"Then we should kill it while it's still a lesser dragon!"
"Not that easy, muscle brain."
This spike needs someone to smack him on the head so that he can start thinking.
"She is right. A lesser dragon is already a Yellow ranked. But if it has grown four wings, it could be a higher Yellow. This is not something that can be easily fought and killed."
"Ugh..."
Blondie straightens his friend. Thanks blondie, you made the world a better place.
"We have two options. We could kill the dragon right now..."
That is the only option. What else are there?
"Or we can go back and call the Office. Wait for them to send more backup."
"I object."
He turned to me.
"Why?"
"There is a village just outside the forest. If we had waited any longer, the dragon might notice the village.
Not to mention it is near evolution. If it turned into a White ranked regular dragon, forget the village. We can have the whole kingdom on alert."
Blonde glanced at his friends. And they just shook their heads, so he let out a breath.
"Then our only choice is to kill it."
Hmm. Now you realize.
He let out his hand for a handshake with me.
"My name is Cane. I'm a light magician. Also a swordsman."
His friends just huffed at that last word, while Spike laughed. I guess he wasn't a very good swordsman.
"Hey, I can use the sword!"
"Sure... Sure..."
Are these guys always this positive?
I grabbed and shook his hand.
"Rize. Swordswoman."
"The guy with the metal gauntlet is Gen."
"Yo! Purple ranked, Gen. Nice to meet you."
I just nod at him.
"And the 'muscle head' is Brian."
"Brian, the coolest! Swordsman!"
I didn't nod at him.
"So? What do you have in mind?"
I asked for his opinion first. Since he's the 'most mature' one from all of them.
"Well, we did try using the bait. Surely you have seen it."
"I saw. It's a terrible idea."
"Keh-"
His friends were laughing from behind. Such supportive friends.
"It's not the brightest idea, I admit! But we could use it."
"We are not going to bait the dragon using the bear, are we?"
"That's exactly what I thought."
"Really? Then why do I have a feeling the dragon will be more interested in 'that' than the bear?"
He turned around and looked at the cave I pointed at.
"When I came here, the dragon was trying to enter that cave. And it barely moved when I was approaching him."
"Wait, you approached the dragon??"
Brian asked from Cane's back.
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"Nothing."
"So this dragon was... Focusing so much on that cave?"
Cane quickly asked, and I'm glad he took over the convo.
"Most likely."
"Then, let's go take a look."
He stood up and cleared his butt from the sands.
"Unfortunately, I ran out of energy at the moment. So you check it yourselves."
I legit can't stand up. My hands are barely moving, now. They will have to check the insides of the cave themselves.
"Alright then. We'll tell you what's in there."
The three walked to the cave. While they were leaving me alone, I stored my sword on my ring, and took out an item.
It's the simplified version of the energy crystal that the Office has. Not only can it check the maximum value of one's magic points, it can also check the current amount of magic energy that they have. And it's also fairly small, only at the size of an eyeball.
I put my hand on the crystal, and the numbers came out.
5,289/6,945
Huh?
The numbers are showing, and it says I still have 75% of my energy. Then, why can't I move?
I wasn't running out of energy. I was... Stunned? Immobilized?
I took out a throwing knife from my ring.
What I'm about to do is going to hurt badly. The others are still checking the cave, so might as well do it now.
I held the knife with my right hand, and lifted my left hand. I put the edge of the knife on my right side of the left palm.
SREK!
"Ukh..."
Blood came out. I didn't cut it that much, but it's enough to send a massive pain to my brain.
Suddenly, my body felt lighter again.
I can stand up now. Though my legs are still trembling. But if I just sit down, this... stun... won't go away.
I restored the knife back to the ring. I tried moving my legs and arms for a bit, to loosen up, and I can feel my blood flowing again.
I took out some bandages and closed the wound on my hand. While I was doing that, Cane walked towards me from the cave. The other two stayed at the entrance.
"Rize. Can you walk?"
"Yeah. I think."
"... What happened to your hand?'
"I stabbed myself."
"Oh... Forget it. Come take a look at this."
.
The inside of the cave is in fact a lair... of one of my biggest fears.
Spiders.
What is their problem? Like they suddenly stick to your head, and their... furry... Little legs made them look creepier.
And what is right in front of me is a human sized spider.
I watched that movie about giant spiders. Poor dog got eaten in the movie. Now those very spiders are right in front of me. I really hold back the urge to burn them.
"Why does it have to be spiders?"
They are crawling everywhere. On the floor, walls, ceiling. But none of them reached the entrance where we stood.
"Why aren't they coming here?"
"Judging from their purple colour, it could be the night arachnids."
"Night arachnids?"
"Basically nocturnal spiders. They are scared of light."
"Oh..."
Gen glanced at Cane who seemed to know his stuff. Then glanced back at the spiders.
"They are very gross..."
Brian mumbles from the side.
"Agreed. Let's kill them all."
"Wait!"
Cane stopped me from entering and massacring all those spiders.
"Why?"
"Wasn't our plan to let the dragon attack this cave?"
"Yeah, that's right! If we kill the spiders, then the dragon might not want to come here anymore!"
Brian got a point.
"You are right. So what should we do?"
Cane thought for a while.
"We wait."
.
Waiting sounds easier when you say it, but it really tests your patience. Especially when you are with these guys.
We sat down at the nearest tree in the forest, away from the cave. We kept a watch on it from time to time, waiting for something to happen.
The sun is still up. In just a bit, it will go down and finally reach night time. And my biggest bet, during night time, those crawlers will walk out of the cave and do their hunt. That is exactly when we are hoping the dragon will come back and attack those spiders.
Our plan was, while the dragon was busy killing the spiders, we would snuck up behind it and kill it. Cane said he might be capable of penetrating the skin of the dragon using his light magic, but I still felt quite sceptical about it.
"Ha! I won!"
"Ahh, did you cheat?! I swear if you did-"
"I won! Fair and square!"
"Son of a-"
"Hey! Face it! You lose!"
"Yeah Gen! Tell him!"
They are playing some sort of board game, using dice and stuff. I was never really good at dice games, but I do like to play board games that require strategy, like chess or checkers. I always win at those.
They were playing on the ground while I sat on top of the tree branch. From where I am, it is very easy to see the cave's situation, as well as the sky. While I sat down, I also tried gathering my energy back.
I still can't believe I lost 300 just from a single attack like that. And that attack only wounded the dragon slightly. If only...
I will try that later.
"Hey, Rize! Want to play?"
Cane asked me from the bottom of the tree.
"Hmm?"
"I thought you might want to play with us. This is getting boring and stuff."
I looked at the board they were playing. Yeah, I have no idea what they are playing.
"Sorry. It's not that I don't want to, but I just can't play."
"We can teach you-"
"I don't want to play."
Cane immediately gave up and sat back down.
That guy without mistake is a Green ranked adventurer. That blast of light should be able to penetrate the skin and kill the dragon.
If my energy slash couldn't kill it, maybe his light beam can. And if he can't, then I will have to try 'that'.
"Hmph. No fun."
"Right. What a loser."
"I can hear you, you know."
They went silent pretty quick.
After playing for one more round, they finally close up the board. It's finally sundown, and the spiders are going to come out.
Before we waited here, we closed the lair's entrance by collapsing the ceilings. That way, the spiders can't come out until the dragon comes knocking.
Cane walked to the tree next to mine.
"Do you think the dragon will come back?"
"... Probably not."
"Eh? Why?"
"Because I wounded him in the face."
"What?!"
He looked at me weird. I simply turned my face towards the cave again.
"Emm, Rize. By any chance, are you a Yellow ranker?"
"Nope."
"Then, White?"
"Too far."
"Eh... Blue?"
"Nope."
"Green!?"
"Nope."
He thought about it for a second. If I'm not blue, yellow, nor white, then I must be lower than Green.
"Then..."
"Gray."
"G-G...Gray ranked?"
He thought about it for a while.
"Yep."
He shrugged his head.
"Okay. I have no choice but to believe you anyway."
"Glad you understand."
Suddenly, heavy pressure can be felt in the air.
"Ugh, is this-"
"Shut up. He is here."