Sara stood, pointing to the way she and Jamile found the elfen demon, "I've sensed demonic magic there. We should check for the stairs to the next layer."
All the wizards gathered up and headed that way with some fighters for protection. Sara tried to go with them but she was stopped by the old wizard, "Lass, you must rest. Wait for the supplies team."
"It's dangerous there. You'll need all the power you can have." Sara growled.
The old man giggled, patting her head. "I'm already too old. It won't be so bad if I die. Rest, you have a long life ahead of you." They left without her and soon returned safely after having confirmed that the stairs to the third layer were behind the crack that Jamile and Sara found.
Liam and Alice's group came and found them talking, Jamile staring at a dancing woman while listening to a bard in the corner. Sara sat at the side rubbing healing cream on her elbow.
"What happened?" Jack growled, "Did a powerful demon show up?"
The old wizard stared at him. "An elfen demon, Jamile and Sara killed it. But as you can see, he's depressed and she got injured badly, lost her left arm and we managed to reattach it."
Liam approached Jamile, "You killed an elfen demon? You're far more capable than I expected from your fight with the stone demon."
Jamile smiled, "It's thanks to your advice. I managed to see its tentacles by throwing dirt on them. Thinking of a way to win is more effective than just retreating."
"That's the spirit of adventuring. We are called that because we seek the unknown, whether it is a forging place like this dungeon or new monsters to fight and win. We're adventuring, risking our lives." Liam sat beside him. "But don't overdo it. You still have the boss waiting."
"The boss?" Jamile giggled, "I doubt even I can defeat it alone. We need everyone to band together to win."
"You're right. Just be careful, demons here won't let you reach him." Liam smiled. But what he was thinking was something else. The reason demons attack intruders isn't that they want to protect the boss, it's because they want to eat the adventurers' souls before the boss can eat them. The demons that obeyed the boss are all hiding in path B, the ones they face here are the rebellious rogues.
"Liam!" Alice approached him. "Elfen demons are dangerous, everyone should retreat. This dungeon isn't worth risking their life for it." She stared at Jamile, "You understand that, don't you?"
Jamile looked at her and Liam. "You might be right, but it isn't my decision alone." He stood and looked at the rest of the adventurers. "Elfen demons are already too dangerous. Who wants to keep fighting? I can understand if you don't want to risk your lives here."
The dancer that was dancing in front of him smiled. "The name is Mary." She looked at Alice, "I love your eyes, and they glow with a menacing blue light of mana."
"She is right." The high elf bard stopped drumming and giggled. "My name is Gaku. Mary is right; you don't have the eyes of someone that will retreat with us."
As a hero, Alice was determined to be the last one to escape the dungeon. If the adventurers decided to retreat and the demons tried to stop them, she'd stay here to hold them off. So is the duty of the hero. They didn't know of that but they could tell what she wanted to do just by looking at her cold stare.
"Alice…" Liam asked, "What would you do if you saw an elfen demon?"
"Cut its head off on the spot. They'll always try to act like children so their prey drops their guard down, cutting them mid-speech is the best way to dispatch them safely." She pulled the demonology book from her backpack and gave it to them. "It's quite long, but I got it from the guild."
Jamile, Mary, and Gaku stared at the book and opened it to the page of the elfen demons. "We did read the book, but remembering details in an over a thousand-page book is quite hard." Jamile giggled.
"But, isn't this method flawed? How can you tell if you're dealing with a child or a demon?" He looked at her.
Liam replied first. "Why care? If a child walked down here they die anyway so slice anything down." He didn't care if it was a child or a demon, if it was trying to speak to him here in a demon-infested dungeon, it was a fiend. "Anything besides the people I walked into the dungeon with is a demon."
"You can tell by their magic. They'll reek of demon mana." Alice replied that was the same way Sara noticed that it was a demon.
"And there is that." Liam pointed at her. "But it's a waste of time to check. You'll only hesitate, and end up like that." He pointed at Sara then turned toward Jamile. "If you sliced it the moment it showed, Sara wouldn't have lost her arm."
"I can't swing my blade at a child. Even if I knew it was a demon, my hands still tremble." He lifted his shaking palm. "I'll have a daughter soon. Will she look like that?"
"No, your daughter is a human, and that was a demon. Just think about it, why in the nine hells would a child be two layers deep in a demonic dungeon? But I guess since demons still use it, the trick works in a decent chunk of people." Liam sighed. "All they need is a moment of hesitation to get an opening to kill you."
"I hate to admit it, but Liam is right." Alice looked at him. "If you saw anyone other than the adventurers you came with here kill on sight, it's 99% a demon." I can't keep idealistic expectations here. It's kill or be killed. She looked at Liam with a smile. He's indeed someone to look up to, not a single drop of hesitation to put blood on his hand to help us.
Jamile stood, "Everyone, what do you think? We retreat or fight?" He looked at the adventurers. As a collective decision, they decided to stay and fight until they faced a real snag. As long as they can still kill the demons and haven't lost anyone, they'll keep pushing their luck.
Liam and his group returned outside to refill, leaving the rest of the adventurers about to push deeper into the dungeon. The coming third layer should be far more dangerous than the first with it being filled with elfen demons.
With everyone putting their mind into killing everyone on sight, and the several wizards casting their magic to make the demon's invisible tentacles visible, the front-line fighter rushed forth cutting the demon left and right, ignoring the human-like cries as best as they could. Luckily for them, elfen demons were as durable as the kids they mimic making them able to one hit kill them.
As they rested, Jamile noticed that several adventurers had been injured. Even with dirt making those tentacles visible, they were still hard to dodge and deal with as they moved like whips. He was a level 39 A-ranker so he had the speed, strength, and expensive armor to deflect the tentacles and dodge them, but some of the B-rankers couldn't evade everything.
Liam and the supplies group returned and they found the adventurers injured. "Hesitation? No, lack of stats." He approached Jamile. "Don't worry about it. There is nothing you can do about a lack of stats in this situation." The adventurers had no way to train to increase their stats here. The dungeon is starting to get hard, and they must win by their wits.
"There is something that can be done about a lack of stats." Alice stared at the bards, dancers, and wizards. "Buff spells; you can use them, can't you?"
"We can, but the effect drops when targeting a lot of people." The old wizard replied. "We barely raise their stats by 4 or 5 at best."
"That's why I said there is no way to increase their stats here." Liam looked at Alice. "It's inefficient. Wizards are better casting offensive magic, barrier magic, or buffing a single person to take the lead, that would be Jamile."
"That would be the best choice indeed." The old wizard smiled.
Liam stared at him for a second and then approached him. "What about you Old man? What's your name?"
"Me? I'm called Gatom, some here call me Gramps." Gatom smiled, he was already in his early seventies.
"For a wizard to survive to this age, you must've seen countless battles and deaths. If I was the villain, I would be worried about you the most. Wouldn't it be best to buff yourself instead of Jamile?" Liam tapped Gatom's chest.
"No way, I'm already past my prime. Casting spells or giving advice is the best I could do, fighting is way beyond my old cracked bones." Gatom laughed, patting Liam's head.
Alice stared at Gatom, her eyes glowing blue. His body is indeed almost as weak as I was before, but his magic is out of the chart.