"So? What are you writing? Did you discover anything?" curiously asked Harriet.
"Nothing nothing. Just how the slimes fight and are positioned," carelessly answered Five as he continued to scribble.
"Ahhh," Harriet pouted. She did not inquire any further and waited for Five to finish writing. When he was finally done, she brought Five back to the platform and teleported to the second floor.
The two walked silently. Five was rearranging his thoughts, not caring about his environment but that created an awkward atmosphere. Harriet was about to warn him. She clearly knew that there was a massive difference between the 1st and 2nd floor of the dungeon; she was going to warn Five when suddenly, she heard a voice speaking in her head:
"Harriet. Master is telling you to allow Five on the second floor. Let him suffer some hardships. It would be good to estimate his strength. Just make sure he does not die. It would be good for him to learn that he is weak and needs to rely on us for his growth. "
Harriet immediately recognized the voice in her head. It was Mehlroth, one of the few monsters in the dungeon that were positioned above her. Its specialty was telepathy; it could communicate with any monster anywhere in the dungeon.
"Isn't that a bit too much? We should at least warn him, no?" said Harriet inwardly.
"Master says: It would be a good life lesson for him. If he is smart, he will realize that he will grow much more smoothly if he joins us."
Harriet inwardly sighed but did not answer. She just silently led the way for Five.
The pathway was identical to the corridor of the first floor. Five walked out of the platform and once again Harriet opened the secret entrance through the dungeon's wall.
This time, they came out in an empty corridor. Five picked a random direction and a few seconds later, met a level 6 Mine Rat.
The rat did not look very threatening. It was about three times larger than normal rats and had a hairy dark fur.
However, Five was very cautious. He did not approach the rat and instead stayed just outside his field of view. He knew the level of the rat was above his. Five did not get overconfident even after easily farming the slimes. He knew he had an overpowered weapon in hand but did not let that get to him.
Slimes were basically cannon fodders, but the rats were different. They could prove to be dangerous and so, he calmly observed the rat who was sniffing around the corridor. Sometimes, it would start scratching the wall and would then lose interest.
Harriet did not say anything either. She did not warn him that the mine rats were different from the slimes. Instead, she stood there as if nothing was going to happen.
Five observed the rat and the harpy’s behavior for a moment. After a brief period of time, he finally went on the offensive.
The mine rat immediately noticed his approach and squeaked before revealing its long front teeth. It squeaked and attacked Five.
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The latter drew his dagger and made a diagonal cut towards the mine rat. "-35" appeared above the head of the rat, but despite the pain, the mine rat widely opened its mouth and attempted to bite Five.
It all fell within Five’s expectations. Right after swinging his dagger, Five pressed on his legs and jumped above the mine rat, avoiding the bite. While still in mid-air, he stabbed his dagger at the vertebral column of the mine rat. "-30", but at the same time, the mine rat swung its tail and scratched Five's face, "-23".
Just a simple tail whip already took out more than half his HP but Five ignored that detail. The Mine Rat also only had a sliver of health remaining.
He tried to regain his balance, but the tail messed up his momentum. He could not help but ungracefully roll on the ground when landing to mitigate the damage.
The mine rat turned around and charged at Five threateningly. The latter smiled faintly. He quickly spun the dagger in his hand but instead of charging at the rat, Five simply threw it at the Mine Rat, taking out its remaining HP.
[System Prompt: You have killed a mine rat. You are awarded 12 DP]
Harriet who was observing the scene, ready to intervene, revealed an expression of surprise. She did not expect Five to be able to agilely avoid the mine rat. Defeating a creature 5 level above himself could be considered an incredible feat even if he was equipped with an overpowered dagger. But as she saw Five look back at her, she quickly pretended that nothing happened and approached him, taking out a red potion, but what he said next surprised her.
"Here is your dagger. I have seen enough. Let's go back."
"Huh? You only encountered one mine rat and succeeded in defeating it? Are you not going to look at the rest of the floor?" asked Harriet.
"No, that's fine. I already have a general idea of the floor. Besides, even if I can deal with one Mine Rat, if two or three gang up on me, the outcome would be very different. Let's go back. Some food would be nice," said Five as he gave her back her Harpy's Blood and ignored the potion in her hand.
"Alright, follow me back to the passage." Harriet awkwardly replied. She did not even deny or mention that she was there to protect him.
Harriet took back the dagger and wiped it off with a piece of cloth before sheathing it back. She then quickly turned around and brought Five back to the secret passage.
Immediately, Harriet once again heard Mehlroth speaking. "Master says that everything is fine. You did your part well. We did not expect him to be talented in fighting. Just pretend that nothing happened. Master will think of something..."
...
The two remained silent as Harriet led the way through the different corridors and the teleportation platforms, while Five was scribbling down on the paper he had. He had confirmed the huge gap in strength between the 1st and 2nd floor, which he believed was not appropriate. He was already coming up with different ideas for his own dungeon. He remembered video games he used to play and how players could choose between easy, normal and hard mode. Could he implement that sort of mechanics in his dungeon?
As for why he decided to leave just after one enemy was just as he said, Five knew his own limits and he did not want to rely on someone else. Although he did notice Harriet slightly contract her legs when he was in danger, he still could not fully trust her yet.
While Five was still pondering about his last encounter, Harriet broke the silence.
Harriet felt that she was in an awkward position as she was on good terms with Five while Kroff was her master. Recently, Kroff received an oracle warning him about the dangers to come. Not only would many new dungeon masters be born on the continent, but a large number of adventurers would also appear. What was special about these adventurers was that they would never really die. If you killed them, they would later revive and come back.
This was why Kroff really wanted Five to join his alliance and he was not the only one. With an infinite army of adventurers coming, the dungeon masters needed more people to protect their dungeons. All the other dungeon masters were also actively trying to persuade their disciples to join their respective alliance. In the near future, nobody would be able to predict what will happen with this surge in adventurers and dungeons. The more allies they had, the safer the dungeon masters would feel.
"Did you learn how to fight before coming here? The moves you did earlier were clearly not that of a beginner," asked Harriet.
"Mmmm, I did follow some sort of training for assassins," vaguely answered Five. If he could not get any tangible answer from them, then he would not give them too much information either.
"Then, are you part of an organization? I've heard from Kroff that he was not the only one who has received a disciple to teach. All the other dungeon masters also received one. Do you all come from the same place?"
"Possibly, but I did not talk to anyone before being summoned here. "
"Is that why you are so against joining the Cyclone Alliance? Are you going to join the organization that trained you before? Or do you have contact with the other new dungeon masters?"
Five did not answer immediately this time but Harriet clearly noticed his furrowed brows.
"You are thinking too far. I have nothing to do with that organization. They are just random people I got entangled with," coldly answered Five.
It was a topic that he did not really want to talk about, but he decided to still be polite and answered her with minimum detail.
After a brief moment of silence, he continued. “As for the other dungeon masters. I do not want to have anything to do with them either. I would rather be alone than surrounded by untrusty individuals."
Harriet did not immediately answer. Their conversation was slowly drifting towards their private life. "I can see a deep scar in your heart. Although you look strong at the surface, something must have happened in your past. Maybe... Do you want to talk about it? " hesitantly asked Harriet.