Chapter 20: He always smiles like that
After Venomous entered the dungeon's schemes, her party continued to advance at a rapid pace. They had been clearing the moles and the new wooden enemies so fast that the tank could shift his focus on the offensive side and deal more damage rather than keeping his shield up.
The whole dungeon looked like a root maze so far.
The roots intertwined with each other, leaving small gaps within their walls. However, in those, only pitch darkness could be found. At times, the dirt also yearned for some attention, falling onto intruders from the ceiling.
Above every player's head, the source of light desperately tried to help them. It was a sun that just barely could stretch out its sun rays here.
The whole dungeon had many routes prepared and it was time to explore further.
Sandra looked down at the fallen dirt, then moved forward as no clue could be found out from it. On her path, she checked the pitch darkness within the walls for any possible lead as well.
After kicking pebble on the ground, Sandra exhaled sadly.
"I have found a clue!" But Michu's voice brought back all the energy she'd been missing so far! As her face lit up with happiness, Sandra skipped to Michu's side.
His hands, which had been just raised to the point where he stood on tiptoes, went down. He kept those joined as if hiding a small prey inside.
What looked as such turned out to be true as Michu found out an interesting firefly!
"It faintly shone, but I noticed it," Michu brightly explained, with no pride within his voice. He was just happy to find something new and as it could be a potential help to his party, Michu held it carefully.
However, as Sandra approached him, Michu suddenly wanted to show it to her. He did his best to make a small gap between his fingers, then the blue eyes probed inside. A small firefly was indeed here.
It was smaller than the real one, so Michu's feat became more amazing.
"How could you even notice it?" Sandra asked incredulously, her childhood friend nodding behind her. Both of them browsed their minds, set up on the knowledge about this dungeon, but no information about such a firefly could be found.
Michu asked, "I thought such fireflies were normal." Didn't Sandra tell him already about those? Though this one was small, it was the dungeon so no one should expect them to be that easy to catch.
However, Sandra shook her head, "The ones I spoke about are bigger, around my hand's size. You can also use them as a source of light as the poor sun becomes less effective the deeper we go."
From the side, Venomous' voice rang out, "It shouldn't be useless by any means. Just keep it trapped and look out for system messages." She emphasized the last part as Michu still was like an old man to the PC World.
She also added, "Now that you can't fight, we have to utilize our tank more." The new addition instantly flinched to her words. He raised his shield as if to deflect her venomous eyes, then nodded behind his shield, half of his face hidden.
"Got it…" The tank still couldn't see properly through Venomous.
Although Michu was certainly the holder of at least gold class, what Venomous had shown off disturbed the tank's heart. She used one of the common skills for warriors, but how could they look so different from others?
There had to be something unique about these. For a moment, he felt like she was just a unique warrior, but would there be something like this? He couldn't tell, but all his thoughts were typed on the keyboard nonetheless.
The warriors that grasped the sword had their skills similar to other weapons, but there was one vastly different skill. It is the same for any other class. This particular ability could be developed differently with subclasses. It was the common route.
The less common would be the route to mend other abilities, but it required some special subclass and so on.
There were a lot of routes in the universal world of freedom.
Venomous had been using all common skills for the warrior who grasped the sword. She was a pure swordsman that relied on what she had gotten from the martial artists. However, Yumi also relied on her information and wits that allowed her to be at the right place at the right time.
What looked to be fast movement was just her prediction and fast natural reaction.
Not all players were the same, and Venomous' movements could put many men's eyes into slow motion as she had stunning beauty.
If she was all focused on her task, then the sharp and confident Venomous had a different aura around her than usual.
People had many masks!
"No… That's no fun…" Michu dejectedly looked at his hands. Not being able to wield his staff and join all the fun caused him to form a sad monke expression.
Venomous said, "There are arguably the endless adventurers in this world. It's not bad to step aside for a moment if you can help your friends…" Her words quickly brought the monke back!
She added, "And what you did sound simple and your simple brain probably doesn't realize it yet, but you did what no one here could." Venomous, as usual, read the guide about the dungeon and formed her own plan.
In this guide, a small firefly that shone with orange color wasn't even mentioned. "So, cheer up." He was already back, but Yumi's voice brought indescribable effects. For her, it was hard to just casually cheer up others, but she somehow did it smoothly for Michu.
For the monkey, it would be best to ask for help to describe him, "He smiles so stupidly. I guess your words meant a lot to him," Sandra poked Venomous with her staff, her smile teasing.
A white-haired player averted her gaze, "He always smiles like that."
Sandra snickered, then followed Venomous' gaze. Darkness, the ground, and silence had been asserting their presence here.
No sound of any moles, wooden monsters, or even players could be seen here.
Why was the dungeon paling in comparison to its rumors? "You all sure went all-out… I can't believe I was the first one to get depleted of mana…" Sandra spoke incredulously, her fingers fiddling with the leftovers of mana potion within the tube.
The witch wasn't the only one to drink the potions. All other players gladly gulped down colorful liquids that separately tasted different but mixed in one, the players felt the taste of an energy drink.
Venomous exhaled with content, then spoke to the tank, "It's on my cost." She passed him a health potion.
Once this potion fell into his hands, the tank quietly thanked, "Thanks." He looked at its stats and found it to be one of the lesser and weaker potions, but it was just fine for the remaining lost HP.
He gulped it down, then relished on its taste, the same taste he had been close with for his time in the new world.
Sandra and Lazy Bum looked into each other's eyes after seeing this show of compromise. What Venomous said after passing the potion was 'You are lent to us by someone else, so I have to take care of you.'
But there was one big flaw in her words. If that would be the case, then why didn't she help Michu drink the potion first? She also didn't seem to even care about his HP/MP stats!
Sandra sighed, then approached Michu with a potion in her hand, "Michu, say 'Aaaaaa'." A blonde witch took care of the player whose HP's loss hadn't been that high.
Michu also felt a little weird, but he found no reason to not follow her. As friends were as rare as diamonds for him, Michu's interactions with the opposite race were even more and he lacked in many areas here.
However, Michu also couldn't say that he didn't enjoy being taken care of by someone else.
Michu honestly thanked, "Thanks. I will do the same in case you need help!"
"Um… I will accept your offer in case I need any help…" Sandra faintly answered, her cheeks boiling a little too much. Her new friend was rather too honest and didn't coat his emotions.
People around him didn't matter. As long as he could convey his words clearly, Michu would say what lied on his mind.
Sandra felt like it was both a good and bad trait, but if a blush crept onto her face and she couldn't find any words to his, then it leaned more towards good, right?
It was rare to see such an honest individual and albeit it was a short time, Sandra had been swayed too much by him already!
Suddenly, Lazy Bum attacked! "Michu! My great friend!"
Sandra yelped when he suddenly raised his voice! "Eh?!"
"What's wrong?" A monkey asked, his eyes big.
Lazy Bum continued as quickly as possible before the witch's staff would fall on him, "You promised to help her, but isn't your promise meaningless if she is not close by?"
"True! Sandra, we want to quickly level up to 25 after this dungeon! Want to go with us?" Michu asked brightly, but Sandra quieted down… She glanced at her friend, then Michu, and at Lazy Bum for the last time.
For a while, it seemed like a side Sandra tried to hide emerged out from. She looked quiet, a little gloomy, but then she regained her former excitement, "I will join you! How can I even think about it if you ask me in such a way? I should've accepted your invitation straightaway."
"I asked normally, though!" Michu laughed, "Hehe, your water skills are cool! I am sure we will enjoy our time. Oh! You might even help with the banana farm! Right, Venomous?" Michu turned around to his first friend, but she strangely had been kicking the tank away from them.
Her lips were nonstop parted, "I saw a monster here! Check this and prepare a taunt!" She nonstop ordered the tank to do something and she was louder than usual.
It was a measure to make this tank not listen to their talk. She also couldn't stop Michu purely from his ecstatic face… And who was she to control his friend list? All she could do was to protect that secret that she and Nana wanted to keep hidden at least for the early levels.
"Haha! I think we have to move! Let's go, Sandra!" Michu raised his joined hands, but the blonde witch chuckled at him.
She rolled her eyes, "We are staying behind, Michu. Did you forget about your hands already? Stupid."
"Eh…"