It had been a few hours since they had been traveling through the dungeon.
It wasn't the first time Aria had been in a dungeon, as she often had to be deployed in so-called 's-ranking' dungeons.
Dungeons that were just as dangerous as some Depth ruins.
As she had learned, dungeons all seemed to embody a specific 'theme'. that ran consistently appears throughout the dungeon.
Quite logical, as the maker of those dungeons probably kept up his style of creation throughout his work.
This, however, also awakened a new theory inside the intellectuals.
As every dungeon was different, were they all made by different dungeon builders?
While there certainly were some dungeons that seemed to be created by monsters, also plenty of them seemed to be too refined to be made from them.
Aria was not saying that monsters were stupid, but she wasn't sure if they really were capable of creating such complex constructs.
After all, in some of those dungeons, complex magic formulas existed, and monsters rarely had such control or even knowledge about magic. At least not to that extent.
She looked over to Lapsa, who wiped the purple blood of the horde of desert wolves from his blade.
For some reason, his sword was invisible, but she didn't bother to ask, as it was not the first time she saw an enchanted blade.
She had never heard of an invisibility enchant on a sword, though.
In the few hours they spent together, Aria had noticed some things about him and the dungeon.
First, Lapsa was incredibly skilled.
No, skilled was an understatement.
Lapsa's sword carried absolute power, incredible gracefulness, overwhelming speed, and impossible skill.
If someone had asked her before if she believed that perfect swordsmanship existed, she would have answered that everyone had their own style, strength, and weaknesses, and as such, perfection in such a thing didn't exist.
After all, every Paladin she knew also had a different way of handling the sword and fighting, and many of them were on an equal level with each other.
However, if someone asked her now, she would simply answer with 'Lapsa's swordsmanship is perfect'.
It was true perfection.
Every move of his was aimed to kill, and every move that didn't kill seemed like an elegant dance that set up his finishing strike.
Although Aria certainly wasn't an expert in swordsmanship, to her, this was true perfection.
A beautiful blade dance.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Aria asked, looking at Lapsa with worry.
He had been constantly fighting for multiple hours. Even when she was resting, Lapsa didn't stop and defended them both from incoming desert wolves.
Caramel-colored wolves that could turn into sand and appear from the sand.
Due to that dangerous ability, they were never able to rest, as the whole theme of the dungeon seemed to be 'desert and sand'.
After all, no matter where they went, there was sand.
"I'm fine." he shook his head, before putting his sword back into his dimensional storage. "Shall we proceed?"
"Are you sure? I can heal you if you have any injuries."
"Don't worry. I'm fine."
"Alright then." Aria sighed, closing her eyes as she slouched.
He was a hopeless case.
While she knew some cases of workaholics, Lapsa was a different case altogether. He was like an unstoppable force that didn't even know the meaning of a break.
The second thing she learned about him was that he was a freak of nature.
Aria had seen many strong people. From paladins to holy knights or even 'sword saints'.
However, she had never met a Lapsa before.
To the monsters of the dungeons, he probably seemed like a true monster. During all those times, not even a trace of exhaust could be seen or even a scratch from those wolves.
No matter how many of those wolves attacked him, they were eradicated in mere seconds.
She could have blinked once and the fight would be over, ending in Lapsa, leaving behind a trail of wolves' corpses and blood.
And all that without using mana even once!
Usually, she would have found that sight to be disgusting, but the way he did such things.. seemed somehow artistic.
"You are scary." Aria smiled as they continued walking together.
Quickly she had come to realize that she possessed extreme luck, thus never taking a wrong path when they tried to cross the labyrinth.
Every time Lapsa tried to take the lead, they somehow ran into traps or a horde of monsters and ended in a dead end.
She giggled at the memory of him complaining about how being blessed by a goddess was completely unfair, and her luck was completely underserved.
Not that he had much room to talk though.
He was a monster of combat, after all.
"I'll take that as a compliment." He didn't bother to glance at her as he followed her through the dark and sandy labyrinth. "So, do you want to keep hearing a few of my stories?"
She nodded excitedly. "Of course!"
And the third thing she had found out about him was that he traveled around very often. While she still couldn't figure out who exactly he was, it turned out he was actually a kind person.
To pass time, he told her stories about his experience in certain kingdoms and some of the actions he took to ensure that the poor had a better day.
She found the way he seemed to try to undermine his own deeds to be very amusing and kind of endearing.
It was almost like he was trying to fit into his 'cold' persona and accidentally let some parts of his true, warm self spill out.
"..it is kind of weird, that there are only desert wolves here, isn't it?" I remarked.
"To a certain extent. It seems like the other monsters avoid us, while desert wolves see us as intruders in their territory." Lapsa nodded his head, starting to explain the reason why. "It is very similar to the incident of 14 years ago."
"The incident 14 years ago? You don't mean..?" Aria raised an eyebrow, as she turned her head to him.
"Exactly that. The 'guardian' incident."
Aria's eyes widened in realization as she slowly began to understand the full revelation. "So that's what lux meant by the guardian will destroy the lives of the second layer?"
"So she said something like that?" Lapsa rested his chin on his hand. "That certainly seems to make sense."
"Don't we have to speed up, then?"
"We are already progressing at a fairly quick speed," Lapsa said. "Accelerating even further would only lead us to mistakes."
"I see." Aria nodded.
Creeeeak
Inattentively, Aria opened another door that lead to an empty room. It wasn't the first one of its kind, so she didn't think anything about it and just kept walking.
Suddenly, Lapsa stopped, causing Aria to bump into him.
"What's wrong?"
"A trap."
Click.
As none of the rooms before seemed to be special in any way, she thought that this one would be a normal one too.
However, it seemed like she underestimated the danger of a dungeon.
Aria quickly turned around, looking to the exit, but where the exit one was, a wall appeared.
"The entrance is gone!" she yelled out to Lapsa, who pulled her to the side, as a wall of arrows barraged the point where she was now standing.
"Prepare for combat. An enemy could be coming."
Instead of an enemy, multiple walls of arrows started to shoot out from the walls, barraging them from every side and leaving them with no room to dodge.
"There are too many!" Aria yelled as she used mana to construct a small shield around the both of them.
The storm of arrows didn't seem to stop.
Crack!
On the contrary.
The number of arrows only seemed to rise with every passing second, gradually breaking small cracks into her shield.
"I can't hold on to this any longer! Do you have any plans?" Aria spoke to gritted teeth, slightly turning her head to Lapsa.
"It's worth a try. However, some arrows may hit us."
"Just do it! It's better than getting impaled by arro-"
Cling!
Aria couldn't finish her sentence, as her shield broke down.
With widened eyes, she could do nothing but watch as she was faced with the barrage of arrows speeding toward her.
"Void step."
However, before she could react, the deep voice of Lapsa echoed, and she could feel his arms wrapping around her waist, before the surrounding space distorted weirdly.
Instantly, they appeared on the other side of the room, at the exit.
Aria's eyes widened in surprise as she took in the change of position.
Lapsa, carrying Aria in his arms, burst through the door with as much power as he could muster.
BAM!
Using too much power, he dashed against a wall.
For a while, they both didn't say anything, as they still had to process the whole situation.
They almost died because of her carelessness.
"I'm sorry." Aria, who was still in Lapsa's arms, trembled in guilt as she buried her face in his chest, unable to look him in the eyes.
"D..on't be.." He spoke in a strained voice, seemingly pained by something.
"What's wrong?" Pushing him away lightly, she tried to examine his face — or at least what she saw from it.
His chest was pounding and she could see heavy sweat drops, falling down his neck.
"Nothing."
"Don't be stubborn." Aria furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding why he couldn't just tell her what was wrong. "Just tell me if you're injured somewhere."
"It is only a minor cut."
Not believing him, she pushed herself up to see it for herself.
"Don't move too much. Are you alright?" Lapsa asked in a worried voice, still sounding as exhausted as he did before. "Just lay down and take your time."
"Please shut your mouth." Her eyes widened as she saw the wounds on his thighs. Multiple broken arrows pierced through his thighs, getting stuck in them.
"Only a minor cut, my ass."