Ray and Alex stand before each other, sweating and panting with exhaustion, they had been fighting toe-to-toe for god knows how long.
“Yeah you pass, you proved how strong you were a while ago, but that battle was so intense and fun I couldn’t stop.”, Ray said smiling.
Alex smiled, that was a great battle, I’ve never been challenged this much before. You're a great sparring partner, I hope to battle you again sometime.”.
“Whenever you want.”, Ray responds, reaching out his hand. Alex takes it and shakes it, smiling. Alex closes his eyes, and his hair suddenly spikes back up.
“Did we impress you?”, Alex says smiling.
“Yeah, you did... though, you can’t constantly rely on you other half when in battle and so, for the remaining time we’re in here, we’re going to clear out these ghasts.”.
“I may not be as strong as the other, but even I can handle these ghasts.”, Ales says confidently, creating a singular blade of blood, they really were like 2 different people in one body Ray thought.
As the timer finally ran out, Claire opened the door and was shocked by what she saw. There was a lesser vampire in here... and he was currently eating a sandwich with Ray, sitting across from each other by the nearest table to the door.
“You know... I always thought that vampires couldn’t eat normal foods and only drank blood.”, Ray said astounded.
“It... could be that... we’re just... a lesser vampire... and so we aren't as... revolted by food... Yet.”, he said through mouthfuls of food.
“Interesting.”. Ray responded and then he noticed Claire who looked flabbergasted and amazed.
“D-did you just... make friends with a vampire.”, Claire asked exasperatedly.
“It's a long story.”, Ray says, motioning for Claire to take a seat.
And so, Ray explains to Claire everything that transpired in the 6th floor dungeon chamber.
“I see, so he’s been stuck as a ghoul for around 50 years.”, Claire says factually. Ray and Alex’s mouths fall wide open, the food falling out of their mouths.
“50 YEAAAAAAARS!!”.
“GOD JUST HOW OLD ARE YOU MAAAAAN!!”.
As the new group of 3 exited the dungeon, Claire brought up a very good point that the other 2 had not yet thought about...
“You do know that lesser vampires and vampires can’t exist in the sun right... so how are you going to get out of here?”.
Ray and Alex pondered on this as they ascended the dungeon stairs when Ray had a great idea.
“During the daytime why don’t you shape shift into a bat, and I can hide you in this giant bear skull hood.”. Ray suggested as he pulled on it.
“Thats not a bad idea, it's a large enough space.”, Claire agrees.
“I can turn into a bat?”, Alex queried, stars of amazement in his eyes, he closed his eyes, and suddenly his body began to morph into a small bat. Alex then perched himself onto Rays shoulder.
“THIS IS SO COOL.”, Alex squeaked out in a higher pitched voice than before.
The Group continued to mingle and chat as they ascended the staircase and finally when they reached the top and the sunlight began pouring in, Ray lifted his hood and Alex inserted himself inside of the hood, It was so cozy in there that Alex couldn’t help themselves but doze off.
As Ray and Claire exited the hole in the mountain, they were met by a small little camp that had been set up around the dungeon entrance, however no one was there.
“Where could they be?”, Claire wondered
“They’re probably out hunting, knowing those kids, Lillys probably had her hands full, lets wait here for them to return.”, Ray said as he stretched and plopped himself down. That was a great 3 days of intense battle, he doubts he’ll have 3 days as intense of that, of almost none stop fighting. He had levelled up to level 134, a whole 50 levels, in fact, he was not that far away from his next evolution.
About 30 minutes later Ray could see a group of 9 people heading towards them. It was Lilly and the 8 children.
“HEY GUYS.”, Ray shouted, gaining the groups attention.
“HE’S BACK!”, Leo, Sara, Tom, Molly and Sky shouted. Running up the hill towards him, carrying their daily hunt, the other 3, who hadn’t yet spent much time with Ray lingered back slightly with Lilly.
“You changed again big bro, you look even stronger that before.”, Leo said wagging his tail.
“HEY, HEY RAY, TRAIN WITH US.”. Tom and Molly insisted.
“Stop you 2, he just got back from the dungeon let him rest.”. Sara said looking at the 2 as if they were crazy. Sky nodded in agreement.
Stolen novel; please report.
Ray smiled, he missed this lot, he felt like he hadn’t seen them for ages.
Lilly walked over and smiled at Ray.
“I see you’ve evolved again; you look a lot more your age now.”, she says admiring Rays new body, blushing slightly.
“Yeah, and a lot stronger too.”, Ray says flexing his muscles.
“Well, looks like it's my turn, I will catch up with you.”, Lilly says, determination in her eyes.
Ray smiles, “Yeah, I can’t wait to see how much you improve.”.
Lilly smiles back, there's a long pause and silence of the 2 just staring at each other when Leo interjects.
“HEY, big bro, tell us what it was like down there.”, Leo says eagerly, the other kids nodding in agreement and so, he tells the group about his 3-day intense adventures in the new dungeon.
“YOU MADE FREINDS WITH A VAMPIRE!”, Lilly says exasperated, “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”, she sighs.
“And he could keep up with you without using your abilities?”, Leo says surprised.
“Yeah, it was a tough battle, it ended undecided, but one day we’ll spar all out and see who truly is stronger.”, Ray says with a smile.
The group continue chatting and having fun whilst eating until it was Lillys time to go into the dungeon with Claire. The 2 of them gather all the equipment needed for their adventure in the dungeon and prepare to leave, with all the kids wishing her luck and telling her to stay safe.
“Don’t overdo it, if you overly exhaust yourself to the point you can’t fight, it will be a waste.”, Ray says.
“I know, you don’t need to baby me I’m not a child you know.”, she says pouting.
“I know.”, Ray laughs.
“Well... I’m going now.”, Lilly says as she follows Claire into the dungeon, waving goodbye to the group.
“Have fun!”, they all shout as they bid her farewell.
Ray turns to the children, a boisterous smile on his face.
“Alright guys, for these next three days, let's have some FUN.”, Ray says excitedly, the children all cheering in agreement.
The next 3 days went by kind of fast, it was spent hunting animals for food and levelling up, sparring with the children to test their strengths as well as teamwork exercises, making them spar him and fight against monsters as a team so they can get use to each other's weaknesses, strengths and quirks when in battle, Ray thought this extremely necessary with the current climate. At night he also introduced them to Alex who was an immediate hit with the children which Ray was pleased with, he told them stories of a few of his adventures before becoming a ghast and helped Ray monitor the kids and watch over them at night. And so, just as quickly as Claire and Lilly left, they retuned.
As Claire and Lilly exited the Dungeon, they could tell that she had worked extremely hard, she was sweaty and full of little cuts and bruises, but other than that she was in good spirits, in fact they were in great spirits. Ray didn't know what happened down there, but it had seemed like her and Claire had bonded even more and had gotten a lot closer, which Ray like to see, Humans and Demi-humans getting along, hopefully the world could return to that after they dealt with the demon problem. As the two exited, everyone flooded over to Lilly and bombarded her with questions about the dungeon and what happened. Ray was included in this group; he was just as curious as the others were and so Lilly told them about her battles on each floor.
On the second floor she had gone against giant spiders who were extremely fast and created tough sticky barriers of webs. She had to dodge a lot of webs being shot at her and it was like a giant target practice which improved her accuracy and judgement. On the third floor were kobolds, human sized lizard man, with tough skin and sharp claws, this floor was more of a challenge for Lilly as there were a lot of close quatre combat situations which was previously unprepared for, however she quickly adapted to this, picking up a dagger as a secondary weapon and even learning some basic dagger skills. And finally, on the fourth floor, her battle with the snakes were even more problematic, they were fast and strong, however she had been levelling up and getting stronger and faster as the time went on, developing newer skill and so, although a challenge, was able to hold her own. Lilly was now level 83; she had levelled up quite significantly and had actually wanted to keep on going, however they had a prior engagement that was a lot more important.
“I’m all sweaty and gross now, I could do with a serious bath.”, Lilly stated as she stretches her muscles.
“That sounds like a great idea, why don’t all you girls wash off in the nearby lake and then after that us boys will and then we can continue our journey to the southern beast tribe.”.
“Yeah, we can... but before that Ray, I have a request...”.
Ray looks at Lilly with curiosity.
“Spar me, you verse me, I want to see how I currently stack up against you.”, she says seriously, a burning fire in her eyes.
“Ok, let's do this.”, Ray responds. He and Lilly had never sparred before so this would be good for him to see how strong she really was, as well as how to deal with potential archer and long distant adversaries. Ray smiles, this was going to be interesting.