Liam rushed through the streets; he was feeling beyond ecstatic. He just wanted to make his way to the gate and meet up with Melissa to leave the city and get into the dungeon. He needed to test out what he could do now that he actually had mana. It didn’t take long for him to reach her at all.
“You ready?”
Everything about him screamed excitement, as if he hadn’t heard about a woman’s death just a few minutes ago. To be fair, he didn’t particularly care about her. She was just a stranger, after all.
Melissa nodded affirmatively.
“Yes, I am. I must say you are looking rather excited. Did something happen in the guild?”
“Oh yeah… Just got asked a few questions, nothing really worth noting.”
He didn’t want to tell her how he used to be manaless. There was no real point in admitting a weakness when he didn’t have to, especially to her.
“I am just thrilled about finally getting to see the lower floors for myself; I’ve heard they can differ wildly.”
The statement wasn’t entirely a lie; he really wanted to see what lay beyond the first boss-room. It just wasn’t the full truth. He didn’t even consider mentioning the dead receptionist or the suspicion. It’d have been pointless. He was innocent after all. There was no reason to worry her.
Could she be the one responsible?
She was there with him. She had magic. Then he remembered the unique thing about healers. Their mana was different than others. It was meant to stitch together wounds, not cause them. That’s why a healer couldn’t really get through floors on their own. No matter how well they healed, most of them couldn’t kill anyone. Those of them who could only did so with weapons and mana-improved physical attributes.
“They can be very different indeed, though I have not gone very deep; I have been lower than floor four. I have some experience in the immediate floors; we will see. Do not worry, I will not ruin the surprise.”
She smiled at him. His enthusiasm must’ve been rubbing off on her too. Just like that, his entire suspicion was gone.
“Let’s not waste any more time, then.”
He practically bolted out of the city gates into the forest, towards the dungeon. His usual care was replaced by a rush that wasn’t like him. She took her place beside him, matching his rushed pace.
It didn’t take long at all to arrive at the dungeon; the trip had taken shorter than usual due to his rushed pace.
I can already feel it making me better. I would’ve been tired at this pace before, but not now.
There was no stopping the duo as they made their way down to the third floor. Since both of them were present when the boss was slain, they wouldn’t face it again. That’s how the dungeons worked. Nobody understood or knew how the dungeon kept track of who was there when a boss died, and Liam didn’t really care about finding out. To him, this just made everything much easier.
They quickly crossed the threshold of the fourth-floor door. The environment changed drastically. It was no longer a wet cave with patches of odd grass and moss scattered around. An orange leaf fell on Liam’s head; the entire floor was a forest that appeared to be experiencing fall season. Liam’s eyes widened. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
I know she told me it’d differ wildly, but I didn’t expect this
He looked at Melissa, then looked at the trees. He had no words.
“It is a sight, is it not? One does not really expect an entire forest to be buried underneath three floors of a cave system. Quite a marvel, truly.”
Her voice was dripping with amusement, undoubtedly due to his amazement. She had seen it before, after all, and Liam was glad she hadn’t ruined the surprise.
“It’s like we aren’t even in the same place anymore.”
“Well, we kind of are not, I suppose. The enemies will be different too. Shall we look for some?”
He didn’t need to be asked twice. He ran straight into the woods without care. As long as she was with him, he didn’t need to play it safe.
It didn’t take long at all to find the first new creature: an undead humanoid monster called a hollowling that reached out from the tree bark nearby and tried to swipe at Liam. His reflexes were fast enough to avoid the attack, though his momentum still carried him into hitting another tree trunk.
A sharp pain radiated out from his side where he had hit a branch. At least he’d thought it was a branch. He was wrong. Another hollowling was inside the trunk, and its claw had lodged itself inside him. It pulled, shredding the flesh with ease. He grimaced from the feeling, but still pushed through to counterattack. His sword sliced into the fleshy bit of the monster, drawing a screech from it and making it retreat back into the trunk.
“Oh, that’s just bullshit. They can just run away like that?”
Melissa’s magic flowed through him, quickly closing the gash.
“Well, the difficulty is supposed to pick up the deeper we are. It is alright; you got this, and I have got you.”
Liam took a step away from the trunk.
I have to try to draw them out. I can’t kill them if they keep managing to slip back into safety.
His plan worked quickly. The hollowling that had managed to sink its claw into him came out first. There wasn’t a proper pattern to its attacks, just wild swipes of its bark like claws. They were faster than the goblins of the upper floors, but he was still managing to dodge most and deflect the ones he couldn’t.
There, it's wide open!
He thrust his blade, piercing another fleshy bit. Another screech from the creature drew out its buddy, hiding in the first tree he was swiped at from. He barely had any time to react to the swipe coming from behind him. Follow the newest chapters on novelping dot com.
That would have torn open my neck…
While he trusted in Melissa’s healing, he didn’t think she could bring him back from the dead. She’d healed him from the brink, but both times were with no monsters around. If that strike had landed, then she’d have to somehow deal with both the monsters and heal him. It was simply impossible.
The idea that she’d need to face these things gave Liam a boost of determination. He wouldn’t let that happen. As long as the attacks weren’t lethal, he could tank them as he did with the goblins. He stopped avoiding as much. He was soon cutting into both of the monsters, trading blows. These bastards certainly hurt more than the goblins above.
Claws dug into his shoulder. He didn’t care. He returned the favour by swiping at the monster’s neck. It blocked with its other claw, stopping the blade with a heavy thunk. He felt the shockwave of hitting a tree trunk travel up from the sword.
Gods, they’re annoying. How’s this just one level down from the goblins?
He let out a groan of frustration and pain. Melissa was healing the wounds as soon as she could. While that made him able to fight, it didn’t exactly help with the pain of being slashed. He weaved to the side, avoiding a slash aimed at his neck again. The creature was wide open. He didn’t let it recover. This time, his sword managed to cut the head clean off. He didn’t know which of the two he’d killed; all he cared about was that now it was a one-on-one.
I’ve got you now, you annoying shithead.
It didn’t take him much longer to deal with the remaining one. Going from trying to avoid two pairs of claws to only one pair made things noticeably easier. As the head of the second hollowling rolled on the grass, he collapsed to his knees. His breathing was shallow; that was definitely more tiring than the goblins and far more satisfying. Despite the pain and the tiredness, the smile on his face was one of clear pride.
Melissa slowly walked around and gathered the cores from the corpses. He was grateful for the healing and the gathering. He wasn’t really in shape to do it himself right now and appreciated the help.
If this is only the beginning of this area, I can’t wait to see the boss.
“Hey Melissa, how far did you get in these floors?”
He wanted to know how much deeper she’d gone with her former party. He wanted to know what goal he’d have to outdo to make sure he eclipsed those strangers from her past.
“I have made it down to the boss-room, but never cleared it. We called it quits before even trying.”
The boss-room… That’s doable.
Liam looked up at the healer’s eyes, his own shining with determination.
“Then I suppose we’ll have to beat whatever it is, so that the floors further down from it can be a surprise to us both.”
Melissa’s lips shifted into a wide smile, affirming her excitement about beating the boss.
“Oh, we most certainly should.”
His eyes wandered down to those smiling lips, too focused to notice the predatory glint in her eyes.