Chapter LXVII - Knights in Disguise (part 2)

Seeing the expression I am wearing, they all looked worried.

"Ma'am, we can't-"

The leader was about to say something, but got stopped by the bigger guy who reached his hand out to stop him. Or maybe… was he even the leader?

"We are not adventurers, but we aren't so weak compared to them. We are actually knights in disguise, you see."

The big guy showed his knight badge to me, which made the others worried.

"W-Wait, Group Leader! Are you sure it's fine showing her that??"

"Well, we told the Blue ranked group that came days ago. And she said she was their friend."

"B-But..."

The group leader ignored his underling and turned to me. So he's the leader?

"If you, a Purple, was so cocky to think you will be able to beat knights in disguise, then sure. No weapons."

The group leader dropped his helmet. The others followed, even the guy with the note and pen followed and dropped his helmet.

"That's fine. I did beat up a few knights before."

Hearing that, the leader became even angrier.

"Thug… I shouldn't punch a lady, but the situation asks for it. You asked for this, don't blame us afterwards!"

The knights in disguise all look scary now. Oh dear, I'm scared.

Seeing that they have contended for the fight, I might as well move first. Using high speed, I dashed forward towards them.

The group leader didn't move until the last second. I'm only a meter away from him, but then he ducked. He was about to tackle me, but I already leaped. 

I landed right behind him, and kept on going towards the dungeon.

"Stop her! Don't let her into the dungeon!"

The four knights guarding the entrance all fixed their stance. Two of them dashed forward, but I simply moved to the left and jumped to dodge them. The two left on the back didn't move.

So I simply kept on moving closer.

One of them moved forward and challenged me. He moved his right fist to try to hit me, but I grabbed his fist and spun my body. He fell forward and crashed into his two other friends who were chasing after me.

The last person was the guy with the notebook. He looked quite scared. His notebook was nowhere to be found though. And from how he had a note and a pen, he must be the group's brain.

I deducted that with less than a second of thought.

With a single leap, I jumped over him when he tried throwing a punch. I landed right behind him and grabbed him by the collar.

"Sorry, but I will be borrowing him!"

"H-Hey!! Stop!! Come back!!!"

The group leader was terrified when I dragged this guy with me into the dungeon. To think someone suicidal came and somehow dragged his friend into the death dungeon, he must have felt absolutely angry.

"H-Hey! Let me go!"

He kept on moving around, but he can't beat my sheer force. Plus his collar is very strong, I'm surprised it's still holding on. Knights got some high quality disguises, I'm very jealous.

I finally dropped him when we arrived in a large room within the dungeon.

He cleared himself from the dust and looked around the cave. We arrived on a large cliffside, where jumping down simply means death. The only way is the two paths in front of us.

"W-What the... Why did you drag me in here!?"

He shouted angrily at me, and I simply turned my poker face at him.

"Well, I needed some guidance. And judging from how you were holding notes and stuff, you have been in the dungeon before, right?"

"Y-Yes, but what makes you think I want to go back in here??"

"Well, don't you want to save the lost adventurers?"

"W-Well..."

"It's fine. As long as you are within five meters from me, you won't die."

I said as I continued my walk towards the two paths in front of us.

"Wait!!"

He ran towards me, all afraid.

"Which way do we go to the double dungeon?"

I asked him, and he quickly looked forward.

"L-left. This area doesn't have many monsters, but when we enter the double dungeon, that's where the difficult part starts."

"Don't worry, gees. Stop worrying and just tell me where to go!"

I took the path on the left and kept on going down. After a while, we arrived on another junction.

"Where to?"

"Left."

We kept on going left?

We kept on walking again. He kept on showing me the way, and he looked fine so far. He's not a scared cat as I thought. I guess I forgot that he is also a knight.

So far, we haven't encountered a single monster. Probably because they exist only on the deeper levels.

We finally arrived on a large circle entrance, where the only path behind it is downwards.

"This is it. This is the entrance to the double dungeon. Anything behind this is unknown to me."

I stared at the path in front of us. It's a circle, and the path leads downwards. This simply means that this leads to a much deeper part of the dungeon, much much deeper than the current one.

It's the entrance to the double dungeon indeed…

"Hmm... okay then. I'm going to give you a choice. Run back towards the surface or go with me to save the others. Which will it be?"

"Huh? Emm..."

He seemed to be conflicted. He wanted to save the adventurers, but he also doesn't want to get hurt.

"You aren't going to force me?"

"Well, you are a human. We tend to fear stuff, and maybe do some stupid things that was beyond us."

I said as I looked at the entrance.

"But if we do things that are beyond us, we will become more than a simple human."

I tapped his shoulder and moved forward. 

He seemed to be a little bit motivated, but he pondered over it for a moment. After a while, he decided to turn around and headed back.

Pfft. I guess that motivation didn't work.

The entrance to the deeper areas were mostly filled with steep and slippery paths. I'm not sure why the paths are like this, but nearly all the paths were slippery and muddy.

I arrived at this beautiful room with a large waterfall in the middle. Just like every cave, the room was lit by many light crystals. Somehow, looking at this room reminded me a bit of the dwarven cave I saw back at Veldon.

"Look at that… A waterfall!"

I was quite happy seeing the waterfall in front of me, but then my expression changed the next second.

HSSS...

I can hear it. I can sense it. I can feel it.

Damn… I'm surrounded.

The centipedes are crawling on the walls, even on top of me. Not just centipedes, on the ground there are giant mutated scorpions as well. 

Luckily, no spiders.

I'm terrified of spiders.

I let out a sigh of relief. I looked around the cave some more, and noticed that even more annoying sounds are coming to the surface.

"This will take a while…"

I cracked my neck just a little bit with one hand. Then I took out my sword, and unsheathed it.

Everything else simply became louder.