Leila glanced down at the young girl "Let me get this straight" she began, "Your sister ventured into the dungeon three weeks ago and hasn't returned. And you're offering me three silver pieces to find her?"
The girl nodded, tears glistening in her eyes as she clutched the coins tightly. "Y-Yes, please. It's all I have"
Leila exchanged a glance with Belial, then sighed inwardly. The offer seemed paltry, but she couldn't ignore the desperation in the girl's plea to find her sister, if anything, she was in the exact same spot a moment ago.
"Is Mika at it again?" One of the hunters muttered to his companion. "Her sister's likely long gone by now"
"And who would risk their lives for three silver pieces, even for a noble cause?" his friend added with a frown.
"Alright" Leila said, reaching out to take the coins from the girl's trembling hand. "I'll find your sister, if I can"
Mika's tear-streaked face brightened with relief, and she offered Leila a shaky smile. "Thank you... thank you so much"
Leila gave the girl's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before turning to leave.
"Did you feel sorry for the girl?" Belial asked quietly.
Leila nodded. "Yes"
"You're a weird human" Belial remarked, "All the human I ever interacted with were selfish, cruel and only cared for their personal interests" He added, "Either power, money, lust, they were ready to give their children, parents and partners in exchange, even their souls, so I thought all humans were selfish"
"Most humans are that's why I hate them" Leila replied.
After a while, they approached a cave nestled into the side of a steep mountain within the forest. Near the entrance, hunters gathered in groups or awaited their parties. Two guards, clad in heavy iron armor and bearing a green banner emblazoned with the symbol of a lion atop crossed swords stood watch at the entrance.
Leila approached the cave entrance alongside Belial as they slowly passed through the hunters, all eyeing them, It wasn't common for hunters with such high-ranking equipment to be present at a mere D-Rank dungeon, some thought they were just from a rich family who could buy such expensive gear for their rookie children to play hunters for a bit, and some thought they were just inspectors and not actually hunters.
"Halt!" one of the guards commanded, raising a hand. "Where is your party?"
"It's just the two of us" Leila replied.
"That's quite risky. It's recommended to enter with a party of five. Despite your impressive gear, lacking experience could prove fatal in a dungeon" the guard cautioned. "May I see your hunter licenses?"
Leila presented her silver plaque, followed by Belial with his Mithril one. The guard's demeanor shifted. "B-Rank and S-Rank! My apologies: I presumed too much."
"It's understandable. You were simply looking out for us" Leila reassured, reclaiming their licenses.
"If I may ask, what brings two esteemed High-Ranking hunters to a D-Rank dungeon?" the guard asked.
"We've been commissioned to find a lost girl who entered the dungeon three weeks ago" Leila explained.
"Oh, Sophia. Did Mika trouble you at the guild?" the guard sighed. "It's a sad situation, but the girl needs to accept the likely outcome. I apologize if she wasted your time"
"She didn't. We were offered a commission, and the reward was paid in advance. We find it sufficient and are committed to the search and rescue" Leila responded.
"W-What? Mika afforded an S-Rank and a B-Rank? How?" whispered one of the nearby hunters to his companion, sparking murmurs among the gathering crowd.
"I can't stop you than, be safe" The guard relented, stepping aside to allow Belial and Leila entry into the dungeon.
It was a dark cave filled with the stench of corpses and blood, there were no torches so parties would depend on a mage to light the way, Leila conjured a glowing orb to light their way, revealing a tunnel that led to a large chamber with multiple branching paths.
"It seems we'll be spending quite some time here" Leila remarked with a sigh.
"It's an opportunity to train. As the guard mentioned, you're still young and inexperienced" Belial commented.
Leila arched an eyebrow. "Belial, you don't look much older than me. You probably inherited just your family's fancy titles. How old are you? A hundred years? That's still young for a Demon.. I assume.."
"I'm actually around three millennia old" Belial replied casually, "And I don't have a family, demons are born from hell's essence so I worked hard for my titles I'll have you know"
"W-W.." She stuttered before looking to the ground with a look of defeat, "Never mind then.."
"Hey, look. It's a goblin," Belial pointed out, drawing Leila's attention to a snarling goblin brandishing a worn knife.
"Oh, a goblin should be easy to deal with" Leila said raising her broken staff and firing two fire arrows towards the goblin piercing his skull and heart.
LV 1 GOBLIN DEFEATED +25 XP
"Oh, looks like you gain experience by defeating them. Nice" Belial remarked with a thumbs up, but Leila shook her head in disbelief.
"Wait, wait. You're telling me this is normal? I'm not hallucinating?" Leila asked incredulously.
"Yes, It's the guideline, you've never seen it before? Belial asked in confusion.
"I've seen it once before, but I thought I was just hallucinating" Leila replied.
"Now that I think about it, I've never seen a human who really interacted with the guideline, could it be because you're turning into a Dokkaebi?" Belial answered.
"T-Thant would actually make sense, but what is this guideline now that we're on the topic?" Leila asked.
"The guideline is like what the name suggests, it's a guideline, it shows you your level, skills and how strong you are, it also notifies you when you level up or gain new skills and gives you quests to increase your growth" Belial explained.
"Wait, so I can magically get stronger the more monsters I defeat?" Leila asked.
"In a way, Yes, but the stronger you are, the stronger the monsters you have to kill in order to level up" Belial ckarified, "Why don't you take a look at your stats?"
Leila looked back at the guideline prompting her status window.
NAME: LEILA (LILLITH)
LEVEL: 1 (25/100)
RACE: HUMAN | DOKKAEBI
CLASS: SUMMONER
SUBCLASS: DARK MAGE
HP: 100/100
MP: 250/250
STATS:
STR: 4 | AGILITY: 7 | CON: 3 | WIS: 12
DEMONIC ENERGY: 1 (+10)
"Oh, so that's what I saw before" she remarked. "I think I understand this now" She rubbed her chin in thought before smirking at Belial. "Looks like I'll catch up to you in no time. Show me your stats, Mr. Summon" she added with a hint of sarcastic pride.
"How arrogant, here" Belial showed her his status window.
NAME: BELIAL
LEVEL: 324
RACE: DOKKAEBI
CLASS: DEMON KING
SPECIAL SKILLS: Devil's Whisper
HP: 10,000 / 10,000
DEMONIC ENERGY: 25,000 / 25,000
STATS:
STR: 250 | DEX: 210 | CON: 215 | WIS: 325
"KYAA! WHY ARE YOU SO STRONG?!" Leila exclaimed in shock. "AND WHY IS YOUR DEMONIC ENERGY IN PLACE OF MANA?"
Leila's yell didn't go unnoticed. from the multiple paths that led to the chamber, Belial felt a tremor, only to see countless glowing red eyes emerging from the dark tunnels.
"Looks like you put yourself in a bit of a tough spot" Belial laughed as Leila started weaving spells left and right.
"S-SHUT UP AND HELP ME!" Leila yelled back.
"Is that an order?" Belial teased.
Leila thought for a moment, she can order Belial to help and he can probably wipe out these goblins in an instant, but that wouldn't give her any experience or even level her up, "N-NO, FINE, JUST WATCH THEN, I'LL GET RID OF THEM!"
Leila leaped up, narrowly dodging a slashing goblin as she hovered just above the ground. Conjuring a protective barrier around herself, she began chanting a spell. After a moment, a large fireball started forming above her.
"Hey, hey! You're going to destroy the entire cave if you release that!" Belial warned.
Leila smirked and released the fireball. In an instant, it transformed into a pool of lava, engulfing the ground and melting the countless goblins within it. Belial quickly jumped up, floating above the lava, as Leila felt the experience from killing the goblins being absorbed.
YOU HAVE KILLED 89 LV 1 GOBLINS
YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP
YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP
YOU HAVE LEVELLED UP
NAME: LEILA (LILLITH)
LEVEL: 4 (150/1850)
RACE: HUMAN | DOKKAEBI
CLASS: SUMMONER
SUBCLASS: DARK MAGE
HP: 100/100
MP: 250/250
STATS:
STR: 4 | AGILITY: 7 | CON: 3 | WIS: 12
DEMONIC ENERGY: 1 (+10)
UNALLOCATED STAT POINTS: 12
"That was impre-" Belial tried to say before they were interrupted by a loud yell coming from the entrance of one of the tunnels
"I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE, I'M GONNA DIE, FUCKFUCKFUCKSHITFUCK!" The voice kept yelling.
Leila and Belial rushed to the tunnel, only to find a young blonde man roughly the same age as Leila, hanging onto a loose stone at the cave's edge. "PLEASE DISPEL THIS SPELL!" He pleaded to Leila, who hesitantly dispelled her spell. Slowly, the lava started disappearing as the floor returned to normal.
The boy let go of the stone, slumping down on his back, and looked up to see both Belial and Leila towering over him with their eerie masks and long horns.
"Uh" He gulped, "Hello there, I'm Roan! What's your name" He chuckled awkwardly.
"Human! were you stalking us? where is your party?" Leila asked Roan as Belial looked at her with amusement.
"U-Uh I don't have a party" He smiled, "When the guard said that you both were S-Rank and B-Rank, most of the parties knew that you'd wipe out every monster in the dungeon, so they didn't bother going in, but I knew such esteemed hunters like yourselves wouldn't bother picking up the mana stones from these lowly goblins so I just followed you hoping to grab some" He explained with an awkward smile.
"What If you died in that spell!" Leila exclaimed.
"T-Then I die, isn't it better than letting my family starve?" He replied, his smile turning into a defeated frown, "Please, can I get any of the mana stones?" He pleaded.
"Human, I know the struggle to survive, I have endured it for too long, you may take whatever you want" Belial squeezed Roan's shoulder.
"R-Really?" Roan's eyes lit up, "T-Then please let me repay you by accompanying you, I know this dungeon better than anyone!"
"Don't you just want to leech off of us?" Leila squinted her eyes, but he couldn't see through her mask.
"Maybe, but it's a fair price for the piece of information I'm about to give you!" Roan replied, "Sophia is alive, she's being held captive at one of the goblin hideouts, but it's such a dangerous place that it is typically avoided by all parties, maybe that's why no one was able to see her for the past 3 weeks"
"Wait, if all parties avoid it, then how come you know?" Leila started smelling something fishy about him.
"Wait! Wait! Don't jump to conclusions, I was also being held captive there, but I'm a male so they didn't have any use for me, I was just reserve food so I was kept close to the entrance and managed to slip away while they were asleep" Roan explained, "But they use females for breeding, so she is kept in the boss's tent, I don't think they touched her yet since they usually breed on a full moon, which is.. tonight..