Chapter 25 - Deeper In
When the group of three got to the first floor of the underground Dungeon, Ren could finally sense the surrounding enemies. While they were outside Ren already tried to investigate the inner workings of the Dungeon by sending out a strand of his mana, but like the pocket dimension weapon shop, the Dungeon seems to block such things as well.
Yet now that they were on the first floor, he could finally sense the enemies on this floor, but he couldn't sense the enemies on the deeper floors.
'The walls might be interfering from letting mana enter or escape, but then how can the Dungeon Core accumulate mana? Does it have a function that overcomes this little detail?' While Ren was analyzing the walls and the interior of the Dungeon, the first group of monsters finally appeared.
The monsters were goblins, green skinned three foot tall creatures. Each one of the goblins had weapons at hand, spears, swords, clubs, and other assortment of crappy looking gear. Their were dozens of them approaching Ren and his group.
Even when the enemy approaches Ren didn't bother with them. They were too weak to even provide a good workout, and this test was a good way to train Lara, who has less combat experience than he. Also at the moment he was much more interested in the structure of the Dungeon that felt slightly familiar to him.
Hilda who saw that Ren wasn't going to do anything was even more unimpressed by him. Lara on the other hand started attacking the Goblins, but she didn't use her bow. Instead she used a Beginners spell [wind slice]. A little blade of wind was a formed that attacked one of the goblins.
This spell was good to use against small animals or twigs. It was also used to teach small children how to use magic. Making this was the first time Hilda saw it be used for combat. She was sure that Lara's [wind slice] would do minimal damage or no damage at all.
Yet the moment Lara's [wind slice] hit the goblins, they were sliced in half. Hilda couldn't believe her eyes. How was that possible? Wasn't [wind slice] suppose to be a beginner spell? Yet Lara continued to massacre the Goblins using it, while Ren continued to inspect the walls with a frown on his face.
When the Goblins died there bodies evaporate into mana which returned to the Dungeon Core, to be revived later on. Once she was sure it was done, Hilda approached Lara.
"How did you that?"
Lara with her expressionless face simply tilted her head at Hilda's question.
"How did you make the spell [wind slice] do that? How is your version of that spell more powerful than it's suppose to be?"
Even after hearing Hilda's full question Lara still couldn't understand it. Wasn't [wind slice] suppose to be this powerful? Actually wasn't her version super weak. When Ren taught Lara how to use [wind slice] he sliced through a portion of trees and animals in the forest.
Hilda seeing that it was useless to ask Lara, asked Ren instead. In which he responded without even looking at her.
"Aren't spells dependent on how powerful your mana is? In the first place who said [wind slice] was a beginner level magic? Isn't it suppose to be intermediate level?"
Hilda rolled her eyes at Ren's answer. What did she expect from someone like him? Of course he wouldn't give a straight answer. What was he talking about? How is [wind slice] an intermediate level spell? If that were true then Lara here would be an intermediate level magician, and she's what fourteen? The youngest intermediate level mage was a genius at the age of twenty two. So is Ren telling her that Lara surpasses that genius?
Hilda didn't bother to even think about this anymore, since it was clear that neither of the two wanted to answer her question properly. So the group went deeper into the dungeon, and the next opponents that appeared were pack of stone wolves.
In which same as the first time, Lara killed all the enemies while Ren simply pondered about something. Hilda who was watching this scene was getting even more irritated.
"Aren't you going to do something? How can I grade you if you don't do anything?!"
Ren finally looked at Hilda with confusion written all over his face. "What are you talking about? Why are you suppose to grade me? Don't I get a B rank no matter what I do?"
"So you're just going to let her do all the work, while you do nothing but stare at the walls?"
"Well those opponents don't really matter to me, they wont even be able to satisfy a tiny bit of my battle lust. Also why bother fighting here? We're going deeper in, if the Dungeon Master is as strong as you claim it to be... Then I will fight the Dungeon Master. Also don't worry about safety, if I feel either you or Lara are in danger I'll step in." Once he was done saying what needed to be said, Ren went back into looking at the walls.
"What?! You're planning to go deeper in? You're even telling me that you're going to fight the Dungeon Master of this Dungeon?! Weren't you listening awhile ago? Even the former Guild Master an S rank adventurer needed to flee from that monster!"
"Please don't categorize me and that guy under the same level."
Hearing Ren's answer, Hilda couldn't respond. She looked at Ren as if she was looking at the most arrogant, stupid person in the world. 'What is it with this overconfident guy?! Is it such chore to even try to be humble? Where does he even get all that confidence from? We're talking about a monster even an S rank veteran couldn't handle! Fine if he wants to die, then so be it.'
While Hilda was cursing Ren in her head, Lara was still fighting dozens of monsters using her arrows. She didn't use her bow, and started attacking using her arrows instead, while using [enhance] to make her arrows more sturdy. With arrows at hand she pierced and stabbed the enemies to death.
This violent way of fighting coupled with her expressionless face, made the scene a whole lot more intimidating. Once she was done killing all the enemies, she looked at Hilda who she was trying to intimidate, but noticed that she wasn't even looking at her.
"I'm done." Lara who was frustrated deep inside still said that line with her normal indifferent tone of voice.
"You cleared the first floor congratulations Lara. At least you're doing your part in this test." Hilda looked at Ren when she said this.
"Oh finally done? Let's head deeper in shall we?" This time it was Ren who went ahead first followed by Lara.. Hilda who was casually ignored by Ren, was now even more irritated at the guy.