Chapter 23 – Plan
"… Ruby. Can you kill all the guys coming here?" David asked me something that everyone seemed to be avoiding. He was a man with good head on his shoulders. However…
"I'm not sure. I don't know how many of them there are or what abilities they have. This is why I wanted to interrogate William harder but… You all know the outcome."
Everyone started to despair like the teacher had just told them that they failed to pass the grade and were being held back.
"What do we do?" Danae said.
"What can we do?" Jeff replied.
They started talking with each other to look for solutions. Most of which heavily relied on me. I liked David's plan to fight the boss, level up and unlock their skill so that they could have a fighting chance against the incoming enemies. Although I wanted to see how long they would take to come up with a good solution, William's friends were on the move. I noted inwardly that they failed my test.
"You guys do know that we don't necessarily have to fight them, right?" I spoke up getting everyone's attention.
"What do you mean?" said David.
"I mean that they were sent here to kill us but… what if they found that we were already dead?" I said to everyone smugly. They only returned a confused look to me.
"*Sigh* Okay listen. Here's my plan…"
###
Meanwhile somewhere else in the Cockroach Cave.
A group of men were walking around with torches in hand.
"Reporting, Sergeant!"
One of the men saluted towards another man who was in shiny silver plate armor. He had blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail.
"Go ahead." He replied to his subordinate.
"We have yet to find any traces of the target or of Sir William."
"Then keep searching. My stupid brother's got to be here somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if you found him shagging one of the targets." The man in armor replied while being exasperated.
[Dungeon boss has been respawned.]
As they were talking, an announcement sounded in their heads.
"How long ago was it when William entered to scout the dungeon?" The man in armor asked the soldier.
"It's been almost 40 minutes Sir."
"That means that someone must have killed the boss before we arrived. Might have been those Primary Cult bastards that we saw at the entrance. Chasing after them wasted too much time."
The man in armor said while gritting his teeth. His squad had encountered some members of the wanted fanatic group, Primary Cult, so he had sent his brother ahead into the dungeon to scout while he led the squad to chase after them. Unfortunately, they managed to escape.
"Make sure to search every nook and cranny of this dungeon while heading to the boss room! Use the map we got from the Adventurer's Guild."
"Sir, yes, Sir!" The soldier quickly left to disseminate the orders.
After a short while, they were able to find a set of unfamiliar clothing. It was covered in some form of muddy slime.
"This must belong to one of the targets. Keep searching!" The man in armor, Sergeant Hall, ordered.
After a while...
*Boom*
A loud noise was heard from the front.
"Reporting, Sergeant!" A soldier walked up to Sergeant Hall.
"We encountered a cockroach with a strange status but before we could kill it, it self-destructed."
"Sounds like one of the normal monster spawns in this dungeon. Continue searching and moving towards the boss room." Sergeant Hall said, disregarding it.
As the squad moved they encountered more of those strange cockroaches. A few men were injured in the detonation, but their healers healed them back to normal.
The squad of 15 men soon arrived in front of the boss room. At the entrance, they found a pair of strange damaged shoes and torn pieces of bloody fabric that were similar to what they found before.
"More clothing from the target. Looks like they didn't have a good time here."
The men chuckled at Sergeant Hall's joke. He was trying to boost their morale because in front of them was the dungeon boss.
"Alright men. According to the map from the Adventurer's Guild, the boss room is just in front of us. We are all higher than the recommended level for this dungeon. If anyone gets injured, they're paying for the drinks tonight!"
"Hoooorraaah!" The men cheered at their commander's words.
"Now get in formation, vanguards in the front and long range units at the back. Forward!"
The well-trained squad coordinated and soon they entered the boss room.
"Scouts have informed me that the boss is already out of its cocoon and has started summoning its minions. Mages, prepare a wide-range bombardment as soon as you see them."
Sergeant Hall was seen as a good leader among the troops of the Royal Army. He had good relations with all his subordinates and treated them like family members. Since he and his brother were not the heirs to the Hall territory, they decided to join the army to gain meritorious deeds and earn a noble title for themselves. They were deployed on several missions in the war to the north of the Cloud Kingdom. There, they were noticed by their commander and the older sibling was promoted to Sergeant.
"Target spotted!" One of the soldiers in the front shouted. The Cockroach Queen made its appearance with hundreds of minions surrounding it.
"Mages! Fire your magic on my command! Ready… Fire!" Sergeant Hall immediately gave the order.
Hearing this, the mages started to chant and construct a giant magic circle. After a few seconds, it was complete. Mana started to gather and condense at the circle. A huge ball of fire formed and then blasted off towards the Queen's swarm.
*BOOM*
A loud explosion occurred when the fire ball hit the swarm head on. A scorching heat filled the boss room. Crackling sounds of cockroaches burning to ashes were heard. When the fire died down, the Cockroach Queen and her army were nowhere to be found.
[Dungeon Boss has been defeated. Next respawn in 6 hours.]
"Well done men! If you had failed to do anything in this low level dungeon I would have had to punish you lot when we got back! Now take out the remaining stragglers and search the room."
At their commander's words, the squad started to spread out and kill off any remaining cockroaches.
"AHHHHHHH!"
But suddenly there was a scream. One of the soldiers was lifted into the air by some sort of muddy tentacle. He disappeared and no sounds could be heard from him. It was quite dark and the torches couldn't light up the entire room due to how big it was. Everyone looked up to try and find the soldier.
"AAH-"
*THOMP*
Another scream was heard before it was cut off by a noise that sounded like a large object dropped from the ceiling. Since it dropped near where Sergeant Hall and the healers were staying behind, they were able to see what it was. In front of them was a giant muddy slime-like monster that was over 2 meters tall with a diameter of about the same length.
"It- It landed on top of Billy!" One of the healers said.
"It's a Dungeon Anomaly! Healers back away now! I'll deal with it!" Sergeant Hall said. Dungeon Anomalies were monsters that rarely and randomly appeared in dungeons they weren't native to. They tended to be much stronger than the average level of the dungeon monsters.
Sergeant Hall dashed up to the mud monster while unsheathing his greatsword from his back.
"Mega Slash!" He used one of his offensive skills and cleaved the mud monster vertically in half.
"Wooo! As expected of the Sergeant!"
"So strong!"
"So cool!"
Sergeant Hall couldn't help but feel overconfident with the fanfare of his subordinates. He looked down at the remains of the monster and saw Billy who had merely been knocked out. Just as Sergeant Hall was about to pull him out of the mud, he sensed something wrong. The mana within the mud started to vibrate.
"What the-"
*BOOM*
CHAPTER END.
Name: Ruby Sen Lv. 13
Age: 17
Race: Half-Human?
Class: Half-Magical Creature
Job: - Lv. 13
HP: 10 [25%]
MP: 15 [19%] (+5)
STR: 10 (+15)
DEF: 10 (+35)
INT: 17 (+10)
WILL: 15 (+10)
SPD: 10 (+5)
<
Assimilate
Mana Manipulation
Physical Resistance
Weaponized Limbs
Foresight
Shapeshift
<
Dissolve
Body Enhancement (Active)
Mind Enhancement (Active)
Mana Release
Sensing
Camouflage (Active)
Sculpting
Detonate
Spawn
Appraisal Analysis
<
Tongue Enhancement