Disclaimer: I do not own Danmachi or anything created by the author Fujino Omori; all rights go to him. I only own my original character Sleipnir and ~~~~~~ (Xenos OC).
Speech: "Second half of the first chapter. From now on I'll have to think of new anecdotes for every new chapter."
Thoughts: 'Have you noticed how Sleipnir's name has sometimes been shorthanded to Sly?'
Magic: "No, it must have been a trick of the light. - Illusio!"
Screaming/Demonic Voice: "Well it wasn't. Just as Takemikazuchi will be shortened to Take most of the time, so too will Sleipnir be shortened to Sly. I mean what better nickname for a sly Kitsune..!", cough, "I mean sly fox, curses! I mean sly Renard. Finally, there you have it."
Chapter 2 First Dungeon Delve
Orario in front of Babel - Sleipnir POV
Ouka was waiting in front of Babel. He didn't carry a backpack but instead brought two pouches that were fastened to his belt. Neither the towershield, towering a good bit over his stature, nor his weapons seemed to have any weight on him.
Mikoto arrived 2nd, greeted Ouka and sat down to polish her katana. She followed Ouka's example and only took pouches with her, backpacks didn't tend to survive her heads on fighting style for long.
They were soon joined by Asuka, who had the biggest backpack and would act as the team's supporter. For battle, she also changed into leather armour. For this role she carried a bow to support Chigusa, her wakizashi a mere backup weapon. She also carried most of their healing potions. Not only knowing how to apply them best, but also having the highest chance for survival, for the fragile bottles.
Another portion was held by Chigusa, their acting ranger. Her war bow hanging over her shoulder, with a draw weight of 100 kg. Like Asuka she carried a backpack.
A minute later Sly arrived. He had four pouches strapped to his belt, and even more tied to a belt over his shoulder. He was fully prepared with his potions and knives at the ready and his naginata leaning against his shoulder.
With everyone assembled Ouka addressed them. "Well, it's show time. We will take up our standard formation. I will lead the charge in the vanguard position, with Mikoto behind. Sly in the middle, use your magic and tricks as you see fit. In the rear, we will have the archers and our support.
We will take it slowly and let every one of us get accustomed to the new dungeon monsters while exploring the floors, one after another. If anyone needs a break, speak up, and we will take up defensive position to heal and if needed rest."
With that, they entered the dungeon. The entrance is controlled by guild members stationed at the quest board before the door to the dungeon. Today, they ignored the quest board and immediately went inside the dungeon. The entrance is a big spiral staircase leading about 100 meters down to a hole that leads to the First Floor.
While going down, Sly looked at some of the groups that also went down and the few that were returning. 'Some of the returning parties have been severely wounded. From their gear, it looks like they are beginners. I wonder what did this to them?'
Dungeon floor 1 - Sleipnir POV
The moment the stairs ended, his fur stood on end. The magic in the air felt heavier, his steps grew heavy, even his senses dulled. It took them a good 5 minutes to push further. They stepped aside to let other adventurers pass, as they grew accustomed to the atmosphere of the dungeon.
Sleipnir felt beyond uncomfortable, and he couldn't stop shifting his stance. 'This is really awful! How can the atmosphere on the First Floor already be this bad!? The mana feels wrong, it smells dirty even if all I smell is dust! No wonder Flott-san advised us to take it slow, if the Dungeon's Ire is this potent of the First Floor. I'd be surprised if we fought half as good as we did against the ant queen.'
Forcing deep breaths, he looked around the First Floor. The interior was cave-like, his night vision pierced a little more than 50 m into the primary passage. The First Floor had one large passage through the center, alongside countless smaller passages split all over it. The fluorescent crystals gave some light, but he was sure they would strain his eyes if they stayed too long.
A little later, Ouka urged them to continue. "Well, I feel like crap. Good thing we have time to explore the early floor. Let's start hunting and we'll feel better in no time!"
Their party gave a forces agreement and entered one of the side passages, quickly finding their first monsters, Goblins. They often appeared in smaller groups, had humanoid appearance and were barely half a meter in height. Some even carried stone daggers or wore rags.
The first to spot the party rushed at them with an ugly warcry, only for it to be interrupted by Mikoto's katana a moment later. Three fluid strikes took off its two arms, before she bisected it cleanly. Its corpse remained, until Asuka took a carving knife to dig out a magic stone the size of a fingernail.
Sleipnir stood back for the first monster. Grimacing at the sight as Asuka cut out the magic stone. 'This will be hard to get used to, I should learn where those crystals are fast. I really hate to get my hands dirty, or I might get sick if I have to help her. Better learn quickly or I might actually heave!'
Soon they were fighting small groups of the creatures. Mikoto and Ouka took out most of them, but some managed to slip past them. Sly's high speed let him cut them down before they got too close to his sister and Asuka.
Soon kobolds joined the battle. They were slightly stronger and taller than the goblins and their dogheads were ready to bite them as their claws cut through leather armour.
One proved said point when he came running on all fours and bit Ouka's armguard, as he cut into his upper arm with one of his claws straight through the leather vest he wore.
Ouka grumbled a little but soon they found their rhythm as Chigusa focused the more annoying kobolds with her bow. Her arrows are often lethal, and her accuracy could bring other warriors pause. She always aimed for the head or, in some instances, the chest. She even managed to turn a kobold into ash with a single arrow once, by piercing its magic stone.
By the time they explored around half of floor 1 Sleipnir had observed and slain enough goblins to get a feel for where their magic stones were. He still had difficulty hitting them just right, but after a few strikes he usually hit their magic stones, as they disassembled into black particles.
Most of them had gotten good enough at this point to defeat them consistently and without major hiccups, even heavily weakened they were still outgunning this floor. Any serious strike could slash into the flesh of monsters, which made the fights much easier, not to mention gave them the chance to hit the magic stones directly.
Oh, and what an interesting phenomenon that was. 'To think monsters could behave in such a way. On the surface monsters fought as well, but they usually fought like animals. These monsters on the other hand seem to have no instincts for self-preservation and attack with reckless abandon.
Not to mention the obvious weak point. Magic stones, on the surface I saw only a handful when we fought really powerful monsters, but here even weak goblins carry one. How do they decay once you hit the magic stone? Is it their magical core, do they lose their integrity without it. How does the dungeon shape them?
It also seems most have an instinct to protect their stones, kobolds trading claws or arms to protect their core from Chigusa-chan's arrows weren't a rarity, though it rarely worked. There is a lot to learn from these monsters. I will be prepared when we fight stronger versions!'
Asuka continued collecting the magic stones left behind by the monsters, and took the time to collect those from the corpses though they were growing rarer as they adapted. Some even left behind drop items, though they only collected two goblin teeth so far.
Soon they finished the First Floor and decided to go one level deeper. The strange mana of the dungeon grew a little heavier, but after more than an hour of fighting in this atmosphere even Sly could tune out the phantom smell and strange feeling the magic gave him.
This floor had larger groups of goblins and kobolds, and soon they even met a new monster. It began breaking out from one of the walls while they were already in a battle against a horde of 6 goblins and 3 kobolds.
His ears picked up on a loud scratching from behind one of the walls and he saw how the stone pushed outwards. 'A monster is about to be born.'
Not expecting much he rushed there and waited for a breath and just as the stone shattered, slashed at the creature's head with his naginata.
The brown head of the lizard monster withstood his attack and used his surprise to bite at him. Acting on instinct he managed to dodge the attack, but his cloak caught in the lizard's maw.
It used its hold on him to drag him closer as it ascended the wall with the sucker disk's on its feet. 'Annoying lizard. Durable scales enough to withstand a direct strike, brown skin to camouflage on the ceiling and walls and it can climb with those disks! Tch, the only weakness I see are its eyes.!
He let the lizard drag him forwards, and used the momentum to jump above it, to deliver a strike at its eye with the tip of his naginata.
The monster cried out as both of them fell to the floor, where both fell prone. Sly recovered quickly, got back to his feet, and used one of his knifes to deliver a lethal cut to the monster's throat.
Struggling weakly, the monster stilled, as Sly turned back to his party who were just finishing their own fight. His gaze wandered to the ceiling; at a height o few looked above them and some sections had fewer light crystals so as even his night vision couldn't see through those spots easily.
He quickly told Ouka as such. "Ouka-san, I'll summon my foxfire to light the way. I don't trust the ceiling with climbing lizard monsters around."
With focus he imagines a bright fireball swirling into existence in front of him. "Foxfire!" After a second he frowned and gave it more intent, before it slowly swirled into existence from his tail. 'This took a lot more effort than usual. Stupid dungeon mana messing up my magic!'
Under his control the tiny sphere of deep blue foxfire floated above their party and remained stationary after a moment. If he kept it that way, it would reduce the strain on his mind. If he did it right, he could even continue fighting now that he'd summoned it.
With a bright light in front of them they continued further. No dungeon lizard managed to surprise them from then on, even if they jumped from the ceiling. But they soon found another important aspect of the dungeon.
After clearing a room with kobolds and two dungeon lizard the next corridor was even darker than the previous rooms. As soon as they entered the light from his foxfire showed them why.
Hidden in the dark was a pit, looking over the edge they saw it fell down 7-10 m and was filled to the brim with stalactites. 'An obvious trap. Although it easy to spot with my foxfire, we should pay attention if we ever need to make a fighting retreat and stick to known corridors or pay extra attention for traps.'
Soon Mikoto asked after they finished the biggest group of monsters they'd seen so far. "Ouka-san, can we take the main path to the next floor, or perhaps even the fifth? That should be a greater challenge."
Ouka pondered her idea. "We are indeed stronger than the monsters here by a good chunk. What do you think?"
He turned the question around to them. Sly thought about it for a moment, and though hesitant at first he didn't voice anything once Chigusa spoke up. "For once I must agree with Mikoto. So far, the monsters haven't been anything special. I've figured out how to hunt them and hunting them more seems redundant."
Ouka accepted her words. "Fine then. We've fought against far greater numbers before. Let's get on with it. We'll take a short break on every new floor to get used to the mana and push further."
Sly could only sigh internally. 'Seem's like I'll have to finish drawing my own map later. At least we have the guild sponsored maps for the Upper Floors.'
As they skipped the rest of the Second Floor, Sly wouldn't have expected this to be their first real mistake. One he would not soon forget.
With every floor they descended the Dungeon's Ire grew heavier. It wouldn't matter normally if they had taken their time to get used to it, but the slight differences between floors was building up.
Sly was the most aware of those changes. His physical abilities weren't pushed as much, but his foxfire shivered and quivered with every floor. Taking more and more mana to maintain. If he wasn't magic focused and had a lot of mana already, he'd have had to rest a long time ago, even so to keep the foxfire active for the hour it took them to get down to floor 5 a good half of his mana was spent.
Most of it was spent on the Fourth Floor, which was noticeably longer compared to the previous floors. After all, the Dungeon Floors grew progressively larger and thus require progressively more time to conquer the deeper you go.
Guild Hall - Takemikazuchi POV
Still, early in the morning, Take made his way towards the guild. It's around 8 AM and the streets are very busy with many adventurers shuffling around.
Entering the busy guild, Take had to wait in line for 10 minutes to meet their advisor, Misha. "Good morning, Flott-san. I have returned to inquire about a compound that should still be in the possession of Amaterasu. She gave me a permit to use it for my familia."
"A property form. I will have to inform the head advisor about this. Takemikazuchi-sama could you please lend me the paper? I will need a few minutes to find the correct residence papers. If you have any more questions, you may ask my colleague Eina Tulle."
Misha gets the papers while calling a half-elven woman with brown hair and green eyes over to help Take, before leaving while muttering. 'Why can't I ever have some free time? Even Eina has more free time than me and she loves her job. I should never have accepted the promotion to an advisor.'
Eina and Takemikazuchi then continue the conversation about the rates of different residences and the costs he would have to expect for Amaterasu's dojo. Eina also spoke about her anxiety over the adventurers that recklessly entered the dungeon, she hopes to get a nice and calm one when she gets promoted.
After Misha returns, she hands Take the papers. "The dojo your familia wish to use is still reserved for Amaterasu-sama, but, as she has given you the permission to settle there, you will only need to buy the land from the guild. The cost for such a plot of land is currently set at 100'000 valis."
"Hmm, I certainly do not have such money with me. Flott-san, it will take my familia a few days to gather such funds. Until then, I will have to wait before finalising our business."
"That is no problem Takemikazuchi-sama. There is only a minor question I have about one of your familia members if you don't mind me asking." Misha replied with a friendly smile.
Take looked at her for a moment, as if judging her intentions before returning. "As long as it's nothing too personal, I should be able to answer any of your questions."
"In that case, why did Sleipnir-san leave out his family name in his form? All others in your care are also orphans, but he was the only one without a family name."
Take narrows his eyes slightly before answering with his normal calm voice. "Flott-san, it is good that you took interest in my charges, but I would advise against meddling in our business. Just know that he had one but chose to discard them."
Dungeon floor 5
Sly's Dungeon Journal
Entry 1
Upper Floor: 1-4
Structure: Cavelike interior with one well-discernible main path on the First Floor and smaller side passages with multiple paths at the edge. From floor 2 onwards, there is no main path. Instead, there are many passages with many paths and dead ends.
Monsters:
Goblin: Small agile green monster, that uses group tactics to sneak attack from behind unprepared adventurers.
Weak points: Eyes, chest where a human heart would be
Kobold: Human-sized wolfman. Has sharp claws that can cut deeply into unprotected flesh and a fast running speed on all fours.
Weak points: Chest where it normally guards with its claws, neck if within reach
Dungeon Lizard: A quadrupedal lizard monster that can climb on walls and the roof with discs on its feet. Prefers ambushing from blind spots by jumping from walls. Bringing a light source is recommended.
Weak points: Mouth shortly before biting, feet to disable its climbing capacity, the belly has weaker scales
'That went surprisingly well. Even though I haven't mapped the floors yet, I already have very valuable data for future reference. Although pushing a dungeon lizard on its back was far harder than anticipated. I first had to attack its feet, otherwise, it would have just kept sticking to the wall forever.
I also found several uses for my knives. I wish I had more of them, but I can at least kill goblins if I throw them right and they allow me to conserve mana while taking pressure from both the front and backline.'
The party was stomping everything while passing through the first 4 floors. On the way, they passed a few smaller groups of level 1 adventurers that were fighting monsters. They didn't intervene in any battle, as that was frowned upon unless the situation got out of control.
Before entering the fifth floor, they did a quick equipment check. During which they had to fit a few holes in the chain mail the kobolds managed to pierce with their claws.
When they descended the stairs down to the fifth floor, the dungeon walls changed from the previous blue to a light green colour. With them also increases the number of monster spawns and their respective strength.
On the fourth floor, besides feeling the pressure of the Dungeon's Ire, Sly also noticed the quiet. On the previous floors, they could always hear battles in other directions, but here there was nothing. Not even the steps of monsters.
His foxfire floated into the room and the quiet remained.
Chigusa whispered to the other. "What should we do? This does not seem normal."
"Should I cast an illusion to hide us?"
Mikoto heatedly whispers back into the silence of the fifth floor. "I say we continue in our defense formation with courage and honour. Ouka-san should prepare his shield, while you guard him, and I protect Chigusa and Asuka from ambushes. Nothing on this floor is able to stop us."
"Mikoto-san please let me at least send an illusionary clone through first. I don't trust this quiet."
Looking at Sly's worries she relents. "Fine, send your clone Sleipnir, but we should still prepare our defense formation regardless." Mikoto gives in with an expectant look.
"Hero goes nothing. Hiding trickster, oh cunning fox spirit, refracting prism." Sly begins the chant of his strongest falna spell.
Those with keen senses that have magic of their own, like his sister, could feel how his mana saturated a sphere around himself. This sphere manipulated the perception of all who saw it. Sly being the only exception, who could see both reality and illusion alike, as he was the one that maintained the illusion with his concentration and a constant cost of mind.
"By the father of the eight-legged horse, I command thee to affect the judgement of reality - Illusio." 5 m in front of Ouka there appears a replica of Ouka. At the same time, anyone looking directly at them would see nothing but an empty space in the dungeon with a few almost imperceptible symbols floating above the party.
'It's nice that we used this tactic enough, such that everyone knows where the others are located. Although the others can only see themselves, the symbols in the air are visible to all because I made them slightly above us and almost transparent. Only those that know of them can orient themselves in my mass invisibility spell.
All of us have different symbols. My symbol is a simple fox. Ouka has a shield, Asuka a pouch, Chigusa a bow and Mikoto a katana.'
"Wow, that's far more exhausting inside the dungeon than outside of it. I can at most keep this up for another hour, before I'm spent!" Sly reports while feeling lightheaded, before refocusing his concentration to move the unarmed clone of Ouka to the edge of his 5-meter illusion radius.
'The amount of mana required to cast an illusion depends on the volume it has to cover and a constant supply to keep it under control. It seems that it is more mana intensive to create illusions inside the dungeon. I would guess that it is because there is a lot of dungeon mana in the air which I first have to overcome. At least once the illusion is prepared, I can maintain it with a far lower mana consumption, which is around the same as on the surface.
I still have to look out for and dodge attacks or risk losing control over my illusion, possibly suffering from Ignis Fatuus. If that happens all the mana I use to maintain this spell will go out of control, and injure me. At least with my concentration intact, I can actively change the illusion inside the prepared area.
Unfortunately, I still need to keep the focus on all my illusions, which get progressively harder, the bigger the area and the more detailed the illusion is. For a quick change, I still need to simplify the overall illusion in case of a mass illusion spell like this.
I could also allow the illusion to hide the scent of the people inside and create false scents, but the mind usage of hiding more than one sense at a time is far too high for me to sustain. I would also need to chant a longer chant to include these effects, but it won't matter when I can't even maintain them.'
Thus, the see-through floating symbols followed after the illusory Ouka clone. They follow the first visible path carefully to reduce the sounds of the footsteps they produce as much as possible.
They continue for 10 agonisingly slow minutes, where nothing happens but the quiet rumbling or far-off sound of a monster breaking out of the wall. All the while, Sly's mana was slowly decreasing.
Then they enter a big empty room that's far darker than the previous passage, with three more paths. Ouka whispers. "Which one should we take?" And at that moment, as if summoned by the sound, five shades materialise in front of the three passages. Two in front of the east and west paths. As well as one smaller one littered with scars in the black cloth, right behind the clone.
War shadows are flying monsters. Their body is like a black line cloth without much substance and only their heads, core and razor-sharp claws are corporal.
The small war shadow screams and strikes the Ouka clone from behind faster than any monster they'd seen today. It passed right through the clones neck and looked back at the clone with a glint of curiosity in its eyes. At the same time the four other war shadows converged upon the clone.
From the corner of his eye Sly sees Chigusa take a step back In surprise, while Asuka drew her bow prepared to shoot. Though with his illusion active still, he could not interfere. He took a few steps back as well, as he maintained Ouka's clone to distract the monsters.
The clone was desperately dodging and barely avoiding the attacks of the war shadows, but the faster small war shadow managed to hit it repeatedly. 'It's aiming for the leather armour and avoiding the chainmail, this one is dangerous! Not only that it's much faster than the other 4 war shadows.'
As he observed, Asuka whispers. "Irregular."
Ouka, hearing her words, reacted instantly. His spear in hand he exerted his full speed to stab the closest war shadow. Mikoto wasn't far behind as she attacked another.
The 4 confused war shadows were still busy attacking the immaterial foe, however, the smaller one had heard something and was now looking in their direction.
Seeing this, Sly shifts his illusion causing the clone to attack the smaller war shadow. However, the war shadow lets the attack pass through it, not in the least afraid.
Just then the invisible Ouka and MIkoto both reach their target. Piercing and slashing two of the war shadows, before they could react. Unfortunately, this also revealed their position to the enemies.
Sly's magic can hide much, but hiding others during combat wasn't one of them. The moment they engaged in combat lost that part of his illusion strained as he was, with the clone. Which in turn rendered both of them visible in the aftershock of their attacks.
Asuka saw her opportunity and released the arrow she was holding, striking the small war shadow as it rushed towards them.
As the arrow left his illusion range and turned visible again the irregular saw it and managed to react in time. Barely blocking the projectile with its claw, before redoubling its effort and rushing at Mikoto with speed far surpassing its previous pace.
Startled Sly saw a real threat. Weakened as they were it was unlikely for Mikoto to react in time, this forced him to change his illusion immediately. Straining his concentration, he closed his eyes and envisioned a blinding light behind Mikoto's head.
The sudden light blinded the shade and revealed its body, surrounded in black cloth with faint scars all over. This gave Mikoto the time to dodge sideways and deliver a counter. Her slash landed and a gaping hole in the shadow's body the magic stone barely visible behind a black ribcage, unfortunately, it returned with a blind strike, which cut through Mikoto's chainmail and left a gaping hole in her side.
Bleeding extensively, she retreats back to the party as Ouka charges one of the other two blinded war shadows and manages to strike its magic stone, before turning towards the still-blinded small shadow and shield, bashing it.
The last war shadow rushes into Sly's illusion attacking blindly, and rushing straight at him! Before it reaches him, an arrow pierces its head, but it still maintains its momentum.
Sly stops his illusion to dodge, and is forced to avoid another series of attacks, before he ducks below a wide swipe and cuts into its cloth body, revealing another magic stone protected by a black ribcage.
Chigusa, who shot the first arrow, continues with her momentum and begins chanting a spell. "Twin birds hear my call, enchant my pull, guide my path - JIAN YAJIRUSHI."
She quickly draws her bow, but at the end of her chant, her arrow turns into two one-winged birds, which she releases. They fly towards the last normal war shadow, but instead of flying straight, it is now homing in on the exposed magic stone.
The war shadow was still attacking Sly with its claws without pause. It even managed to give Sly multiple superficial cuts before the Jian arrow reaches it. Right before hitting the shadow, Chigusa commands her arrow to split into twin birds where the first breaks the rib protecting the stone, while the second follows the gap and hits the stone directly.
At that time, Ouka was striking at the dazed irregular shadow nonstop, but it was too tough and he could not get past its ribs easily. After a few strikes, the shadow regained its bearings and screamed, causing the dungeon to shake. As if drawn by its scream, 6 frog shooters broke out of the walls around the room. All of them were green amphibians with a height of about 1 meter.
The irregular was then once again bashed by Ouka and momentarily stunned, allowing Asuka to use one of her techniques on it. She has been charging her "Piasu Isshi" (Penetrating Arrow)since firing her previous arrow.
Finally ready after many seconds of charging, Asuka releases it. Nonetheless, the irregular manages to partially block it with one of its claws, but due to its penetrating power it manages to break its claw instead, before sticking into its ribs.
Just then the frog shooters stumbled out of the walls and began their attack with their tongues. The tongues are incredibly fast at more than 5 m/s Everyone besides Asuka reacted fast enough to dodge to the side, she on the other hand had to take the hit to protect the wounded Mikoto. She was then pulled off her feet towards the frog shooter.
Chigusa fires at the frog pulling Asuka, and with a crack the skull is shattered and it dissipates. Sly used one of his daggers to cut the tongue of the one attacking him, before burning it with foxfire.
Mikoto drinks her health potion before she rushes one as well. Ouka is now hard-pressed to defend against the small shadow and the three frog shooters in the front, while the others only dealt with single opponents.
Luckily, he was the smallest and most well equipped of the party, but he was still cut many times by the small shadow's remaining claw while dodging the dangerous tongues that could pull him off balance. His armour was in shambles, and he was only barely able to continue moving from the strain on his muscles.
Now that the backline is free, Sly used his chance to deal with the small shadow. He cast his foxfirebut gave the spell far more mana, about half of his remaining reserve, thus creating a 30 cm (diameter) fireball with an incredible velocity that lit the remaining cloth of the small shadow on fire. In the confusion, the irregular crashes to the ground, trying to quench the flames searing its cloth.
"Thanks, Sly-kun," Ouka calls back while finally taking his spear and heaving it straight at the burning irregular and hitting its core. The biggest magic stone they have ever seen drops to the ground alongside the remaining claw of the war shadow.
The rest finishes quickly with both Asuka and Chigusa firing their arrows repeatedly. Sly also used his throwing knives to distract the ones trying to use their tongues and protect the injured Ouka. Mikoto, meanwhile, looks around to ensure no more reinforcements would appear.
While the others finished the battle, Ouka first drank one potion, then went towards Chigusa when he still had a deep laceration on his chest and let her pour a potion over it to heal it as well.
With the battle finally over, Sly couldn't help but comment tiredly. "If I'm not mistaken, we just fought our first irregular monster. That small shadow was far too tough and managed to keep up with us, even slightly outpacing us. The Dungeon's Ire is too terrifying."
Mikoto turns to glare at him. "Of course it was fast, otherwise it wouldn't have managed to strike me at the beginning." Sly prepared to counter her argument. "But still, you should have been able to dodge it with your agility ..."
"How even you, the ever-cautious trickster, were surprised."
Chigusa then interrupted them both with a strong but quiet voice, ending their argument. "Of course Sly was surprised! I mean the monster was faster than me! I'm just happy its first strike went towards the illusion instead of us. That could have gone far worse. We need to be better prepared for something unexpected in the future. And both of you, stop arguing in the dungeon. We could be attacked at any time!"
"Okay, now that I'm healed, I think it's high time we continue to the top 4 floors for today. If I'm not mistaken, all of us are tired and our stamina has dropped severely in that last fight. Not to mention that Sly-kun should be almost out of mana after that last stunt with the fireball. We need to be more careful." Ouka replied with a small laugh.
"That's true, I barely have a tenth of my mana capacity left and am feeling lightheaded, which makes it difficult to concentrate. I can only manage another one or two foxfires at most until we rest."
"In that case, let's return to the higher floors to collect some valis. While I don't think we should push further. I can still help you girls train a bit on the Upper Floors."
They then turned around and ascended the floors while carefully avoiding big groups of monsters. After all, one adventure is enough for one day. However, the odd disparity in their strengths wouldn't stop bothering him.
'I expected us to be weakened, but this is too much. Flott-san warned us, but when we left the Second Floor we were fighting with around 60% percent of our normal strength, now on the 5th, we just managed to scrape by, with at most 40%. This is really too terrifying a change. At least we are experiencing this now instead of against a far stronger monster. It's just as Takemikazuchi-sama says, "Every hit you take in training is one less hit you take in the dungeon." I suppose this means that if I try to solo deeper sections of the dungeon, I will need to put time aside to allow my falna to adjust to this weakness.'
Sly grimaced slightly as he glanced at Mikoto. The time for the falna to adjust couldn't finish soon enough for his liking; he dislikes partying with Mikoto.
? Flooded Passage
"Are you happy now? You sneaked up here two weeks ago when you were barely even considered level 2. But now you are too large to return." A high-pitched voice lectures her protege, while a rhythmic ticking sound comes from a pocket watch she wore as a necklace.
"Of course I'm happy. I can finally hunt and grow stronger to reach the surface. The other Xenos can't order me to stay back or prohibit me from hunting here." A deeper but far more childish voice answers quickly before trying and failing to growl. "Grrr"
"And what of the men with the pointy sticks? Those who have neither scales nor fur and smell as bad a as dirty mad beetle. Have you at least followed my lessons concerning them?"
"Yes, Arles I know. I know when to trust my instincts. When I feel threatened, I run before they see me and by now I know to avoid the most dangerous paths. And the others that saw me were the weak ones. Most of them avoided me and only a few attacked me before falling into one of my traps."
Arles sighs quietly. "Good. Continue as such and the most dangerous situations can be avoided. As another precaution, you should change the floor you are staying on regularly. I will visit you again in a few weeks Ikuchi."
Author's Note
The second chapter focused on the team effort. In the future, the focus will be more prominently on Sly, but I will develop all the members of the Takemikazuchi familia, which means some scenes will be from their perspective. Later on, I will have many scenes from different characters to give us some insight into their perspectives. I took some inspiration from Avatar and will try to keep the main cast small but well-developed.
Note 26.08.2024: Cough. Small but well developed. Might have gone a little overboard sometimes. Anyways, I made all the changes I wanted. Quality will drop for the next few chapters but rise back to the standard of this chapter after a few chapters.