Flur
[Bloodthorn Vines (Level 4) slain! You have gained 4 experience.]
I frowned.
“All of that for four experience? That's barely more than the Trenti, and it was only level one!”
“Flur,” the boss interrupted my whining, “You're missing the point. It was only level four. We shouldn't have gotten anything from killing it, let alone as much as we did, and that was after the experience was split between us.”
“Yeah, but we already know this Dungeon is weird. Why can't we be rewarded for that weirdness?”
His response was a sigh. I did know he was right, of course. It just irritated me that anything worth so little experience could give me trouble. It wasn't right. The monster had been faster and stronger than its level one counterpart, not to the point of it being a night and day difference, but it was still enough to block my thrown daggers. It wasn't so weak that it shouldn't have given us more.
“Well, I thought that was impressive,” the newbie alchemist that we were escorting chimed in.
I knew it was a compliment with no intended malice. That didn't change the fact that the words only served to heighten my frustration, but obviously, I didn't let that show.
“Ah, it was nothing! Now, a level nineteen Giant Paralysis Toad, that is something. Remind me to tell you that story sometime, okay?”
That had been a fight I looked back on fondly. A large part of that was because it actually gave enough experience to make it worthwhile, but I had thoroughly enjoyed that mess of a battle. It was amazing how much a little to no experience message could sour an otherwise enjoyable encounter.
“Later,” Randy emphasized.
“I meant later!”
My companions laughed at that as I huffed playfully. That was enough for me. With the tension defused, I sprang into action.
“I'll harvest the body this time around. Need to make up for last time, after all.”
“You were on death's door last time. If you had even attempted it, I would have killed you myself!” Muri scolded.
With a big shrug, I leaped my way to the flower at the base of the vines. A minute or two of cutting later, I was lugging the bulk of it back to my group. After that, it was time. The anticipation was killing me.
My blood was pumping, and a smile was plastered on my face. I wasn't sure what to expect, but that mystery was exciting in and of itself. I practically frolicked my way to the room that housed the core. I wasn't being careless. I learned my lesson last time, but still, I couldn't help myself. Not even the boss's scolding could dampen my mood.
A single blast of electricity from the boss was enough to kill the lone Trenti within. With it dead, we quickly filed into the room. The darkness wasn't ideal for the others, but still, they could likely see better in the small, enclosed area than anywhere else in the Dungeon. Between the light from the apprentice alchemist's jar and the soft illumination from the core, the small room was almost completely lit, though dimly.
“Anything?” Randy asked, wanting to make sure my eyes didn't spot anything he had missed.
“Nope, nothing.”
“In that case, Lance, you're up. Lawrence, stay back.”
Our swordsman stepped past me on his way to the core. My grip on all four of my blades, already drawn, tightened. My eyes flicked back and forth across the room. This was it.
“Do it, Lance,” our leader's voice came again, “Shatter it.”
Lance took a deep breath, and slowly wound up his strike. This was the moment. Tension high, he braced himself. Then, before he could swing, it happened. I couldn't make out what it was, but I caught sight of movement. Something was dropping straight down from the ceiling.
Without the slightest hesitation, I threw a dagger. My aim was perfect, and a moment later, it should have connected with the blur. It didn't. The streak of darkness contorted midair, narrowly dodging my thrown weapon.
Not good.
I barely had time to question it before the shadow landed on Lance, wrapping itself around his neck. There, the dim light from the nearby Dungeon Core chased the darkness cloaking the attacker away, revealing a massive Shadow Viper with two heads. Instinctively, I took a step back.
It was far larger than any other snake I had seen in the Dungeon. Unlike any of them, it had the girth of a constrictor, yet its movements seemed to flow far more gracefully. I had no clue what I was looking at, but with it wrapped around my friend, I could not safely aim at it.
In the end, it was only a snake, though. It didn't have the strength to match our front liner. A moment later, he managed to toss the beast aside. Then, the room lit up. Randy had cast his Electric Strike spell. It soared through the air, colliding with where the snake had been a moment prior. My eyes went wide as I registered the attack somehow missing.
Before it landed, the shadows seemed to wrap themselves around the snake. Then, it had vanished. As the electricity connected with the stone behind where it had been, the light from the spell chased away all the nearby shadows, and with them gone, the monster reappeared. As it seemed to pop back into existence a few feet away from where it had been, it reared back and stopped, frozen in place.
This is my chance!
I threw another dagger, and once again, it flew true. Then, much like the first time, it failed to land. A small figure flew down from the ceiling. My blood ran cold as I momentarily assumed it was another monstrosity similar to the one we were already fighting. If that were the case, I wasn't sure we'd fare, but luckily, it wasn't.
Instead, I caught a glimpse of a small green lizard with wings attached to its limbs. With perfect accuracy, it intercepted my attack. It wasn't my intended target, but a kill was still a kill, or at least, that was my gut response. In actuality, there was no kill. Instead, my dagger was deflected, flying off a few feet before clattering to the ground. Then, before I could follow my attack up, the tiny monster darted across the room and into a crack in the wall with an agility that nearly matched my own.
That was enough. It had bought the snake enough time to recompose itself. I didn't hesitate. My third blade flew toward the creature. Then, a blast of darkness shot from one of its mouths. The magical attack met with my dagger, and my third weapon failed to hit its mark.
“Everyone, group up!” Randy roared.
What is this thing!?
I knew what it wasn't: something that belonged in a new Dungeon. Compared to the monster before us, the Bloodthorn Vines seemed like a warm up at best. It was insanity, and it just so happened that insanity was what I thrived on.
The edge of my mouth twisted upward as I unsheathed more knives. After my last blunder in the Dungeon, I had made sure to pick up some extra. That meant, I had enough to rearm myself in full. I did so. Then, I charged forward.
Lance swung his sword at the snake, his target dodging back. I took advantage of the opening to flank it. I slashed with my two right blades, and in another blur, the enemy was gone. My weapons were left to strike only stone.
Behind me, I heard a scream. I whipped my head around. Then, came another blast of electricity. It missed the snake that I now saw at our rear. It only took me a moment to piece together what I was seeing. Blood flowed from Randy's cheek and neck. It had used a movement ability to get behind us and bite him, the same one it had used to dodge the spell fired at it earlier.
It made no sense. Movement abilities like that shouldn't be able to be used in succession. This thing wasn't normal. Agility, dexterity, strength, and magical prowess. It had already shown off numerous high stats and multiple abilities. If this thing turned out to be a level one, I didn't care how good the pay was, I was abandoning this assignment and going anywhere else. I didn't mind difficult fights. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed them, but without anything to gain from them, it just wasn't the same.
That being said, I fully intended to finish what I had started. This thing would die. With that thought I aimed another dagger. I was forced to change targets before it left my hand, however. Another blur from above caught my eye, and my blade struck it. Just like before, my weapon bounced off, but this time, a second collided with the enemy a moment later.
[Horned Draco (Level 1) slain! No experience gained.]
“Seriously?” I mumbled.
I wanted to scream my complaints, but I couldn't risk distracting the others over nothing. Then, another blur came flying. I repeated my maneuver, and I was met with the same results.
[Horned Draco (Level 1) slain! No experience gained.]
Quickly growing frustrated, I resolved myself to get whatever I could out of the mutated Shadow Viper as I spun on my heel. As I rushed toward it, I drew and swung my dagger in a single motion. It lunged to meet my attack, but before my weapons collided with it, another ball of darkness erupted from one of the mouths. The next thing I knew, I was being tossed across the room.
On reflex, I planted my feet against the wall, catching myself. Afterward, I searched my surroundings for my opponent. There it was, striking at Lance. It gained an incredible burst of speed in an instant, dashing past him. Then, it turned and took to the air. Sailing only a handful of feet, it bit into him from behind. I began sprinting toward them, and as I did so, Murial's voice caught my attention.
“It won't heal!”
I didn't stop to try to figure out the context. I didn't need it. One thing was clear; this could not go on any longer.
“You want to go fast, huh?” I whispered as I activated Dash, “Two can play at that game.”
In a blur of speed, I blasted to behind my friend. There, I struck down with my dagger, finally in a position where I could guarantee my attack would actually land. In the same instant, as if the world itself decided to spite me for that thought, the snake somehow managed to catch it in one of its mouths.
“Seriously?” I cried out, no longer worried about distracting the others since the snake's attention was on me.
Rather than with any sort of plan in mind, I moved on instinct. It was a benefit from all of the training and hard fought battles I had taken part in. My last knife may have been clamped in a strong pair of jaws, but that didn't matter. It wasn't the only weapon at my disposal.
I maintained a hold on the knife's handle, making sure that the one head stayed locked in place. Then, I grabbed the other head's neck as it snapped at me. I was not expecting the strength behind its attack, only barely managing to move my head out of the way in time. Once its initial momentum was dispersed, though, I found myself only just able to hold it off. I didn't know for how long I could keep it up, but it didn't matter. I just needed to buy myself a moment.
With one of my free hands, I grabbed Lance by the shoulder and forcibly turned him toward me. Then, with my last hand, I grabbed at the hilt of his blade.
“Let go!” I shouted as he resisted.
He did, and I spun the weapon in my hands, positioning my grip to be something workable. I wasn't a swordswoman, but I knew how to swing a sharp object just fine.
I saw fear and realization in both pairs of the snake's eyes, but it was too late. I swung the sword, and in one decisive motion, both heads were severed.
[Shadow Viper, Vie and Pee, (Level 7) slain! You have gained 4,950 experience.]
[You have gained a level!]
The body of the enemy I was holding back went limp, and I tumbled to the ground. I rolled over to my back, and as I took in what the message from the System was telling me, any words I might have been about to speak died on my tongue. I stared at the notification in silence, mind going blank.
“I got over one thousand experience,” came Lance's murmured voice, “over one thousand experience from a level seven.”
“Forget about that! Are you two okay?” came Muri's voice as she rushed over to us.
I nodded dumbly as a massive smile covered my face.
“What did the notification say?” asked Randy, “I didn't do enough damage to get participation credit.”
He sounded dejected, but I was incapable of caring in that moment. Finally regaining control of myself, I leaped to my feat, and continued leaping as I jumped for joy. Bounding back and forth from one foot to the other, I began to chuckle. I twirled around the room in delight, and that chuckle turned to manic laughter.
“Flur, get a hold of yourself! Have you finally gone off the deep end?”
“If the deep end is level eighteen, then, yes! I got just short of five thousand experience! Haha! Five thousand!”
Silence filled the room as the implications that brought with it settled in for everyone. The only thing that broke that silence was me, my jubilation overflowing.
My group soon decided to ignore me as they moved on to more pressing issues. Muriel gave Lance antivenom and healed him. Apparently, he was under some effect that heavily weakened her healing, but she was capable enough to patch him up in spite of it. Meanwhile, our charge conducted the experiments he was sent to do on the core.
Without a doubt, the boss's plan to incite the rage of whatever unknown threat was wreaking so much havoc in the Dungeon by having us fake trying to destroy the core worked flawlessly. I did not consider the ambush from the tunnels we didn't previously know about a flaw. We won the battle, learned a lot in the process, and everything worked out in the end.
We even got the body of a static monster for that grumpy alchemist, old man Gyle, to examine. With any luck, we could find a safer way to move forward with Dungeon affairs, and more importantly, take advantage of a reliable and extremely lucrative source of experience. I giggled with glee as I dared to hope while running some numbers in my head.
I might even be able to hit level nineteen by the end of the month! No, faster depending on whether or nor we can kill it twice a day!
Nothing could dampen my mood.