Looking down at his phone, Katsuya read the message from Jill/
{Jill: Me and some members from our party are heading to a B-rank dungeon. I would like it if You came along as well. P.S be sure to text back fast, we're going to leave in about an hour.}
"Maybe...I should go check on them. But, how do I find out which dungeon they're at?"
An incredible stabbing pain pulsed through-out Katsuya's back as he fell to his knees, grunting.
"...What is this pain?"
A blue light flashed from the side then disappeared as Sora's white haired figure appeared.
She looked down at him with a concerned look in her eyes and she spoke.
"You're not going anywhere. Your body is worn out from the monsterization. I was honestly surprised you were able to clear as many floors as you did. So basically, the recoil from the skill caused major damage to your nerves and such. Even for an adventure, that should take about a week to heal."
Katsuya's wobbling arms were barely holding himself up. He then posted up on one knee, attempting to stand while his legs seemed very unstable.
"....I have to go. I have a bad feeling. I need to see if Jill is alright."
Before he could even fully stand, he collapsed and fell onto the floor, knocking up dirt.
Thump.
Sora shook her head, letting out a sigh.
"Don't worry, with your permission, I'll go check on her. Though, you have to stay here and rest."
Katsuya's neck muscles were using every bit of strength as he looked up at her and asked.
"...You can really do that? ….How do you know where she is?
"Actually, I don't know where she is but, using your phone, I can track where she last was before she entered the dungeon. Finding her from there should be pretty simple.
Katsuya let his head gently fall back on the floor when he sighed in relief.
"Thank you, Sora. You're a big help."
"J-Just focus on resting. Here, let me move you over against a wall."
Sora walked over to him and started dragging him by the arms until they approached a wall to the cave. She sat his body against it and patted his head.
"There. You should be alright until I come back. I better get going."
Sora turned and faced the trees as her eyes flickered red.
The wind shook and boomed as she sprinted forward, disappearing from view.
Boom!
She was nowhere near Katsuya's running speed but she was definitely faster than the speed of sound. He smiled and slowly closed his eyes, muttering one more "Thank you."
___________________
Meanwhile...
(B-rank Dungeon)
"Catch Fire!"
Jill thrusted her hand through the air as a great ball of fire blasted into the goblins face.
Boom!
The monster was turned to ash on impact. Looking down at its disintegrated corpse, she breathed heavily as she had fought many of the creatures. Jill glanced over to the others to see how they had done against the goblin they were fighting. A pile of deceased goblin bodies laid in the middle of the floor surrounded by puddles of blood. The 3 B-rankers and 1 C-ranker had done exceptionally well though, they stood in surprise when they looked at Jill.
"Are you even a D-ranker anymore? I mean, your skill with magic puts you on the level of any B-ranker." said the C-ranker.
"I'm just fighting with everything I have. I can't let Nicolas's sacrifice go to waste. I will do my part in making sure we get out of here."
One of the B-rankers tightened his fist and held it into the air.
"We're all with you. We'll play parts as well until we get out."
And all the others agreed too.
"Yeah!"
"We can't just leave everything to one D-ranker."
"Till the end, we'll fight with all our blood and sweat."
"Well, I'd actually prefer if you fought with your fists instead of bodily fluids."Jill replied.
"W-Well, You know what I mean."
Jill's body turned and faced towards the deeper and darker part of the cave.
"Let's keep going."
Then, after 10 minutes of restless walking, they made it to a giant pair of red doors. It was the boss room. They all were hesitant to go in as it would be even more difficult to win due to the loss of their strongest member, Nicolas. Jill had known that the monster behind the door was one that they would have a low chance of success against but, if they wanted any hope of escaping, they would have to face the beast with everything they had.
Looking back at the others, she put her hand on the door and nodded.
"It's time."
Her hand pushed the door open and they all walked in. There was a familiar feeling inside of Jill, the same one she felt when a boss was nearby. It was a feeling of uneasiness and fear, the feeling of eeriness as they all heard a pair of footsteps begin to walk toward them at a slow but steady pace.
Tmp...Tmp...Tmp...Tmp…
The footsteps stopped with a sudden stomp of the creature's foot.
Stomp!
No less than 30 feet away from the team stood a skinny creature with hardened skin. It's eyes were shining white like a flashlight and it had animal-like teeth. It's fingers were long and scissor-like and the creature's body was surrounded by a slight glowing purple light. These kinds of monsters were called 'wanderers' but this one was a 'general wanderer'
Creatures known for torturing their prey and traveling in groups, they were the definition of absolute evil.
{General Wanderer
Level: 10
Hp: 150,000 | Intelligence: 89 | Mp: 37,500 | Atk: 18,750 | Speed: 150
Endurance: 670}
A truly powerful monster which there was no doubt that it was at the top of the B-rank powerscale among bosses. Even a B-rank tank wouldn't be able to take more than 1 strike from it. The monster stood in place, grinning with a dark look on its face as the adventures all looked at eachother.
Each team member took a step forward, guarding Jill. One of them turned back to look at her and spoke.
"We'll fight it while you try to find an opening for your attack spell. Don't miss or we're all doomed."
"I'll try not to." She replied.
"Do your best."
Each of the adventures rushed forward at the wandered and began attacking as it would dodged each of their strikes.
One hit missed, 8 hits missed and 20 hits missed.
Jill watched from a distance as they tried their best to land even a single strike. Still, none of their strike had struck the target. Fists swinging through the air, body's pacing around, this was the view of the battle.
Jill's eyes followed each of the monster's speedy movements but it wouldn't stay still long enough for her to even chant.
She couldn't take the risk of missing so, she continued to watch the movements closely. I was no use, she had no clear shot.
"The monster keeps moving, I won't be able to hit him with my spell if I cast it. How do I time it right? I might have to take a risk but first, I need to calm myself."
She closed her eyes and her mouth would breathe calmly. One long breath in, one long breath out. One breath in, one breath out. On letting out one last breath, Jill opened her eyes and aimed her hand out.
The gaze from her eyes constantly followed the movement of the wanderer as she focused on getting her timing right.
"Now...FIRE BOLT!"
Faster than the eye could see, a red bolt of lighting shot through the air and pierced into the creature's chest.
Boom!
A gaping hole in its torso had dark smoke emitting from it. The wanderer stood in silence before wobbling and falling onto the ground.
Thump.
[Leveled up x13]
[Max Level has been reached]
The amazement in everyone's eyes showed greatly. A relieved vibe ran through all of the adventurers' bodies as they looked at the monsters life-gone corpse.
The plan that had a very very slow success rate had gone smoothly. As a matter of fact, it was a little too smooth, leaving Jill to think "Something doesn't feel right. The boss is gone but I still feel a presence nearby."
After killing the boss, they were all supposed to be transported to the dungeon entrance. Instead, they all stood in the same spot with nothing changing. This left them all to question the situation.
"Weren't we supposed to be teleported back to the entrance?" The C-ranker asked.
Shortly after his important question, the B-rankers replied.
"Yeah, what happened?"
"Is the boss really dead?"
"Maybe it just needs a minute till it happens."
Jill's heart thumped violently, leaving fear in her eyes as drops of sweat ran down her face. It wasn't just one presence she had felt, it was many. Despite not being able to see any monsters in view, she was able to feel 1 particular presence among the many. It was one so great that it even surpassed the General Wanderer.
The others saw her expression and one of them asked.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
The slow and chilling sentence that would leave her mouth would leave the hairs on everyone's arms to stick up.
"...That wasn't the boss. The boss is….there." When she finished her sentence, she turned her head in a specific area of the room that was now starting to fill with a grey-like mist. Eventually, the entire area was covered and each adventure looked ahead with their eyes widened. Their vision was limited but they were able to notice the outline of the many monsters that stood ahead with glowing white eyes.
Jill's gaze scanned each individual, then she saw the one she feared, a tall wanderer with purple shining eyes.
Bump. Thump. Bump. Thump.
A feeling of pure uneasiness filled the air.
The 1 C-ranker, the 3 B-rankers and Jill, all of their hearts pounded with stress when they saw the name above that monster's head.
{King Wanderer}
Jill thought to herself, analyzing the situation they were in
"This isn't something we can handle, not with our current team at least but, there's no chance of anyone coming to help us."
She bit down onto her lip and closed her eyes, knowing that there was almost no chance for them to survive but, she knew they had to try.
Her gaze met the creature's eyes as she gave her team a command.
"Me may not survive this but, let's fight with every last bit of energy."
Each of the adventures spoke when they walked over and stood by her side.
"You can bet we will."
"At least if we die, we'll die taking down some of these damn monsters."
"I'll be honest, I never thought that I'd be going out in a final battle like this."
"I'm a C-ranker and I know that I won't be able to do much but, I'll make sure I kill at least 1"
Each of their responses made Jill proud to have these brave adventures as partners. Knowing very well that it might be their last moments, they showed no fear. It was almost enough to make tears of joy fall in her eyes but, now was not the time for crying. It was time to fight. Jill shook her head and held aimed her palm at the crowd of monsters.
"Alright, let's do this. When they charge at us, I'll cast a wide range spell. After that, the rest will be up to your fighting."
Her glance looked forward, seeing each of the creatures begging to move. toward her.
"Here goes nothing. Catch fire."
Her hand shined red and as she moved it across the air, a giant flame shot out, followed the swing.
Swoosh.
It spread out wide and covered the entire force of monsters. The heat was enough that even the adventurers behind her felt it.
But when the fire had cleared, only a small number of the monsters had been killed. Yet, the majority remain unharmed.
"No way.." Jill murmured.
"Well, I guess we fight now!" Shouted one of the B-rankers.
Each of the members sprinted forward, striking the creatures.
1 hit, 5 hits, 10 hits. 1 kick, 7 kicks, 15 kicks. 1 slash, 5 Slashes, 9 slashes.
Out of their combined many attacks, only 7 of the creatures had been knocked to the ground, dead.
All the attacks continued from both sides. Fighting non-stop for 3 minutes, each of the adventures still stood, fighting. Though, in those three minutes, it couldn't be said that they did not receive any injuries. As matter of fact, they had received many wounds and bruises. The B-rankers were looking like they still had enough fight in the, to keep up for another 3 minutes. The C-ranker was barely standing and was on the edge of defeat as Jill made her way over to him.
"Here, let me heal you."
Her angel-soft hand touched the adventurers back as a green light emitted from her palms. A slight white noise filled the air as the seconds passed until she removed her hand from his back.
"You should be able to keep fighting now."
The C-rank let out a relieved breath then he replied.
"Thank you. I'll do my best but I'm not sure how long we could keep going like this. And the boss, he hasn't moved yet. Even if we do manage to beat all his minions, how will we deal with him."
"Honestly, I don't know. I do have another trick up my sleeve. First we'll'' have to defeat all of the other monsters first or at least come up with a way to clear an opening.There's no way they'll let us get close to the boss as long as they're alive."
"What exactly is your trick?"
Jill glanced over to the King Wanderer's direction, only to see it looking back at her. She knew the intelligence of these creatures were high enough that they could understand simple conversations, so she refused to speak on her plan.
"It wouldn't be a good Idea talk about it, the boss is watching. I did just come up with a slightly better plan though. I'll need you guys to duck when I tell you guys to. After that, our success will be counting on how fast I move."
"You got it. I don't know what you plan is but, I hope you get it right.I better get back to fighting now. We're all counting on you." said The C-ranker as he turned and ran back to fight the creatures along with the others.
Jill reached into her coat pocket then, slowly pulled out a skinny needle with a tip that glimmered.
She looked at it and spoke to herself in a faint tone.
"I'll only have one shot. If I mess up, it's over and I'll have no other tricks."
The needle she held had been laced in a fatal poison. One that would flow into the bloodstream and cause the heart to fail almost immediately. First she would use a fire spell to temporarily stun the monster then she would make her way to the King Wanderer and stab it with the needle. If she was too slow or somehow missed, she would most likely be met with a fatal attack from the boss. It was a 50% chance of success, the biggest gamble Jill would ever do.
___________________
Outside of the progressvive dungeon, Katsuya still sat against the wall. His body felt extremely sore in every place and it was a pain for how to even so move as his arm. Even though Sora was far from his location, he could still communicate with her through thoughts.
"Did you find where they are?" Katsuya asked.
"I did."
A calming feeling ran down his chest, he was happy to hear the news.
"Are they all alright?" he asked.
"It's true that I'm in the dungeon that they are but, I haven't come across them yet."
As quick as it came, the calm feeling left Katsuya's chest and was replaced with worry. Sora was where Jill and her team had realized that they were trapped in the dungeons. Sora's eyes scanned the room, looking all around. The way she had gotten in was gone as if it was never there to begin with. She placed her hand on the wall where the walkway once was.
"Katsuya, your sixth sense must be really strong. You were able to sense the danger that they were in."
"What kind of danger is it?" he asked.
"It seems that this is a trap dungeon. And I'm sure you know what that means."
"Yeah, I've red about it."
Trap dungeons were another thing Katsuya had read about in an adventure magazine. These types of dungeons had slightly stronger monsters than the rank of the dunegons. Even worse, no one would be able to leave until they defeated the boss. Or in the worst case, 2 bosses.
"Just make sure you find them. And keep them safe."
"I'll do my best." Sora replied.
And so, she walked forward. She could see blue monster blood splattered across the floor but saw no corpses.
"Looks like they fought monsters here. But, where are the bodies?"
Her eyes focused on one of the human-sized boulders across from her. She could sense the presence of a monster. From what she could tell, it was a strong one. However, it was no match for her in her current power.
"Now, let's see your stats."
Soar's eyes shined red and she was able to see the outline of the creature that was hiding.
{Devil Frog
Hp: 9,300 | Int: 43 | Def: 70 | Mp: 1,344 | Atk: 993 | Speed: 189}
From the look of its stats, it was most likely a mini boss. Dungeons like this usually had up to 4 of them. Though, the chances Jill and her team had survived an encounter with this creature was low even if they did have an A-ranker with them. But Sora could sense the presence of multiple humans further on in the dungeons, so she knew that the team did not come across the monster.
"That's a relief. If they came across that thing, I'm sure they would've all died. Now, let me see the creature with my own eyes."
Sora sprung forward and smashed her hand through the rock and shattered it. Dust flew in each direction and she gripped the through of the monster.
"Gross, it's ugly."
The creature had large black eyes and a long red tongue that touched the ground. There were two black horns that stuck out the top of its head and its skin was blue and slimy.
"Sayyy goodbye."
Sora's hand reached out and with a swift movement, her finger flicked the creature's face. In that moment, the creature's skull was blown apart as it's slim blue blood shot across the floor.
Thump.
The Devil Frog's body fell onto the floor as Sora shifted her attention up ahead.
"There really are lots of rocks. I bet almost any adventure would find it hard to find the boss room. But, it seems like they found it."
Sora was able to sense the boss's minion in combat with Jill and her team.
"I should try to get there fast. Katsuya told me to save them. I'd be a crappy A.I if I failed my owner's task."