Chapter 73: Into the dungeon’s depths.

Falling on the eighth floor, the party quickly got alert not to get surrounded right after descending. Seeing that they landed in a safe place, Edward approached Ingvar.

“Ingvar, mind if I take the front today?”

Ingvar chucked and placed his twin swords on the back as he headed towards the back of the party, his words sounding in Edward’s ear: “Sure. I’ll let you show off a bit in front of the new girl.”

Edward turned around to tell him that was not the case but Ingvar was already next to his sister and Mya looking at him with a grin.

‘I’m only listening to Fenrir’s advice. How did this become me showing off?’ Fenrir has told him this morning to fight in the front. She wanted him to put Eddena’s training into practice as well as get more used to fighting using his wolf body.

“Looks like you really missed me?” said Echo as she saw Edward approach from the back.

“I’ll be in your care, Echo.” Replied Edward and he took off his shirt as they started walking forward.

It didn’t even take 30 seconds and they encountered their first group. It was a medium sized one, only having around seven lizards.

“I’ll take care of this one. You keep watch so we don’t get ambushed by any other group.” Said Edward before throwing his shirt on the ground and turning into his wolf form. The monsters here were quite difficult for adventurers of the same level, but thanks to his wolf form which brought a large increase to his basic parameters, they didn’t really pose a threat to Edward as long as he was careful.

Lunging into the pack of feral lizards, Edward dodged a claw from the one in the lead and ripped it’s neck clean off using his sharp fangs. Landing on the ground, he quickly jumped towards the next lizard before the body of the first one even hit the ground.

‘They really are too slow.’ Listening closely to his surroundings, Edward agilely moved his wolf body between each attack and used his claws and fangs to rip through the group of lizards.

Sliding over the ground under the last lizard’s body, he plunged his fangs onto one of it’s hind legs to stop his forward momentum and turn his body. Once he was behind the lizard, he released it’s mangled leg form his mouth and plunged on of his claws onto it’s back, killing it on the spot.

Edward canceled his wolf form and spit on the flour a couple of times, still having a hard time getting used to biting into monsters. Looking at the mangled lizards bodies laying dead in front of him, a feeling of satisfaction welled up inside him. Compared to the last time he was inside the dungeon with the others, his progress was obvious to see.

Clapping sounds resounded from the front, breaking Edward’s reverie.

“Not bad, but leave some for me as well.” Said Echo as she threw Edward his shirt back.

Edward caught it mid air and tied it at his waist.

“It’s all thanks to miss Eddena’s training. Go and quickly absorb the life force, I want to look for a new group.” The adrenaline from the fight made him forget his Violet troubles so he just wanted to continue fighting.

Echo quickly collected her life force and the cores the monsters dropped before they continued forward. After Edward took care of three more groups, Echo got bored and joined him as well.

“Edward has grown so strong…” said Mya in the back with her eyes fixed on Edward and Echo as they were dealing with a 14 lizards group. The lizards looked like kids getting beaten up by an adult.

Ingvar nodded in agreement before saying: “I think we should head for the next floor. We’re already too strong for this one.”

“The ninth floor is too difficult. We should wait until we level up and get down using the safe zone.” Commented Kara with a frown on her face.

“Why?” asked Mya.

“The density of the monsters increases as one reaches closer to the dungeon’s core. Since the ninth floor is the last one before the core room, the monsters come pretty much continuously, making it easy to get overwhelmed. We’ll also have to change the way we fight since we’ll need someone to protect the back as well.” Replied Kara.

“I still think we can do it. We can have Edward and Minx protect the back while me and Echo take care of the front. We’ll save a lot of time if we can successfully hunt on the ninth floor.” Added Ingvar, quite excited at the thought.

“Sigh.. We should at least use the stairs.” Said Kara, obviously not too fond of Ingvar’s idea.

“We’re not that far from the stairs anyway. We’re only losing more time if we go back now. How about we ask the others and see what they think about it?”

“Fine…” Kara acquiesced with a sigh, already having an idea what Edward and Echo would say.

After Edward and Kara made short work of the lizards, they held a small meeting and discussed whether to descend on the ninth floor or no. Echo and Edward of course took Ingvar’s side and Kara didn’t say anything else.

“I hope everyone understands their role. Edward, you turn before we descend. Remember, we’ll first clear all the monsters around before making our way towards the safe zone. We’ll then try and hunt around it.”

Edward nodded and threw his shirt for Mya to hold before turning. Once everyone got in formation, with Edward, Minx, Echo and Ingvar surrounding Mya and Kara, Ingvar opened the floor of the dungeon and they started falling towards the ninth floor.

As they were falling, Edward took a look at the ninth floor underneath and understood why Kara was so serious just before. There were lizards everywhere. They were not as densely packed as the beast tide in the marsh, but they were not that far off.

With a whooshing sound, Kara released a volley of arrows as the lizards underneath, clearing a spot for them to land on.

Once everyone’s feet touched the ground, the lizards started moving towards the group from all sides. Kara frowned and crouched down before raising an earth pillar under hers and Mya’s feet. She knew that the others would be strained to protect a perimeter and this would bring everyone some breathing room.

From the start, the party was having a hard time dealing with the constant assault of the lizards. Kara kept providing support from the top of the pillar, shooting arrows almost continuously, but there was only so much she could do.

Edward summoned a water whip from the start and was using it to deal with any lizard that would get close on his flanks. Even with his increased agility, without the whip he knew he would still get hit as lizards kept coming from three different sides.

Edward jumped over a lizard, biting into it’s tail before clawing another one. Sensing danger approaching from the side, he used his water whip to cleave in that direction. Hearing the sound of the whip cutting through flesh, he didn’t even bother to check and moved to claw another lizard. It was hard dealing with the constant pressure, his heart beating wildly in his chest, but he also found it kind of fun.

*Whimper* A pained sound entered Edward’s ear from the direction Minx was fighting in. Turning his head, he saw a lizard that just managed to hit Minx getting it’s head pierced by one of Kara’s arrows.

The moment he turned to look at Minx, a lizard from his flank managed to sneak a hit in using it’s tail.

‘Fuck.’ Edward grit his teeth to endure the pain coming from one side of his abdomen and swung his water whip in a circle around him, cutting all the lizards around into pieces. That one attack killed over ten lizards instantly but the whip also broke apart.

Without giving him any time to catch his breath, more lizards replaced the ones he had just killed and moved to all attack at the same time. Not having any time to waste, Edward jumped towards the ones coming from the front and circulated his mana to summon another water whip to protect his back.

After half of the whip took form, it dissipated into thin air, making Edward’s heart sink. He just remembered the last whip he used was his forth one and he didn’t have the mana to summon another one.

Because he failed to create a whip to protect his back, he ended up hit by three lizards at the same time, cleaving three chunks of flesh from his back and throwing him deeper into the horde of lizards.

“Edward!!” Exclaimed Mya in a worried voice, being the first one who noticed his predicament as her eyes never left him during the entire fight.

Kara heard her panicked cry and turned to look, only to notice Edward bleeding profusely while being surrounded by lizards on all sides.

She bent her knees and leaped off the pillar in his direction without hesitation. Her mana churned continuously as she released another volley of arrows, hitting every lizard that got close to him.

Once she landed, she placed one hand on the ground and a three feet bear made completely out of mana materialized next to her. It was one of her skills, Spirit of the Wild.

Placing the bow on her back, she grabbed Edward in her arms and started carrying him towards the center while leaving the Spirit of the Wild to deal with this area. Since she couldn’t fire arrows while carrying Edward, she could only use earth spikes to kill any lizard that would block her path.

After reaching the pillar, she used another one to lift herself up and placed Edward’s body in front of Mya.

“Heal him quickly. My spell won’t hold for long.” Her Spirit of the Wild was already getting slowly overwhelmed before she even reached the top of the pillar.

Leaving Edward in Mya’s care, she started supporting the others again. Ingvar and Echo were still hanging on, but Minx was having a hard time so she had to focus more attention on her side.

Mya immediately started healing Edward, who has been conscious throughout the whole thing. Noticing the situation was quite bad all around, he started turning back in his human form. The horrible pain he was feeling from his open wounds made him want to scream out loud, but he grit his teeth and held it in, worrying he would disturb the others even more.

‘This is bad. Even if Mya heals me there is nothing I can do to help the others without mana…’ his wolf form was strong indeed, but without mana he didn’t know if he could keep protecting one side.

Feeling the mark on his hand heat up slightly, he knew what Fenrir wanted to say. He thought of the same thing and, at this time, it seemed like the only way they would have a chance.

After coughing out a mouthful of blood, he said: “Kara, we’re going to lose if it continues like this. I have a plan but I need your help.”

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“What is it?” said Kara as she continued launching arrows. She knew he was right. With the rhythm in which she created arrows, her mana would run out as well if she was to cover Edward’s side as well.

“Knock me out and throw me down. The wolf would take care of some of the enemies while at the same time replenishing my spent mana and stamina.”

“What? No!” exclaimed Mya, but Kara just pondered for a second before palming Edward on the back of his neck.

After she shot two more arrows to cover Minx, Kara noticed Edward starting to turn from the corner of her eye.

Placing her bow on the ground, she pushed the panicking Mya away from Edward before grabbing one of his hands and throwing him down from the pillar.

“Why?” asked Mya with tears in her eyes as she stood up and tried to jump after him.

Kara grabbed her arm and said: “Don’t be an idiot.”

“But he’s…”

“Just watch and shut up. I don’t have time to babysit you.” Interrupted Kara as she picked up her bow and started shooting arrows once more.

Edward’s body finished turning while still in mid-air and Mya watched as he started wildly rampaging through the lizards. He looked the same as in his wolf form, but he was giving her a completely different feeling from before.

“Kara, this..” muttered Mya without moving her eyes away from Edward’s fight. She couldn’t believe he could fight like that while not even completely healed.

“He will explain it to you later. Now watch him carefully and tell me if he shows signs of reverting to his human form.”

“Alright.” Said Mya, already not planning to look away from him anyway.

The wolf continued killing lizards for about ten minutes until his body started showing signs of turning back. Once his transformation began, Kara started protecting him with her bow until he was ready to fight again.

Opening his eyes, Edward immediately activated his wolf form and resumed fighting. The situation slowly stabilized, but it was still a losing battle. Everyone was slowly running low on either mana or stamina.

Kara bit her lip in frustration as she said under her breath: “Do I really have to do it?”

She then looked at Edward that was now fighting with his back at the pillar, wishing to save as much mana as possible and got even more frustrated. As she slowly moved one hand towards her chest, she heard Mya from the side: “There are less lizards coming…”

Raising her head, Kara looked deeper towards the end of the lizard encirclement and noticed that Mya was right. Heaving out a sigh of relief, she moved her hand back to the bowstring and yelled towards the others: “Just hang on a little longer. It’s almost over.”

Everyone fought for a couple more minutes until the last lizard dropped dead, pierced by an arrow straight through the head.

Kara placed on hand on the ground and lowered the earth pillar. Since everyone was laying on the ground trying to catch their breath, Mya started running from one person to the other to heal them. There were no serious injuries, but everyone was covered in small cuts and bruises, with Minx being the worst even with all of Kara’s support.

Once they were all healed, Ingvar said: “Quickly move and absorb the life force before the dungeon takes it back or other adventurer group passes by here.”

There were over a thousand lizard bodies laying dead on the ground. With so many dead lizards, everyone besides Mya managed to reach level 9, she stopping at level 8.

“It will be a pain to carry all these cores…” said Ingvar with a sigh while looking at the small mountain of monster cores laying on the ground. There were at least 400 level 9 monster cores that they managed to gather from all the lizards they killed.

“Well, I have a solution to that.” replied Edward with a chuckle and his eyes fixed on Minx.

“Oh, I actually forgot about that. Minx, you can eat as many as you want.” Said Ingvar, not really minding the money loss.

Minx was also happy as she looked at Edward for permission. Seeing him nod towards her, she started devouring the small mountain of cores.

“Once Minx is done with the cores, we should head towards the safe zone. We’ll still have to fight on the way, but it will be easier as we don’t have to deal with monsters from all sides.”

After Minx did short work of the cores, they followed Echo’s directions and headed for the safe zone.

“Are you alright?” asked Edward as he came close to Minx to check on her. He noticed that ever since they started heading towards the safe zone, she was having difficulties even walking straight.

“She’s processing the life force inside the cores. Assimilating life force without the use of a status tablet can be exhausting, but she’s fine.” Said Kara from the side.

Since Minx was in her smallest size, Edward picked her up in her arms and started carrying her. He just now remembered she has fallen asleep the last time she ate monster cores as well.

“Why is she so cold?” asked Edward in worry, noticing that her body was almost freezing.

“She is absorbing mana from the the atmosphere. We get the level up mana increase through out status tablet, but for beasts without one, they can only absorb it like this.” Replied Kara again, putting Edward’s mind at ease.

As lizards started appearing once more, Mya offered to carry Minx in Edward’s stead so that he could fight. They only encountered a few more lizards, around 20 or so, until they stumbled upon their first group of adventurers farming around the safe zone.

Seeing them look quite battered, the party let them pass through, even opening up a small path for them. Once they reached the safe zone, everyone felt more at ease and Ingvar went to get some food.

Kara came up to Edward who was tending to Minx’s sleeping body and wanted to say something when Edward interrupted her: “Thank you for back there.. I would probably be dead if not for you.”. He was quite mad at himself at having made so many mistakes in that fight.

Kara was caught of guard and even blushed slightly before clearing her throat and saying: “You’re welcome. I came to tell you that you should explain about your curse to Mya. She already asked me about it but I brushed her off and told her you will explain it yourself.”

“Sigh.. I will take care of it after everyone finishes eating since I planned on sleeping tonight anyway.”

“Alright. I would suggest you go to the eighth floor. It is a lot safer.”

“We’ll see.” Replied Edward, already planning on asking Fenrir for her opinion first.

After everyone besides Edward and Minx had their fair share of food, Edward brought Mya to a corner and explained to her about his curse. Mya was a little taken aback at the start, but easily got ever it after thinking that, if not for that curse, a repeat of her last experience in the dungeon would have happened again.

Having explained things to Mya, he moved a bit further away from the rest so that she could speak with Fenrir.

“What do you think? Can the wolf deal with this floor?”

[I think it would actually be better on this floor. The wolf has no problem with the number of lizards and you will get even more life force, but wait until later. It’s quite early and there are probably more adventurers hunting outside.]

On the other side of the safe zone, behind the staircase, Kara and Ingvar were having an argument.

“You know I almost had to call for help? Why did you have to suggest we head to the ninth floor?”

“I’m sorry, Kara. I was too eager to increase my level and underestimated the dangers of the ninth floor.” Replied Ingvar with his head bowed like a kid being rebuked by his mother.

“I can understand Edward and Echo, but you should know better. Even if it’s a beginner dungeon, the floor before the core will still be a challenge even at the same level, not to mention a level lower.”

Ingvar kept his head bowed and didn’t dare to say anything back. He knew Kara was really pissed this time.

Kara was about to continue reprimanding Ingvar when she frowned slightly an muttered: “It’s that woman’s voice again. I really need to find out who she is and how’s talking to him.”

“The one that keeps talking to Edward? Maybe she’s using an artifact of some kind.”

“I don’t think so.. I never saw any artifact on him and it would be quite hard to hide it when he keeps turning. It should be something else.. No matter. Let’s go back. I’ll deal with your punishment once we return to the city.”

Everyone spend the remaining of the day going over the fight with the lizards and planning for tomorrow. Once the dungeon darkened, Edward left Minx in Mya’s care since she hasn’t woken up yet and took his leave. It was time for the wolf to start his hunt.

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