It had been around a week since Kazuma's first quest in Lorm. He spent a few of those days taking on quests that worked for his level, earning him a fair amount of eris. He also learned how to use a bow, and had Lily teach him basic level magic, allowing him to add "Archery", "Snipe", "Fireball", and "Ice Spike" to his skillset, making his combat ability more versatile. He wasn't extremely strong, but at the very least he has some form of combat for any situation.
But today was going to be an interesting one. The reason?
Dale caught wind of a new dungeon being discovered, but the news hasn't been made public yet since the guild needed to rate the dungeon so appropriate leveled adventurers venture in it, otherwise a situation where a low level party would enter a high leveled dungeon and get wiped out instantly, or a high level party, or even adventurer, clears a low leveled dungeon instantly with mediocre loot.
It was definitely going to be an interesting experience, seeing as how this will be the first time Kazuma would be working as a party with them.
The sun was high, it was a very warm day out. Kazuma, Lily, and Dale were walking towards the dungeon The dungeon itself was located somewhere around the nearby cliffs.
"Man... it's so hot out..." Kazuma said as he felt the heat of the sun against him.
"Summers around here can be quite strong, though we are a bit more accustomed to it. Although the same can't be said for Dale." Lily said as she looked over at Dale who was currently baking in the heat due to the armour he wears, unlike Kazuma and Lily who wear no armour.
Dale had brought his sword and shield, Lily brought her staff, and Kazuma brought his shortsword and bow.
"Anyways, what other information do we have on this dungeon?" Kazuma asked.
"Not much really, if its around our level it may be filled with quite a lot of undead, gremlins, and if it's slightly towards the higher level side, perhaps even a minotaur would be there too." Lily explained.
"And what if it's a really high leveled dungeon?"
"Oh, there would probably be some really strong undead monsters, like skull-giants, a skull or zombie dragon if it's really high, and even potentially a lich. If that were really the case then we'd be in big trouble."
"I see..."
'These dungeons really do vary in difficulty. We should be careful then if it's a unrated dungeon, never know when the situation could escalate.' Kazuma thought to himself.
"I see the dungeon!" Dale exclaimed as he pointed towards the dungeon.
Lily and Kazumz followed where he was pointing to see a big entrance in the side of an upcoming cliff.
"There it is! Are you ready Kazuma?" Lily asked.
"Heck yea! Let's go!" Kazuma exclaimed.
The three of them ran the rest of the way to the dungeon. The inside of the entrance was already much cooler than the outside, allowing the three a moment to relax as they cooled down from the heat.
"It's certainly dark in here." Dale said as he tried to look deeper in.
"Let me take care of that. Illuminate!" Lily cast a spell that caused the tip of her staff to glow.
"Nice Lily! Now we can see better in here." Kazuma praised.
Once the three were ready, the started venturing deeper into the dungeon.
The dungeon walls lined with simple stone, with the occasional stone pillar for structure.
Down the hall ahead of them was a staircase that would take them further down the dungeon.
Pillars had torch holders but not a single one of them had a torch in them, not even used ones.
"Man, this place gives me the creeps..." Kazuma said as he peered into the darkness, hoping to see something. He had also learned night vision in preparation for this, but Lily's light made seeing much easier around them.
Suddenly, Kazuma's "Enemy Detection" went off.
"Hold on, something is coming this way." Kazuma said, getting the others to stop.
There was a moment of silence before the sound of footsteps quickly approaching. Whatever it was, it was heading towards them fast.
A creature with red eyes, sharp teeth and pointed ears suddenly came into view, lunging at them to attack with a loud hiss.
Dale swung his sword down, stopping the enemy in its tracks and killing it.
"The hell is that thing?!" Kazuma asked as he looked at the fallen creature.
"That is a gremlin, a low level demon. They're quite common when it comes to dungeons. Not very dangerous on it's own, but it uses the dark surroundings of a dungeon to its advantage." Lily explained.
"Better watch out for more enemies like that down here then."
They continued down the stairs, walking past the corpse of the gremlin. They eventually reached the bottom of the stairs where they were met with long hallways and occasional doors. The doors lead to what seemed to used to be living areas such as a dining room, a storage room, a library of sorts. Lily was originally ecstatic about the library because of the potential research she could do, but unfortunately all the books have either faded with time, or had been destroyed by monsters. Inside each room there were often other kinds of low level demons or enemies, but the rooms were accompanied with a bit of loot varying from weapons, armour, and valuable objects. It was also a good thing that Kazuma had his "Detect Trap" skill as they had close calls with certain traps that involved spikes and arrows.
For the most part things seemed to be going well. The dungeon wasn't too difficult and they were getting quite a lot of loot.
"Man, with the way things are going, we should be outta here in no time with more loot than we can think of.!" Dake exclaimed.
'Don't say that you idiot! That's bound to set off a flag!' Kazuma screamed internally.
Exactly as he suspected, when Dale took another step forward, the stone panel sunk, letting out an audible click.
"What the-" Dale was cut off as the floor opened up beneath him and Lily, causing them to fall into the trap.
"Crap, guys!" Kazuma shouted.
He ran towards the trap and looked inside. He could see Dale and Lily fall thanks to Lily's staff, but soon they seemed too have followed some path, making it impossible to see them.
"Crap, crap, crap! What do I do now?! I can't jump down after them otherwise I might wind up dead!" Just as Kazuma panicked, he heard Dale call out from the trap.
"Kazuma! Are you still up there?!"
"Y-yeah! You guys are still alright!"
"Just barely, I don't know where exactly we are though."
"Hold on, I'm coming down-" Kazuma was cut off as the trap door closed itself.
He then tried to step on the same stone plate Dale stepped on but it wouldn't do anything, it seemed the trap was meant as a one time use.
"Oh for gods sake, who designs a trap like this to be a one time use?!" Kazuma cried out in frustrstion.
"There's gotta be a way down, just need to find the stairs." Kazuma looked around for any hints of stairs.
Without Lily's light spell, it made seeing more difficult as he had to rely on his night vision skill which only helped outline the area, but he couldn't see things clearly like if he had a light.
As he scanned the area for anything that could lead to the others, he noticed a faint growl coming from down the hall.
"Seriously? Now of all times?!"
As the growl got progressively louder, while also multiplying in numbers, he could faintly see the outline of the source. He recognized the figure, or rather figures, of gremlins running down the hall.
He drew his bow and shot a few arrows using "Snipe". Thanks to his high luck stat, the arrows went through a few gremlins heads. One even managed to go through and strike another one behind it in the head.
They were still drawing nearer, forcing Kazuma to put away his bow and take out his sword. He knew he couldn't take on all of them, so he turned around and ran down the hall. He still needed to find a way down to the others. He quickly turned a corner and entered the first room that he could. He hid inside until he heard the sounds of the gremlins running past the room he was in.
A moment of silence passed, which got him to think he was in the clear. Kazuma sighed as he sat down to think for a bit.
'Now what should I do? I don't know of any way I can regroup with Lily and Dale, not to mention too I have to worry about those gremlins too.'
Kazuma decided to look at the room he hid in. It appeared to be a storage room, judging by the shelving that were all around the room, and the crates sitting in the corner. The shelves were mainly lined with dust, empty glass jars, scrap paper, and other random junk. He then noticed a billboard with paper pinned on it.
He went over to the board to see that on the front of it was a map of the dungeon.
'Yes! This is just what I need!' Kazuma exclaimed internally.
He inspected the map to understand the layout of the dungeon. He was somewhere on the third floor, there were a total of 6, including a supposed large basement of sorts. It also listed some traps that were up ahead. He found out that the trap Lily and Dale fell in lead to a room in the 5th floor that seemed to be quite close to the 6th floor. He studied the map some more, remembering the paths to take for the stairs to go down. Once he was done he snatched the map from the board just in case.
"Alright, I'm coming guys, hold on!" Kazuma said.
He managed to sneak past the gremlins on the third floor and made his way down to the 4th floor. When he arrived, he saw was surprised to see what seemed like something several enemies wearing large and heavy armour roaming the halls. They each had a large sword and shield. He watched them roam the halls in a way that seemed like as if they were following a set path each, aside from the one that seemed to be guarding the door that led to the 5th floor.
'How the hell am I supposed to get past them?!' Kazuma screamed internally.
As he watched them move around, he noticed on their backs some kind of eye thing, it didn't grant them sight, so Kazuma deduced it as some kind of weak point.
Once one went by, not seeing him, he stabbed his sword into the eye on it's back. The enemy seemed to have been shocked and paralyzed as it's back arched. However, after a few seconds, the monster went back to it's normal position, and looked right at Kazuma.
"Shit!"
The halls were lit up with red, as some kind of siren went off. He turned around and dashed to escape, but another one went around a corner and was heading towards him. He looked towards the door and the monster guarding it also ran towards him, forcing him to use the stairs to go back up.
As he ran back up, the monsters seemed to have given up and went back to their normal duties.
"Scary! I thought I was gonna die!" Kazuma said as he fell back on the stairs.
"What can I do about this? Maybe the map has some answers." Kazuma pulled out the map and checked the 4th floor.
There were arrows that seemed to indicate where exactly those things walked, meaning Kazuma could sneak past them if he was careful.
He re reentered the room to see the monsters walking around like normal.
Just as the map showed, they walked in specific patterns, which allowed Kazuma to use that to his advantage.
He snuck past the first monster and was in the clear for now. He then found some kind of drawing on the wall, it had the layout of the 4th floor but had two red X's and a green circle marked on it. There were words written on the bottom of it, but it was a bit difficult to read. ""Door... open...two switches..." So there are two switches that I have to activate before I can go down?"
Kazuma wrote down the marks on his map.
He looked around and saw the first switch was nearby so he went and pressed it. It made an audible click which gained the attention of the monster guarding the door.
It made a sound of curiosity before it started walking over to the switch.
Kazuma hid behind a small portion of the wall that served as a sort of cover.
He peeked around the corner and saw it look around the area before it gave up and went back to the doorm
Kazuma let out a sigh before he continued sneaking around. Thanks to his "Lurk" skill he was able to quietly sneak past the monsters and activate the other switch, which caused the door behind the monster to open up.
"That takes care of that, but the question is how can I get it away from the door?"
He remembered when the monster inspected the sound he made earlier and took out his bow.
He aimed it so he would hit the other end of the room, but also so the guard wouldn't see the arrow.
Firing the arrow, it flew across the room and struck the wall, letting out a loud sound that attracted the guard away from the door.
Kazuma used this opportunity to run through the door, making it into the 5th floor.
"Thank goodness... That was so stressful. Just one more floor to go and then I can find them!"
The 5th floor was relatively easy. This time he didn't have to deal with those strange monsters again, this time only having to face gremlins and the occasional undead.
He reached the final set of stairs that would take him down to the final floor. But as he was rushing down the stairs, he heard quite a loud roar, only drowned out due to probably the distance and the walls, then a large tremor that shook the entire floor.
"The hell was that?!" Kazuma exclaimed.
He ran down the stairs, as he went deeper the sounds got more and more louder. He eventually reached the bottom of the stairs, entering a massive open room. What he saw though had him still on his feet.
In the time Kazuma has been in this world, he has encountered giant frogs, alligators, a Dulluhan, a winter shogun, ghosts, and the Destroyer. But he had yet to encounter a dragon.
And yet, right before his eyes in this dungeon, lies a dragon, but not just a regular dragon. Where most dragons would be massive, with thick flesh and strong scales. The one standing before Kazuma consisted of only bones, a Skull-Dragon.
"Kazuma!" He heard someone call. He looked past the dragon to see a tattered Dale waving at him with Lily behind him.
"Guys! You're alright!"
"Just barely!"
The dragon suddenly turned around and spotted Kazuma, letting out a roar.
"Shit!"
"Run Kazuma!" Lily shouted.
The dragon quickly ran over to where Kazuma was and readied its tail for an attack.
Kazuma jumped out of the way as it whipped its tail. The tail went through the wall, dragging along and cut through the entrance, causing it to be covered by rocks.
"Well there goes our exit." Kazuma sighed.
He didn't have much time to relax though as the dragon focused its sights on Kazuma once again.
"G-Good dragon?" He said nervously.
The dragon let out another roar as magic started to gather in its mouth. Kazuma quickly ran off as a torrent of fire shot out of the dragon's mouth, hitting the spot Kazuma was just at.
"So even as an undead it can use magic."
"Yes, but because it's an undead that can use magic, that must mean that there is a source. Undead normally cannot call upon magic without a catalyst, often a crystal." Lily said as she and Dale walked over to Kazuma.
"Problem is, we haven't been able to find it yet." Dale said. Just as he said that, the dragon shot another burst of fire right at them.
"Well we can't stick around here forever." Kazuma said as he equipped his bow.
He took aim and shot, the arrow flew threw the air but bounced off the dragon's bones like it was nothing.
"Dammit, that didn't do anything."
"What did you expect, its bone you're hitting." Lily said.
"Well I don't know!" Kazuma shouted.
The dragon then swiped its tail again. Dale stood out infront of them with his shield ready.
"Iron defense!" Dale used a skill to buff his defense, but it didn't stop the attack, knocking the three of them away and into the wall.
"Agh, that hurt a lot..." Kazuma said as he struggled to get on his.
"We're not gonna last long if we can't take that thing down..." Lily said as she began to heal Dale who took the most damage from the attack.
"But we have no idea where the crystal is." Kazuma said as he looked over the dragon.
As he inspected the dragon, he noticed that the dragon had black eyes with a glowing green slit for irises.
"Hey Lily?"
"What is it?" She asked.
"Do skull undead usually have eyes like that?" Kazuma said as he pointed at the dragon's eyes.
"No... They don't! The eye sockets are usually empty unless they still had decaying eyes left in them, they can still sense without sight so they are capable of fighting, but if those eyes aren't just remains of it's original ones, then that would mean..."
"That the crystal might be in it's eyes." Kazuma said.
"But how could we break it? Your arrows might not be strong enough to penetrate through and break the crystal."
"Then we just have to break through it the old fashioned way, with our swords."
"But that's insane! Not only is that dragon's head higher above us, it's too strong to get close enough to it."
"You're right... If only we could stun it, I could sneak towards the dragon using my skills."
"I have a spell that might work, but it moves around too much for me to be able to effectively use it against it." Lily said.
"I could try something to hold it in place..." Dale said weakly.
"That's too dangerous! You're already beat up as is, how are you gonna hold down the dragon in your state?" Lily said.
"Well, we don't really have a choice do we? If we can't stop it we all go down here."
The two were silent at this.
"Kazuma."
"Yes?"
"Can you really beat that thing?" Dale asked him.
"... I'll do my best." Kazuma said.
"Heh... good enough."
Dale stood up, and so did Lily.
"Alright then, let's do this guys!" Kazuma said.
"Right!" The other two said
Kazuma readied his bow and took aim. He shot a several arrows, most of which just bounced off its body. One however flew right into the dragon's eye, causing it to roar out in pain before focusing on them. It charged headfirst towards them, giving them the opportunity they needed.
Kazuma used his "Concealment" ability. It granted him invisibility for short time, allowing hin to sneak around the dragon. This left Dale and Lily to their jobs.
Dale took a stance, arms wide open. Just as the dragon was about to ram right into them, Dale grabbed the bottom of the dragon's head while activating a skill.
"Hold!" He shouted. It was a skill that he learned as a guard, it allowed him to hold whatever he was touching still, depending on his stats. It was handy for situations where they were chasing criminals and other people, it didn't keep them frozen forever, but it keept them still long enough for them to better apprehend them.
The dragon was held in place, but it was draining whatever stamina Dale had left of him quickly.
"Now Lily!" He shouted.
"Right! Flash Bomb!" Lily used a spell that summoned a bright ball of light that exploded, blinding the dragon while also stunning it. Dale then ran out of stamina and had to let go of the dragon, but it had already been dazed, causing it to hold still for a moment.
Kazuma took this opportunity to climb onto the dragon's tail, allowing him to run onto the back of the dragon.
'Insane! This is insane! This has got to be one of the most scariest things I've ever done!' Kazuma screamed internally as he ran. He eventually reached to the top of the dragon's head where the two glowing eyes were. He used his sword to stab right into each eye and dig them out of the sockets. They both landed on the ground, going towards the others, which cause Lily to scream out over the sight of the two eyes that were staring at her. This caused the dragon to cry out in pain and shake Kazuma off. He fell onto the ground as the dragon then started wildly attacking the area.
Kazuma struggled to get up, but managed to get on his feet and walk over to the eyes. He swiftly cut the two eyes in half, revealing the crystals inside them.
"This ends now!" Kazuma shouted as he stomped on the crystals, shattering them into dust.
The dragon roared one last time before whatever was holding it together seemed to have dissapeared, causing the bones to fall apart, reducing the dragon to a pile of bones.
"We... We did it!" Kazuma said, falling onto the ground with exhaustion.
"We really did it..." Lily said, shocked at the fact that they had indeed taken down a skull dragon.
"Thank goodness..." Dale said as he just laid down on the ground.
The three of them spent the next few minutes just catching their breaths as they took in their victory.
"Hey, Kazuma." Lily said.
"Yeah?"
"That was a great plan."
"Oh, thank you."
"It was insane, but atleast it worked." Dale said.
"Well, I couldn't have done it without you guys." Kazuma said.
"I don't know about you guys, but once we get home I am sleeping for an entire day." Lily said as she laid on her back. This got the other two to laugh in agreement, to which Lily joined in.
'That was intense, but it was also fun to go on an adventure with these guys.' Kazuma thought as he laughed.
