A month later.
It's another day to Lena, She's at the guild's board looking around for a quest when a certain quest stands out. It's colored differently and is left alone without any quest surrounding it. She thinks for that to happens the requester might have paid quite the hefty amount, but as she looked at the requester's info it turns out that this was a quest posted by the adventurer's guild. It was a quest asking for gold or above adventurers for a dungeon expedition, which is them basically saying clear out as much as you can of the dungeon.
Dungeons are things that are only allowed to gold adventurers and above, that doesn't mean you can't enter it as a lower ranked adventurer, but you won't be rewarded for anything you do and your chance to die is terribly high. This would be Lena's first chance of heading into a dungeon as an adventurer so she went to submit her entry at the guild's receptionist who told her that adventurer's guild's requests are to be submitted at the adventurer's guild.
Lena reached the adventurer's guild where again the receptionist was not Trestina, she doesn't say anything as she just submits her entry takes what she needs of info and leaves. The expedition Should be taken part the next day and that it's gonna be a party of 5 including Lena, Lena wasn't told who the 4 are to be so she will just have to meet them tomorrow first thing in the morning at gate. Until then Lena goes back to the guild picks out another quest for the day and spends her day on it.
The next day.
Lena is at the gate waiting for the other 4 to show up when a weak looking little boy shows up, he's wearing the cloak of a magician, while holding a staff with quite a flashy looking red orb. He notices Lena and awkwardly runs to her.
"H-Hi, b-by any chance.... could you be here for the expedition too?" the boy asks while looking down.
"Yeah." Lena says maintaining her neutral face.
"O-oh haha... me too..." the boy said slowly raising his head.
"Do you know anything about the others?" Lena asks looking around.
"Ah... no, sorry..." the boy said as he put his head back down.
Lena gave him a confused look then sighed.
"Don't worry about it."
"O-ok." the boy said as he straightened his pose and stood next to Lena.
Slowly they started to appear at first a man with a strong looking sword to his waist, then a man with quite the bulky armor and heavy 2 handed axe, and finally a woman who also looked like a magician but didn't hold a staff.
As soon as they all got together they quickly start moving towards the location at where the dungeon's at. It shouldn't take longer than an hour or 2 by leg so they chat along the way. The boys walked a bit ahead together as they talked while Lena and the girl followed them from behind.
"Yo, you're Lena right?" the girl asks as she tries to match Lena's pace.
"yeah." Lena answers without facing her.
"I've heard all about you Lena! The strong swordswoman who reached gold only 5months after reaching silver! That's amazing you know! For me it took what, like 3 to 5 years which is lower than average so yeah... to me you're a genius!"
"Wait 3 to 5 years?" Lena asked.
"yup"
"And how long have you been a gold adventurer?"
"ahhh... almost 2 years now."
"How old are you?" Lena questioned the young looking girl.
The girl's face froze up and just laughed the question off as she slapped Lena's back a couple of times.
"Hahahahahaa!" she laughed.
"....." Lena just took her laughter as a no to her question.
"Anyway, uhm, if we wanna talk about real geniuses do you know who that weak looking boy is?" The girl asked.
"A magician?" Lena said.
"Well yeah, but did you know that he is an actual magician genius? in just a short 2 month period he rose from wooden to gold circle! Everyone knows about him you know, there are a lot of expectations for him especially with how weak our strongest are compared to other kingdoms and to top it all of he is just a kid! he is only 14." the girl says looking at the boy's back.
"Huh." Lena says thinking back to her wrong first impression.
"And also apparently his pretty terrible socially since he is just a kid so people do use that to take control of him, I bet you the other boys are even getting on his good side as we speak to use him later!" the girl says mad.
"oh right." Lena remembers something that got her attention at first.
"You wear magician clothing but I don't see you using a staff why's that?"
"Oh It's because I'm a healer, I can do support magic too, but attack magic I'm pretty terrible at. Healing and support don't really need a staff since you aren't aiming at anything and most of the time you are up close. I just hold my catalyst in one hard while I use the other to apply magic." the girl says as she pulls a palm perfect orb from her pocket.
"Healing magic..... how old are you really?" Lena asked.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The young looking girl went back to hitting Lena's back as she laughed loud enough to make the boys look back to them.
They reach the dungeon's enter and start to formulate a plan.
"Ok so benj you will be moving first as we follow behind you." The man with a sword said to the big man in bulky armor.
"Of course!" Benj gave a quick reply.
"ok at the back you and pator stay in the back" the man said to the girl and the magician boy.
"I will stay by Benj and Lena will stay by you two." The man said looking at Lena.
Lena nods back.
"Ok here goes nothing." The man said as unsheathed his sword.
Lena followed his example.
And then they slowly walk in.
It was nothing really at first, a couple of monsters here and there. From mutated wolfs to dungeon bats, nothing they couldn't handle.
They kept at it for a while without anything happening. Benj would tank most attacks as the swordsman would attack head on, if support was needed the girl and pator would quickly support and if anything got close to them Lena would take it out immediately. The girl was only able to heal injuries that weren't too severe since she is only a healer and not a guardian, but that alone was more than enough to the amount of damage the party sustained. Pator's magic was indeed outstanding being able to take out a whole horde with a single step it almost made all of them look like leeches.
"Ok let's keep at it, at this pace we might be able to beat the dungeon boss and retrieve whatever gold we find." The man said hyping up the party.
They delved deeper into the dungeon.
Slowly the monsters increased in number and strength.
The deeper they got the more further down they got.
Finally as they were fighting a huge hoard of lizard like things a Huge monster came almost as if out of nowhere. Moving on four legs It had two extra to the side of it like hands a face that looked like that of a wolf but filled with eyes.
"OK EVERYONE! GET READY!" The swordsman said raising his sword.
Everyone quickly got into position looking straight at the huge monster in front of them.
"Lena take care of as much of the mini monsters as you can we will try and take that thing on our own." The man said still facing the monster.
Lena nods and runs to the side protecting the party from the smaller monsters.
"Pator start us!" the swordsman signaled pator to start the attack.
"Oh um ah yeah!" Pator taken by surprise quickly straightens his pose and prepares for an attack.
His staff aimed at the monster the monster roars.
Pator closes his eyes and focuses making a huge whirlpool of fire appear at the tip of his staff.
After a short bit he shoots it forward making it look like a diagonal tornado shooting at the huge monster, And midway as it continues burning him exactly where the monster stands a huge fire explosion happens knocking the monster back a couple of steps.
"NOW!" the swordsman screams as he ran towards it.
it was a signal for the girl to buff him as much as she could. Pator only stood there panting with a thumbs up.
Smaller monsters tried to stop him, but Lena was quick to act.
The swordsman ran at it while Benj slowly followed with a huge axe in his hand.
The swordsman quickly jumps to one of its side hands and from there onto its body running as he cut as much as possible of the monster, He ran towards the top of its face and cut down one of it's wolf like ears.
The monster than swung its head around throwing the swordsman behind it making him fall on his back.
"KENT!" Benj screamed as he stood still in front of the monster.
"IM HERE YOU MONSTER!" Benj screamed at the monster as he beat his axe on his chest plate making as much noise as possible bringing it's attention to himself.
The monster roared as it turned to face him then swung one of its side arms at him.
'shit' he thought as he quickly raised his axed front of him to stand his ground as much as he could.
The punch like attack made him go back a few steps but he somehow was able to stand ground. No not somehow, the girl had applied weight magic making his weight increase so that he would be harder to move.
The monster roars again and swings with its other arm like thing.
Benj takes another hit.
And another swing.
Benj Takes another hit.
And another swing.
Benj Takes another hit.
And another swing.
Benj Takes another hit.
Benj is unable to fight back with how fast the monster's attacks are coming. Kent is only half awake from how strong that knock was, Lena is busy protecting the casters, The girl is only good at support and healing magic but trying to heal from afar is impossible to her. Only one left is Pator even though he has used a lot of magic up until now he still holds some.
Benj takes another hit by this time lowers his axe.
He has sustained too much damage, he might be able to withstand one more attack head on but anymore is gonna be the death of him.
Lena tries to run towards him for support, but is instantly blocked by hoards of lower ranked monsters.
Pator looking at the situation is panicking not knowing what to do. If he attacks the huge monster it's gonna turn towards them which him and the girl won't even be able to hold for a second, if he helps Lena so that she could support Benj, Benj might not be able to live long enough till then. He stands there as he looks around only to notice something. They are in a cave like structure, If he would to attack any of the walls or supporting pillar rocks it might collapse onto of the monster.
With a smile he aims at one of the pillars charging up an attack. The girl immediately understands what he is thinking and screams. Lena turns around to see what the genius was coming up with and without a moment's delay quickly runs to stop him. Cutting down every monster in her way with her knee she knocks pator to the side.
Pator who was about to save everyone is then sent into a state of confusion.
"why? why would you do that?" pator asked with genuine confusion.
in the middle of the confusion another attack has hit benj sending him flying towards the wall of the cave.
Lena stands there with her sword still in her hand looking down at pator who is now on the ground sitting.
"Just follow my lead." Lena says as she turns around.
Giving a quick swing at the air using the sword in her right hand she runs at the monster.
Lena while running raises her sword aiming at the monster using it as a staff she shoots a couple of weak fireballs at it.
The monster who was about hit Benj again now turns his head towards where it's being poked.
It notices the small ant like thing running around it and quickly turns to attack it.
Holding one of its fist it aims it at Lena and swings it as hard as it can.
Lena is already far enough from the two magicians so the attack shouldn't effect them so she continues running ignoring the attacks which only hit where Lena was moments ago.
The monster roars as it continues only to then finally hit a bit forward making it impossible for Lena to out speed so she screams.
"PATOR NOW!" Lena screams.
pator who was amazed at the sight in front of him quickly gets himself together and attacks the monster with the fastest strongest barrage he could making the attack miss.
It still hinders Lena's way so she is slowed down but still reaches her destination nonetheless.
She reaches Kent Who is barely still standing not because his hurt but because of such a strong hit to his back.
"W-whaat.ar-re yo-y.eu d-oing." he says as if he was drunk.
Lena quick picks him up and runs towards the girl while the monster is still getting up from the barrage of attacks just now.
"Quickly get him to get his shit together as fast as you could." Lena orders the girl as she stands up to attack all the smaller monsters that got closer. Many of them were taken out by the bigger one as it attacked Lena earlier so not much is left.
"Ah uh yeah on it!" the girl says as she puts her catalyst on top of him with both of her arms aimed at him.
"you! you still got anything in you?" Lena says looking at pator who is on the ground panting heavily as he holds his staff with one hand and his chest with the other.
"I...I ca-can *cough* d-do on-one m-m-more!" he says forcing himself to stand.
Lena gives a slight grin at the boys perseverance.
The monster has gotten itself together already is again roaring as it moves towards Lena.
"Ok, use it when I tell you to kid" Lena says as she again starts running.
this time instead of the side of the monster she runs straight at it.
The monster dives it's mouth at Lena planning to finish her in one munch but is instead only feasting on the ground.
Lena quickly turns to the side and jumps towards one of the things Legs planting her sword in it she uses it as support to get herself up. she jumps from ontop the swords handle to the monsters back leaving her sword behind.
The monster irritated again roars as it swings it's hands at its own back hitting itself.
Lena continues moving to the other side and then jumps at around where Benj is.
As she picked the damaged heavy man up the monster tried to again swing it's fist at them only to have it's hand cut off.
"Good work, Lena. please get Benj to her as fast as you can." Kent says as he prepares to face the thing again.
Lena nods and heads towards the girl.
"I know there isn't any doctors here, but please heal him just as much as you can." Lena says.
"Of course!" the girl says.
Lena looks around to see that kent has taken care of the last of the smaller monsters before helping her.
"Pator get ready this is gonna be our last attack." Lena says looking at the boy who is barely standing.
"Y-yes!" the boy says with heavy breathing.
Kent's following Lena's example of running ahead of the monster's fist, but he isn't as fast as her even though it only has one hand left he still has to improvise by either jumping last second or running to side.
The monster is too busy with him so Lena finds it as a change to get back her sword.
She reaches her sword which is still implemented in the monster's skin she pulls it out and falls back down.
The monster didn't notice since it's receiving way more damage from kent who is now attacking and running.
Lena looks around her for a chance which she thinks she finds.
'alright.' lena thinks before she moves.
Kent is still distracting the monster so Lena quickly gets on top of the monster by climbing it's furry body.
She slowly walks towards the monsters face trying to not make it notice her presence.
As Lena slowly takes her time to the top of the monsters head Kent is suffering to dodge the monster and is finally taken by surprise a hit that missed him but hit the ground exactly in front of him, the shockwave from such an attack knocks him off his feet which makes him fall.
Looking up he notices another attack from the monster.
In a moment of desperateness he screams.
"PATOR NOW!"
which Lena quickly screams back to.
"NO PATOR DON'T DO IT!" Lena screams Making even the monster notice her.
which makes pator who was preparing to save Kent stop, if he were to follow one's choice who would it be. The man who failed his attack and almost caused them death or the girl who in a moment's notice made him realize there is a way.
He puts down the staff he was preparing to attack with and looks at Lena.
Kent lays down there with a look of disbelief thinking this is the end for him.
"THANK YOU PATOR!" Lena screams as she implements her sword multiple times into the many eyes the monster has.
The monster who was about to hit Kent quickly moves it's only fist to hit the person blinding it.
Lena continues blinding the monster as to fists twice her size come at her.
In the Last second she moves away jumping towards the thing's nose cutting as much of that as possible from jumping off and running to pick up Kent.
"PATOR NOW ATTACK THE MONSTER WITH THE STRONGEST ATTACK YOU CAN MUSTER!" Lena says as she holds kent on her shoulder.
Pator then with his staff aiming at the monster that had hit itself in the head and now lays on the ground. He screams as he put's as much of his life as possible into that attack.
A small fireball then appears that slowly moves towards the monster in absolute silence as everyone just watches.
As soon as it reaches the monster a sudden huge explosion happens that almost collapses the entire cave.
An explosion so strong it blows the monster's head to smithereens.
There it was. The corpse of something that minutes ago risked their life, now turned into nothing but mere flesh and meat.
Pator fell the to the ground breathing heavily.
The girl quickly runs to him leaving the half recovered Benj behind.
"Y-You idiot! You used to much mana! Mana is your life you know!" she said as she again did some kind of 'healing' to the magician who is barely able to breathe as he shakes all around from smacking the ground to clawing at it with one hand as the other begged his throat to accept air.
Slowly as the girl healed him he got better, but at some point fell unconscious.
Benj was able to stand back up again, but only looked down the entire time.
Kent was stuffing his face with the little food they had brought with them.
Lena just sat at one side laying her back to the wall of the cave while catching her breath.
The girl after finishing with Benj came and sat next to Lena.
"thank you Lena. You saved us." The girl said.
"No please you are overestimating me. All i did was get you all together, it was you all who did this. From your healing to pator's strong magic to Benj's amazing tanking to Kent's fighting the monster head on with the monster. What I did is nothing in comparison. I'm pretty sure even without me You guys would have found a way eventually. So don't less of your work." Lena said still leaning her back.
"by the way can I look at your sword?" the girl says.
Lena is confused for a second and then just nods.
"thank you." the girl says as she crawls and picks up Lena's sword.
"Oh, that's why." the girl says.
"I see you figured it out." Lena says looking at the girl fascinated by the sword.
"This sword is an absolute failure as a sword. it's edges are just horrible unless you have actual strength you wont be able to cut anything with this." the girl says.
"Yeah..." Lena says.
"That explains why you were able to use magic with it. usually something sharp would just leak out magic making it impossible to use magic with unless it was made with actual magic material. But this thing is just dull enough to hold magic!" the girl says surprised.
Lena just nods.
"But still, that comes with it's own disadvantage, for unless you are strong enough wielding such a sword with just be impossible, yet there you were cutting through monsters and that beast as if it was nothing."
"not nothing, can't you see I'm out of breath." Lena says.
"Still! How strong are you? Are you very muscular under those sleeves?" the girl says trying to raise Lena's sleeves.
"Hey I'm a female too muscles aren't really my thing." Lena says pulling away from the girl.
"Come on now you've got to be at least a bit muscular to pull that off." the girl says looking at Lena straight.
"Ok, maybe a little, but that's it." Lena says looking away.
The girl just takes her answer and doesn't mention it again.
"I'm in my 30s" the girl says as she looks away from Lena only to have Lena immediately turn her head towards her.
"Old hag." Lena says.
"shut it." the girl says as she keeps her head looking forward.
A while Later Lena had caught her breath and started Looting the most valuable parts of the boss. Kent and benj joined her after a bit, and by the time they were done Pator woke up.
They pack up and start moving back to the entrance.
Benj and kent this time move in the back as the woman cheers them up while Lena and Pator walk ahead.
"T-thank you for earlier." Pator said to Lena.
"Don't worry about it without you I would have died so you are just as much to thank as me." Lena said.
"hahaha... Thank you..." Pator thanked Lena.
They continued moving only following their path back.
A step another step followed by yet another step.
Lena stayed quite with Pator next to her while The woman at the back tried to cheer the depressed Kent and Benj after feeling completely useless.
A step another step followed by yet another step.
And then while walking with a smile Pator falls straight down.
Lena quickly reaches for the boy who instinctively raised his staff and holds it as she barely holds her self from the edge.
The boy is holding his staff with both hands barely able to hold himself while Lena with one hand holding him up and the other holding the edge of the hole feels as if she is about get cut in half.
Her hand which is holding the edge finally gives in and they slightly fall before Benj holds Lena's right hand with his own right hand.
"HOLD ON!" he says as the other two pull Benj Who is barely holding Lena.
"L-L-Lena I-I-i c-can't ho-old o-on anymore!" pator says as he is about to cry.
"d-dont W-worry" Lena says while her face becomes red.
All of them holding as much as they could finally the deciding action happens.
Even though no one let go even though no one gave up yet, Lena and pator fell.
Benj's right gauntlet armor had collapsed from the weight of those two after taking a terrible beating from the monster.
Lena and Pator fell into the deep hole alongside Benj's right gauntlet.