—-Wanaruta City Ruins.
From Beruta Town, it takes around 1 hour to teleport to this place, hundreds of years ago, this Wanaruta city ruins was once a town which prospered. According to a magician who used to live there, the city's inhabitants faced extermination and all that remained of it was a ruins. It used to be thought of as a big joke by the masses and it was not until the magician actually died that people finally started to believe in his words.
The next time someone went to visit the city, the buildings were still intact but no humans could be seen in sight, furthermore as a result of negative magical energy's accumulating, a dungeon was formed.
「It's really eerie isn't it….?」
「Well it is that kind of place after all」
「It's also quite spacious」
The three people were being vigilant of their surroundings as they made their way in. Although it was an open area, the stagnant air around the place causes the possibility of undead monsters to appear, it was one of the characteristics of this dungeon.
A white misty fog drifts about the area, sometimes even a black mist can appear and you can see a semblance of a humans face fading in the background of the mist.
Milly seemed to be somewhat accustomed to going to this kind of place so she didn't particularly feel anything special about it, however, Claude was without a doubt scared out of her wits. Perhaps Milly noticed this from Claude, Milly had an impish smile on her face as she stretched her hands forward towards Claude.
「Claude are you scared? Do you want to hold my hands?」
「I….I'm fine!」
Claude pouts as she turns the other way. Milly was laughing creepily with a "Hihihi" and although she couldn't see it, Claude was actually already pulling on the cuff of my clothes as she shook and trembled *puru puru* (Slight trembling).
It's really hard to move like this ya know? Claude…
This Wanaruta City Ruins was composed of three separate levels.
The first level, was compromised of the shopping district with the civilians once lived in.
The second level is the upscale residential areas where the nobles lived.
And the Third level was the research institutions where the magician would immerse himself in his study.
This place has a couple of high level undead monsters who build a nest for themselves within the dungeon, therefore, it is a really good place for me to raise my soul magic. The problem with this dungeon was that there was a lot of annoying demons, and hunting in the place solo would be really hard, this is the reason why I brought Milly and Claude with me today.
「Milly we will be entering the area where demons should show up soon. I will be relying on you to proceed as planned」
「Under〜stood♪」
As she said this, Milly began to chant Blue Wave. A blue wave of magic spreads out around Milly, and after entering a couple of buildings it would dissipate after advancing a certain degree.
It was covering quite a large distance. It might even be twice the distance that I could cover…
The demons here like to hide amongst the mist and surprise you when you least expect it, therefore using a magical wave with a wide area of effect at constant intervals is a standard procedure when watching out for those demonic surprise attacks. We walked for a little while more, and Milly casted blue wave again, but this time a sort of groaning sound could be heard from a little distance behind us. When I looked behind us, a transparent ghost like monster was wet because of blue wave and it's hateful voice was raised towards us.
This was a demon from the first level of the Wanaruta City Ruins.
—-Mist race.
When it is moving around, it places a sort of black coating on itself which can turn its body transparent as it approaches you slowly. Like I said there are plenty of annoying demons here, this particular demon reveals itself even if it's damaged just a little bit, but if it gets the jump on you it will be a nuisance.
「Blue Gale!」
Although Milly quickly casted blue gale, the mist race didn't seem to take much damage from the tornado of wind as it broke through and begins to rush towards us.
Although Claude's sword was supposed to be broken from our previous boss encounter at the Sunray Mountains this was not a problem. Before we arrived here, I already casted my combination magic of White Crash and White Weapon which gave birth to a new ability the "Lighting Blade" and this was the glittering weapon in Claude's hands.
She avoids the incoming talons of the mist race monster, and using that sword she struck a blow….
「Hyaaaaaaaah!?」
Is not what happened…Just when I thought she was going to strike back, she had actually gone around behind me and hid…
Oi stop it you baka Claude…
What's the point if the vanguard hides themselves behind the rear guard. The mist race doesn't care about this though, and it immediately switched its target to me as it swung its sharp fingernails. Tsk tsk, I clicked my tongue, and held my hand up towards the Mist race.
「White Crash!」
I discharged a point blank White Crash right into the Mist race as a blinding light swallowed it's figure whole….However even my white crash was able to be endured and the fingernails were already before my eyes.
「Zeph!」
Although I managed to avoid the full blow by using a back step, it apparently still grazed me. Blood dribbles into my eye and I can't see ahead…..However there is no problem. I already know it's in front of me so I casted White crash one more time.
「Giii!?」
「Blue Gale!」
The Mist race raised a voice of agony after being subsequently hit by Milly's magic and it was completely destroyed. After receiving a barrage of attacks from both Milly and I, the Mist race dispersed from the air.
「Are you alright!? Zeph!」
「Well, it's only a little scratch」
I wiped the blood off my forehead and the cut itself was only a superficial one. It was already beginning to close itself. Claude was looking at us with guilty upturned eyes.
「I ahh...I'm so sorry」
「You don't have to mind it okay? Everyone has things they are not good at dealing with, besides you can start improving from now ♪」
「That's true, it will be good if you can overcome this as soon as possible」
Both Milly and I had the same idea as we grabbed on Claude and made sure she couldn't run away from the position of vanguard.
「Umm…Milly-san? Zeph-kun?」
「For the time being, all the monsters that come out from now will be defeated by Claude♪」
「This is only natural」
I was gripping on to Claude's hands which was holding on to the lighting blade and Milly was gripping on to her hand which was holding on to the shield. Her arms were being held and forcibly being operated by me and Milly as we tried to make her fight the monsters she was scared of in order to make her overcome her fears.
Milly was casting blue wave as she talked in order to search for monsters. And it seems that something got caught in the wave as a cry from a Mist race was heard ahead of us.
「Oh, the enemy has showed up. Let's see what you've got Claude」
「Go get them! Claude Shield!」
「Hiiiiiii!?」
Milly operated Claude's arm which was holding the shield to block the attack from the Mist Race and I used the sword of light to pierce it. It was a beautiful combination of attack and defence in my opinion.
Perhaps because we were manipulating her movements, Claude was also trying her hardest to face her fears. Even though her eyes were going around in circles she still kept her gaze on the Mist Race, however her feet was consistently backing away. In order to lift her spirits a little I decided to spank her in the butt, and she raised a little shriek "Hii".
「Take your stance firmly! Your feet are getting wobbly Claude!」
「Ah! Heyy Zeph! In the midst of her confusion what are you doing?!」
「Haaah!? I…I'm obviously hyping her up aren't I!?」
「Then pwease take your hands of me〜」
Claude suddenly talked in a strange voice so I stopped my movements for a second. Milly was dexterously moving around and using the shield to evade the blows of the Mist Race. She's doing really well…
I also can't afford to lose to her, I must hold on to Claude's hand and use the sword to attack as well. The more I used the sword the weaker it's light got, and by the time we defeated the Mist Race, the Lightning blade had already disappeared completely.
As expected unless I can extend the duration of the spell, even if I created a magical sword, it will disappear soon after using it. Well considering the fact that I am steady increasing the level of my White Crash, I don't really mind recreating the sword more often.
I was making sure by checking frequently with Scout Scope during combat and apparently every time she attacked using the Lightning Blade the level of White Crash seems to go up. After all I came here in order to train the level of my magic so, in actuality the fact that the sword keeps disappearing is quite convenient for me.
For a little while after that, we tried to get Claude used to fighting ghost like monsters and we were controlling her movements like a marionette however, towards the end she seemed to finally get used to it and she was able to move her own body by herself. Although it might only be a desperation move on her part…