Chương 24: A Disguise and a Mountain of Magic Stones

"Really?" Lili put on a delighted, adorable expression. Inside, she sneered. He only wanted to trick her into working obediently. Once they left the Dungeon and she asked for her share, he would probably kick her away or curse at her. But in this situation, she had no other choice. She had to rely on him if she wanted to leave the Dungeon alive. At the same time, she breathed a little easier. At least he was not a madman who had lost himself in killing and wanted to try cutting people next.

"Of course. A real man treats his promises as more important than his life." Cael spoke with solemn seriousness, then held out his hand.

"Let's work well together, Miss Lili."

"Thank you, Mister Adventurer. Lili will work very hard." Lili's voice turned sweet as syrup. She acted obedient, well-behaved, and easy to bully, then reached out and shook Cael's hand.

"Then the next part is going to be rough. The monsters are about to spawn again, and the ones those adventurers dragged over are already here." Cael smiled calmly. He would not be fooled by Lili's obedient act. She was probably cursing him in her heart right now. After all, she had been bullied, exploited, and wrung dry by adventurers since she was a child. Of course she would never trust one. To survive, she had also learned plenty of little tricks for deceiving adventurers.

Without those, there was no way she could have lived this long in the Dungeon. She had probably cheated quite a few rookie adventurers out of money. Otherwise, even while being bled dry by members of her own Familia, she could never have saved enough to buy a magic sword. Magic swords were expensive. Even the cheapest started at over one hundred thousand valis.

"Aaaah!" Miserable screams suddenly came from the passage where the bearded adventurer's party had fled. Lili trembled and looked over in terror. All she could see was a dense mass of red eyes drawing closer through the dim passage. When she turned her head, the monsters that had been chasing her were also surging in from another tunnel. They were dead. The adventurers who had been ready to throw her out as bait were dead? Fear swept through her entire body in an instant.

Every passage was filled with the shrill buzzing of insects and clusters of red eyes.

"Why are there so many? They're everywhere. Every passage is blocked. It's over..." Lili's limbs went weak with terror. Like someone reaching for a lifeline, she looked toward the adventurer who had already killed an unknown number of monsters.

"Don't worry. Just pick up the Magic Stones and Drop Items on the ground. As long as I'm alive, the monsters won't touch you." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Cael ignored the screams from earlier. He looked at the new wave of monsters with a grin, stepped in front of Lili, and drew the other sword at his waist. He had already figured out the spawning pattern for the Upper Floors.

Because the Dungeon's will was weaker there, monsters from the next floor down spawned more slowly, and their numbers were not too high. At most, the normal spawn rate for that floor multiplied several times over. The monsters from the lower floor only appeared at the very end. Ten minutes remained until the two-hour mark. Judging from the frequency, the Dungeon rampage could only last two hours at most.

"In other words, this is the final wave. War Shadows and Killer Ants. More than twenty War Shadows and over fifty Killer Ants." Cael laughed wildly.

"I'll finish them all at once."

"Starburst Stream!" The Sword Skill activated in an instant, and a fierce current of air formed around both swords. The strength in his body multiplied. The world before his eyes seemed to slow down. Every Killer Ant and every War Shadow rushing toward him moved at a crawl. Even Lili's terrified expression, caught at the edge of his vision, seemed frozen in place. His dynamic vision captured every moving object without missing a detail. The effect made everything seem slower. Wind. Airflow. He could feel them.

The twin swords in his hands glowed with blue magical light. The Magic in his body poured into the blades as if a floodgate had opened. Cael moved. The first strike cut through the air. Blue light flashed, splitting the current. Four War Shadows were severed at the waist, and the violent airflow tore their bodies apart before they turned to ash. The aftershock shredded the Killer Ants within the range of his swing. At the same time, the sharp sound of rushing air and trembling steel rang through the cavern.

The second strike split the airflow again. Several more War Shadows and a cluster of Killer Ants were cut in two, torn apart by the wind, and reduced to ash. The violent gust blew the unprepared Lili off her feet, nearly throwing her into the wall.

"Ah..." Before Lili could react, she stared blankly at the figure dancing through the monster swarm with twin swords in hand. Every swing tore several, sometimes more than a dozen, monsters to pieces. So strong. The fight was completely one-sided. A magic swordsman. Among adventurers, that was a role usually seen only among the upper class. Adventurers who used Magic to strengthen their swordsmanship.

"Fifth strike, downward cross slash!" Cael's fifth strike came down with both swords crossed. A cross-shaped slash appeared at the mouth of the passage, and the War Shadows and Killer Ants that had just rushed out were torn apart and scattered into ash. He turned toward another passage and appeared in front of it almost instantly. The sixth strike cut upward in a cross. In blue sword light and roaring wind, the last dozen monsters became ash. Silence fell. No monster cries remained.

No insect hisses echoed through the cave.

"Hah... hah... Six strikes. My Basic Abilities have improved quite a bit." Cael drew deep breaths and looked at the Magic Stones scattered across the ground. Then he glanced at the watch on his wrist. Two hours. Just as expected. The rampage in the Upper Floors only lasted two hours. Was it that the Dungeon did not want to continue, or that it could only continue for that long? Cael smiled. Heh. He had found the pattern. Crack. A faint sound came from the twin swords in his hands, like metal crying out in pain.

Cael's expression stiffened. Damn it. He had forgotten to use projected swords. That loss hurt. He slowly sheathed the twin swords, now marked with fine cracks, and turned toward Lili. She was still sitting on the ground, staring at him in a daze. Cael smiled teasingly.

"Were you captivated by how heroic I looked, Miss Supporter? If you don't hurry and pick up the Magic Stones, the Dungeon will absorb them."

"Mister Adventurer is amazing. You defeated so many monsters. You are the strongest magic swordsman Lili has ever seen." Lili snapped out of it and immediately put on a worshipful expression. She clapped her hands, her eyes glittering. Adventurers were all full of vanity, no matter how proper they pretended to be. They loved being flattered by people weaker than themselves. That was why Lili hated adventurers most. Vain. Greedy. Cruel to the weak. Hypocritical. Ugly.

"Mm. I really am pretty strong right now." Cael rubbed his chin and nodded. Among Lv. 1 adventurers, he was definitely the strongest. With all his Skills active, he could absolutely reach the upper range of Lv. 2 adventurers. Doubling his Basic Abilities was just that absurd.

"So many Magic Stones! Mister Adventurer is amazing. You made so much money." After saying that, Lili pretended to be happy and hurried to collect the Magic Stones. If the stones vanished and there was no money to earn, who knew what ugly true colors this proper-looking adventurer would reveal?