After a while, we finally reached our destination, the cave dungeon. I can tell Lunette uses her mana more than she thinks. There is a hint of tiredness on her face, but she doesn't seem to mind it.
I exhale as I look at her and say, "That's why I'm telling you to not overuse your magic. You're tired even before we enter the dungeon. How much mana do you have right now?"
Lunette smiles with a slight hint of tiredness as she speaks, "About half? I'm sure I can handle this, don't worry. It's my job as the older one to protect the younger one."
She's just too stubborn even for her own sake. We groups with the party that Guild Master made for us. I can see there is one man and one girl outside the cave. One is sitting on the rock, and one is looking at the sky as if inspecting something. I hope they aren't troublemakers like Lunette.
Lunette runs towards the person who's looking at the sky despite her exhaustion, "Leo! Long time no see!"
Huh? Leo? Is he Leo? It's such a really long time.
The man turns his gaze towards Lunette and speaks, "Fufu…Lunette, huh? So you became a hunter as well?" He chuckles softly at Lunette.
Lunette stands in front of him and speaks again, "Yes, I want to have an adventure so I became a hunter." She nodded at him.
Then, Leo turns his gaze towards me, "I see, so Luna too. You both are always sticking to each other. Nothing has changed since we're at school."
I let out a soft sigh and put a tired smile on my face as I said, "Right. We don't know what she will do if I'm not watching her. It's really a long time, three years I guess?"
Leo nods and answers, "Right, since our last Phantasia."
Leo is quite a weirdo, just like Lunette, but he looks more reliable than Lunette. Well, Lunette can be reliable too though in certain situations. The person that is sitting on the rock stands up and walks towards us.
She speaks to us with a friendly tone, "What are you waiting for? Let's go inside so I can go home quickly." Then, she wraps his arm around Lunette's shoulder.
Lunette seems confused about her friendly act. It's not like we have met her before, but she acts like we're close friends. All of us fell silent with her too friendly acts as she walked towards the dungeon. The only voice around us is only the voice from the swaying trees and breezing wind. The situation is becoming awkward, I don't know what I should say or do. Wait… Why does she sound like a boy?
She speaks again to us before she enters the cave, "Surprised? I'm a boy. Now, let's get moving."
Huh? Me and Lunette's faces turn into a surprised one. I never expected it. Leo just smiles and gives us a signal to follow the person. I can feel my brain stop working right now. Both of us nod as we follow the person with Leo into the cave. Who is he anyway? I never saw him before, it's not like I remember every person I met though.
The atmosphere is so thick and heavy, the only sound here is only the drips of water and our footsteps. The air is pretty cold here, glad I'm still wearing the scarf that big sister gave me before. The place is so dark around us, we are almost unable to see anything. Thanks to Lunette for using her magic to make a fire on her finger to light our surroundings. I'm glad we have a walking lamp in our party.
A group of barghests appears in front of us blocking our way. It's a four legged monster with long claws on their front legs. It has black fur on their back like hair but connected from its head to its back. They growls like normal beasts and they are very aggressive. Their body is black and they have long ears on their heads. They have long fangs in their mouths and we can see it even when their mouths are still closed.
"A group of black hyenas," said Lunette with an innocent tone.
Hey! I'm having a difficult time describing the details of the monsters and she just described it with a few words? But that's the simplest and the best way to describe it. They growl at us again with a loud voice again. Their growl is almost like a scream.
Leo speaks with his usual calm and teasing voice, "Well then, let us see your improvement after these three years, Lunette."
Lunette pulls out her sword and says, "Alright, don't be mad if you don't get any chance to fight."
Leo just chuckles softly at her then he turns his gaze to me, waiting for me to do the same with Lunette. What did he expect from me? Why does he want to see my improvement as well? It's not like he's my caretaker or something. Ugh…Fine, I think I'll try.
I pull out my guns, Liric and Eirys, to get into the fight. Lunette smiles at me and silently tells me that she leaves the middle position to me. Maybe I'll support her if I need to. Lunette dashes towards the group of barghests to launch an attack. The group probably has six to ten barghests, pretty a lot. Barghests isn't known as a powerful monster, but it's still stronger than wolves or normal animals. We can't underestimate large amounts of monsters. But that girl, charging into a group of barghests without hesitation like charging into a group of kids.
One of the barghests attacks her with its fangs, but Lunette blocks it with her sword. She bounces the barghest back and then she slashed its chest, immediately killing it. One of the barghest runs towards her from the back and ready its claw to attack her. Lunette notices it and jumps to turn her body upside down in the middle air to dodge it. She jumps to its back and stabs its back using her sword. The barghest screams in pain and starts attacking everything in front of it. She makes the barghest attacks on the fellow barghest. I quickly shoot its head to kill it and Lunette jumps from its back onto the ground. She moves efficiently and in precision almost like she has been in this job for such a long time like a pro. Her movements is fast like a leopard and she stings her enemies like a bee in high accuracu.
Lunette looks at me as if she's saying, "Nice" to me. She then turns her gaze back to the barghests and dashes again towards them. Maybe she thinks I can easily cover her with my guns, but it's actually not that easy. I need to predict her next movements, but her movements are quite quick. I'm still not pro at using my guns, yet she treats me like I'm a pro. She continues to swing her sword like a pro swordsman, she exterminates them slowly but surely. When they come in her blind spots, I quickly cover Lunette by shooting it on its head to kill them.
I never thought about it, but Liric and Eirys strengths are quite powerful. Maybe because they were well made, I'm really lucky to have it. These guns were my inheritance from my parents. They're small, but quite strong like scorpions. I'm kind of curious about Lunette's gun, I never saw her use it until now. Her gun is Drayvorn, a crimson colored gun that is similar but longer and heavier than mine. She only has one gun on her back, but she doesn't seem to want to use it anyway soon. I can only guess if it was much more powerful than mine in many ways.
After a while, the fight ends with no one injured on our side. Leo smiles at us as if he has expected us to clear the fight with no injuries. It's not as easy as it looks, you know? His smirk is going wider at us, really annoying. Lunette answers him with the same annoying smirk as Leo and makes a "V" sign with her fingers.
The other person claps his hands and says, "Just expected, Luna and Lunette, two people who battled Gyrus in the Phantasia three years ago."
How did he know about us? And how does he remember something from three years ago? Wait, maybe I've seen his face before.
"Surprised? I think you're completely forgotten about me. I feel a bit sad, you know?" the person chuckles at us. Then, he continues, "It's me, Loir, from Redione Academy."
Loir? Never heard that name…Wait, Redione Academy is the academy who won first place. Maybe I remember someone talking to me in the arena after one of them got down from the stage. I see…So that's him, I never thought he would be my party member in our first quest.
He speaks again to us while leading us into a deeper cave, "Let's keep going, we need to continue our expedition." He continues walking towards the deeper level.
Leo just smirks and shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly. I don't know what he's thinking right now as usual. We continue our journey together into the deeper level of the dungeon. The monsters are getting more and more each level, and they are getting stronger and stronger for each level. The barghests are getting faster and coordinated. Sometimes two or more barghests attack her at the same time.
Lunette speaks with a slight joking tone, "I see…Like a normal dungeon in game."
Leo chuckles as well and says, "I don't know what game is, but is it the first time you get into a dungeon?"
I speak to him with a confused tone, "I'm sorry, sometimes she is talking about nonsense. But really, this is the first time we entered a dungeon."
Loir speaks to us with a calm manner, "Well then, let me explain what a dungeon is. Make sure you don't fall behind so you can listen to my explanation." He continues to walk in front of us while explaining.
I was surprised by his sudden statement and quickly tried to catch up with him. Lunette runs towards him as well to catch up with Loir while he's continuing to explain it. Leo smirks at us and shrugs his shoulders. We just walked beside him and tried to not fall behind.
Simply, dungeons are underground prisons. Yes, you get it right. It wasn't a place with golds, or treasures, or ancient weapons, or anything else. It was an unused and forgotten prison. But why are there so many monsters in there? Some monsters get into the dungeons and use it as their residence. Monsters are usually wandering around their territory to find some food and to multiply themself, but some of them use a dungeon as their base to defend themself. As the time went by, they began to evolve to adjust their habitats.
After centuries, the general knowledge about dungeons was completely changed. If someone says "dungeon", they will refer to it as a place with a lot of treasure and jewelry, even ancient weapons. That's not wrong since some monsters usually collect shiny things. Some hunters died in the middle of an expedition. Some of the monsters use the hunters' equipment and weapons. Of course, not all monsters do that, they're usually humanoid type monsters. They have the biggest brains than the other types of monsters.
By the way, we must not mistake demi-human as monsters or we will become fugitives in countries. It's not a pleasure to mistake them as monsters. They have rational thinking and common sense like normal humans. In fact, they have their own country such as Flateral, Dorumon, and Azkiel. Those countries are led by demi-humans such as mermaids, beastmen, and demons. It's not like the countries are full of those races, but half of the inhabitants are those races. We will probably get banned from the countries forever if we mistake them as monsters.
We continued our expedition into a deeper level, and now we reached the fifth level in the dungeon. Of course, the monsters are getting more and stronger just like I said before. The variation of the monsters isn't only barghest now, there is al-miraj, and owlbear too. Al-miraj is simply a small creature with white fur and a horn on its head. It has two long ears and walks with four legs. Their movements are fast due to its small body.
Lunette tries so hard to keep up with their speed, wielding her sword and swinging it to those monsters. Al-mirajs usually appear in a big group, that's why I don't really want to fight it. It's not like I have fought them already, but according to the monster's record they are.
Lunette is struggling to attack them, her sword and magic isn't fast enough to hit them. Of course, we need to cast magic before using it, even the smallest one, that's why some people use a gun as a proxy of magic. But, a gun isn't as strong as magic and we can't aim it from a long distance, that's why people use a bow for a long distance weapon.
Lunette speaks in a tired tone in her fight, "Ugh…Why is it so hard to fight with bunnies? I mean, it's just a group of bunnies but they're so fast!!" I can tell her frustration in her tone, I can't help but laugh at her protest.
Leo, who is attacking the al-mirajs, is having a difficult time as well, but he remains calm and teasing behavior. He chuckles at Lunette but is still able to kill some of them. Maybe his weapon suits more in a cave-like than Lunette, his weapon is short and his magic makes it even easier to catch them.
He chuckles softly at Lunette and speaks in a teasing tone, "Lunette, are you getting stronger? You're even stronger than me now."
Lunette pouts at him and continues to fight again while saying, "Don't underestimate me! It's my first time fighting in a dungeon!"
Loir whistles a bit with a slight hint of amaze and says, "That's kind of amazing. It's usually hard to use a sword in a cave for the first timer, but you can kill some of it already."
I see…So, Leo didn't make fun of her and actually praised her. Lunette just put a smug on her face while continuing to fight the monsters. I don't know if she can be proud of it, but it's not like she will listen to me anyway.
We continue our journey into a deeper level and we reach the seventh level of the dungeon. We met an owlbear that was blocking our way, but quickly exterminated by Leo and Loir. It's almost like they have been working together for a long time. Loir put his sword back to its sheath on his back. His sword is kind of short, maybe because he is adjusting to the cave. But I'm kind of curious why he is bringing a scythe behind him?
Leo chuckles and says, "Surprised? I have been at the same party as Loir for one year. He already became a hunter one year before me, so this is his second year of being a hunter."
I nod and mumbles softly with my hand on my chin, "I see. So if you're one year older than us, does that mean Loir is two years older than us?"
Loir speaks with a prideful tone, "That's right, I'm your and Leo's senior, so you need to be more respectful to me."
Did he hear me? I don't think I was speaking it out loud though. Or does he just simply have a good hearing?
Loir speaks again to us, "Come on, now. We need to go into a deeper level, you know? And I haven't done my explanation yet." He says as he continues walking and continues his explanation.
In dungeons, some monsters evolved into stronger ones. Such as wolves that evolved into werewolves slowly to protect themselves, or lizards that evolved into winged-lizards. The differences between winged-lizards and dragons are they can't use an elemental breath and are much smaller than them. Dragons are a race in a country named Yoruka. There are some elemental enemies such as golem, a monster made of stone without a soul inside. Golems have their own differences too such as lava golem that is made of lava, ice golem that is made of ice, and cyclone golem that is made of wind. Golems are the most troublesome enemies in the dungeon. Their body has the properties that are made of.
Each dungeon was different and has its own type since it was made by humans long ago. Sometimes it was made of metal like a shelter, sometimes it was made of rock like an underground castle, and sometimes it was made of dirt like a cave like we're in right now. As I said, dungeons were prisons, so long ago there were humans living in the dungeons. Loir said sometimes there are notes from the past humans who lived there. Probably, the person is a prisoner.
As we continue, the dungeon is getting darker and darker each level. We reached the twelfth level of the dungeon. The monsters are much stronger until I can't compare it with the outer level. Some monsters that block our way are the evolution from the outer level. There is a group of lunatics in front of us. It's not like we can do our expedition easily.
Lunatic is a rabbit-like monster, just like al-miraj but way stronger. It's an evolution of al-miraj, they're walking with two legs and a pair of arms. Their bodies are smaller than us, but still bigger than al-miraj. If I need to explain it in a simple way, it's just a humanoid white rabbit that can use a weapon. Their movements are faster and their accuracy is higher than al-miraj's.
We continue our teamwork as we fight against the groups of lunatics. Leo uses his magic to make the floor flexible so the lunatics will lose its balance. But, we feel the effect as well so it's kind of bothering us as well. I can hear the sound in my mind like "BOING BOING". It's kind of funny but annoying in the same way.
Lunette shouts at Leo with an annoyed tone, "Hey! What is it supposed to be?!"
Leo is just laughing in the back line, "Fufu, don't worry, it's not like they can move properly too."
Glad I'm choosing guns as my weapon for now. I can only sigh at their behavior. I can see Loir is laughing as well in the front line. He seems too far away so Leo's magic is unable to reach him. It's the first time I saw his magic, I don't have any chance to see it in Phantasia. So it has its own range, huh? I just fire my guns towards the monsters like a rainy day until we're done.