The two of them talked for some time about the battle, ways that Neil could improve, and just general things for him to know and remember.
Amelia specifically mentioned Neil's strategy of closing distance and its strengths and weaknesses, as its success was very dependent on the enemy he used it against.
After all of the talking the two continued their exploration down the side hall.
"Oooo, I think I see a chest!!" Neil yelled out in excitement.
Amelia only smiled at this, it seemed Neil was calming her serious personality at this point and his odd gestures often brought her some joy. The two were becoming good companions, bringing each other happiness and entertainment.
Neil ran over to the chest and instead of touching, he swiftly lifted his axe above his head and brought it down into the chest.
'No more mimics' He thought to himself as he did so.
The sound of splintering wood shot through the dungeon as Neil looked at the destroyed wood chest underneath him.
Neil wore a gaze of surprise that it was only a chest, behind him, Amelia was stifling a laugh at the situation.
After some seconds of staring in surprise, Neil squatted down to the chest to check what was inside of it.
Within the destroyed chest sat a pair of earrings.
Neil was surprised by their unique beauty as they glowed a deep blue and purple.
'It's as though one's looking at a galaxy' Neil thought to himself upon seeing their incredible beauty.
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Earrings of Comfort
These unique earrings are made from an unknown substance and thus have an odd list of effects, unlike those of typical equipment.
Upon wearing the earrings one will feel a since of comfort and happiness fill their body. While not ensuring optimism these earrings do often bring about greater happiness in a person.
---------------------------------------------------
"What an odd piece of equipment" Neil thought to himself as he looked at the pair of earrings. He had never heard of something bringing comfort and happiness instead of the normally measured stats.
"Hear, you should have one of these!!" He yelled as he threw a singular earring back to Amelia.
"We made a deal that you got all equipment, including this." Amelie responded, holding up the earring.
"Well, I wish you to have it, so it doesn't count." Neil responded to her, hoping she'd simply take the earring.
Secretly he held an ambition of wanting to see her wear the beautiful earring, even if it was only the singular one. He knew that may be wrong but still went with it, furthermore he knew the earring would also likely bring her comfort as with its name so it's not like it would be hurtful.
After some time Amelia seemed to accept, though she only put it in her pocket instead of wearing the earring.
Neil on the other hand would wear anything in this world if he felt the benefit from it was good enough. Thus, he quickly put on the multicolored crescent shaped earring.
To his surprise he could immediately fell a wave of comfort spread over his body in an unexplainable way.
"How does it look?" He asked Amelia, hoping for a response that might show the slightest interest in him.
Instead, he got a "well, not too bad". He did his best to hide the pain of hearing this and simply began to walk away from the chest as inconspicuously as possible.
Amelia seemingly noticing his disappointment laughed at his reaction some until she calmed herself and began following him. It wasn't that she necessarily disliked Neil, but they had only met a few days ago so she couldn't find herself holding that strong of emotions for him, especially after her prior relationships.
Furthermore, he was a little too young and innocent for her, causing her to instead look at him as a student as he currently is.
After the find the two walked for a few minutes before reaching a dead end.
"Guess that's as far as it goes, let's return to the normal route now." Neil said back to her. It seemed he was also becoming exhausted with the large dungeon. It was where he had spent the most of his time in Archemia at, which he was becoming somewhat annoyed with..
"Soon you will be out and travelling more." He reminded to himself.
Amelia agreed with him and the two began to swiftly walk back to the main path they had been on before.
They returned to their earlier crossroads and now took the previously unchosen right.
After even more walking Neil finally came across his sighting of the final group of monsters, he ha dot blink multiple times to ensure what he was seeing was true.
"Ummm, It's a group of three crystal golems. That's all" He said turning back to look at Amelia reaction.
She was just as surprised as him as they both wondered why the last group of monsters was ones they had fought multiple floors earlier.
In the end Neil just shrugged and began to walk towards them, "good luck I guess" he said still quite shocked at the situation.
Neil knew that the encounter before would normally be much tougher than the one before it and should've shown a new and even more dangerous creature than the drake. Never in his time of playing Archemia and delving its dungeons had this happened to him.
Knowing such he approached the monsters carefully, wondering what exactly caused them to be so vastly different than what he knew.
As he closed the distance between himself and the monsters ahead he awaited a sudden change of their appearance, or an ambush by stronger creatures. Neither of those things happened though, instead he killed the group of monsters with absolute ease.
It was over in a matter of seconds and Neil couldn't help but be completely confused by the current situation.
'It must be just like with that first mimic!' he came to the conclusion and nodded, there was no way that was all they could have to fight.
"That was odd" Neil remarked in an attempt to create some comedy out of the confusing situation.
"Yes, it truly was." Amelia responded in a still slightly stunned voice.
The pair walked for a few minutes until they reached another utterly surprising situation.
The final crossroads sat in front of them now.
'What the hell!?" Neil was now lost, but in an effort to maintain his wits he suggested something.
"How about we search the passages surrounding this one to see if the monsters are as weak as well, or if it was a one time thing." He felt this was a good idea and hoped it could bring some reasoning as long as the surrounding passages had the expected monsters.
"Yes, let's do that, something feels very off." Amelia responded while investigating the split path.
For nearly 40 minutes the two ran through the inner circle of halls that were in the labyrinth.
"I don't even know what this could mean!!" Neil yelled out to Amelia.
After exploring every single passage they had gone through contained similarly weak creatures as those in the second encounter.
"I guess it's time to go find the staircase" Neil remarked, he now saw no use in further exploration and instead just wished to descent further.
Amelia nodded to his comment and the two turned around and retraced their steps all the way back to the familiar crossroad.
They now chose the other direction and followed the passage with great caution.
The presence of such weak creatures only heightened their cautious nature as both felt that something was very wrong within the dungeon.
After ten tense minutes the two saw a staircase resembling all of the earlier ones, though this one had lamps on either side as it went down. Lending it a creepy atmosphere but also just granting them more light as they went down.
At the bottom was landing where they'd camp until their bodies were in peak condition.
Also there was a massive pair of stone doors which acted as the entry way to a massive hollow ring of stone.
This ring would house the guardian of the artifact they were after along with the artifact. Sadly it was impossible for one to gain the artifact without defeating the guardian. Typically these were much later game quests due to the power they provided, but Amelia would be considered a late game NPC so the two cancelled each other out in a sense.
Neil was provided the benefit of helping her and reaping a large amount of the rewards. Which provided to him both experience and good equipment, both of which were things he was heavily in need of.
"This seems to be it" Neil said as he stared the large stone doors.
"Yes, We're nearing the end now." Amelia responded to him as she also stared at the large doors.
After a few more minutes of looking the two finally recollected themselves and began to set up camp together. Sleep nd good food would be necessities if they wished to live through the fight.
A worry was building in Neil, he already was worried that the guardian might be too much for the two of them. And now he also had the odd lack of a fight on the previous floor to worry about.
Both he and Amelia could feel that something was off, even so neither addressed it. Instead opting to carry on with typical routine, hoping that the worry would leave them if not faced.
After all of the setup Neil found himself in the tent yet again, as it was him who'd sleep first.
After laying in the dark for 15 minutes he gave up, knowing he currently had no urge to sleep. So he instead decided that he'd brainstorm what he knew about the upcoming fight.
'Preparation could never hurt' He was still quite new to this but realized that planning would only be helpful.
'The upcoming boss is a three headed chimera.' A dangerous beast that would easily eradicate him if it was a one on one fight. It possessed three heads each with their own unique set of attacks, furthermore its tail was extremely dangerous. It didn't fit the underground aspect of the dungeon but did make some sense as chimeras often do live in the mountainous regions of the world, though they're exceedingly rare.
While Neil was within the tent planning and doing his best to prepare for the upcoming fight Amelia sat outside, bored and wanting sleep.
After another ten minutes of planning in his head Neil heard some sounds from outside the tent and prepared to stand when he heard the familiar sound of the zipper.
The sound immediately sent him back to laying down in the tent where he was now pretending to be asleep.
"Seems he's already asleep." He heard Amelia say as he guessed that she was the one peering in.
"Well, its not like we're gonna get attacked." He heard her say as he suddenly felt her entering the tent as well.
This was an unexpected development for numerous reasons, the largest one being the fact that it went against Amelia's serious side as she was now throwing away safety for some sleep. It also brought him much surprise as she went to sleep right next to him, something he indeed found very surprising.
'Well, not gonna complain about this' He thought to himself in glee as Amelia went to laydown next to him.
He proceeded to have the best sleep he had had since coming into Archemia, next to Amelia.