The dungeon has been parasitized

Chapter 53 Sky Sand

"Ready? I'm about to start."

"alright!"

Klein bound Yanami with vines, then channeled his magic into an hourglass bound by vines.

The hourglass was filled with golden sand, and at the moment the magic surged, it suddenly began to flow backward.

"Whoa...whoa...Klein! I'm flying!"

The moment the sand began to flow backward, Yanami was lifted into the air, then caught by Klein's vines and suspended in mid-air.

Within a circular area centered on the hourglass, Klein's vines automatically extended vertically.

If you reverse the perspective, the scene in the plantation at this moment looks like vines hanging down from the ceiling, suspending Yanami.

Klein tried to pull the hourglass, only to find it stopped in mid-air and wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried.

Oh, I never knew it was like that... I was thinking that maybe I could take it with me and ignore gravity, and fly straight into the sky.

"This is so much fun!"

Yanami waved her arms in mid-air, as if swimming in the air...

Klein quietly loosened the vines a little, and Yanami fell towards the top of the plantation.

"Wow!"

But as it approached the top, Klein pulled it back.

"Klein! Don't treat me like a toy!"

"Haha, sorry, sorry."

But as soon as she finished speaking, Yanami suddenly fell from the sky!

"ah--"

With a thud, Klein's vines caught her. However, the top of the plantation was already about four meters high, so Yanami's current physique probably wouldn't be too badly hurt if she fell.

"Klein!"

"No, it's because I ran out of magic."

The hourglass, which was originally fixed in the air, also fell down, and this process took only twelve seconds.

"Wow, that was fast!"

"After all, magic power is consumed very quickly."

One hundred points of magic power per second!

That's an outrageous rate of magic consumption; even when Klein used Accelerated Growth on a dozen seeds at the same time, it wasn't this fast.

This hourglass was given to him by the mysterious blue-haired woman, and Klein used an appraisal technique on it after he got it back.

Activate skill: Appraisal

Success rate: 24%

Launch failed.

After multiple attempts, it finally succeeded once.

【Name: Sky Sand】

Type: Hourglass

[Type: Magical Tool]

[Ability: Reverses gravity for living beings within a certain range.]

[Area: Radius of ten meters.]

[Mana Cost: 100 points per second.]

Cooling time: The time it takes for the sand to flow back.

The hourglass is exquisitely crafted, with a golden base and a transparent glass surface adorned with reliefs depicting two folded wings, one pointing towards the ground and the other towards the sky.

Ah, the sky is sandy... No wonder that mysterious person asked Yanami if she liked to fly, so that's what it meant.

Although it looks like a powerful magical artifact, it actually has a small range and will also flip itself, and it can only flip living beings.

The most crucial issue is the excessive mana consumption. It can only be used for five or six seconds at most during combat, because attacks themselves also require mana, and Klein only has 1200 mana…

Therefore, it is not very useful in actual combat. It is an awkward magical tool that the weak cannot afford to use and the strong cannot use. However, in close combat, it may suddenly cause the enemy to lose balance and play a role in surprise.

However, Klein is not a normal case... because he is a plant, rooted in the ground, and the reversal of gravity has no effect on him at all.

We'll have to put it into practice to see how it actually turns out.

Klein handed the hourglass to Yanami, who had just climbed out of the pile of vines.

"Huh? For me?"

"Yes, I can't carry it with me all the time, so it's better to give it to you."

"Oh, that's true."

Since it's a plant, if you really want to carry something on your person, you can only rely on the vines to move it slowly, which is very troublesome.

Yanami, holding the hourglass, suddenly thought of something and went to the edge of the pool.

"I wonder if this can be used to catch fish? If only the fish can fly, then if I use it near the water, will the fish fly out on their own?!"

I got some new stuff, but I'm still thinking about food...

………………

With no other threats, Klein planned to explore the underwater passage again, but this time he didn't want to get knocked out by seaweed.

Using Yanami's ability to catch fish with the sky sand, Klein parasitized another fish to facilitate his next exploration.

Klein controlled the fish to move forward in the underwater tunnel, but this time he only let the fish carry the seeds, while he himself remotely controlled the fish from inside the seeds left on the bottom of the water.

Although this would consume magic power, it would at least be safer. He didn't want to be knocked unconscious by seaweed again and accidentally end up in a swamp.

Soon, Klein came to another fork in the road. This time, he decided to take the direction he had never been before, the other water source.

Hopefully it doesn't connect to the dragon's territory...

The waterway started out fairly normally, but it became steeper as it went on, and Klein's small fish gradually struggled to move forward underwater, relying on accelerated growth to slowly advance.

Because of the steep slope and the wide passage, the water flow filled half of the passage, allowing it to emerge from the water surface.

However, this made it difficult for Klein to move forward. After about half an hour, Klein finally reached the top of the stream.

The passageway is connected by a tributary of a river, and the water level becomes much gentler at the top, making it much easier.

Klein guided the small fish into the river, only to find that the cave ceiling was covered with hanging cone-shaped rocks, and water droplets were constantly falling from the bottom.

Are they stalactites?

In other words, this is a cave with a river.

The river is flanked by rock walls on both sides, and a large flow of water flows from top to bottom. The end of the river cannot be seen upstream, but the rock walls can be seen downstream, where the river disappears.

Splash...

However, there is a clear sound of flowing water downstream, so there might be another passage.

It seems we should first look downstream...

Klein left a seed on the bottom of the water and then guided the little fish to swim downstream.

When you reach the end of the river, the water flows with a downward thrust and a huge roar.

Looking down, there was a huge gaping hole that swallowed up the river water, and the roar of the water bursting open came from the bottom of the hole.

Hmm... the rumbling sound from below the big hole is quite obvious, so it seems the hole isn't very deep.

pat.

Suddenly, the little fish got caught in something—a blue clamp from a rock that was pressed down at the bottom of the water.

Stone?!

Before being crushed to death, Klein manipulated the little fish to spit out a seed, which then took root at the bottom of the water, and transferred his soul to the seed.

At that moment, Klein saw what it was: a blue stone with green algae on its surface. After catching the small fish, it moved, revealing six thin legs on both sides, as well as another clamp.

This is... a crab.

This was definitely the biggest crab Klein had ever seen, as big as a Yanami, with pincers thicker than a thigh.

It seems to be occupying the end of the river by virtue of its huge size, perhaps waiting here to ambush its prey?

Everything washed down by the water flows here, meaning it has a constant supply of food.

What a clever crab!