The dungeon was made up of 5 distinct rings as it goes down. The enemies become tougher with each but the size decreases, the final ring simply contains the artifact and its guardian. They were now at the entrance to the second ring.
"What are you hungry for," Neil asked Amelia.
"Nothing specific" She answered again trying to seem uninterested.
Neil began to pull out an assortment of ingredients from his pouch along with his frying pan.
They had already made another fire with wood they had brought down from outside and so he began cooking. In his pan was a large fish filet, while he cooked this he also prepared a dipping sauce of multiple vegetables. After 15 minutes of cooking the fish, it seemed ready to eat and he already had a good size bowl of the dip ready. Amelia provided water for the two of them and they began to eat. Neil ate maybe 1/3 of the food and then stopped feeling full enough.
He watched on as Amelia scarfed down the rest of the fish meal. While she was doing this he decided he'd used some of the unassigned stat points he had built up through his fighting.
He was now level 8 and had built up 21 points to use. He wasn't going to use all of them just yet but knowing the increase in difficulty that the two of them would soon face he wanted to become stronger before then. He decided to assign ten more points to his vitality, and five more to his agility. He wanted to be an absolute tank as he knew the monsters would be dangerous and he also wanted the speed to better evade them.
He looked up after this to see that Amelia was just finishing up the meal.
"You liked it that much, huh?" Neil asked in a cheeky voice
"No, I was just hungry after all of the adventuring." Amelia sputtered out defensively.
"Well do let me know when you get hungry then as I have the ingredients to make a few more meals." Neil proclaimed proudly.
Amelia shot him a sharp glance which he took as a sign to stop reveling in her reaction to his cooking.
"Let's carry on then, we still have many floors to go," Amelia said seriously.
With that, Neil put out the small fire and began into the next labyrinth. The proportions of this one were slightly smaller with it holding roughly 3 people across and only being about 8 feet tall. Neil hoped this wouldn't be a continuing trend as that would mean that by the last floor, the two of them would have to adventure in a single file line, something he imagined would be uncomfortable.
They walked through the winding corridor for a few minutes before they heard the sound of approaching creatures, the two of them prepared their weapons and Neil took the lead.
"Four rock golems and two crushers!" Neil Yelled back to Amelia upon seeing the approaching group.
"Got it, I'll deal with the crushers!" She yelled back.
Rock crushers were larger and more dangerous variants than the golems which gained an all-stats up along with much greater speed than the golems, making them quite a dangerous enemy.
Neil ran towards the group and lured out the two rock golems at the front which ran toward him. He dashed towards the left golem and brought his axe above his head and did his signature cleave into the golem which successfully cut through it and delivered a piercing blow through its abdomen. Neil pulled his axe out of the first golem and turned his attention to the second one.
He tried a one-handed slash on it like he had done against the rock lizards but it only delivered a small wound which the golem shrugged off.
'Gonna have to use the big moves' Neil thought to himself as he saw this. He grabbed the axe with both hands and delivered a strong side blow to the golem as though he were trying to cut down a tree with all his strength. The axe head successfully sliced through the golem, cutting it in half and killing it quickly.
After killing the two front golems Neil looked up to see the two crushers that were in the middle had already been killed and the two front golems were now all that remained. He looked back at Amelia.
"They're all yours," She said to him calmly.
Neil smiled at this and continued forward over the corpses of the creatures. Traveling directly towards the two golems he switched his grip on the axe and flipped it over letting the head face the ground. From there He pushed with his right hand which was in the middle of the handle and pulled with his left hand which was at the tip of the handle.
Through doing this he delivered a strong upward slash to the golem that was in front of him, slicing straight through its torso. The golem began cracking and fell over, Neil then turned his attention to the last golem and decided to have some fun while he could. He tried an attack he had always seen in games as he began spinning towards the golem with his axe. Upon contact, he sliced through the golem as though it wasn't even there with his momentum carrying forward until he stopped himself.
"It works," Neil said to himself loudly in surprise as he expected to have some issues with the attack.
"That was a good use of new attacks, you're creativity is good," Amelia said to Neil. Causing him to feel even more pride in his skills.
"I'll let you have all of the golems we come across, I can deal with any f the crushers as long as it's less than three of them. If they begin to appear in larger groups I will expect some help from you" She added to her prior compliment in the same serious tone that she used when talking about expeditions. Neil found her talking to be somewhat confusing, at times she would appear playful and lighthearted to him and then other times she would be serious and blunt in what she said. He felt he was beginning to understand it slightly better but still would need much more time with her to fully grasp it.
After hearing Amelia's comment Neil nodded and began walking forward deeper into the maze, which was when they came across their first crossroad.
"Right," Amelia stated from behind Neil. Neil was happy that she had chosen the same direction he was going to go but was slightly worried about what would happen if they disagreed on which direction to go. For now, he wouldn't worry about that and instead turn right and continued forward deeper into the maze.
The two of them continued like this for a while, as they progressed the groups of monsters became larger and more difficult with fewer golems showing up and more crushers appearing. This had caused Neil to fight a few crushers which were the first monsters to present some difficulty for him. Amelia had noticed this and decided to use them to try and best to train him some.
Neil could feel himself becoming more accustomed to the weapon and the fighting of Archemia. He also felt he had gained at least one level and was nearing his next.
They had been traveling for nearly 3 hours through the second floor when Neil knew they were nearing the end, they only had two more crossroads to go. It had seemed that Amelia was able to somehow tell the correct way as every choice she had made was in line with what Neil was going to choose, she truly was a seasoned adventurer. Through their exploration, Neil had begun to both look up to her for her power and knowledge and also become somewhat attracted to it. He had always liked stronger women and Amelia seemed to be the epitome of one, he of course kept this secret not even imagining what her response may be. For the time being he would simply get closer to her through their exploration of the dungeon after that he would see if getting into a romantic relationship would even be possible.
Neil returned to the task at hand and continued through the passageways of the tunnels. He sensed yet another group of enemies and upon seeing its makeup yelled it back to Amelia who divvied up the fights. This time it was a group of six crushers without any golems. Amelia would take out four and leave Neil with the remaining two. It was the first time he'd be fighting two at once and was excited to see how it would go.
He closed the distance between the enemies and himself as always and slashed at the first crusher with a single-handed slash.
"Clink!" The axe bounced off of the rocky body of the crusher.
'Damnit, gonna need more force than that' He thought to himself seeing the axe do no damage.
He quickly avoided the crusher's fist as it swung at him and brought both of his hands to the base of the axe and did his heavy side slash. This attack seemed to have the required force as it pierced the crusher which began to crumble from the impact of the blow outward. He was happy to see this and without thinking slowed himself as he had slayed the crusher.
The second crusher swiftly punched its fist into Neil's chest which sent him hurtling backward and into the wall of the corridor.
"Stay Focused!!" He could hear Amelia yell at him in an annoyed voice.
Neil picked himself up after the blow and realized the hit he had taken did a surprisingly small amount of damage. He was seeing the benefit brought to him by his upgraded vitality, he stood up dusted his shoulders off, and began dashing towards the crusher. He forced his axe into it through a heavy downward blow in its chest which successfully pierced the crusher which crumbled swiftly afterward.
In the remnants, Neil swore he could make out something on the ground that was faintly glowing.