as he fell through them.

The giant had an idea as rotten wood, and screaming goblins fell through the brightly lit shaft alongside Rydr's avatar. Instead of staying tucked in, as he did on his first trip down the shaft, the giant extended his arms out to either side.

He proceeded to use his two screaming captives as brake pads against the tunnel's rough interior, slowing his descent. The rest of the wood and goblins fell past him as the Titan slowed almost to a stop, his captives little more than a bloody paste.

The shaft's rough sides bounced Rydr's hands away from the wall, jarring his shoulders every time he lost contact with the walls. Then the two goblins vanished, and Rydr resumed his rapid descent to the bottom of the mine.

Spirals of runes, just like the pattern Rydr saw near the Wellspring, curved around the sides of the shaft. Their pattern made a dizzying light show for the colossus as he looked down. The wind whistled by his face, stinging Rydr's eyes as his avatar continued to speed up.

Cautious after his experience in the Wellspring, the Titan activated his extra-sensory skill to prepare for landing, wondering if any of the other goblins survived their fall. The ground appeared through the haze of mana, roughly ten meters below him.

The ruined scaffolding littered the floor, but no goblins were waiting for the Titan.

At the same time, Rydr witnessed the same strange, purple-black energy bearing down on him. When he focused on it, his lapse in concentration nearly ruined the landing.

Rydr's avatar crossed the distance in an instant. The behemoth bent his knees to absorb the impact of his fall, crushing the ground beneath his feet. As he stood up and looked around, it occurred to the giant that the splintering of stone under his feet felt strange.

No matter how many times he caused it, the stone cracking under him made the giant jumpy. Especially when it happened near his toes, some hindbrain part of him was afraid of getting pinched by the stone.

Rydr shook his head to dispel the random thoughts, using [Aetheric Eye] to check himself out for that strange energy. The Titan examined his hands closely, ignoring the Aether within to study his skin.

The purple-black energy was gone. Actually, Rydr corrected himself. It's not gone, just diminished. 

A diaphanous veneer of the energy remained on the giant's skin. Perhaps because of his [Eye's] evolution, the huge diver could barely detect that the energy was still there. 

Rydr wondered if it was a facet of the mine because nothing he did seemed to get the stuff off of him. Since it wasn't doing anything to him that Rydr could detect, he chose to ignore it for now and proceed with the mission.

Although the shaman, Lord Garzer, was certain to be a problem, Rydr needed to focus on the bigger picture. Interfering with the goblin's camp would set them back a little. 

From what the giant had seen, goblins were by and large a cowardly race. Rydr did not doubt that Lord Garzer would want his camp rebuilt before risking an attack on Grotto.