บท 36: The Dungeon's obstacle
"I can be the tank," Alex volunteered, knowing the other two's magical capability was way better than his.
Katherine handed him a small, rounded wooden shield and a wooden sword she just made on the spot.
"Remember, you still can cast magic while in melee. Just be more careful with it."
Alex nodded as he began walking with the shield up, with the other two girls following right behind.
Katherine only followed them at a distance as they continued to advance further into the dungeon.
After walking for a bit, the light from the outside no longer shone on the inside, prompting Sophia to cast a spell to light up the surroundings.
But just as the light started to appear above her, the door behind them suddenly started to close on its own.
Still, the three didn't hesitate as they continued down the dungeon path, with faces full of excitement.
"What do you guys think is going to be inside this cave?" Alex asked as he quickly scanned the corner with his mana.
"I don't know. Probably just some bats or low-level slime? Surely nothing big since Mom already cleared it in the past."
Sophia's comment made the other two look a little more confident as they turned right to reach from one hallway to another.
"How deep is this dungeon?" Mary complained as it seemed to be endless walking with not much to do.
Sophia and Alex didn't reply, as they didn't know it either. But there was only one path ahead of them.
After walking for who knows how long, they finally encountered something other than just smooth tiles.
It was some sort of skeleton, standing still, looking away from the three until it heard their footsteps.
As the skeleton turned its head, all three immediately noticed the blue flame glowing in its eyes.
Without saying any words, the skeleton began charging at the three with no weapons in hand.
Sophia cast a fireball instantly, easily destroying the skeleton before Mary and Alex could cast theirs.
"That was easy," Sophia murmured as Alex walked up closer to check if it was fully dead.
The blue flame in its eyes was gone, with no indication of the skeleton still alive.
"Let's keep going."
As the three continued down the path, they were hit with several similar skeletons as well.
But this time, they were armed with actual swords, with some even having shields.
Still, it was no match for the two girls as they easily destroyed them with a wind blade to avoid causing smoke.
Just as Alex picked one of the swords, it immediately broke into ashes as if he couldn't wield it.
"Huh... I guess these swords aren't real objects." Alex murmured as he could feel the dark element as it vanished.
After defeating a few more skeletons, they finally found something much more exciting.
It was a giant room with a blue slime almost ten times their size, slowly jumping towards them after noticing Alex.
This time, Sophia and Mary both cast their fireball and wind blade together, directing it right at the slime before it got close.
But to their surprise, the slime easily absorbs the damage, neutralizing their spell completely.
"Try light and dark magic and condense it. I'll try to stall for time!" Alex ordered.
As Mary began casting a ball that glowed dark light, Sophia started casting a blinding light ball.
"Yo dumbass slime, come over here if you want to fight me."
Alex cast a small stone at the slime before running to the side, away from Sophia and Mary.
It worked perfectly as the slime changed its target and started chasing after Alex instead.
With each jump of the slime, Alex could feel the ground shaking, causing him to almost trip as he continued to run in a circle.
Just as the slime suddenly gave up and turned back to the two mages, he suddenly turned around and charged at the slime.
"Please work!"
To his surprise, the wooden sword that Katherine made didn't snap in half. Instead, it caused a stab wound as he pulled out his sword.
With quick movement, he took several steps back as the slime jumped into the air in anger.
As it dropped onto the floor, the ground shook harder than ever, making Alex fall onto his back.
Luckily, he had bought enough time as two spells, one light and one dark, flew right at the slime.
This time, the slime couldn't absorb it as it flew right out of its body, piercing through the little core located inside.
Alex quickly raised his shield as the slime exploded, causing the liquid to fly everywhere.
"Holy shit!"
"Alex! You okay?"
Both girls quickly ran over to Alex to check, whose body was almost covered in blue goo of the slime.
"I-I'm fine. You two are fine?" Alex asked as he lowered his shield and stood back up.
"Yeah, we're fine."
Unable to get the blue goo off his body, Alex cast a water spell before letting it fall on top of his head.
As the water washed over himself, it finally detached from his skin and clothes.
"Why didn't you cast a barrier for yourself?" Mary asked as the two of them looked completely unscratched.
"I didn't have time to cast it that close, okay?"
After shaking his hair for a bit, the stickiness on his body was mostly gone except for a few lingering spots.
"No wonder why knights always wear full armor. This role sucks."
Alex complained as he cast an evaporation spell that Katherine had taught in the past, causing the water to evaporate from his clothes and body.
"Too bad your magic skill is the worst out of us... Anyway, you feel better?"
Sophia asked as she and Mary helped him search for spots that he might have missed.
"Yeah. Let's keep going now."
Alex washed his sword and shield with water, walking past all the goo on the floor that started to seep into the cracks.
"Good job everyone! You guys just have a few more obstacles, and you'll find the exit!"
Katherine excitedly stated from the back, her voice sounding a little proud of what the three had achieved.
All three of them didn't say anything back, but they continued walking forward as they resumed back to formation.
After walking past the giant open room, they arrived in more hallways again.
But this time, they were hit with a crossroad as there were clearly two paths ahead of them.
"Mom, do we turn left or right?" Alex asked.
Hearing no response from Katherine, the three knew they had to decide for themselves.
"We can't split up. We should just pick one of them." Mary pointed out.
Both of them nodded, but the question remained as both of the paths looked the same.
"How about we just take the right one?" Alex suggested.
With no other opinion, both of them accepted Alex's decision as they took the right path.
As they began walking down the hallway, they arrived at another crossroad ahead of them.
Once again, Alex decided to go right without even asking this time, picking the right path every time they encountered a crossroads or a turn.
Eventually, Sophia suddenly stopped as she felt something was off.
"What's wrong?" Alex curiously asked.
"I think we are in a maze right now... Doesn't it feel like we're walking in a circle?" Sophia pointed out.
Both of them fell into silence as they realized it as well, with the almost same thing appearing over and over again.
"Let's leave a rock here and keep going."
Alex cast a rock spell, leaving it as a landmark as they continued picking the right path.
To their surprise, Sophia's prediction was correct as the rock once again, despite clearly walking away from it.
"How about we try the left side instead?" Mary suggested.
"Sure."
Alex led the two with the left side this time, but they still ended up with the rock they had placed earlier.
"Shit. We really are stuck in a maze..."
As all three of them fell into silence, they realized the trouble they were in.
"Let's try a different pattern and see if it works," Alex suggested.
Both of them nodded in agreement, following him to lead as they began alternating the path instead of just going down one turn.
But just like every other attempt, they ended up in the same spot as where they started.
Even with different kinds of patterns, it always ended in the same spot again and again.
"Fuck. This isn't just a normal maze at all." Alex murmured as they tried out all the paths possible.
"This doesn't make any sense... Is there no way out at all?" Sophia complained as her brain was starting to get fried.
"Mom! Can you help us?" Mary pleaded as she started to get a little annoyed by the maze.
"Sorry! This is to test your critical thinking! You guys have to solve it yourself."
As the three sat down on the floor for a little break, an idea popped up in Alex's head as he looked back in Katherine's direction.
"Wait, let's try going back instead. It's the only direction we didn't go yet."
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