"Good work team," I said. Usually, I would give my sword one last swing to fling away the blood that was coating the blade, but the monsters we killed had no blood.
The Seamwalkers felt like they belonged more in a sci-fi novel rather than the fantasy-modern fusion world that I was in.
But it wasn't like there weren't other monsters who also felt out of place in the novel, so if anything, by it being off and out-of-place, it was actually perfectly where it belonged.
I looked back in the direction that we ca from and scread, "Are we allowed to drink potions to recover our health and mana, or are we still not allowed?!"
There was a mont before a voice responded.
"Go ahead. Drink your mana potions if you need to. But no to the health potions."
Imdiately, like a drug addict who was just permitted to take their drugs, Sarakit dug her hands into her bag and chugged down two bottles at the sa ti.
I had also begun drinking potions that were in my bag.
Arthurr reached into his spatial inventory and pulled out a plant, and began chewing on it.
I didn't recognize the plant but sensing his mana level starting to rise again, I understood that it was probably one of the world's natural mana recovery plants that grew around his village. It wasn't as effective as a potion though, so I tossed him one and told him to drink.
Then once he finished drinking, I finally asked a question that I'd been waiting to ask.
"Arthurr, are you able to store other people's items?"
Without any hesitation, he nodded. There wasn't even a second of wondering whether he should keep it a secret.
"If it isn't a burden, could you put my bag inside your inventory?"
"Of course!" he smiled, grabbing my bag and putting it inside.
rlin then asked him to do the sa for his bag.
As for Sarakit, she felt better having her brews close to her body, so she wasn't interested in handing them over to Arthurr.
Our break didn't last long.
Quentin was in the shadows, urging us to continue.
We hadn't gone more than a few dozen ters when the ceiling peeled open again.
"More!" Arthurr scread.
The second ambush ca harder than the first. Twice as many Seamwalkers dropped on us, unfolding midair like grotesque origami.
Experiencing it once before, we reacted fast this ti and Arthurr flung them away from us before they could land.
rlin's fire spell crashed into a few of them that were mid-drop.
In a chain of attacks, I cut down three of them.
Just because we were experienced now, it didn't an that it was any easier, especially with the increased number.
By the ti the last one dissolved into light, Sarakit was breathing through clenched teeth, multiple streaks of sweat dripping off her chin.
Then it happened again after we recovered a little and resud our journey into the dungeon.
A third ambush.
No warning just like before.
Just dozens of monsters raining from above.
By the ti silence returned, rlin was leaning heavily on his staff. His arms were trembling so much that I could hear his bones clattering.
Sarakit had collapsed to her knees.
We drank our potions and recovered as much as we could before Quentin's words urged us to continue.
And then we saw the stairs that led downward to the next floor.
"Down we go," Sarakit muttered weakly. "I don't want to go down."
We descended, regardless of how she felt about it.
The second floor was identical to the first with the sa-looking walls and a long passage that seed to never end.
The only thing that changed was the number of Seamwalkers that dropped.
Where the first floor tested our physical limits as well as how much mana we had, the second floor punished us.
Seamwallkers ca in waves, sotis from the ceiling, sotis rushing from ahead.
The fights blurred together after a while.
We won — barely.
Just like the first two floors, the third floor followed the sa pattern.
Only more monsters.
With proper rest, it would've been easier but the idea of enough rest was a luxury that Quentin did not grant us.
The fourth floor was worse.
By the ti we reached the stairs again, Sarakit was moving her body as if it didn't fully belong to her. rlin's legs shook constantly and they were doing a dance that I'd never heard of before.
"Please… let us drink health potions," Sarakit said hoarsely, looking back into the shadows where Quentin was.
"No," his voice responded.
"There's no point asking," I told her. "He's not going to change his mind. Just focus on conserving your energy as much as possible, even if it ans not speaking."
As we were walking down the staircase, heading to the fifth floor, Arthurr wiped sweat from his brow.
He told , "You know, I grew up running through forests every day. Chasing animals to feed myself and others. I would often carry hundreds of kilograms on my shoulders."
He was glancing at as he said, "And yet, I'm in complete admiration for how much stamina you have."
Tilting my head slightly, I responded, "Thank you."
Truthfully, this was nothing compared to so of the things Quentin had doing during the Winter training.
Down on the fifth floor, we moved forward, expecting the ceiling to open again.
It didn't.
We walked and walked, but the passage remained quiet, the only sound being our breaths and footsteps.
After several minutes of walking, the corridor opened into a wide chamber, and there it was. A single monster. A mini-boss.
It looked like a Seamwalker but was much larger and heavier. It had eight legs that were spread across the floor, each joint bending at impossible angles. Its body was broader and the pulse underneath the plates was much more intense.
And where there should've been one head, there were three.
The first head tilted back and scread.
Even though rlin and Sarakit had already blocked their hearing, they were still stunned by the scream. rlin collapsed to one knee, and Sarakit clutched at her head.
The second head snapped forward and a beam of white-gold light fired out like a laser.
"Down!" I shouted.
The beam sliced through the air and burned a molten line across the wall where we had been standing a mont earlier.
The third head opened similarly to how a flower would bloom.
A fine, shimring pollen burst into the air.
Although I didn't know what the pollen did, I yelled, "Don't breathe it in!"
However, it was too late, as the pollen had spread quickly, filling the entire room.
I didn't even breathe it in, and yet so of the pollen had entered my body, and the mont it touched my lungs, the world around shifted and shapes moved where nothing was.
Monsters were crawling along the walls.
Whoa! Where did all these monsters co from?
I nearly panicked before Gon said sothing to .
'Master, what monsters? It's just your team and that giant three-headed monster in the room.'
"...Those monsters aren't real! I think the pollen is making us hallucinate!" I told the team.
But rlin who had his hearing blocked, couldn't hear and scread. "There… there's too many!"
Sarakit began swinging widely at empty air. "Help! We need help! There are too many monsters!"
Arthurr was the only one who could hear and he was mid-attack when he heard my voice and canceled what he was doing.
The three-headed monster took advantage of our team being distracted and attacked us with another beam.
I grabbed the heads of both Sarakit and rlin, forcing them to duck the beam.
❖ ❖ ❖
[Sarakit]
There were monsters everywhere.
After one of the heads released a bunch of pollen into the room, we were imdiately surrounded.
"RUN!" That was the first thing that my mind scread at .
The monsters seed to have no end or stop to them. I've seen so of them before in the textbooks. I've seen others in videos posted online. So crawled along the walls. So clung to the ceiling. So were on the floor, ready to charge at .
Every single one of them was staring at . Just . All of their eyes, however many they had, were pointed not at my teammates but at — .
My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.
My hands shook so badly that I nearly dropped the vial I was holding.
My instincts were screaming at to run before I was torn apart and made into so random monster's dinner.
Then one of the monsters lunged at and I swung at it.
I could feel my fist making contact with them as they tumbled backward from my punch.
"Help!" I scread for our ntor, Quentin. "We need help! There are too many monsters!"
Surely this situation was dire enough for him to co save us. After all, he told us that he would rescue us when we were close to death.
Then I suddenly felt pressure. A hand had grabbed the back of my head and forced downward.
I barely had ti to register it before a blinding flash of light burned over where I'd been standing. I could feel the heat of the beam radiating on my back.
Bell?
I looked up at him with a sharp gasp.
He was saying sothing. At first, I couldn't hear it as my hearing was still blocked. So just for the mont, I turned off the blockage.
"Ignore the other monsters you're seeing," he said to and rlin. "They aren't real. They're hallucinations created by the pollen that the three-headed monster just released into the air."
My eyes flicked back to the monsters swarming the room.
Are you telling those terrifying monsters are fake?
My mind imdiately rejected what he was saying.
They're right there. I can see them. I can feel the presence of their mana.
Grabbing my shoulders, Bell forced to look directly at him.
"Trust in . Only that one is real."
I hesitated. Every instinct of my body was screaming at that listening to him would be suicide. Every hair on my body was standing straight, waiting for another one of them to pounce.
But then another thought cut through the panic.
Bell was a hero who had defeated not just one demon but two.
He had achieved things that people my age would consider to be impossible.
Perhaps, at this mont, the most reliable thing here was him. He had actual credentials to his na. He wouldn't say sothing that he didn't believe in.
My own thoughts were screaming but I tried my best to quiet them down.
I'll trust in what he's saying.
I swallowed hard and then nodded. "Okay. I'll trust you."
rlin did the sa.
No matter how real the monsters looked, I forced my eyes away from them. Even though my heart raced every ti one of them lunged towards in my peripheral vision, I pretended like they didn't exist.
After multiple attacks and yet I was unhard, I understood that Bell had been telling the truth.
That allowed to focus on the real threat.
The screaming head reared back again and I moved.
Uncapping three vials, I hurled them forward. Potions shattered against its plated body, reactions chained together, and an explosion of frost, corrosive mist, and a burst of unstable mana was created.
Arthurr struck from the side, using his spatial magic to tear at one of its legs.
rlin, still pale, still shaking, unleashed one spell after another. Fire would crash into the monster whenever Bell created an opening with his sword.
And Bell, well — he was everywhere.
Lightning wrapped around his sword as he carved into the monster's joints, severing legs, digging into its plated torso, and before any beam or attacks could catch him, he would leap back.
It was the correct decision to trust him.
We weren't particularly close. We'd only t recently and had more of an employer-employee kind of relationship.
I was grateful to him because the business he had set up allowed to never have to worry about running out of dication for my mother.
But I didn't trust him. He was just soone who seed like he belonged to a different world than .
Do I trust him now?
Maybe not totally, but I could sense that trust starting to grow.
Minutes felt like hours and my body scread. My mana also dipped dangerously low.
My hands felt numb and my legs were a few seeconds awake from snapping.
But finally, the central body of the monster cracked. The pulse beneath its plates faltered and without hesitation, Bell drove his blade in, lightning detonating outward in a violent surge.
The three heads scread at once, then went silent.
The massive body collapsed, dissolving into light just like the others.
The monsters on the walls vanished and the room beca empty except for the four of us.
I dropped to my knees, gasping, my whole body trembling as if it might fall apart. "We… we did it," I muttered. "We did it!"
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