Edited by: KenChi死

Small group of armored knights were waiting in the Middle of the forest.

“I don’t like it commander…” one of man said, “We are completely visible here.” “That’s the point. Our informant chose this place because thanks to this he will know it’s not a trap. He may be risking even more than we do.” “We are knight of a hostile nation on enemy ground. He’s in a worse position?” “If we were caught, we would be executed. Hanged or beheaded, so it would be a fast death. Traitors would be first interrogated, then killed by the rack… so from his point of view…” “It is exactly as you have just said…” the bushes rumbled slightly and a hooded man steeped in lightly “…but the truth is much more complicated. I, by myself, mean nothing. Not like my master. If I would be caught and began to talk I could discredit people which help in vital for you Kingdom.” “Yet I have been wondering…” The commander of the group – the beautiful blonde lady spoke her fears “Why is one of the grand houses helping the Prophetess… on so many levels.” “My Lord is not helping you. He is helping the people of Neira. Thanks to their power for generation they were bringing prosperity to the land. But the King grew weak and stupid. He started favoring the Blackwood family only because they were decent on the battlefield. With time the influence of my Lord’s family started growing weaker and then: the economy started failing, allies start turning their backs to us, the tempo of finding new technologies and deposits of raw materials also was decelerated… To be blunt, my Lord decided to get rid of that family. He ordered to get the wife of the Househead poisoned. Everything was going right. Just a few more days, a few more actions, and step after step the Blackwood family would crumble, on their ashes once again we could build prosperity. But then the boy you are looking for interfered. And this is why we are helping you. The very boy you are looking for is working as an adventurer. He is now in the dungeon northwest of here… you know the location. He moved three days ago. Oh, and as apparently he is an alchemist… take this…”

He handed a small leather pouch

“What is it?” “Four vials of potent antidote. My Lord doesn’t like the idea of someone getting dirty work done for himself… so in this way he is showing his gratitude and wishes of good hunting.”

The woman only nodded and one of the knights took the pouch.

“We appreciate that.” “Just… kill the man who ruined months of planning.” The man started moving and quickly he vanished behind the bushes. “Do we trust him?” Yet another man asked “We are not here to think, but to act. We were given orders. It was already decided who is to be trusted.” “Are we moving out, M’lady?” “No. He is simply too far away. We won’t make this on time. Before we get to the dungeon he would already be back in the capital. Derek. “Yes?!” “Look for some disguise. Clothing of travelers, buy some merchandise. We will pretend to be traveling merchants with mercenaries. It should allow us to move through the country a bit more freely. I hope that none of you was stupid enough to take something that could be use to connecting us with Holy Kingdom?” “… only a few necklaces of faith but…” “Burned them.” “But commander!” “Faith is stored in your hearts, not in jewelry. You can buy another one as soon as we get back.” “…commander… I refuse.” That’s something new. Normally they wouldn’t hesitate to jump into the fire after the order would be given. “…it belonged to my wife…” That’s a different story then. “Keep it. Just keep it hidden. I will personally punish you if I ever see it in view.” “ Yes, my Lady!!”

The commander of Crimson Lily sighed quietly. It was suppose to be a quick mission, the birthday of her sister was suppose to come in a few weeks. Apparently she will not be able to partake in it. Again.

Zari’s POV

After a few more floors the team began acting normal. By normal I mean here that they were no longer acting weaker than they were, nor acting dumb, triggering traps on purpose. Their “dumb acting” was supposed to teach me about dealing with unpredicted events, finding paths by myself, to learn how to act while being ambushed…

… When sayin’ that they did it just to let me gather experience was a half –truth. Or even less than a half. They wanted to have their laugh. But they saw quickly that most of those “training sessions” were needless.

This is why they agreed on speed-diving. They had only one condition: We had to kill every monster we see, seeing as one: if we kill more monsters the will village be way safer, two:… our salary depend on the number of beast we kill. I have no idea how the guild would check how many beast we killed tho… in the end we did not gathered a single piece for a trophy.

Careful now…” I head Loki speaking “… in the next chamber the beast used to jump from the ceiling. There would also be a treasure chest, it may have some coins in it, some useless items, or may be a trap. Chances are 33-33-33. Or something like that. Ready?”

We were ready. Mrogul ran inside screaming, after a few seconds Loki followed and Marika and I entered as last.

The giant posture of orc and his loud behavior focused most on beast’s attention on him, a few beasts indeed jumped from the ceiling. Green-skin fearlessly began to smash the head of the beasts with his hammer. Not even the hard scales of lizard-like beast could withstand the powerful blows.

Loki followed like a shadow with short daggers in his hands. As soon as he entered the room he threw them to the sides without looking. Each of the dagger hit their marks, sinking deeply in the soft body parts of monsters – eyes, throats, bellies… But before those daggers reached their destinations, he already performed a half-spin, showing his back to Mrogul, and reaching with his hands to the belt pulling out yet another pair of daggers.

As chaos ruled inside the chamber me and Marika had all the time we could ask for. My left and her right hands held each other, we kneeled and our free hands touched the ground.

“We pray to the spirits of this forgotten cave,

Answer the calling, of those who are brave,

Bless us with might, of Earth and Water

So we could unleash in your name the slaughter…”

The beasts’ minds are simple. They would prefer to target those creature that are spreading havoc, who are killing their brothers and sisters instead of those who are kneeling on the dirt far away. It allowed us to finish the incantation without any disturbance.

“…and may the anger of Mother Nature be thrown upon em’,

So the madness of war could shine as unspoiled gem…” We finished. The incantation and yelled the name of the very spell

“The garden of madness!”

I felt my mana being drained at an insane speed, as the manifestation of spell took place. From beneath the ground thick thorny vines erupted catching beasts in there iron grasp, slowly getting tighter and tighter.

Member of your Party [Mrogul Irontusk] has killed [Armored Roller Level 12]42 Exp Obtained

Member of your Party [Mrogul Irontusk] has killed [Armored Roller Level 11]38 Exp Obtained

Member of your Party [Loki Unnamed] has killed Shadow Spitter Level 14]52 Exp Obtained

Member of your Party [Loki Unnamed] has killed Shadow Spitter Level 9]34 Exp Obtained

You have killed [Enraged Crawler Level 13]68 Exp Obtained

You have killed [Enraged Crawler Level 13]68 Exp Obtained

You have killed [Enraged Crawler Level 12]62 Exp Obtained

…

I ignored dozens of notifications.

The 7th floor of the dungeon. After the 5th it gets nasty. Not only do the monsters became over twice as strong as they used to be, not only does the number became greater and the overall abilities higher. The main problem was that floors from 5th were swamp like. And the weird plants growing here were releasing some strange fumes. No, not deadly. But I was told that after breathing it for several hours you would get dizzy, weak and… lazy. You stop taking care of your quest, your comrades, your own safe… and the desire of taking a nap was getting stronger. And you fell asleep. And not even being devoured by a beast alive could wake you up.

And here Marika was shining like a gem. “Blessing of Wind” She casted upon us was reducing the influence of the gas to zero. It needed to be recasted every few hours, but hey! If not for her the whole journey would be way harder. We would be forced to stay in “safe zones” For a few hours for the effects of the poison to wear off, or to spend lots of coins for antidotes, making the whole adventure barely profitable.

“Oy, Zari, mind taking care of the chest?”

Dealing with treasure chests became my reasonability, not because they were locked… as I had no skill in opening locks… but in case of traps… well I was dealing with them the fastest way and with the smallest side damages

I prepared the fire spell in my hand, just in case raised it over the chest, and with my free hand I raised the lid of chest.

Mimic ChestLevel10Hp[100/100]Sp[4/5]SkillsPressence hide [Passive] [Max]

Bite [Active] [Level 4]

The insides of chest was containing no gold nor treasure, but pinky flesh, the chest jumped on me trying to bite my head off.

I showed my fist into the flesh and activated combination of explosive bolt and mana shock wave. The part wood part blood pieces of the beast’s insides were scattered around the room, living me with piece of something similar to liver plastered to my face.

You have killed [Mimic chest Level 10]60 exp obtained

Loki chuckled.

“… it always used to be a trap here… didn’t it?” “You will never know.” His cheers only ensured me that it was truth. “I hate you.” “Now now, some practice can never hurt…” “How long to next place I can take bath in?” “On the beginning of next floor, like always.” “How long to the next floor?” “About three hours? Maybe two if we would increase the pace.” “So you want to tell me, that for the next three hour I am supposed to walk with my face covered in the insides of this motherfucker?” “The life of an adventurer is filled with discomfort! We walk into places where no one dares to enter, for a handful of coins! Lots of pain on this path awaits you! Lots of blood, tears and…” “…and assholes. Thanks. Will remember it.”

He chuckled yet again

“Loki?” “Hm?” “I will have my revenge.”

Another burst of laugh.

“You will try!”

With a team like this… can you ever be bored?

Today chap’s short 5.5 pages, but only cuz I had lots of shits to do. I g2g for now, will write smth 4 ya tomorrow.

See ya,

Author out! [Jumps thought the window]