-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Their First Dungeon Raid(2)-

Joy slammed the huge ogre on the ground and dusted his hands. As the huge figure of the monster slammed with that much force, it made a whining sound, and dust and debris surrounded them.

“Cough! Cough! Take it, easy man. You are not supposed to kill it.” Kenshin swiped his arms furiously and covered his mouth to protect himself from dust.

“Hey…to be fair, I am gentle enough with them. I can't help it if they are too weak.” Joy defended himself as he threw a disdainful stare at the creature that simply laid on the ground like a statute. Its paralysis had yet to wore off.

“It's not that they are weak, you are just too strong for them, you damn gorilla,” Kenshin said while gently kicking the monster on the ground. It only twitched for a second before laying still. “Man, It seems you did a number on it.” Kenshin shook his head.

“Okay, Chiba, get to business. Slay this damn thing before it regens its mobility. Don’t worry about your magic power, I have that covered it too.” Kenshin said offhandedly before going around and standing with Joy at a little distance away.

“How many minutes do you think she would take?” Joy asked as he got comfortable over a medium sized rock.

“My guess is that she would take around 15 minutes and a mana potion,” Kenshin said. Of course, he was not saying it randomly. He had done a liberal calculation with the amount of HP this monster had and the attack capability of Chiba and their consumption.

“Nah! I believe she would do it without need for one. And it would be sooner than what you predict. Just look!” with a smile, Joy said after seeing Kenshin’s skeptical look.

While Joy and Kenshin were predicting her performance, Chiba was mentally prepping herself for her first step towards her goal. Opening her eyes wide, she raised her right arm above her head, letting it condense a huge amount of water bubbles before transforming them into a long whip. The whip then moved at tremendous speed and lashed all over the paralyzed ogre's head and top right corner of the body.

Soon, small gashes littered all over the poor monster’s body, making it bleed dark brown colored blood.

“Oya!” Kenshin had a surprised expression on his face. The water whip was literally a blur by now, not even its shadow was visible at this point.

“She has this much control over her skill! I will be damned.” Joy was also surprised like Kenshin.

“Not only that, the strikes, although they didn’t pack much of a punch. The speed at which she strikes makes up for the lack of power. Damn. And it seems her consumption of magic wasn’t that high. This is the power of control.” Kenshin’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. ‘Even I won't have this much control over my skill…unless I increase my WIS and increase skill level without using skill points. She is a real talent.’ Suddenly Kenshin’s eyes shined like gems. He felt it was truly the correct decision for her to invite to his party.

“This girl! She is making us old men look bad. But I like it. Thank god we found her before her potential rotted away.” Joy took a deep breath, marveling at the girl’s talent in magic control.

“Shut up. Your shout will distract her.” Kenshin reprimanded and continued to watch the girl’s show.

“Ho! Look its vital is dropping. Just a little more.” Joy, who was holding a small device with a red blinking light on its tip, shouted.

“Girl. Just a little more and this thing would be killed by you.” Joy shouted, encouraging her.

“Yes,” Chiba shouted. Her head as well as body was filled with perspiration. Her vision had started to blur for the past few seconds. It was the side of effect of using a skill for this long without taking rest. She had enough magic, but her body couldn’t handle the loss at such speed without taking a rest.

It's like the barrel of a machine gun. If enough time wouldn’t be given for it to cool down after a round of fire, it will melt over time. Chiba should have taken a few seconds of rest, but she didn’t want to stop and kept going on. Although both Kenshin and Joy noticed this, they didn’t stop her.

There were two reasons for that. One, they didn’t want to stop her midway, causing her effort to go waste. Two, if she completely exhausts herself, it would increase her endurance as well as magic control and quantity. It’s a good thing for her. Still, Kenshin prepared a vial of HP potion just in case.

After a half a minute, Chiba stopped her whip lashes, allowing the skill to dissipate. She shook in her place, looking as if she would fall down at any moment. But she held on, gritting her teeth, she slapped her cheeks to make herself stay awake. Two red handprints appeared on her plump snow-white cheeks.

Narrowing her eyes, she raised both her hands above her chest and below her chin. Like before, water bubbles gathered around palms. But unlike last time, they didn’t transform into a whip, but small pebble-sized water drops. The drops floated in front of Chiba as they shined like crystals under the light of the dungeon.

“What is she doing?” Joy asked, furrowing his brows.

“Maybe using another skill to finish off this thing.” Since he couldn’t tell it directly, Kenshin said it, sounding like he made a guess.

Then under the astonished gaze of both boys, the pebble-sized water drops started to give off the chilly wind as they turned denser and denser until they turned into white pebbles made of ice. The ice droplets then twisted and turned and formed into sharp icicles. Chiba pointed her index finger at the eyes of the ogre.

The icicles suddenly faced the direction of ogre’s eyes and blasted at them like bullets leaving a gun’s barrel. The small pebble-sized icicles penetrated through the ogre’s soft eyes quite easily and entered its brain one after another, spraying brown blood everywhere.

Both Kenshin and Joy saw the HP of the monster dropping at speed even faster than before. Chiba maintained it for a few minutes until she stopped and took a long breath. Just as she was about to stumble and fall, Kenshin appeared in a flash and supported her with his arms.

“Good Job! You did well. Now rest.” Kenshin whispered gently.

“But I haven’t killed it yet. I haven't leveled up at all.” Chiba mumbled into Kenshin’s chest as she was being carried off like a princess by him, feeling incomparably shy at the same time.

“Hmm! It's just a matter of time before it dies. It's just hanging to its last breaths.” He gently laid her on the ground, making her lean on the rock they were just sitting. Kenshin brought out the HP potion he had prepared and brought it to Chiba’s mouth.

“Drink.” He ordered. HP potion not only regenerates lost HP but also it completely cures all negative effects on a body. The current withdrawal Chiba was feeling could also be considered a kind of negative effect, so no doubt it would get heald by the HP potion.

After taking a mouthful of the strange liquid Kenshin gave her, Chiba felt a soothing sensation flowing through her body and mind, easing her erratic thoughts. She could even feel her chaotic magic in her body settling down.

“What is this drink? It had such a magical effect on my body!” Chiba asked after taking another mouthful of the red liquid.

“That’s an HP potion.” Joy, who was inspecting the close-to-death ogre shouted over.

“Shut up,” Kenshin shouted back.

“What? HP potion? That-that’s a very expensive thing…I…I already drank it all.” As expected, Chiba instantly became flurried. An HP potion was a very expensive thing which couldn’t be bought, even with money. For her to drink it like a bottle of energy drink…Chiba was paled in fright.

“Don’t worry about it. Hey…Chiba!! Chiba! Are you there? Chiba?? Damn! Joy, you damn gorilla. This is your fault.” Kenshin blamed Joy for being a blabbermouth.

“Calm down. Her daze had nothing to do with me. It's just, this thing just died, so she might be experiencing a level up now. Now hurry up here. Let's see what good thing this one would drop.” Joy smiled like a bandit as he beckoned Kenshin to unravel the ‘treasure box.’