Reaching the lake, everyone except for Luke decided to wash off their bloodied clothes. Lawrence is amazed how Catalinna’s clothes stayed intact despite always creating fires around her arms. She is currently guarding Vania who is bathing in the far end of the lake where both Luke and Lawrence can’t see her. That means, he can’t get clean clothes since all of his extra clothes are in the space ring. After hanging his suit on a clean branch, he decided to head towards Luke who is currently training with his dagger.
“What level does your dagger art?” Lawrence asked
“Mastered but my dagger art is just a basic one given to assassins in the black syndicate. It only works when i’m in the dark or hiding in a shadow. How about you?” Luke replied without taking his eyes off from his training as his fingers moved so quickly that the dagger becomes blurry.
“Adept. It was the spear art of Lucarius. I can’t use it since the moon goddess would be able to influence me”
“Really? That’s a shame then. What are we gonna do for the next month or so? Don’t say we don’t have a plan”
“I’m deciding whether we head to a famous dungeon or discover a new one. I have to ask Catalinna first”
“Famous dungeon? Do you mean the abyss dungeon?”
“Yes”
The abyss dungeon is a dungeon spanning a thousand kilometers underground. No one has reached the bottom of it but it is theorized to have a hundred floors. Since its discovery, with the help of the Swordwin empire decided to create a town surrounding the entrance of the dungeon to help adventurers in exploring, buying rations, relaxing, healing, and everything a hopeful adventurer needs. The death rate of the dungeon has lowered tremendously by the town as everyone is working together to discover its secrets. Five years ago, a group of S-class adventurers was able to find a mystical relic that sold for a million gold. This solidified its image as the land of opportunity where anyone can get rich as the town advertised its dungeon while minstrels and bards sing its praises of heroes that emerged from finding a relic in the deep dark dungeon. It was only briefly mentioned in the novel as Lawrence has no idea if it’s worth it exploring that area but it’s best to ask the author itself.
“I can find you an appropriate dagger art if you want. Your talent is getting wasted by such mediocre art” Lawrence commented as Luke glanced at him.
“Maybe you’re right…i’m not an assassin anymore.” Luke stopped training as he smiled to himself.
“I have someone to protect already” he added as Lawrence nodded.
“Whose protecting someone? I’m planning to train-what the hell, Lawrence! Wear some clothes!” Catalinna appeared beside them as she shouted at Lawrence upon noticing that he isn’t wearing anything to cover his torso.
“I would if you didn’t take my space ring. Give me the space ring and me and Luke will use it for storage and the space bag will be used by you. " Lawrence replied before releasing a tired sigh as Catalinna contemplated for a bit.
“Fine, take this but you owe me one alright?” Catalinna handed Lawrence the space ring as Lawrence nodded, agreeing to her condition. After shaking the space ring, a white clean tunic emerged as Lawrence wore it immediately.
“So what do we do boss Catalinna?” Luke asked
“What do you mean?”
“He means if we head to the abyss dungeon or head to a three-headed serpent dungeon that is close by”
“Oh, abyss dungeon is clearly the best choice but I think it’s too dangerous to head there since the empire will try to hunt us.”
“I know, i’m just asking if what we get there is worth the risk or not”
“No, it isn’t worth it. Let’s just head to the small dungeon but one of us needs to guard Vania”
“Let me do it” Luke immediately volunteered
“Hell no, it would mean i will be guarding her while both of you head inside that dungeon. I’m gonna let Vania create her mana heart and strengthen it. " Catalinna replied as Vania arrives wearing a mask as her wet hair runs down through her back.
“Yes, i’ll be determined Catalinna. I would do anything to get stronger” she declared
“You’ll be alright. No need to get too nervous” Catalinna replied with a smile
“So what are we waiting for, we are heading to the three serpent dungeon. It should be around here”
“It should be over that lake” Lawrence pointed in front as they saw a couple of rocks stacked with each other just across the lake.
“Oh, that’s really convenient boss. I would’ve thought that you are planning to head to that dungeon” Luke jested as Lawrence nodded, agreeing to what he said
“Yes, i plan to head there since there are a couple of things that would especially help you”
“Really? I guess you’re quite a good boss” Luke chuckled
“Besides, i need some internal aura to unlock my third meridian”
After traversing the river, Catalinna groaned as her dress is wet once again as she realized that she didn’t need to follow them across the river. But it was too late to head back as she can only sigh in frustration before both Luke and Lawrence removed the rocks blocking the dungeon entrance. After a couple of minutes, a staircase leading down appeared as Catalinna nodded.
“Don’t worry about us, i will make sure that you guys will hear the explosions” she smugly smiled as Lawrence nodded
“Good luck boss and Luke” Vania waved them goodbye as Luke jolted before heading downstairs followed by Lawrence. Once reaching the bottom, there are three doors leading to different areas. Each one has a serpent symbol with different colors and written below is agony, terror, and joy.
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“This seems..ominous” Luke chuckled
“Let’s head first to joy. It will have a hallucinogenic serpent capable of creating illusions, warping our senses and perceptions. But physically, the serpent is weak compared to normal third-star monsters.” Lawrence informed. This dungeon is accidentally discovered by Cain’s godly luck before they went to the Swordwin Empire. The three serpents are boss-like enemies since each one is hard to fight without any preparations. The risk is worth the reward since each serpent guards an artifact. The serpent behind the joy door is guarding a dagger that creates a clone of the user that can attack but gets destroyed once absorbing any damage.
“I’ll be heading to the terror door” Lawrence said as Luke looked confused
“We take each door by ourselves? I guess that would make sense since i won’t be affected by illusions” Luke replied as Lawrence nodded
“Good luck” Luke added before opening the door and entering inside. Meanwhile, Lawrence shakes the space ring as one by one. Steel daggers fall to the floor before levitating. Once all ten daggers are floating around Lawrence, he entered the terror room.
Inside, a heavy fog covered his sight as a shadow of a large serpent crawling around the ceiling and walls can be seen. It hissed at Lawrence with its red eyes glaring through the fog. The chilling wind hits his skin as he shuddered. The terror serpent will grow stronger the more feared it was. Meaning, if someone entered this room and got scared, the serpent will be faster, stronger, and more resistant to attacks.
With the stretch of his arms, the steel daggers crash towards the serpent’s head as it shrieks before moving its neck to avoid the daggers. Seeing that the serpent is only dodging the daggers means it isn’t resistant to the attack. Like a heat-seeking missile, the daggers followed the serpent relentlessly but it retaliates using its tail to bash the daggers away. Lawrence lets the daggers separate as he tries to stab the serpent on different sides before the serpent hissed in pain.
The serpent realizes that the man is the one controlling the daggers as it charged Lawrence. Quickly, Lawrence recalled back the daggers as he created a line of them like a spear before repelling it using the most mana he can to speed it up towards the serpent. The serpent tried moving away but it was too late, one dagger broke off from its tough scale, another wounded it, the third one penetrated the wound, and the rest pierced its head. Killing it instantly as all daggers are covered with blood. Almost a third of his mana is gone from repelling all the daggers in that speed that two of the daggers aren’t usable anymore. Walking past the carcass, he opened the small wooden chest to find a single earring with a red crystal hanging on it. Immediately, he attached it to his ear before leaving the room.
“What is that?” Luke asked while pointing at the earring. It seems that Luke is faster than him. It makes sense since Luke is stronger than Lawrence currently.
“Earring of terror, it allows me to cast the spell forceful terror and forceful fear. I can cast it each one 3 times a day that lasts up to 30 seconds.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, i need the other pair to get the full effect of the earring. Anyways, we need to kill the agony serpent.” Lawrence started walking towards the door as Luke followed
“The agony serpent can multiply the pain we are feeling and it can summon chains that will hold us in place. Make sure to not get hit or injured and dodge the chains. " Lawrence informed as he slowly opened the door to see a serpent with its scales full of scars and dents. It looked injured but it shouldn’t be underestimated. It has a weaker scale than the terror serpent but once someone gets injured. It’s already game over.
The serpent looked at both of them with unbound ferocity as it immediately charged towards them. It opened its jaws widely before trying to bite Luke who immediately summoned the wolf’s head. Both the serpent and the wolf bite each other off as a chuck of the serpent was chewed but it didn’t stop on trying to bite Luke while Lawrence repelled the daggers to strike the serpent’s exposed wound but it didn’t even shriek or affected by pain.
It was relentless as Luke molded with the shadows as he vanished. Quickly, the serpent changed its target to attack Lawrence. With the insane speed of its tail, it was about to hit Lawrence in the head if it wasn’t for Luke’s intervention. Shoving Lawrence away, both of them were able to dodge the attack. Lawrence recalled all of the daggers as the serpent charged once again. The serpent doesn’t feel any pain and it appears to have lost its mind even though Lawrence’s daggers dug deeper in the serpent’s wounds. It didn’t seem to have noticed. This is gonna get worse the longer this lasted since he already made a mistake. Chains emerged from the ground splitting both Luke and Lawrence as the serpent targeted Lawrence once more.
“I’ll repel the serpent away to give you time to kill it in one strike!” Lawrence shouted as the daggers falls to the ground. He readied himself as he didn’t take his eyes off the serpent barreling his way. Once the serpent is 4 meters away from him, he released almost half of the remaining mana he had as the serpent crashed the wall. Taking this chance, Luke used the ring as he created an illusion. With the qi covering both daggers, the illusion and Luke lunged forward. Striking the serpent’s head with daggers and mirages. Creating eight holes all over the serpent’s head. The serpent jolted before falling limp to the ground.
“That was close” Luke chuckled as he felt that his aura is almost empty.
“Thank you for saving me” Lawrence replied as he slowly walked towards the wooden chest. He lifted it to find a small jagged knife with a red tint as he wielded it for a while.
“No problem boss, I’m just doing my job. Besides, what is that knife?”
“Knife of agony. Once stabbed to someone, the pain will multiply and render the enemy into a wriggling mess in the ground. A perfect weapon for the both of us.”
“You can have it, boss. I already have a weapon for killing.” Luke gazed at his dagger with a proud smile.
“I see..oh well. This dungeon has a secret boss but we can’t kill it yet.”
“Why? We can take a rest and fight it tomorrow”
“It’s a hydra. It will slaughter us” Lawrence replied calmly as Luke gulped audibly
“A hydra? Do you mean a 7-star beast capable of razing a kingdom into destruction in a day?”
“Don’t worry, someone needs to kill the remaining serpents to summoned the hydra back.”
“How many serpents do, in theory, to summon the hydra. Of course, i wouldn’t do it but i’m just curious” Lawrence gazed at Luke with suspicion before chuckling.
“You would need to kill all of the serpents together at the same time. The amount of serpents someone needs to kill is 9. These serpents we killed are merely 3-star beasts but to summon the hydra. Someone has to find a way to summon all of the serpents together as a sixth-star beast.”
“So don’t worry”
Leaving the dungeon, they found Vania sitting in a lotus position on the patch of grass, and beside her is Catalinna waiting at the entrance.
“What is she doing?” Luke asked
“She is about to reach 1-star mage. So don’t distract her especially you Lawrence.” Catalinna replied
“That was fast” Lawrence said with amazement
“Yeah, she’s really amazing.” Catalinna commented. Reaching from a normal person to a 1-star mage is especially hard and takes a long amount of time because the body needs to slowly accept the changes happening in an organ such as the heart. This just shows how terrifying Vania is and how strong she will be. After a minute, Vania’s mana slowly accumulated around her as she smells delightful and sweet. Lawrence immediately jumps back while grabbing Luke who panicked.
“What the hell boss?”
“Don’t come near her for a while. She needs to control her mana or else we will be charmed.” Lawrence explained
Slowly, Vania’s mana returned to her body as she breathes roughly from fatigue. She stands up unsteadily as Catalinna hurriedly helped her.
“Congratulations Vania, you’re finally a mage” Catalinna informed her as Vania nodded happily. She removed her mask to give a gentle and thankful smile to everyone as Lawrence realized that he isn’t getting charmed anymore. Meaning that she can finally control her curse.
“Heheh~ i can finally take my mask off boss” she informed happily as Lawrence nodded with a smile on his face.