Chapter 49: Tier 4 Magical Dungeon

After meeting with Springlake’s Main Office Receptionist (Tobias noted that she looked similar to the one from Meadowfield Town, with the black hair, black eyes and glasses), the location of the Magical Dungeon had been marked on a local map, and given to them.

Maps were incredibly convenient, to say the least. But then again, Tobias himself doesn’t know how to read a map.

But everyone else does.

So there they were, with them just following Jacques, as Bastille told their Leader where to go because he was in charge of the map, as usual.

And there – by his side would have been Clara. But right now, she was still scared of him for whatever reason, and opted to keep a minimum distance of at least five steps at all times.

Tobias really didn’t understand why that was the case, but he guessed that it had something to do with what happened recently.

... Wasn’t that kind of her fault to begin with? But then again... was it also his fault?

He sighed. Romance really was complicated, after all. Truth to be told, he was just treating her like how he would treat his sisters, and that was pretty much the extent of his knowledge on dealing with girls. Maybe that wasn’t the correct call, after all.

So he let go of the thought, and focused on his surroundings instead. Forests really were forests, after all. But the good thing about forests was the fact that even though the sun was brightly shining, the abundance of trees and their foliage meant that it wasn’t terribly warm.

It was actually too cool for a late summer day, really.

But that was only a blessing, was it not?

And so, after a few more minutes of walking, they finally found the white, pristine door which was incredibly visible because it stood out from the forest background.

With wordless nods to each other to confirm that they were ready, they opened the door. The first one to enter was Tobias, followed by Jacques, and then Bastille and Clara.

Because after all, Tobias was the one who was the most well equipped to deal with any surprise mobs of monsters when they teleport in.

There was a reason why he survived the might of half a Magical Dungeon rushing down on him once, after all.

***

...!

Tobias’ instincts flared suddenly, and his arm moved to draw his longsword before he knew it. But he looked around – and found that there was no enemy in sight.

... So why exactly did he feel something dangerous the moment he got teleported into this place?

He heard the faint noise of footsteps behind him, and found that his party had also been teleported in safely. The white door which acted as the Dungeon Exit was still there, positioned above stone stairs which only consisted of three steps.

So this Dungeon wasn’t one of those Dungeons where you had to kill the Boss, or else it would be impossible to leave...

Dungeons really were chaotic, and the rules were different every time. The only similarity they all had was their innately dangerous monsters, and the proportional reward in exchange for clearing it.

... Not that humans had any choice to begin with. Even if Dungeons didn’t supply rewards, they would still be forced to clear it. Because failure to do so will result in the Dungeon’s monsters leaking out to the world, after all.

He shook his head and cleared away his thoughts again.

He observed his surroundings, and noted that they were in another castle-like Dungeon, as evidenced by the white stone pillars, grand hallways with torn, tattered banners, the chandeliers providing bright, yet shadow-cast light, and meticulously designed architecture which consisted of grand arches and curves.

And that wasn’t counting the ominous suits of armors which decorated the place, which put the final nail in the coffin that they really were in a castle of sorts.

While he would love to steal one of those suits of armor to use for himself, he knew better than to take anything from the Dungeon that wasn’t from the Reward Chest.

Those could be cursed, or those could be some kind of mimic for all he knew, after all. The idea of getting devoured by living armor wasn’t something he wanted to happen to him.

“Wait, this looks familiar...” Clara muttered, as she looked at her surroundings.

“Yeah.” Bastille nodded. “Remember your first Dungeon? The architecture and design of this place is similar to that.”

“That’s true.” Jacques said, and walked towards the door in the distant corner. He carefully opened it, and peeked outside of it. “There’s nothing out here, but I can feel that something’s wrong with this place... Let’s proceed carefully.”

And with those words from their Leader, they organized themselves into their formation. Ever since that strange Tier 3 Dungeon which may or may not be intentionally involved with Jacques’ past, their formation had since been like this; Tobias in front, then Bastille, then Clara, and Jacques as rear guard.

Normally, there would be more conversation and talking that was going on. But the tense, dangerous air seemed to put everyone on edge, and only made them quiet and observant to their surroundings.

...

Tobias actually missed the idle banter that his party did. But then again, it was alright. Silence was also something he liked, and now that everyone had spent the past week back at his village talking, they were probably exhausted with socializing.

Or something like that.

He himself knew that he didn’t have the highest mental stamina when it came to conversing with others, after all.

Now that he thought about it, he really did think a lot to himself lately, really... So he once again, he shook his head, and focused on the task at hand. And that was to be careful with his surroundings, and be ready to respond at any time.

And there it was. The end of the hallway, as it split into two paths – left and right. Tobias turned to his party, and they all stared at the split road ahead.

“Jacques?” Bastille asked.

“I’m thinking...” Their Leader hummed to himself, before looking at the two splits in the road with a calculating gaze. And then after a short while, his right eye began to glow white, and once again, Tobias let out a small sigh.

Once again, he wondered how he could get that Analysis skill, or whatever it was called...

“Alright.” Jacques said, and everyone turned to face him. “I got nothing.”

“Hah...” Clara sighed. She walked to the end of the hallway, and peered at both sides, before she only shook her head. “Both paths look the same... Where do we go now?”

Tobias stared at the hallway which split into two paths again. He didn’t quite feel anything, and his instincts didn’t tell him anything... So either path was fine, really.

“I want to go right, though.” Tobias said. When they looked at him with questioning gazes, he hummed and began to articulate his thoughts into words. “We have to choose a path at some point, and I feel like going right might be easier.”

“There’s really no difference.” Bastille shrugged. “But I’d be annoyed if we didn’t decide on anything, so I’m siding with Tobias here. Let’s go right?”

“Alright.” Jacques nodded. “No complaints here. If both of them look the same, then either way is fine.”

“...” Clara only nodded, and when Tobias’ gaze met with hers, she looked away quickly.

Really though... What was exactly was her problem?

So there it was again, with Tobias who took the lead, as his party followed him. It really was too tense. The hallways which were decorated with pillars of stone... Anything could be behind the shadows cast by those.

And there. Finally, after a few minutes of silent, peaceful yet tense walking, they encountered the dungeon’s monsters.

In front of them were a group of Skeletons – reanimated humanoid bones, who wielded about different varieties of weapons ranging from daggers, to axes, to spears. All of their eyes were hollow, and they seemed to patrol around with a very particularly indifferent air.

... How obnoxious.

So it was Tobias who sprang forwards first. His longsword already drawn and primed, he swung his sword, aiming to decapitate the skeleton.

While it wasn’t supposed to be easy to cut through bone with a sword, there were three factors which made it possible; First, Tobias had converted all of his momentum into that decapitating strike. Second, his sword was really, really sturdy, and finally...

Tobias was (physically) strong to begin with.

So the mass of forged steel cleaved through bone, and with that, Tobias primed his sword and positioned himself to dash towards another enemy to take off their head –

His instincts flared loudly, as he barely managed to dodge the strike from the axe.

He quickly glanced to his right, and found that even if it was headless, the skeleton was standing. Its right arm outstretched – the axe just a few inches away from chopping into Tobias’ back.

An arrow sailed through the air and implanted itself on the right arm of the skeleton, and the projectile shattered its wrist, which made it drop its axe. (Thanks, Clara.)

Tobias glanced around himself, and found that he was being carefully approached and surrounded by four more skeletons – in addition the axe wielding skeleton which only picked up its weapon with its left hand...

...

Enemies which couldn’t be killed by normal means. Enemies which could ignore fatal wounds, and could keep fighting even when dismembered...

The Monster Encyclopedia he read from the Archives were correct, after all. And if it really was, then he knew that he needed Holy Magic in order to effectively kill them.

... But that didn’t matter right now.

All he knew was that he would disable them to the point where even if they were reanimated skeletons, they wouldn’t be able to fight again.

So his sword flashed out, as he raised his longsword and swung it downwards – aimed towards the axe wielding skeleton’s left wrist.

It wasn’t a clean strike and didn’t quite slice through bone, but it shattered it enough to the point where its hand fell off from its shattered wrist.

He wasn’t allowed to delay and think about it anymore, because he sidestepped the spear which would have impaled his torso if he lingered around for any longer.

A spear, in this spacious Magical Dungeon, was it...?

Tobias’ left hand grasped the spear’s shaft, and he pulled the spear towards him, and by extension, its owner.

Skeletons really were light, because its owner offered no resistance whatsoever.

Tobias raised his sword and hacked off the skeleton’s wrists. Then he kicked away the skeleton, and pried off the bone hands which still held the spear.

There was no time to test its balance, nor orient it properly.

He raised his left arm, now armed with the spear, and sent a sweeping blow towards the dagger wielding skeleton which tried to sneak on him. The wooden shaft crashed against bones with a rattling noise, as it was blown away by its lack of substantial weight.

When it crashed through the nearby stone pillar, the impact only caused its spine to snap in half.

And with that, Tobias raised his longsword to block a strike from the sword wielding skeleton.

He raised his left foot and kicked against the skeleton’s leg, which compromised its stability and its guard. He quickly raised his sword, and swung downwards towards the skeleton’s sword forearm.

But his strike wasn’t powerful enough to cleave through it. His sword only cleaved through the first forearm bone, before being stuck halfway through the second bone. He idly cursed the fact that he didn’t take his time to aim for the much more fragile wrist instead.

But no matter. He raised his sword – skeleton’s arm included, and he raised the spear shaft to align it against the sword.

And without any further delay, he did two actions at the same time; he swung his sword downwards, and swung the spear’s shaft upwards.

He had observed this action before – where a blacksmith had snapped off a metal rod by hanging it off the edge of an anvil, and struck the hanged part with enough force to snap the rod in two parts.

So he only applied what he observed.

By using the spear’s shaft as an anvil of sorts, and the already-buried sword as a hammer, he used the two counter forces to shear through the skeleton’s forearm, as the chopped bony hand and its weapon dropped to the ground.

And with that, he raised his longsword to strike, and this time, aimed his attack, which shattered through the skeleton’s left wrist.

But then... He felt something grab on his right leg. He glanced down, and found that a skeleton’s arm had grabbed on to him, even though it wasn’t connected to its body.

It didn’t matter. While it was annoying and slightly unnerving, it wasn’t weighted enough to offset his sense of balance. So he firmly shook his leg, and stomped on it – fracturing the bone arm into fragments which didn’t move anymore.

So he could crush their bones to stop them from moving, then?

Good.

His own fight done, he turned towards the rest of his party members. Somewhere a few meters away from him, Jacques also engaged himself in combat with the two remaining skeletons, both of which were armed with a sword.

He dodged, sidestepped, and weaved through the skeleton’s attacks, before his saber looped around and sent quick counter attacks.

It seemed like Jacques’ sword and precision was sharper than Tobias’, because instead of relying on pure, brute strength to cleave off the skeleton’s arms, he instead aimed for the joints and tendons, where his saber cleaved through them to the point where it looked like he was cutting through paper.

Tobias let out an appreciative nod when Jacques parried a skeleton’s clumsy sword strike, and with the same breath, he sliced through its arm.

It only lasted three seconds, but their Party Leader had already disarmed (literally) two skeletons with utmost precision and grace, without even a scratch to himself.

Now that all of the skeletons were literally disarmed, their skull’s mouths only opened and closed quickly, as they emit loud, sharp chattering noises.

And after that... The skeletons collapsed to the ground like puppets whose strings got cut off. Those same bodies also began to turn into dust, before being blown away by a sudden gust of wind which came out of nowhere.

...

“Yeah...” Bastille began nervously. “That was kinda unsettling.”

“What exactly happened?” Jacques asked, as he sheathed his saber by his side.

Tobias also sheathed his longsword, before looking at the spear he had recently acquired. He gave it a few flicks to test its balance, before finding it well-balanced, and decently sturdy.

“Those Skeletons...” Bastille eyed the piles of bones in the ground, before he sighed. “In layman’s terms, they basically expended the magic fueling them to serve as alarms instead.”

... But then, the new spear he had gotten... It began to fade away...

As he stared at the spear-tip which turned into dust, his mouth quickly turned into a frown, before the shaft of the spear dissolved as well, and its ashes blown away by an ominous wind.

“My spear...” Tobias whined, as he stared at his now vacant hands.

He always wanted to use a spear...! And now that he had gotten one and the dungeon wasn’t cramped enough to the point where it would be a liability, it was only torn away from him...!

How unfair...! It was like setting the conditions perfectly for him, but only having it torn away from the last second!

While he was in the middle of blankly staring at his hands, he felt a careful hand pat against his back. It snapped him away from his thoughts, and he found Clara carefully rubbing her hand on his back, while she bore a small smile.

“... Weren’t you angry at me?” Tobias asked, after regaining his bearing.

“I wasn’t angry at you. And besides, you looked upset.” Clara replied, and then offered him a smile which seemed to melt away his annoyance.

She really was radiant. And her mood whiplash was confusing. But right now, she was radiant.

“That’s one way to put it lightly.” Bastille called out from the side, and this time, Clara didn’t flinch away at his voice. “He was literally stomping the ground, before calming down and turning into sad boy mode.”

Tobias blinked. He thought he had gotten rid of that particular habit whenever he got frustrated... Was it actually still there, after all? And why did the words ‘sad boy’ sound so annoying...?

“I mean...” Jacques began. “When Tobias acquired that spear, he had the brightest smile ever. But then it turned into dust, and well... I get why he would be really angry about it.”

Tobias blinked again. He did?

... There really was a lot of external habits he didn’t pay attention to, after all. But that’s why they were called habits to begin with, wasn’t it?

“Anyways, we need to move.” Jacques called out, with a single, sharp clap which caught everyone’s attentions and pierced through Tobias’ thoughts. “We’re still in a Dungeon, after all. Stay cautious, and let’s set our formation again.”

***

If there was a reason why Bastille (and by extension, Clara) was hesitant to offer support to Tobias whenever he dived into the middle of a mob of monsters...

It was because first; Tobias was in the middle of a mob of monsters. The slightest mistake could lead to their ‘support’ being a liability to him. Burn wounds and arrow wounds were definitely going to hinder him at best, and cripple him at worst.

And second... He was too fast, and too strong to the point where he didn’t even seem like he needed their help in particular. They had all described Tobias as a monster slaying machine, in different variations of their own words.

Because really... He was.

And he learned and adapted quickly – way too quickly.

After his longsword got stuck trying to cut through that skeleton’s forearm, he had now begun to aim his strikes against their enemies’ weak spots. Mostly their joints, really.

As a result, Bastille was relegated to executioner duty. Because aside from when a Skeleton would turn their mana cores into a magical alarm which destroyed themselves, then Physical Attacks couldn’t truly kill Skeletons unless they were thorough enough to the point of crushing all of their bones into fragments or dust.

And that was where he had come in. While Fire Magic was normally a poor fit against skeletons, mostly because fire would only char their bones (which made them more brittle, but didn’t really finish them off), they were still Magical Attacks.

So a simple Fire Blast destroyed their mana cores, especially after suffering through brutal damage that Tobias inflicted on them.

Bastille really felt like he wasn’t doing anything. But he idly looked at Clara, and he could tell that she was most likely feeling even worse for not being able to do anything.

Well to be fair... Tobias was just someone who seemed to not need any help.

The Sorcerer began to think of the newfound relationship between Tobias and Clara. While he didn’t know what exactly made her like him, he could speculate.

If he remembered correctly, women liked honesty and concern from men, right? That was what the internet had told him when he tried to search about it for research purposes when he got curious about the topic once.

So was it because of the fact that Tobias was usually stone faced and cold, but he showed concern to them (and especially her in particular) whenever something was wrong?

Was that really the case...? Because if so, then...

... Was Clara seriously a fan of gap moe?

And if Bastille thought about it... wasn’t Tobias technically some sort of dere to begin with –

That thought process was too cursed. So he abandoned all thought of it quickly.

After two, maybe three hours of exploration, they had finally found the large, eye-catching giant doors which couldn’t be anything other than the Boss Room.

Just like the Magical Dungeon with the Stone Knight, these doors were also gigantic, and wouldn’t be out of place as a City’s gate, really. It was made out of solid iron, too, and for the shortest while, Bastille wondered if Tobias would be able to push one door open by himself.

It might be possible for bragging purposes.

“Tobias, you alright?” Jacques called out, and the Soldier turned to face him with a particular questioning gaze. “You’ve been fighting a lot. How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.” Tobias replied. “I’m slightly tired, but not too much. I can still fight at my best.”

“That’s good.” Jacques nodded at his words. At this point, everyone knew that Tobias was on a whole different level compared to them when it came to physical endurance and stamina. “Let’s go open this door, then.”

And with that, Bastille also thought that aside from Tobias being too fast, and too strong... He was also like a fountain of endless, relentless stamina. Didn’t he mention that he had a System which acted like an RPG leveling interface, complete with numbers and stuff?

Bastille wondered how just how high his physical stats were, really.

And after that thought, he heard the deep rumbling of steel grating against stone, and looked up to see that Tobias and Jacques had finally pushed the doors wide enough for them to pass through.

Bastille shook his head to clear away the needless thoughts.

It was time to focus, and to slay a Dungeon Boss.