TW - Violence
15 minutes before Evelyn showed up.
"Is there really any difference with these slimes as compared to those at the other hunting ground?" Lydia asked as they trenched through the forest.
Looking too her teammates, Lydia found herself lucky that they had invited her to join their group. It was only four days ago that she had been battling in the tower on her own, and now she had three dependable colleagues to traverse it with.
"There were to many people at the last one," Joseph grunted as he continued moving forward, not looking at her.
Joseph was in his late twenties, and Lydia had learned over the past few days that he was usually grumpy and a man of few words.
"Joseph," Jasper began, as he gently shook his head. "Don't take it to heart Lydia, you know how he is," he smiled ruefully.
Jasper was the oldest of their group and acted as an uncle to them all. With his kind face and slim build, she thought he looked like a combination between an elementary school teacher and an accountant.
'He really has the patients of a saint,' Lydia thought as she smiled in response.
She was the youngest of their group and had been a bit skeptical in the beginning after they had invited her.
'They're all adults, after all.'
"No worries, Joseph. I know he doesn't mean anything bad by it."
"We should be there soon," Marilyn sounded from the front, and Lydia jogged to catch up with her.
"Do you really think this place will be more deserted? Wouldn't other climbers have come her for the same reasons as us?" Lydia asked, trying to spot the clearing between the trees.
Tucking her blond hair behind her ear, Marilyn slowed down.
"No, this hunting ground is too far from the portal, so people usually don't bother. We should make a base here, and plan for the fight," she continued as she stopped walking, waiting for the men to catch up to them.
Lydia stopped as well. As the youngest in the group, she usually deferred to their decisions. They had been in the tower much longer than her after all.
She had asked them, when they told her that they had already been on the first floor for multiple weeks, why they hadn't left for the next floor. "We need a rogue on our team. Can't just be two swordsmen and a mage," Jasper had laughed awkwardly, but it made sense to Lydia. As a rogue, she would balance out their team. It was good to have different specialties in a group. No one knew what the tower would throw at them on the later floors, so the sooner one found a team that had a good synergy, the better it would be.
"You know," Lydia started as she looked at her teammates. "I am really happy that you decided to include me in your team. I can't imagine going back to the time I had to fight on my own."
"We are happy that you decided to join us as well," Jasper smiled. "It's good to have some young blood in the group," he continued before he nodded to Marilyn and Joseph.
Giving a bright smile in return, Lydia suddenly felt a hard punch to her back. She screamed out in shock and pain, before letting out a warning.
"Monsters!" she shouted to her team before she turned to look at her assailant. 'Were slimes this strong?'
But what greeted her sight was not a monster, or even an enemy, but rather Joseph. He was holding a blood-covered dagger in his hand, looking down at her, a menacing look in his eyes.
Lydia barely saw the uncanny smile forming at his lips before she looked to where she had been punched.
No, not punched. Stabbed. Seeing the blood drenching her shirt, the first emotion she felt was confusion.
She looked pleadingly to Jasper, 'surely he will help,' she thought. But Jasper simply shrugged his shoulders, unaffected.
Desperately Lydia turned to Marylin. But Marylin wasn't even looking in her direction, busy combing through her honey-blond hair, making sure it was just right.
"Why?" Lydia whispered, still not grasping the situation. "We were supposed to travel the tower together! I thought we were friends!"
Holding her hand tight against her wound, Lydia desperately wanted to be wrong. They couldn't really be trying to kill her. Right?
"Joseph, you still have the bad habit of taking your time, I see," Jasper commented, ignoring Lydia's queries.
"I don't want to hear that from a sadistic bastard like you," he harrumphed back. "At least I do it to make sure we get their inventory. You just like to watch them suffer."
Snickering, Jasper finally met Lydia's gaze. He looked nothing like the kind older uncle she had got to know over the last few days.
His Almond eyes, which were usually underflowing with kindness, were now devoid of any trance of emotion. His kind smile had turned into a disgusted sneer, and he looked more like a serial killer than an elementary school teacher.
"Have you grasped the situation yet?" he asked, as he kicked her in the chest, sending her to the ground.
Lydia tried steading herself and getting back on her feet, but seeing the blood pooling on the ground, she felt a panic set in.
'Why didn't I listen to my parents when they told me not to enter the tower? Why did I believe them so fast when they said they wanted me to join their team?"
As her panic set in, her heart beat faster and the blood created a bigger puddle around her. She was now soaked in her own blood, her clothes drenched.
"I don't think she heard you, boss," Marilyn snickered, her laugh as melodious as always.
Having her hair gripped, her head was forced up to meet Jasper's face. He was towering above her.
"Lydia, get a grip. We quite like you, so if you just empty your inventory, we'll let you go. Hmm?"
Once again, he looked like the kind uncle she had gotten to know over the last few days. But the tight grip on her was everything but.
"Why?" she once again pleaded, hoping to understand why they had turned on her.
"It's nothing personal. It's just easier to earn money this way," he smiled, as if that was all the explanation she needed.
"But I'll bleed out," she begged, pleading him to reconsider.
Her head was getting a bit fuzzy now, and she could feel sweat running down from her forehead.
"Just give us your loot already!" Marilyn commanded annoyed, as she put a blade to Lydia's face.
Before Lydia could even respond, Marylin sliced at her face, making her scream out in pain once again.
Using the last of her willpower, Lydia took out all her loot from her time in the tower. She had already been in the tower for days before Jasper and his group had approached her and had collected quite a bit of slime in her time here.
She had done her research before entering the tower and knew that the liquid left by the slimes could be sold after she traveled further up the floors. Thus, she had brought more than the recommended number of bottles and vials and collected quite a bit over the last week.
Giving it up didn't really hurt her, but her dagger. The dagger she had been lucky enough to find in the remains of one of the countless slimes she had killed, that hurt to let go.
It was perfect for her as a rogue, as it gave a stat bonus to dexterity.
'But they know about the dagger,' she sobbed to herself.
She hadn't noticed it at first, but tears were trickling down her face as she gave away all she had collected in her time in the tower.
'This was supposed to help my parents. I only went inside the tower to help them. To support them. To help earn money.'
Seeing the tens of bottles on the ground, Joseph hurriedly put them in his inventory, not even bothering to look at Lydia bleeding out.
Seeing her possessions being taken away so coldly by the people she had trusted, Lydia felt hopeless.
'Is there really nothing I can do? Am I really doomed to die here? I was supposed to leave the tower tomorrow. I was supposed to introduce my team to my parents. It was supposed to prove them wrong.'
'I was supposed to boast over how I had found trustworthy companions and reassure them that they didn't have to worry anymore!'
Feeling her regrets well up inside her and her disappointment at her own lack of discernment when it came to people, Lydia gave up.
A high white noise was now ringing in her ears, blocking out the sounds of her past teammates talking with each other. She could see their mouths moving, but none of their words registered.
No longer having the energy to hold herself up, she slumped down to the ground.
'So, I guess Jasper finally let go of my hair,' she sarcastically hummed to herself as her surroundings got more and more blurry and started dancing around her.
Just as she was about to lose consciousness, she saw a young face looking at her from behind the trees in the distance.
'Ha… I thought angels were supposed to stretch out a helping hand when I died, not just watch from a distance…'