Edited by: KenChi死

Lord Inquisitor was walking through the corridors of his own personal… “Residence”… his nephew was trying to keep pace with him.

From time to time, he gave him a task or two, just to prepare him for the office that one day he will take. Right now he was listening him as he was reporting progress of certain matter.

“…and last troop has escorted supplies to the garrison protecting Dragon’s Pass… I have no idea who named it Dragon’s Pass as no dragon was seen there… but that’s it. We are fully prepared for war. The invasion can start from three forts, now we are waiting only for a sign from you and the bishops.” He ended his report. And waited for further information “Good. Now we will wait.” The old inquisitor nodded pleased after hearing that all troops are at the right locations “…if I may ask… what are we waiting for? Everything is ready… waiting now would mean only a waste of resources that will be needed for supplies… also the more we wait, the more the morale of our soldiers would drop…” “Why? You should tell me why we are waiting! Think. Even if I want, I will not be living forever to guide you by your hand!... what are you waiting for? Answer!” “Pardon me uncle… I don’t know.” “Demons, of course.” “… I am afraid I do not understand, we have…” “The pact of non-aggression, that can be easily broken. Let’s see how attentive you were during your geography lessons. What can you tell me about Demon’s Continent?”

The young man was quiet for a second or two, gathering his thoughts

“Demon Continent, named also Hikarion, after the name of a grand demon commander, is a hostile land. Infertile grounds, way smaller amounts of water sources, yet very “rich” in dungeons and mana crystals…” “That’s enough. Even as their population is pretty low compared to humans, they still can’t feed every single one of them. War raids to gather food supplies were common things, 200 years ago, the current Demon Emperor… later demoted to Demon King, invaded the Human’s Continent to conquer as much land as he could, he wanted to build farms and so on here, that would be used to generate food to feed their people. Now tell me, what would they do, if they would notice that most of our troops are on the a completely different side of country?” “…I see… but why are we waiting? For what?” “When the people are going poor, when there is lack of food and so on, the best way to avoid rebellion is to give them a distraction, the best distractions are games, and what’s better game than one, that picks a new King or Queen? In couple of months, maybe a year and few days, they will be electing a new ruler. Each of the challengers picks a champion, and the champions are given quests. The one who perform best wins. This is for what we are waiting for. The Games will take couple of weeks if not months, and right after that the new King will have lots of “paper work” to fully establish his new order. Bribe Lords, take care of the most urgent cases… We will hopefully finish our war, before they would be able to send but a scout troop.”

The young man was left in awe and admiration. Once again his uncle showed him the difference between their skills and knowledge. He was simply terrifying.

We dived deeper into the cave. I was told, that usually the first few corridors are more or less safe.

“It’s been bothering me for some time…” I started mostly cuz I was tired of silence “… why don’t we have a ranger with us? Wouldn’t having someone with bow be a…” “Please Zari, tell me you are joking?” Marika turned around to answer me. “Why should I?” “Zari… adventurers mainly investigating dungeons, sure thing that we hunt in open field too… but dungeons are our main source of fun and money…” “…Aaaand?” “Just look around! Right and left! Every few meters we have some kind of a turn so you see enemies max 20-30 meters ahead! As corridors are not that wide, archer would either need to stand in front of the team, and get himself killed as first, or stand behind allies, and shoot em’ in the backs! And ammunition! In one quiver you can usually carry about 12-15 arrows, and there are faaar more monster than 12 in a dungeon! Even if you would keep picking up every arrow, they would occasionally break inside the body of the monster… you want to get back to town for new arrows every 20 monsters? That would take forever to get past first floor! Zari… never go full retarded.”

Haha… right, I asked basing on my experience with RPG games, where archer could carry up to 9999 arrows, and were occasionally dropping from the monsters, and usually with friendly fire off.

Well, at least the problem with ammunition does not concern me – as long as I have mana I can shoot with D’iabel.

“Stop talking!” Mrogul growled lowly. “Don’t lose you focus. I am not going to die and shame myself in such newbie dungeon because of you two…”

Aaaand once again they are right. What bothers me the most is that because of the size of the corridors, I needed to keep Kaito away. Even to many ravens could be an obstacle. Only Sebastian was sitting on my shoulder.

“We are approaching reaching the end of the corridor, now we will step into the very dungeon. Do not lower your guard.

We walked into a slightly more spacious hall-like corridor. This was also the place where monster started appearing. We have just entered, so we were greeted by the weakest of the weakest.

Your skill [Appraisal] has leveled up[Appraisal] is now level 6Additional information may be displayed

Targets of slightly higher levels may me [Appraised]

Cavern Bloodsucker [Bat]Level4Hp[41/40]Sp[28/30]Monster that usually travels in packs. Natural vampires.

Even as the very monsters are not really strong, the dungeon slightly empowered them.

For skilled adventurers they are more like annoyance than a real threat.

Still their bites are not painful, and cam kill adventurers that fell asleepSkillsBite [Level 3]

Blood drain [Level 2]

Stealth [low] [Level 4]

Echolocation [Level 2]

Oversaturation [passive] [Level Na]

Cavern Crawler [Lizard]Level8Hp[51/60]Sp[21/25]Lizzards that were corrupted by the powers of the dungeon.

Their scales became much harder, but it only made them extremely slow.

They are poisonous, covering their scales in the toxins.

Touching them directly is not recommended.SkillsPoison creation [low] [Level 2]

Hardened scales [Level 4]

Roll [Level 1]

Bite [Level 8]

There were exactly three lizards… somehow similar to turtles, if you would ask me, just with much longer necks and tails.

On the other hands, there was shitload of bats, and they were extremely aggressive.

“Fucking buggers.” Mrogul was not pleased seeing them “Nothing good comes from killing them. They are weak, no glory after battle, but they are fast, aggressive and annoying. Oy, Zariel, you want to see the fastest way to kill them?”

He didn’t even waited for me to answer, he pulled his helmet off, walked a few more steps into the cave and waited. In few seconds one of bats flew directly into his bared neck, bared fangs… and before he was able to bite, Mrogul’s powerful hand splashed it on his neck like a fly, making blood gush in all directions.

Your teammate [Mrogul] has slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 6 exp

6 exp per kill? I know that those are weak… but… ok, never mind. Just 1557 more and I will level up.

“This, or simply you can say that this pig enjoys being covered in blood.” Marika simply couldn’t stay quiet. “One more word you useless midget and I will cripple you and throw you to their den…” “As if y…” “Now, now, now, now, now!” Loki saved the day “Can we please stop arguing in the middle of the dungeon?”

Actually I am wondering how those two could push it so far being adventurers. I mean, it is pretty possible, that in the dungeon, right in front of the boss, they would start battling each other instead of the boss… But hey, I am the guest in this party, I should not complain.

And those bats… few of their skill could come handy… I will need to wait for a better moment, and sneak away a couple at a times. I doubt they would tolerate me devouring the dungeon’s monster raw.

“Yet another bastard.” The Orc almost spitted in anger, this time at the lizard. Actually it didn’t lookehostile, a little bit annoyed by our presence... it did no aggressive action toward us, yet Mrogul raised his war hammer, and smashed it with one blow.

Your teammate [Mrogul] has slain [Cavern Crawler]You have obtained 14 exp

“Oy, midget! Can you do something about those damned bats?!” “Call me midget one more time and I will cut off your balls and wear them as earrings!”

Just imaging this concept made me flinch

“I am preparing repel, but I need their body parts, if you wouldn’t splash it’s organs all over the damned cave, it would already be done!” “Actually…” I suggested shyly “… Marika, don’t bother doing repel on bats. I got this.”

And I have raised my hands on the level of my chest while creating a fireball between my palms.

“I clasp the pact, I made with you,

Answer my call, as you are due,

Spirits of fire, the reasons you were born,

Is to burn those, who show to me scorn.”

A spinning ball of fire flew up to the ceiling where the bats were gathering, and exploded. Far enough from the very ceiling, to not make it fall on our heads, yet close enough for the blow of the warm heat wave to knock the monsters from the air. Most of them couldn’t stabilize their flight and hit the ground dying on the spot. Reason of death – gravitation.

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 8 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 7 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 7 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 9 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 10 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 6 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 9 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 11 exp

You have slain [Cavern Bloodsucker]You have obtained 8 exp

WarningYou have out leveled monsters you killed by over 10 levelCombo bonus will NOT be applied

Tsh, so they will not allow me to farm here huh? Well, it is actually reasonable. Combo bonus is geometric growth, and it would means that every more intelligent player instead of risking their life in hard battles would prefer to wipe out caves of small fries.

Life is brutal. Let’s keep farming the hard way.

After this little spell of mine, Mrogul turned on his heel and looked at Marika

“YOU!” He roared with eyes full of judgment “USELESS!” “I will take that “useless” away from you and put it right in your a…” “NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW, NOW! We all know that below the 5th floor without Marika we would be completely defenseless and camping inside dungeon would be impossible without her, so how about you stop it right now?” “Hmpf” “Don’t Hmpf at me damn it! Now can we proceed further?” “Not yet.” Marika said “I will still need their body parts to prepare hexes that will keep other beast away. And someone here is actually killing monster in a way that will allow harvest their body parts!”

Marika took small curved knife and started taking away some of the body parts. Eyes, fangs, wings… and putting em to small pouch tied to her belt.

“Here, I will help you.” I offered my help without even considering being rejected. “That’s sweet of you!.” Marika cheered

No, Marika, it is not. I simply hope to steal something for myself.