“Wow Phanos… you can really cook.” Q was stuffing her face with the food that Phanos made.
“Of course. As lady Brie’s personal maid, I must be able to accomplish any task. Cooking such a meal is a simple matter for me.” Phanos looked incredibly proud.
“A simple matter?” Brie raised an eyebrow. “If I remember correctly you failed cooking many times before managing to make a decent meal. I can still remember your face when you cut your finger with a knife. Hahaha!”
“M-milady!” Phanos blushed as she tried to keep Brie from saying anything further.
“Heh, you made a pretty funny face when you cut yourself as well.” Q recalled the time when she was teaching Brie how to cook.
“A-ah! Do not mention that!” Brie became just as flustered as Phanos was.
“You allowed milady… to harm herself?” Phanos’ expression made a complete 180 as she wore a dangerous glint in her eye.
“Woah, easy on the knives!” Q leaned to one side to avoid a knife.
“So you finally show your true colors… Don’t worry Q, I’ll protect you!” Cinnamon grabbed Q and covered her in her wings as she faced Phanos.
The girls were lazing around in the middle of the fourth floor. With the supplies Phanos brought they started a campfire and relaxed for a while. The floor became quite loud with all the girls making noise, as Q and Brie tried to stop Cinnamon and Phanos who looked like they were ready to let loose on each other. “Haa~ So peaceful.” Kukis relaxed as she drank some hot chocolate and watched the ‘show’ in front of her.
After half an hour, their health and mana had been fully restored so they proceeded to descend deeper into the library once again. Their previous fights (mainly just Phanos and Cinnamon glaring at each other) had been set aside temporarily once they entered the fifth floor. This floor felt like a deep cove, as there were many puddles on the ground and the water reflected the lanterns hanging from the ceiling, creating an amazing display of light.
“I am taking so many screenshots right now…” Kukis said as she looked around the floor.
“Did you take screenshots of the previous floors? It’d be great to see each floor in an album.” Q thought about the beauty that this game seemed to naturally create. It makes me wonder if it was an artist or something who purposefully made it like this, or if it was the world itself that naturally caused this to happen…
“Of course I’ve been taking screenshots! I even took a few videos ever since we entered the witch’s village. I can send them to you later if you give me your e-mail.”
“Really? Awesome! I’ll tell you after we finish clearing the library.”
“The next enemy has appeared. Or should I say, ‘enemies.’” Cinnamon redirected their attention to the enemies. This time the elemental appeared as usual, but this time it was freely moving around and they could see large pools of water inside its body. The water would drip onto the ground and after accumulating for a while, it would rise up and turn into a new enemy!
[Greater Elemental of the Four Elements] - Level 50
[Water Spirit] - Level 15
“Hey Q, do you think your lightning can kill those spirits in one hit?” Kukis asked.
“Only one way to find out!” Q grinned as she ran forward to engage the enemy.
It turned out that her [Tri-Spark] actually was able to kill the small water spirits in one hit. Q’s job then changed to keeping the number of smaller enemies down, while the rest of the group took on the elemental. With the addition of the water element, the elemental’s attacks constantly left behind a trail of water. These trails had a weird consistency, and the girls had to be careful when stepping around them as they might slip and fall (which happened to Kukis once).
Since the room was moist and water-based, the elemental’s fire attacks were weakened quite a bit. Besides the appearance of the water spirits the battle wasn’t that different, except that it took even longer than last time. Eventually they killed the elemental, and all the girls plopped down on the floor in exhaustion.
“Geez… this battle is getting harder and harder.” Kukis complained. “What element is next anyway? Light?”
“I think so. Do you think it’ll disappear randomly like the bookshelves in that place?” Q mused.
“I hope not. I’m already starting to reach my limits after this battle.” Cinnamon added.
“Already?” Q was surprised as she thought that Cinnamon was still holding back.
“Yes. I mean, I could probably push myself but my level and stats prevent me from keeping up with the elemental for too long.”
“Wait, what’s your level?”
“When I first joined you I was level 20. Now I’m level 24, but the guardian is effectively double my level anyway.”
“Wow, you’re that far behind and you can still hold your own. You’re doing a real good job Cinn!” Q patted Cinnamon’s head, causing her to shiver in pleasure. “Hmm... if Cinn’s reaching her limits soon, we’ll probably have to back out and try again some other time. I’m pretty sure that none of us can withstand the elemental’s onslaught for too long.”
While Kukis and Brie agreed with Q’s judgement, Phanos seemed to disagree. “I believe that milady and I can continue to fight against the elemental, but I’m not sure if you can keep up.” Phanos provoked.
“It’s not about me Phanos,” Q chided. “It’s about working together and completing the dungeon as a team. If one member is having trouble, it’s up to the others to help out. Isn’t that right Brie?”
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“Of course! Teamwork is very important.” Brie nodded seriously. “Phanos, you must also consider everyone’s opinion as well.”
“...” Phanos was about to open her mouth to say something, but then refrained. This sly fox… She brought in lady Brie’s opinion to force me to accept this outcome. I really do have to keep a close eye on her! She looked at Q, who happened to have a slightly mischievous grin on her face. Phanos’ eye twitched as she said, “...Yes milady.”
“Uu… I feel bad now.” Cinnamon’s wings drooped.
“Don’t worry about it.” Kukis tried cheering her up. “It’s only natural in games that, if you can’t beat a dungeon, just level grind until you can!”
“I suppose… But!” Cinnamon had a determined look on her face. “I’m going to challenge the next floor at the very least. If it gets too hard, I’ll just run away with Q.”
“Alright then. To the next floor!” Q got up and began to head down the stairs. While the girls were expecting to see the familiar figure of the elemental they had been fighting, instead they were greeted with the sight of a massive creature! Due to the nature of the floor they were on, bright beams of light concealed its true form until they got within 50 meters. The creature had its back turned to the girls, and when it heard them approach it rotated its head 180 degrees to look at them.
[Guardian of Knowledge] - Level 138
“I-isn’t this a little too much?” Q and the others were instantly on high guard once they saw the giant owl. While Kukis and Cinnamon prepared for a retreating battle, Q, Brie and Phanos primed their spells and attacks. After seeing this display, the guardian seemed to lose interest in the girls and turned its head back to look at what it was doing earlier. The girls exchanged looks, and began to debate on what to do.
“Do you think it’s hostile?” Kukis asked nervously. “The elemental is one thing, but this… I’m pretty sure we’d die in seconds.”
“It seems to be… indifferent to our presence.” Brie said. “Perhaps we could leave right now?”
“I shall follow milady.” Phanos threw out her opinion.
“What do you think Q?” Though Cinnamon asked that, she seemed to be inclined to follow whatever decision Q made.
“......I’ll try talking to it.” As Q said this, all of the girls temporarily froze. Before any of the other girls could react, Q had already gotten within 20 meters of the guardian and called out to it. “Hey Owl, what are you doing in this floor?”
“...” The guardian turned its head to face Q, and gave a look of irritation. It then spread its wing slightly, pointing towards the stairs to the next floor.
“So you’re just letting us leave? Ah, could you do something about this? Alrune said you could.” Q brought out Alrune’s wand and showed it to the owl.
For a moment the owl seemed slightly angry, but it only continued to point to the stairs. “Okay, I guess I’ll ask the other guardian.” As the owl moved its wing, Q noticed that it had a small book at its feet that it was reading. I guess it’s a good book if it doesn’t want to be bothered. She thought as she beckoned the other girls. The rest of the group found it odd that Q looked so at ease beside the giant owl, but they approached her anyway and quickly made their way to the stairs. As the girls left the floor, they didn’t notice the owl watching them leave. For a moment it’s eyes contained a hint of sadness and grief, but it quickly faded as it continued to read the book at its feet.
“If the Guardian of Knowledge was just waiting on that floor, that means the next floor is…” Q looked up to the rafters in anticipation, and was not disappointed.
[Guardian of Wisdom] - Level 140
The giant raven slowly descended to the ground and flapped its wings a few times before settling down. So you have come here once again. The raven said in its imposing voice. What is your purpose this time?
“My purpose is this.” Q brought out Alrune’s key and showed it to the crow. “Just before I finished talking with Alrune’s ‘remnant will’ he told me to give it to you, and you would know what to do with it. Oh, he also wanted to say: Thanks.”
Haa… What a troublesome master. The raven extended its wings and Alrune’s key floated up into the air in front of it. A strong glow came out of the orb at the top, and completely illuminated the entire floor! The light was so bright that Q and the others had to close their eyes. When they finally opened them they saw that the key had taken on a different shape. The orb increased in size until it was a bit larger than Q’s head, while the part where the ‘ridges’ had been before now turned into a completely straight rod. The rod was about one meter and a half long, and had a small gem embedded into the bottom.
“Woooooah~.” Q subconsciously reached out to grab the new form of the key. Just as she was about to touch it, the key suddenly vanished and Q found herself face to face with the raven.
I changed my mind. Though it was hard to read any facial expression on the giant raven, Q felt that it was looking at her with a disdainful expression. I don’t think you’re worthy of this.
“Then… what? Do you want me to prove myself or something?”
Yes. My master had bestowed his powers upon you. Prove to me that you can use it properly.
“How would I go about doing that?”
I will give you ten seconds to use any runes to strike me. If even one of them is able to hurt me, I will consider giving you my master’s… key.
“Well this ‘test’ came out of nowhere… Alright then. Can you guys stand back? I’m going to get serious for a bit.” Q motioned for the other girls to back off, and they complied. Q then began taking in deep breaths and calmed herself down as she prepared to deal with the raven.
“Do you think that she will be able to hurt it?” Brie asked worriedly.
“Judging from a game standpoint, no.” Phanos mercilessly shot her down.
“But in this game, numbers don’t mean everything.” Cinnamon smiled mysteriously.
“Shh, it’s starting.” Kukis reminded everyone to quiet down.
I shall start counting down, and you may begin to strike once I finish. 5… 4… 3… As the raven began counting down, Q tensed her body and closed her eyes. She continued to breathe in and out, and as soon as the raven’s countdown finished, she completely relaxed her muscles. Her eyes opened, and the world seemed to have stopped... At least, it did for Q.
It was at this moment that three fingers on each of Q’s hands lit up with a bright light as she activated [Rune-write] on all of them simultaneously. The raven widened its eyes upon seeing this, and braced itself for an impact. With incredible dexterity, Q began to write a different rune with each finger and used [Rune-launch] to shoot them forward as soon as they were completed. To the girls who were witnessing this, Q’s fingers were moving so fast that it seemed like she was completing a rune every half second.
The runes began to land on the raven, and once they did Q activated them, causing different elemental attacks to hit the it. Even with this the raven hadn’t taken any damage, and just as it was about to discourage Q it noticed something surprising. Q was actually shooting all the runes in the exact same spot! With each successive rune, the raven’s defenses on that spot weakened ever so slightly.
Impressive, but this isn’t even close to my master’s capabilities… Despite saying this, the raven secretly strengthened its defenses at the point where Q was hitting it. Q continued to blindly shoot out her runes, and the other girls got worried.
“Looks like she really can’t…” Kukis frowned.
“I believe in her though.” Cinnamon remained steadfast.
“Look at her tail!” Phanos suddenly yelled.
While everyone had been distracted by the sheer amount of runes Q was firing, they completely ignored what she was doing behind her. Her tail had a glow at its tip and was moving around, creating a rune circle. Q then shot one rune after the other with her hands, each of the seven elements. Once they all stopped at the same place and overlapped each other, Q activated them and it created a colorful explosion of colors! Now the raven reacted a bit, but there was still no damage visibly dealt to it.
Now the time Q had to attack it was almost up, and it was at this point that Q twirled around, bringing the rune circle she created with her tail to face the raven. This circle was created with a large void rune in the center. Surrounding it were nothing but eight amplify runes, and one forward rune. Q poured every single drop of mana she could into the circle, and then activated it.
What happened next was a what could only be described as a ‘shockwave’ which made even the girls standing behind Q feel the force behind it. The raven which took the full brunt of the attack, actually staggered backwards a bit and a very miniscule amount of health was taken away from its health bar. Q on the other hand had fallen face-first on the floor and was breathing heavily. As the girls rushed over to check her condition, the raven was fixedly staring at Q.
“Q, are you alright!?” Brie was incredibly distraught.
“I… I’m fine. Just pushed myself a little too far.” Q clutched her head as she was assaulted by both a terrible headache and a sense of nausea.
“Okay, please give her some room.” Cinnamon pushed everyone else away and cast a few recovery spells. “Are you okay Q? Do you need a drink? A hug?” Then without her consent, Cinnamon picked up Q in her arms and hugged her. Q felt too exhausted to even resist, so she simply let her legs dangle in the air as she addressed the raven.
“So, did I pass your test?” Despite looking worse for wear, Q still had a triumphant smile on her face.
...Yes. Make good use of my master’s weapon. The raven opened its wings and the key floated down. Q wiggled her way out of Cinnamon’s arms (who became incredibly dismayed) and reached out for the key. The moment she touched it, a window appeared in front of her.
[Alrune’s Staff (Archstaff, Unique)] Durability (250/250) - The personal staff of the Grand Wizard Alrune. WIS +40, INT +30, DEX +20, RES +15. +25% increase to damage/effects of runes created with this staff. +5 minutes to duration of runes created with this staff. Increases maximum number of runes able to be drawn by 10 while wielding this staff.
“Thanks a lot crow!” Q displayed her most radiant smile.