Once my feet left the ground, Hazel instantly charged forward and took the fight into her own hands. However, even if she wanted to fight the golem, she hadn't yet practiced magic. She already reached the level for『 Ancestral Magic 』but hadn't done anything with it. So, with no magic to use against the golem, Hazel quickly realized how ineffective her attempt to kill the golem had been.
Her first attack, which was targeted at the golem's head, simply bounced away. Her second attack was worse, as she was imbalanced. By the time her balance was corrected, her second strike had already been sent. The edge of her blade had only managed to leave a scratch on the golem's body.
I quickly stood up but groaned in pain as my ribs screamed at me. Some of them were broken. I quickly checked my HP, then gasped.
﹃
Arthur Aureys
120/180
﹄
"60 Damage! Holy shit!" I muttered with surprise. Another two more of those and I would be dead. I looked back at the golem, almost fearful. In my dragon form, they weren't much of a threat on their own. However, now that I was in my human form, they were much more difficult.
The golem, after realizing the new unseen being wasn't a threat to him, seemed to smile. He brought up his hand, then attacked her in a similar way as it did to me. Hazel's body flew through the air and landed on the other side of the hallway. I stood up, ignoring the pain in my side, then charged forward.
My left hand covered my wound, but I had my right hand raised. As I charged the golem turned to face me, but I was already ready for it. My hand was covered in flames that seemed to leave a faint orange trail behind as I moved.
"This ends now!" I yelled as I got closer to the golem. Once I was close enough, I attacked the golem in the face.
『 10 DMG 』
"Fuck!" I yelled in frustration. My attack was strong, that much I knew. However, even though I had attacked with as much of my strength as I could, it still wasn't enough. For a moment, I began to brace myself for another attack, but it never came. I opened my eyes in time to see Icarus charge in, his breath attack striking the golem in the side.
『 + 750 XP 』
The golem instantly exploded into a thousand pieces at the impact of Icarus's. As the golem's remains fell to the ground, I found myself staring at them in surprise. Then, with my guard dropped, I sighed in relief and fell back as I began to relax.
"That was difficult," I muttered as I tried to catch my breath. From the other side of the hallway, Hazel slowly began to rise to her feet. She covered her side with her hand, also attempting to soothe her injury. Icarus was a few yards away, smoke still rising from the corners of his mouth from his latest attack. I looked to Hazel, who was slowly walking over to me, then said, "Are you okay?"
"I'm good," She nodded as she moved closer. Her voice was strained because of her injury, but she still managed to put a smile on her face. Once she was close enough, she lowered herself with care, then sat at my side, "Teach me."
"Teach you?"
"Magic," Hazel said. She looked at me with a serious expression before saying, "I wasn't able to do anything just now. I'm level eight, yet haven't had the time to learn how to cast magic. So please, teach me how to do what you do."
I looked at Hazel with surprise as I tried to find the words. Then, as I continued to stare at her in silence, I nodded. Hazel's eyes lit up with happiness as I nodded.
"However, we can't do that here," I told her. Hazel's expression dropped a little, but I wasn't done talking yet, "Let's do that when we get back to the dungeon. We still have a few days left until we're expected to go back,"
Hazel sighed in relief, then nodded. She leaned against the wall as we began to rest.
Ten minutes later, once we were back to our base stats, we stood up and continued through the dungeon. We continued to walk for another hour before we saw the hall from before. During that time, we didn't run into a single golem.
Once we were back in the hall, I looked up and saw a large beam of light come into the room from above. The light was golden and much brighter than the moon's light, so I knew it was still the middle of the day.
"Let's check out these other doors," I said as I turned away from the statue. I looked back to the three broken gates, then ignored the middle gate. Because I got a core from the middle gate, I grew excited for the treasures that the other gates hid. I turned to Hazel, then said, "Which one?"
"Let's go left?" She suggested as her tone met that of a question. I nodded, then turned my gaze toward the left gate. Then, once we had confirmed our decision, we walked through the gate. Once our feet made it over the threshold, we all began to brace ourselves. However, unlike what happened with the middle gate, we found ourselves still in the same spot.
A moment of silence passed. I smiled, then took another step into the hallway. As Hazel followed me, I kept my eyes on the hallway itself. This one was much darker, almost devoid of any light. It was strange, considering the last hallway didn't have any light either.
This one, however, seemed to be covered in shadows. Two minutes after we began walking through, the hallway lead into another room. This room was huge, almost three times the size of the hall behind us. The walls and ceiling were rough and uneven. The stone bricks that had been lining the hallways from before were nowhere to be found. Instead, large crates and tall scaffolds that ran down the rough cave walls.
Jewels of all colors sparkled as my eyes drifted across the walls, each as clear as the last. When we walked into the room, we found ourselves at the edge of a large cliff. To our left, the cliff met with the wall, but we found a skinny wooden walkway on our right.
"It's a mine," Hazel whispered. I nodded, then leaned my body over the cliff edge to get a look into the rest of the mine. I was surprised to find the room delve into the shadows like an endless pit. Minerals and gems continued as far as the eye could see. I looked away from the pit and turned my attention to the wooden pathway next to us.
"That'll break when we step on it," I stated as I pointed to the wooden walkway next to us. Hazel turned her head to look at it, then quickly nodded.
"It's over three thousand years old," She said, "It's probably the route the dwarves used to get down, but it's too old to be used now. What do you think is down there?"
"No idea, but there's only one way to check," I said. I looked away from Hazel, then took a few steps away from the cliff edge. Hazel looked at me, curious. I looked down at the floor and rubbed my foot into it, "This is too weak to support my full weight."
Then, before Hazel could protest, I charged forward and jumped away from the cliff.
"Whoa!" Hazel yelled as my feet left the ground. As my body flew through the air, I looked down and peered into the abyss. In the next moment, before my body could begin its descent, I transformed into my dragon body.
The usual blanket of flames covered my body in an instant and I felt the weight of my body change. Once my wings sprouted from my back I began to use them to support myself in the air. My limbs began to hang, suspended, as my wings pushed to keep me hovering. I turned around, the opened my mouth.
"Ju-," I managed. My throat hurt as I spoke, but there was definitely a fragment of speech coming from my mouth. My voice was deep and powerful as if it was owned by a god. However, even with the change in tone, my accent was still obvious. Hazel looked at me, then nodded. Icarus quickly jumped off of the cliff, then took to the air and instantly flew to my side.
Hazel did the same as me. She first distanced herself from the cliff edge, then quickly dashed to the edge and jumped as far as she could. Once she was far away enough, she used『 Morph 』and transformed into her dragon body.
"Go...od," I said. I turned away from Hazel, then looked into the pit.
'Now, then. It's time to explore,' I thought to myself.