They all looked at me with worried eyes, but upon hearing those last words, their expressions softened from their restless and tense faces and eventually just flat-out turned peaceful.
They closed their eyes and let the next few events unfold…
Fwip… Tuffff
We landed on soft sand after we squeezed through the quicksand-like dirt, and despite it being extremely soft, we at least didn't sink.
But, soon, we were greeted by disgusting purple rats with bloodshot eyes attempting to devour us.
"Everybody remember what I said!" I shouted, but just took a deep stance instead of going to actively kill these things.
This was more about the growth and learning of my siblings than anything else, so showing off my beautiful new rune should be saved for later.
"Now… normally, an assassin wouldn't tank," I muttered, grabbing a few daggers from out of the sac I had been carrying the entire time and then twirling them in between my fingers. "But, what can I do? You are all horrible as of now," I lightly smirked.
The trio felt a bit taunted, and a fiery determination lit behind those childish eyes of theirs, causing me to smile.
"Alright! They're coming!" I shouted as a wave of about fifty rats soon appeared, stumbling and running over each other, desperate for just a lick of our flesh.
They were starved, rabid, and desperate for just an ounce of meat that they could get their disease-ridden teeth on.
"Normally… you would also use a strategy such as bringing items, but there is no need for that as of now," I muttered, my eyes going cold as a trail of water seeped from the tips of my fingers and wrapped around the handles of each dagger.
My fingers felt so strong that climbing a literal flat wall seemed almost possible.
SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING SHING
My daggers tore through the first wave of rats, slightly pushing them back and allowing both Petra and Mari to conjure up a few spells.
Petra created a ball of toxic sludge in the midst of her hands while Mari conjured a ball of shadows that held hundreds of tiny little blades that cut up anything it came in contact with.
This was enough power and destruction to push back the wave of rats by even just a bit more, allowing Asger to come from behind me and take a few slashes at the wave of rats.
It had soon dwindled to about half its size, and as Petra and Mari conjured up even larger spells, I held them back with a shield made of [Water Magic].
I had a few questions as to how the rats were actually dying by Petra's toxic sludge, but to be honest, I wasn't going to complain as it made my life much easier.
Tup… Tup… Tup…
Each time I pushed the wave of rats back, it kept building up from the shadows, and as I didn't have much information on this dungeon, I knew I still had to be careful.
Having the trio learn important skills and lessons on fighting in a dungeon were necessary, but doing that and having them die just wouldn't be nice.
"Hey, Asger! You can stab with a spear! You know that, right?!" I shouted over the scratching and almost cackling voices of the pressing annoying rodents.
"I was told slashing with a spear is similar to using a scythe!" He shouted back before going in for another few slashes that eased up the front lines.
Though, I did notice the shadows rimming the sandy room were beginning to emit more and more rats… meaning I had to continuously adjust our positions just so we wouldn't get surrounded.
"C-Cyrus! W-We're running out of mana here!" Mari shouted, with Petra viciously nodding her head up and down in agreement.
"*sigh*... Alright, that should be enough practice," I muttered before letting go of the daggers and allowing them to sink easily into the sand below.
The piles of sand almost seem to gobble the blades up as a few splashes of my disintegrating shield of water wet them ever so slightly.
My fingers flexed, and a long trail of water began to seep from each and every individual nail, eventually tightening to form a web across the room that cut each and every present rat into small cubes of flesh.
The trio looked at me with dropped jaws and didn't move a muscle, fearful of accidentally cutting themselves on the threads that suddenly just appeared in the room.
"I was planning on showing this off later, but it seems the time has come much earlier than I had anticipated,"
"W-What was that?" Asger asked, running up to me and waving that long-ass spear around.
"Something pretty useful… I'll get you all some runes later, but for now, you must work on your body. You all are very weak… to the point that I doubt you all could take a few punches from a reinforced fist, so once we're out of here, I need you all to start eating more,"
To an outsider, this might've seemed like a strange thing to say, but I knew of these kids bad habits.
They all ate as little food as possible and saved the rest for later… though the thing is, they eventually never ate it as it rots before they could finish it.
Refrigerators aren't really a thing in our dorm rooms, so they just shove them underneath their beds.
But why did they develop such a habit? Well, I don't know for sure, but it must be because of their life in the orphanage.
Food was limited, and hoarding food for later wasn't uncommon despite how much Amelia groaned about how it stunk up the place.
Oh, and don't even get me started about the bugs.
"Alright? Did you get that? No need to start working out now, but just try to gain some weight. You all are deathly thin, even after how much food we get from the cafeteria… and don't tell me you're on a diet," I said as the trio in front of me all hung their jaws open.
It was obvious as to what their excuse was going to be.