As I follow behind Aubrey, I take in the sights around me. Currently, we were walking down a street filled with various shops with tables and chairs outside, people eating, drinking, talking and laughing. It wasn’t joyous like the scene in the Guild, it felt more intimate between people. They weren’t celebrating either, it’s more like they were there just to meet or eat.
Leaving the street, we soon arrive in a giant plaza, in a half circle are seven giant buildings, with the one in the centre being the biggest building here. Without pausing, Aubrey continued walking towards the centre building, and upon entering I was met with a familiar sight. It’s the lobby that I had arrived in with Elise, the giant archway had a flow of people coming in and out, but there were fewer people going in and coming out.
Looking at me, Aubrey writes on a piece of paper before speaking for the first time, in a very small voice. “C-come with me.” Upon saying this, she walks to the side where a door sat, and walking through it we walk down a hallway with many doors before Aubrey enters one of the doors. Inside is a single table with two chairs opposite each other. Putting her bag down, Aubrey sits on one side of the table while I sit on the other side.
As I’m removing my hood, Alice jumps down onto the table and lays down. Across from me, Aubrey looks at me with some seriousness on her face as she rests her chin on a hand. Looking me up and down, she taps the table with a finger.
“Before we go in, you need to know a few things about me. Elise has already told you about my lack of combat ability, however, I am experienced in almost every situation. I will make callouts depending on the situation and if you ignore them I will ensure you never get to come back to the deep dungeon. If we need to escape and I say so, then work towards escaping. I will not hinder you, however, I will ensure we are kept safe. Elise told me to ensure you’re kept safe and that is what I will do.
Now, the lowest we are going is Floor 6, and Floor 7 if you manage to level to 26. You do not need to worry about providing me with experience, I have a unique way of gaining it. In terms of loot, we will split it so each of us gets half of everything. I will gather materials and cores while you fight and kill monsters.”
Listening to her speak, she had a very serious tone to her voice, one that said she would not accept any questions or excuses in response. Moving her free hand up, she holds up a finger.
“Now, I’ll explain the different types of monsters on Floor 6. If we go to Floor 7, I’ll go over the monsters there before we go down. You don’t need to memorize everything we go over, as long as you have an understanding that’ll be fine.”
Explaining the monsters took a while, however, the amount of information Aubrey gave me nearly overwhelmed my brain. The most dangerous monster we had to be on the lookout for was called “Mimics”, they had low physic powers that enabled them to copy our spells and skills, and transform themselves to look nearly identical.
The way to tell them apart was varied but remained the same. Sometimes the colours of hair, skin, eyes or clothing wouldn’t match, or other times they were missing body parts. The scary form of Mimics was what Aubrey labelled as deviants.
“Deviant Mimics are terrifying. Their Physic magic allows them to scan your memories and take the forms of those you know well and their magic and skills. What is worse is they can take their voice and their looks are nearly perfect. Thankfully there is a way to tell them apart, which is their mana signature, but that only applies in a party.”
Shivering, I had the thought of the Mimic copying the red mist. Like she had read my mind, she says “If you’ve met a powerful being on the level of pseudo-Demigod or higher, the Mimic won’t change into it. After all, you wouldn’t understand their powers, so how could it?”
I guess there had been fears of that in the past. Finding that it made sense, I thought over the remaining enemies. Most weren’t difficult when compared to the Mimic. The Mimic however provided materials and cores that were highly valuable and were money-makers for adventurers starting early, but because of the danger that came with them not many adventurers sought them out.
“Basically if we find a Mimic, give it a go with fighting it, just be aware you’ll be fighting yourself. It won’t have the combat skills or experience you have, just don’t let your guard down. Parties have been wiped out by a pack of Mimics because they underestimate them or don’t know the weakness of whoever is copied. My weakness for example is my lack of combat experience, so consider your weakness and exploit it.”
Pondering her words, I didn’t know my own weaknesses too well. I think the only thing I wasn’t good at is dealing with someone faster than me, but that can’t be considered a weakness.
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“It’s fine if you’re not sure about your weaknesses, just figure them out quickly.” Nodding, she gets off the chair. “Let’s head in.”
Putting the massive bag onto her back, I wondered how she managed to carry it around. Looking at the size, it was at least the size of two of me. I thought of making small talk, but when I looked at Aubrey, her face had gone from looking dead serious to looking really shy. Thinking that she didn’t want to talk or she preferred silence, I followed behind her as we leave the room and head back to the lobby.
Approaching the booth before the archway, a man sat within it and glancing at both of us he nods before gesturing for us to continue. Upon entering, I saw my System display that we had entered the Tomb of Lilith. Taking a breath in, I got myself focused and prepared.
***
With Aubrey leading the way, we avoided almost every monster. There were two or three that made their way over but were finished off rather quickly by me, giving me in total 2,000 experience due to their low levels. As we continue down the fifth floor, Aubrey suddenly turns to me.
“C-can you use v-vision magic?”
Tilting my head, I shook my head. I had been using Moon Glow since we had entered. Without her explaining, I knew why she wanted me to stop using Moon Glow. Letting off my Moon Glow, I considered what I could try. Recalling Flannery who always had stars in her eyes, I used purely starlight energy and slowly thread them into my eyes without using mana.
Feeling a stabbing feeling in my eyes, I started seeing my surroundings much better, like they had been lit up, though only a few metres around me. Pushing more magic into my eyes I felt the stabbing pain suddenly explode, making my eyes feel like they were about to explode. Stifling a shout, I’m about to cut off the energy when a feeling welled in me to keep the energy at this level.
Gritting my teeth, I decide to do as my instincts tell me, and soon my eyes start burning but the pain ebbs away slowly. Feeling my eyes bleeding, the pain was slowly disappearing but I knew it wasn’t enough yet. As the burning and pain faded, I slowly added more starlight energy. I knew doing this in a dungeon wasn’t exactly the best thing to do, but if I wanted to continue I needed to do this.
After repeating this process two more times, I slowly threaded more starlight energy directly into my eyes once more. There was no sudden pain or burning, but for a moment, I see stars, like I had looked up at the night sky. In the next moment, they disappeared as my vision turned to darkness. Panicking for a moment, I realized I had closed my eyes at some point.
Opening my eyes slowly, I glanced around, shocked at the sights. I could see clearly like there was no darkness. Blinking with some surprise, I look over at Aubrey who was staring at me with some annoyance.
“Thankfully I’d asked you while we were relatively safe. Inventing spells like that in a dungeon is so stupid. Well, seems you at least won’t shine like an idiot now.”
Surprised at how Aubrey spoke, I temporarily forgot about my new vision. Suddenly she changed from looking annoyed to embarrassed and shy, before muttering “I-I’m s-sorry, I d-didn’t mean it.”
Raising an eyebrow at all of this, I told her it was fine. Meekly nodding, Aubrey turned and started walking away quickly. Still taken by surprise about all of this, I still hadn’t had a chance to look around as I jog to catch back up with her. Looking around once I was next to Aubrey, I figured a few things out with this vision.
Firstly, it’s no different to viewing something under the sun or a lantern, except there are no shadows. Looking around my surroundings, it was fairly boring, the walls and ground is just made from dirt, like a series of tunnels. Looking at the System, it told me what I had unlocked, and weirdly it wasn’t magic.
You have learned a new Skill: Star Gaze.
Using pure Starlight energy, your vision is unobstructed even in the darkest of places. Using more Starlight energy will improve your vision to an extent. There is no cost.
No cost? So this is essentially an upgrade. I’d never tried directing starlight directly into a body part without using mana as well as I had here, I wonder what would happen…
As I continue following Aubrey, I wondered about who she was. I didn’t know what type of monster she was before she evolved, but the antlers from her head reminded me of a monster in Crater Hell near the plateau, though hers were quite…cute and the ones I saw in Crater Hell were more…dangerous.
Shaking my head to get rid of these thoughts, we enter the fifth floor and continue on as I get used to my new vision. After trying for a while, I found I couldn’t turn it off like it had become permanent. That makes sense considering the pain I had gone through. Thinking about it, I wondered if it was meant to be this easy to unlock spells or skills.
Recalling what I had felt during the ordeal, something within me had ensured me that it was safe to continue. It couldn’t have been purely instinct, could it? Looking down at my hands with a frown, maybe I should try learning more magic or making my own.
Seeing Aubrey stop, she turned to me. Behind her is a staircase, the first time I’ve seen one here, leading downwards. The other floors had slopes that spiralled downwards. Looking at me, she speaks softly.
“T-This is the s-sixth floor, are y-you ready?”
I wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but the path she led me down had absolutely no monsters. I wonder if this is something she knew due to experience. Smiling at her I let her know I was ready. Following behind her, we move to the sixth floor of the Tomb of Lilith.