"Hello?" Terra waved her hand in front of me curiously as she tried to get my attention, "Are you with me?"
"Yeah," I answered as I pushed her hand away and continue walking at normal speed, "So you're from the Gaiaclan? That explains the guards and that armor."
'Yeah, my dad is a real piece of work," Terra said with a sigh, "He wouldn't even let me enter the dungeon on my own terms and he went and hired some guards for me."
"You're rich enough to buy an entire dungeon if you want," I said to Terra, "Why go through all this stress just to hunt in a D ranked dungeon?"
"What's the point of power if you don't work for it yourself?" she said and I could understand her immediately. I would also want to hunt in dungeons even if I was extremely rich. Buying all the skills in the world would be useless if you don't have the power to back up those skills. You would become a glass canon with too much power but no strength to hold that power. The only way to get stronger is by going into dungeons and ranking up, "So what do you say?" she asked again, "Are you going to work for me now that you know who I am?"
"Miss, we're under attack!" one of the three men in front of us suddenly shouted as they all drew weapons, "Get into formation!"
A pack of [Tempest Wolves] were slowly creeping out from the woods in front of us and the three men all spread out in an arc as they faced the wolves. They looked trained so I was sure they wouldn't have problems handling the wolves on one side of the clearing. I sent magic power t my arms and legs as I drew my sword and faced off against another pack of [Tempest Wolves] coming from the opposite side.
"No!" Terra suddenly shouted as she marched forward and stood in the middle of the three men, "This is my hunt, don't you dare try to protect me."
Terra was angry that the men were trying to protect her and prevent her from even killing any monster and she immediately tried to make them back down. But a Tempest Wolf used that brief moment of distraction to try and attack them. The wolves were all wind-based monsters so they were extremely fast! The wolf dashed forward and slashed at Trerra, one of the men used his polearm to stab the wolf in the shoulder, and held it down.
Terra quickly activated a skill and slammed the wolf on the head to kill it and an excited smile appeared on her face as she got her first kill.
'What nonsense,' I thought as I stabbed my sword into the eye of one wolf before using [Rain of Hellfire] on the pack that was rushing towards me. A storm of black flames fell upon them all and they cried out in pain from the fire as I dashed into their midst and started to cut them down one by one.
I grabbed one of the stubborn wolves by the neck and held it in place as I stabbed my sword into its chest before tossing it into another wolf to stop it from charging at me. I activated [Pyroclasm] and shot ten balls of black flames at the wolf and it fell to the ground and didn't get back up.
[You have killed 12 [Tempest Wolves]]
[Strength +3]
[Agility +4]
[The Heart of Darkness has activated Devour]
[Magic power +65]
Once I was done, I sheathed my sword and turned to see that the three men were also done. Terra was grinning from ear to ear as she stared at the wolves that she killed. Although, I knew that she didn't really kill any of them herself.
Those three men were the ones that held down the wolves, and all she did was deliver the last blow. This was also a popular method to raise stats among the richer members of the tower. It was the same as being carried by someone that is of a higher rank than you, the only difference between this and what they do on the first floor is that you would be the one getting all the stat points because you would deliver the killing blow.
Terra turned to me, and once she saw that I was done, she waved happily as she ran over, "That was awesome!" she shouted as she reached me, "Did you see me!? Did you!?"
"Yeah," I said," I saw you."
"Then you saw how awesome I was!" she shouted again and I realized that she was really a sheltered princess. If she thinks that what she did was an awesome performance then her standards were very low, "I killed five of them myself!" she continued without care and I sighed as I just turned around, "Wait till I tell Dad about this."
I ignored her ranting as I started making my way through the forest again. We weren't out of danger yet, so I tried to keep my eyes peeled for any movement from the bushes. This dungeon was very big, so there are always a lot of mob monsters around. This is one of the reasons why people don't like coming to this dungeon. There are just too many monsters.
"You know, you were also really good," Terra said as she finally came down from her adrenaline-fueled high and started walking beside me again, "I saw the monster you killed, there were almost ten of them," Terra smiled coyly, "Now I really want you to work for me. You seem a lot more fun than those three stooges."
"No," I said and Terra frowned at me.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I don't work with children."
Terra's face scrunched up in confusion, "Wait," she said, "How old are you?"
There was a sudden shift in the air. A spark of electricity that flew from my head right down to my toes like liquid lightning, warning me of impending doom right behind me.
[The Heart of Darkness suggests you dodge]
I immediately grabbed Terra by the hand and drew her to the ground with me as a large ball of fire flew over our heads and scorched the forest around us.
[You have acquired the passive skill [Danger Sense]]
I drew my sword from beside me and parried the polearm that was about to skewer me and the polearm stabbed into the ground beside my head. Terra screamed in fear as a large rock began to drop from the sky on top of us! I immediately activated [Shadow Web] and wrapped thousands of thin webs around the rock to pause its descent for a moment. I used that moment to grab Terra by the waist as I jumped back and faced off against the three men behind us.
The three men that Terra brought here as her guards were now openly glaring at us as they faced off against me. One of them, whom I assumed to be the leader, placed his polearm on his shoulder and frowned at me, "Didn't think you'd parry that," the man said. He was a thin tall man with short hair in a buzz cut. He didn't have any armor on his body, but I could tell that his clothes were reinforced enough to protect him, "Too bad your sword is messed up, you would've survived for a little longer."
I looked down at my hand and I saw that he was right. The sword was completely fucked and there was a line of blood falling from my forearm. This sword was from the first floor, so it couldn't withstand the force from the man's polearm. I gripped it tighter to feel the amount of pain in my arm, and I was glad when it wasn't too much. That means the injury isn't too deep.
One of the other two men, a short dark-skinned man with black hair, produced two swords from a spatial ring before throwing one of them at the third man. They were fire and earth mages respectfully, but it seems that they were also trained in how to use weapons.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Tera shouted at the men from her place in my arms and I frowned.
"Shut up," I said as I dropped her to the ground, "Isn't it obvious? They were sent here to kill you inside the dungeon."