I was skipping along, beautiful flowers in hand, thinking about all the money I'd make from finally ridding myself of the Arrows, when it happened.
I vanished.
Now...I didn't die again, but it was just as fun as doing so. Nope, I was rudely teleported away, and thrown unceremoniously onto a slab of slimy-ass stone. I recognized that slimy-ass stone.
"Fucking Hell..." Back in the Dungeon I was, pants ruined from the rotten plants, flowers crushed beneath me, and mind shouting a string of insults at whatever God ran this particular Dungeon. Then I wondered,
What the fuck was I doing here?
Don't tell me...was that the sound of a bell I heard? Could it be that another Party of Adventurers had come here, only to be forcibly killed to death?
I sighed. I grumbled. I groaned. Then, I picked myself up, got rid of the door once again, and stopped myself before barreling into my old pal the Skeleton again.
At least I could Loot the Dungeon. The Floors always refilled when a new batch of Adventurers came through.
I clomped on over to the aclove, and didn't fall face first that time. I retched open the Chest without wasting time on admiration, and roughly sorted my gains.
A more durable pair of black Leather Pants, just what I needed. A set of Fake Glasses as my Item pull, perfect to keep up the Human act. Another Armor piece of Equipment: some classy black Boots. I put my new things on, and lost a slice of my irritation toward the Dungeon.
It was most definitely compensating for the inconvenience by giving me all the shit I needed to complete my Beginner Adventurer look. It also seemed to be hinting that I should specialize in Stealth Magic, what with all the black Armor.
I got out of the, now useless, aclove and back into the hall. Then I turned to walk in the direction I thought the Adventurers to be in. It had some general noises that aligned with the breaking of bones.
It didn't take long for me to find them. It was an unusually small Party of three: one Bow Class, one Healer, and a Neutral Class.
I waited until I had a clear shot, apologized to my mother the Dungeon, and burned some bones.
The Adventurers brushed themselves off and faced me. It seemed the Neutral Class was the leader this time.
"What are you doing here?" I decided to be blunt and brash. I wanted them to hate me as much as possible so they'd feel less bad about us being forced to kill each other.
"Adventuring." The Neutral Class, a buff girl with choppy hair, frowned.
"Alone?" I ignored that inquiry, blurting.
"I know where the Boss Room is." I wanted to be as unattached to these people as possible. It might help my sanity...if I had any left after dying and killing the last lot. The Healer was somehow still concerned for my well being.
Ugh, a Healer. That adorable, too-much-like-Saibaku, tiny girl, was probably the only one here that could kill me with kindness.
"Do you want me to heal you before we go?" I'd gotten some scratches from who knows what. Nope, didn't need to re-die over some pathetic scratches.
"No thanks. Follow me." Again, why be nice? It would just make it worse in the long run. I sighed at the broken door.
"Here we are." Bow Boy took a second to complain.
"I'm out of Arrows." He was staring intently at the Quiver on my back, and probably wondering why I had them even though I didn't have a Bow. I'd never had time to take them off. I shrugged.
"There's Spells for a reason." I think that made both Neutral Lady and Bow Boy mad. Good.
"Let's Go." And I led them into the trap, wanting to get it over with and start not being randomly thrown into a Dungeon. I immediately went to press the wall trigger, but realized I didn't actually need it.
I pressed it anyway, for dramatic effect. Also because...button. I was bedazzled in exactly five seconds, all cloak and horns and epic reveal. It was boring really, to do it over again.
I cursed the Mikami Church, and promised to utterly destroy the place when I got out of this.
The fight began, this Party looking just as betrayed as the last. Really? Maybe I wasn't mean enough or rude enough. Maybe I looked too Human for their tastes, so seeing me as a Lich was like a betrayal to all Humans or something.
The were just racist then, disgusting. I, for one, would've been totally fine with having a Lich friend.
Neutral Lady started launching a Chain of Fireballs at me, while Bow Boy spat Plasmatic Spheres. I kept my gaze pinned to the Healer.
Letting the Spells hit, because they didn't seem that strong and I had the Durability Skill, I covered the Healer with blue fire.
The Party hadn't seemed to be expecting that, maybe thinking about the fact that nobody attacked Healers because Healers didn't usually attack. My fire worked its magic and the puny little background character took heavy Damage.
The Spells didn't hurt, which was still awesome, so the Party just got angrier. Squinting so that I wouldn't see the Healer as she died, I hurled one last Blue Fireball to finish her off before facing the others.
They were empowered by grief I guess, because they were fighting with all they had. But what they'd probably never believe, is that I was empowered by grief too. I mean, who actually wants to murder a perfectly innocent person?
Bow Boy and Neutral Lady couldn't know though, and I didn't blame them. Even if they'd simply chosen to attack me because I was a Lich, that didn't mean I had to hate them for it. They just thought the Loot on the Floors below was more important than a creature with a soul.
Humans will be Humans.
I flared with the last of my available Magic, and sent out a gigantic sphere of fire that took up the whole room. Then I flambéd them until they had a nice caramelized layer of skin.
I left the Boss Room, brushing the Ash from my Armor, and Transforming back. I thanked the universe for making Mages immune to their own Spell Damage, and began the long treck back.