Chapter 52: First Time With The Heroes

POV Cornelius

As agreed, our new scout Liss arrived at our hotel on time the next morning. She looked motivated, so we could work with that. But she still had to prove that she was worthy of us.

“Good morning, dear heroes.” <Eliza>

"Morning. Are you ready? Can you ride?” <Cornelius>

“Yes to both.” <Eliza>

“Then let’s go.” <Cornelius>

We had another horse prepared for Liss and rode off. The usual guards were there with us. As always, we were immediately let through at the city gate. They knew us. When we arrived at the dungeon, Liss turned to me.

“What level do the heroes want to be taken to?” <Eliza>

“Take us to the floor 5 boss room. If you haven’t disqualified yourself by then, we will fight the boss monster. Then we'll see what you're capable of in battle." <Cornelius>

"Very well. I’ll go first.” <Eliza>

I waved my hand at her to come forward. She entered the dungeon without hesitation, as if she knew the way. On the first floor I experienced the first little surprise. She cleverly avoided almost all the slimes. We only had to fight once.

“Dear heroes, there are 3 slimes in front of us. Since I'm not very effective against them, I'll hold back here." Eliza

We already knew this and Javier made short work of them. Then Liss led us further to floor 2. Our path went straight to the next portal. We had a few encounters along the way, but they weren't a problem. Liss showed that the beetles posed no danger to them. On floor3, Liss made an appeal to us.

"Please be careful. The spiders on this floor are poisonous.” <Eliza>

"We know. Just lead us through.” <Cornelius>

Liss bowed and then led us as quickly as possible across the plain. Even though we didn't need the hint, the mention showed that Liss had prepared and was prioritizing our safety. This was an important requirement for a scout. We get to the next portal without any problems because Liss always warns us in good time. She didn't hold back in the fight and showed qualities. Good. The level with the goblins was as usual, except for a slight change. Ansgar always ran forward and hit everything that moved and always got hurt. Because he was warned this time, he suffered less damage than usual. On the creeper floor, as expected, Liss had little opportunity to excel. The plants announced themselves beforehand and a spear was not a good weapon against them. So she just showed us the way to the boss room and we carried out the fights on the way. When we got to the boss room, I called Liss over.

“You have led us well up to this point, almost too well. How did you know the paths here?” Cornelius 3

“I've been here a few times. Twice I accompanied a small group that wanted to defeat the boss monster. I found out about the dungeon in advance. I remembered that.” <Eliza>

“Have you fought the boss yet?” <Cornelius>

"Once. It was closer than I would have liked, but we did it. That’s why I have the dagger here, which I carry with me. It was my reward.” Eliza

Liss pointed to the dagger sheath at her hip. Inside it was a long dagger. I nodded, satisfied with the answer, and turned to everyone.

“Then we want to tackle the boss. You all know what awaits us. Eli, spell the buffs on us.” Cornelius

Eleonore gripped her staff tighter, closed her eyes and concentrated. Then I felt the familiar feeling of the wards being cast on me. They strengthened both our fighting strength and part of our resistance. Javier also cast the earth protective spell that increased our armor protection. Then I entered the room first. We saw the familiar scenario as the door closed behind us. This time the boss monster was a beetle. We worked specifically and targeted the monsters where we had our strengths. I was surprised for the second time today when I saw Liss focusing on the spiders. I nodded, because then they were kept away from Eleonore. It didn't take long until we were victorious. As always, Ansgar dealt most of the damage and Javier's fireballs also caused a lot of damage to the monsters. Liss had never been within the blast radius of the fireballs, so she either knew the spell or was lucky. No matter what, both helped.

Afterwards Eli took care of the minor injuries. I only had minor injuries, as did Javier, who had stayed at a distance. As always, Ansgar had the most and Liss didn't have a single one. I wasn't surprised by this, as I had seen her skillfully dodging her attackers and ending up casting a water healing spell on herself. We then moved on to the final chapter of the boss fight, the reward. In the middle were both the stele and the chest.

“Should I take care of the chest now? It should be secured with a trap.” Eliza

I motioned for her to get to work. She bowed briefly and then went to the chest. I watched as she examined the chest, first without touching it, then with light, careful movements. After about 10 minutes she pushed a few places on the chest and it popped open. Then she stood up and stepped aside. I looked into the chest. Inside was a spear, chain mail, a ring, and a pair of boots. I looked at Javier and he nodded. He took the items one by one and examined them.

“Hmm, nothing exciting. Everything is just of poor quality except the ring. The ring slightly increases poison resistance. They’re all small fish compared to our equipment.”< Javier>

“We leave everything here. Not worth taking with you.” <Cornelius>

“I’ll take the poison resistance ring. You can never have enough of it.” <Eleonore>

"Really? Then you can have him.” <Cornelius>

Then I looked around and saw the stele. We had already used this stele, so we ignored it. We had defeated the boss and were able to see Liss in action. Now we just had to decide whether we wanted to include her in the group.

“We are returning to the surface. Tonight we will decide whether we want to take you further with us. Come to our hotel tomorrow at noon. Then we will inform them of the decision.” <Cornelius>

“Very well.” <Eliza>

So we returned to Tyros to decide Liss's future.