33 Chapter 33: Beholder
Thanks to the training, our team's strength improved greatly. Now both Ariel and Serena could use chantless wind and fire magic so we were pretty much unbeatable. At least that's what I thought.
We quickly rushed from the first floor straight to the 5th, beat the minotaur king and took a short break before advancing again.
We got to see the bosses which we weren't able to see before as we ascended back to the entrance of the dungeon.
The 5th-floor boss was Minotaur-King. He carried a giant sharp sword and was fas, Not to mention the monstrous strength. However, against magicians who he can't even hit, he stood no chance.
I parried his attacks at close range, while Serena and Ariel Shot Ignis and Ventus at him. His endurance was very high. After a few burns, cuts and being frozen, he finally tapped out.
We were able to see many adventurers on the 5th and 4th floor, but we remained unseen thanks to furtim. There was no need to engage in a conversation with them and we didn't want to waste any time.
We continued to ascend without any problems until we reached the 6th floor. The monsters of this floor were partly also minotaurs with ogres.
They worked individually, meaning we only encountered one at a time. They would have been much harder to deal with if they were working together.
As we approached the entrance, we felt a battle going on inside. I used deprehendre to check on the situation without opening the doors and could feel the presence of 4 adventurers.
3 were motionless, and the last one was fighting on his own.
"So, wanna help them?" I asked Serena and Ariel as I explained what I noticed to them
I should teach them deprehendre soon.
"Yes." They replied as they nodded
"Alright, Let's do some saving," I said as I opened the door to the boss room.
After all the rus.h.i.+ng, we were able to reach the 6th floor's boss room in around 3 hours. Not bad. I had brought food as I wasn't sure how long we'd be spending in here. We have enough to last 5 days.
We've also been collecting moderately big magic stones from the bosses we've faced so far. To save s.p.a.ce, we've only collected the stones from the bosses. And we will keep doing that.
"Hey! Do you guys need help?" I shouted out as I waved at them
As I looked at their party, I felt a bit of deja vu. They were a party which had a Tank, swordsman, priest and magician. The boss they were fighting was called an Ogre King. The boss had his aggro on the female magician who was holding him back
The priest was focused on healing the injured swordsman and Tank.
"Hm... We should probably find a healer soon... Or maybe I can create a healing spell?" I muttered
I'm not sure if I should get another party member right now... I don't feel like looking, so I'll leave it to fate. If there's a 4th party member out there, I'm sure I'll know when I meet him or her.
"Huh? A kid?! What's a kid doing here?! It's dangerous! Get back!" Shouted the hurt swordsman
"You should be more worried about yourself. Well, not that I mind... Like I asked. Do you need help?" I said
"Can you beat him?!" Asked the magician who was temporarily restricting its movements with a binding spell
"Oh, a restricting spell... That sounds like it would be useful..." I said
"Ariel, he's getting weird ideas again." Said, Serena
"It's fine, That's john after all." Said Ariel with a smile on her face
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked with an annoyed expression
The two diverted their eyes to avoid my gaze.
"Stop playing around! Get out of here!" Shouted the injured swordsman
"Don't worry about us, how do you think we got this far? We know how to take care of ourselves." I a.s.sured him
Well to be fair, it did happen with the spider
"Y-You're right... I'm sorry I'm just not right in my head right now... W-Will you be able to help us..." He asked
"Yeah, leave it
"We're on it." They said as they cast ignis and Ventus on the restricted Ogre.
The attack didn't do much as expected, The ogre's defence must have been very high since Ariel's Ventus barely cut it. Serena's Ignis was more effective as it let out a roar as it was getting burnt. It was definitely in pain.
"Alright, Let's do it like usual," I Said as I lept towards the ogre and swung at it
I managed to cut into his arm but the power wasn't enough to cut completely through.
"Dawn it, I should have supplied more mana into my blade. Well, that's fine. Glacies."
The instant I said that word, A ice spike was formed above me. Without being able to move, the ogre got hit point-blank by my Glacies and froze up within seconds.
However, it wasn't dead. Despite being unable to breathe it still hadn't kicked the bucket. I felt bad for killing an enemy who wasn't even able to fight back, but unfairness is part of life.
"Sorry. Magnum Ventus." I muttered
Unlike the regular Ventus, Magnum Ventus takes time to gather enough energy until it's ready, but he's immobile so the time taken doesn't matter.
After a few seconds of energy being drawn from my magic stones and gathered in the air. A giant version of Ventus was formed and I propelled it towards the Frozen and restricted ogre.
In a swift motion, the ogre was cut in half. The Ventus cut through it like b.u.t.ter. The magician, the swordsman, the tank and even the priest looked speechless
"Alright then, let's go, guys," I Said as I made way towards the entrance to the 7th floor
Before leaving, I was stopped by a voice.
"Wait!" Shouted the magician
"What's wrong?" I asked
"Thank you for saving us. I wasn't going to be able to hold out for much longer." He said
"No problem," I replied as I turned to head to the 7th floor
"W-What about the magic stone?! You can sell it for a lot of cas.h.!.+ Isn't that why you helped us!?" He asked
"Oh, you guys can keep it, we don't need it. You and your group worked hard for it after all. Besides, you got here first that made him your prey, It's a bit rude to take someone's reward isn't it?" I asked as I walked on
"But we asked you for help... Hey, can you please tell us your name?" Asked the swordsman who had managed to get up despite his injuries.
When we walked in, he was bleeding pretty badly, is it alright for him to be doing that?
"Name... My name is John. This is Ariel and Serena. We will become the strongest party in history." I said as I left to head to the 7th floor
"Strongest..? I see..." Muttered the magician with a content smile on his face
***
Now that we reached the 7th floor, the number of adventurers had decreased, but there were still quite a few hunting the monsters that sp.a.w.ned
The monsters on the 7th floor were a little dangerous. Rose called them cloakers. Everything appears safe when you enter, but out of nowhere, you're attacked.
This is thanks to their stealth ability. They can camouflage in the darkness and attack in the darkness. But thankfully, Serena had cast an illumination spell ever since we first entered the dungeon. So it would have been harder for them to attack in the darkness.
The only problem is that they can detect us through furtim. Being detected by my strongest spell is quite annoying. Nonetheless, they were weak monsters whose strength lied in surprise attacks.
While encountering a few of them, we managed to safely reach the boss room. After entering the room, we instantly felt something different
"Stay alert. This one's dangerous..." I said as I walked in with them.
I could feel the sweat slowly drip down my face as I got closer to the boss. Its appearance was a Giant Floating Eyeball and eyelid with small eyes connected to it
It made me feel nervous, not because of how it looked, but because it felt as if we had walked right into it's trap
"What's that?" I asked as I looked over at Serena
"That's a Beholder... It can create an anti-magic field where magic won't work..." Said Serena with little to no fear in her eyes
"I see... So it's our natural enemy huh? This anti-magic field you created... It's quite troublesome" I said As I ran towards it with my daggers at hand
My strength had been greatly weakened, not being able to use magic was the same as taking away a gun from a gunslinger. Or at least, I'm sure that's what you thought.
"Wait, john! Don't!" Shouted Serena as she saw me rush at it.
I began to move faster as I ran and my daggers began to glow. In a swift motion, I cut the body of the beholder in half.
Ariel and Serena looked at me silently as if they wanted an explanation at what just happened
"Well, you see... I had a feeling we were going to end up fighting an anti-magic monster. So... I found a way to counter it." I said as I picked up the magic stone
This stone was a bright red Sphere at least 10cm in diameter. one-third of the Spider queen's Stone.
"Yeah, that makes sense..." Said Ariel as she let out a sigh
Hm... Even Serena's not saying anything. Usually, she'd be complaining about how I'm always creating spells as if they are nothing. But today she seems out of it...
"Well then, let's take a little break before heading to the next floor. Countering Anti-Magic And using magic at the same time, is quite tiring..." I said as I sat down on the floor
"Alright..." Said Ariel and Serena as they sat down next to me
"So what would you two like to-"
Before I could finish, I noticed that the two looked sleepy. That makes sense, we woke up early, went to the smithy and climbed 7 Floors in a day. They also constantly used a lot of their magic, since concept magic requires a lot. It should be midnight soon...
"You two can get some rest, I'll keep watch," I said
"Alright...." They replied
They silently rested their heads on each side of my shoulders
"I won't be able to relax in this position if you two do that," I said
There was no reply
"Hey, are you listening?" I asked them
I looked over at their face and noticed that they were already asleep. Serena's sleeping face looked very innocent, contradictory to her usual face. Ariel's sleeping face looked just as innocent as her usual face.
"Asleep already huh..." I muttered
Now that I think about it... I have two cute girls using my shoulders as a pillow... c.r.a.p, now I can't stop thinking about it... Clear your mind... Clear your mind...