The next morning, Tim woke up well rested and energized. He had training with Aiz today, and he rolled out of bed and rushed out of the room with an even greater alacrity than usual, leaving the girls peacefully snoring away.
When he finally reached the ramparts, the enigmatic blonde-haired girl was already there, staring off into the distance in a reverie. They exchanged a polite greeting when she turned around and noticed him, but this consisted of little more than a mutual exchange of nods. They wasted little time before getting started, kicking up dust on the wall around them as they went back and forth exchanging blows. Adama exalted in his ease of movement as he dodged, blocked, and swung with a speed and grace that was incomparable to a month ago. Even his skills had been sharpened further thanks to his constant battles in the Dungeon and his regular practice with Aiz. His renewed energy from the rest yesterday allowed him to showcase all of this to his sparring partner.
Aiz, for her part, had improved her swordsmanship significantly. She was practically born to hold a sword, he thought, and her movements had grown significantly more efficient and deadly from just a month of regular practice with him. There were still a few bad habits to break. A hesitation here, a bit of impatience there. But they were minor flaws, like tiny dents in an otherwise razor-sharp sword. They could be smoothed out quite easily.
He suspected that she had been one of the best swordsmen in her Familia, if not the very best. Even if she had better fighters to coach her, she almost certainly didn’t have better swordsmen to direct her. That would have meant that she lacked formal instruction at the highest levels, since no one would have been good enough to teach her. She had likely relied mostly on talent to develop her skills to this point. If that was the case, then she shouldn’t have significant difficulty rising to new heights of swordsmanship under his tutelage. He was curious to see what she would look like in a year or so.
Panting, they took their mid-practice break to sit together on the edge of the rampart and watch the sun finish rising. Breaking her customary silence, Aiz looked over at Adama with slightly widened eyes, saying:
“You’ve gotten much stronger. I’ve needed to use a Level 2’s abilities to keep up with you recently.”
He mostly just shrugged in response. It was normal for adventurers to grow stronger, wasn’t it? She was still only using a fraction of her strength to fight him evenly, at the end of the day. Had she received good sword instruction her entire life, these practice sessions would have been useless to her.
Undeterred by his silence, she continued:
“Your progress has been impressive, but you can’t be cocky. I’ve heard that the Guild has recently discovered a mutated Infant dragon prowling the 12th floor. That’s not the type of threat that can be handled by Level 1 adventurers, even ones like you.”
That sent him into a flashback of his last encounter with a green dragon on the 12thfloor and caused him to wonder. How would that fight go now? He had grown much stronger since then, so would he be able to fight it out evenly with the draconic threat. A part of him wanted to find out, but another part, the one that sounded much like Hestia, screamed caution. As these thoughts swirled around his head, he responded to his fair-haired companion:
“Not planning on going down to the 12th floor any time soon. Nothing to worry about there. Though, if I really did have to deal with that thing again, I think I’d win.”
She asked him about that last comment, and he told her about his late-night adventure to the 12th floor, which she considered in silence, before smiling slightly:
“As I would expect from my sword instructor, your adventures are entertaining. Just don’t be too reckless, ok? I’d hate to lose such a good teacher. Though, a part of me feels like you would survive even against a pack of Minotaurs.”
And with that, they went back to their practice session. When they were finished, Adama stopped by the church to pick up Lilli and both made their normal morning journey to Babel. They took time that morning, however, to stop by the Guilds message boards to look for quests. Quests were requests made by various citizens or institutions for specific actions or items from within the Dungeon, in exchange for a monetary reward. They could include finding a lost adventurer, killing a special monster, or gathering a certain item.
Quests were often seen as a good way to make money, though Tim had eschewed a lot of the requests for Level 1 adventurers since they either didn’t pay enough money or would require him to go too far out of his way. He made a lot of money through simple combat anyways. But today was something of an exception.
“30,000 vals for a Needle Rabbit’s tusk!” Lilli exclaimed, looking at the sheet on the board, “That’s around three times what the Guild would give us at the Exchange! It’s much better than retail value as well. The offer only stands up to 5, though, so we had better hurry and get as many as we can before others catch on!”
Adama nodded, eyes lingering for a moment on one of the Guild’s own quests, a request to kill an Irregular Infant dragon on the 12th floor, before following Lilli to the Dungeon. Their goal would be the 10th floor, the deepest place that the Needle Rabbit spawned. As they went, they would find and kill as many Needle Rabbits as they were able. Tim did have one piece of Needle Rabbit bait in his pack, and he was planning to use it if they had no luck hunting the monster normally.
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Their initial descent was as uneventful as usual. When they hit the seventh floor, they immediately began looking around for their quarry. They found plenty, and Adama dispatched the horned rabbit monsters with ease. Perhaps too much ease, since they would often try to run away after he quickly killed several of their number, forcing Tim to chase them down and slowing their party’s overall progress.
No tusk was forthcoming as they made their way from the seventh to the eighth and from the eighth to the ninth floor. On the ninth, they encountered a small pack that seemed promising. The red-eyed creatures zipped around, trying to gore Adama with their horns and targeting Lilli when they found him too dangerous. Speed had always been the Sage’s worst stat, while these monsters were unusually fleet. But he had been training so successfully that even his worst stat eclipsed the best that these Level 1 monsters could bring. Even if he weren’t faster than them, a Rippling Sword was all that was needed to ensure that they couldn’t touch Lilli while his focus was otherwise occupied.
However, even after turning their ambushers into dissolving grey ash, they still had no luck whatsoever with finding a tusk. Cursing his luck, Adama planned on using that one dose of Needle Rabbit bait within the hour if they had further bad fortune.
He never got the chance.
Arriving on the 10th floor, they sought out and found one of the larger rooms on the floor. Bone white trees sporadically dotted the subterranean chamber and their presence, when combined with the strange, misty quality of the scant underground light, gave the whole location an unsettling atmosphere. Undaunted, Adama pushed forward, only to realize that a couple other adventurers already occupied this space. A male human mage, two male dwarven fighters, and a female elf rogue were fighting with a small mob of imps.
They were obviously rather skilled and in no danger. The dwarves cleaved through the smaller monsters with no trouble as the mage backed them up and the rogue cut in from the flanks. They were just finishing off the last of the monsters when they noticed Adama and Lilli. The human, whom Tim now identified as a middle-aged man, nodded silently at both while the others wordlessly waved. They began to move briskly towards the exit as Adama’s party walked further into the room.
Tim noticed that this room was a dead end and that the only entrance or exit was the hallway they had just come from. This, he mused, would be a good place to sit and lay the Needle Rabbit bait. He just had to wait for their company to leave before he did.
No sooner had these thoughts left Tim’s mind than did he hear large footsteps echoing off the walls of their chamber. They started quiet and distant, but he quickly determined that they were coming from the exit. All the adventurers within the room had drawn their weapons and were glaring in trepidation at the calamitous sound that echoed from their only egress. They barely had time to collect their wits before an earsplitting roar reverberated throughout their underground world, the sound heralding the arrival of an agent of Death. The footsteps grew louder and more insistent as hands tightened on weapon’s grips. The eyes of the other adventurers widened in fear as a cold chill permeated their bodies at the sudden advent of their doom. Only the Sage’s eyes narrowed in total concentration as he peered through the gloom toward the inky void from whence the enemy would come.
In just another breath, the Shinigami made its appearance.
It did not show its lizardlike face nor roar out a draconic call to make its entrance. No, the coming death only signaled its attack with one thing. A torrent of orange flame spewed out from the mouth of the tunnel, consuming one of the dwarves who was closest to the exit. He had been paralyzed in fear and barely had time to scream as he perished in the conflagration, a single yell cut off as the inferno overtook him completely in little more than a second.
The elf girl screamed at the brutal death of her comrade, and this galvanized the others into action. Hurriedly, the mage began his chant as the remaining dwarf readied his axe. Adama had already sent a Rippling Sword towards the target, illuminated by its flaming breath, and he sent two more at the green blur that sprinted out of the entrance. It wasn’t enough, and the dragon bore down on the remaining dwarf with unrelenting physical force. The dwarf tried to hold it back, but emerald claws overpowered him, sending his body flying back toward the wall of the room, where it collided with a distant, sickening crunch.
The elf girl was still motionless with fear, the death of her second comrade only making her screams louder. The man, to his credit, had kept up his chant and finally finished it:
“…and may the barren world grant me power. Winter’s Breath!”
He shouted, pointing his staff directly at the incoming monster as it was distracted by the dwarf. A wave of icy power washed out from the staff and struck the dragon directly, causing steam to billow from the scales of the sudden attacker.
Its hide was a deep, healthy viridian and its eyes glowed a dark and menacing saffron. It slowed in its tracks and gave a cry of pain as it collided with the frost magic, but its eyes never stopped searching the room as it was forced to a halt by the power of the mage. They finally passed over Adama and locked on, clear as good glass in their intent to hunt him down. He recognized that fact and noticed in its scales the faint outlines of perfectly straight cuts. They had almost fully healed but remained as the dimmest of scars. He made an instant choice as he realized exactly what was happening.
Turning to the mage, he quickly belted out:
“Take the girls and run!”
Not waiting for a response, he kicked the man, sending him rolling towards the rogue as the winter magic ran its course. He also grabbed Lilli by the scruff of her neck, severed the straps of her backpack, and threw her towards the elf girl. Lilli shouldn’t be hurt too much by the throw, especially if she were caught, but she did scream in protest as Adama sent her to safety. There was no time to heed her cries as the dragon began to break its way through the ice and towards Adama, eyes shining at the prospect of bloodshed. He leapt back, leading the dragon away from the others.
Letting out a deep breath, the Sage cracked his neck as he prepared for battle, his old enemy bearing down on him with growing speed.
...
“Watcha doin, Aiz?”
The young Amazoness asked her swordswoman friend. Tione was one of Loki Famillia’s top adventurers. A Level 5 like Aiz, she favored a large dual bladed sword that could be swung with devastating effect. She was asking her friend and colleague why she was stepping out for a walk. In full battle regalia no less. Aiz, looked back at her, seemingly uncertain, before saying:
“I had a bad premonition. I’m going into the Dungeon to hunt a monster.”
“What kind of monster?”
“A dragon.”
“Sounds like fun! I’ll come with you.”
Nearby, another Amazoness happened to be listening in. She piped up in response as well:
“I’ll come too. I could use the exercise.”
Tiona was Tione’s sister and one of Loki Famillia’s elite Level 5’s as well. Aiz tried to tell the girls that she would be fine on her own, but both wanted to accompany their friend on her walk. In a short time, all three women were decked out and ready to go. But the bad feeling in Aiz’s gut only worsened. She had a suspicion that they were too late. But too late for what?