Chương 47: 1-46 Starting your day in the dungeon

Josef had been the first to wake, unable to sleep restfully after nightmares wracked his night. He didn't even know the faces of the knights they had killed, but that hadn't stopped his imagination from filling the gaps with grotesque human visages bearing uncanny long noses. Still, the sight of a rolled up Zippa snoring loudly from within his wrappings brought a little smile back to his lips.

He was grateful to him for making the effort of cheering him up, even if it couldn't remove all the scars this world had left on his psyche. It would take some more time to get past his issues, but as long as he had friends by his side to lean on, he knew he would be fine, eventually. Until then, he simply had to manage and keep moving, since the world wasn't going to wait for him.

Taking a seat by the magical campfire, a rectangular black box that looked similar to a portable gas stove, with a simple mana inlet in place of any more refined controls, he shoved in a small amount of his magic to start a dim flame that barely burned brighter than a large candle. Thanks to his night-vision, it was more than enough to get a view of his surroundings, especially as there were still the dungeon's own torches further down the corridor, adding to the brightness.

Dusty and Pretzel silently joined him in the dim firelight, the bunny taking his favourite spot on the summoner's shoulder, and the serpent loosely wrapped herself twice around his torso before placing her head on his lap. Josef indulged her unspoken request for attention, petting her head and even scratching her chin, drawing a relaxed hiss from his familiar. Yes, he would manage.

☆☆☆☆ Crushing Water Prison (Inferior) -> (Moderate) ☆☆ Fluid Movement (Advanced) -> (Exceptional) He read through the remaining notifications in companionable silence, finding little as he had handled the bulk of his improvements during his stay in Lapis's desert, and his level up the night before, leaving only what remained from his siege on the second knight. At least all of his dancing in and out of the man's reach, while dodging sword strikes, had a noticeable effect on the Fluid Movement ability.

Maybe he didn't always have to finish a fight quickly to maximize his gains, though while that skill helped him survive in a fight, specifically pushing for it was a danger on its own. Josef held no illusions about how easily that sword would have cut him open, had he ever failed to keep up. No matter how much healing magic he could use, he didn't want to find out if he could save himself once his organs left his body.

After a while, the first one to join him by the fire was, surprisingly, Aifreed, who had made his way over and sat down on the opposite side of the fire. His movements were smooth and graceful, as if he hadn't just gotten way too little sleep on a thin bedroll after almost dying the day before.

"Good morning, Mr. Adam, right?" The elf greeted him politely. A gentle smile lay on the face revealed by the flames, framed by hair that was either silver or already white from age. The slight, hard to perceive wrinkles around the man's face made Josef guess that he was quite old for an elf, as most others he had seen always had unblemished skin.

"Morning, Aifreed," a nod accompanied his greeting. He wasn't exactly feeling his most social this morning, but he made an effort to be polite.

"I must once again extend my gratitude for saving my life and that of the honored lady. Without your timely aid, we surely would have perished to the bishop's dastardly scheme." As Aifreed spoke, he bowed his head to lend weight to his sincerity.

"If there is any way for me to repay this debt, say the word and I will see it done, as long as it is within my power to accomplish."

"Well, there is something I was hoping to talk to you about, so that might just work out for me. You see, there is this friend we're trying to save from the dungeon. She came in with her party, only to get stuck because of the current events." Josef revealed his reason for coming here, without giving away more than necessary. Aifreed nodded in understanding.

"A noble undertaking, no doubt. It also explains why you were so smitten with the artifact you took from those knights." However, the elderly knight's eyes sparkled with a knowing glint as he continued.

"Please know I mean no offense in asking so, but I can not help but notice that there must be more to this story, if your reaction yesterday was anything to go by." Should he tell this man more? About how Cana was likely the target they had been looking for before? That Sanctum was full of shit?

"How attached are you to those people? Sanctum just stabbed you in the back, but I know that nobles sometimes have to follow obligations, regardless of what others would consider right." The elf hummed in agreement.

"That may be right, but even if the lord of the house ordered our ties to Sanctum to remain, my allegiance is to the esteemed lady first, so I will follow her decision on how to handle this matter. While I shall never dare to presume her intentions on the matter, I would not dissuade you should you assume her stance on them to be downright hostile." If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

In short, she was going to give those people hell for trying to kill her, no matter what her 'papa' ordered. It was good to know that the willful personality she had shown so far at least also extended to this matter.

"In that case, let me be transparent with you…" Josef explained Cana's situation to Aifreed, and why they were taking a stance against Sanctum's forces. It took almost another hour before everyone was awake, the camp was packed away and everyone was ready to go. Aifreed was still busy handling Linda's demeanor, who was definitely the worst of them when it came to handling rising early in the morning.

Admittedly, neither she nor her knight had the advantage of enchanted bedrolls, meaning they had genuinely too little sleep to work with, but the sight made Josef feel much more like a well adjusted adult. After having spent some time discussing matters with the knight, he got the closest thing to assurance he could expect from the man without Linda giving her word. It was obvious that the old elf genuinely cared about his charge, and would respect her wishes no matter what.

Fortunately, that word had arrived quickly after Aifreed went to wake her up, when she straight up announced that Bishop Thaladur should be executed for the distress his betrayal had caused her. It wasn't easy to pick out her words after she had worked herself into a tantrum, but more than for the attempt on her life, she wanted him dead for making her sleep on the ground in a smelly dungeon. Josef took note to never interrupt that woman's rest, as doing so was a serious risk to one's own livelihood.

All that remained was splitting the loot from the deceased knights, but they solved that matter rather quickly, as Linda announced that her family's wealth was not so paltry as to require taking from the dead. Something told Josef that there was probably plenty of looting involved in how her house came to wealth in the first place, but had no desire to make that thought known.

Ultimately, all that Aifreed ended up taking was one of the swords, as well as the shield of the mace-wielding knight, so that he could replace what he had lost during the fight. His armor turned out to be fine in the end, as while the process was a lot slower, it also could repair itself just like Josef's clothes.

Following a suggestion from the older elf, Josef also took a weapon for himself, as few elves could fight with their own bodies, and the sight of one walking the dungeon unarmed was suspicious on its own. While he had acquired a staff from one of their opponents, that one turned out to be mostly useless to him, unless he figured out to use frost magic himself, as it wouldn't respond to any other affinity.

If he had to carry around a chunk of metal for appearances, it at least had to be something useful he could make use of in an emergency. That's why he picked the mace, which had a slightly charred handle but was otherwise fully intact and usable. Unlike the sword, this one had a much lower skill floor being able to dish out serious damage with nothing but brute force and wild swings. Sure, it would also profit from good footwork and training, but it wasn't as reliant on it as a bladed weapon.

His only regret was there not being a second shield for him to equip, so that he would no longer have to block all attacks with his own body and some earth mana, but he was not about to contest the actual trained knight over it, who would get the most out of it. If nothing else, it at least meant that his earth affinity wasn't going to stagnate, which would probably happen if he relied on a physical shield.

Another thing he treated himself to were the gloves of the frost knight, who had given ample evidence that this pair could somehow conduct mana well enough not to get in the way of casting magic. Sure, he would have rather had a proper pair of boots that could do the same thing, but now he was able to cover a bit more of his body without reducing his power, while making him look a little less like a mad hermit.

Unfortunately, until he found such magical footwear, he would have to continue keeping his pants up so he could at least kick with his shins. Setting off into the new day, they quickly made their way across the eleventh floor, which had little left to offer in terms of monsters, as most had already been cut down beforehand. Josef did, however, get his first experience with actual traps after Bezzo pointed out a suspiciously raised stone right in the middle of the path.

According to him, that one would merely cause the ground to tilt, dumping anyone nearby into the adjacent canal. While such an unfortunate bath wouldn't threaten immediate death, contact with the acidic liquid would still be immensely painful, and definitely cause badly infected wounds all over the victim's body. Unless one had a healer on hand, which was almost never the case, current exception not withstanding. Passing the non-threats remaining on that level, they quickly made their way down to the twelfth floor.

There, danger once again picked up as they had a full monster population to contend with. Unsurprisingly, the local Rachse, old and young, were no more amenable to their presence than their brethren from above, trying to rip them all apart with wild abandon. Thanks to their increased group size, the actual threat level remained much lower than before, even if Aifreed had to spend a lot of time making sure Linda wasn't getting in over her head, as she was trying to vent all of her pent up anger on the critters.

They even encountered a new type of monster, which was likely an upgraded version of the disgusting, oversized mosquitoes they had encountered before.

This new variant was almost twice as large, and had foregone the use of wings to fly freely, and instead opted to crawl along the walls and ceiling of the dungeon, using rows of small, serrated legs that looked like teeth, while their long mouths spewed thick needles that were connected to the body via thin tubes, trying to suck their blood while maintaining distance.

Those things were revoltingly ugly and annoying to catch, as they refused to get close on their own, revealing that their party's capabilities were dangerously lopsided towards melee encounters. Josef was wracking his brain for a solution, trying to make up a new spell to cover that weakness, when Pretzel offered an unexpected solution, after acting very indignant about her 'snacks' getting away from her.

She had used the mana provided by Josef through the link to create her own spell, accomplishing something that made him immediately doubt himself, as the serpent had overcome an issue he hadn't yet solved himself. In an act which overthrew millennia of human knowledge, the snake had figured out how to shoot water bullets.