“Final floor…” I muttered with slight excitement and a bit of anxiousness, it was something that I hadn’t done in quite a while after all.
“Umm, maybe we should turn back?” The healer/mage was nervously shaking for some reason. “That miasma does not seem very friendly, or safe…”
“I think the strongest here should decide.”
“Agreed…”
And like that, everyone was looking at me. Making me freeze for a second and reconsider, I was completely sure I wanted to go in, but if so many people depended on me then… It was a good idea to re-evaluate the situation. And so I got to thinking.
‘Natural undead dungeon… It has had zombies and skeletons, it’s A-rank… I am basically the only person that can do absolutely anything in this party, worst case scenario I summon Fifi, I get the loot… Which means…’
“Hehehe…~” Oops, looks like I drooled thinking about crafting materials.
“Umm, are you okay?” The leader asked with concern.
“Yami, um… please tell me you are not thinking abo—”
“We can do this, it’s just a puny A-rank boss!” And so I led the frontal-assault into the stairs, albeit the party was slightly reluctant to even touch the miasma, although being fair it looked like dark fog that had negative amount of visibility.
Without thinking twice about it, I held Ari’s hand and went into the stairs, she seemed slightly reluctant but became a lot more relaxed once she realized the miasma was harmless to her, well… If she had a blessing as I thought she did, the dungeon we were in wouldn’t really affect her, it would take an SS-rank one at least, and well… This world and ranks don’t go together…
I turned around not hearing the footsteps behind me.
“Is something wrong?” I asked with slight concern as I tilted my head. The entire party was standing at the top of the stairs, looking with fear and despair.
“H-How…”
“S-She is… in the miasma…”
“T-T-T…” The healer couldn’t speak.
All of them were shaking uncontrollably but one of them, the leader, kind of had forgotten his name already. Never really addressed him after all. He was looking down with cold eyes and a visibly upset expression.
“I am sorry, but we cannot go down. That miasma is too much for us to handle, it gives you shivers, makes you feel like you are going to die… Hallucinations… I can’t, none of us can’t. I am sorry Dark Shadow… I don’t know how you can do it…” He was oddly reasonable considering he described his experience. Actually… I noticed his hands and feet were uncontrollably shaking, qualities of a leader I suppose.
“I get it… I will vanquish the evil that lies below and get us out of here.” I smiled at him with my purest and most genuine smile I could muster, which made him relax his shoulders and wave at me with a bit of disappointment on his face.
We walked down, Ari had a confused expression.
“How come you are not affected… Wait, forget that! Do you even care for the evil that lies at the bottom or them for that matter! Why would you lie to them like that!” Ari protested at me as we walked down.
“Eh, I mean… I don’t care about evil, but like… I want more potential items… Besides, I never agreed to this… Also, if they stay there, they won’t die. So, there is that.” I casually informed Ari with a bit of regret.
“B-But… I just did not think you could be so selfish…” Eh…
“I-I mean… I kind of dragged us to the capital in a quest for finding a new metal which so far there is no sign of…” Metal… where are you…
“... I suppose…” Ari seemed to still be upset. I did not know what was wrong with her.
“Are you upset because I did not care about your ‘secret’?”
“N-no… I-I am happy… it’s just that… I expected more…” Ehhh…
“I mean, I don’t know if I was right, but I have seen blessings before… I don’t know what yours is, but I know what a blessing is…” I clumsily told her what I knew.
“I-It’s a blessing…” She started fidgeting. “B-But blessings are supposed to be super rare and... well… b-bound to the church…”
“Hmhm, I see…” I thought for a second. “Well, church or whatever. Blessings can be rare, but if I know about it, I don’t see the issue. And besides, you are with me now. So, what church?”
“So that’s how it was…” Ari muttered with a smile, although it quickly become slightly crooked. “Do you not care about it being from the church? Y-you’re a beastkin after all…”
“I hardly con— No I don’t care…” I couldn’t really mention her that I kept forgetting my own race after all…
After talking to Ari she seemed to be a lot more at ease for whatever reason. As if a weight had been taken off her, however, she quickly became worried to herself as she muttered a lot of ‘if’s’ that trailed into silent mutters. I did not really understand it, and talking to her about it did not seem like a good idea.
A few more silent steps and we were finally at the bottom of the stairs, it looked pretty empty as I looked around, the darkened floor and the miasma that did not let me see very far, the little illumination made by the moss on the walls. I guess it was kind of a disappointing boss battle.
I took a step forward before I felt a strong tug on my hand, it was Ari. I tilted my head wondering what caused her to do so, I saw her sheepishly raise her finger and point forward. The miasma ever-so-slowly started to clear to the sides and sink.
“Eh…”
We were in a huge dome inside the ground, it wasn’t a squared room like the other places. No wonder we kept going down the stairs. The entire ceiling of the dome was covered with moss and it had some type of blue-fluorescent liquid leaking down like a waterfall. Following it, I saw it ended up going into an ever-flowing river that was quite literally floating over a miasma abyss. I couldn’t help but tilt my head at the strange things I was seeing.
I decided to recollect myself a bit and start to follow a different thing with my eyesight. I followed the new-found path that guided us forward, it went down like a ramp, doing a single zig-zag before it went straight and became a bridge; crossing across the pit of miasma and weird liquid. Then my eyes froze for a second before I hurriedly rubbed them, I must’ve seen something wrong.
It was a rock castle with spiked crenellations, and inclined towers, it looked like a warped and skewed castle of terror. It was an odd sight to behold. I also noticed that there were crystals around, giving a cozy green illumination to the castle walls. With a gulp I looked at the towering gate that stood from afar, this was a bit more realistic than what I expected.
“Are you sure about this?” Ari asked with slight worry.
“Y-Yea, it’s just… Nothing…” I couldn’t tell her it was my first time experiencing something like this. Besides, even if this happened to be a super rare dungeon, the boss monster couldn’t be past A rank.
“Well, let us go… Through the scary bridge and into the castle…”
“Actually…” Ari paused. “I want to stay for now…”
“Eh… B-But I ne—”
“You got this Yami.” She winked at me with a smile…
Ari left me to face the castle of terror and imminent doom alone. The castle gave an eerie feeling seeing it was black and green-themed, it did not even have glass windows, just… open-air windows that had cobweb on them and seemed to be leaking miasma as if it was steam.
With yet another gulp I pressed forward. “Zombie, ghoul… Skeleton… they all are and will be weak compared to me… It’s a math-based thing, yeah…” I somehow managed to convince myself with skewed logic as I walked past the bridge with shaky legs. How to put it… Facing a horde of zombies with adrenaline was not the same as sheepishly walking into a castle that seemed to be made just to kill you…
I walked into the gate, there was a spacious courtyard with withered trees and covered with moss. The first thing I noticed was that the silence was almost deafening, it was so quiet. No wind… No… nothing… I could almost hear my heartbeat.
With a bit of insecurity, I kept walking forward, seeing there was nothing. Although the courtyard felt almost as if it stretched forever, or maybe I walked slowly. A few steps at a time, a bit of progress was made. Slowly but surely I was approaching the entrance hall.
“Maybe I was jus— Eeeee!” I shouted like a little girl as I felt a strong force tug my foot. Making me fall on the process and look at my leg with confusion, a boney hand had taken hold of it. With a bit of annoyance I grabbed my knife. Although something was weird, the hand did not feel… Attached to something… it did not have much strength. I moved my leg and it came off the ground cleanly, just the forearm and the hand itself.
“Huh…”
“Who dares, enter my— Wait... uh… castle thing… What is this thing anyway?” Ehh… “Anyway, prepare to be vanquished by Jermud!” I looked at the source of the voice, it was a knight in full armor. Although something seemed off…. Oh right, his armor was half broken and I could see his bones!
“W-Wait!” I stammered. H-He was a talking skeleton… Summoning potential?! Haa…
“There is only waiting once you are dead!” With a flash, I saw a metallic glint next to me. A sword pointing at my eyes. Although the sword paused as it eye’d me with its sharp edge and pointy tip. “Although, I might allow some waiting for once…” The knight seemed confused as well.
“Umm… Why can you speak?” I decided to ask first, he was a mob, they are supposed to not speak. Besides…
“Pff, how am I supposed to know that? I was taught to? The last thing I remember was being in the throne room overseeing my new kingdom, now I am sitting in an eerie dungeon and have someone that wants to kill me in front of me!” Eh…
“How did you even know I wanted to kill you?” I asked with confusion.
“Something tells me you want something from me, so tell me before I kill you. Also, it doesn't really help that looking at you gives me shivers.” I felt the knight send bloodlust my way, I dismissively waved my hands seeing he was going to be my new pet, I mean… seeing he was an intelligent being.
“I just wanted loot…” I said.
“Loot? Do I look like a monster to you?!” He pointed his sword and readied himself.
“Um… We are in a dungeon, and you are the boss, that just so happens to have turned sentient and started talking…” I explained the situation, even though I was too confused to even truly understand that, that had happened. The knight froze and took a few steps back as he started trembling.
“T-That makes no sense, this is probably a trap from Krunia!” He pointed his sword at me once again.
“How does it make no sense, look at yourself!” I got desperate seeing I did not want to kill him. He was a talking skeleton… H-How could I not add him to summon contract or something.
The knight, or rather… Skeleton staggered and took his glove off only to reveal a boney hand. He paused and moved his hand, confirming that it was his…
“Hmm... I see... I see..." He trailed into a mutter. "I guess... I-I can... W-What do I do now girl?! I don’t want to die or kill myself because I became THIS!” Ohhh, I like where this is going. Mental-breakdown, I like it!
“Do you want to make a contract?” I said with an ear-to-ear smile.
Nailed it Ari is attached to the church.
Well, yes.
Tx 4 chap. Had to look up what dumpster-fire meant.
It's a bunch of hot garbage. What did you expect?