When I arrived at the old lady’s home, I found Clarice holding her head while she was trying to eat her breakfast. She didn’t look annoyingly full of energy as usual, so that was a first.
“Hey, Clive… you truly are a morning person… don’t close the door too hard, ugh.”
I wondered if I should talk with her about the person that followed me. I decided to keep quiet until something happened. Still, at least that made me steel my resolve… I won’t hold back in this place anymore.
“Why the long face?”
“It is nothing that a stalker like you would need to know.”
“Stalker? We were just looking for a place for me to use when I found tracks of your footsteps. The other three decided to follow me for a while when I mentioned that I felt some gazes on us, but I assumed that my senses were just a mess thanks to all the ale. Also, I talked with other people in the area, but they grimaced when they looked at me after hearing that I wanted to rent a room. That was pretty awful…”
She noticed too… even while she was drunk. In any case, those three decided to move away when they noticed that I was in the house of Jalal’s grandmother. I sighed… I already had too much drama in my life and I didn’t need any more.
“So, what is the plan for today?”
My plans were to go shopping and look for anything useful, but I wasn’t planning to do that when I knew that I would be watched. In the end, it would be better to just stay in my room and prepare other things and make sure that the next run would be without any real problems. As much as I wanted to challenge myself in the dungeon, it wouldn’t be that efficient for my plans to stay here any longer.
“I am going to just rest in my room, please, don’t bother me.”
Clarice furrowed her eyebrows, but then she just shrugged. It seemed that she knew the limits of what she could and couldn’t do in our temporary relationship.
In any case, while I said that I would rest, I began to prepare some things that I assumed would be useful for the second boss. I kept working on those things almost non-stop until the day that we reunited in front of the guild again. Clarice didn’t get in my way, so we only talked during the meals. She did most of the talking though, once she realized that the old lady was Jalal’s grandmother.
Although Clarice usually woke up barely in time for breakfast, she woke up earlier and got ready when the day arrived. I knew that she had left several times in the last few days to talk with those three, but she didn’t mention anyone following her anymore.
‘Maybe they got wary because of me… I guess I should avoid doing that kind of thing until camouflage really reaches a very high level.’
“What do you think, Clive?”
“... About what?”
“I just told you… I think that this might be the last time I will have the chance to partner up with you guys. I heard that a lot more Elves are exploring the dungeon now, and they are going deeper.”
While we were walking together to the guild, my thoughts were somewhere else. Regardless, I didn’t know that… It was the demerit of working on my own and inside a room for several days. My information-gathering skills needed some work.
“I am also planning to reach the second boss as soon as possible and then leave the city. Trying to go any deeper now would be too dangerous since our party is too inexperienced.”
“I guess so… I heard that a group found the third boss’ chamber and defeated the boss. Still, they came out very wounded and two of the members of the party died as well. Those guys should be way above our levels, too.”
It was weird for Clarice to say something like that… she sounded like the queen of confidence when I first met her and she talked with veterans. In any case, a boss of the Atronachs, huh? The creature should be one hell of a challenge.
I bet that if the conditions in the third sector weren’t as bad as the second floor, we could become stronger in a couple of months and challenge it, but this city was gathering too many people who were walking red flags. Besides, I was already satisfied with getting three combat classes. I only hoped that the final one would agree more with my combat style. I refused to get unlucky three times in a row.
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Eventually, we reached the guild and soon waited for the other three. They weren’t morning people as much as Clarice, or perhaps I was just too punctual for my own good.
“There are a lot more people like you around, Clive.”
I doubted that could be the case, but soon realized that there were a lot of people with hoods on their heads hiding their faces… Some of them looked like beggars, but a lot of them looked like just people who wanted to not be bothered for whatever reason. That made me recall Nimir and wonder if he was fine… I assumed that the journey to Felinor would take a few months, so he still must be on the path alongside the others.
“What are you going to do after this, Clive?”
“I don’t know yet, Miss Clarice.”
“We are back with Miss stuff, Mister Clive? For some reason, this feels really odd, almost disturbing, calling you mister.”
I let out a sigh… she made it sound like I didn’t deserve any respect. Well, while I looked older, I was only twelve. I didn’t deserve much aside from some basic levels of respect.
“I guess I will try dungeon diving a bit more. This was pretty fun. The only downside is the fact that the Elves of my age that I know are pretty stuck up on their asses. It wouldn’t be fun to do that with them.”
“You don’t say.”
“I guess I will lie low for a while and then sharpen my skills and then return one day to recreate our party. A mixed-species party seems a lot more fun, right? What about creating a clan of mixed people? I bet that we could conquer labyrinths left and right!”
She sure was visionary… she wasn’t just skipping a few steps, she was skipping the entire process. There might be people willing to create a clan like that, but it would draw a lot of attention. I didn’t need that kind of attention. Then again, there were many benefits that one could obtain there… for one, I would have allies that would understand my situation and they would have skills that could complete mine.
I couldn’t help but wonder if something like that was truly possible… A lot of people wouldn’t like us, but as long as we obtained a certain fame and power, it would be pretty hard to deal with us. Some nations might not find it a good idea to try to get in our way as well, since if they do a poor job dealing with us, they might end up only creating a hard group of people that could help their enemies.
Before long, the other three showed up and made me wake up from my thoughts. They seemed to be in a good mood since Jalal and Gao approached and offered a fist-bump to us. After a long sigh, Rebecca did the same.
“Let’s go, we will make a lot of money in this run and then even reach the second boss!”
You appear to be in a good mood, Jalal. Is it because, thanks to us, you confirmed that your grandmother is doing well?”
Clarice didn’t hold back, as expected of her… Jalal froze on the spot and forced a smile. His expression changed from relaxed to conflicted and then nervous. He was quite good at making faces like that.
“I am just joking, kind of. Anyway, she told me that you should return as soon as possible, and preferably, while you at least have one arm.”
The old lady sure was ruthless. She didn’t have much faith in someone like me who returned unscathed two times already, so she felt even less hopeful of her grandson, who was a frontline. It made sense if anything… she should have heard that some people died facing the dungeon bosses, after all.
“Well, I will return with two arms and two legs in no time! For now, I can’t say that we are strong since we are relying a lot on you, but eventually. I will show my granny that I am not weakling.”
I wanted to say that he didn’t have time to waste thinking like that… he had to show that to her every time he returned from the dungeon before it was too late. The old lady looked healthy enough given her age, but one can’t say when an accident will happen. She was too old to be living alone.
Still, that kind of talk wasn’t something that we needed before going to a dungeon. We had to remain focused. I decided to tell him to do that before he regrets it… I was starting to become a real nag, it seemed. It comes with the middle-age.
Regardless, two hours later, we were back in the dungeon and then we began to hunt the monsters without fail. I immediately took my bone bow from my magic bag, the one that I made using the parts of the giant ice salamander.
The surrounding temperature dropped considerably and everyone frowned when they saw that I had such a weapon… it didn’t look like it was made using the parts of the previous boss, after all.
“I decided to take things a bit more seriously since I want to reach the second boss on this run.”
“Well, I want it too, but… do you think that is possible since we have yet to map out the second section of the dungeon?”
Jalal didn’t look that confident with that unreasonable goal… it made sense, given the circumstances, but it was my goal, anyway. I could have pulled my bow a bit later, but keeping it with me at all times, it would have prevented the heat from making us use extra energy.
“There is only one way to find out.”
I only used my normal arrows for the time being, so the difference during combat was minimal. Still, Jalal and Gao always sighed in relief when I was close to them. The range in which the bow could affect the temperature was limited, and they liked the support that the bow offered.
The bow was not necessary in the first section, but at least we reached the next section after walking for just five hours instead of six like before. When we began to fight the fire crows, the power of the bow soon became obvious. My arrows could pass their fireballs with ease and still kill the targets with one shot. In fact, I could deal with all of them by myself with Rapid Fire.