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Asterion had thought that he would have easily sliced the rat in half with his axe, but the rat's speed surprised the young minotaur, as the tiny critter moved around the floor at great speed.
"Damn it! Ah!"
Asterion tried to take his axe back again, but was surprised as it was stuck on the floor!
"A stickiness?" he asked, as he found a slowly moving ooze of slime that had tightly grabbed his axe with its liquid, green-colored tentacles.
"A Slime!" said Annabelle.
"Rank 1… Nothing to sweat about. It's weak to fire, so let Annabelle kill it, Asterion," said Frank, he was strong enough to sweep any of these monsters, but he wanted the kids to do the work by themselves, and gain real experience. If the baby sited them, they would grow spoiled and weak, and he wanted them to find their own strength through their experiences.
Of course, Frank did not simply watch, he offered healing and support, alongside giving commands, and appraising the monster's weaknesses. He also provided mana through Mana Transfer, giving the kids the ability to spam their Skills or Spells more freely.
The Slime was a Rank 1 Green Slime, it was weak and moved as slow as a slug, but it possessed enough strength to entangle an axe and not let it go, even resisting the pulling strength of a young Minotaur such as Asterion.
"Alright! Fireball!" said Annabelle, rushing near Asterion and throwing a fireball towards the slime, which was simply moving slowly, trying to grab the entire axe, probably because it was capable of digesting metal.
Boom!
The blazing fireball clashed against the slime, as the creature released a slight shriek, its ooze became liquefy into the greasy and oily water.
"Grrryyyy…!"
"Ah, where is the rat?!" asked Asterion.
"Right there, Hilvera, duck!" said Frank, pointing at the rat that was rushing through the walls, charging with towards Hilvera's torso, jumping towards her, and pointing its sharp fangs!
"Grryaar!"
"Uwaaahh…!" cried Hilvera, evading the Demon Rat and then using her precision and Gust to point the knife in midair against the Rat!
Flash!
The knife flew thanks to her Gust Skill through the air, reaching the rat as it deeply seeped into its chest!
Clash!
"Grrryyaarr…!"
The Demon Rat shrieked in agony as it tried to escape, but it was caught by Frank's threads.
The Demon Rat was already dying, and it died down a few seconds afterward through blood loss, but due to the monster's natural stamina, it shrieked and struggled as hard as it could.
"Good job, that was impressive," said Frank.
"That was pretty intense… But I did it! I killed it! Ah, I gained Experience… po… points?" asked Hilvera, as a System Notification notifying her of her gained EXP appeared in front of her.
"You already leveled a bit yesterday, remember? It is the same with every monster, you can gather experience points and level up your Job, which is all part of the power I've shared with you, which originates from Abraddon-sama," said Frank.
"I see, so that's how it is… so even by just simply killing monsters we can get stronger?" asked Hilvera happily.
"Uegh, this Slime smells horrible when it melted entirely…" said Annabelle.
"But I got my axe back! Although it sucks that I didn't get some action myself…" said Asterion.
"Cheer up, there will be another opportunity for you," said Frank, as he saved the Demon Rat corpse inside of his Inventory, cleansing and giving back the knife to Hilvera.
"Will you save the slime ooze?" asked Annabelle.
"Well, it is all burned out and oily… So, I don't think so- Huh? What is that? A pearl?" asked Frank.
"Ah, that's the Slime Core, it is a special organ inside of slimes. Mommy said that it is like their hearts," said Annabelle.
"And there is also the Mana Core here, inside of the Slime Core," added Annabelle.
"I wonder if the crystal that covers the Mana Core, the Slime Core, can be sold?" asked Frank.
"It can, I believe it is used to make accessories or potions. It is not as precious as a Mana Core, but it can be sold!" said Annabelle.
"Let's save it as well then…" said Frank, putting the green-colored fist-sized crystal inside of his Inventory.
Frank walked through the corridor, as he had now gathered one Demon Rat corpse, completing one of the quests, although he would gladly add more as they came across them, as the rewards might increase.
As the party explored around, a group of old-looking Adventurers, all of them being already above twenty-five years old followed them stealthily.
One of the four men, a short catkin beastmen with short black hair seemed to be slightly concerned.
"H-Hey, are you sure that we should be tailing some kids? Aren't we acting kind of shady? Today the dungeon is quite busy if we get caught by another party…" he said.
"Meh, relax, Styx. We are part of the thief guild after all, right? We steal things, that's what we do… And well, that's why it is a secret guild too," said their boss, a wild cat-kin beastmen with brown hair and black stripes.
"Yeah, don't be so scared, they're just some stupid kids," said a third member, a dog-kin beastmen.
"That's right. It's their fault for being so stupid to come to the dungeon, to begin with, and bringing that fancy leather armor… And did you see the wand of that fox girl? That could sell for a gold coin!" said a fourth man, a rat-kin beastmen.
"Sigh… Okay…" said the black cat-kin beastmen.
"Boss will get pretty happy when we bring this to them, we'll surely get a raise in the guild's ranks!" said their group boss, the wild cat-kin beastmen.
"Oho~ I like the sound of it! If we get some rank up in the guild, we can then get access to the black-market shop inside of it and get ourselves some cultivation materials for a cheaper price than in the market!" said the rat-kin beastmen.
"Yeah! See? These kids are a jackpot," said the boss of the group, slowly walking with the other three through the shadows of the corridors.
Frank's party came across what seemed to be sewer-like rooms, where strange rivers filled with nasty, green-colored water blocked their path, only leaving a small bridge to cross through.
"What is this? Smells terrible…" said Hilvera.
"This is… I think mother said something about a river that looked like a sewer in the Dark Lair! Ah, this is the place where those big fish that eat people appear!" said Annabelle.
"That… eat people?" asked Asterion.
Splash!
As the party chatted in front of the river, the fishes swimming around wasted no time, jumping out of the river while pointing their sharp teeth at them!
Frank quickly used his Inspect Skill in all of them.
"Rank 1 Giant Man-Eating Fish, rather weak, and don't possess anything special going for them aside from… well, their big size and sharp teeth," said Frank, as he created a Mana Barrier, protecting the kids from the charging fish as they hit the mana wall with loud clashing sounds.
Clash! Clash! Clash!
The fishes fell to the ground as they began to struggle, trying to jump back into the water.
"So their special skill is to jump out of the water, catch someone and bring it in… If they fail, they are left defenseless while struggling to go back into the water… Quite disappointing… Finish them off, they're easy EXP," said Frank.
"Yessir!" said Asterion, charging and chopping a large fish with his axe! Instantly slicing it in half!
Clash!
"Fireball!" said Annabelle, firing a fireball over a fish and instantly setting it on fire, releasing the delicious smell of grilled fish.
"Gust!" said Hilvera, using gust with her knife and stabbing one of the fish's skulls with it.
The other fish was finished off by Ruby, who jumped out of Frank's shirt, grew into a dog size, and began to eat the fish alive, she seemed to have found them appetizing, despite these fishes have come from nasty, green-colored water that smelt rotten.
"Good job, this was quite easy, do Adventurers have a problem with these fishes?" wondered Frank, as he wrapped the corpses and saved them inside his Inventory.
"We're dining fish tonight!" said Asterion.
"Ah, I have never eaten fish," said Hilvera.
"I wonder how it is!" said Asterion.
"I've eaten river fish from… not here. It is good, it has a special flavor, different from normal meat or chicken…" said Annabelle.
As the party reached the other side of the river, a group of two Demon Rats and a Giant Scorpion ambushed them from the side of the corridor!
"Ah, they must have come from the smell of grilled fish…" said Frank.
"Oops…" said Annabelle.
"Don't worry, this is nice, it wouldn't be fun without the monsters!" said Asterion.
"Yeah, let's get rid of the Demon Rats!" said Hilvera.
"I and Annabelle will take care of the Giant Scorpion, now, go!" said Frank, as the minotaur twins clumsily began their onslaught against the Demon Rats, who used their swift movements to evade most of their attacks.
Frank made sure to keep an eye on them and to always have Gift of Life ready whenever something happened, while Annabelle rained the Giant Scorpion with Fireballs as it ran towards them.
"Ah, it's not burning!" said Annabelle.
"That must its hard exoskeleton… Let me help you a bit," said Frank, releasing a Light Ray out of his index finger, leaving a gaping hole into the Giant Scorpion's abdomen!
"Grrisshaaa…!"
The Giant Scorpion, angered, charged towards Annabelle, pointing its stinger towards her!
Boom!
Annabelle swiftly evaded the strong attack, as she charged her Fireball towards the wound in the Giant Scorpion!
"Fireball! Fireball!" she said, repeatedly conjuring Fireball thanks to Frank's shared Mana, hitting the Giant Scorpion's wound and making it shriek in more pain.
"Grrryaar!"
The Scorpion suddenly moved to the sides, deciding to run away!
"Ah, no buddy, you're not going anywhere," said Frank, using his threads to catch the Scorpion legs.
"Finish it off, Annabelle!" said Frank.
"Fire Whip!" said Annabelle, practicing a new spell she created and slapping the Scorpion with a whip of fire. Frank glanced at the creature's HP turn from yellow to red, dying after three whippings.
On the other side, Asterion and Hilvera defeated the Rats with some of their efforts, although they ended with a few bites in their arms, which Frank healed before they were to get infected.
"Phew, we somehow caught them! Ouch…" said Asterion.
"It was a bit fun, but the pain is hard to get by! Ouch… Although your healing appeases the pain, Frank-kun," said Hilvera.
"Everything will be okay… See? Not even scars. If your mother were to see you with any, she would literally kill me…" laughed Frank, saving the corpses of the monsters by wrapping them in threads and continuing the exploration with the party.
"T-They're quite strong…" said the dog-kin beastmen, as he and his party had been spying from afar at Frank's party.
"That kid has some weird thread magic… We better be careful. I believe they are still manageable. They wasted a lot of Mana by spamming their spells, so we should be able to get them now that they are exhausted of Mana!" said the group's boss.
"Y-Yeah, you're right, boss!"
The group walked through the corridors in silence while shrouding themselves in some kind of Dark Attribute Magic, unaware that Frank had already noticed their presence.
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