Silver looks at the Mercenaries in shock. What does the Captain mean that they know him ? His story ? What is happening right now ?
Armando taps him on the back, nodding at him.
"A real celebrity now, huh ?"
This feels so weird to him: two weeks ago he was a nobody, just another faceless Mercenary—cannon fodder for expeditions—and now he is somehow the hottest topic on the island ?
Silver shakes his head; at this point, being shocked every time is tiring. If he was going to be famous on Karcerinsulo, then he had to get used to people knowing him. He stands straight, puffs out his chest, and takes a deep breath. He looks at the Mercenaries and does his best smile, cringing a bit inside.
Lin rolled his eyes while Sarah let out a small chuckle. The Captain gives his final orders before everyone starts to prepare for the descent. As Silver passes in review the equipment they are going to deliver, he is approached by a group of three Mercenaries, acting a bit shy.
"Excuse me, mister Crown, sir ?" asks one of them after managing to work the courage to step forward with a feminine voice. "Could you sign our armor, please ?"
Most of the time, Mercenaries and Dungeonauts stay distant from each other, only ever interacting during the mission for one party to give orders or information to the other. The fact that he was one of them is probably why they don't feel threatened to talk to Silver.
"Yeah, sure. Do you have something for me to sign with ?" he asks with a big smile.
The Mercenary who asked him takes out a pen and gives it to him. He signs her helmet, then motions for the two others to come closer. A bit nervous, they do so anyway, and Silver signs their helmets too. He looks at his work with a satisfied look on his face.
"Thank you very much," says the first Mercenary while bowing. "I hope I get to become an Awakened too, one day."
"Well, all you have to do is—" Silver cannot finish his sentence, the words getting stuck in his throat with a burning sensation. He remembers that Armando told him that the reason they couldn't speak about how people Awakened was because the Dungeon was forbidding them.
He coughs several times before starting over. "I hope that for you too."
The Mercenaries nod and bow before going back to the rest of their group. V approaches Silver, looking a bit worried.
"Are you ok ?"
"Yes, I just tried to talk about something I couldn't," he responds while massaging his throat.
"A classical error," she says smugly. "You'll get to know what you can or cannot say as you go."
"Cool, something new to learn," ironizes Silver.
They both regroup with the rest, and soon the descent into the Dungeon starts. The Dungeonauts walk in the front while the Mercenaries surround two containers on wheels.
Those kinds of containers are pretty handy, being able to advance by itself, following a designated individual. It doesn't need to be manually pushed, so it frees manpower and can carry way more weight than any normal human could.
The first few floors go without an issue; the group of 15 people total could easily take care of a few weak monsters. They now arrive at the fourth floor, and the mood shifts. From now on, it's D rank monsters galore, so everyone has to be on edge.
Only a few moments after stepping foot on this level, they are surrounded by 4 Cannon Bulls. Quickly, the Mercenaries take position, machine gun ready to fire at any moment.
Silver takes a deep breath and liberates his Mana, coating himself. But instead of the amount he's used previously, a lot more comes out, surprising everyone, even himself. The monsters take a step back, a bit intimidated, but rush in the fight anyway.
The beasts explosive speed makes them look like bullets flying through the air. The Dungeonauts manage to evade the onslaught handily, but the Mercenaries have to jump out before they start firing.
The bullets they are equipped with are special ones, made exclusively for Dungeon usage. Their special coating allows them to penetrate monster skins, which would be impossible with regular weapons.
The Cannon Bulls start to scream while being pelleted by bullets, only piecing their thick skin and barely hurting the beasts' muscles. But soon the monsters are assaulted by the Dungeonauts, Lin slashing them with a flaming sword while Armando zips by, cutting them with his daggers.
One of the monsters lets out a loud scream and catapults itself at top speed before percuting a golden wall head-on. The impact produces a terrible sound, leaving the Bull stunned before being struck by a powerful punch from Silver.
The monster rolls on itself for multiple meters before Lin jumps on it and stabs it with his sword, killing it. Even if they have sturdy backs, Cannon Bulls have weak stomachs, a pretty useful weak point.
The other beasts scream before Captain George puts his gun in the mouth of one of them and unloads a full magazine in the monster's head, killing it instantly. Another one tries to charge, but it's legs give out, cribbled with bullet holes. A few more bullets in it's head do the trick, while the last one flees.
The results of the fight are extremely positive, with only a few minor injuries in the Mercenaries ranks. The problem is that they used more bullets than they would have wanted. The Captain does a handsign, and one of the containers approaches him. He opens it and takes out a magazine.
"Reload people, and let's try to use as few bullets as possible until floor 9, it doesn't matter if we blow everything out when going back up !"
"Maybe we should take care of the monsters," proposes Armando while pointing at the rest of his Team. "It would be better if you could preserve as many bullets as possible for the time being."
The Captain groans, his honor telling him that it would be fine while his reason tells him otherwise. He sighs.
"You're right. For now we're playing support. C'mon, let's move !"
The group starts marching again, the rest of the travel on this floor going by smoothly. They approach the stairs when they hear a discusting sound coming from the wall. They turn around just in time to see the wall open and letting out a group of five goblins.
The monsters shake off the slime they are covered in before screeching and engaging the group.
"Fuck, we had to come just in time for a birthing," exclaimed Lin.
"With our rotten luck, we might as well be happy we didn't face a Glitch," remarks Armando.
Seeing monsters being birthed by the Dungeon is extremely rare; those happen at random times and places. Well, at least they are going against enemies of their level and not something much stronger.
The goblins start to approach empty-handed as the Dungeon decides not to gift them weapons. Everyone takes a fighting stance, but Silver steps in front of the rest.
"Leave it to me; I want to test something."
They are about to stop him, but Sarah steps right behind him and nods at the rest of the party. She then concentrates her Mana in her hands.
"Blessing of Strength. Blessing of Speed."
She projects her energy on Silver, who leaps into action. One of the goblin lunges at him, but he manages to easily evade the hit and strike the monster with a heavy strike in the chest. The other goblins continue to attack as their partner is sent flying backward.
Silver manages to easily avoid the monsters' attacks, barely moving.
'It's weird,' he thinks. 'It's almost like I can see their attacks before they're launched. No, it's not that. It's almost as if I can predict the motions and see the intent of the attack. But it's not all.'
Diverting his gaze to the rest of the Dungeon, those weird sensations continue.
'I feel like I can sense the motion of energy here. I can see the path that Magia takes.'
A goblin attacks him, but he is countered before even finishing his move by a powerful punch in the face. Another just starts to initiate a move but Silver plants the point of his foot in the beast's throat, making it move backward. Another one approaches but is immediately sent flying by a backfist.
As Silver's concentration starts to rise, the last intact goblin jumps at him. He can easily see the full arc of the motion and how the monster is gonna attack. As Silver stares at the monster, the rest of the world starts to fade to gray, only leaving some red spots on the monster. Intrigued, he punches lightly one of those, just curious to see what might happen.
The rest of the group sees Silver just absolutely ridiculing those monsters who posed a pretty big threat the last time the Team descended in the Dungeon, making a complete fool of them.
Then a loud sound breaks everyone's concentration. They look in shock as one of the goblins just exploded midair, covering the surrounding area in blood and gore. Silver turns back towards the group, looking as shocked as them.