"Hiisssss." A cobra in front of Dorian hissed loudly as a spear fell from nowhere and struck the snake on its head.
The snake crashed to the floor and died.
"That's one down." A voice from behind him said.
BHAM. A young man, who seemed to just be in his twenties, landed in front of Dorian. Dorian could only see the man's back. The man held his right arm forward and the spear that had just slain a cobra flew and returned to his hand.
"Spirit weapon." Dorian whispered after seeing the spear.
SWOOSH. Arrows rained down behind Dorian and pierced another cobra's neck, killing it. Dorian looked back to see who it was that fired the arrows. That's when he saw them. Three men and a woman. Walking towards the cobras behind him. Dorian said as he fell to his knees. "We are sav—"
BAM. Before he could finish his sentence, the head of what looked like the cobra's leader, fell to the ground right beside him. The snake was dead.
How? Dorian thought. Beheaded, by the young man that had just landed in front of him seconds ago. He killed a powerful Millennial beast within seconds. How did he just...
Dorian turned his head and watched in surprise as the young man easily killed the last of the three snake he had been battling with. "What the ho—"
BOOM. An explosion roared behind him. One of the men, the slender one with grey hair (Nick), had just used a spell to kill the remaining two cobras.
"Wh... who are you guys?!" Dorian asked with a loud voice. His eyes scanning their faces in confusion.
"Are you okay?" The woman among them asked. She knelt down and began to heal Hina, who looked like she was the most injured. "My name is Jade." She said. "We are adventurers, just like you."
"Oh." That was all Dorian could manage in his confusion.
"Don't worry. We will heal them." The slender one said as he knelt down and began healing Jack. "My name is Nick. That is Ace and Grey." Nick said pointing at his party members.
"And that." Nick continued pointing at the man with the spear. "That is our leader. Jordan."
*
*
It was our second day in the dungeon.
My party and I were in the fortieth floor then, we heard sounds of fighting. We rushed towards the sounds and discovered a group of adventurers that were ambushed by cobras. We stepped in and helped them.
But two of them were already injured. I moved towards them, a human and a giant who were still conscious. "I am sorry we didn't get here sooner." I said.
"No." The man said as he pushed himself up. "Thank you for saving us. It was my fault. I got cocky. I thought we were ready and..." He sighed then turned to Jade. "Thank you for healing them."
"It's not a problem." Jade said. "The two of them are okay. They should wake up soon. So is he." She turned to the Giant. "Isn't that right big man?"
The giant smiled at her and said. "Thanks. I am okay."
"Oh. I haven't introduced us yet." The man said "My name is Dorian and that's Gorm. He doesn't talk too much."
"We are in your debt." Gorm said.
"We are adventurers. You don't need to thank us." I said as the spear in my right hand dissipated into the ring on my middle finger. "It's only normal we help. I am sure you would have done the same thing for us." The ring on my finger then turned into a tattoo. I had two similar tattoos on my index and ring fingers.
"Helix rings! Those are Helix rings!" Dorian exclaimed, pointing at hands.
*Helix Ring: A ring that is fashioned with the ability to store magical weapons. Once the ring is put on a finger, it tattoos itself on the wearer's finger. Only one weapon can be stored per ring.*
"Yes. They are." I said. They were what I had commissioned Tony to make for me. Spirit Weapons and Helix Rings. I told Tony to make weapons like that for every soldier and warrior in the Empire.
"Wow. This is the second time I am seeing one." Dorian said. "You guys must be really rich or really powerful. The first time I saw one it was in the finger of an S rank adventurer."
"No." I said. "We are just a standard C rank adventurers."
"C rank. No way. That's not the strength of a C rank adventurer you just displayed. Wait, you guys aren't humans."
"No. We are monsters."
"Oh. There aren't too many monster adventurers. But. That explains it a little."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Don't worry. It's just—" Dorian stopped when he noticed Jack and Hina were waking up. "Are you guys okay?" He crouched down and asked them.
"Wha... What's going on?" Hina asked as she looked around.
"We should head elsewhere first. This area isn't safe." Jade said. "There's a guild's safe room not too far from here."
"Alright. Let's head there first."
We led them to the safe room we had found earlier today, on the fortieth floor. There were many rooms like that. Made by the Guilds to assist people who venture into the dungeon for different reasons. The dungeon was a natural condensed mana zone.
There were many valuable resources available like metal ores, magic ores, herbs, plants and many other things. It was a natural resource depot. This was one of the things that made the dungeon an important place.
The safe room was hidden behind a boulder. We entered the room and closed the room behind us with the boulder. The room was a little spacious and empty, except for some boulders and the little waterfall, trickling down at the edge of the room. The water looked clean and drinkable.
"Whoa! We haven't been to this safe room before." Dorian said. "This place is amazing. There's even a water source. The Guilds really know how to handle things."
"Uhm, Dorian." Hina called out. "Don't you think an introduction is in order?"
"Oh yeah. Uhm. Jack, Hina. These are the people who saved us. Grey, Nick, Ace, Jade and Jordan." He said pointing at us one after the other. "Jordan's their leader. They are adventurers."
"We can see that." Hina said.
"Right." Dorian turned to us. "Guys. This is Hina, our healer and Jack, our assassin. I have already introduced Gorm so, that's everyone."
"Thank you for saving us." He said to us. "You guys are monsters. I haven't seen many Monsters before. There aren't many monsters where I am from. I could hardly tell."
"We do have a different aura from humans." Jade mentioned.
"Can you all transform to your original forms?"
"No. Just Jordan." Jade answered.
"Oh."
"Hina." Jack called. "Don't disturb them with your weird questions. Don't be rude to the people who saved us."
"It's okay." Jade said. "We don't mind."
"Can I ask what clans you are from?" Hina kept probing.
"Sure. I am from the Spider clan." Jade answered.
"Dragon clan." Ace said with a grin on his face.
"Magi." Nick answered.
"Magi? Aren't magi, monsters known to be the most powerful spell casters in all races?"
"Yes."
"I am a healer and a magician in training. But I haven't mastered Seventh Tier magic yet." Hina said.
"You are learning two job classes?"
"Yes. After learning both, I will graduate to the special job class, Wizard. Do you use magic without casting spells?"
"Yes. It's because of an Intrinsic skill of the Magi clan." Nick answered. "We can use magic tiers within our realm without spells."
The Magi clan were widely known because of their role in the war, ten thousand years ago. They had skills that enabled them to use magic as easily as breathing.
The different magic tiers ranged from the ninth tier to first tier. The ninth to seventh tier were magic of the Innate Realm. The sixth to forth tier were magic of the Demon Realm. The third and first tier were magic of the Divine Realm.
"Cool." Hina said looking at Nick with new found admiration. "What about you guys?" She asked as she turned to Grey and I.
"We are from the Wolf clan." Grey answered for us both.
"So, you are a brown wolf," Hina said to Grey, turned to me and asked. "and he is a black wolf right?"
"What makes you think that?" Grey asked.
"I saw it in a book once." She said. "For most monsters, you can tell their subraces from their hair colour. Was the book wrong?"
"No. I am a brown wolf but Jordan... uhm..." Grey turned to me confused about whether he could tell her what I was.
"It's alright Grey." I said. "I am a white wolf."
"White? But—but" Hina stuttered.
"Wait. White wolves are..." Dorian started.
"Royals." Jack added.
"Yes. I am a royal." I answered. "But that doesn't mean much. My hair being black is just me. I am an exception."
"But something else is different." Jack said.
"I was just thinking that." Dorian interrupted.
"His eyes." Hina whispered as she stared straight into my eyes. "They are blue. Not red or yellow like in the books. How are your eyes blue? Everyone else's is red." She asked.
"Like I said. I am an exception." I replied.
"Come on guys. It's wrong to pry." Gorm finally spoke after all this time.
"Oh. Sorry I just..." Hina began.
"Hina." I called her. "Its alright." I said and smiled at her. "So how come you guys were ambushed by those cobras?"
Dorian sat on a boulder and faced the ground. "It's all my fault." He said.
"No Dorian." Gorm said. "We all decided."
"But I... I brought it up." Dorian said. "I am the leader. It's my responsibility to keep my party safe. I got the greedy. I saw a B ranked quest on the guild's quest wall. The quest said to get a Black Vine Snake. Just one. I thought maybe we could just go down to the forty first floor, and kill one. But I di—I didn't expect us to get ambushed by another snake-type beast." He scoffed. "Talk about a crazy coincidence."
"It's alright Dorian." Gorm said.
"No. No it's not. We just, we got lucky that Jordan and his party happened to be passing by."
"So?" I said. They all turned and looked at me. "So you got lucky. Why is that bad? Luck is a really important skill to have. This dungeon, it isn't as predictable a place as people think. Something happened to me a few years ago in this dungeon."
"I came to the dungeon alone a few years ago," I continued. "I was weaker then though. I could only go as deep as the thirtieth floor. And then, the most unexpected thing happened to me. I met a Celestial beast. One of the three Beast Kings of this Dungeon."
*
*
*
*
#Nick#
#Current Status#
Race: Monster
Specie: Royal Magi
Sex: Male
Age: 20
Eye colour: Red
Hair colour: Grey
Realm: Final Innate Realm
Sin: Pride.
Elements: Fire, Earth, Wind
Intrinsic Skills: Magi's aura. Mana manipulation. Mana Fusion. Height of magic. Self regeneration.
Rare Skills: Alchemist. Third eye.
Ultimate Skills: Mana Generator.
Titles: Royal Magi. Alchemist.
Magic: Elemental. Healing.
Nick, second son of the Blue Lord of the Northern Empire. A smart, and calm young man with talent for magic.