[Claire PoV]
Blood flowed under the debris where Ceasar got buried. Everyone stopped in their tracks, nobody moved. Though it was a pity we lost a talented Thief but he got it coming.
"Ceasar! Ceasar! Are you alive? Please say something?" Ceasar's bitch in tears was smacking her arms up and down on top of the big rock beneath which Ceasar was. With this, the 0.01% possibility of him being alive was gone too.
"Please help me get him out" Ceasar's bitch pleaded.
"Dig him out" I ordered. Sure, he was a bit of asshole, nonetheless, he was our companion.
Adventurers moved that big cross shaped rock and what was revealed was a badly squashed mutilated corpse of Ceasar.
"Noooo!!! Ceasar... please don't leave me. You promised to protect me, brother, after mom and dad passed away," she cried loudly and helplessly for a long time. (AN: Before you complain, I want to say that I never clearly stated that Ceasar was her boyfriend)
Seeing her in such grief even I felt very bad for her. I didn't really expect them to be siblings. And looked like they two went through many hardships together.
I asked one of the adventurers and learned that Ceasar's bitch name was Julia.
"W-Will you help me collect his body please," Julia said with tears running down her cheeks.
"I really am sorry but it's not possible. There's not a single Seneschal who decided to continue to this floor. So, nobody here can use storage magic. And stairway to the previous floor will remain block till we defeat Floor Boss" I said in a sympathetic tone.
People with Seneschal Job manage all the logistics required for a party function properly. They collect and handle all the supplies, loot, set up the camp, and so on. They are an official part of the guild but never participate in the battle and always stick back. Now, without them, I had to assign three adventurers to carry a large backpack that contains only food supplies. We even had to leave behind our camp and extra equipment. (AN: Couldn't come up with a good name for this job. Suggest me something better, I'll change it.)
"No way, he'll turn into undead if I leave him here" she sobbed.
'Now, come to think of it, Max's party didn't hire Seneschal and they don't carry anything, probably Max or other two may know storage spell.'
He was standing beside me. I signaled with my eyes towards her to make him move.
Moving towards the kneeling Julia Max spoke in a tone which was hard to distinguish whether he was serious or it was a sarcasm "I am sorry for your loss, he was not only your brother but most talented Theif of the party, without him it'll be difficult to continue"
"Pl-lease can you store his body, I'll do any-anything."
"Don't worry about it. I don't help someone with the expectation of getting favor returned"
Saying this he stood in front of the dead body and in a moment the body disappeared into thin air.
"Hey, what did you do? That's not how storage spell work" I asked with a flustered face and Julia was looking at him with paled face and blank stare.
Sure both brother and sister annoyed him too much, now he didn't take some kind of petty revenge, did he? I mean there was no blue mana that enveloped the body then stored it in magic space.
"Don't worry I stored it in my inventory"
"The what?"
"Think of it as one of Master's skills, it's better than storage spells cast by the likes of you" Amelia bitch again butted in.
"I didn't know about this skill at first or else I would have brought so many things from the village" Myra sighed.
"Th-Thankew" Julia moved on her knees and wrapped her arms around Max's legs and start rubbing her tears and snot filled face on his robes.
His face twitched but he didn't say anything and only patted her head. Julia was wearing a mini skirt that barely covered her ass and crotch, revealing panties whenever she moved and a bra that only covered half of the boobs including nipples. That explained why this pervert was comforting her.
After two minutes, Julia wiped her tears and composed herself.
"Sorry for the delay, let's move. Brother Ceasar was determined to defeat this dungeon, he would've wanted me to continue even after him" she stood up and readied her bow.
'Sure your brother was brave but he was a big idiot'
"Follow my footsteps exactly, don't hold me responsible if something happens later because of your negligence" Amelia bitch said.
This time there was no complain from anyone as if they had complete faith in her. Now, with Amelia bitch in lead we soon arrived at the end of this narrow hallway. There were three doors in front of us.
"This looks like a situation where one door is correct and the other two lead to death" Max joked.
"This is nothing like that, you have read too many storybooks as a child" I replied with pursed lips.
"What to do Mam?" one of the adventurers asked.
"Phew! Okay then, there are three doors. We don't know where they lead. If we all take one door and it ends up being a trap or a wrong door that leads to nothing then we might not able to retreat and even if we manage to do it then so many days will be wasted by then. That's why our best solution is to split up into three teams. So, does anyone oppose it?"
"No mam, but how do we split?"
So I split everyone into three teams. In Team 1 there were seven people including me, Max and Julia. In Team 2 there were eight people being led by Warrior Thorben and the last team had Bitch Amelia, Myra, and six others. Although it would have been best to have Max in the second team but I probably won't get the opportunity again to have Max with me alone without bitch Amelia sticking around like a fly. She proved out to be stronger than I expected and I can't put my plan into action if both of them are together.
And about the second team, they were without the protection of the strongest three people in the party but their pride and fear of going against my decision held them back to do any complaint. I had confidence in Warrior Thorben that he could push through any difficulty, he never disappointed me before.
"Master..." Amelia looked at Max with a teary eye like a bitch who's going to get separated from her owner for the first time.
"Don't worry, we will meet again in a few days" Max hugged her and rubbed her back.
"Oi Oi don't forget about me," Myra said with a sharp tone.
Max released Amelia then flicked Myra's forehead before pulling her into embrace then whispered something in her ear that made her bury her face into his chest with a red face.
After their drama was over, we took the leftmost door. Just before entering I glared at Amelia and mouthed word 'Bitch' which made her grit teeth in anger. Annoying her is always fun.
As we all entered the door behind us vanished, leaving only a stone wall behind us. The ground slid open revealing stairway to Floor 22.
"So, others took the wrong path?" Max asked.
"Not necessarily, there may be more than way stairway leading to next floor" I replied.
Taking stairway we arrived at another hallway extending a thousand meters. Unlike before, it had spikes on its walls. As soon as we entered, the walls started closing on us at a speed and to make matter worse the whole hallway was filled with a lot of ghouls with no end to them.
Ghouls are undead that are created when a vampire suck out all of the blood from a person, completely draining blood without the intention of turning them. They have little to no intelligence and feed on human flesh. Here, probably there was no vampire, these monsters were created by dungeon itself.
"W-What do we do now Mam?" an adventurer asked in a panic.
"We run and fight, what else"
As I said this, Julia took action, with bow and arrow nocked. Fearlessly with cold eyes, she starts moving and shooting with every arrow hit on ghouls heads with precision.
Author's Note: It's one month since I started writing this novel. So, did my writing improved or it is the same as in early chapters? Especially those who have binged read till here can tell, please do comment :D And the second thing, should I end this arc with this Floor Boss (at floor 30) being last or continue for one or two Floor bosses more. My updates are already not too fast, I don't want you to get bored reading only this arc :D
P.S Shoutout to @MegaDragon135 for finding out the JoJo reference in the previous chapter.