Chapter 29: Music to cure the boredom
I'm not particularly proud of this chapter.
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(General POV)
[Dungeon Upper Floors]
Garth sighed as he trekked through the dim caverns of the upper floors, his ears having grown used to the monotonous rhythm of a hundred footsteps behind him. In pace with him were the Loki Familia executives, as part of the vanguard to tackle the monsters which would spawn in front.
People were engaged in conversation and merriment as evident by the numerous bouts of laughter behind him. But the absence of any monsters to fight plus the tinkle of equipment and the general eery silence of the dungeon had him bored.
Lily was somewhere at the back he knew and a quick glance behind him confirmed that as he saw a large pack visible over a few dwarf heads. He turned back around to marching as the tunnels of the dungeon seemed to stretch further.
Ideally he would be down at the middle floors by now. But when moving in such a large group while carrying materials and equipment as well as having to act as scout slowed him down and pretty much slowed everything else down.
Riveria looked at him sympathetically.
"Difficult isn't it?" she asked him.
"What?" he asked in return having been suddenly brought out of his bored stupor.
Riveria gestured to their surroundings and behind them.
"It's not fun having to babysit a lot of people when you want to be out here fighting."
"You got that right. But surely some would have been spawned by now? There's no way we've made it down to the third floor as not even a single goblin has been sighted."
Riveria narrowed her eyes and looked around.
"I will admit it that it is not that rare of an occurrence that monsters don't really spawn on top of large groups. That being said, it is strange that we have come as far as we have and have met no resistance."
"It could just be a one-off, couldn't it?" Tiona said tuning into their conversation.
"It could be. If it is, then I suppose we can be glad."
"Something tells me there's more to that statement than is being let on." said Garth.
"Oh, Riveria's referring to what happened on our last expedition." Tione said.
"What happened?"
"Tch!" Riveria scoffed. "A bunch of goblins spawned right on top of the food supplies and destroyed them before we could take them out. While we managed to salvage a good bit of it all, we were forced to restock in Rivira. Which is one of the worst things you can do."
"Any particular reason why?" Garth raised his brow while already knowing the answer.
"Because cost of living is much greater down there than it is on the surface." Finn called out behind him as he was the one lading and therefore walking ahead. "It cost a small fortune to refill our stocks before we were able to descend further."
"Right. Well it's not the babysitting per say that bothers me. It's just that there's nothing to do. The dungeon doesn't want to seem to crap out any mongrels for us to occupy out time slaughtering and there is nothing to do while walking."
"What do you mean 'while walking?'. What else are you supposed to while simply walking." asked Tiona.
"Well, listening to music for one, and although there aren't any own here, a quick nip to any local convenient sto-"
"Music?" Interrupted Riveria.
"Um, yes." Garth said.
"How did you listen to music while walking?" asked Ais confused.
Those words brough Garth to a sudden stop as her words just sank in. The entire Loki Familia stopped with him as his abrupt pause in his heavy footsteps caught their attention. Garth appeared to have a faraway look of realization.
"Are you okay Garth? What's wrong?" asked Finn.
Garth buried his face in a palm and mumbled something.
"Huh?" was the collective question of everyone around him.
Garth lifted his face out of his hand and stared at them with a dazed look as well as a grin of excitement.
"Have you guys had many chances to hear music before?"
They all thought for a moment.
"Well we hear all kinds every time we visit the entertainment district." Finn said.
"We used to have plenty of music as well back in the elf forest. It was nice and soothing, meant to keep a melodious air during parties and the like." Riveria said. Lefiya nodded as well, having come from the same background.
"Well where I come from, we had many different opportunities to listen to music. And there were many different types as well that we were able to listen to at any given moment. There didn't need to be a band or anything playing nearby"
Everyone stared at him as if he were going off a little.
"How is that possible? If nobody is playing instruments, then how were you able to listen to music?" asked Ais.
Garth smirked and cast his eyes over them.
"Let me guess, another one of your secrets?" Finn said dryly.
"Yep. I'm not going to share the method...but I will show you. Anybody interested? It will cure the boredom if nothing else."
They stared at him confusedly before slowly nodding their heads. He'd shown them plenty of bizarre things before, so they were ready for something new now.
"Just give me a moment." Garth said as he held up a hand in front of him and closed his eyes.
What he was doing was activating Orlen again to grant another wish. Although he wasn't certain it would work, he was willing to give it a try. His friends watched as suddenly, something black, thin and metallic with a glass screen dropped in his hand. He opened his eyes and looked at the object before punching the air in triumph.
"RESULT! I didn't think it would work but it actually did. My old cellphone!"
The Loki Familia watched confusedly as he performed a little victory dance.
"Mind explaining what that is Garth?" Riveria asked.
He paused his celebrations for a moment to answer her.
"Think of this as a magic multi-task item from my homeland. It's used for a variety of things but one of the things I used it for was to listen to music whenever I was walking somewhere."
"That thing is an instrument?" Tione asked sceptically.
Garth shook his head. Because he had his back to them, they didn't see the screen come to life and him punching in his password to access his playlists.
"No Tione. This thing plays the sounds of the instruments as well as people's voices to create beautiful music we can bop along to."
"How?" Everybody asked. By then the rest of the group had caught up.
"Observe." Garth said as he cast a floating spell on the phone as well as a sound amplifying magic circle before he let it hover in front of them.
"This is one of my old favourites. Prepare to have your minds blown!"
Everybody suddenly went on the defensive. Seeing this, Garth laughed.
"Relax! Not literally, it was just an expression."
"What is it doing?" Ais asked as she kept her eyes on the weird object.
"It's going to play music for us. Just wait. The song is called, 'I'm Glad You Came'. You're going to love it."
(Cue song: I'm Glad You Came, song by The Wanted)
The sun goes down, the stars come out
And all that counts, is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came (Came, came, came)
The music amplified by the green magic circle permeated throughout the floor. To the adventurers, it seemed as if it were coming from the air around them but somehow they knew that it was actually coming from the weird device floating ahead of them above Garth.
"How is it doing that?!" Tiona asked, a little freaked out.
Finn levelled his spear at it.
"Explain yourself Garth. What is it doing?" He said also psyched out a little.
Everybody was staring in wonder at this tiny thing that was somehow projecting a man's voice in the form of song with a piano playing behind his voice.
"Like I said. It's from my homeland and it's a secret. Just relax and listen. You'll soon find it enjoyable. Just wait, it's getting to the best part!"
Garth tensed as he waited for the beat to drop. The moment it did, he began bopping his head to the tune and began briskly walking while moving his upper body in tandem with the flow of the music.
You cast a spell on me, spell on me
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me
And I decided you look well on me, well on me
So let's go somewhere no one else can see, you and me
Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can
Can you spend a little time,
Time is slipping away,
Away from us so stay,
Stay with me I can make,
Make you glad you came
His companions were taken aback by his sudden cheerful mood as he happily danced to the tune. They jumped a little as an onslaught of instrumental music just blasted out of the device and each beat seemed to bounce off the walls.
As the phone seemed to follow Garth's walking, they also followed, very confused and freaked out. But sure enough, they suddenly felt themselves overcome with an urge they'd never felt before.
Garth span around to face them with a grin on his hand still bopping. He cast his eyes over the vanguard and everyone following.
"Come on! You know you want to. Don't let yourselves be shackled by embarrassment. Just let it go."
The first to follow him was Tiona as she began bopping her head and swaying slightly from sight to side as she tried to imitate what Garth was doing. Her friends just looked at her weirdly.
But she paid no mind as she felt a foreign rush of excitement just fill her body and the urge to move her body more eventually overpowered her will to do otherwise.
"I'm liking this! It's weird but it's fun!" She said brightly, in an almost laughing manner as her comrades just stared at her. Garth just encouraged her.
"Atta girl! That's how you do it!" He said as he continued walking and dancing at the same time. He also began to sing along.
The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came
You cast a spell on me, spell on me
You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me
And I decided you look well on me, well on me
So let's go somewhere no one else can see, you and me
Turn the lights out now
Now I'll take you by the hand
Hand you another drink
Drink it if you can
Can you spend a little time,
Time is slipping away,
Away from us so stay,
Stay with me I can make,
Make you glad you came
The sun goes down
The stars come out
And all that counts
Is here and now
My universe will never be the same
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came
So glad you came
I'm glad you came
I'm glad you came
Some people in the back began mimicking her and also fell in rhythm as the same euphoria overcame them while they carried their packs. Some also began clapping like Lily who for some reason was really enjoying this strange music.
As the song put itself on repeat, eventually the rest of the Loki Familia barring Bete (typical) were at least bopping their heads to one The Wanted's best songs, at least in Garth's opinion.
Eventually the song finished and the company found themselves with their hearts racing a little and breathless.
"That was so cool!" Tiona gasped as she tried to grab the phone out of the air. But it floated out of her reach and she pouted at Garth as he smiled at her.
"No touching. And what did I tell you? You enjoyed it right?"
"It was certainly... a new experience. I'll say that much." Gareth stroked his beard and smiled.
"I would ask you again Garth, but I suppose you've made your point clear already." Finn said before nodding to the device. "What did you say it was called?"
"A cellphone."
"Right. Does it have any other songs?"
"Sure. Let me find one."
The phone floated into Garth's palm as he fiddled on the screen. But before he could do much, everybody heard the walls start cracking as monsters finally began emerging.
Kobolds and goblins fell out in swarms as well as dungeon lizards. It looked like the dungeon had finally acknowledged their presence.
"Well there are the monsters you so badly wanted Garth." Riveria gestured over to them.
"At last! About time they showed themselves." Tione bumped her fists together. "The music was enjoyable but I've really been wanting to pound some monster skulls in!"
"The sentiment is shared by everyone present." Said Garth as he finished tapping away on his phone. "But before we get to that, I've got a good tune to fight along to. Something perfect while we're bashing monster heads in."
"What?" They all asked, intrigued and amazed that he would even think about a song to fit battle.
"It's called 'Golden Wind'. Perfect for punches." Garth gestured to their closed fists.
(A.N. I don't really need to explain this song do I?)
The almighty OST began blaring out as the phone resumed floating in the air. Everyone watched as Garth held up both his closed fists and dove right into the hordes of hundreds that were headed their way.
Originally the numbers had the company nervous because of the sheer numbers. But as they saw monsters flying everywhere and exploding against walls in showers of blood and organs, they calmed down.
The vanguard were invigorated by the brutality and the twins dove right after him. Ais drew her new rapier and also rushed forwards, sending monster heads rolling everywhere as an absolute bloodbath ensued.
All the while, Garth restrained himself from saying the all too enticing word over and over again.
No...that treatment would be wasted on these low level monsters. He would save it for a time when he could fight a truly powerful with all his heart in the fight.
Until then, he was content blitzing around the dungeon floors and making monsters explode from his punches as he bathed in monster guts and their fear.
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