I tossed my other swords into my Inventory, and there they would likely stay until I bothered to clear it out at some point down the line. Smiling all the way, I practically skipped to the Tower of Babel. I was one step closer to my usual D&D build. I even had the low Intelligence stat to prove it.
It didn't take long to reach it. At this early hour, the main plaza was practically devoid of anyone, all accept Lili. Her oversized green bag made it easier to spot her. "Morning, Lili," I greeted, coming up behind her.
"Good morning Mr. Jericho! Lili sees that you received your armor...and a new sword?" Lili returned, glancing over the blade that was bigger than her, quickly dismissing it. I couldn't tell if she decided that it wasn't worth stealing or just admiring it. If it was the former, then not only was I offended but I wasn't going to let go of the weapon until I shoved it into my inventory.
"Yup, fresh off the forge. Are you ready?" I asked, feeling as light as a feather in my heavy armor. For the past few days, I was stuck on the seventh floor, doing whatever I could to grind my stats as I mapped out the floor. None of my stats had broken fifty yet, but some were close. I could run with Lili for longer without getting completely exhausted, the weight, while stupidly heavy, was more manageable as for balance. Well, there was only so much a Dexterity stat could do when there were a hundred something pounds hanging from my neck.
"Hm! But...does Mr. Jericho promise not to use his usual method for hunting monsters?" Lili asked, her eyes narrowing even as she smiled sweetly at me. "Because that's very dangerous. More dangerous than how Mr. Jericho usually does things."
"I promise," I agreed easily as we started walking up the stairs. During the upper floors, I could somewhat fight with Lili on my back. So, naturally, I wanted to fight with her on my back, backpack and all. It worked...well enough.
"That's not what Lili wanted to hear, Mr. Jericho…" Lili said with a dramatic sigh, her shoulders slumping. I glanced down at her and swallowed a sigh. In the days since we ran into Asshole the Second, Lili hadn't exactly proved to be a well of information. She confirmed that she was in the same familia as him, and that was about it.
"Don't worry Lili, no matter what, I'll make sure you get out of the Dungeon in one piece. I promise," I told her, her beige hood hiding her reaction to that as we stepped into the Guildhall. Much like the city, it was deserted except for a skeleton crew. I scanned the faces, a small group of guild employes chatting, one of them glancing over. Eina.
"Morning," I greeted, "you're here early. Nightshift?" I asked when she broke off from the others to approach. I saw a more of her now since I was having study lessons for the past few days, where she drilled information into my head. It didn't matter if it was relevant or not, Eina wouldn't be satisfied unless I knew the Dungeon down to the last pebble in it.
At the very least, I got some maps out of it.
"I could say the same to you," Eina responded, smiling lightly as her gaze racked over my form. "I see you finally got your armor...I suppose you'll be going back down to the seventh-floor today?" She asked, her eyes sharp. I knew she was a worrier, but I had underestimated how much. I'm not sure what I did to endear myself to her either since she didn't treat every adventurer like this. Wait, I knew why. The whole going to the sixth floor in a blanket was probably what did the trick.
"We are, and I did the reading on it that you gave me. And I studied the map until I'm pretty sure I can find my way down there drunk and blindfolded." I said with a patent smile. You'd think reading about monsters and stuff would be exciting because they were, well, monsters. You'd be wrong. The textbooks were as dry as a science textbook back in my old world. It took a special talent to make monsters and myths boring.
Eina nodded, believing me even though she really shouldn't. "And you have your potions?" She asked, acting like a mother hen.
"We do Miss. Tulle," Lili spoke up, "Mr. Jericho made extra sure that we had plenty!"
Eina nodded again, letting out a small breath. "Then I suppose you're as ready as you can be," she said, sounding like she'd rather pull teeth than let us down to the 7th floor. Still, the fact that I kept coming back from it the past couple days stopped any real protests.
"We'll be fine, Eina. I won't ask you not to worry -- mostly because I think that might be impossible, but just have some faith in us. We'll be back up around five, so if you're still here then we'll see you then." I reassured, getting a thin-lipped smile from her.
"I won't, but Misha will be. Check-in with her before you leave, okay? She worries about you, you know." Eina said with an air of defeat. At the very least she wasn't arguing me to not go down anymore. I guess my results spoke for themselves.
"I will. See you later," I waved goodbye, walking into the Dungeon with Lili at my back. We walked down into the Dungeon, walking through the first six floors with ease, arriving to the seventh with cautious excitement. For me, at least. That sweet, delicious 12 exp per kill awaited me. I already had a lot of killer ant mandibles, not close to the hundred needed, but I was getting up there. That 5000 exp would be mine.
Stepping onto the seventh floor, at this early in the morning, it didn't take long for us to hear the first sounds of monsters spawning. A tidbit I learned from the books was that the Dungeon had a soft cap on how many monsters it could spawn. It seemed to take some unseen energy to spawn monsters -- early in the morning, it could afford to throw more lone adventurers since it didn't have to split focus on dozens of other adventurer parties.
Three killer ants emerged from the walls, two on one side and one on the other. I hefted my new weapon, feeling its weight before I swung down with all my strength on the two ants on my right. The edge of new sword bit into the exoskeleton -- before, because of how dull my swords got, even as I got stronger the exoskeleton proved too tough for me to slice through. With my new sword, with its extra weight and a wickedly sharp edge, I carved cleanly through the head and thorax of the first ant.
My sword slammed into the other one with enough force that I cleaved off the bottom half of the killer ants front legs. It let out a screech, collapsing without its support. My sword was out of position to seize the opportunity, too large to easily maneuver a downward strike to finish it off. With what was becoming well-practiced ease, I raised a foot and slammed it down on its head. It cracked open like an egg, killing it.
Whipping around, I saw that Lili had put some distance between her and the killer ant, a few arrows lodged in it, but just to slow it down enough so I could finish it off. The ant turned its attention to me when I rushed towards it, viewing me as the bigger threat. It jumped at me, lunging at my stomach, only to be greeted halfway by my sword skewering its bulbous head.
"Sweet," I couldn't stop myself from breathing, a stupid grin on my face as I looked down at my new sword. It worked like a charm -- the weight was a great, so much better than the light swords I was using before. And the reach was absolutely fantastic! The killer ants never came close, even if it was a little awkward to get back into position for another good swing.
My good cheer was broken when more ants spawned down the hall, another five. Glancing behind me, I saw Lili was holding her own against another two that were in the process of leaving the Dungeon walls. She slowly backpedaled, calm, though I couldn't see her face through the giant green pack she wore, but she didn't seem to be panicking.
"I have another five. Are you good?" I asked, backing up slowly to get a little closer to Lili, letting the monsters come to us.
"Lili will need to reload soon," Lili said, firing a bolt that killed another killer ant. Like an anthill, another two crawled over its corpse. Right. I needed to start taking these things out faster.
"Go ahead and do it. I'll keep them off you," I said, turning on my heel to run at the four killer ants behind us. In the low light, their blackish-red exoskeleton looked menacing now that there were more of them. Three of them lunged at me at the same time, jumping up to knock me over then swarm over me.
Gritting my teeth, I swung my sword with all my strength, slicing through the three of them at the same time, bisecting them at the thorax with some difficulty. The halves fell on the remaining killer ant, stunning it so I could stomp on its head. No sooner as they were dead, I rushed back to deal with the other five.
Lili reloaded her weapon, firing off at the killer ants to slow them down until I could reach them. They rushed us, practically crawling over each other to get to me. Holding my sword like a giant baseball bat, I swung through the ants, cleaving three them while the other two continued undaunted. I stomped on one's head before it could bite me, using a well-tested tactic while the final one nearly managed to bite down on my leg before I grabbed it by the base of its neck. With a snarl, I lifted the deceptively light ant and crushed its head against the Dungeon wall.
That was a great fight, I concluded, looking down at the corpses, making sure that they were dead. Then I turned my attention down to my armor, noting small marks where the ant bit down on, but not much else.
"All good?" I asked, turning to Lili to see her topping up her crossbow. The smaller girl gave me a firm nod, displaying a radiant smile.
"Lili is okay," Lili confirmed. "Is Mr. Jericho ready to continue?" She asked, making quick work of retrieving the monster stones. When she was done, she walked over to me as I crouched down to let her hop on.
"You bet," I said, picking her back up as we continued to clear the floor.
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A/N— I'll try to post daily. Powerstones and comments would help, it would mean alot and give me the motivation to continue the story. In fact two chapters a day wouldn't be impossible either.
I'll post an extra chapter every 500ps power stones, no limit!
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed.
Ps. You can also read ahead at my Patreon to support the story and help me write more. Patrons get two chapters a day and 30 chapters ahead for just a couple bucks :)
Patreon.com/Ethereal0