I've promised, and I shall give. The next chapter won't be that long, since it will be a side story. If you have paid attention to this chapter, you'll know what it is going to be about. Anyways, enjoy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Albus: [Behind me!]
Albus charged out and unsheathed his broadsword to challenge the minotaur. The two weapons clashed with each other, which created a large vibration in the air. Amaterasu saw that Eligor was preparing his bow.
Eligor: [Amaterasu, Maria! We don’t know which magic is going to be effective on him, but it should be fire magic, judging by the rest of the enemies in this cavern. Try to hit him with the most powerful fire magic in your arsenal.]
Saying that, Eligor took an arrow from the quiver on his back and aimed it at the forehead on the minotaur. As he released it, the arrow zoomed through the air with a whistling sound. Sensing danger, the minotaur quickly rose his forearm to stop the arrow. As it embedded itself inside the forearm, the minotaur loudly grunted and looked at Eligor with eyes full of bloodlust. Amaterasu flinched as she saw them.
Amaterasu: ‘Scary… I didn’t think that those with the desire to murder would be this scary. I’m thankful that I have comrades here who I can depend on to rectify my mistakes and help me gain experience. Had I gone in alone, I’m sure that I would be dead already. I need to support them.’
As Amaterasu gathered her thoughts, she began to concentrate on forming a ‘Grand Fireball.’ Maria, who was beside her, also prepared a fireball, albeit a regular, red one.
Maria: [Amaterasu, aim for the head. I’ll aim for the legs. We’ve got to figure out its weak point.]
Amaterasu: [Got it.]
As soon as her ‘Grand Fireball’ was fully formed, Amaterasu blasted it at the minotaur’s head. The minotaur sensed it and immediately used his arms to block it, scorching them. The skin on the minotaur’s arms turned blackish from its dark shade of purple. Following Amaterasu’s fireball was Maria’s fireball, and it slammed into the thigh of the minotaur. Amaterasu had a feeling that the minotaur sensed it, but it let the fireball hit anyways.
Amaterasu: ‘I’m pretty sure that the minotaur sensed that. If that’s the case, it probably couldn’t afford to dodge because Albus is keeping him busy with his attacks. This means that, since it’s going out of its way to protect its head, it is the weak spot. Let’s spend a little more time confirming that.’
Amaterasu and Maria continued to shoot their fireballs at the minotaur and Eligor did the same with his arrows. Over time, the minotaur was covered in wounds all over his body except for one part: the head. The minotaur kept protecting its head from any attacks by either dodging or using his arms. Amaterasu surmised that the head must be the minotaur’s weak spot.
Amaterasu: [How come the minotaur has not fallen yet? Even though we haven’t hit the head, we’ve covered every inch of its body in wounds.]
Eligor: [This is bad. Minotaurs are known for having very high vitality, so if we don’t hit its weak spot, we’ll be fighting for hours. Albus is already starting to look tired, so we need to end this soon. And with a minotaur this big, I’m not even sure that one hit to the head will end it.]
Eligor, Maria, and Amaterasu split to cover the minotaur from all directions. They tried to do a combination attack so that the minotaur would have to block three attacks form different directions at once. Yet, despite that, the minotaur took a step back when it sensed the danger approaching and used one arm to block the attack while dodging the two other ones.
Amaterasu: ‘Wait a minute. If it’s like this, then I could do it. But then I’ll give away that I’m not really an elf. Hmm.’
Amaterasu noticed that when the minotaur stepped back that the minotaur leaned back a bit due to the projectiles moving to the head. If I had lost balance there, it would be wide open to an attack for a second or so.
Amaterasu: ‘If I use my light to blind it… no, that won’t work. I’ve never practiced any light magic other than ‘Grand Heal.’ If I use Grand Darkness, then it might work, but then the other elves will notice that something is amiss… I know. This is a gamble, but if this works, I might fool them.’
Amaterasu: [Eligor! Maria! Let’s attack him the same way again!]
Eligor heard Amaterasu shouted and prepared his bow. He deduced that Amaterasu might have found some way to defeat the minotaur. Maria had also prepared her fireball as well. As Amaterasu charged up her ‘Grand Fireball’, she also began to concentrate on another spell as well.
Amaterasu: ‘Well, here goes nothing.’
The three simultaneously released their attacks. As the two fireballs and arrow whizzed through the air, Amaterasu concentrated on making a new spell. When the attacks almost reached the minotaur’s head, it began to step backwards, and that was when Amaterasu unleashed her spell. Suddenly, the room was filled with a burst of light. It wasn’t that strong because it was her first time doing this, but Amaterasu quickly followed up with ‘Grand Darkness’, blinding everyone except herself.
This action caused the minotaur to stumble due to a sudden loss of vision. Amaterasu then prepared her ‘Blue Flame’ and supercharged it as much as possible before releasing it. This was all done in a split second, and before long, the flame reached the minotaur’s head. It was so hot that the gases in the minotaur’s head expanded, causing it to explode in a spectacular and gruesome manner. Amaterasu had to refrain herself from vomiting.
Congratulations! You have discovered the following skill: Grand Blindness!
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Grand BlindnessABeginner 10%Due to understanding the effect light has upon vision, you were able to uncover this skill which unleashes a burst of photons for a short moment.
Albus: [Huh? What happened?]
Albus was standing in front of the corpse of the minotaur covered in blood and brain matter.
Maria: [Ugh. Clean yourself up. You’re gross.]
Albus: [Why you…!]
Before Albus finished his sentence, he took a breath and his face instantly distorted from the smell. He buckled over and started to vomit repeatedly. Maria created some water with her magic and drenched Albus from head to toe.
Eligor: [May I know what happened, Amaterasu?]
Amaterasu quickly conjured up a lie.
Amaterasu: [Oh, I just blinded the minotaur with light to cause it to lose balance and blasted it with a special fire magic. I could only do it once due to my mana, but the result was more than I expected.]
Eligor nodded back in reply and began to walk towards the tunnel that the minotaur exited from when they first entered the room.
Eligor: [Come on! Let’s go to the teleporter room! Maybe we’ll even find a rare artifact.]
The three quickly followed Eligor to the teleporter room. Amaterasu saw the teleportation circle there as well as a treasure chest. The treasure chest was fairly large, painted in a drab brown colour. Eligor walked up to the chest and opened it.
Amaterasu: ‘What’s this?’
The chest contained a gorgeous white staff. The wooden part was thin at the base of the staff but got thicker as it went up. The staff had the shape of a candy cane and embedded in it was a large purple amethyst.
Eligor: [I think it’s best if we give this to Amaterasu.]
Amaterasu: [Eh?]
Eligor: [You defeated the minotaur. You’re a mage. And it would be a great parting present from us. No complaints, I assume?]
Albus: [None here.]
Maria: [Me neither.]
Amaterasu almost let loose a tear. She was extremely grateful to her companions who considerably helped her and gave up an artifact to her for nothing in return.
Congratulations! You have obtained the following artifact: Divine Staff!
Artifact Name:Rank:Divine StaffAThis powerful staff will power your magic greatly. It has a greater empowering effect on light magic.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Amaterasu: [Thank you… for everything.]
Amaterasu could see that Albus was stroking his hair with his right hand.
Albus: [Ah, don’t mention it. We’re happy to help such a beauty as you.]
Eligor: [This is just a logical conclusion. If not for you, we could have been killed in the fight with the minotaur. Let’s move along now.]
The group went to the teleportation circle and, one by one, they teleported to the entrance of the cavern. Amaterasu noticed that the entrance was sealed shut.
Amaterasu: [Huh? Why is it shut?]
Eligor: [A dungeon can be attempted once a week. Not counting failed attempts, of course.]
Eligor: [It has been a pleasure working with you, miss. I wouldn’t mind if you join us once more… if we ever cross roads again.]
Albus: [I hope to see you again! Ha ha ha!]
Maria: [If you ever need help, head to the elven capital and post a request. We’re quite a popular adventurer group there.]
After some parting words, the three elves departed in a specific direction. When they were finally out of sight, Amaterasu sighed to herself.
Amaterasu: ‘I hope that I’ll see them again. They were really great people. If I ever become a greater goddess, I’ll ask the others to be in charge of the elves and help them as best as I can.’
Amaterasu went back home using the mana thread that was created by Eos. She came back out into the clearing and opened the door to encounter a familiar sight. Eos was lying on the couch while eating a sandwich that Amaterasu had prepared for herself in advance.
Eos: [This is… really good… You would make a good cook.]
Eos muttered that with her mouth full of food.
Amaterasu: [Why are you eating my food? And on that note, why didn’t you check the dungeon more properly? I could have died had I not been lucky enough to find a group of elves.]
Eos sat upright and hung her head low while holding her hands as if though she was praying.
Eos: [Sorry, sorry. I didn’t expect that the only difficult part of the dungeon would be the boss. If it makes you feel happier, I would have smashed through the door and saved you if I had noticed that your aura was getting weaker. Congratulations on finding some new friends, though.]
Amaterasu: [Hmph.]
Amaterasu sat down on the couch with her arms crossed. She still hadn’t completely forgiven Eos for her blunder. Eos turned to face her with a serious look.
Eos: [I have something to tell you. While you were gone, Laillo came to visit me. He is also a god, like us, and is pretty close to becoming an X rank. He’s actually fairly young, much younger than the two older gods and younger than me as well. However, he’s closest to X rank because of his ingenuity and brilliancy. He was the one that taught me shapeshifting skill. We have a fairly close relationship between ourselves. Anyways, he found out that the demons are building a massive army and leading them is a prodigy, an SSS rank demon. He decided to help out the humans by drawing a summoning circle in the imperial palace.]
Eos shifted her position before she began talking again.
Eos: [So, he told me that he needed my power as well as the power of the other two gods. You’re not needed because your powers are pretty low right now.]
Amaterasu: [Big sister, can’t you just kill the demon general?]
Eos: [Well, only Laillo is SSS ranked. Barlowe and Shanoa are SS ranked themselves. I’m only S ranked as well. If any of us had been X ranked, we could have maybe taken on the army by ourselves, but as of now… nope.]
Amaterasu: [There’s such a big difference between SSS and X ranks?]
Eos: [Well, X rank is supposed to signify that you’re a god… so there’s a big difference.]
Amaterasu: [Okay. When are you leaving, big sis?]
Eos: [I’ll be leaving right now. It was nice hanging out with you, but we’ll see each other soon, hopefully. Oh, and I have a request for you from Laillo.]
Amaterasu: [What is it?]
Eos: [He told me to tell you that you should go to the human continent to find the last god.]
Amaterasu: [Last god?]
Eos: [Yes. I don’t know how he found out, but there are supposed to be six gods that God Almighty himself transports to this world. This means that there is one unaccounted for right now. Every god started out in a different continent, and if the trend is correct, the human continent should be the last one. He supposedly should have arrived sometime this year, according to Laillo.]
Amaterasu: [Okay. I’ll try to find him.]
Eos: [Thanks. I’ll be going right now. See you, little sister!]
With those words, Eos stood up and exited the house before she began sprinting into the distance at an astonishing speed.
Amaterasu: [I’ll miss her. Even though she had some weird quirks, it was pretty fun being with her. Now, let’s check out how much I grew from the dungeon. Show status.]
Looking at her status, Amaterasu smiled.
Status WindowName:AmaterasuAlignment:NeutralRank:BClass:NoneRace:Lesser GoddessGender:FemaleTitlesFuture Goddess of Beauty and LoveFame:0Infamy:0-Health:8000 / 8000Health Regen:5.0 / SecMana:28000 / 28000Mana Regen:25.0 / SecStamina:5000 / 5000Stamina Regen:5.0 / Sec-Strength:110Agility:100Vitality:90Intelligence:1500Wisdom:1500Leadership:5Luck:10Elemental AffinityFire:100%Water:100%Wind:100%Earth:100%Light:100%Darkness:100%Special SkillsCharmActive SkillsGrand Fireball
Grand Water Ball
Grand Wind Ball
Grand Earth Spike
Grand Heal
Grand Darkness
Grand Blindness
Blue FlamePassive SkillsSwordsmanship
Spear Mastery
Throwing Arts
Combat Sambo
Amaterasu: ‘I’m well on my way to divinity.’