"By the way," Diamond said. "Using the fireballs wasn't exhilarating at all."
"Seriously?" Stercus sighed. "I thought you'd enjoy it. Anyways, may I have the book back?"
"Alright," Diamond said, giving it back. "What do you need it for?"
"I'm almost level 15, so soon I'll be able to learn the spell I wanted to try out all this time!" Stercus pointed to the Fire Machine Gun spell.
Fire Machine Gun
Requirements: Knows Fireball, Level 15+, MGE 25+, and INT 1+
Effect: Shoots many fireballs in a row
User can fire (INT / 2) fireballs per second for (MGE / 2) seconds at a time
After use the user must wait 60 seconds to use it again
"I see," Diamond said, hardly caring. "And why do you want this spell so much?"
"It's a spell about guns!" Stercus's eyes shined with excitement. "Aren't guns awesome!?"
"I guess..."
"YOU CAN'T JUST GUESS! GUNS ARE POWERFUL, COOL, AND AMAZING! YOU CAN'T JUST HAVE NO OPINION ON THEM!"
"Well... I do like them."
"SEE! AREN'T GUNS AWESOME?!"
"Please quiet down, I get it. I think guns are cool okay."
"THA- I mean thanks."
Diamond just sighed, relieved he didn't have to continue that conversation.
"Well I didn't know you enjoyed guns," Veritas said. "Like that little stunt you pulled earlier."
"What stunt?" Diamond just chuckled nervously.
"Did you think illusions would work on the God of Truth?"
"Are you even a god?"
"Of course I am!"
"You don't seem too much like one though. And didn't I kill you?"
"I don't recall that ever occurring."
"I don't recall the God of Truth being untruthful," Diamond said with a grin.
"I don't either," Veritas said. "I only recall the Demon King being annoying."
"Let's just continue," Pan said, feeling an increased tension in the air. "I just want to fuck a golem already."
"Fine," Veritas said. "But I'm getting tired of carrying this thing around." He pointed to, of course, Diamond.
"Well, I guess we can continue," Diamond said. "Let's just throw this trash out first." He pointed to, of course, Veritas.
Pan just sighed and facepalmed, wondering how they got these two together in the first place.
"HEY GUYS!" Stercus yelled out from further into the cave. "THERE'S A FORK IN THE ROAD!"
Indeed, the path split in two.
"Why don't we split up?" Diamond suggested the average idea for this sort of situation. "I'll go down the left path along with my familiars."
"Well then," Krys said. "I'll go down the left as we-"
"Not so fast," Veritas said. "I'll follow Diamond down the left path, you all should go down the right."
"But I want to follow Diamond," Krys pleaded.
"And I'd rather have her follow me than you," Diamond said.
"I don't care," Veritas said as he put Krys to sleep and dragged Diamond down the left path. Diamond could be heard struggling in the distance but it quickly died down.
"Is it okay to just let them leave like that?" Stercus looks concerned. "I mean, aren't they the strongest ones here?"
"True," Pan said. "I guess we should wait here if we want to stay safe. The deeper you go in the deadlier the creatures inside get as well."
"Can you tell Scitus that then?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Let me guess, she left already didn't she?"
"Yep."
Pan sighed as he put a sleeping Krys over his shoulder. "Let's go get her quickly."
The remainders of the gang walked down the right path, looking around for their lost teammate. Stercus was not scared at all. I mean, constantly feeling like he was being watched and hearing the sound of movement wasn't frightening in the slightest, and he only stayed close to Pan as much as he could to make sure the big guy was safe.
Pan just didn't notice, focusing all of his senses to finding a golem.
Luckily they didn't have to go too far to find Scitus in the middle of what appears to be a large clearing in the cave.
"Yo guys," Scitus said, waving her hands quite high. "Come over here!"
"Alright," Stercus said, forgetting his fears as he runs to her.
"Look at this crystal," Scitus said as she pointed out a light green crystal on the ground that appeared to glow. "I think it might be magical!"
"Maybe they use it when making wands and staffs," Stercus said.
"One that looks like this would probably make a really powerful staff!"
Those two were simply just wrong. Staffs and wands weren't even made of crystals at all, but instead plastics, metals, and paralyzed caterpillars. Don't ask, it's a long story. Crystals in this world don't even have anything to do with magic unless you count the few gods that have a connection with them. So this glowing crystal wasn't magical. It was valuable, but not magical. Valuable to the point Krys would sell it upon seeing it if she were awake, just not magical.
"That's great and all," Pan said worriedly. "But you know this place is dangerous right?"
"Please," Scitus said. "All of the monsters we fought earlier were weak! There's no danger here."
"The monsters here get stronger the deeper you go!"
"That's nonsense! Caves don't work like that!"
"They've always worked like that! Now get out of here!"
"There's no need to worry! Nothing bad is going to happen!"
"Of course something bad would happen!"
"Something like what!?"
At that moment the ground shook as if a bomb had been triggered somewhere in the cave. It was as if an earthquake had hit, which it couldn't have been since earthquakes weren't common in the area. No matter what it was though it did cause the ceiling to crack and many of the rocks in the cave to fall. When then shaking stopped, the rocks had fallen enough to completely block the way they came from, leaving them trapped here.
"Well," Pan said. "I'm pretty sure I was talking about something like that!" Pan used it to prove his point, despite rockfalls being completely unrelated to how strong the monsters are.
"What the heck is going on?" Krys had awoken from her third time going to sleep this arc. "And where's Diamond?"
"He and Veritas went over down the left path," Stercus explained. "And now the ground shook and made sure to trap us in this cave!"
"WHAT?" Krys's expression changed faster than the speed of sound. Krys quickly ran over to the area covered by tons of rocks and attempted to pull a few out to no avail.
"What are you doing Krys?" Stercus was confused.
"I'm trying to get us out of here! Do you want to be trapped here forever!?"
"Well can't Pan smash us out of here? It'd be much easier to just have him break it."
"I'm not too sure about it," Pan said. "We have to be careful or it would just get worse. I can't just break through it."
"Oh," Stercus said. "Well, how are we getting out of here?"
"We can't," Scitus mumbled. She was sitting in the corner with her arms wrapped tightly around her folded legs. Her usual happy expression seemed more negative; like a dark light went over her face. Whatever it was, Scitus had never acted like that before. "We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't. We can't."
"Are you okay?" Stercus looks back at her with concern.
"I have no idea how to escape this cave! We might die in this cave! I don't think I'm okay!"
"There's no need to worry, I'm sure we'll get out."
"How?"
Stercus shrugged. "I don't know but we'll do it somehow. We'll survive, we always do!"
"We don't always survive," Krys pointed out. "We haven't even done that much yet. You've only been in a party with us for about a month now, Scitus even less so!"
"Well that doesn't matter," Stercus said. "It doesn't change the fact we'll still make it out alive in the end!"
Pan and Krys just averted their gaze. Scitus looked downwards, tears clearly going down her cheeks. She was going to die. And it was her fault. All she should've done was shut up. All she needed to do was shut up. All she had to do was shut up. Past her should've just shut up and left when Pan said so! And yet...
"I'm so stupid aren't I," Scitus mumbled.
"Scitus," Stercus said, reaching out to her.
Stercus was going to say something, whatever it was to make her happy, but the sounds of scurrying caught his attention. He looked above him to see the ceiling replaced with complete darkness. One by one, spiders fell from the ceiling: black spiders that were four feet tall with long skinny legs and six red eyes. What seemed to be hundreds of these spiders jumped down from the ceiling, surrounding the gang in a black sea of arachnids.
"Oh," Stercus said, starting to realize how close death truly was.
----------------------------------------
General Info Stats
Spells
Name: Pan Depravo STR 82 MGE 29 Ventus Ignis Gloriae Age: 23yrs 274days SPE 54 FTH 1 Ictu Magna Ictu Fireball Great Fireball HP: 61/61 DUR 75 (+50) Flatus Magna Flatus Lord Fireball Fire Ring Level: 25 INT 52 Enflame Burst Flame Exp: 25,368,245/33,554,432 CHR 48 (+25) Spells Known: 10 LCK 30 Armor: Grand Knight (+ 50 DUR, +25 CHR) MNT 30