Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 165: Into The Stone Pool Once Again

Chapter 165: Into The Stone Pool Once Again

Although it took a while, both girls soon recovered enough to stand. Ruby and Leona had gotten their emotions under control so that they were back to their usual selves while Laz spent time comforting both of them. He really couldn't blame them. There is a big difference between fighting and killing a human versus fighting and killing a monster. The main difference is that humans could be read, be it their facial features, body language or actions. Monsters, on the other hand, would simply kill you as soon as they were able to. And there was nothing to read either, at least not at first. Therefore, fighting monsters required a much greater degree of concentration and was therefore more mentally taxing. There is also the fact that their bodies were unlike a human's in that it was much harder to kill. That mental exhaustion was what lead to the girls being so worn out.

When they were finally able to move again, they stood up and Laz followed suit. They both looked at him while Laz just pointed at the hole in the cave wall, many feet above the floor they were currently standing on. Without saying anything, they all started walking for the out cropping so that they could figure a way up. Just as they came to the base of the out cropping, they noticed a rather large skeleton that had been picked clean, without a sign or shred of meat on it's bones. Compared to the smaller spiders they had fought before this, the thing was huge and imposing, causing both the girls to stare at it before turning to face Laz as though expecting an explanation.

"I came here once before," Laz explained.

"So you knew that this was going to happen?" Leona asked.

"Yeah. This was the point of this exercise. Fighting these things. It's also important to know that this is what this cave looks like after a week. So basically, these things grow pretty quickly," Laz added on.

"Then what the fuck is this thing?" Ruby asked while pointing at the pickup truck sized skeleton in front of her.

"The final boss?" Laz said, not really sure how to explain it. Seeing the girls eye him as though they wanted to beat him up, Laz felt it better to ecplain a bit more.

"Ok, ok. So the little guys you fought were, at most, mid awakening level. The dog sized ones though were actually at the condenstation realm, low level though. The best guess I have is that it takes a while for them to grow. Once it hit's this amount of spiders, a boss level monster will show up at some point, probably from one of the early level condensation realm ones. And it has a power level at the late level condensation realm. It's also rather huge and dangerous."

"So you fought it? And killed it?" Leona asked, eyes wide. Just thinking about a creature of that size coming after her was more than just a bit scary.

"I did. And I killed it," Laz was still leaving out info on Vivi for as long as possible. At the same time, Laz walked over and started looking at the skeletion. He didn't know where all that meat went in one week, but he had some guesses. Maybe this was the reason the rest of the spiders grew so much larger so quickly. But even then, it didn't mean that a large one came in to replace it. What this revealed to Laz was that although the flesh from the large spider helped feed the many other spiders in the cave area, it wasn't the primary cause for them getting stronger. After all, that spider probably didn't eat another large spider to get to it's size in the first palce.

After Laz's answer, both girls showed a bit fo shock. After the warehouse, Ruby understood that Laz was stronger than her, but she never knew how much stronger. As it was, she had suffered from the fight against the spiders that were there. She had no idea how she would have been able to fight something that large that was even stronger than the dog sized ones. As for Leona, she felt that even when she was sparring with Laz, he was holding back. Although this event wasn't as surprising for her as it was for Ruby, it just went to show that she had a long way to go to catch up to him.

"Alright, now we just have to get up this rock," Laz said, staring up. As it was, he remembered how much of a pain in the ass it was climbing the thing the last time. As he turned though, he saw Leona, followed by Ruby, run towards it. Using their innate abilities, Leona jumped at the rock, out cropping, then vaulted off that, then the wall, then used her claws to grab the outcropping again and boosted herself right on to it. Ruby just copied her actions as though the girls had discussed doing this ahead of time. As both of them stood there, looking at Laz, Laz couldn't help but have a dumb look on his face.

'Am I the only one that has trouble climbing shit like this?' Laz asked himself. In all fairness, Laz was still carrying the bags with him. He felt that the least he could do was to be a porter since he had no plans to fight anyway. Plus, both girls handed him their bags after they had gotten changed earlier. Laz didn't really have a graceful way of getting up there and didn't plan to try sinking his hands into the wall to try to do so. Mostly because even though he could jam his hands into the wall, he would probably cause a lot of damage and there was no telling if doing so would hold his weight. Instead, he went for the most direct approach.

"Look out above," Laz said as he ran and jumped. Laz's body had been strengthened to an amazing degree thanks to the pool the last time he had been here and now was the perfect time to take advantage of that. Like a cannonball, Laz launched himself upwards, causing Leona and Ruby surprise before the girls darted out of the way like frightened animals. Laz landed with a crash on the ledge by planting his feet into the stone floor and then rolling forward a few times before he stopped his momentum. Laz them calmly stood up and dusted himself off while being glared at.

"What?" He asked. Leona just laughed while Ruby sighed thinking this boy seriously had no style.

Without saying anything else, Laz lead the way into the dark tunnel that had only the tiny bit of illuminessence, making it hard to see. Strangely though, the girls didn't have any trouble with it and Laz just used his spiritual senses. Had Laz looked back, he would have noticed that both girls had used the eye portion of their ability, causing Leona's eyes to take on a feline like structure while Ruby's eyes had a serpentine look to them.

It didn't take long to arrive at the mosty empty end of the hallway cavern. Walking into it, the girls noticed that the strange fog that had been all around seemed as though it was coming from the strange lamp that sat above an artificially carved stone pool. In fact, a few drops of water fell off the lamp and hit the pool, making a slight sizzeling noise. The lamp itself was lit with it's slow burning blue flame that gave the entire area a rather eerie appearance.

While the girls were focusing on the lamp and the pool, Laz was looking around. The last time he was here with Vivi, there had been a pile of remains and waste sitting over in the corner of the room, something that he assumed was a nest for the large spider. Since he had been gone, everything had been moved away and Laz could now see the corner was rather clear. Based on this, he was able to see that this entire room actually had no holes large enough for the spiders to come and go from. It seemed like they moved around based on the holes they had seen from the first open cavern area and this place was more like a resting spot. And to Laz, that didn't make sense if you considered there was only one way in and out.

Turning his attention back to the girls, he noticed that Ruby was about to climb into the pool to check out the lamp while Leona was trying to stop her.

"HOLD ON. That's a bad idea," Laz called out.

"Why? Sides, I just wanted to see..." Ruby said, backing up..

"You'll see in a minute. Now, into your bathing suits," Laz said, before making several towels appear and laying them on the edge of the stone pool. He then took out his own pair of swimming trunks that he had brought with him. He then stopped to consider if he should just change right here or walk away a few steps when he noticed that Leona was looking at him funny while Ruby was looking at the pool.

"What now? Did I say something wrong?" Laz asked, confused.

"Are we going into this... thing?" Leona asked. She had been wondering about why he told them to bring something like a bathing suit when they had ended up going underground, but now she was even more weirded out.

'It wasn't just a cave full of spiders but now some sort of strange pool? Were they going to be fighting eels next?'

Seeing Leona's worry while seeing Ruby looking at the pool really closely as though she wanted to see what was in it made laugh unable to help himself as he started laughing. Leona just glared at him in response as though she were seriously debating attacking him until he finished laughing. Seeing her concern, Laz decided to answer honestly.

"There is nothing else to fight. This cave and the other one should be pretty quiet for a while so there is nothing like that to worry about. So, feel free to get changed. Actually, the water is heated a bit so it will feel rather nice," Laz encouraged the girls, causing them to run over into a dark corner and get changed. Laz being the gentleman that he was, didn't try to sneak a peek and instead got himself changed. He felt bad about not telling them about what would happen once they got in, but sometimes it was better to not say anything behand and have them overthink it.

Just as Laz finished changing, the girls walked out from the corner while laughing at eachother. Then they both looked at Laz and couldn't help but laugh again. They had already seen Laz's body for the most part and knew he was not only pale but also extremely muscled. The reason for their laughter was because it was obvious that the swimming trunks he had put on were way too small and made him look kind of funny, like he had put on a pair a spandex shorts. Of course, due to the poor lighting, the girls couldn't make out his rather well endowed man bit, but they probably would have laughed harder since it was now firmly adherred to his leg which made it somewhat difficult for him to move. Laz wasn't paying any attention to that though and was instead basking in the eye candy that was provided for him.

Leona had worn a simple one piece that was blue with black trim. It looked more like a swim racing suit that a normal swim suit and ended up almost fully covering all of her naughty parts, but did little to hide her generous chest which seemed like it wanted to fight the spandex to the death to break free. The other part worth noticing was her long, toned brown legs that just screamed touch me. Ruby on the other hand had worn a simple blue bikini that showed off her tight stomach, curvaceous ass and tanned skin. It was a feast of exotic beauty that left Laz breathless.

Seeing the girls focus on him, they just laughed harder and walked over, each to one side of him and led him over to the edge of the pool.

"So is this our reward?" Ruby asked before sticking a toe in to check the temperature.

"Oh? It feels soooo good. Is this a hot spring?" Ruby asked while Leona tried it herself, enjoying the feeling of the hot water on her sweaty skin.

Laz finally came back to himself and shook his head to clear it before pulling the girls back from the pool.

"This isn't exaclty a rest stop. Well, it will be, but first there will be a bit of pain."

"Huh?"

"What's that now?"

Neither girl understood as Laz thought how he could word it better before giving up and explaining it.

"This pool has a rather violent and benefical energy to it. It will be helpful, but it will hurt. But you have to hold on through it, ok?" Laz tried to be as serious as possible, but neither Leona or Ruby understood what he meant. Seeing their confused faces, Laz just shook his head.

"Nevermind. It will be better to feel it yourselves." With that, he bent down and pick up both girls, one over each shoulder and walked them into the waist deep pool before dropping them in. They didn't even had time to protest or resist due to Laz's quick actions and both girls ended up underwater before they quickly got up and jumped at Laz. Laz, having prepared for this, quickly jumped away and sat down while counting to himself. Leona and Ruby looked at eachother and nodded, having reached a silent agreement. They start stalking over to where Laz was sitting peacefully with his eyes closed and got ready to jump on him.

Just as they were in position, Ruby's face stiffened as Leona's body started trembling. It felt like waves of lightning attacked them through the water and both girls let out a miserable yell,

"AAAAHHAHHHHHHH"

"AAHAAAAAAAAAHH"

"Hmm, about twenty seconds. That's good to know."