Bab 44: Newcomers
The inside of the crooked cave was untouched by sunlight. Yet, amidst this darkness, there was a brilliant light shining from a torch. It cast its light upon the forms of three men who were determinedly walking forward with a look of mirth and greed showing in their eyes. Once in a while, the sound of laughter would be heard from the muscular man of their group.
This muscular man’s name was Tyko, and he was a second-level adept mage. Though he was not very gifted at wielding magical power, the man was considered to be quite capable. This was because while he was not an expert at using magical power, Tyko was born with a body bigger than people of the same age since he was young.
Not everyone in the magic world was born with a gift for wielding magical power. Among those who lacked such a gift, many chose to just accept their fates. Still, there were a lot who chose not to give up by training to strengthen their bodies as a way to make up for what they lacked. Tyko was one of those people. His lack of talent for magic had kept him stuck as a second-level adept for more than five years now. Even as he had turned thirty-six, there was still no sign that his level would progress any further.
As for the thin man with a narrow face that looked like a fox on Tyko’s right, his name was Paeter. On Tyko’s left was a heavy man who was walking forward with a big bouncing belly that looked like a huge waterskin; his name was Ruber. The two of them were mages who had been following Tyko around for several years now. Paeter and Ruber had been friends before they met Tyko several years ago. None of them were very skilled mages; though they had already turned twenty-six, they were still just seventh and eighth-level acolytes.
The three of them finally reached the end of the cave’s path. In front of them was the dungeon door, the same one which Arias had entered several days ago.
“See? It really is a dungeon door, Boss. I told you my map was not a fake. Do you know what kind of hardship I had to go through to find it?”
Paeter said in an excited voice while bragging about his achievement in the hope of getting on Tyko’s good side.
“It wasn’t just you. We found the map together. You can’t just take all the credit. I know you’re trying to ask for more share than me, Paeter!”
Ruber protested, indignant that the other was trying to steal all the credit. The two of them may be friends, but arguments like this were a common occurrence between them.
“Now, now, there’s no need to fight. Both of you did well this time. All the hardship and danger I’ve gone through to get here was not for nothing, hahaha.”
Tyko said happily. The dungeon door in front of him was truly a treasure. It was his hope to finally advance from the second to the third level of adept, and perhaps even stronger than that.
But as his mind was fantasizing about the many treasures and beastcores inside the dungeon awaiting for him to snatch, his expression suddenly changed.
“Is something wrong, Boss? Why are you looking like that?”
Paeter was the one to notice Tyko’s expression and immediately asked.
“Damn it! Someone arrived before us!”
Suddenly, Paeter and Ruber’s expressions immediately changed.
“What do we do now, Boss?”
“We hurry and get in, you idiot!”
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Several days later, somewhere on the fifth floor of the dungeon, there was the sound of fighting that could be heard every once in a while. There were roars of lightning mixed with growls of angry beasts and occasionally, cries of pain.
Arias had just cleared the fourth floor of the dungeon and arrived at the fifth floor three days ago. It had taken him several days to deal with the goblins on the fourth floor until all of them were exterminated. The number of goblins on the fourth floor was not much different from the third. However, one of them had been a high-level goblin. Dealing with that one was quite difficult, and the goblins were also attacking him as a group which gave Arias a tough time handling them.
After he had dealt with every last beast on the fourth floor, Arias absorbed power from beastcores until his rank was raised to the first level of adept. This made dealing with high-level beasts on the fifth floor not so difficult. If anyone knew that Arias could absorb power directly from beastcores like this, they might go insane with envy and Arias would be hunted down by a bunch of mages who wanted to get his secret out of him. To be able to absorb power from beastcores directly like this was no different from absorbing life force from animals; it was truly an act that defied the laws of nature.
The dungeon’s fifth floor was more dangerous than the previous ones. During these three days, Arias had already fought three high-level beasts. They were a lot more dangerous than mid-level beasts, but fortunately, they were not beasts that stayed in groups like the goblins. Otherwise, Arias would have been in a difficult situation.
Arias finally reached the end of the fifth floor. In front of him were two doors: one that would bring him to the dungeon’s next floor and the other that would lead him to the world outside. However, it seemed like getting to the doors was not going to be that easy.
“So it’s blood-seeking vines this time.”
Arias looked at the expanded territory of vines in front of him. They clumped together and looked like a big, normal bush, but upon careful inspection, you could see blood sticking on some parts of the vines. It must have been the blood of some beasts that had wandered into the blood-seeking vines’ territory. The vines’ trunks were pure black, and even the leaves were the same color. While blood-seeking vines might look like normal plants, they were classified as beasts, and more importantly, high-level beasts.
“Looks like I’ve found something interesting.”
Arias stared intently at the center of the blood-seeking vines. There was a small wooden box that sat on a stone slab. It was not engraved with beautiful patterns or decorated with luxurious gemstones that would make it look eye-catching, but Arias could sense magic power overflowing from the inside of that wooden box. It looked like the blood-seeking vines’ purpose was to guard this box.
The moment that Arias stepped close to them, the vines immediately slithered toward Arias. To put it more accurately, it was charging toward him to attack. The blood-seeking vines that slithered toward Arias were as quick as a serpent darting to bite its enemy. Arias dodged the attack with a jump while striking back.
THUD!
As Arias was jumping to dodge the vines, one of them had taken hold of his leg. It made the other vines’ attack land directly on him. The long red marks that appeared with blood seeping out from the wounds felt quite painful for Arias. He used his lightning to attack the vine that was gripping his leg before leaping backward again for a breather.
“Huh! You got me. How about I turn you into firewood then?”
Fire Ball!
A fire was lit on Arias' palm, and it dashed toward the blood-seeking vines to attack. It was the first time Arias had ever used the Fire magic to fight in this life. He normally used it only when he brewed potions. Arias was a wielder of an irregular element, the Thunder element, which arose from the fusion of the Fire element and the Air element. Though Arias’ ability to use the Fire and the Air magic was not as strong as his ability to use the Thunder magic, it was not weak in comparison to other mages.
The weakness of plant-type beasts was that they were vulnerable to the Fire element. This was one reason why Arias had chosen to attack with the Fire magic. Another reason was that one of the vines had landed a direct hit on Arias’ face, and it made the fire of rage inside him flare with the desire to burn these blood-seeking vines to ashes.
.
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On the other side, on the dungeon’s third floor, the group led by Tyko was exploring the dungeon in quite a foul mood. They had explored the dungeon until they reached the third floor but found that most of the beasts had already been killed. Moreover, the third floor did not have a single treasure that they had dreamed of. The only thing that was left behind were beast corpses.
“Damn it! How many days have we spent walking around the dungeon? I can’t even see a single Crystal Coin here!”
Tyko growled in agitation. He swung his sword at one ill-fated stone and left it in a shattered state.
“Maybe it’s hidden somewhere in here, Boss.”
Paeter said, attempting to put off Tyko’s fire of anger. But it seemed like his words were not very effective as Tyko turned to glare at him with a displeased look before yanking his collar violently. Paeter’s body was lifted off the ground, his face visibly turning pale with fear.
“This is because of your stupid map! It’s why I’m wasting time like this.”
Tyko yelled in anger.
“I-I-I didn’t know that it would turn out this way.”
Paeter stuttered out his words in fear. He also had no idea that someone would swoop in and clear the dungeon before them like this.
“Calm down, Boss. Fighting with each other won’t do us any good. I think I might have a plan that’ll get us the treasure of this dungeon.”
Ruber’s voice was Paeter’s lifesaver. Tyko let go of Paeter’s body before listening to Ruber intently.
“I swear I’m going to beat you up if you say something stupid!”
Ruber could not help but become a little shaken by fear when listening to Tyko’s words.
“From the traces I saw, it’s likely that the person who arrived at the dungeon before us just came here not too long ago. Why don’t we find this person and take all the treasures from them?”
“Why are you telling me what I already know!? When all we’ve been doing these past several days was following their track? But did you see even a glimpse of this person? If you’re just going to spit nonsense like this then just shut your stinky mouth before I use you as an outlet for my anger!”
“Calm down, Boss. Let me finish first.”
Ruber quickly raised his hand up defensively as Tyko approached him with a serious look. His legs took some steps backward before he quickly continued his explanation. He did not really want to get hurt like Paeter.
“Why should we go looking for them when they’re going to come out of the dungeon anyway? Wouldn’t it be better if we just waited for them by the dungeon’s entrance?”
Ruber narrowed his eyes and smiled cunningly. His eyes, which were small like a pair of beans, were tinted with greed and wickedness. The three exchanged a sly look before their obnoxious laughter echoed throughout the dungeon.
“That’s my man. If this plan went well, I’ll increase your share of the treasures.”
A short moment later, the three of them chose to walk through the door on the left to return to the world outside to follow their cunning plan. Meanwhile, Arias still had no idea what was waiting for him in the outside world.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone