Lair

Chapter 009 - Movements

By Skalsar

The settlement was still trying to clean up.

Last nights festival threw off quite some plans and created such a big spectacle, that even people from other villages came to take part.

The [Local Lord] was no exception.

Holding his head high only because he was lucky enough to employ a [Healer].

Otherwise his headache would be even worse then most settlers.

>Thank you, Rego, Son of Rag. That was a brilliant festival.

>Mylord, it honors the settlement for you to say that.Rego wasn't so sure about it being brilliant.

Quite some ressources were wasted.

But the damage was already done.

>That might be.

But taking care of the needs of those around us, is what a leader does.

Seeing the festival last night, I know it was needed by the settlers.

For that, the [Local Lord] explained, he will help the settlement.

No, the [Village].

>From today forth, I declare you chief of what shall be known as [Mafay Village]!

May the gods bless it!

With this proclamation, Rego was officially [Village Chief] and the settlement therefore a [Village].

So there would be no problems to survive now.

With it officially being a [Village], trade with citys and other villages was allowed.

It would also profit from the collected taxes of the region if in need.

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A forest on the other side of the river.

Just a bit farther was [Quon Village].

To tell the truth, the village had nothing special about it.

Sure, there was a small dungeon around its border, but that one was already conquered.

Meaning, there would be no strong monsters inside.

No large treasure.

Only thing to gain was experience.

Thats why novices often came here to test out their skills.

Getting used to killing monsters and wearing their equipment.

Or simply to slaughter some easy fow.

The [Novice Explorer] Gram was also one of these who wanted to gain experience.

After leaving his trainer under some kind of dispute, he decided to travel alone.

Taking the little copper coins he had with him.

For a boy of twelve years, having a novice job, he was already counted an adult.

Meaning that no one would take pity on him under normal circumstances.

So he had to work for himself in order to survive.

An [Explorer] could use most weapons, so Gram chose a hammer.

Having red hair and a strong body, the image somehow didn't match.

Most [Explorers] use fast weapons to be more agile in combat.

But Gram wasn't that far from that thought.

He just prefered a good weight in his hand.

The hammer was his choice therefore.

He was already able to go to the twentysecond level of the dungeon.

Not alone through.

>Watch your swing more. The arc of your attack makes it hard to fight alongside.

The voice behind Gram was soft and female.

Her name was Mina.

Golden, long hair that was bound together when fighting.

The smiling face of a small angel.

For Gram at least.

He fell for her instantly when they first met.

But she was seventeen and didn't care for him in that way.

Everything she did was for her own improvment.

>If you fail again, I will just leave you to the monsters, after taking your equipment.

Her class was that of a [Treasure Hunter].

Something told her she would find a treasure here.

But she couldn't really tell where.

Only that it's here somewhere.

It was a passive skill of hers.

>Yeah, I know.. Sorry about that.

The [Treasure Hunter] was very agile, too.

Mostly fighting with two daggers.

Therefore they often could use simple tactics like switching in the middle of a fight.

Since the monsters in this dungeon are already mindlessly raging, it was easy to throw them off.

If anyone had seen them, they would think about these two as brilliant amateurs.

Sure, they could leave nearly any fight undamaged through their switching around.

But if they did only one small mistake, they both would be dead.

And it was quite slow.

They needed nearly an hour to kill a strong monster.

>Since we are still low in level, the experience is quite good, isn't it Mina?>Well, we could get more by killing weak monsters in a fast manner.

So I'm not quite happy about it.

I just hope the treasure is worth it.

Their travel continued for days already and food as well as water was getting scarce.

>I know something should be here, but I just can't make it out.

Maybe we have to try again after getting new supplies.Mina bit her lips hard after this sentence.

Her money was nearly gone, but she didn't want to die inside a dungeon because of dehydration.

You have found a hidden passageway.

>Found it!Looking at the blue box in front of him.

It was some ability that was connected to the mind.

Even through [Mages] and the like was really rare, everyone had a small potential to use magic.

These boxes were the simplest of the simple magics, that were passivly being used.

When playing with small children, their parants show them how to imagine things.

From that imagination, the blue boxes appear.

It converts things the body feels or skills of a class into visible images.

Visible only to the person itself that is.

Mina ran to Gram as fast as she could, happily smiling.

>You did?!>Yeah, I can detect it somehow, right here and a [Status Message] popped up.Mina nodded to his explanation.

Naturally, Mina had those blue boxes too for her skills and other stuff.

>Lets go then!

Gram opened a [Portal] and they finally went through.

Holding their breath.

What was awaiting them, wasn't treasure.

Sure, there was treasure. Like gems and minerals and a huge magic stone.

But with one look they knew that this wasn't the treasure they were looking for.

>RUN!But the monster reacted too late. They jumped back through the still open [Portal].

>What the hell!

Luckily even through he was a low level [Novice Explorer], he could use it twice a day.

If the [Portal] to the hidden passageway had closed, it would have been a dead end.

>How is it possible! The dungeon was conquered, wasn't it?!Mina shouted in confusion while running.

What they had seen was definitly not just any magic stone. It was a [Dungeon Heart].

Even through it had cracks in it.

And the weakened, but still deadly looking monster, was the [Dungeon Lord] with dozens of sleeping monsters all around him.

>I don't know, but we have to tell the village as fast as possible!>It just doesn't make sense!

Everyone knows that the [Hero] Idril sacrificed her last power to kill the [Dungeon Lord]!

Her party at that time reported how they had slain him, but weren't able to get through the raging monsters.

Therefore, Idril used her strength to destroy the [Dungeon Heart], getting the attention of the monsters, while the others escaped!Mina was nearly crying.

It was a story of her childhood.

A story about heroism she strongly believed in.

But now a [Dungeon Lord] appeared and stained her memory.

If they kept running, maybe they would reach the village within a hour.

They might be able to build up a defense just in time.

But with a loud noise appearing, they stopped and looked back.

A small earthquake ran through the area.

Magic power could be feeled to flow through the earth in this area again.

Even by an amateur explorer like Gram.

>This is..Gram was looking worried and Mina didn't know why.

>He moved.

The [Dungeon Lord] moved the dungeon.

He is leaving the area.

The explanation shocked Mina.

If this was the truth, the dungeon really was still alive.

They witnessed a sleeping [Dungeon Lord] and escaped just in time.

Witnessing all these "eggs".

Mina fainted at that thought.

Luckily for them, the dungeon was leaving.

[Quon Village] would have taken heavy losses if attacked by the dungeon.