"According to the chief's map and indications, the Guardian of the Mountain lives right below the "last layer" of the mountain." Explained Mina. "I think it is this place? Woah… I've never seen something like this before though…"
"I-It is hard to believe that there's such a huge place right below us." Nadia nodded. "And amazing, for sure…"
"It is a gigantic forest made out of big mushrooms?!" Surtr was left perplexed.
Right in front of them, there was an expansive underground landscape, an enormously wide cave area whose sky was covered on bright crystals, and whose floor was completely covered on gigantic mushrooms, most of them reaching heights of over thirty meters.
Not just big mushrooms formed enormous and black and purple colored forests, but the floor was covered on all matter of smaller mushrooms, mostly moo mixing with lichen, creating colorful floors where many animals feed upon.
"This place is straight out of a video game…" Surtr thought. "Anyways, is this the [Mushroom Sanctuary]?"
"It must be, without a doubt!" Mina smiled happily. "It is such a dreamy place…"
"So where should we go from here?" Nadia asked, glancing around. "I bet there's even stronger monsters here."
"Hmmm… According to the chief's journal, it says that there are… Rank 5 and 6 monsters?! Yikes…" Mina panicked a bit.
"Well, aren't we all Rank 5 by now? Don't be so afraid, we'll protect you." Surtr smiled.
"I-I know, but I can't help but feel concerned…" Sighed Mina.
"Anyways, let's get going. Is there any more info?" Nadia asked one last time.
"The journal becomes much less detailed here. The chief only visited this place once on his entire life after all." Mina said. "But… he said that to the deeper areas of the forest, there is a large village of… mushroom people?"
"Huh? Like in Mario?" Wondered Surtr. "Now that sounds crazy, let's go!"
Surtr quickly transformed into his dragon form, as big as forty meters of height, bulky, with enormous and sharp wings, and covered on fiery red scales. The tip of his tail had the shape of a sharp spear, which ended on three ends.
And his sharp claws were completely jet-black in color, while his big face resembled a bulky-type of dragon, he was surprisingly fast thanks to his new Skills and Powers he inherited from the Dragons in the Draconic Records.
Perhaps due to his unique skills that allowed him to do so many fantastical things, their powers merged with the Draconic Records, giving him a completely unique ability, the power to Summon the Spirits of the Souls of the Dragons within the Fire Dragon Realm in the Draconic Records.
He was limited to a few ones, which created something similar to a "contract" with him, but he was capable of summoning their strength, and imbue their souls and powers into a certain Skill. For example, the Skills he possessed related to his Flight.
"Annadraa, sis, I'm counting on you!" Surtr said, while carrying Mina and Nadia on his big hands.
FLUOOOOSH!
Suddenly, his big wings gathered a draconic soul energy, blazing with golden soul fire, the appearance of a ghost-like dragon emerged behind him, slender and rather beautiful fire dragoness named Annadraa, who was expert at flying and being fast.
"Very well my dear brother, let us depart then!" She giggled.
FLAAAAAASSSH!
Flapping his wings rapidly, the young Fire Dragon took off into the "skies" of this underground world. Passing over the beautiful, gigantic mushrooms, and seeing the wildlife of this mysterious and secretive land.
"(I've leveled up and evolved quite a lot of times by now… But I wonder if this would be enough to fight monsters as powerful as Rank 6 and above…)" Surtr wondered. "(I've crafted a lot of armor and magic weapons, potions, and even bombs… But even then, is my strength enough?)"
The young dragon possessed an extension of the Draconic Records named "Status" which he had designated unconsciously through his Heavenly Smith Unique Skill fusing its abilities with the Draconic Records.
With this, he was able to absorb the Mana and Vitality of defeated foes directly from their Mana Cores and level up through converting this into "EXP" it was a similar way in how Drake could devour things to gain their energy and powers, but at the same time, different and more refined.
But even now, as he was bestowed with so many powers and gifts, the young fire dragon was still unsure about if he would be able to accomplish everything he wanted. The world of Yggdrasil honestly scared him, so big and wide, so filled with mysteries and dangers…
Often times, Surtr felt like even reaching the level of beings like "gods" was a pure fantasy, even when he could grow stronger…
But now, he simply couldn't doubt, he had to do everything he could to help preserve the mountain where everyone lived and could prosper properly.
"Eh?! Look at that! It is actually a huge village! People's living inside big mushrooms they carved in!" Suddenly, Mina interrupted his train of thoughts.
"Is it- Huh?! They're being attacked by monsters!" Nadia said.
Suddenly, Surtr noticed the village as well, barely protected with stone walls, as a large army of over a hundred mushroom monsters of all shapes and sizes were attempting to raid the entire place, shaking the walls furiously.
There were a few of these "mushroom people" there, standing over the walls and using strange magic while trying to scare them off, but the monsters were no normal beasts, they looked crazed, imbued with a strange power that made them go mad, with furious red eyes, and a darkness overflowing from their bodies…
"I-It's no use! Our Magic is not getting through them at all!"
"Have these monsters been enslaved by the Chaos Cultists?!"
"A Darkness protects their bodies…"
"T-This is useless… We can't do it… That damn Trafalh has sent his minions to take revenge on us for having expulsed him from the village…"
"ROOOOAARRR!!!"
A gigantic amalgamation of many mushroom monsters mixed together with dark energies surged from beneath the walls, leaping all the way up and infiltrating the village!
CRAAAASH!
"N-No…!"
"Are we going to die?!"
"R-RUN!"
