Chapter 27: Chapter 27

Evelyn made her way toward the bushes with a new robe in her hand. After making sure that she was out of Ethan’s domain and sight, she started changing her robe to the new one. It was just half an hour ago that she was given a good beating to Ethan, but after realizing that she was the one taken advantage of, she had to call it off. Looking at her sore bum that had a palm print on it, she gritted her teeth. That cheeky bastard. How did he even...

She wore her new robes and did her hair in a quick fashion before returning to the group. Ethan was sitting on the ground with a black eye, a cigar between his teeth, one hand holding a beer cup, the other throwing small branches at the Beet. But before even touching the adorable mantis, they got sliced into tiny pieces.

A little away, Paprika was sending vines to the river, using them like spears. She was… fishing.

‘’Paprika!’’ Evelyn ran toward her, ‘’What are you doing? Are you going to eat those!?’’

‘’Relax, I asked her to hunt some for us. I thought we could make grilled fish,’’ Ethan called as he started using [Fabric Tear] against Beet. ‘’She still prefers nuts and fruits. Though Beet might like fish, I saw him eating a small snake some time ago.’’

‘’Paprika also eats insects sometimes, depending on her mood. We should try to give them both,’’ she suggested, amused. ‘’And you can’t use her as free labor like that. You have to play the song she likes as a reward.’’

‘’No problem!’’ Ethan said with a grin, still biting the cigar. ‘’If Beet and Paprika promise to make a little dance, I can play all night!’’

Imagining the scene in her mind, Evelyn gave a big smile, ‘’I’ll give anything to see that,’’ she murmured, sitting in front of Ethan with a hiss. She noticed that he was trying to suppress his smile, and she got irritated once again, ‘’How did you even–’’

‘’Come,’’ he said, jumping to his feet. ‘’Let’s have a spar.’’

‘’Now!?’’

‘’Yes. Now. Otherwise, with your shallow foundation, you’ll become a Godzilla with tiny hands in the future.’’

She didn’t know what Godzilla was but was almost certain that it was an insult. Getting up again, she called her pole and gripped it hard. ‘’Alright, let me know if my strikes are shallow or not.’’

Ethan put his cigar on a wooden ashtray and called his daggers, getting into a position. ‘’No skills. Come!’’

Although Evelyn wanted to kick his ass, she still didn’t increase the weight of the pole too much. Once she thought it was enough to give him a hard time, she charged and swung her pole to his shoulder. Ethan took a step toward her, avoiding it very closely, and with the back of his dagger, he hit the pole just above her grip. With her hand pushed easily, Ethan immediately pointed the dagger to her throat.

Stopping the dagger near her skin, ‘’What was your mistake?’’ he asked, taking a step back.

She frowned and thought about the scene again. ‘’That I gave an obvious opening?’’

‘’Yes, and no,’’ he replied. ‘’Not giving any openings is hard, but even with an opening, I shouldn’t have stopped and even redirected your strike so easily. The problem is you’re using your shoulder wrong and trusting your elbow too much.’’

‘’Even more importantly, you’re not using your hips at all,’’ he stated before extending his hand. ‘’Here, give it to me. Let me show you what I mean.’’

Evelyn passed the pole and watched him with interest. The first thing he did was to plant his foot on the ground with a solid step.

‘’The move starts from the lower body. In order to generate a strong momentum, you need to be stabilized as much as possible,’’ he said, turning left and right, showing his posture like he was nailed to the ground. ‘’Once you got the balance and stabilized yourself, give that power to your upper body, through your hips.’’

He made a slow swing and increased his speed toward the end. Like a snowball rolling, starting from his feet until the point of the pole, the momentum got bigger and bigger. ‘’Remember, the lower body is the balance and power while the upper body is the finesse.’’ He stopped to give the pole back to Evelyn. ‘’Here, try it.’’

Seeing that she was trying to imitate him, but the posture was still off, Ethan got her behind and held her from the shoulders. ‘’To get your upper body in sync, make sure you stand straight with your shoulders pulled back, to facilitate that perfect swinging motion from the shoulder- instead of the elbow- The shoulders are very important for both offensive and defensive moves,’’ he advised, holding her arm and making a swing motion. ‘’You didn’t even train with this weapon before, did you?’’

Evelyn was thrilled by the new technique. ‘’No, I was going to be a wind mage, but I changed my mind at the last minute,’’ she replied, absentminded. 

‘’Well, you have good instincts and reflexes. Since you’re also fast and strong, thanks to your skills, it worked out for you so far,’’ he commented, once again walking in front of her. ‘’But the more you get strong, the more you’ll show how much you’re lacking at the fundamentals. I’ll give you a few exercises. Once you get the hang of it, try to use them against monsters, and you’ll fix your bad habits in no time.’’

Evelyn’s eyes lit up, ‘’Thanks! I thought by fighting monsters I’ll eventually learn close combat, but I never thought I had such a glaring weakness,’’ she said, excited.

‘’Now, come again,’’ he said, getting a defensive posture. ‘’I’ll show you the other weakness.’’

This time Evelyn held the pole with both hands and swung it vertically. Ethan took a step forward and parried the pole as he walked behind her. When she turned back, he was already holding the dagger toward her neck.

‘’What about this time?’’ he asked.

‘’I was slow?’’ she replied, unsure.

‘’No,’’ Ethan smirked, ‘’I knew this time you’ll be using the pole as a two-handed weapon because you didn’t want to give me an opening. But that only works in certain situations, not in the beginning. This weapon is designed for single-hand use. I suggest you get yourself a small shield and perhaps start using your kicks. With that much strength, your kicks must be terrifying; using them just for movement is such a waste.’’

Evelyn considered what he said. She was also thinking about the same thing just half a year ago, but after getting used to the pole, she thought what she needed was more speed. ‘’But you are faster than me, right?’’

‘’I am. But even if I wasn’t, it still wouldn’t change the outcome.’’

‘’Why?’’

‘’Because your body is telling me what it's about to do,’’ he said with a grin before looking at Paprika, who was coming with a dozen of fish on her vines. ‘’That’s another topic, and it requires a lot of practice. Start making the swings I showed while I cook the fishes.’’

She did as she was told. Swinging the pole with her whole body not only increased the power outcome but also gave her more control. It was quite shocking that such a simple pointer never came to her mind while constantly fighting with monsters. She really wished that she had a good shield so that she could try against Ethan. Then, I would smash my shield to your face and say, ‘Your body told me what it’s about to do’, she thought with a silly smile, her swings becoming more enthusiastic.

As she practiced, she looked over the others and saw that Paprika was poking Beet with vines while Beet slashed its cute scythes to slice them. It was clear that Ethan was being a bad example for the kids. Looking at the said bad example, she saw that he was fanning the fire with a small piece of a harpy wing, his other hand covering his beer cup from the ashes, and his cigar placed in his mouth as usual. Enjoying the journey, huh? she thought as she watched him in a daze, her swings becoming crude and unstable. How can I enjoy life when my brother wasn’t even given a chance? Wouldn’t it be disrespectful to do so when it should’ve been him enjoying it instead?

With the delicious food, Evelyn’s mood became better, but she was still a little quiet through the night. They chatted a few more hours before dozing off. The next morning after breakfast, they entered the fifth floor with leery steps.

 

~~~

 

Once again, they found themselves in an underground tunnel, but this time the environment was quite hot, and there was a sulfur scent in the air. Ethan guessed that there must be magma nearby or at least an inactive volcano. The tunnel was smaller than the one with the bats, and a dim light was coming from the end of it.

‘’Let me go check and see what we are up against this time,’’ he said. ‘’With [Void Wrap], I’ll be back without any troubles.’’

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Evelyn nodded and didn’t say anything. She also knew that he had more chances when it came to escaping.

With stealthy steps, he followed the path while checking everything with his [Mana Sense]. Unfortunately, without his eyesight, his range of 60 yards was insufficient against the beasts of this floor. When he noticed the three overgrown hellhounds, they were already sprinting toward him.

He turned to run back to Evelyn without using his stealth. Three big dogs at the mid tier-4 were something he and Evelyn could handle. As he ran at full speed, he also considered the fact that the level of the creatures jumped from 42 to 45. If there are five more floors after this, we might cope up but anything more will be extremely dangerous. 

When his group noticed him and came to help, he used [Void Wrap] and waited for the beasts to turn their attention to Evelyn. Once they did, Ethan appeared right under the head of a hellhound and stabbed his dagger under its chin. Pulling his dagger, he opened two [Fabric Tear] and sent [Shadow Spikes] to the last two. Unlike the other two floors, this time, his skill was effective. Although it didn’t kill the beasts, he still stabbed his spikes all the way in.

Evelyn also reached with her [Windy Dance] and engaged with one of them directly. The hellhounds were definitely not easy foes, but every strike of Evelyn was equal to a tier-5. The beasts howled and cried in agony before Ethan ended their misery. 

But they missed something. Ethan didn’t see their habitats and ran back without seeing the tunnel's end. He had no idea if there were more of the beasts nearby. They realized that the howl of the hounds was actually a call for help because more than a dozen of them entered their domain, charging in a frenzy.

‘’Eve! Don’t get tangled with them, hit and run,’’ he called with a solemn tone. ‘’We’ll retreat to the entrance of the floor where it's more narrow, you keep them in line, and I’ll [Blink] among them with [Void Wrap] try to ease your burden.’’

‘’Okay!’’ she yelled and turned back to run where they came from. 

Ethan disappeared before the beasts came close and positioned himself behind the pack. Once Evelyn was about to get caught, he sent shadow spikes to harass the pack. Half of them turned for him. He kept aiming for their heads and managed to kill two of them before they reached him. Then, he used [Long jump] and [Blink] in succession, arriving next to Evelyn, and cutting the head of a hellhound with a swift motion.

After killing about half of them, another pack of a dozen entered the scene, and now Ethan was worried. How fucking small is this floor? We are gonna be out of mana after this batch, will there be more to come?

He saw that one of them bit Evelyn’s free arm and threw her to the wall. Another jumped over her, but he killed it in the air with a shadow spike before blinking next to her. ‘’Paprika! Bring the corpses of the hounds here. We’ll make a barricade and kill them one by one! Beet, watch Eve carefully, don’t let her get bitten. If they pinned us down, it’s over!’’

They worked in turmoil to make a small fort from the corpses in no time. Any other who jumped over was just a potential construction material. But the constant fight was taking a toll on both of them. Ethan let his body work on autopilot and focused on the sharpness of his mind. Inside their small stronghold, he was aware of everything and tried to use his resources in the most efficient way. Yet, he knew that there was always an equal exchange in life, in their current case, most efficient meant most risky. 

One close call after another, they killed and killed without a break and had to use all kinds of potions until finally, there was no more. Standing above a corpse mountain, covered in blood and grim, they looked at each other and gave a sigh of relief before collapsing. 

‘’I think I don’t have what it takes to celebrate, right now,’’ Evelyn said, her voice shaky. ‘’If we were a bit late to use the corpses, we would be dead.’’

Ethan gave her a sympathetic look and saw that her tight was missing a chunk while she had scars all over. ‘’Honestly, I was starting to lose hope even with this as they kept coming like an endless horde.’’ 

With his skills, it wasn’t so hard for him to escape, and he could’ve even covered his tracks against the dogs, but that would’ve meant leaving his companions behind, and he’d rather die together than to live by abandoning them. Perhaps it was naive, but this notion only got stronger since he felt that they’d do the same.

As his body was in a bad condition, while his exhausted mind was even worse, he abandoned all kinds of gloomy reflections, and whether it’d help or not, he gave his new stats to Vitality without a second thought.

Tier 3 - Level 33

Health: 550/1200

Mana: 21/1200

Stamina: 242/800

Vitality: 120

Strength: 92

Endurance: 80

Agility: 150

Intellect: 120

Perception: 60

*Available stats: 0

Skills(Rank 1): [Blink], [Fabric Tear], [Mana Sense], [Mana Aura], [Shadow Spikes], [Long Jump]

Rank 2: [Void Wrap]

Feeling a tad better, ‘’Let me go check if there are more,’’ Ethan said and started walking down from their fort. He stepped over the giant hellhound corpse and jumped to a smaller one. ‘’I really doubt it, though. Even the boss came over to the party.’’

As he ventured deeper, he realized that this floor wasn’t small at all. It was the hellhounds who had ridiculously sharp ears. They heard each other's cries from miles away and ran to help without hesitation. 

After making sure there were no more beasts, he called his party to where the gate was. So, they could meditate in a better environment. However, there wasn’t a gate; there were three of them, with fancy engravings on them tagged as, Sixth floor, Niamaris, and Union.

‘’Didn’t the guy say Niamaris and Misty Peaks?’’ Ethan asked.

Evelyn was staring at the gates with a frown.‘’Yes, he also didn’t mention that there was an option to continue.’’ 

Looking between the doors of Niamaris and the Sixth floor, Ethan turned to Evelyn. ‘’What do you think?’’

‘’I’m thinking what you’re thinking,’’ she answered with the same grit when she killed the hellhound boss in exchange for a good piece of her flesh. ‘’I’m not leaving this place without a damn reward.’’

Ethan was amused by her guess accuracy, but he was also concerned that this hellhound episode might not be the only time they almost died. ‘’Are you sure? I mea–’’

‘’Yes. We almost died, and it might happen again. That’s exactly why we deserve the goddamn rewards!’’

He turned to look at the door of the sixth floor with narrow eyes, and a subtle quirk appeared at the corner of his lips. My thoughts exactly.

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