25 STARVING GREEN WOLVES DEFEATED!
625XP AWARDED TO THE PARTY!
600XP AWARDED TO LEXIA
25XP AWARDED TO JAMES
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LEXIA LEVELLED UP!
LEXIA IS NOW LEVEL 8!
I wonder which would be more painful, asphyxiation or the sharp air that pierce my throat every time I take a breath, I don't move or the cold dirt sticking to my skin might pull it off, I'll just lie there until I feel ready again. I can hear Lexia's distorted voice as she gets closer to me, she's about to touch me and I instinctively roll away, I'm not ready yet, I need more time before I can be hurt again.
She shakes me a little and I flail wildly, my body is moving on its own without my consent--my body is stupid, if it moves it'll hurt more, so it should stop.
"Sorry, I really thought this one was alone. Are you okay?" Lexia crouches down to get a better look at my face. "But hey! I- we killed 25 wolves before level ten, so it was worth it, right?"
I hesitantly inhale, and I feel relief when I see it doesn't hurt anymore. I want to correct her and say I'm actually level fifteen, but she might hurt me even more if I say something she doesn't like, I've learned that doing nothing is the safest option of all when dealing with people.
She tries her best to lift me up to her shoulder, but it only takes a couple of steps for her to give up and drop me on the ground. "Strength isn't really my main stat... ha, screw it, might as well."
I can feel myself getting weaker, it's not what I'd call painful, but it is uncomfortable, Lexia carries me on her shoulder without effort now. I can't move, it's not like before where I was just afraid of moving, here it feels like I'm too weak to even lift a finger, but it doesn't hurt, so it's not so bad.
I go in and out of consciousness, and when I open my eyes again, we're in the adventurer's guild. Lexia sits me down at a table and I feel a sudden surge of energy, I cough up some blood as I can feel my heart beat quicken back to its normal speed, I forgot my blood tasted like this. Lexia wipes some of the blood with a napkin and leaves to talk to the man behind the counter.
After a little bit of banter with him, she comes back with two drinks and takes a sit opposite of mine. "Hey, we got a lot of money from those last kills, so we'll sleep in the inn tonight." She pushes one of the drinks towards me and sighs. "Seriously, I really thought hunting wolves one at a time would be easier on you, but I guess those guys are never alone."
I stare at the drink for a little too long before I decide to take a sip, it tastes bitter. "I'm tired, I don't know how much more pain I can take." I mutter.
"This would be so much easier if we had another party member to lighten the pain load...wait, I know!" She clasps her hand together. "There's a dungeon nearby, if we can beat that and come back, then it will be proof enough that we're a capable party worth joining!"
"If we have someone else, then that means it'll only hurt half as much?"
"Yup! I'm sure a lot of people will still be put off by the fact that I'm a Hex Master--but since we're already a party of two, I'm sure it will convince at least one person that I'm not that bad," she explains.
I don't really follow her logic, but I'm sure she knows what she's doing. She orders another drink and boasts loudly about how she took down twenty-five wolves at once. People looked almost impressed--until they heard those were specifically starving green wolves, and their attention turned to derision. It doesn't take long for Lexia to start justifying herself--mentioning her level and her class--but the mockery from the other adventurers only increases. Her face gets redder by the second until she drags me outside, cursing everyone else on the way out.
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Lexia's eyes are twitching ever so slightly, and I instinctively take a step back when she grabs me by the shoulders and say, "Change of plan, we're not going to just beat the dungeon, we're going to rip off the damn core."
****
"Finally!" Lexia exclaim as she points down at a big tunnel in the ground. "Why are dungeons always so annoying to find, seriously."
She motions for me to step inside the tunnel, and I slowly lower myself into it. The tunnel goes downward, but it slowly goes back to a horizontal angle the further in I go. Once Lexia sees the entrance is not full of deadly traps, she pulls out an already ignited torch out of her inventory and follows me deeper into the dungeon.
This dungeon is a massive network of dirt and rock tunnels. Some tunnels are tall enough for us to walk normally through it, but some require us to crawl--of course, Lexia always makes me go first to check for monsters and traps, and I'm more afraid of her than whatever this dungeon could hold. I grab whatever edible mushroom and flowers I can find for myself, one of the advantage of my class is I can just tell what's edible or not, which came in very handy when I had to survive out of random things I found in the forest a few years ago.
The longer we wander inside, the more doubts Lexia start to raise, we haven't encountered anything dungeon-like thus far--no monsters, doors or treasure--and the possibility that this might just be some random tunnel we mistook for a dungeon is becoming more and more plausible by the second.
Until we hear a scream, that is.
The high-pitched scream is distinctly human, and it reverb all around us, making it near impossible to tell where it's coming from, but what we do know is that it's getting closer. I can feel a shiver run down my spine as I see Lexia prepare her one damaging spell in anticipation, I can only hope that whatever is approaching us is friendly--for both their sake and mine.
As the scream gets closer, buzzing can be heard growing louder with it, like constant wing flaps from a bug flying near your ear. That comparison is surprisingly accurate when one, then two, then twenty giant beetles with sharp teeth and sharp thorns flood the tunnel at our right. The source of the scream reveals herself in the middle of that swarm, a blonde woman in a white robe dirtied by blood and mucus, and she's accompanied by a young man with brown hair in light armor swinging his sword at the bugs.
The warrior laughs like a maniac as he takes down the beetles one by one, and his laugh mixes with Lexia's as she prepares her spell.
"Behold, forces of darkness that crawl in the dark!" Lexia shouts for all to hear. "You may cower in fear, you may scream and shout for mercy! But the only wish the Hex Goddess shall grant you IS DEATH!"
Her monologue gives me just enough time to count the total number of beetles--and it's at least twice as high as the number of wolves we fought. I close my eyes and lay down on the floor, resigning myself to my fate as she names the spell of my nightmares.
"MISERY LOVES COMPANY."
I'm running out of words to describe the pain. How can it get higher? How could it POSSIBLY HURT MORE THAN BEFORE? I cry, I cry and the tears burn my eyes and a beetle is biting me and I just want to be back with her. I scream higher than I thought possible, I swallow a thousand needles that go through my throat and my veins and- AND-
It's already over. A white light washes over me, the blonde woman is casting something that make me feel a little better, it's like a warm blanket in a cold night, a blanket that smells like her. It makes me cry, but the tears feel nice this time, so I let them flow.
"What's up with him?" she asks Lexia, who was chatting with the warrior guy.
"Ho right, that was a lot of bugs. He...should be okay, but he'll need some time to recover." Lexia replies.
"If you say so, do you have any food? We've been stuck here and-"
The mention of food is all it takes for me to wake up from my daze. "Do you want me to cook for you?" I ask.