Bell winced as his knife sank to the hilt in the Kobold's stomach. The monster screamed before falling silent.
That cut was too deep...
The magic stone inside, already the size of a mere pebble, was cracked in half. It was practically worthless now...
And it chipped the tip of his knife.
Which was on loan.
Great.
He didn't have much time to think though, as a pair of Goblins jumped at him from behind. Moving fast, Bell rolled out of the way and slashed, taking off the scrawny head of one Goblin and fatally injuring the other. It tried to lash out once again, stumbling as if in a daze.
Bell finished it off quickly, then set about extracting the stones from the 11 strong group of Kobold and Goblin corpses littering the floor.
I should start heading back soon. How long have I been down here?
He had accidentally slept in that morning. Likely due to overexertion the prior day. It had been almost midday when he finally woke up. Several hours were completely wasted.
And so, Bell had rushed to get to the Dungeon, only slowing in the plaza to avoid collisions. With the strange lighting of the Dungeon and off-schedule start, his internal clock was all out of whack. But Bell was starting to get tired, so he made his way back up.
And today seemed to be strangely profitable, if the bulging bag of crystals at his belt said anything.
The sound of a falling stone drew Bell's attention. A pathway slanting downward into the floor loomed before him. Green light shone from the end of the tunnel. Sounds of distant chittering seemed to beckon him, promising greater quality stones and experience gains.
The entrance to the 5th floor.
The place where Miss Eina had told him not to go.
Well... The Goddess and I could use the money...
Bell looked at his bag once more.
But this couldn't hold anymore stones. I should really get a bigger bag.
Tomorrow I will go.
He started walking back, stopping only to cut apart a lone, fresh born Goblin.
The sun was barely starting to set when he made it back to the surface.
Huh. Seems I wasn't in there for very long.
"Well, I should head to the Guild before it closes," Bell said to himself before walking off.
As he walked, a peculiar scent hit his nose.
Now, smelling strange things after leaving the Dungeon was nothing new. People faced any number of strange creatures down there, and the blood of some monsters had quite the stench. And many adventurers just didn't bathe anywhere near as much as they should.
But this scent was different. It didn't seem to belong at all. It almost seemed sweet.
It was familiar, though he couldn't place it.
The person it seemed to be coming from was not familiar though.
Silvery gauntlets, silvery leggings, a strangely designed silvery helmet, and most noticeable of all, a dark overcoat with an attached cloak of what looked to be crow feathers.
A gold-covered sword hung at the person's side. A cylindrical contraption he hadn't seen before also hung there. Bell briefly thought about stopping the person to ask.
But he decided not to.
I've got more important things to do.
And so, Bell ran off to the Guild.
"These are monsters?"
When Jack first heard of monsters and a Dungeon from that pink-haired woman at the Guild, he expected several things. A large Pthumerian Labyrinth. Possibly mutated animals with cosmic powers. Hopefully true beasts to have some fun with.
He was not expecting a large series of tunnels formed from raw rock and creatures that simply emerged from the walls. It was a fairly odd spectacle. But these monsters, no, these animals were weak.
Beyond weak even. They seemed to move in slow motion. They didn't even require a weapon to kill. His boot did the job quite well.
And in one of the little green bodies Jack had crushed with his heel, he found a small, purple rock.
Is this a magic stone?
A lizard of some sort emerged from the ceiling directly above him. It squealed and attempted to drop on him.
Almost absent mindedly, Jack grabbed it out of the air and threw it at the ground, crushing the spine by the force of the sudden stop. The stone inside it broke apart as well, unfortunately.
Interesting... Why do they turn to ash immediately upon breaking their stone? It isn't any fun to be careful.
They don't even bleed very much! What is this place?
"What a bore... Even those repulsive Yharnamites would kill everything here," He turned and began walking towards a downward slanting tunnel, "How worthless are the pig-bred peasantry of this city to actually die in such a place?"
The corridor around him quickly changed as he went deeper, becoming more narrow and brown. Green gemstones in the ceiling provided a strange bit of light. It was still mostly empty.
And then the walls started splitting open again.
Several black and purple silhouettes emerged. They seemed to have bladed claws. Seven of them advanced at once.
Jack lunged forward and slipped between them, slashing the necks of two open with a throwing knife. He snapped a finger off of one shadowy figure and threw the finger blade at the third. The proper knife he was already holding found a temporary home within the fourth shadow's head.
The fifth attacked even quicker than before yet was halted by a hand plunging into its chest. Jack ripped out the stone, and the body turned to dust immediately.
The sixth attacked with a very basic attempted stab to the chest. The seventh attacked with both bladed hands sweeping inwards from behind.
How adorable. But unfortunately, that won't be anywhere enough for a noble such as myself.
Jack simply dropped to the floor. The sixth shadow continued sailing forward, its finger blades piercing the seventh's stone. He then rose with a graceful spiraled slash from two throwing knives.
The last shadow's legs became paralyzed and its arms fell off at the elbow. Black blood flowed from the severed stumps and pooled onto the floor.
These things aren't anywhere near worthy of my Chikage. What boring trash.
Actually... Maybe I can have a little fun with this one...
Jack grinned underneath his helmet.
Retrieving his knife, along with the pebble-like magic stones, he kneeled over the shadow in a straddle stance.
Jack's knife went to the face first.
The single eye in the middle of the shadow's face was carved out and set aside. Six slots were carved on each side of the original eye cavity. The eye was set in one and the magic stones from five other shadows were placed in the other slots. The original cavity was left empty.
The shadow writhed in silent agony beneath him, but was unable to get away.
Jack cut a smile-shaped opening near the base of the shadow's face.
A chuckle escaped his throat as he removed the glove on his left hand. His tough, flawless pale skin seemed to eerily glow in the strange light.
Quicker than the eye could see, Jack slashed with a throwing knife, opening a deep wound in his wrist. Potent Vileblood poured downward.
Right into the mutilated Warshadow.
The effect was immediate. Jack jumped backwards in anticipation.
It began thrashing wildly. Its wounds closed up. Its arms regenerated. The original eye cavity closed up. A mouth seemed to form behind the smile carved earlier. The eyes and magic stones in the face began glowing. Most interestingly, the whole body took on a crimson color.
It stood up and shrieked.
In the time it took to blink, the shadow had crossed the distance to Jack.
Several scarlet claws viciously lashed out. He grinned and drew his Chikage with a graceful swing.
This one should do...
Its frenzied attacks mostly amounted to wild flailing, but the speed and power of the strikes was more than passable.
"Finally, worthy prey"
"'KILL KILL KILL!""
Pure rage tore through the Warshadow's mind as it attacked the feathered terror in front of it. Mere moments earlier, it had been trapped on the ground, paralyzed as the silver-faced creature inflicted unbearable pain upon it.
And then, it all changed. The blood that the creature defiled it with made everything hurt even worse for a time.
And then that time ended.
Strength it had never known before coursed through its body. The cores of its fellows were connected completely, and it could see again.
A strange and terrible hunger for blood screamed in its head.
But the horror started swinging with a blade much longer than the ones it used before. Some sense of dread radiated from the new sword.
There wasn't much time to ponder it though, as its limbs were hacked off once more. Blood, crimson blood, sprayed out from the limb stumps and various new slash wounds.
Darkness slowly encroached upon its vision. The terror's voice rang out once more.
"That's all? And I was just starting to like you..."
The mocking tone was infuriating.
"'I SWEAR, I'LL KILL YOU!"'
The shadow turned to ash. Six finger blades laid on the ground alongside a scarlet crystal orb. It was just big enough for Jack to wrap his fingers around comfortably. Much larger than the other Warshadow stones.
With a chuckle, he turned and began walking once more towards the downward slanting tunnel.
"I wonder what else is in this place?"