~$&
Max:" You know my Grandmama once said–"
Red: (Smiling) "You don't know your family, Bozo!"
Max: ( left eye twitches a little)" I don't remember asking for your opinion.( Lifts his right leg) Lick it!"
Red:(Angrily) I call foul!"
~$&
I jumped off of Red's back immediately and summoned my adamantium spear.
"Red, go check on Murasaki, and get him out of here, quickly!" I ordered the wolf as I hurried to stand in between the new beast and the wolves.
The new intruder was giving off a very dangerous vibe, more that even what Flintheart could handle.
"I can't leave you to fight that guy alone! You won't stand a chance!" Red protested.
"And evacuate the wolves too. Get them as far away from here as possible, I'll try to hold it off for as long as I can," I continued and studied the new threat.
It had a large black robe with a hood on that covered just about most of its body, and judging by the lumb around the waste, I could tell it was hiding some sort of weapon there. I could feel its piercing eyes on me, perhaps ridiculing my pathetic stance.
But the hooded beast just shrugged as if I weren't worth the trouble, and took of its hood.
"A–a girl?!" I exclaimed in shock.
"Correction, a woman. Now put that thing away," she said and folded her arms, waiting for me to do as she ordered.
I lowered my spear so that I wouldn't provoke the powerful being in front of me. I tried guessing her race from her face but found that impossible. She looked human though, so I'll just go with that.
"Um... Max, should I still evacuate the wolves?" Red asked as he too noticed the woman wasn't hostile.
"There's no need for that. If I wanted you lot dead, then there's nothing you could have done to stop me. Now, since you've all calmed down, I can finally begin my speech," the woman (definetly a girl) said and fumbled with her robes, eventually coming up with sheets of papers.
"Welcome to the Dungeon spir!" she read and flipped over a page.
" My name is Spir Alina, and I'm the master of this fine dungeon. So..." flips page again, " ...should be destroyed, we will not– wait that's the wrong page, hold on,"
She began mixing the pages searching for the right one but somehow, they all slipped out her hands and fell on the ground.
"Ah, No! Not now!" she cried as she dived for them and began gathering them one by one.
The other wolves seemed curious to what was happening so they all gathered around. Most seemed to have healed of their injuries and Red had gone over to help Saki who also wanted to know what was happening.
"Yeah...is she dumb?" Red asked once he had moved to my side with Saki.
"I think it's not a good idea to insult someone who can wipe the floor with us," I muttered as we watched the woman (No, seriously. She's a girl), Spir was it? collecting her pages. She reached a point where she began looking pissed.
Angrily, she waved her hand around the pages, which ignited into flames and burnt down to a crisp. Then, she lifted herself off the ground and dusted her ankles.
"I knew I shouldn't have trusted Fex with my papers. When I get my hands on him..." she grew silent once she saw the crowd that had just formed around her.
"Ah... Hi?" she cleverly said.
"Nah, girl. That's not how this works. You were going on about welcoming us into your dungeon, why don't we start with that," I told her.
"Hey, you can't talk to me like that! I'm a thousand years old you know, show me some respect!"she whined.
"I might have, if you looked and acted your age, that is. Right now, I'm staring at a girl who looks just around my age, care to explain that?"
"Hmph! Ain't you a rude one. You should know–"
I lost my patience and just straight up matched towards her. She looked shocked by my approach and her brain might have not caught on to what I was about to do. Something must be seriously wrong with this girl cause she obviously might have forgotten that she is a lot stronger than me.
Well, whatever. I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook some sense in her.
"What,"
*shake*
"is"
*shake*
"your"
*shake*
"PROBLEM?!"
I screamed at her. She was really starting to get to me. I had a whole lot of better things to do listen to her rumblings.
I stopped shaking her when I thought my point had been made clear. She went down on her knees confused and held her head to shake off the dizziness. Once that was done, she raised her head at me with this pouty look on her face like I had just wronged her.
"Meanie!" she shouted then started crying.
"Wha–huh?!"
"Jeez, Max. Did you have to make her cry?" Red asked, looking disappointed in me.
"W–wait, guys! I didn't...I mean, I–I wouldn't–"
"Not cool, Boss," Murasaki added.
"Hey! I'm not the bad guy here, right?" I turned to the rest of the wolves who when met with eye contact, either looked down or turned away from me.
What is wrong with these wolves?! You can't blame a guy for trying to rush things along. Well...maybe I was a little too harsh. But she's a dungeon master. I've never heard of a dungeon master crying. I sighed and turned to the crying girl.
Red and Saki were already by her side, consoling her. The other wolves also gathered around her, staring at me as if I were the villain.
"Don't worry. The bad guy can't hurt you anymore," Red said, giving me the stink eye.
"Yeah, little girl. We'll protect you," Saki continued as he rubbed his snout on her palm.
"I can't believe this! Just an hour ago, you guys were my best friends. Now that a girl is crying, I suddenly turn to your worst enemy? I've heard of been stabbed in the back, but this gives me a whole new meaning of being betrayed!"
"Hush, villain! You've already done enough," Red accused. Funny, somehow I think this is some sort of revenge for him to me.
"Fine then! See if I care! I'm going to cool off," I huffed and left the backstabbers to do their own thing.
I headed over to where the goblin king's essence was. After all that fire had dispersed, a large crater was left so it was quite easy for me to slide down and land exactly where the essence was.
It looked much different from normal ones. The ones I know of are always a semi-solid type of substance and usually blue in color. The darker the blue, the higher the grade. But this one was pure solid. A hexagon shaped solid to be exact, with a deep black in it that would have easily made it passed for a rock were it not for its eerie shape.
What gave it away was the type of aura it gave off. I could feel the power clashing with my dark mana. I picked it up to observe more, but other than its weight, there was nothing more I could get from it.
"Murasaki deserves this one. It was his kill after all. I wonder, would he reach Red's level if he were to absorb this?" I asked myself cause one thing I was pretty sure about was that Saki had just evolved to a centurion Beast.
He just needed the time to complete the final stages so he would become a true high grade beast. Now that that's done, I'll need another reason to run away from the wolves. Unfortunately, I was too late.
"Master, grow up," Saki commented as he joined me down in the crater. I hurriedly sat down cross-legged and closed my eyes. Then, I held my hands in a prayer form and began humming.
"Really? Now your meditating?"
*mmm....*
"Real mature. You know the girl is ready to talk to us. You can come if you'd like. Just thought I should inform you," I opened one eye and looked at him.
"What? Not going to say anything?"
I sighed and chose to become a bit mature.
"Let's go," I relented as I dusted myself off the ground before stretching.
Saki looked tired of me and just rolled his eyes.
***
"So, let me begin from scratch," Spir started.
"Before that, what is all this?" I asked with my arms folded. Red had allowed the girl to lean on his back, with the other wolves backing him up all forming a neat circle around them.
"Insurance. Now, continue Spir," Red answered.
I was about to add something but Murasaki nudged me to stay silent.
"Where was I? Ah... yes. Welcome to my dungeon and blah blah blah. We won't be accountable for deaths and something about killing floor masters. That's it," she answered sweetly and immediately ducked the second I tossed my boot at her.
"What kind of explanation is that?!" I angrily stated and took off my other shoe and positioned it.
"I knew it! You were a scumbag! Don't listen to him Spir. You did great," Red comforted her and turned to me then growled.
The little devil of a girl was hiding behind Red, and very decisively, gave me a smirk.
My eye twitched in irritation but I immediately knew what I would do for revenge.
I calmly turned to Saki, who was shaking his head rapidly, as if telling me not to do what I wanted to. I smiled evilly and turned to the pack.
"All of you, to me!" I ordered.
It happened like fish caught in a line. All wolves immediately began walking towards me in a single file, until they reached my position. Red was in the lead and let me tell you, the wolf resisted with every fibre of his being and in the process, dropping Spir. It was quite a show, him trying to resist the leader skill of the pack.
But even he succumbed eventually. Spir looked confused by the change of favour. She turned to the rest of the wolves to see who would support her, but non were left on her side.
As she was distracted by the turn of events, I stealthily approached her till I was in striking distance. Once that was done, I delivered a head chop that I'm sure did next to no damage. But it did yeald the desired results. She clutched her head in pain but I didn't give her any time to whine.
I grabbed her shoulders tightly and stared deep into her eyes.
"You feeling ready to make sense?" I whispered with a devil smile printed on my face.
***
We returned with the wolves back to their drinking point to rest. Spir had hurriedly explained that no one has ever made it to the Dungeon alive. In between her cries,( What? Oh, Bah! Nothing you call me will ever beat Bradley's insults) she mentioned that we were likely the first ones to ever survive this planet.
There were others who tried, but once they entered the planet, they immediately gave up due to the harsh conditions. She surprised me by saying that she's been watching our progress together with the floor masters, and they are the ones who sent the goblin king to challenge us.
They wanted to see how strong we were, and test us if we were worthy to even step in the dungeon. They did the same with others, but they always run away the second they were met with the king. Others who chose fought him didn't even last ten seconds.
Finally, she modified my ring to send me immediately into level one of the first floor, to save me the trouble of traveling.
"So please entertain us, Furrha. After all, you are the first one of your kind to ever step in here, although a few half dragons do occasionally visit," she finished while wiping her eyes and disappeared.
Once we arrived, I saw a cave not far from here and guessed that's where they all slept.
"All of you did awesome today. Now you can all evolve to the next grade. Once you do so, I suggest you guys eat the beast essence you've gathered, I have a feeling it will really help you," I told them.
"Murasaki, I want you to have this," I continued, taking out the Dark crystal.
"But why, Boss? I don't need–"
"Don't argue with me. The next time you sleep, be prepared. That's the moment you'll start evolving to a true high grade. After the gruesome process, this crystal will help you climb to the same level as Red,"
He nodded his head in understanding. I told the wolves to rest for a while, a week would do. And also, Bradley just informed me that their evolution will take that amount of time.
"Red, you'll have to protect them during that time,"
"I know that, Max. No need to remind me," he spat back.
I wished the wolves well as I headed back to camp. I opened the portal and this time, it looked more stable. But the rotating waves still gave off a sense of doom.
One more insult to Red, and I happily jumped through it, ready to have a good night sleep on my own bed.