Neil woke up both confused and comfortable in what he assumed to be the tent. Now in a normal state of mind, he saw he had leveled up twice giving him six more unused skill points which he decided he would assign later, furthermore, it seems the sliding cleave had increased in level which was another thing he chose to investigate later. He truly loved procrastinating.
He also remembered the club he had picked up from the troll which was the first enemy to be using equipment and decided the club would be a good thing to give back to the owner of the trade inn when he eventually got back to it, as he had no plans of using it.
He realized that Amelia must've been the one who set up the tent and was very thankful.
'I'll have to make it up for her later' He thought to himself. He quickly composed himself, stood up, and walked out of the tent to see Amelia sitting by a fire.
"So the crazy one's finally awake," She said to him as he went to sit across from her.
Neil was expecting a hateful and disgusted glare from her after she had seen the negative effects of his class but was surprised to see a much kinder face and hear her joking tone.
Seemingly realizing this surprise Amelia began to speak.
"I have to admit seeing you on that last floor was quite interesting. I'm not one to ridicule others considering my past, and in all honesty, you were quite entertaining even with the difficulties you brought." She said to him smirking
"and don't forget what I said to you last floor, I do plan to teach you some. You'll need it anyways" She added on in the same relaxed tone.
Neil smiled upon hearing this and swiftly thanked her for it, along with setting up the camp. While he wanted to keep a friendly relationship with her he couldn't fight his questions and decided to ask her something he had been wondering.
"How come you are incredibly relaxed and playful sometimes, like now, and then at other times you are serious and quiet?" Neil finally asked, hoping to gain a better understanding of her personality. His lack of social skills was showing itself.
Amelia looked at Neil and thought a little before giving a response.
"Well, I suppose it depends on the situation, and sometimes my mood. If I'm comfortable enough and feel like the situation is safe then I'll be carefree as I am now, but if I dislike the situation or it's one to be taken with seriousness then I act accordingly." She responded simply, looking at him to see if that was enough of an answer to his question.
Upon hearing this Neil felt like an idiot, it seemed that he had simplified Amelia as he still somewhat viewed her as a fictional character, and thus didn't realize she would be as unique as any person on Earth.
"Thanks for the explanation," Neil said feeling stupid. He yet again reminded himself of the importance of logic which seemed to be a trait of his which he had lost ever since entering Archemia.
"Anyways, I think we can start on the Fourth floor already, I'm getting somewhat exhausted from this dungeon," Amelia said to Neil.
Neil was curious about whether she had slept at all since the last floor or had eaten anything but decided that his one question was already enough. He had lost track of time long ago and now just guessed based on the feeling of his body.
He simply nodded in agreement to her proposal and stood back up. Quickly the two of them picked up their small camp.
"How about you hold off on the blood this time, at least until you absolutely need it. You'll find that strategy can also be quite helpful." Amelia said to Neil in a slightly mocking tone.
"Yes, I think that would be better" He responded, he hoped that what she said was true and knew that with the floor they were now entering he would be under-leveled and likely carried by her.
The two of them formed their usual formation and Amelia took on her usual serious demeanor as they entered the final labyrinth of the dungeon.
The fourth floor's maze was half the size of the third, containing only two encounters if cleared optimally. Even so, it seemed that the corridors didn't shrink from the last floor.
Neil also knew that the fourth floor began to have chests strewn throughout which could contain useful treasures, though vastly weaker than the artifact they were after.
The two walked slowly and apprehensively through the winding halls, in wait for the spotting of anything that might move.
Neil spotted something that seemed to shine out from the dungeon's bleak setting and noticed that the glowing thing was a chest.
'What luck' Neil thought to himself as he looked at it in happiness, He made sure to approach it carefully, not letting his giddiness overcome his caution. This was partially due to the remembrance that Amelia was also there and would yell at him if he began running towards the appealing treasure.
Once at the chest Neil glanced back at Amelia, waiting for a response.
"You're fine to open it." She said to him causing him to look back at the chest and immediately move his hands to open it up.
But once he touched the chest he felt something was off, while he had never actually felt a chest in a fantasy world he was surprised by the texture which was rougher and more moist than that of wood.
He nonetheless continued to open the chest when he suddenly felt movement from it.
Neil quickly flung himself back from the chest upon feeling the movement and looked directly at what was now in front of him.
"A good old mimic!" He yelled at it sarcastically as he recognized the creature well.
The chest had now opened itself showing off its razor-sharp and quite bloody teeth. The rest of it remained the same with it not even having eyes or a nose.
The chest then lurched itself forward, seemingly jumping, even though it had no appendages to do so.
Neil dodged to the left and was now holding his axe, it seemed his reaction speed was quick enough to avoid any damage from the initial surprise attack.
"You'll be taking this one" He heard Amelia say from behind, he guessed she had come across many mimics and knew of their relative strength at this point. While the mimic wasn't an enemy he was expecting he still knew much about it and agreed with Amelia that this was an enemy he could take on.
After fully collecting himself Neil looked down upon the mimic and formulated a rough idea of which attacks he'd try and use against it.
"Knowing it uses more basic movement a larger attack would be better as landing it shouldn't be difficult and will hurt the mimic greatly!" He heard Amelia yell out to him from behind, It seemed she had become like a teacher.
He nodded at what she said and waited for the mimic to make another dash toward him. Once it went for its next attack he successfully sidestepped it, causing the mimic to barrel into the wall of the corridor where it sat for a second.
Neil used this brief opportunity to do a two-handed side swing at the base of the mimic. He was slightly disgusted by the feeling of the axe in his hands as it pierced the mimic's fleshy skin and cut deep into it. The mimic shrieked at its injury and quickly recovered from its earlier state.
It now chomped directly for Neil's Ankle which he quickly lifted.
With only foot on the floor, Neil brought down his axe into the top of the mimic, in a more relaxed swing. Nonetheless, he was able to pierce the fleshy mimic yet again and this time seemingly killed it, as the mimic stopped its dashes and biting.
"Nice job, you fought that well and intelligently," Amelia said to him. Neil was surprised by the ease of the fight but realized that was the power of fighting smartly against an enemy that didn't.
After its death, the mimic spat out a gem, which Neil guessed was its treasure.
Within Archemia mimics always guarded a treasure and the strength of the mimic would depend on the quality of the item it guarded. The better the item the stronger the mimic, this meant they could be both some of the strongest and also some of the weakest enemies within the world.
"You handled that well," Amelia said to him after the brief fight.
"Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise at first but it wasn't very strong overall," Neil responded to her.
Neil was now staring down at the gem that sat, shining on the ground.
"Analyze" He muttered to himself quietly.
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Gem of Lightning
Rare Gem
Socketing this gem into a weapon give it lightning like attributes, with it dealing more damage to enemies weak to that type of damage and letting out waves of electricity on larger attacks. Furthermore this can be used to cause chain attacks of lightning on multiple enemies.
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Neil was happy with what he had just acquired, it was his first attribute gem and it was already quite a good one. While it didn't necessarily go along with his current attributes it would still be very helpful.
He slipped the gem into his pouch as he had no way of socketing it now.
Happy with his find Neil began to walk forward, continuing through the floor. He wondered whether the mimic would count as one of the two encounters and doubted it because of the mimics overall weakness.
'If I was able to easily take it down then it couldn't have been one of the encounters.' He thought to himself.
His guess was quickly proved correct as they ran into a pack of monsters only a few minutes after coming across the mimic.
"Two crystal trolls and one stone drake" He said quietly back to Amelia upon seeing the makeup of the group of monsters they'd be fighting next.
For the first time of being within the dungeon Neil had grown scared, a drake of any kind was extremely dangerous as they were deemed lesser dragons. Now that Neil was forced to actually see some of the more dangerous creatures of the dungeon it seemed he was quickly losing his willpower.
'maybe being affected by the blood was better than staying sane' He thought to himself as he stared at the magnificent and terrifying creature. He didn't want to betray or disappoint Amelia but he was now lost on what to do.
Amelia seemingly noticed Neil's quickly growing fear and decided to finally step up as the party leader and reign him in as best as possible.
"I know that seeing that drake has made you extremely scared, and I do understand that. But you've gotta remember I'm the one who'll deal with that, you've just got to live." She whispered to Neil hoping to get through to him.
After a few seconds of processing what Amelia had said Neil began to nod and seemed to have himself slightly more collected.
'Have trust in her Neil, have rust in your ally!" He thought to himself in an attempt to get over his current fear.
"I'll distract and deal with the two trolls as best as possible, you just take down the drake. I'll do my best to remain useful throughout the fight." He said to Amelia seriously and with fear still being heavy in his voice.
"That I will do" She replied.
The two of them now moved forward, about to take on their first fight of the fourth floor.