"If you liked it so much then you shouldn't have given it to me." Helkep sighed at Noil who was practically shedding tears.
"Hey! I am not envious, lets get going, we have a few heads to claim and you better don't think of taking a nap while I do the fighting." Noil sneered and started walking in a random direction, while shedding tears inside.
Helkep shook his head and started
walking behind him.
"How many cores do you need?" Helkep asked the number of his freedom, at least he thought it was.
"Hmm! Lets see," Noil started counting on his finger. After a few minutes he said, "Four."
"...You need to think about such a small thing? And why don't you just buy the cores?" Buying cores was also an option for the rich ones, after all.
"Well since I need them, why don't I get them myself and get some experience while at it." Noil spoke with his chin up, acting like a high and mighty genius.
"...Okay." That wasn't half-bad for him, Helkep thought and continued to walk, in search for a monster.
"Hehe! Anyways you better be prepared to get your butt in some action." Helkep shook his head on Noil's stupid laugh.
After searching for two hours and finding not a single Seven Eyed Deformed Veil, Noil decided it was time to head to the next floor.
The hidden boss was currently keenly hearing their small talks and trying to comprehend it with the situations that developed and their expressions, though he was pretty off.
But he was constantly growing, like a 1 year old kid hearing the talk between two geniuses but not like a kid he was focusing, learning everything he could.
Besides humans unique technology had already intrigued him, so he was extra motivated to learn Helkep's language so that he could ask him about various things, of course he hadn't forgotten about beating Helkep up and getting him to free him.
On the next floor, as the two were walking Noil suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! I remember why I felt this path was familiar, its the path towards that freaking cursed gorge, lets change paths." Noil took a 180 degree turn and started running, he truly feared the gorge.
Helkep shook his head and followed after the idiot, he truly didn't know why he was so superstitious.
After walking for another half an hour, finding no Seven Eyed Deformed Veil was starting to get on Noil's nerve.
Finally as if to appease Noil's sour mood, a Seven Eyed Deformed Veil walked over and saw the two boys.
"...FINALLY!! Thank you, thank you God! I will take care of this gift that you sent me." Noil clasped his hands and looked at the sky, which never changed, gratefully.
Helkep took a few steps back as if to prove he had no connection with the psycho.
"Alright brother Helkep, lets handle God's gift carefu...Why are so far away?" Noil weirdly looked at Helkep who was about 10 meters away from him.
"Hey! Come here, I am not letting you take experience without getting broken into pieces." Noil blankly looked at Helkep who was going to make him fight all alone and was planning to get free experience.
"..." After looking at the dumb face that Noil was making he started to walk towards the monster. They had already formed a party, when Helkep killed the Shifter Lizard.
The monster had already used a charging skill and was running towards Noil, who was busy trying to help Helkep gain some guts.
When the monster was about to successfully bang its body in Noil, he looked back while activating the skill 'Brave Heart' and sent a kick on its face. The monster was pushed back and its charge was interrupted.
The monster angrily stared at Noil, he couldn't help but say with a cocky face, "What is this low level trash doing?" Noil had guessed with the monsters pitiful speed that it was lower levelled than him.
Without wasting time, Noil started beating the monster black and blue. Despite being lower levelled than Noil the monster wasn't easy to beat, as monsters naturally had higher stats than humans, even if they were lower in level.
Noil didn't use any other skill and was planning on saving his mana for other monster. So he drew out his dagger and prepared himself to bleed the monster to its death.
The monster wasn't going to sit back and let Noil continue to beat it up.
It used its skills and started to pound Noil as well.
Noil was shocked at the sudden increase in the monster's strength but soon got excited of having a nice battle ...With someone he was sure he would win.
The monster swinged it's tail towards Noil, causing him to jump back in order to avoid it.
As Noil was stabilising his footing, a weary smile formed on his face when he saw the monster charging towards him.
He did a summersault, barely managing to dodge the charge.
He quickly tried to stabilise his footing and was shocked to see that the monster was right in front of him, it's
tail was about to hit his face.
"Tch! What the heck is this?" Noil gritted his teeth and bared the impact.
The impact sent him rolling on the ground. 'This monster isn't normal.'
Noil finally took the monster seriously, taking advantage of the momentary stop in its actions due to charging three times in a row, he focused on the ear and grabbed his dagger tightly.
Noil started losing focus of the surroundings, the only thing he could see clearly was the ear.
But before he could get close, the ear got closer instead. Or more exactly, the monster had once again charged towards Noil and crashed in his gut.
'Oh Shit! Now you have done it.' Noil glared at the monster and was prepared to activate his skills and pound it like a punching bag.
But before he could do that, he stared at the light that was reflecting off' of a dagger.
The monster hadn't realised it but Helkep had sneaked up on its back.
Without it even realising it, his dagger was right next to its ear, and was cutting it in half.
Unfortunately the dagger didn't manage to cut much of the ear but it still was a very sensitive spot for the monster and caused it to roar in pain.
Noil's eyes shined when he saw the monster's attention shifting towards Helkep. He grabbed his dagger tightly and swiftly made his way towards the revealed ear.
He licked his lips and enjoyed the sweet sound ringing in his ear.
«Ding! You have killed a monster below your level, due to your contributions being the highest in the party, you have received 18 experience.»
"This freak was two level lower than me and packed such a punch." Noil exclaimed as he realised the monster's level.
"This dagger is quite sharp." Helkep exclaimed, without it, he wouldn't even be able to scratch the monster.
"Hehe! Well of course, the blade is capable of producing damage equal to my dagger. Though my dagger would be sharper, if it wasn't custom made to fit in my hand perfectly and not drop no matter how hard the attack, dealt or taken." Noil explained his dear dagger's speciality quite happily.
"Okay! Let's get moving, we still have 3 more to kill." Helkep said as he dug out the core from the corpse.
"Sure su- -" Noil stopped mid-way as he was busy blankly staring at the three… Seven Eyed Deformed Veils, currently staring at them with malice evident in their eyes.
"Gulp! That freaking gorge's path is also filled with cursed energy." Noil swore to himself to never ever even get close to the path of that gorge.
"Brilliant!" Helkep had other ideas, it seemed.
"What!? You insane." Noil looked at Helkep like he was a psycho.
Helkep looked at the psycho looking at him like he was a psycho. He stopped himself for saying anything he would regret later and calmed seeing the three monsters again.
"Can't you see three monsters?" Helkep looked at Noil like he was an idiot, no he was one.
"I can. But you are acting like an idiot. There is nothing brilliant about three monsters. Only trouble." Noil was getting confused seeing Helkep's weird behaviour.
"…We don't have to waste our time searching for anymore Seven Eyed Deformed Veil. After killing those three your 10 cores will be ready. And we can save the time we would have wasted on searching for them and if our luck sucked, we would have not found any at all. So why aren't you just happy that we won't have to exhaust ourselves doing something that might be fruitless in the end?" Honestly Helkep was only happy because he wouldn't have to come tomorrow. As all the cores would already be obtained.
"Oh! That makes sense. But do you think beating them would be easy?" Noil decided staying quiet would be the best right now.
"Just use that skill of yours." That skill was referring to 'Minor Strengthening'.
"Oh! Just one hit kill them. But can you guarantee my safety until we leave the dungeon? If by some chance we happen to encounter a monster, no telling you run away, sacrificing this might me." Noil indeed like the idea of one hit killing them but he was a bit hesitant about leaving the dungeon in one piece later on.
"Yes I can. Just go deal with them." Helkep nodded his head assuringly.
"Sigh! Well than. Ladies come and fight for your man." Noil moved away from Helkep and waved towards the three monsters cockily.
They didn't get what he said but sure did get his arrogance.
The monsters started running towards him, there low intelligence was already reduced into dust when they saw their brethren killed.
But something was coming out from their eyes. The three seemed to have lost their mind or something.
'Monsters or no monsters, they aren't just hollow puppets that only now destruction, they can think, they can feel, they are living creatures not dummies that can't cry on the bodies of their race.' Helkep's view on monsters was changed, it was the first time after all… he had seen monsters… crying.
Noil didn't care much about what was leaking from their eyes and simply punched one of them on its head. Finishing it in one hit, only because they were lower in level.
Seeing the deformed head, the other two monster got even more angry.
One of them suddenly gained immense increase in its speed and appeared before Noil in an instance.
Before Noil could even punch towards it, he was sent flying back.
While he was flying in the air, the same monster was already in front of him. Noil didn't care for its attack and punched it in its head, the monster's attack didn't land and it didn't get up again as well.
When he landed, he felt a dangerous pressure coming from his back. Looking back, he froze in fear.
The last remaining monster was staring at him with its pitch black eyes. Those eyes seemed to contain both sadness and madness. But he felt as if those eyes were seeking their own demise.
"Grr!" The monster let out a soft roar and waved its tail towards Noil's neck.
But before the tail made contact with Noil's neck, Helkep suddenly appeared above the monster and struck it on its ear with his dagger.
The dagger didn't go very deep inside but it was enough for the monster to be distracted.
This momentary distraction allowed Noil to escape from his stupor and punched the monster on its head. Ending its life.
Finishing the monster, Noil tiredly laid down on the ground while clenching his belly, where he had been struck.
"Nice safe." Noil complemented his saviour.
'Just like you, I also can't let him die. If you want to blame anyone then blame yourself for being weak.' Helkep looked at the corpse for a second before turning away and harvesting the cores.
Noil waited for him to collect all the cores and got up, ready to leave.
"Let's get going." Hearing Helkep's words, Noil nodded.
It was a good thing that they didn't encounter any monsters on there way out.
Soon they got out of the dungeon and Helkep handed Noil all the cores.
Noil took them happily and left for his dorm, while waving his hand and saying, "See ya later!"
'Nice joke.' Helkep shook Noil's joke with a bit of amusement. Believing it was the last joke he would hear from the guy.
As he was walking, Helkep's wristwatch vibrated, implying that a message had came.
He looked at it and saw that his last class was going to begin shortly, having nothing else to do he decided to go and attend it.
But outside the class he saw some friends. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately it wasn't Noil.
They were some other friends that Helkep had after all.
They hastily walked towards Helkep as if he would disappear.
"Wow man! So you finally decided to show up." A boy asked with some annoyance in his voice.
Getting no reply, the boy said, "Well! Accompany your friends for a while."
The boy said this and dragged him inside an alley in the resting area, followed by a few other boys.
"Hehe! How have you been anyways? Believe me, I prayed for your well being many times." The boy asked with a smile.
"..." Getting no reply from him, the boy asked angrily, "Someone pulled your tongue out or something!?"
"..." The boy had reached the end of his patience.
He ran towards Helkep and punched him on the face.
The punch sent Helkep sliding across the ground. He barely managed to stop himself from falling.
The boy seeing that Helkep wasn't already eating dirt got even angrier and ran towards him and banged his knee against his face.
Helkep slid back once again and barely managed to stop himself from falling.
"Huh! Have you forgotten that you need to eat dirt when you stand before us?" The boy asked with a face twisted in anger.
After a moment of silence, Helkep finally said, "I have two legs planted in the ground, how can you expect me to eat dirt?"
"Then what if I break them?" The boy asked with a… smile.
"Then I will fall." Helkep nodded.
The boy powerfully kicked at Helkep's knee, breaking it in an instance.
Helkep still managed to stand still, with only a single leg. The other was limply hanging from the joint.
"Shouldn't you fall now?" The boy asked in an eerie voice.
"There's still one remaining" Helkep calmly replied.
"…YOU SON OF A!" The boy cursed and broke Helkep's other leg as well.
With nothing to support himself with, he fell down. Yet he was calm, there was an eerie calmness around him.
The boy finally satisfied, said to the boys who were waiting patiently while enjoying the show, "It's party time!"
The boys started to have fun with him in various ways and soon… due to lack of blood, he fell unconscious.