Trapped

Floor 48. Lindarth.

A calm and peaceful medieval village welcomed players in need of items that can mostly be crafted only by support-skill users, for there were many shops, armories, tailors and etc. in this little town. For the players that were getting ready to fight the 50th floor's boss, it was necessary to get only the best equipment possible. And who could equip humans better, than other humans that use their imagination and rare items to craft never before seen wonders.

But of course, Serouso's buyers didn't need items or equipment. Their top priority was to tame the red Little Feathered Dragon. They rented a room in one of Lindarth's inns and set down Serouso, still caged, on a small table in the middle of the room. The white-haired girl had the peanuts she got from her boyfriend ready in her palm and the armored boy was ready to take out Serouso and use a healing crystal on him, to remove the paralysis.

"Ready?" the white-armored boy asked, reaching out to the cage's lock.

"Ready," the girl nodded and stepped closer. She will probably have to catch the hostile little dragon creature.

"Ready," Serouso thought as well. He wasn't sure how he could escape, but he will obviously do it, if it's the last thing he does.

The cage's grated doors popped open and Serouso was gently taken out with the crystal starting to heal him almost simultaneously. The red dragon breathed in, unnoticeably checking every inch of his body and if whether he can control all the parts.

"Hey, little guy. Just look at these nuts that we got just for you. They are simply delicious," the girl carefully got closer to the dragon, slowly extending her palm with the nuts towards Serouso.

"Should I pretend? They will probably let their guard down if I do," Serouso thought as he also slowly stretched out his neck together with his head, towards the nuts. "But they do smell fantastic," an uneasy thought flew around in the dragon's mind. "What would happen if I ate these? Can the result honestly be that bad?" Serouso started reassuring himself that tasting the nuts would be just an innocent experience.

"Come on, little guy. These are your favorite, aren't they?" the girl kept calling Serouso, but she had a rather unpleasant high-pitched voice that made the red dragon snap out of it a little and think.

"My favorite? I have never tasted these before... Wait! They said that these peanuts let humans tame Little Feathered Dragons! That is their plan! I will not fall for it!" suddenly Serouso's curious face changed into a hostile one and he cut the girl's hand with his Fire Slash. It simply got blocked though, because fighting was not allowed in town... Neither were monsters of course, but somehow, Serouso was there, in one of Lindarth's inns.

The dragon flapped his wings and summoned a fiery vortex that was also blocked by an invisible force and the humans or the room didn't get hurt at all, but the fire did act as a distraction. With Serouso's Scanning ability, the fire was mostly invisible to him, because the ability tracked only living beings. He could see through the fire and found the nearest window. With no time to waste, Serouso simply used another Fire Slash, cutting the window with both of his claws, and broke out of the room, destroying the window and letting the glass shatter and fall to the ground outside.

Now all Serouso had to do was flap his wings as fast as he can, to reach such heights that no one could reach him and finally, when he crosses a certain boundary in the sky, teleport home.

Screams of the girl with the white dress faded with every passing second. People with tamed flying monsters set them out to capture the escaping dragon, but none came even close and Serouso disappeared at the end of the sky of the 48th floor.

Floor 46. Ant Hill.

The 46th floor's dungeon welcomed Darkboy and Ninomeena, who was curiously sniffing the air while she was laying on Darkboy's shoulders. This dungeon, called Ant Hill, was rumored to be the place where it's the most easiest to get EXP in the whole discovered game. But because so many players level grinded in there, there was a limit. A player can only earn EXP for an hour and then a two hour timeout follows. Even if you beat the Ant queen, a sort of mini-boss of the Ant Hill, you won't get any EXP if you killed her during the cooldown.

"Venomous ants spawn in this dungeon, but even if their attack seems impressive, their HP is nothing alarming," Darkboy explained a little, but once again Ninomeena couldn't understand to whom he was talking to. "I'm hoping we can raise your level at least by one every hour in between the cooldowns, or even more. You are only level 17 after all. Those ants here are about level 30 or more, if we go down the dungeon."

Darkboy entered the dark dungeon with Ninomeena still on his shoulders. That "taming" made the little dragon even attached. She felt best when she was as close as possible to her master... But if she is like this now, how can she possibly escape to her family?

For now, Ninomeena thought that she will just try to level up those 10 levels the dark-dressed human wanted her to. Maybe if she asks nicely, her master will set her free, instead of actually giving her to that blue-haired girl.

A few torches lighted the walls of a rather wide, dark corridor. Many big caves could be seen on either side of the corridor and strange hissing could be heard from them.

"Get ready. I will help you as little as I have to," Darkboy turned his head to look Ninomeena in the orange eyes. The little one gulped and took off from her master's shoulders. Like on cue, three gigantic ants from both sides ran to welcome new level grinders.

Ninomeena made both of her claws glow blue and started flying around, scratching any part she could reach on the ants. The giant insects could spit toxic mucus, but as they couldn't keep up with the agile dragon, Ninomeena didn't have what to fear.

Until one of the ants managed to bite her tail and the dark blue dragon immediately fell with a short screech. Darkboy was preoccupied with other ants and didn't even notice his pet's scream, because of all the hissing ringing through everyone's ears.

Other ants around Ninomeena started biting her wings, arms and legs. Both front claws glowed blue and did some damage, but ultimately Ninomeena was the one to get the most health down.

*screech*

Ninomeena couldn't just yell out 'help me!' so she had to stay with monstrous noises. But even that didn't get Darkboy's attention. Ants had him cornered and even out of Ninomeena's sight. Only the sound of something blunt but heavy hitting the monsters and something pointy and thin flying through the air and piercing the ants sometimes, could make one understand there was a human somewhere there. A human that couldn't help his new tamed monster.

"Can I summon Poisonous Rain?" a thought flashed in Ninomeena's head. "But can the clouds actually be made in time?"

A crimson color took yellow's place on the dragon's health bar. She was trapped with no body part being able to move apart from her head. And she didn't feel like she had any attacks similar to her brother's Fire Breath.

"So this is how I die... Not a day as I belong to a human... Not even a few days since I'm able to understand the gigantic and beautiful world better..." a tiny tear ran down Ninomeena's cheek, traveling down a few ants' body parts before reaching the ground.

*drop*

*slash*

A sharp spear slashed a few ants in half with one swing. The rest disappeared as well in just a few more slashes.

Ninomeena was caught by the scruff by a human hand and, once she got wrapped in someone's arms, got carried out of the cave, with the human dashing and jumping over any obstacles.

The two escaped the dungeon. Finally, the human raised Ninomeena to her face.

"I'm so glad I found you in time," Nekoangel was out of breath and seemed like she was about to cry. "Those ants that surrounded you made it hard to see your pure and shining blue color, but I finally spotted you," the blue-haired girl embraced the little dragon, who felt rather confused.

"How did she know I'm here? Why did she risk her own health for me?" Ninomeena thought as she saw that Nekoangel's health had gone down to half. She must have fought a lot of ants before finding her in that giant, cave-filled corridor. A sea of ants against two humans and a Little Feathered Dragon was clearly too much.

"Here, drink this," Nekoangel gave Ninomeena some kind of potion and the dark blue creature drank it all without even thinking. Her health was back to full. Nekoangel smiled at Ninomeena's trust and drank a potion herself as well. "We should find your master. He might be looking for you. Don't leave my side, alright?" the girl pleaded and Ninomeena nodded, flying onto Nekoangel's shoulders. "You... you are such a precious and adorable creature," the blue-haired girl petted the dragon's head and made her purr.

"H-hey, where are you?!" Darkboy finally managed to find a save spot somewhere high up. His dark bow and arrows where ready to shoot anyone that posed a threat. But for now he was just concerned about that dark blue dragon. "Don't tell me I let you die..." Darkboy let down his bow out of despair.

No sight of any blueness. There were no other sounds present, but the hissing of ants. He remembered he heard screeching. Was that his tamed monster? Did she cry out in her last moments and he couldn't help her?

But then another thought came to his mind. Tamed monsters leave Hearts after themselves if they get killed! There had to be a dark blue shining Heart somewhere around here!

Darkboy jumped down and started zooming through the hordes of various sized toxic ants, shooting the ones that were in his way with the arrows that reappeared in the bow by themselves. Of course, Darkboy's size and lack of incredible speed made him quite an easy target for the nearby ants and he got damaged pretty badly as he ran around the first floor of Ant Hill.

But there was no sign of anything like a Heart. Darkboy found a safe zone near the end of the dungeon's first floor and tried to rethink where could his monster be as he drank a healing potion. He checked his bag, but no new important items were present, only a few item drops from the ants. Finally, he opened the menu for the little blue dragon and read everything thoroughly.

"...You have a name?" Darkboy was surprised to find a name written in small letter under "Little Feathered Dragon". If one wasn't paying attention, one would probably easily miss those letters. "Ninomeena," the darkly dressed human read out loud and smiled. "Not bad."

Suddenly, he noticed a strange note symbol, pulsating at the side of Ninomeena's profile. Hoping it's some sort of "calling" option, he pressed the note and a chime echoed through the safe zone and probably into the dungeon.

Almost immediately, Darkboy heard a screech not far away. He instantly dashed out of the safe zone, straight towards the source of the screeching. His eyes quickly locked on to a dark blue flying dragon with orange eyes and a blue-haired girl running after her.

When master and monster met once again, Ninomeena started flying around Darkboy in a circle, joyously screeching before landing on his shoulders. Ninomeena didn't understand by the slightest why was she so happy to see the dark-haired human again, but she had stopped questioning herself. She understood she couldn't ever completely explain it anyway.

Finally, all three could escape the dungeon filled with ants and catch a breather right outside. Ninomeena's level had gone up a little, because of the EXP gained from Nekoangel's slayed ants, but because the girl inflicted most of the damage, Ninomeena didn't get as much EXP. Or maybe she had to share it with her master.

Floor 46. Anteru.

Evening had come and Darkboy, Nekoangel and Ninomeena returned to 46th's floors town, named Anteru. It was named so because of its dungeon - Ant Hill. It was the only dungeon that contained ant monsters such as those. Luckily, Anteru didn't have ants, or any other monsters for that matter, inside. Only a few sculptures of ants carved from rocks, maybe even from the dungeon, stood in a circle in the center plaza. The whole town was in a medieval style and consisted mostly of brown colors. The houses were two floors high at most and had roofs made out of hay, or at least it seemed like it. The narrow streets were brick-lined with mostly grey bricks.

But even if the town wasn't that big, it was simply packed. Many parties ventured into the dungeon that offered much EXP. They went down through all the levels to find and slay the Ant Queen. Most players didn't even bother staying in the first floor, but when one is almost alone and can't beat the never ending hordes of ants, sneaking out of the caves, even the first floor is pretty dangerous.

"You should really not let her out of your sight," Nekoangel pouted, as the three of them had a quick dinner in one of the inns of Anteru. "Honestly, she was in a dire situation," the blue-haired girl reached out to Ninomeena, who was eating her favorite peanuts on the table, and petted her. Both Darkboy and Nekoangel had some of those peanuts and both offered them to the dark blue dragon for dinner, maybe to win her affection or to apologize. Anyway, it worked and Ninomeena was as happy as ever, with the simple feelings she only had left that almost seemed to prohibit her from thinking sad thoughts about her family, for example.

"I admit it was close. Thank you for saving Ninomeena, Nekoangel," Darkboy didn't seem actually sorry or thankful and he didn't even raise his eyes, as he continued to eat a meat sandwich.

"I-I don't really care if you thank me or not, but at least admit it's dangerous for Ninomeena to stay with you! She won't last until she serves you that purpose you are waiting for!" Nekoangel shouted out and most of the eyes in the inn turned to her. But not Darkboy's. Nekoangel felt flustered with all that attention, but she was doing this for a very important reason. She lowered her tone. "L-listen... Let's form a party until you don't need Ninomeena anymore. I-I just don't want anything bad happening to her, alright? I'll take care of her fully. But of course I won't steal her, if that crossed your mind."

"It didn't. I can call her back anytime. But I guess it wouldn't hurt if you looked after her a little," finally, the dark-haired male raised his eyes and stared at Nekoangel's. The blue-haired girl felt strange when she met Darkboy's stare. Managing to only stare back a few seconds, she lowered her eyes and quickly ate her meat sandwich. Darkboy scoffed. "Figured you can't hold eye contact with how your voice trembles. Well, it doesn't matter," the male player summoned his menu and sent a party request to the girl sitting on the other side of the table.

Nekoangel's eyes glistened as she immediately pressed the little blue outline of a circle that meant acceptance. Now she was in the same party as the little dark blue dragon. She could even see her stats on the top left corner of her field of vision and she will be able to now when to exactly heal her. Darkboy's stats were there as well, of course, but he didn't interest the blue girl that much. Though she did notice that the dark-haired guy's level was a little higher than hers. While Ninomeena was far behind both of them.

But now Nekoangel will be able to help her safely level up. Soon, the tamed monster will reach her master's wished level and, maybe after some sort of quest, or similar, Ninomeena will belong solely to Nekoangel. The girl squeed quietly at the thought. Her very own Little Feathered, and most importantly - dark blue, Dragon.

Well, no cliff-hanger this time ^.^' Oh well. At least Ninomeena didn't die.

Anteru was the first major thing I had to "create", as only Ant Hill is mentioned in the 46th floor. The name is completely not original and the town is simply plain, but I figured that nothing pompous should be near such a dungeon.

Now Nekoangel will spend a lot of time with Ninomeena. I can only say that one not very good thing will emerge because of that, hehe.

Review ^.^