Frenley waited for the fire to go out before running out of the hole and into the large room with the trap. Once inside the room, he looks around. There were two side rooms on the left and right sides of the room, then a hallway in front of him. The rooms seem filled with metal coffins, stacked one on top of the other like dirty dishes. The hallway of the room was a staircase leading down, the steps made of the same old stone as the rest of the room. If Fren were a betting man, he would bet on the stairs leading to the boss's room.
The man looked away from the stairs and focused on the contraption in the middle of the room. His green eyes were searching for a way to turn off this horrible thing. It didn't take long for him to find a bottom at the top of the dragon's head. Almost out of reach for him, but nothing a bit on leaning on the dragon's head, hot stone body, and standing on his toes could not fix.
Once his fingers touch and press the stone bottom, the sound of cogs clicking and moving emanates from below his feet. Each click, the sound of rising anxiety and the unknown.
“Shit, was that not it!?”
But to ease the fey fears, the dragon head started to lower itself, till its head covered the hole it came out of. Frenley sighed in relief. He stayed looking at the dragon's head for a few more seconds. But hearing and seeing nothing happening, he finally relaxes.
“Risa!! Mia!! It's safe to come out!”
He yelled from the mouth of the hallway, and soon enough, both girls poked their heads from behind the wall at the other end of the tunnel. Mia was the first to start walking towards him, Risa following the tall woman. The girls soon reach the large square room, looking at it with the same curiosity he had a couple of seconds ago. Risa went to explore the side rooms, while Frenley and Mia stayed close to the stairs.
“How was the fight, love?”
“Scary, thing move way too fast, and the fire behind me didn't leave too much room for movement.”
He said softly, then grabbed a blue-colored potion from his pouch and drank it. Mia looked at him with a smile, and Frenley in turn returned the smile.
“Hey, love, what do you do for work?”
“Ah, I just do some accounting for a larger company. You?”
“IT”
Frenley turns to look at the returning Risa.
“What about you, Risa? What's your work?”
“Um? Oh, I am a freelance artist.”
“Oh! I may have hired you to commission one of my party's art then.”
“Very unlikely, I draw porn.”
Risa said with a straight face, causing Frenley to blush a bit and Mia to giggle.
“Always jealous of you arty people, people pay lots for hentai. Always wanted to ask, don't you get all hot and bothered when drawing things like that?”
Frenley looked at Mia like she was an alien; his face was completly red, and he was embarrassed for both women. Risa sighs at the cliche question.
“It comes to a point where it's not even hot, and it's just work. Plus, half of my commissions are furries, and I am not into that kind of thing.”
“You not?”
“No, I am not! Just because I am a kitsune does not make me a furry.”
“You're already halfway there.”
“Can we please... stop talking about this? Mia, you really have no filter.”
Mia looked at the fey with a wide smile. Fren shook his head as she started to walk down the stairs. The two girls follow close behind the man.
“Hey, love, you said ‘your party’ a moment ago, you play tabletop games?”
“Yes, every other Saturday we play either a one-shot to try out a new system or whoever is running the current campaign. It's how I found the table top system that sucked me into this place. I was looking for something new to try.”
“Tabletop system? For me, it appears as a video game.”
Frenley stopped walking as he looked up at Risa, who looked just as confused.
“You guys found it? I just woke up in the tutorial last Thursday.” Mia said with confusion as she looked at her party
“I found the system on a Thursday…”
“I got the game the same day.”
Frenley looked at the girls as he started to think.
“So finding something about this world is not the key to dreaming about it.”
“But it could be a catalyst for it,” Risa said as she leaned on her staff like it was a cane. “Maybe this is why some people are of different races, and others are just humans. They created their own character.”
Fren looked at Risa for a second before looking back at Mia, who looked a bit unnerved by the conversation.
“This feels like a conversation that is better talked about outside the dream, and when we aren't in the middle of a dungeon run.”
Fren and Risa nodded to what Mia said, as the group continued their way down. The room they found themselves in was a replica of the empty semi-circular room they found on the first floor. The only difference was that there were more semi-circular rooms attached to this one, and more attached to those. Mia took the vanguard and Frenley the rear guard. The silver-haired kitsune stays between the two of them. Their eyes scan the rooms.
“This feels creepy as shit.”
Mia voiced her thoughts as she started to walk towards the right room. The other two didn't say anything, but agreed in silence. The trio moved slowly to the next room, only to find silence and darkness. The next room was much of the same. But with each passion room they enter, their anxiety grew tighter, and their guard became lax. Frenley's ears twitched with each hot breath they took, each kick of a misplaced stone rolling on old, cold stone brick, and each step they took.
“The fuck is going on…”
Risa said in a low voice, her knuckles had long turned as her hands tightened around the wooden staff.
“Is it some type of puzzle?”
“I don't know- wait, you guys hear that?”
“What?”
Mia asked as she looked at Risa, putting down a book she had grabbed to look for clues. Risa looked around, trying to pinpoint the sound she was hearing. Her ears were moving around; it would look cute if not for the tense environment they were in. Her tails hung low and were tightly wrapped around her body. The group forms a line, backs pressed against each other as they look for possible directions enemies can come from.
It didn't take long for Frenley's ears to pick up sounds that didn't come from his beating heart and their rough breaths. The slow, methodical click of a staff against stone and chains moving.
“Guys, I see light!”
All turned to look in the direction Mia was looking, and just as she had told, a small yellow amber could be seen at a distance. Then the sound of clicking and chains became clear to everyone as the figure's details emerged. A large, hunched-back figure, covered in a long robe. Broken chains hang from both wrists, its ankles still bound by the rusted chains. On its left hand was a great metal staff, the head of which resembled a dragon, and in the dragon's open mouth. It was a gem of yellow color, the source of the light. A hood covers the head of the monster.
But judging by its bony fingers and pale, sickly white skin, the hood was doing them a service by covering its face. The party got into position as their eyes never left the hooded figure. The figure stops in the adjacent room. Its raspy voice felt like nails against a chalkboard, sending shivers down their spines.
“Thieves of knowledge…you will be punished for your crimes against the kingdom.”
“Holy shit, they can ta-”
“Dodge!”
Risa screams at the top of her lungs. They all dodge out of the way as a fireball flies by them. Exploding in a passageway, the shock wave reaches them as the whole structure shakes. Risa drinks one of her magic potions as she shoots a moonlight shard at the figure. The boss moved with speed as it dodged the attack. Mia rushes to meet the figure, hitting it with a shield bash and stopping it in its tracks. Frenley, from the side, swung his sword at the figure.
The boss turns its staff somewhat, blocking the sword with the body and pointing the head of it at Mia's shield. The gem shone with magic before a fireball flew out of it and hit Mia's shield. The close-range explosion left the woman deaf, and the force behind it sent her flying into a nearby wall. The boss then turns to look at Fren as it pushes the sword upwards, throwing the fey out of balance.
The figure moves its head inches away from Fren, and from the shadow of the hood comes out with three arms that punch Fren on the chest. Fren coughed up as air left his lungs. He took a few steps back, his eyes watering as he tried to gather some air. Thankfully, he was not alone, as Risa shot another moonlight shard at the boss. Right as its arms return to its face.
This time it hit, as it pierced one of the monster's sides, red milky blood spilled out of the wound as the man turned to face the silver kitsune. Aiming its staff at Risa and shooting another fireball. Risa turns to the side as she uses her other spell. Teleporting a few steps backward and causing the fireball to miss.
“Face me, you fucker!”
Mia screamed, and her scream echoed through the room as she rushed at the monster and hit it with another shield bash. Frenley turns to face the monster again as he rushes in behind Mia. The heater shield hit the boss, causing it to take a few steps back. Enough for Fren to reach him and slash an ugly wound on its side, drawing more silky red blood. The boss didn't even grunt with pain as it slammed the head of the dragon staff on the ground.
Creating a wave of fire at the duo. Mia got on her knees as she placed the shield in front of her. The heater shield absorbed the fire, but in the process, it became even hotter. Searing Mia's hand. Fren was not so lucky; he could not jump in time before the fire caught his legs.
Burning them down to the muscle, his skin melting as the ends of his robe catch on fire. The leather armor of his legs fuses to his muscles. The fey bit his lip to not scream his heart out, as he grabbed a healing potion with shaking hands. Which seems to grab the boss's attention as it turns its staff at the down Fren.
But its attack was canceled as another moonlight shard hit it, this time in the arm. The moonlight shard left behind a gaping hole in the boss's arm. Blood flowed from the wound. The boss moment slowed down as Risa drank her last magic potion. As Frenley's legs heal, he aims his left hand at the boss and shoots in short succession two season bolts at it.
The first one hit the figure straight in the chest, burning away some of its robe and skin. But that seemed to have melted some of the ice that had settled in its body from Risa attacks, allowing it to dodge the second bolt with ease. Mia bent her legs as she leaped forward, pushing her sword deep into the boss's exposed side. The gravekeeper grabbed the tall woman by the arm and threw her aside. Mia crashed against the cold, hard stone floor. Breaking a bone in her arm in the process as she reaches for one of her healing potions.
Frenley rushes at the boss with all he has, delivering a slash across the monster's chest. The gravekeeper growled at him as it attacked with its metal staff. The fey took a quick step back, dodging the attack by a hair's breadth. He then dodges to the side as the monster slams the dragon's head of the staff on the ground, easily dodging the flame shock wave that follows.
Fren's hand reaches towards the handle of Mia's sword, his fingers tighten around the metal, and he pulls it out of the boss. Once the blade became free from the clutches of the boss's body, he threw the sword towards Mia’s position, the tall woman grabbing it as her bone started to heal. The boss's quick turn was met with a moonlight shard to the face. The force of which made its head bend backward.
“That was my last spell!”
Mia came from behind Fren and crashed into the boss once more. This time, causing it to topple over. With quick movement on top of the down boss, she kneels on its chest and aims her sword to pierce the boss's neck. The grave keeper let go of its staff as it grabbed the sword with both hands. Mia's muscles bulged with all the strength she could muster, but with each passing second, the boss was pushing the blade away from its neck.
That is, till a sword cut the boss's wrist. The hand fell off the wrist, blood gushing out of it. Mia ignores the blood that hits her face, grinding her teeth as her strength breaks through the grave keeper's defenses. Her blade cuts up the monster's last remaining hand, and the tip of the blade pierces its neck.
But she didn't stop there. Once her blade was inside the neck, she dragged the sword to the side and cut a large chunk of the neck clean off. Blood spilled from the open wound, and the boss didn't have the strength to move. Its arms fell to the side as it lay in a pool of its own blood. Then, in their heads, they all heard a sexy southern milf voice.
‘Random boss destroyed, level available.’