Morning soon came, the dungeon lights changing back to the sunny and bright scenery it had been yesterday around the same time. Another day greeted the group and so did a swarm of monsters ready to pounce on them from outside Marcel’s barrier. The moment it came down, they’d attack from all sides but, was that a major concern? Nope, because they now knew about each other’s identities and that’s all that mattered. People tend to lose focus on certain priorities when they’re happy. This was one of those moments.
Kenny and Allan were the first to wake on this new day, or at least, they thought they’d be. Marcel, however, had already woken almost an hour earlier to start preparing breakfast. The two began helping him as they did, the others began waking as well.
Silva, the foodie, was the first to wake, the smell of her chef’s cooking waking her groggy body, filling it with vigor. She was looking forward to breakfast since its aroma entered her nostrils.
After she awoke, came Evan, followed by Nigel and Daniel and lastly, Shalia.
“It’s morning already! This sucks!” She complained, “And I was having such a nice dream. Ah!” She looked so resentful at the concept of morning on this particular day, even though she, um, got out of the tent all by herself.
“I probably shouldn’t ask about it since it’s you, but what was this dream of yours about anyway?” Silva asked, her expression a bit blank as she already expected her friend's answer. Of course, Shalia didn’t disappoint.
“Well, it was a nice dream where Marcel was acting like I wanted. He was being a proper beast and trying to pounce on me. It was a lovely sight, seeing the lust and desire in his eyes as he stared at my curvaceous body like a starving brute of a beast.” Of course, it was! Seriously? The blank expressions of her friends said everything they were thinking,
“This woman... is insane but also, very her!”
“Ah, if only Marcel was a bit bolder and I was a guy, then maybe then... my dreams will finally come to life.” She looked so delighted as she daydreamed. What was she wanted was not only impossible because Marcel seems utterly uninterested in her and would probably continue to do so, even if she took on a male form, but also because of the image Marcel’s friends had of him.
In his friends’ minds, including Allan’s, Marcel still held the title of ‘Pure Untainted Guy’, so much so that they felt like every word out of Shalia’s mouth defiled his purity. They looked incredibly apologetic towards Marcel who was oblivious to what actually they thought of him. Ha, boy, were they wrong!
Silva couldn’t help feeling like she needed to ask the princess a question,
“Shalia, as noble princess like my friend over there...” She pointed Valeria standing beside Daniel to Shalia’s right, “...you must have a lot of suitors pining after you, coming from far and wide just to see the ‘brilliance of your smile’.” She made air quotes when she said ‘brilliance of your smile’.
“...if that’s so, why do you still want Marcel when he clearly doesn’t like you or show any interest at all?” Silva answered. Now that she knew the others’ identities, something she stopped herself from inquiring with her powers because, um, why not, she was asking Shalia a question she’d wanted to be answered since day 1 when they first met.
“Well, for one, they’re boring, adore me, and treat me like some kind of sacred and pure being. Also, they’re not a hero, aren’t secret witches, nor silver-haired beauties, which is now my ideal and--” Silva made a stopping gesture, already knowing where Shalia was going with this. This girl was basically saying, ‘I only want Marcel because he has everything I want’ from the little reply she received. This girl was being very unreasonable even when she could never get what she wanted.
Anyone who wants a chance with the Pure Princess would have to be either Marcel or, um, Marcel. Silva quickly gave up on the hopeless girl. Her future looks considerably painful, to be honest. She hasn’t even looked yet but she can already tell.
Anyway, after Marcel finished, they ate, leaving the enemies outside to eager Ains to deal with. Meanwhile, they mustered the energy to begin another day in this dungeon. The meal and thoughts of getting into a nice, long bath, and finally getting away from this stalker they almost forgot, left them with a strong desire to reach the very center of this dungeon that day. Their goal was the volcano at the center of the island where the strongest monster probably lived.
Deactivating the barrier right after Ains finished dealing with the enemies, Marcel and the others got to it, traversing across the volcanic island seething with monsters spawned by the energy around them.
As they headed to the center, like in any dungeon, they met fewer but stronger monsters. The monsters they met were between levels 90 to 140 of the C-rank. Having proven capable of defeating some in the B-Rank, most of them had no problems defeating the monsters that approached them.
Marcel, with his overpowered weapon that honestly, no one in their right mind should give away as a gift, continued to freeze and encase his enemies in ice. It was a bit difficult since these monsters had bodies of raging fires with proved capable of melting the sword’s ice at first. Sigurd was having none of that. It suddenly oozed off a colder aura, its freezing effect suddenly getting stronger as it took more magic power from its owner. After that, turning the tumultuous fire beasts into popsicles was easy. Imagine how jealous his friends were when they saw their friend use a legendary-class weapon like his personal popsicle-maker.
Marcel wasn’t the only one having it easy with the monsters. With her enchanted crystal staff adding 30% extra damage to her spells and her water element, she took the fire out of the golem-type monsters and put holes through the other types with her beautiful composite spells.
Allan cast ice spells, summoning icicles to deprive the monsters of their lives similar to how Silva did it, except, he did one other thing.
He used the monsters as test subjects for his new spell, ‘Icy Death Shard’, a spell which strips enemies of lower magical strength than himself of all their body’s heat with the ice element, similar to Sigurd’s icy chill. His, however, doesn’t turn his enemies into ice blocks. The icicle functions more like a heat-seeking needle which quickly brings a physical being’s cells to the freezing stage at the molecular level. His spell, however, doesn’t care about keeping the temperature at the Goldilocks zone between frozen and dead, hence the corpses. The spell also has a special curse like Ifrit’s inside of it, I almost forgot to mention. Curses are no joke, I tell you!
Thanks to his enemies, he was able to fine-tune it enough to bring about their deaths with a single attack. Their sacrifice shall not be forgotten for at least a week or a month depending on when he comes up with his next ice spell. This genius is heartless! Apologies, equally heartless monsters locked up in a dungeon!
Shalia couldn’t really do anything against them with magic because, um, affinity clash. Fire was nothing against them, even if it was higher-ranked than theirs were. She took out her bow and arrow, enhancing them with spirit magic from various affinized elementals of different elements.
From her masterful technique over the weapon and the various quintuple-shot-kills she landed; it was safe to say that she knew what she was doing. Why she isn’t part of the special few with the ‘Sniper’ class, the intermediate version of the ‘Archer’ class, is beyond me. She showed that either archery was one of her races’ expertise or that she’s just that good at it. The girl knew how to put holes in stuff, is all I’ll say.
Kensuke fought with a lance, moving quickly as he pierced the tough bodies of his targets with his body’s brute strength while swinging it around. It was a B-rank weapon with an ice enchantment placed upon it. It didn’t help the monsters’ chances of surviving his attacks at all.
Evan moved swiftly, attacking the monsters with his daggers and then evading them by slipping into their shadows. He did so repetitively, slowly damaging them, making up for the disadvantage of losing attack power in his human form with lightning-fast reflexes and superior speed. The other assassin, Valeria, meanwhile, took out one of her treasured weapons: the Snow Reaper, a dagger made from the poisonous fangs of an A-class dungeon beast nicknamed the Death’s Icy Embrace, a ginormous ice serpent found in a legendary dungeon with a particularly nasty icy poison which seeped into one’s bloodstream and turned them into a walking corpse. With it, she had no problems on her side.
Now that the others knew her identity, they knew how she managed to get her hands on so many unique and specialized daggers that would cost the average adventurer a fortune. Clients tend to be generous but even their payment and the number of rare weapons the assassin has don’t add up. The girl was really loaded with cash.
Daniel, as usual, went at his own swift pace, busting out the lightning sword moves. He tapped into his lightning and with the speed he gained, wielded his sword with extreme fierceness. A carefully placed slice and stab here and there and the monsters were all on the ground. His brother, Nigel, covered his back with his Cryogenic Shield, a B-rank weapon he bought quite recently. He wasn’t rich like Valeria and couldn’t afford a higher-ranked shield than that. With this shield in hand and the earth element, he covered Daniel’s blind spots when he was occupied to notice the monsters behind him. A quick attack similar to dropkicking the monsters from below with some earth pillars was exactly the help Daniel needed as support.
Like this, they slowly made their way up the dungeon, coming far from the edge of the island to the very center, close to the base of the volcano. When they reached there, however, a big surprise was lying or rather, standing there in wait. It waited there in front of a small lava pool at the base of the volcano.
It was simply unbelievable. They’d come so far, through their own might, artifacts, and honestly, an overkill ice sword but this was just ridiculous. They were waiting for some epic boss to fight when they finally reached the center, and the dungeon was telling them to fight... a freaking chicken?!! Was this some kind of epic joke or a prank? Marcel’s friends felt very averse to the idea of fighting something that could be their dinner as a final boss. It was a bit insulting to their might.
“Um, guys? How is that anything like a chicken?!” Marcel, the only one who clearly knew what a chicken should look like, voiced his very valid concerns. His friends were insane. That thing is not a chicken; at least, what he knew a chicken was.
Allan looked at the giant chicken with his skill [Observe] and agreed with Marcel,
“Guys? Marcel is right! That thing isn’t a chicken! It’s just a type of chicken, an ancient chicken. It’s a relative whose distant family we now enjoy throughout multiple realms: the Cockatrice. According to my skill, it’s a peak C-ranked monster, infamous for having eyes that shoot fiery beams of death at its opponents. This one’s a LV.145. The only way to block its deadly lasers is with mirrors. Lots and lots of ‘em. It’s kind of weak otherwise.”
“Got it! I will deal with its rays. You guys attack when I give the signal.” Nigel said.
The monster in front of them was a two-legged creature with a serpentine-like body covered in feathers with a giant chicken head and two massive claws which kept its body balanced. It was almost 3 meters in height and its legs were that of a chicken. Its body was as plump as a chicken’s however, its body was much smaller if compared to a magnified chicken of its size. It was much slimmer, almost replaced by an actual serpent. Its arms were wings with tough serpent scales. They were very tiny, compared to its body, like half a meter wide. Its eyes were a bright red, carrying a faint glow. It starred quietly, waiting for a chance to strike at its new targets. The battle began the moment Nigel made his move.
Nigel made another shield, putting his Cryogenic Shield away. He made a reflective mirror shield after borrowing the power of the earth, water, and wind elements. The water element functioned as the base of the shield, with its outer shell frozen thanks to the wind element, keeping it highly reflective. The earth element functioned as the structure and frame of the shield, keeping it together for what he was about to do. They were almost a meter in height and about three-fourth a meter in width after he completed them.
He first made one, then kept adding to the number until eventually, he made twenty of them. He felt exhausted afterward. Oh, how much he needed an Enhancer to help him. The one in his group was useless to him because her ability was kind of selfish. Good thing that he’s also a Priest or else, he would have already collapsed from magic exhaustion.
He blessed himself various times to keep him going until the cockatrice was defeated; doing his best to control the shields he placed around with Shalia’s help. Asking the wind spirits was a good move, taking away a huge toll on Nigel. After all, mentally controlling shields like that takes a lot of training. It’s a skill very hard to master and he still didn’t have a good hang of it. He needed to be precise, throwing them in the way of the cockatrice’s attack so the others can more effectively fight it.
The battle began after Nigel completed the shields. He gave the signal and the battle began.
The Cockatrice locked unto them, firing its first predictable laser at them; a high-powered beam capable of tearing any middle C-ranked adventurer’s body into shreds if it touched it.
They ducked out of the way and Silva, still in the beam’s range, was the first to prove the functionality of Nigel’s shields. He waved on the shields with Shalia’s help, getting it in time to divert the attack outward from their location.
Marcel held tightly unto Sigurd, pouring his energy into it. The weapon responded, spreading its cold chill out from within, like a locked cold area suddenly unleashed to fight against the blazing heat around him. He cooled down their surroundings, giving the crew’s heat-resistant bodysuits a quick moment to rest before resuming their fight to protect against the heat.
After drawing out Sigurd, Marcel began his attack on the cockatrice; his face full of certainty and confidence about being able to defeat it with his friends. He charged in without a large portion of his worries, just his battle instincts and obviously, his wolf com- oh, never mind!
That thing already went back into his master’s spatial storage. Ains didn’t know how the guys fought when he wasn’t around, so he bailed on them to watch for next time. It was for studies; not because it was hiding something very important from its master or anything. This is about him! He wants nothing to do with the chicken drama going on outside of his resting space.
Marcel launched his first attack against the giant beast; an icy blade strike. The attack seemed to have worked, if only slightly, as the monster diverted its attention towards him. It shot its deadly lasers at him. He ducked to evade the attack and so did the others.
The monster started getting angry after they evaded their attacks. It let out a loud cackle, filling their eardrums. Most of them covered their ears except for Nigel who couldn’t afford to because of his current position. Marcel couldn’t either because letting his guard down could mean an attack from their opponent. He bore with the unbearable noise like Nigel and it quickly ended after it noticed their reaction.
The cockatrice stretched out its wings as it ran towards them, its muscles taut as if about to flap them. They readied themselves for a wing attack and a ramming but one of them never came. The wing attack never came but it did ram into something: Nigel’s shields. It tried to break them. It now saw them as a threat!
Noticing the cockatrice’s attack on one of Nigel’s mirror shields which broke upon impact, the others got more active in the battle. No more acting weak and evading its attacks as if they feared it. It was time to attack and bring the chicken to its knees.
Nigel moved the shields away from the giant chicken for a moment, taking a step back as not to incur more damage on the other shields. They were for its laser attacks, not blocking against physical ram attacks. It was also for the sake of the quick and continuous attack to be launched at the dungeon beast.
Marcel spearheaded the counterattack; attacking with Sigurd while doing his best to move quickly with Blitz, his lightning companion within, to avoid the lasers focused on him, redirecting them towards Nigel’s mirrors. This was almost all the time. The monster launched a laser attack frantically whenever he attacked. It didn’t like the weapon he was holding.
Silva, meanwhile, just bombarded it with composite wind-water Ice Shards and water mirrors to absorb the laser beam if it came her way. Allan launched wind blades and more Icy Death Shards at the beast. These attacks had some effect on it.
Valeria and Evan attacked its legs, to limit its mobility. The bird was constantly getting angry, so they had to work fast to bring it to its knees. It wasn’t going to be easy though. A death ray hit Evan in the chest but luckily, Shalia called forth the power of an ice spirit to limit the effect of the attack, saving him. She healed him afterward with plant magic and he got back into the fight.
Lancer Kenny launched large, darkness-based attacks infused with his oppressive aura at the monster. His semi-physical attacks seemed to do the most damage with each move. The volcano behind the monster, however, healed the damn thing.
Daniel launched powerful lightning and light sword moves at the monster, creating his own sharp laser beams to do some damage. He attacked the creature’s wings and neck and almost cut them away from its body when something happened. It started healing again.
After that, they quickly realized that the volcano underneath their feet was providing the cockatrice the energy needed to heal its wounds. It was why it was rejuvenated after every one of their attacks.
Allan and Silva got to work on it while the rest distracted the monster. They had to work fast before the monster directed its attention back at the lava pool it left to fight them.
“Let’s chill this thing to solid rock!” Silva suggested.
“Um, good idea! I think I know just the spell for that...” He quickly got to whispering something to Silva. She nodded occasionally as he spoke, then opened her eyes wide when he said something.
“Yes, that should work! Let’s bring some very big wave to this volcano!” She sounded very excited.
“I knew you would like it! Now here’s what we do...” Allan got back to whispering and she nodded vigorously. They both seem to be on the same page before they parted.
Silva flew upward, like super high. She flew 200 meters above the volcano before beginning to cast a giant spell. It looked like one to really take everything out of you. You should save some power for later, Silva.
“Oh, what the hell! If you’re doing big, you don’t cut any corners!” She had a large, evil grin on her face as she spoke those words, drawing all the magic out of her body to cast a ginormous water spell. She conjured up a ball of water, one with enough water to fill 10 hectares worth of ground: a moderately-sized lake.
“This should be enough to plug that thing up for a while. Heh, whatever! He’ll take care of the rest.” She said before looking in Allan’s direction. He nodded, giving her the okay.
Allan was flying around the edge of the volcano, 150 meters away from her. When he nodded, she launched the massive water at her. Like her, he wasn’t cutting any stops. He needed to make sure that he controlled the water she launched his way so accurately that it cooled down the fire energy around them. It needed to be enough to temporarily deprive their surroundings of fire energy, making the volcano’s lava harden up.
He was going to take Silva’s ball of water and when it passed him, he was to cast additional spells upon it and when it headed towards the volcano, close to impact, he’d activate the spells, creating a ball of flowing ice carrying the same heat-depriving curse as his ‘Icy Death Shard’ spell. The ice and curse would then drive away the massive amount of heat energy in the surroundings, temporarily weakening it enough to dampen the energy intake of the Cockatrice. This would give the others just the time they needed to wound and slay that wretched bird? Serpent? I don’t really care!
After Silva threw the ball of water, everything went as planned; almost too well. The Cockatrice almost realized what was happening to its precious home, but it couldn't get there in time before it happened. Allan temporarily deprived the volcano and its surrounding area of its massive amounts of heat energy, putting a big dent in the cockatrice’s recovery power. The battle’s difficulty lessened after that.
Since Silva and Allan had almost used up all their magic power except the ‘meager’ amount it’d take to keep them afloat in the air, the rest handled the cockatrice.
Marcel with Sigurd, slowly froze the beast, depriving it even further of fire energy, lessening the intensity of its laser beams. It slowly got weaker the more Sigurd deprived it of its fire. Kensuke’s and Daniel’s attacks were now highly effective in dealing with the beast. Valeria and Evan finally managed to rid it of a claw. It lost most of its defense after it was further deprived of its energy. It was the start of the battle’s conclusion.
Marcel launched a high-powered Icy Slash at the cockatrice. Shalia shot powerful earth arrows blessed by wind spirits. Her arrows dealt damage at high speeds, piercing the beast’s tough exterior. Its serpent scales were becoming obsolete; useless even. It wasn’t long after that it fell.
Kensuke dealt the killing blow; a pressurized aura slash aimed at its head, powered by his brute strength. He added a special something to it to make it even sharper than usual. They were almost at the end, so why cut corners. He added a ‘Curse of Profuse Bleeding’ and ‘Curse of Sharpest Edge’ to that attack, cutting off its head and leaving the rest of it to bleed itself to death. The battle finally came to an end.
“Woah! We finally won! This chicken’s dead now!” Evan cheered as he poked the cockatrice’s corpse. The others, meanwhile, heaved sighs of relief for their struggle was finally over, followed by shouts of victory.
They were ecstatic after having defeated the dungeon beast whose existence felt like an insult to almost all of them. Now no more death rays, painful cackles, or even the sound of clucks. Why? Because the chicken was dead.
After celebrating their victory for a while, their post-victory depression and homesickness finally kicked in. Now they wanted to get back home as soon as possible.
When they finally finished their preparations to leave, they had Marcel store the dungeon beast’s corpse in his spatial storage like usual and began to leave. The carcass of the cockatrice was going to sell for a good price. Also, a certain priestess wondered if they could get a taste of it.
“From what I know, the blood in its veins has various fire toxins accumulated from its regular baths in this place’s natural energy. That thing is super dangerous!” Allan used the knowledge he gained from his earlier appraisal and his intuition to make a deduction. Since he said it, everyone believed him, including the female foodie who’d really wanted a bite of the ancient chicken. Ha, what is one to do but be bummed out if you’re her?
With that, they gathered their prize and left. Um, no prizes? Well, the Luck System isn’t feeling so generous today, so they didn’t get any, except for the countless beast corpses they gathered on their way to the final battle. Ha, could this day get any worse?
Oh yes, it did! After the battle, they looked around the place to find out there wasn’t any teleporter leading outside, except for one which brought them to the starting point, located at the base of the island. This meant they had to go back on foot, at least, those who didn’t know how to fly.
They were exhausted post-battle and now, they all had to walk back to the starting point together. Why? Because no one wanted to be known as the bad friend. Flying right now would be good but they can’t all do it, so they walked together, feeling even more bummed out.
As they were walking back to the teleporter, they reached a forest of trees halfway between the volcano and the base of the island. There, they sensed some vivid movement happening around them. Looks like whoever was chasing them was back at it.
Their magic perception skills identified a female around the same age as them in terms of appearance with immense magic power dwelling inside her. The magic power and psychic wavelength seemed very similar to a certain tiger princess. It was obvious who it was.
Since this person was obviously coming for her, the others let her be when she said they should go ahead and that she’d join them later. Silva, Allan, and Marcel insisted on staying to help her but she refused their help. She also insisted it was a personal matter she could handle alone, so they could only hope she returned soon.
Since they didn’t need any more explanations, they left, telling her to come soon.
When they got far enough, she called out to the person hiding in the trees, raising her blades and telling them to come out before she came after them with murderous intent.
“Okay, fine! I’m out now! Are you happy?” The girl exited her hiding place with her hands raised and a slight smile plastered upon her face. One could really see the relation between the two from how even their appearance alterations were similar.
The girl had long pale blond hair and onyx-colored eyes. She had light skin, unlike her sister’s fair one. Also, unlike her sister who liked skimpy outfits, she dressed very moderately. She wore a full teal bodysuit and a long camouflage coat atop it. She was fully covered and honestly, looked very much like a suspicious stalker. Her face shared a great deal of similarity with Valeria’s, like two people with similar faces, having undergone the same transformation. Even in these forms, they still looked like sisters.
“Not in the slightest! Can’t you see you’re ruining my day, older sister?” Valeria answered her sister’s words from earlier.
“Well, it’s not nice to say that! You just need to come back home and all of this will end. I hate having to constantly track your whereabouts like some kind of creepy stalker. I’d rather we just talked physically.” Lucia admitted. She didn’t want to be there either.
“We’re here now! Let’s talk! I want you to leave me alone. I am not going back.” Valeria raised her blade, threatening her sister to not come any closer.
Her sister didn’t do that, however, coming even closer as she told Valeria, “That thing isn’t going to do anything against me! The only thing stopping me from using my ‘Evasion’ ability against you is my desire to speak to you.” She sounded confident and Valeria knew what the results of her attack would be.
She lowered her blades and gave Lucia room to come closer, “Fair point! But still, don’t come any closer! I’ve learned some tricks since fighting you last time. Remember who always loses when we fight?”
Lucia took out a staff from her inventory as she stared her sister in the eyes,
“Let’s do that right now! Unlike you, I don’t like fighting at all. I’d rather be back home reading some ‘Kleisnir Theory of Magic Division’ but here I am, because of you.” Lucia tried sounding nonchalant as she tried to hide the undertones of anger and frustration at her situation caused by a certain someone.
Lucia didn’t like the beds in those inns nor did she like their food, how much money she had to spend taking care of herself instead of having someone wait on her all day. Unlike a certain someone, she was forced to leave home and she can only return if she brings back the troublemaker.
Valeria could tell how frustrated her sister was, so she proposed a deal,
“Okay! How’s this?! We fight like we usually do, but this time, our goal won’t be injuring the other or trying to make the other submit like how I like doing it. This time, we fight, planning our moves as we go. Whoever loses focus and trips first wins! The winner gets to make the loser do one small favor for them, which, for me, is you getting lost. Agreed?”
“Deal! I really hate betting against you but heh, who cares? Let’s do it!” Lucia sounded enthusiastic. At this point, she’d take any bet if it means getting her back home and avoiding that.
She got ready for the battle, taking a quick stance.
Valeria attacked Lucia. She blocked it with her staff, turning it and pointing at Valeria. Valeria expected a stab in the gut from her sister’s action. She hopped two steps back.
Lucia came followed, following her movements. She launched an attack with her staff at Valeria’s right sight side. Valeria flinched before counteracting, meeting her sister’s attack with her daggers, blocking it.
A quick battle of strength began afterward as they both tried to overpower the other to force a withdrawal of their weapon.
Lucia turned her staff to the ground, reaching for Valeria’s feet. Valeria was a bit slow to react but she managed to jump just in time to avoid the sweep from the staff.
Valeria tried taking a step back again, but her sister was already prepared for that. She prodded Valeria with her staff when she tried jumping, flinging her to the side. Valeria was surprised by the sudden and unexpected attack. She made her next move before she could land.
She maneuvered her body in the air, doing a flip and landing on her feet. She took a step back from her sister.
Lucia appeared behind her, reaching towards her with her staff to launch another attack. Valeria reacted quickly, moving forward, her movements a bit unsteady. She raised her daggers before coming at Lucia who blocked the attack with her staff.
So far, no one was at a disadvantage. At this rate, it looked like no winner was to be decided. They knew each other too well, too much, in fact. This was also the reason one of them was about to become the loser of this bet.
Valeria stood still for a bit, allowing Lucia to come forward and strike at her. Her sister had not anticipated her next strike, at all. She never expected that Valeria would do something so dirty,
“You know, let’s stop and talk about ‘Alvantes’ Theory of Spatial Energy’!” Valeria spoke.
The moment Lucia heard her, she became disoriented, as if she’d rather be doing something else than be in a bet with her sister at that very moment. This was bad! Very bad!
When she became disoriented, her movement slowed down as she thought of Valeria’s words. Why would she even do this? So dirty! How dare she use that person’s theories to slow down her train of thought! She was a hardcore intellectual. Bringing up Alvantes’ theories was the same as manipulating her moves.
She began regaining her attention, but this momentary lapse of focus was all Valeria needed to turn the tides. Lucia went in for her next attack with her staff. Valeria blocked it with her left dagger, then swept her sister off her feet. After, Valeria pointed her blade at her sister’s neck, ending the fight.
Lucia had gotten distracted by Valeria and now, she had lost. Valeria wins the bet! Now Lucia must leave her alone as per their agreement.
“No fair! You cheated by bringing up Sorcerer Alvantes!” She pouted. She did acknowledge though that Valeria had already won. Her sister always knew how to get the better of her and that’s so unfair.
Here’s what Valeria had to say about it,
“The world’s unfair to most people, sister! You’re a fortunate person. There’s a lot of unfair things you need to experience for further growth.”
“You really have grown, again.” Lucia liked seeing how much her sister had embraced the life outside unlike her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t enjoy her sister’s growth. It came at the cost of her being banished from home where all her precious stuff were at.
“Compared to how long we live for, 200 years spent running around getting chased by you is nothing!” Valeria sounded proud. It was hard at first but after she got used to it. It became fun and she suddenly felt like she could do anything in the world, hence the rebellious child phase she’s currently going through.
“But seriously! Come back home! Our siblings are suffering. They... they won’t survive for much longer if you don’t come back!” Lucia shivered slightly. She looked terrified. Valeria already knew what was up when she saw Lucia quivering like a person traumatized by a bad childhood memory. She, however, wasn’t going to just go back to her life in that palace so easily. This time, they had to suffer. Silva was right! Watching people suffer sometimes, can be a little exhilarating. Now they’ll learn to appreciate her more when she returns home someday.
“Well, that’s unfortunate! But still, I won’t go back, not yet. Imprisonment and a time-out are what’s waiting for me if I go home. There are a lot of things I need to experience before going back home. Go home and just tell father you didn’t find me or something.” Valeria picked her ears. Hmph, so unladylike, her sister thought. She didn’t care though.
“That’s not going to work, K. If I don’t come back with you this time, he will probably punish me.” Lucia looked like her patience was running out. She really had to bring Karshena home or else, they’d be the ones to suffer. Their angry father was very bad news!
“Well, I am your younger sister. You can stand to handle a little punishment on my behalf. What happened to our ‘Sisters Stick Together’ promise from back then?” Valeria rolled her eyes at her sister’s words. Ha, it’s always about their father with everyone in their family. When will they finally stop leaving matters up to her to deal with?
“Well, that still stands for now, but who knows for much longer? Father will kill me! Don’t you get it?!!!” Lucia tried to protect herself while also affirming that their promise was still valid. It didn’t work though as once again, it ended up being about what their father would do. Ha, that man!
“Well, as long as it’s within 5 days, you can be brought back to life. You’ll survive!” Valeria waved nonchalantly at her sister, telling her to shoo away. At this point, she’d already made her standing clear on this matter. Her sister was just being a bother.
‘Oh well, better skedaddle,’ she thought.
After Valeria was done, she quickly got away from her sister with a wind-movement spell called [Fast Step].
“Get back here! Don’t you pity me?!! I will suffer if I don’t bring you home!!” Lucia looked on the verge of tears. She really didn’t want any more punishment. Her father was a beast, a tyrannic beast. Only her sister could deal with him. He was a curse on their lives and Karshena was their cure. Why won’t she just come back home for all their sakes? She’s so cruel!
“Sorry, but I plan to be selfish for a while longer. Come back in a thousand years and see how I feel then.” She relayed to her sister before she got too far out of sight. Unfortunately, Lucia wasn’t much of a fighter than she was a mage who loved reading. Catching her sister wasn’t something she could do, even with speed-based spells to assist her, which is why she always went home empty-handed. Looks like this time, it wasn’t going to be any different. I pity her!
Valeria, meanwhile, quickly caught up with the others and when she did, she had something to say.
Now that her sister had shown up and revealed herself, she couldn’t wait to bring it up in a casual conversation sometime later anymore. This was probably way too fast, but she was going to do it anyway. In a way, this was also to protect herself from her sister's constant snooping.
“Hey, guys! What do you think about looking for a possible joint together; you know, a place where we could stay while together while on Sizburn. Constantly staying at an inn is bound to make our wallets go dry, or at least, for us who don’t access to our vast riches because of family issues.” Valeria suggested.
“Boo! I was going to say that in a minute. If we’re talking about buying a residence, it must have a lot of rooms, a bath, possibly a workshop for Allan, Shalia, and Marcel as well as a big yard where we can train during the mornings.” Silva let out her opinions.
“Yes, this will also help us decrease the chances of people figuring out Marcel’s other identity aside from as an adventurer if he comes by very often. Shall we get to it tomorrow?” Allan asked as if it was already final. Well, it was, kind of, because the thunderbeast brothers didn’t seem opposed to the idea either.
“Mm! Then see you tomorrow at the city square. We should find a dealing realtor as soon as possible to increase our chances of getting exactly what we want. Oh, and it also needs a large kitchen.” Silva said.
Shalia nodded, “Agreed! I need a space big enough to practice cooking. It needs to be big enough to support an explosion-proof spell.”
“Wait, does such a thing even exist?!” Daniel spoke out. He’d never once heard of such a thing existing before.
Shalia shrugged. She didn’t want to deal with more work, “I don’t know, but Allan can figure something out. He’s the Spell Master here, not me!”
“Hehe, right!” The others, except Allan who was suddenly been given work to do and Silva, laughed.
“Did you guys forget that I’m also a Spell Master? Rude much?!” Silva yelled.
Evan just had to be himself, as usual, “I’m sorry, but if we need some elegant magic displays, we’ll call you!”
“Now, I’m very offended! Screw you, Evan! Let’s get the house very soon! I won’t be helping Allan make the whatever explosion what-not.” Silva was angry! These guys were just rude now. Good luck doing this on your own, Allan. You won’t even need the extra hands so things will be fine even without her when they finally buy the house.
Wait, why were these people so eager to buy a house together the moment their identity caps came off? Wasn’t this going too fast? Is this a good idea?!
Oh well, I guess the future will tell us. After making plans for tomorrow, the group separated as always after visiting the dungeons. Once again, they’d managed to enter a dungeon and come back unscathed. A job well done.
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