Chapter 124: Fluffy Tails Twitching and Busty Elves on Floor 16?!

Chapter 124: Chapter 124: Fluffy Tails Twitching and Busty Elves on Floor 16?!

A lively and amused voice rippled up from somewhere deep inside his own skull, utterly uninvited as always.

’They bicker like they have nothing else to do, but I approve, makes this dungeon a bit more enjoyable, they are a entertaining bunch.’

’They’re not some show, old man, they just talk too much.’

’So do you, you simply do it inside your own head, where it’s less entertaining for the rest of us, and by us I mean me.’

Adrian didn’t bother answering that one, as arguing with Old Man Gus about free use of speech was a battle he’d never once won since he had been able to speak coherent words on his own.

As they walked further into the crimson desert coming across bigger structures of rocks, Adrian raised one hand as the group slowed, then stopped.

He touched the bracelet on his wrist and a translucent blue projection unfolded above it.

[Nine Star Zenith Academy — 1st year Mid-Term Dungeon Examination]

[ Location: Bloodmoon Ruins, Demon Continent

Active Student Groups: 15

Group Composition: 10 Students per group

Objective: Clear a minimum of Floor 10

Group Evaluation: Clear speed and overall performance

Individual Evaluation: Contribution, combat performance, leadership, teamwork

Assigned Group: 7

Max Floor Reached: 16

Group Rank: 3 ]

"We’re in third place, not bad." Darius whistled.

"Not bad? We’re behind two other groups." Kiera said.

"And ahead of twelve others."

"That’s not what you should be looking at."

"Am I wrong?"

Neris covered her mouth, laughing at them.

"We’ve done okay but let’s not get comfortable about it, the ranking doesn’t tell us how far ahead the top two are, or how good their runs were." Adrian said as he dismissed the display.

"Our advantage is we cleared the Floor Fifteen boss without a single serious injury." Selene said and nodded at him.

"So, which two groups do we think are actually ahead of us?" Nyla asked with her arms crossed and her purple eyes sharpening.

"Group One," Orion said immediately. "Obviously, their leader’s an S Rank and they’ve got two more at A Rank, though it’s not known how far they’ve reached in their ranks, seems like they didn’t want their rival groups knowing."

"But strength doesn’t automatically mean speed," Selene pointed out.

"No, but it definitely helps against a dungeon boss that tries to eat your meat shield." Nyla said as Garruk muttered something about the wyrm and Nyla.

"What about Group Three?" Orion asked and caught the others attentions.

"Silas’s group?" Darius asked as he scratched his stubble.

"Man, I’ve got to shave, just a few days and I’m looking like some bushman."

"I think the bushman look it suits you." Neris laughed and joked, making the others laugh along.

"Unless the academy’s secretly enrolled a second vampire with the exact same name, then yes, Silas Dracul Aethernis’s group." Orion nodded.

Adrian stayed quiet for a moment, thinking back to whatever he knew about and from what he heard, an arrogant young master of the Dracul Aethernis family.

’Silas Dracul Aethernis, he is talented and politically connected, especially in the Demon Continent, since his family holds quite the weight here, being an Archduke Family and all.’

’He is also the younger brother of Adrian Dracul Aethernis, who happens to share my own first name, which is either a cosmic joke or proof the universe has a very limited imagination.’ He thought sarcasticly.

’Oh,come now boy, don’t tell me you only thought of it now,’ Old Man Gus said immediately, delighted.

’I’ve been waiting all exam for you to bring that up yourself, but you sure took your sweet time.’

’I didn’t bring it up because it had no use to me, and the only reason I am now is because he is Silas’s older brother, who is part of another rival group.’

’Imagine the confusion if you two ever meet face to face. Adrian, meet Adrian. Chaos. Beautiful, beautiful chaos.’ Old man Gus said as he burst out laughing, wondering how their prides would clash and who would become known as Adrain two.

’Ah, just like me in my youth, though I crushed my generation.’ He smiled, remembering the good old times.

’We’re likely never going to meet, he’s an Archduke’s heir, whose family rules over part of the demon Continent, plus he has already graduated as one of the best, as for me?’

’I’m from a small Human Kingdom, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has never heard of it before, or doesn’t remember it.’

’Don’t be like that, lad, you’re a genius on you’re own right, you also happen to be sitting on this emperor’s soul and have a bloodline nobody’s bothered to appraise properly, since you like to hide it so much.’

’But give it time, boy. Fate’s got a nasty sense of humor, in these kinds of things, trust me I know.’

’That’s not comforting, geezer.’

’Well, too bad, it wasn’t meant to be.’

As this inner discussion happened, outwardly, Adrian’s expression didn’t shift at all through of the old man’s nonsense.

"Group Three’s a strong possibility too," he said aloud.

"But we shouldn’t assume they’re ahead just because of one strong student, the whole group has to perform well together."

"And if they are ahead?" Kiera asked.

"Then we catch up, simple as that." Adrian smirked faintly, completely certain about it.

"That’s the spirit, bro." Orion grinned slapping his back.

"And let that arrogant bastard face our prideful leader and taste his sword." Nyla gave Adrian a funny look.

"Ecxuse me?" Adrian asked her.

"I wonder what poor Young Master Silas would have to say about that?" Thalen laughed.

"He can’t hear me and I’m not wrong about that right."

"Yes, so he’ll be tasting our leaders sword."The group laughed and pushed on, Adrian seriously reconsidering everything while Gus blasted his head with laughter.

The sand thickened as they moved deeper, jagged red stones rising higher around the path like broken teeth.

Nyla’s hand shot up as the group froze instantly.

"Movement. Left flank." Her ears tilted, twitching.

"How many?" Adrian asked.

"Six. No, eight."

"They’re circling and trying to box us in." Mira’s voice came from directly beside her, though nothing had been standing there a second ago.

"Finally. I was getting bored." Garruk hefted his shield.

"Formation," Adrian said, drawing his longsword.

"Don’t let them split us."

The sand erupted as eight beasts tore free of the dunes, lizards the size of wolves, scaled in dark crimson that matched the sand so perfectly they’d been invisible a breath ago.

Black claws, rows of needle teeth with eyes like dying embers.

"Crimson Sand Lizards," Thalen said, identifying them, already backing up a step and pulling his staff out.

"Camouflage hunters with pack tactics."

"Eight of them versus ten of us," Darius said, hefting his axe.

"I almost feel sorry for them." He said shaking his head dramatically.

Garruk moved first, planting his shield into the sand as two lizards leapt.

BOOM.

Claws screeched against metal as he skidded half a step and held, grinning behind the rim. "Got them."

Selene flowed past him, spear flashing silver and catching a third lizard mid leap through the shoulder and redirecting its momentum straight into a stone spire, as her.haevy chest bounced with the rapid movement.

Orion met the fourth head on, no weapon, just a fist that slammed into scaled skull as a sickening crack sounded, the lizard cartwheeled sideways through the sand.

"That the best ambush you’ve got?" he laughed.

Kiera’s palm came up, as a circle of frost magic bloomed beneath the remaining pack. Ice crept across claws and joints, slowing them mid stride.

"Now!" she called, her fluffy white tail swaying in excitement, as she joined in upfront.

Neris answered with a lashing current of conjured water, driving two stumbling lizards straight into Garruk’s waiting shield, he didn’t even have to move.

"You’re welcome," he said.

"Wasn’t thanking you," Mira’s voice said, somewhere behind a rock that definitely hadn’t had a shadow demon shaped silhouette a second earlier.

Darius’s axe came down in one brutal arc, dropping a lizard mid lunge and with a second swing, a second kill.

Mira simply reappeared standing over a ninth lizard that no one had even noticed sneaking up behind, as it dropped dead.

Thalen slammed his palm against the crimson sand as crimson vines burst upward, wrapping around the legs of the last two lizards and yanking them off balance.

Nyla’s bowstring snapped and in under a second one of the lizards dropped.

Adrian finished the job on the one still thrashing in Thalen’s vines with a single clean strike, and then the clearing was simply quiet, as nine lizards lay dead in the sand.

"Nine?" Nyla asked as she lowered her bow, as Mira explained.

"And not one got past Garruk," Darius said.

"That’s what happens," Garruk said, "when you bring a proper tank to a dungeon."

Mira reappeared at his elbow. "You also blocked my entire path."

"You’re welcome."

"I already said I wasn’t thanking you."

Adrian surveyed the group. "Anyone hurt?"

A chorus of fine, nothing, barely a scratch.

"Good, let’s keep moving."

’It was good, this is why we’re third, but we need to pick up pace, the others also don’t seem like they’re struggling.’

’Not bad, boy, but when are you going to stop playing around here here?’ Gus murmured.

’Sure your little group’s coming along nicely, but you can’t be holding yourself back all the time, how are the instructors going to score you?’

’I’ll see on the lower floors, since that’s where I’ll be showcasing my strength, well some of it.’

’Haha, good lad, but make it faster, I’m getting bored watching you kids play with these weaklings.’

Adrian didn’t dignify that with a response, mental or otherwise, already used to the old man’s whining.

The crimson sand eventually gave way to a weathered redstone archway and stucture with a staircase descending into cold dark beyond it.

Garruk rolled his shoulders. "Finally, I thought this floor would never end."

"You said that on Floor Twelve," Selene reminded him.

"And I was right on Twelve too, didn’t that take forever to reach?"

Adrian checked the bracelet one more time, their rank unchanged, still third place and holding.

"Let’s see if anyone else has made it this far," he said, leading them toward the stairs.

They stepped through the archway into a wide stone chamber and stopped as figures appeared in front of them from the archway.

’This looks like it’ll be fun for you kids and for me to watch.’ Gus murmured smiling as he would finally get some entertainment, which he had been deprived of since the start of this dungeon.