Part Thirty-Two

::Entrance into D-Rank Dungeon confirmed.::

Welp, here I am again. Inside a Dungeon that I’m not particularly interested in clearing. Also, it’s fucking dark in here. And it stinks.

A few days had passed since I’d begun re-honing my instincts, and I felt that I’d made good progress. Whatever Dungeon I ended up undertaking would be rough, but I felt confident I’d at least have a shot at clearing it. Or I’d crash-and-burn in the most spectacular fashion.

However, my companions had grown somewhat frustrated with me. In order to placate them, I’d agreed to help them clear the D-Rank Dungeon they’d found. To be honest, I hadn’t needed that much convincing. I was hoping to get something good as a clear reward. Hopefully new armor or something, and definitely not another Item Catalyst. I hadn’t figured out how to use the first one yet.

“Holy shit, it’s dark in here.” Hey, I already said that.

The sudden transition from light to complete darkness was jarring. The normal lighting that filled Dungeons wasn’t present here, which meant we’d need our own light sources, but that also meant we’d be easy to spot for any monsters inside.

“This bodes ill for us. While we have lamps, they’ll also attract any monsters that notice the light.”

“Guh, that means we’ll have to fight more. Though, maybe that’s not a bad thing? If the monsters are something we can handle, doesn’t that mean we could grind out items from them?”

“I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what we’re dealing with. Also, everyone be careful. These floors are rather smooth. Staying on our feet during battle will be tough like this.”

The floor and walls of the tunnel we were in were smooth and glossy, like porcelain. It wouldn’t impede us now, but if blood and sweat coated the ground, it could cause one of us to slip at an inopportune moment.

“Does anyone else…smell something off in here? Like rotten eggs?”

“Sniff, sniff. Eugh, what the hell is that!?”

“…Sulfur, I believe. It’s faint, but it’s there. Hm.”

“Sulfur? Well, that’s ominous. At least it doesn’t smell like rot. Alicia would freak out if there were Undead in here.”

“Really? You’re gonna bring that up now?”

“Quiet. Do you hear that?”

Everyone shut up and strained their ears at that. A faint growling reached us, echoing through the tunnel. Faint lights could be seen within the darkness, quickly moving closer to us.

“Monsters!”

“”””“GRRRRAAAAOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!”””””

The monsters came charging out of the darkness at the same time we noticed them. About a dozen large Beasts rushed towards us, mouths agape and eyes livid. I almost mistook them for wolves, but they couldn’t be. No wolf I’d ever seen had fire coming out of their eyes. They actually kinda look like Dobermans on steroids, at least aside from the fire.

The lead monsters were struck by Alicia’s arrows, sending them tumbling head-over-heels. The next one took a [Rot] to the face, but those behind them were able to avoid being preemptively struck, forcing me and the twins to guard against the onslaught. Thankfully, the tunnel was narrow enough for all three of us to fully block.

With their ambush foiled, the monsters backed away from us slowly, before slipping back into the darkness. But we could still hear and see signs of them, so they hadn’t gone far. That, combined with the results of Analyze, told me we were in for one heck of a day.

Hellhound

Rank: D

Description: One of the most basic Demon-type monsters. Hellhounds act as their creators’ hunting dogs, searching and pursuing their prey with terrifying tenacity. Once a Hellhound has a scent, they’ll never give up until either they or their prey are dead.

Shiiiiiiit! This is gonna be a massive pain in the ass!

“Did…anyone else Analyze them? Because this is going to be fun.”

“Really? Again with the sarcasm? I don’t think this’ll be that bad. We already killed seven of them. So long as there’s not a hundred of them at once, and we remain alert, we should be fine.”

“Maybe. Let’s just hope they don’t find some of their friends to bring to the par-.”

“””””””””””””GARRRRWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!””””””””””””””

“Shit! Get ready!”

More hounds came rushing from the darkness, nearly twice the number that had first attacked us. We had only the briefest of warnings before they were on us, but it was just enough for us to resume our formation.

Hellhounds leaped at me from three directions, and all that kept them from dragging me down was the Miasma my coat released when it was damaged. However, I quickly noticed that they weren’t taking as much damage as other monsters would.

Shit, don’t tell me these things are resistant to Miasma! Fuck! Even [Rot] isn’t very effective against them! Only direct hits to the vitals actually hurt them!

Each hound was about as strong as a Minotaur, but because their bodies were low to the ground, I had a harder time hitting them. And slashing at them when they jumped was dangerous since their sheer bulk could drag my swords out of my hands. Losing my best weapons in a fight was a death sentence.

“BRRROOOAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOO!!”

One of the larger Hellhounds towards the back of the pack let out a deafening bellow, before spewing a glob of red-hot flames at me. Despite how shocking it was to see a monster spit fire, the whole thing was rather obvious based on how long it took the hound to actually fire the attack, so I was easily able to dodge it. And then seconds later, that very same Hellhound had an arrow sprout from its throat, preventing any further attacks from it.

Two more hounds ran up to me, fire leaking out of their mouths. It seemed that they realized that long-range attacks wouldn’t work on us, so they’d switched tactics. Both hounds released plumes of fire towards me while also lunging forward at the same time. Crap!

Realizing that I couldn’t avoid all four attacks, I decided to let the flames hit me, all so I could counter the hounds' desperate lunges. Thankfully my coat held off the worst of it, so all I suffered was a few minor burns, but the hounds, well, they now had spiffy airholes for their brains.

Tch, it’ll take my coat awhile to repair the damage the fire caused it. I should probably put it away for a time or it could get damaged beyond repair. I doubt it would come back from being turned to ash.

“I…think those were the last of them. Is everyone okay?”

“I’m a little singed, but otherwise fine. I was right though. That was fun.”

“No more sarcasm outta you mister. Gwen, what about you? I saw that one hound nearly knock you down.”

“My shield’s a bit scratched up, but I’m fine. Despite how tough they seem, those pups weren’t much of a challenge.”

For once, I actually agreed with Gwen. Once you got used to dealing with their fire breath attacks, they weren’t much of a threat. So long as they didn’t drag you down, it was easy to kill one. They were basically powered-up wolves, and none of us would struggle with wolves anymore. Well, maybe Kalia would, but she’s a supporter, not a fighter.

“We’ll need to be careful from now on. Getting ambushed by that many at once is dangerous. If they come from more than one direction, we’ll get routed for sure.”

“Hrm, maybe we should turn back? This is supposed to be a labyrinth Dungeon, right? That means that they could come down different paths than us and hit us from behind.”

“Then…let’s change our formation. Gwyn and Gwen, you should walk at the front with Kalia and Alicia behind you, and I’ll cover our rear. That way we’ll have someone to cover us regardless of what way the monsters come from.”

My biggest fear was that one of the hounds would bolt out of the darkness and get either Alicia or Kalia before the rest of us could react. While we all possessed Survival Instinct, those two had slightly slower reactions than the rest of us, though Alicia might be fine. I just didn’t want to risk it if I didn’t have to though.

“Good idea. Then for now, let’s see how often we run into monsters in this Dungeon. If there’s too many Hellhounds, then we’ll retreat. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded their acknowledgement before we set off into the darkness.

***

“BAROO!”

“GRAAAOOOWWWW!!!”

Despite our precautions, the Dungeon wasn’t actually that dangerous. From how things had gone at first, I’d thought the Hellhounds would be patrolling the Dungeon in large groups, but most of the packs we encountered had less than six hounds in them. Granted, this was just the first floor, so things could get much, much worse later on.

But regardless of future dangers, the hounds we were fighting weren’t that tough. There were a few tense moments when a few would come at us from behind, but we were quick to react in that case. I just had one complaint.

I miss Regis. I can’t believe I actually said it, but I miss that little glutton. Oh God, am I playing out yet another goddamn cliché? No no no! He’s useful, damnit! I mean, it’s only sometimes, but he has killed monsters for me before! Plus he’s got the nose of a bloodhound somehow. Yeah, I’m not wrong for wanting him to be here. He could probably detect the Hellhounds before we can too.

It was unfortunate, but it seemed that only those directly connected to the System or bound to someone who was could enter Dungeons. Regis had been forced to wait outside the Dungeon, though my familiar had followed us in, something which bothered Regis aplenty. Honestly, he’d probably spend the next day or two pouting after this. I was greatly looking forward to it.

“Tch, another dead end. Kalia, are you sure we’re going the right way? All these halls look the same.”

“It’s a maze, so they kind of do that. It defies the purpose for a maze to have landmarks to help navigation. But yes, I’m as sure as I can be that this the right way. After all, there’s no mark on the floor here, is there?”

“No, you’re right. It’s just that we’ve been moving around for hours now. The monotony is starting to get to me.”

“Hm, it is getting rather late, and we’ve been in here for six hours now. How about we take a short break?”

“That sounds nice. My feet are killing me.”

Hm, guess we’ll probably be sleeping in here after all. I knew this could happen, but it’s a little annoying when it actually does. Still, I think we’ve got about half of this floor mapped, so we should wrap it up soon.

Kalia was in charge of mapping our route through the Dungeon. I’d proposed we just use the left-hand rule, but Gwyn had vetoed it. This was unconfirmed information, but he’d heard rumors that some D-Rank Dungeons had their Boss chambers or staircases within some inner walls, so anyone following the left-hand rule would ultimately find themselves back where they started without ever finding the exit. It was nefarious enough that I could believe the System would set things up that way. It seemed to despise doing things the easy way.

We’d stolen some cushions from different houses to sit on if we ever needed them inside a Dungeon, so everyone got theirs out and started relaxing. Though despite the relaxed aura we were now enjoying, there was still an undercurrent of tension due to the fact that we were still in a Dungeon. We certainly couldn’t let our guards down.

Hm, I didn’t really check what drops I got earlier, but there wasn’t much of interest. I hope I get something nice from the Boss. That Item Catalyst is so damn frustrating!

Almost a month had passed since the Siege Dungeon, and I’d yet to figure out how to use the damn thing. Unlike the Skill Catalyst I’d gotten a while ago, this one must’ve needed some special circumstance to actually use, though I did have a clue. It was probably related to how you used raw materials to upgrade a weapon, so if I figured that out, the Catalyst should fall like a domino. Hopefully.

Anyway, as I sat there pondering, I felt someone walk up and sit down beside me. I’d purposely sat away from the others so I could think, but it looked like that had been in vain.

“Hey. Uh, are you still, you know?”

“Obsessing over my Class choices? No, I’ve pretty much decided on which one I’m going with. I’m just going to wait until we’re back in France before I actually finalize it.”

“I see. Then…why not consider…waiting a little longer? Maybe until we’ve all caught up?”

I sighed. I knew this was coming, but I’d held out hope that Alicia would have enough tack to not suggest the very thing she’d just said. Frankly, the mere suggestion I do that pissed me off tremendously, but it wouldn’t do to take it out on her.

“No Alicia, I won’t do that. There’s too much of a gap right now. Even just waiting for you and Gwyn could leave me waiting for a month or more. I just can’t stand the thought of wasting all that time.”

“I, I see. I don’t want to hold you back, Michael. I just……”

She let the rest of her sentence go unsaid, but I thought I knew what she would’ve said anyway. After all, there was a second reason I was going to leave right away too. I was simply scared. Scared of what was coming. Scared of the unknown.

And most of all, I was scared of dying.