Chapter 68: CHAPTER 68(Floor 39 Safe Zone)
Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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CHAPTER START---
"Finally made it, how long was that trip anyway?" Yang asks as the Trifecta step into the safe zone.
Assaulted by the bright daylight from the crystal ceiling above and the radiant green of the trees ahead, he can't help but think of the 18th floor safe zone while taking in the scenery.
"Jesus Christ..." he mutters to himself, earning a strange glance from his teammates.
"What?" Welf asks, confused by Yang's words.
"Oh, um, it's beautiful, so I guess all the safe zones are like the Under Resort huh," He says, quickly avoiding the questions.
"I sure as hell hope so, I need a good soak," Thalie says as she walks forward, spotting a tall stone plateau with the Freya familia sigil on a banner at the entrance of their makeshift base, "Let's go."
"Yeah a bath sounds pretty nice about now, 2 days of non-stop fighting is exhausting..." Welf says while falling into step beside her, flanking her left as Yang is on her right.
"2 Days, didn't even feel like that, I guess no sun really does make keeping track of time almost impossible so it makes sense, how long y'all wanna rest for?" Yang asks as they begin walking up the incline to the camp.
"Can you like, relax for a minute, we just got to camp and you're already excited to go back out. Monsters aren't going anywhere so we can take a day or two, I need to scrub the scent of ash off me..." She says while playfully giving him an angry look.
"Hahaha yeah yeah by bad, I'll try to relax, not that I was ever any good at that..."
"Definitely gonna take at least 2 days, we've only got what," Welf begins counting on his fingers, "My shortsword, her shortsword plus daggers, and you melted both your weapons, and I've got to repair all our armor, yours should be fine at least since it's Heapheastus made, but yeah we aren't moving for a bit."
"HEY WELF!" A loud voice calls out to them.
Turning their attention to the entrance of the camp on top of the hill, the ever lively right hand of their familia, Captain Tsubaki, is waving at them with far too much energy for them to dream of matching.
"Ugh, hey Tsubaki," He forces a greeting out as the woman ruffles his red hair.
"Awe don't be like that! Honestly, I'm proud of this little team, lost good money though. Made a little bet that you'd be forced to turn around before reaching here since it's just the three of you..." She admits, a smile across her face as she rubs the back of her neck.
"Yeah, clearly that wasn't much of an option with this guy," Thalie jokes as she gestures to Yang.
"C'mon it was fun, got to fight some cool stuff and show off what we could do," Yang says with an awkward grin.
"Well anyway, where's your stuff, got a nice spot picked out for you guys," She gives them a strange look, noticing all their hands are empty.
"I stored it in my inventory,"
"Huh, forgot you could do that, wish I could do that," Tsubaki says as she begins walking them toward their spot.
With one outstretched hand, Yang withdraws three large supporter backpacks from his inventory and drops them onto the ground before turning to Welf, " You want your smithing stuff now or when you get set up?"
"Uh, when I'm set up, that'll make things easier," the young man replies.
"Wait... you got the bring your stuff from your shop... that's not fair..." Tsubaki grumbles with a childish pout.
"Best.Magic.Ever. Love not having to carry stuff, and I got to pack way more..." Thalie says while rifling through her pack, quickly pulling out a case of daggers.
"You're welcome, anyway let's get set up," Yang says as he prepares his tent.
As he and Welf begin setting up their tent, Welf suddenly interrupts him for a moment.
"Hey, Yang..." He whispers, getting his attention, "Any reason that guy's just staring at you?" Welf asks, nodding toward a blonde elf across the temporary camp at the main command tent, with standard mage attire under a white coat and holding a wooden staff that doubles as a sword, the bottom half being a sharp blade always exposed.
"Nope, honestly haven't spoken to any adventurers aside from our familia and Loki's, you know who he is?" Yang asks as they return to set up the tent.
"That's Hedin Selland, and you morons suck at whispering or subtlety," Thalie bluntly says as she walks over from her already erect tent, a few feet from theirs.
"Oh, sorry, but yeah who?" As he puts the finishing touches on the tent, Yang says, Welf now walking around as his side is done.
"He's Freya's white knight, aside from Riveria he's likely the strongest mage in Orario, the only person challenging him for that spot would be Freya's dark knight Hogni Ragnar, but they prefer to fight up close unlike Riveria who stays back and uses bigger spells so it's up for debate who really stands at the top," Thalie says as Yang is now done with the tent.
"Ok, doesn't explain why he's staring at Yang hard enough to punch a hole through the back of his head though.." Welf says as they all enter the tent.
"Maybe he just thinks you're cute," She says with a shrug.
"He's not my type, I like bookworms but you know, the female variety..." He casually says while unpacking his bag.
"That explains Lefiya... but still," Welf wonders while also unpacking.
"He's the commander for this entire expedition force, technically we're not part of their main forces, we've got free reign to do whatever we want on any floor below this one while Freya's people go deeper to check out new monsters, our little group isn't normal in the structure of these things so he could just be curious about it, especially considering our familia isn't really the combat-focused type," She concludes, a finger on her chin as she puts together all the variables in her mind.
"So it's just because we're weird... that's a relief, but wait, I thought Ottar was the commander."
"Nope he's just stronger, you're stronger than me but I'd still make a better commander, same thing for them," Thalie casually replies.
"Yeah makes sense, so what's the plan now... kinda didn't really expect all this downtime," he admits nervously.
"Now... R&R, rest and repair, stay on alert though, monster tend to enter safe zones way more the deeper you go according to guild files, not that we need to worry with Freya familia here, but still, stay sharp," Welf says as he stretches his arms out.
"Yeah figured that was the case, you ready to set up your smithing stuff?" Yang replies as he finishes setting up his clothes next to his sleeping bag.
"Yeah let's go..."
A half-hour later, Welf's equipment was properly set up outside their tent, sitting at the edge of the camp, looking over the forest Yang has his legs hanging over the edge of a cliff dropping all the way to the bottom of the plateau.
With a ration bar in his hand, he happily munches away while staring out at the lush forest of trees covering the dungeon floor below.
The sound of heavy footsteps causes him to stop chewing for a moment, glancing over his shoulder for a moment to see who is approaching, he continues to enjoy the view while eating.
"Hey Ottar, what's up?" Yang casually greets the man without even shifting his head.
"Didn't think you'd make it with your small team, how was it?" Ottar asks, leaning back on a tree a few feet away from the edge of the cliff.
"Pretty fun, good fights, fun monsters, got to test some new moves I can't practice in Under-Resort, you?"
"Nothing challenging for us.."
"What about Udeaus?" Yang abruptly asks.
"Getting to camp is our goal so we dealt with it swiftly, my real mission starts now,"
"Don't suppose he dropped a black sword?" Yang cuts to the point.
For a brief moment, Ottar quirks an eyebrow at the question, unsure if his theory made any sense as he looked at the young adventure in front of him.
"No, is that your goal?"
"Among other things, getting stronger is the main thing, collecting certain items will happen on that road..."
"Why?" Ottar asks, furrowing his brows as he watches Yang's back.
"Why not, I wanna see how strong my magic can be, how strong I can be, and the dungeon is the best place, I'll just keep moving forward and overcome death itself if that's what it takes to reach my goal..." A hint of, sadness? Rage?... no, conviction, desire, leaks through, dripping on Yang's every word.
With an amused smirk Ottar decides to share some wisdom with the rookie.
"The black sword only drops if someone DUELS him, and wins, I don't think you're there... YET,"
"YET, so THE KING thinks I can get there huh,"
"Does it matter what I think?" Ottar questions.
"NOPE! hahaha, I'm gonna do whatever I want anyway, even if you said I'd fail, my life is mine after all," Yang says as he stores the wrapper for his ration into his inventory.
"Hmm, you've grown quite quickly, level 2 in 18 hours, level 3 two weeks later, and level four a month after that, why is that?" Ottar says, not one to mince words at all.
"Wow, you're straight to the point huh, its probably because I want to get to the lower floors so much, and I've got to be the one to do it, so if people like you are racing me there I have to get stronger to catch up, right, I read that magic awakens based on desire. Took me days to realize why my magic was so, weird. It hurts my body, but it gives me the tools to overcome almost anything. I'm willing to do whatever I have to, even if that means I need to crawl, pulling myself by tooth and nail to get to my goal, that's what my magic is to me... oh sorry went on a tangent... my bad," Yang says as he stands up, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed by his rambling.
Looking up at Ottar's 7ft tall figure, Yang sees him wearing a small grin for the first time.
"What? It probably sounded stupid huh..." He says, a sigh leaving his lips as he gives a light shrug.
"Why are you so relaxed around me, do you not realize how easily I could kill you in the dungeon?" Ottar asks, expecting the mood to shift, but Yang doesn't seem to care.
"That's why I'm so relaxed. You're gonna be sleeping a few hundred feet from me, if I'm always scared I'd never sleep. Plus it's not like I could do anything about it if you wanted me dead, you are the king after all," Yang responds with a shrug.
"Hmm, not bad, good luck on your adventure, adventurer..." Ottar says before starting to walk away.
Little did Yang know exactly how big of a compliment that was.
"Thanks," he responds before noticing someone walking past Ottar in a beeline toward him.
"So this is where you've been, c'mon I found a nice spot to get cleaned up, I've got an idea but need you for it," She says, taking his hand and dragging him behind her.
After getting cleaned up, he and Welf being separated from Thalie as they washed up in a stream. They find themselves following the woman through some trees toward a small pond, each of them still clad in their towels
"Is this normal?" he shoots a confused glance at Welf.
"Uh dunno, this is my first party too."
"Relax, I just found this small spot and figured we could relax, like a hot spring pool," she explained.
"WOW! You found a hot spring," Welf exclaims, much more excited than Yang.
"Nope, she plans on making one," he says while looking at the pool,20 feet across and obviously not warm in any way.
"Glad you caught on quick, well?" She says, giving him a pleading look.
"Sigh, yeah I gotcha..." He casually says before walking to the edge of the pool, placing both his palms on the ground he compacts the earth in and around the pool until the mud becomes hard as stone, placing his hands into the water, he takes his time to remove all the water, leaving an empty basin in the dungeon floor.
With a wave of his hands, blue flames burn away all the plants left at the bottom of the pool, making them ash.
Another wave of his hand and the ashes blows away, leaving a solid and clean basin.
Placing his hand at the rim of the pool, focusing his magic, large amounts of water burst forth, filling the pool over the next few minutes.
"Alright, that good?"
"Yeah, Best.Magic.Ever." Thalie says while jumping into the water.
*SPLASH*
"AHHH! What the fuck! It's still cold!" She yells at Yang while shivering a bit.
"Yeah cuz I'm the heater," he says with a shrug, slipping into the water and permeating the pool with his magic, immediately bringing it up to light steaming temperature.
"Ahhh, gotta say she's right, Best.Magic.Ever." Welf says while settling into the water.
After a few minutes, with each of them taking a section of the pool and letting their muscles relax after the two days of fighting, Thalie breaks the peaceful silence.
"If this team is gonna work, and I'm putting my life in your hands, then..." taking a moment, she looks Yang directly in the eyes before saying the words that have brought down greater men, "we need to talk..."
END CHAPTER---
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---They finally made it to camp yay.
---He made a hot tub, because why the hell not right.
---Time for THE TALK.
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