Chapter 154: Chapter 161: Ice Serpents.

From the outside, the dungeon almost looked like any other cave carved into the side of the mountain. The moment I stepped inside though the air became thick, and I started feeling a pressure not unlike the way I felt inside the abyss.

“Are we really going to spend all day in here?” I muttered.

“Maybe longer, it depends. Airsidh doesn't have much he needs to do, he's just here for backup. You two both need to be tested though, so we're going to push you. Siya, you need to slay at least 100 monsters. They can't be just any monsters either, they need to be undead or demonic. As for Zu, you need to slay half that number, but you’ll be tested in other ways as well.”

‘That’s an oddly specific task…’ “Undead…” I muttered. I mean, I knew there were supposedly zombies and other monsters down there, but I was hoping that maybe the part we went to didn’t have them… They were gross and creepy, and I wasn’t afraid to admit either of those things because they were just objectively true.

‘I have to kill 100 of those things…’ Just imagining fighting one face-to-face gave me chills. ‘Maybe they’ll be wearing armor… So I can’t see the rotting flesh…’

Airsidh raised an eyebrow as he stepped up to my side. “You should be… fine. It's mostly just skeletons on the first few floors, you don't run into the gross ones until at least floor 3.”

“Was it that obvious…?”

He laughed. “The only girl I ever met that wasn’t grossed out by a walking corpse was Mom, even Catherine won’t go near them.”

“Oh, so you're just sexist then.”

He raised his hands above his head, not even bothering to keep a weapon ready. “Call it what you want, but you’re definitely thinking about how much you don’t want to fight a zombie face-to-face right now.”

I gritted my teeth, annoyed that right. Still, ‘If we stay on the first couple of floors I won’t have to right?’

My father carefully cleared a corner, and when he realized the next hallway was empty, he began to speak. “I imagine we will settle around floor 35 and spend the night there.” He said calmly.

“What…”

“Well on floor 36 there are usually frost mongers, it will be too hard for me to protect you from them.” He looked back at us. “Well, I guess Siya might actually be able to handle it since it’s ice magic.”

I chuckled nervously. “I’m really not as immune to the cold as you might think…” ‘Well, not mentally at least.’

My brother's eyes narrowed. “Even for this dungeon, that’s deep. The first time the academy sends students in they only go 10 floors down at most. It’s dangerous so make sure you keep your head on straight when we start getting farther in.”

He let out a heavy sigh. “The big difference here is that the academy will send you alone, this time you’re with us, so everything should be fine. Even if something does happen you've proved yourself capable by now.”

‘Then why am I even here…’

“Nervous?” He asked, stepping in front of me again.

“Annoyed…” I muttered back. I was a bit nervous, but realistically my magic had grown even stronger since I fought the wolves, and I doubted any zombi had a stronger bite. Still, assuming each floor deeper marked a higher level of danger. ‘35…’ I tugged on his sleeve to quietly get his attention. “For the record… How deep have you gone down?”

“In this dungeon? I stopped at floor 35. There was never any point going deeper, because the monsters farther in never go out past the 36th floor.”

“Shhhh!” suddenly my father knelt on the ground quieting us and began talking softly. “Siya. Up ahead are 3 ice serpents. Each one has a body made up of ice shards but there should be a large crystal ball inside their head. Try and take them out.”

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‘That must be this strange wind sound. “Wait, what? Like, alone?”‘so much for Air protecting me.’

“Don't worry we are right here.”

Somehow my fathers words weren’t comforting in the least. “Yeah because you’ve helped out so much in the past,” I said back sarcastically.

“Just shut up and do what you're told.”

‘So snappy…’ I let out a sigh. “Fine fine let me see…” I crawled up to where he was sitting and looked ahead, sharpening my senses. I may have only been able to see three, but I could hear a fourth.

“Do you care how I take them out?”

“Go with your gut.”

‘My gut’s telling me to run away because there’s no point in risking my life over nothing…’ I let out another sigh and brought out my bow, snapping it up and drawing an arrow. ‘It’s surprisingly exciting, getting to finally fight my own way. I pulled to full draw, carefully aiming as I focused in on the orb in the creature's head.

Time froze, and I could see the trajectory of my arrow before it even left the bow. Widening my field of view I then read each one's movements and in a single breath destroyed all three that I could see clearly.

‘Maybe this won’t be so bad after all. This is the first floor, so I should take this opportunity to test out everything before it gets harder… It really feels just like a game right now.’ I whipped my bow back around my scabbard and pulled my sword. ‘So what now, how exactly will they help me? Do I need to watch where I’m swinging? Now that I’m fighting with other people?’

I looked back at my three so-called party members, more than a bit disappointed as they all stayed motionless, while the enemy number increased, rising back to three as the fourth came into view and two more rose from the ground. ‘Send the weak little girl with a broken arm to go fight the monsters for you… Why not.’ Rolling my eyes I stepped forward, drawing my knife as well. ‘You said however I wanted…’

The Ice serpents began to cautiously float through the air, finally charging all at once like a pack of wolves. A frigid howl echoed through the caves coming off of their icy bodies. ‘I think these things need a better name, they aren’t like snakes at all…’

One of them lunged forward, its body creating a strange illusion of mist that caused me to miss its core as it bit me. ‘Wait… It's a little cold… but besides that, I hardly feel it.’

I stared at it for a moment before punching it with my plate gauntlet, shattering its skull and sending the crystal rolling across the floor. ‘Am I actually… Strong? There’s no way right?’ T

The other two hesitated for a moment after witnessing that display. ‘Maybe, this won't be so bad.’ I took advantage of the opening and lept between them, twisting sharply as I carefully aimed each blade and sliced them both in two simultaneously.

When the battle was over the others followed up behind me. “Don’t get cocky, Lu could have beaten them when she was four. Those are the weakest enemies you will ever fight and you let one land a hit on you. Also… the only reason they didn’t hurt is because of your high resistance to magic, physical attacks will still kill you as easily as a wolf's jaws.”

‘Wel… At least I won't end up with a big head…’ “Can’t you just let me take the dub?” I smirked kicking one of the cores up to my hand.

For once he didn’t look back at me with a scowl, some strange mix of surprise and confusion covering his face instead. Making me a bit embarrassed as I realized I had slipped into a different way of speaking. ‘It really does feel like a game right now… I mean, I didn’t even feel it when the monster bit me.’

Airsidh patted me on the back. “Hey, you won, that’s all that matters, so what if a normal person would have lost their hand for that mistake.”

“Now I know that’s an exaggeration.”

He smiled back at me. “Is it?”

“I mean… I thought you did good…” Zu muttered, still as tense as the sword he was holding. He hadn’t said anything since we entered the dungeon and they were so filled with nerves that his voice cracked making me chuckle.

I just shook my head, trying to hide my smile. “Well, I’m glad someone thinks I’m not useless.”

I looked down at my fist that I used to shatter the monster's core. ‘I mean… No matter how bad I am, I still killed four monsters, so I can’t be THAT weak right?’

Airsidh leaned against the cave wall crossing his arms and snapping his fingers to get our attention. “Don't forget to gather the mana crystals. All monsters in a dungeon will have them, with few exceptions.

“Right.” I picked them up. Crystalized manna was almost like a cancer growing inside of them. The process of gathering these crystals, and other valuable parts, was called harvesting. “What do you think, my harvesting technique is pretty good right?” I joked, tossing him one of the cores.

“See, you're not useless, having more people to carry things is always nice.” He said as he tossed it back with a wide grin.

“Why are you being so mean…” I muttered, forcing him to finally break his ever-so-carefree demeanor and finally turn serious.

“Because you aren’t taking this seriously…” He muttered back as his face fell flat. “If you wanted to die you should have done it before people started caring about you, you have to follow through now.” After touching the side of his head with his finger he lifted it to my forehead and pushed lightly into it. “It’s not a game.” He said coldly before pointing past me.

When I turned around I saw Zu praying over the dust that remained from the monsters.

“You pray for monsters too?”

“The first kill of the hunt… And the end of the hunt. First, we apologize and pray for them to rest, then at the end we give thanks.” He opened his eyes and raised his head as a soft breath escaped into the air as a cold fog. “Monsters are creatures that have been twisted by dark magic like demons are to humans. The dark soul energy messes with natural manna, crystalizing it in their core. This is why the crystals can be used to see the monster's last moments and verify who killed it, the crystal is in essence a part of their soul. And when they die the only thing that remains is their last moments…”

I flicked one of the crystals up in the air, catching it again before I put it away in a pouch. “And now the’re money in my hands.” ‘So I’ll have proof of every monster that I kill. That might come in handy.’ “Still strange to pray for them though, or do you pray for deer before you shoot them for dinner? I guess my family has never been big on prayers to begin with.”

He scratched his head looking for the right words to say. “Well… To be fair, It’s a bit different for the Oni. We are a monstrous race so I guess you could say we're a bit more sensitive to it.”

“Oh…” I suddenly felt a little guilty about calling them money, remembering what he told me about his parents. “Sorry…”

Airsidh nudged my shoulder from behind. “Come on, let’s keep moving.”

“Right…”