"Alright, let's get ready!" Gamo remarked in an energetic tone as the group prepared their equipment to explore the dungeon
The previous day, Hino discovered that the gel left behind from slimes functioned extremely well as a flammable, g
Heavily extending the lifetime of the campfire. He assumed that it would work on the torches he had prepared as well, smearing their tips with Gel before handing each party member one.
"Remember to not get separated. And if we do, we should at least be in a group of two at all times." Takao stated, picking up one of the spears and lodging it into his backpack, which the others did as well. "Alright. Let's go."
The journey to the Dungeon itself was very mild. Seeing as it was in the early morning, not many monsters showed up, and the ones who did were no match for everyone combined. Nagatoro, Gamo and Takao even managed to Level up.
After a not-very-long trip, the group had finally made it to the entrance of the cave. "Is this it?" Naoto asked, to which Sakura and Hana nodded.
Naoto and the rest of the Party each took out their Torch as Hino proceeded to light his own with some stones he picked up. He was extremely quick with it and passed the flame along to the other torches afterwards.
"Let's go, then." Naoto took the lead along with Nagatoro, as they had the highest overall stats out of the rest.
Upon entering the Dungeon, Naoto and the others were met with a long corridor which extended into darkness. Still in the lead, Naoto and Nagatoro walked ahead, providing frontal lighting for the others to follow.
For now it seemed like everything was going smoothly. At the very least, no one had gotten their head chopped off by a trap. As they made it to the end of the corridor, they were met with two split corridors, one of which went downwards with the use of a marble staircase.
"Now what? Do we split up, or do we take one path and then the other?" Takao asked.
"We're not strong or experienced enough to split right now, so we should all take one path." Naoto said after pondering on it for a while. The others promptly agreed, to which they took the descendant staircase.
As they made their way down, Naoto could hear creaking sounds up ahead. It almost sounded like the sound of something tapping against the walls in a quick and repetitive fashion.
"Do you guys hear that?" Naoto asked, turning around to the others, when the sound suddenly got louder. As Naoto had his back away, he was unable to see as a massive spider crawled trough the ceiling, before shooting a massive web at him.
"Senpai!" Nagatoro yelled, tackling Naoto just in time for the shot to miss. Hana was the first to react offensively, pulling out her spear and immediately launching it at the spider, hitting it point-blank in the head and killing it instantly.
"Woah! That was some precision!" Takao praised Hana as Gamo patted her shoulder.
"Well, when you're an artist, you do need pinpoint precision." She responded with a smug tone, before approaching the dead spider and Yanking out the spear.
Meanwhile, Naoto recovered from being pushed only to find Nagatoro right on top of him, causing them both to blush as Nagatoro instantly stood back up.
"You're thinking about pervy stuff again, aren't you?" She asked, to which he nervously shook his head.
"T-Thanks. For saving me." He responded, to which she replied by keeping silent for a few seconds, her face tinted in blush.
The Group slowly made their way deeper into the dungeon. They had wasted a good amount of time taking out spiders and slimes, causing them all to go up by a Level. Naoto was now at Level 4, while Nagatoro, Takao and Gamo were at Level 3 with the rest of the Party only at Level 2.
Naoto and the others eventually reached the end of the Hallway, being met with a tiny pillar that had a tiny key on top of it. "What is that for?" Naoto said, hesitant to grab it.
His hesitation ended up having no use, as Nagatoro simply picked it up and stuffed it in her skirt. All of a sudden, the sound of multiple clicks were heard, to which Naoto gulped.
"Everyone. Run." He quietly whispered, sensing that whatever made those sounds definitely wasn't friendly. All of a sudden, a massive Boulder emerged from a secret opening in front of the Pillar, slowly running towards the party.
"Run!" Naoto screamed, grabbing Nagatoro by the wrist and pulling her towards the exit as the rest followed. He had no time to think about what he was doing, and he definitely had no time to feel embarrassed.
Nagatoro panicked as she saw the giant boulder, quickly outpacing Naoto and ending up dragging him with her just like he had her a few seconds ago. The Boulder was approaching at a rapid pace, but the entire party was at least fit enough as to not get outsped by the rock.
As they got closer to the exit, Naoto finally got a glimpse of the staircase, running full speed ahead with the others as the Boulder crashed against the staircase moments after they had all made it out.
As they sat down on the cold floor and caught their breath, Takao spoke up.
"Soo...do we still want to explore the other hallway? We got this key after all, it might serve us for something." He said, apparently just wanting an excuse to keep exploring the dungeon.
Naoto nodded while catching his breath. "Since we did all of this for a key, it'd be a waste not to use it." He sighed. "But first, let's rest for a bit." He continued, to which everyone nodded.
Shortly after recovering, the group made their way trough the other corridor. Unlike the first one, this corridor was much less populated, as there were almost no monsters.
The lack of distractions allowed Naoto and the others to easily make their way to the end of the hall, where they found a surprising sight.
The room was decked full of old marble decorations, and in the centre laid a massive chest held by what looked to be a human skeleton.
"Poor dude. He must've died a virgin. You'll end up like that if you're not careful." Nagatoro noted, getting a chuckle out of Gamo and Yoshi.
"Shut up!" Naoto said as he approached the chest. "There doesn't seem to be any traps unlike last time. Pass me the key, Nagatoro." He said as Nagatoro took the key and handed it to him.
Right as he was about to use the key on the chest, he noticed that the skeleton began shaking. He instinctively backed off as the skeleton began to shake more and more.
The skeleton suddenly stood up, dropping the chest on the floor and grabbing a massive club next to him. He slowly approached Naoto, who was backing off slowly.
The skeleton suddenly swung the bone at Naoto, who tried to block the attack with his spear. The impact of the giant club hitting the wooden spear caused it to snap, as well as causing Naoto to topple over.
The Skeleton was about to swing at Naoto, who was trying his best to stand up as quickly as possible, when Nagatoro suddenly rushed in with her spear, attempting to lodge it into the skeletons face.
The weapon simply snapped like Naoto's, to which Nagatoro backed off again. Naoto had already managed to stand back up, retreating into a corner.
Gamo approached as well, dropping her spear on the ground as it didn't seem to be very effective. As the skeleton attempted to swing its club at Gamo, she quickly dodged, before grabbing onto one of its ribs.
Gamo then proceeded to perform a Judo-throw, slamming the skeleton into the floor and causing it to snap into multiple pieces and scraps.
With the danger behind them, Naoto took a deep breath. "Thanks, Gamo. I almost though I was a goner." He chuckled, before inserting the key into the Chest and opening it.
Naoto looked in awe at the contest of the chest. Gold and Silver. Nothing gold and silver coins. While it wasn't the mountain he expected, it was a good enough amount to get around with for a while, considering how big the part was.
"Where are we going to fit all of this?" Naoto wondered. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "Nagatoro. Do you still have that pouch we found back then?" He asked Nagatoro.
She silently nodded, getting it out of her backpack and handing it to him. Naoto began to fill the tiny pouch with coins. Despite it seeming like it was supposed to be full a long time ago, the pouch kept being able to be filled with coins.
"Is that a magic pouch?" Takao asked in excitement. "Isn't it practically a wallet with infinite storage space for coins?" He continued, to which Naoto nodded.
Satisfied with their finds, Naoto and the group decided to leave the Dungeon for good, as there seemed to be nothing left to loot.
The group met back up at the campfire, celebrating their victory. "This money is enough to suffice for a few weeks with proper housing. We could use it to buy equipment as well." Naoto mumbled, shaking the tiny pouch he held.
None of them were really in the mood to do much after what they had just gone trough, so they simply decided to relax near the campfire for a while.
For as simple as it seemed, everyone seemed to be having a good time, simply chatting and walking around.
"What do we do with this money, anyways? It's not like we can buy anything in a forest." Gamo asked
Naoto thought for a while, when he suddenly remembered the small town he initially saw in the distance. "There's a town nearby. We could go there and see what we can use this money on." Naoto said, to which Takao nodded.
"Yes! Let's go to town! Maybe the legal drinking age is lowered here!" He joked, getting a chuckle out of Hino and Naoto.
It was still early in the morning, as their expedition trough the Dungeon hadn't taken them any more than two hours, so they had the entire day to waste.
With everyone in agreement, Hino tossed a handful of water from the nearby river onto the campfire, extinguishing it as they all began to make their way to the Town.