DiskOball

I am so sorry for the delay, had some things to take care of and still working on. I fare warning before you read, this chapter is not well edit, my editor is being an ass right now so I had to do it myself and I am not good at it. If you see any mistakes please let me know.

“Stick to the plan!” Fredrick shouted running to intercept the goblins.

            Grey and his party ran after him each of them going for a separate goblin. That only left a single goblin for me and Cassandra to deal with. We quickly cast our spell to end it as soon as possible. I decided to go with a fireball since Cassandra was bound to use fire spells as well. The goblin seemed to not care about our attacks. It continued frantically rush towards almost idiotically with its club raised to the sky.  I was starting to get anxious. Casandra finished casting her spell and I followed not long after and we rained down a barrage of fireballs on the goblin. The fireballs had no problem connecting with goblin and setting it on fire. However, the goblin continued to its charge this time its body lit with golden-red hue.

              I started to frantically spam my fire spell, wanted to incinerate it before it got to close. Cassandra, on the other hand, stopped casting spells and has lowered her staff. A white light whisked passed me and embedded itself into the goblins face. A sharp knife was embedded right at the center of the goblin’s head. The goblin not even noticing the knife sticking out of its face continued its mad rush towards us. After that more flashes of light came one after the other as a swarm of knives found themselves all over the goblin’s body. I was not sure which of the lives did the job, but whichever it was had brought the goblin down to the floor; its body now a pile of charcoal and the club disappeared into ash.

            “That was close,” Chris spoke as he walked to the goblin’s body, “I was starting to run out of knives.”

            “You joke, but the kid here almost died of freight,” Cassandra spoke looking at me, “A goblin is still a goblin no need for you shit your pants over it. Next time take out your dagger and stab it.”

            I smiled at her too embarrassed to talk. I may have overreacted over there.

            “Next time you see one of your spells being ineffective switch to different one don’t stand there and continue spamming it,” Cassandra continued to scold me.

            “Go easy on him, Cassandra. It must have been his first time seeing his spells not work, it was bound to happen at one point rather it be now than when we are down in the crypts,” Chris spoke as he cleaned his knives, “but he was right to be sacred. Never seen a creature walk off a direct hit in the head. Had to it hit in all its vital points for it fall down.”

            “Let’s wait for the others before we discuss this.”

            The others had already finished off their goblins except for Rocco, who was playing a boxing match with his. Rocco was actually taking his time to fight the goblin, mostly dodging and using nonlethal attacks. Rocco kneeled down to be on the same level as the goblin and punched the goblins right hand off. It was a clean hit. The goblin hand flew off into the distance and blood starts gushing out of the wound to the ground. The Goblin was not fazed even a little and continued to charge towards. Rocco dodged away and after making the goblin run after him in circles punched its head. The goblin’s head did not fly off like the hand but was instead was crushed like a watermelon. Looking at the mixture of blood vessels and brain tissue, I was reminded why I went Summoner in the first place. Despite how bad Cassandra scolds me, I have no regrets.

            “What was that?” Fredrick asked whipping the blood of his sword, “how come the confusion spell did not work?”

            “It must have been that Abomination. Told you not bring her,” Grey spoke pointing at Maya.

            “Shut it, fuck-face. Our spells were not working either,” I told Fredrick about the goblins being resistant to our spells. Casandra confirmed it to the group.

            “They were also immune to pain, punch off its hand and it did not even bother to look at it,” Rocco remarked using a rag to clean the brain stuck between the iron spikes of his glove. Oh god.

            “You can also add death immunity if that is even a thing. Took more than five knives for a single one of them to fall down.”

            “This whole situation is wrong. Goblins are cowardly creatures, they only attack when they have a numerical advantage. Why did they attack when they could have easily escaped to the dungeon?” Cassandra asked.

            No one answered her question, none of us knew what was going on. Fredrick broke everyone, saying that we will figure it out once we start investigating tomorrow. We removed the magic crystals and gathered the dead goblins into a bit before Cassandra set them on fire, they burned this time. Goblin drops were not valuable and worth sleeping next to dead corpses for. I volunteered myself to close off the dungeon wall for the night.

            The dungeon entrance was like a door frame that extended inwards made of obsidian-black rocks that rose out of the clearing. There were runes carved into the rocks above the dark entrance. I asked the others if any of them knew what the carvings were but none of them had an idea.

            I used Earth Wall to make a raise a 20cm thick wall in front of the entrance. I could have made a thicker wall but it would have made it harder for us to access the dungeon in the morning. Fredrick wanted to spend some time around the fire, but everyone was to apprehensive about tomorrow and instead, we decided on the guard rotation before each party retreat to their corner.

            Maya and I set our sleeping bags next to a nearby tree, a little bit off from the fire.

            “You okay,” I asked getting into my sleeping bag.

            “Yeah.”

            “Not the most ideal quest to do right after forming a party, is it? I am sorry, I made you go through all of this,” I apologized to Maya. It must have been uncomfortable for her, sitting in silence for two days straight.

            “Don’t worry, it was not as uncomfortable as you think. It was nice not being in the spotlight for once. I did not say anything, because I really did not have anything to add, sorry if I was too aloof.”

            “Why are you apologize, I am the one who convinced you to do this quest,” I decided to change the subject and ask Maya about her thoughts on the previous event.

            “This quest is getting more and more dangerous,” Maya responded staring at the looking dungeon.

            “What makes you think so?”

            “Remember what Grin said about dungeons being the product of a god?”

            “Yeah?”

            “I have a feeling that the one that made this dungeon is not so nice.”

            “Did the goblins and the dark dungeon give it away?” I teased Maya.

            “I am serious,” Maya was not amused, “whoever created that dungeon was able to make those goblins immune to the dark element and the only creature made of the dark element are immune to it. We could go in there and fight off a hundred goblins instead of ten or a beast stronger than goblin immune to all our attacks.”           

            “Relax, I was just joking. We all know that, why do you think to do one wants to talk. This could very one well be our last night, why wasted on talking about all the different ways we could die.”

            “In that case, what do you want to talk about on your last night?”

            “Me? I am too stupid to answer such a philosophical question. You decided for us.’

            “In that case,” Maya locked gaze with me, her red eyes trying to seep into my mind, “you can tell me more about yourself”

            “I flattered that you want to talk about me on our last night, but can’t you think of something?” I was not ready to tell her that I was from another world, but I did not want to lie to her either, “there properly are more enjoyable topics.”

            “No, if I am going to die tomorrow I want to die knowing a little bit more about my partner than his weirdly incompetent master,” Maya persisted.

            “Hey don’t call her incompetent, she just a unique way of teaching,” I defended my non-existing Master, “but if you really want to know something about me, you also have to share information about yourself. You are not the only one interested in their partner.”

            Maya went silent for a while before coming to a decision.

            “Fine, but you can’t probe too much and I can refuse to answer any question.”

            “Of course as long as I get the same courtesy.”

            “That is only fair,” Maya nodded in agreement, “I will start. You mentioned you were an orphan as well, but you never talked about it. How was it growing up an orphan?”

            “Wow, that got real too fast? Though you were going to soften me up, ask my favorite color or something.” I joked.

“We don’t have time for that, hurry up and answer.”

I thought of a way to frame my answer without lying to myself or exposing myself as an Outterdweller.

            “The first view years were best. You see, the orphanage I grew up in was closed off and we never interacted with the outside world. Living in the orphanage with other kids and a few adults were the norm for us. We were too stupid to understand what we lost our parents and too young miss. We lived our lives playing with other children and adults watching over, we all assumed everyone lived a similar life like us, hell we did not even know if other kids beyond us existed. We did not leave the orphanage grounds to know better and the older kids thought it was best to keep it that way. The caretakers did not object either, none of them wanted to deal with a four-old-year asking them about Papa and Mama.”

            “I don’t imagine that last long,” Maya chipped in from the side, “there are so many flaws with that, what about if a kid who already grew up in a household came over? Or an order kid blubbered something out of jealousy or anger?”

            “Kids who lost their parents while growing up are often taken in by their relatives. They were rarely brought in. Besides, it was not meant to last. We all grow up at the end, it was a band-aid to stop having 5-year-olds asking each other why they don’t have a mama and daddy like the other kids. Granted it was not the best way to deal with the problem, but they just wanted the best for us. We all caught on as we grew up and started secretly wonder who our parents were and why they were not with us.”

            “Did you ever wonder who your parents were?” Maya asked.

            “Almost every night. I would lie on my mattresses wondering who they were, while the other kids slept or were wondering like me.  I thought of asking the caretakers, but I was afraid to find out that I was left in front of the gate like some of the other kids were told. The idea of being abandoned scared me more than the prospect of finding my family members. I decided to not look for answers in fear of what I might discover. I only started looking a few years ago. They died the same day I was born in an accident, none of them even saw me when I was born. The doctors had to cut me out of my mother’s womb.”

            “Were you able to track down other family members?”

            “No, never got the chance to do it. I still wonder sometimes wonder if things would have been different if I have been able to track them down.”

            “I understand,” Maya responded, “I also wonder what kind of people my parents were. None of the townsmen want to talk to me about them. Those who do don’t know much about them.”

            “What about Hazel or the adventurer who took you in know anything?”

            Maya shocked her head, “they only came to town a few years ago, and they never meet my parents. I was able to retrieve their adventurer’s card from the guild, but I have not been able to extract any information from them.”

            “What? Why?”

            “Adventurer can hide certain information on their card for multiple reasons. When adventurer dies all the information on the card is also automatically hidden. I heard that the main guild in the capital has the technology to reveal the hidden information, but you need status and founds to go there and ask them to do it.”

            “So you want to find more information about your parents. Is that why you became an adventurer, to earn money?”

            “Yes and to gain the necessary status,” Maya spoke taking out her bronze card, “with this I can walk freely between country borders and be granted access to information through the guild. Besides my parents were also adventurers, why should I not live up to their legacy?”

            “I see,” I answered. Maya’s eyes sparkling with excitement as she looked at the card in between her hand.

            “So, why did you become an adventure?” Maya asked suddenly turning her to me.

            Her question caught me off guard. It was a simple question but I never thought about it before. Why did I choose such a profession right after escaping death? My first thought was to say that this is an Isekai and there are no other options, but that is not enough of a reason to risk my life.

            “For the adventure,” I answered after a moment of thought, “I want to travel the whole world and just see all the crazy I can get caught. I know it does not compare to your own goals, but this is why I became an adventurer. You see I have seen all the things to see in my old village and nothing interested me there. Now that I have a chance to start again, I don’t want to die before I have seen all this world go to offer.”

            “Don’t worry this is not a contest of who has the noblest dreams,” Maya answered, “if it was I would have lost”

            “Hmm?”

“It is nothing,” Maya started nodding her head in agreement, “I also the same as you. While I want to learn more about my parents, I still want to travel and learn more about this world. I think this is the ultimate reason why anyone would risk their lives to become an adventure. It is the name of our profession.”

            “Indeed,” I responded deciding that this was one of those “don’t probe” moments. Coming to this world and exploring it might have been the greatest thing to happen to me. Of course, I would also appreciate if I do not have to experience any more life-threatening situation. One was bad enough. We spoke a bit more before Maya volunteered to keep watch for our party and I went to sleep.

            It was early dawn when Fredrick came around to wake us up. We had a quick breakfast before we armored up and prepared to clear out the dungeon. Fredrick gathered everyone in front of the dungeon and gave out roles. Chris would be in the lead checking for traps with Fredrick and Grey protecting him. After that, it would be the rest of the mages and Axel. Rocco and Rage were placed in the rare. 

            “Alright people, I want to repeat this one more time. As soon as we go through that hole we will all become a single party,” Fredrick spoke out looking at me and Grey, “None of your previous grudges matter because if a single person fucks up in there we all die for it. Got it?”

            “Who do you think we are?” Grey groaned, “We know our priorities and don’t need you to remind us of the obvious.”

            Fredrick turned to me.

            “Same thing over here,” I didn’t trust Grey to still not try some underhanded things later on. We just have to watch our footing inside the dungeon and not give Grey a chance. Fredrick accepted our answers and smashing the wall covering the entrance with a sword skill. We each held a torch held a fire torch in our hands except for Axel and Casandra who whiled a shield and a staff respectively. Grin and Maya were in charge of carrying the supplies as their class did not require much movement. Cassandra and I were exempt from this because we were in charge of providing support fire to both the vanguard and the rare.

            Inside the dungeon was a very narrow and cramped tunnel that went downwards. The walls were made of shiny obsidian black rocks that shined with the troche-light. We walked in silence doing our best not to get pricked by the sharp edges of the wall. After a couple of minutes, we finally exited the tunnel to an opening. It was pitch black with absolutely no visibility except for a few meters illuminated by our torches. The sudden change from the narrow tunnel to this open space was unnerving, we had no idea where to go or what we are walking towards. We could be surrounded by monsters and we would not know.

            “Everyone stay alert,” Fredrick hushed taking out his own sword. We got into a defensive formation with the warriors surrounding the mages. Chris was still in the front with Fredrick to detect any ambushes. We continued to walk forward into the darkness.

            While we could not see what was ahead, we could still see the ground change as we went deeper into the cave. It turned from the hard solid rock to soft fragmented pebbles to even softer grassy field. Just as we were wondering where we were walking towards, we met a wall of trees trunks. We soon found out that it was not a single row but rows after rows of trees lay before us similar to ones in the forest above.

“Are these real?” Grey stepped out of the formation and examined one of the nearby trees, “They are,” Grey confirmed, “just what the heck is this place”

            “Casandra, light up this place,” Fredrick ordered.

            “Are you sure?” Casandra hesitated, “It might attract monsters.”

            “It is a risk worth taking. We might walk into those monsters mouths with the way this going.”

            Cassandra nodded before aiming her staff at the ceiling.

            “Illuminate!”

            A large ball of heatless fire formed at the tip of staff and shot out into the sky like a flare. The flare went high into the sky and went out in a silent bang of light. This light up the cave for brief seconds before we were plunged back into darkness. That was all the time we need to see the layout of this place. Grey was right in front of us was a miniature forest similar to the one above. The forest was surrounded by a dome made of the same material as the dungeon gate. This dungeon was a small dark underground forest.

            “Is it supposed to be like this?” I asked Grin who seemed to be the most knowledgeable on dungeons.

            “There is no suppose with dungeons, each turns out the way their created want to them to be,” Grin answered with a hint of reverence, “I heard stories of entire forests and mountain ranges being classified as dungeons, but this is my first time seeing an underground forest. I wonder why a god made such a place.”

            “It does not matter why. This is still a dungeon with monsters and deadly traps,” Casandra spoke not hiding the fear in her tone, “and if this place has the same kind of goblins as the once from above then….”

            Casandra did not need to finish her sentence to get her message across.

            “Does any of you have an idea of how we are going to clear this dungeon?” Axel asked admits the silence.

            “Make it to the end and defeat the boss?” I answered, shortly regretting it. As if things will be that easy.

            “I doubt it will be that simple but that is the gist of clear a dungeon,” Fredrick answered, “come on we have boss waiting for us at the end of this forest.”