12th chapter : dungeons .
Monday 15th April 19xx,
“And so this brings that, you two are going for a quest. A dungeon mapping!!” Emilis said in his usual tone of voice, addressing Carla and Marco who were working in the restaurant.
Carla was a little happy instead of Marco who already knew about it because of yesterday’s call.
“Hai, but is it ok to map a dungeon? I mean isn’t it supposed to be a dungeon with no maps and stuff, that’s cheating I guess” Marco asked logically.
“Bingo, but there’s some rare cases, the council usually does this stuff to have an amount of information before they start. Eyezar said that he wants a map for the dungeon so he can enter and collect some materials, so you’re gonna have..” Emilis replied but before he could finish his words Alex entered the room and finished instead of him.
“You’re gonna have to come with me on this quest!!” she grinned eagerly.
Marco stood there shocked as soon as he saw Alex.
After some time of spacing out and shivering Marco snapped back.
“Alex sensei!!!!” he screamed.
“Shut your damn mouth!!” she yelled at him as she slapped his face with no hesitation.
“Woah! that’s really a strange reaction!?” Carla reacted at Marco’s reaction. She wasn’t expecting anything like that sudden roar, especially from someone who’s expressionless like marco.
“Well, I’d rather not go, therefore I’m the only navigator type so I have to deal with it” Alex’s answer was calm as she accepted the fact quite quickly.
“Sigh, I don’t know now whether I call you sensei or senpai in this kind of situation?” Marco asked a question as he looked aside.
He flustered over a simple thing that made Alex mad a little bit, she flicked his forehead for his words.
“Call me what you want. In the first place, we are late so let’s get moving” she responded after that.
Both Carla and Marco looked at each other then sighed.
“Man!! really sorry to drag you out from your work Alex chan!!” Eyezar said as he was acting childish.
“Old man, you better start spouting the things clearly next time, otherwise I don’t mind killing you” Marco said reacting to the creepy pose that Eyezar did to apologize from Alex.
“You are no fun Marco, plus Eyezar here is one of our old customers too, so have some respect for him” Alex said “anyway, we’re gonna finish this quickly so wait for us a little bit please” she bowed after that.
Eyezar smiled, responding to Alex’s words as he gave them some potions for healing since no one knows what could happen inside the dungeons.
Moments after they set sail to reach the dungeon after a small walk on the mountains which took 4 hours for them to reach.
“And I was thinking why the council didn’t want to accept this dungeon, goddamn it!!” Alex was complaining as they walked a lot to reach the door of the dungeon.
“Alex sensei sure tends to complain a lot, are we going to enter or not?” Marco asked as he wasn’t affected by the route’s weight or the sunburn.
It seems that his body is already well built and his stamina is at a good level. Carla on the other hand wasn’t tired either, but slightly bored because of the long way to the dungeon.
After resting a little bit, they entered the dungeon.
“Hmm, so this a dungeon. seems like a cave to me more than a proper dungeon” Marco spoke as he was looking around him.
“Don’t say that, the caves are first rate dungeons in my opinion. you can get whatever you want too, and the walls are filled with Gemstones” Alex said with a smile on her face.
She picked up a stone and crushed it a little bit to show Marco the bluish stone that came out from it. He didn’t look like he was impressed but it triggered his curiosity.
“That’s nice, isn’t it , a C rank dungeon can make you win at least 5k gold won, it’s a shame that we can’t get any of it with us” Carla pleaded with a sad smile on her face.
It took her two seconds to give up after looking at the No face of Alex who came for the mapping quest. Marco on the other side wasn’t that interested but soon became interested when Carla mentioned money.
Outside the dungeon, next to the front door.
A mysterious man was standing in front of it waiting for some people to appear.
“Are you sure that they entered this dungeon?” a capped man hiding his face was speaking as he addressed the mysterious man.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Of course, the two of them are with Alex Van, she’s a navigator so she won’t fight. I’ve put my paralyzing poison on the serments of everyone, so make sure you kill both of them” the mysterious man replied as he had a big smirk on his face.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” another capped man asked.
“Of course I’m coming, I didn’t want to do it, but the three of them including Alice ruined my business, they even had that bastard Emilis going out for us and hunt us down, I’m gonna have my revenge ” the mysterious man seemed to have some grudge against red mermaid.
“Hehehe! well let’s get going!! This dungeon is a monster-less type. so until the third section we won’t have monsters, I already did the mapping though” their leader said with a smirk on his face, they were a group of 5 men including the mysterious one.
As they entered the dungeon, they spread out to take the attention of the monsters inside and finish them instead of letting them ruin their plan by appearing. The mysterious man was walking with the leader heading to where Alex’s party was.
“Well, the poison dealer, Links. What are you going to do with them again?” the leader asked.
“Don’t call me by my first name, bastard! plus I’ll have my way with them once I’m satisfied you can have them” Links replied.
“Kehehe!!! I like that, who thought that we are going to kill the ones we grew up with” the leader said as he was chuckling on his seat.
“Sigh, you’ve always been a psycho, Field” Links addressed the leader.
As it seems these two have known each other since childhood.
“Don’t call me by my name too shithead, after all we're gonna have to kill Alex too. I’d rather want her alive but we can’t afford leaving evidence. Poor Alex chan, she was really nice when we were kids” Fields grinned, cracking a cookie that he got out to eat.
On Alex’s party side,
“Man!!! How long can this dungeon be? We've been walking for a while now!!!!” Carla complained.
“Uhm, it’s almost the safest spot so we can take some time resting here!!” Alex replied enthusiastically as always.
“huh, I thought we were going to finish this quickly and return home. Sophie might get bored if we don’t show up before the night” Marco said as he was the first one to take a rest on the ground.
“At least act the way you talk please, you’re contradicting yourself” Carla pleaded as she was still upset because she didn’t get to pick up some items from the dungeon.
“Well, no fighting, since we are resting I’d rather eat the stuff we brought with us” Alex said as she took out a snack from the bag of Marco that he brought with him.
“When did you stuff that thing inside?” Marco was surprised to see something that he didn’t put inside.
“Alice was the one to put these things inside. She knows that I love doing some picnics whenever I have time….” Alex responded as she picked some weird signals with her serment.
“Is there something wrong, senpai!?” Carla and Marco asked as they didn’t sense a thing.
Sensing some danger made Alex stop acting comfortable. She stood looking around, apparently she picked multiple signs on her map.
“Carla can fight clearly with her serment. Can you get the hang of it, Marco!?” Alex was looking serious as she asked.
The atmosphere changed suddenly,
“Kind of” Marco replied as he released his serment along with Carla.
“That’s good, cause I don’t think this place is empty” Alex shivered in her place, yet she kept the smile, since she wasn’t the type to fight and the signals were pretty high too.
“Well, can’t we….”.
Before Carla would finish her words Marco pushed her away, he made her avoid a surprise attack but that cost him his left arm.
“Drop dead !!!” a sudden roar echoed through the place.
A sudden guy appeared right where the hit came from and stabbed Marco right on the guts then blew him away. The hit was so hard that Marco wasn’t able to react at time, he got smacked on the wall then fell on the ground.
“Marco!!! You bastard!!!”, she raged in Anger.
Carla roared as she was about to attack the capped guy but soon collapsed on her knees after getting shot with a paralyzing needle.
“Carla!!” Alex shouted as she was too late to move.
She got touched too as Links personally came and slashed her on the face leaving a small cut and an enough amount of poison to make her unable to move, in other words paralyzed.
Moments before the sudden attack ,
“Huh!? Why now?!!! man that’s not the thing we agreed for” one of the five capped men said, complaining about what Links just mentioned.
“Are we going to argue now? my words are absolute and no one should touch the girls until I’m done, you can do whatever you want with the boy during that time” Links said as he was smiling a devilish smile.
The five of them didn’t want to argue and continued with what he wanted to say. As they reached the destination, they put on some covers to disturb the sense of the euro and conceal their presence. soon after the caped man attacked and cut Marco’s arm while another man blew him away.
“Sigh, what a loss of great fighting material. I wanted to experiment on him a little, Tsk Tsk!!” Links clicked his tongue as he removed the cape.
“Bastard!!” Carla was still energetic despite being paralyzed.
“You’re links, aren’t you!?” Alex asked as she noticed Links and Field together. the two took their caps off with a smirk on their faces as they were standing in front of her.
The other four caped men were standing far from each other, waiting for any other orders.
“It’s been a while Alex, looks like you’re doing good. and you really grew to become a wonderful woman” Field said as he was touching Alex’s lips.
She felt a little danger then heard Carla's fragile voice. It was the inevitable reaction to seeing Marco laying on the ground in a lake of blood as the thoughts kept flowing to her head about his death.
Links was kicking Marco’s body who was nearly dead, losing a lot of blood, then while Field was talking to Alex he got near Carla.
“Oh! such a splendid form, a curved and well built body, and on top of that a bloomed chest that makes you wonder what holds inside, if my memory is good you are… ” Links was all spaced out gazing at Carla.
She protested, “Creepy weirdo!! a fucking pervert to precise!! don’t you dare touch me!!”.
His tense raised up as he put a dirty smile on his face, links said while getting close “Thanks for the food!!!”.
“No!!” Carla tried to resist as she had a fragile voice.
Links smiled more as he saw her about to cry. He reached his hand to touch her then suddenly Marco’s black sword fell between the two of them, so suddenly.
“Like I said!!! My words are abso….lutes” Links yelled then looked aside.
“She said don’t touch her, didn’t she?” with the same dead look on his eyes Marco said as he seemed to be doing fine.
“Bastard!!!!” Links roared.
As he was about to slash Marco again, he got blown away. On the other side, the four caped men just felt a heavy bloodlust within Marco’s dreadful glares.
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