Chapter 24: Continuing Exploration

With the golem blinded, it felt like taking candy from a baby.

It was shooting rocks in random locations, desperately trying to hit me, but I felt no more danger without its extreme accuracy.

I walked around, dodging the occasional rocks that flew in my direction while gathering mana in my index and middle finger.

Timing it correctly, I released the lightning bolt before it could overload and explode in my face.

As the lightning traveled through the air, I followed behind it with Gon by my waist as if it was in a sheath.

Right when the lightning struck the core, I quickly responded by swinging Gon as if drawing it out from the sheath. Hitting all the white dots that Kimi allowed me to see, I was finally able to hear the sound of mana dissipating from the lifeless rock body.

After it fell to its knees — like magnets were turned off, all the rock pieces that made up the golem broke apart from each other and rolled away.

"Good try," I sarcastically comforted the defeated boss.

I walked over to the side of the room opposite the entrance and watched as a secret compartment in the wall slowly revealed itself.

"There it is," I said, with a satisfied smile on my face.

Inside was a red pill that had this refreshing smell resembling that of a freshly ripe apple.

'Careful,' I told myself as I gently picked it up with my fingers. Placing it in this vial I had prepared beforehand, I stuffed it into my pocket and left the hidden room.

As I stepped out, the entrance to the hidden room closed up and after I inserted the stone block that I had removed before, nobody would've been able to notice that there was in fact a destroyed golem on the other side of this wall.

Returning to the Three Stooges who were arguing about something, I rolled my eyes and told them, "I've been gone for less than fifteen minutes and you guys are already fighting. What is it this time?"

Francis looked at me and began explaining with this tone as if expecting me to be on his side of the argument, "Bell, shouldn't someone who relies on daggers as their weapon be willing to attack in the front?"

"Francis," Jess called his name, annoyed, "just because I use close-range weapons, that doesn't mean I need to be fighting close-range. I don't specialize in a quick in-and-out fighting style."

"Then why bother using daggers if you're just going to keep your distance? You make my job as a tank more difficult because I have to adapt to your unusual fighting style," Francis explained his frustrations. "Why don't you use a bow like Cormier so you can deal damage from a safe distance?"

Cormier who was quietly in his own world was dragged into the middle of the argument. "Hey, don't make being an archer sound like it's so easy. Do you understand that I'm also dealing with enemy archers as well? I have to avoid those attacks while also covering up your weak sides. All you have to do is hold your shield and occasionally swing your sword."

It was a healthy conversation to have because it was dangerous to have these feelings of confusion or annoyance pent up inside especially when you're in battle.

It was better to have it now when we were safely resting.

After letting this go on for a little longer, allowing the three of them to explain their perspective on their role, I told the three of them, "Alright, we can argue about this later. If we argue any longer, we won't be able to explore the next floor."

Only after reminding them that did the three of them begin to pick up their equipment and prepared to head down the stairs.

I thought once we began heading out, the argument would stop. But once Francis let out a deep sigh to show his emotions, the ball began rolling again.

Five minutes later, still arguing about how the others had it easier than they did as we were making our way to our next destination, I lost my cool and said, "Hey. Unless you guys want to die in the future because you're too thick-headed to treat this seriously then I recommend you guys get out of this dungeon."

I didn't yell but to them, it must've felt like I had done so because the expression on their faces looked like I had blasted them with a shotgun blast.

Seeing as they opened their mouth to say something but changed their mind, I let out a deep sigh.

"I understand that we're in a beginner-friendly dungeon and I'm with you three. But that doesn't mean you can take it easy. We're here to get practice and learn to work together as a team in preparation for harder dungeons. That means you three must treat everything here seriously and act like we're a few steps away from death because who knows... in these kinds of places, death can always be around the corner," I reminded them.

After an audible collective gulp was made, the three of them looked at me and said simultaneously, "Sorry."

And the looks on their faces changed as they concentrated on the "dangers" ahead of them rather than the argument that they were just in.

'It's good these three listen to me,' I thought to myself, shaking my head as I stood behind them.

If they didn't listen to me then one of them was bound to lose a finger or an ear because they were too caught up in their feelings rather than being dialed into the battlefield.

The first floor consisted of goblins that were spread out very thinly so at most, you would encounter a group of three.

The second floor down the dungeon was also goblins but it was more common to see groups of five or six and occasionally they'd reach double-digits.

On the third floor, the one that the four of us were on, the goblins weren't alone as they were working together with slimes.

That doesn't sound scary because most earthlings think of slimes as the weakest creature you'd find in a fantasy world but over here, that wasn't the case.

Slimes' relationship with other monsters is often times mutualism.

For example, the Three Stooges had to deal with goblins that were wearing body armor made up of slime that made it harder for physical damage to affect them.

When a goblin swings its weapon at you, there's also the chance that the slime transfers itself over to you and activates its dissolving nature, and tries to melt your arm off.

So although the trio had to work even better as a group to cover up for each other's mistakes, individually they had to be even more perfect because their attacks needed to be maximized otherwise they wouldn't be able to deal with the enemies.

"Alright you three, that'll be all for today. Congratulations, you can leave now," I told them.

With a collective sigh of relief, the three of them began packing up their things.

"I'm going to clean up the rest of this floor. I'll see you guys outside."

Watching as they ran up the stairs before I could "change my mind", I shook my head.

They were Third Class students so I wasn't expecting much from them for their first time dealing with monsters but I was rather impressed by how much growth they demonstrated with each battle.

They weren't talented by any means nor did I think they would get promoted to Second Class any time soon but I truly believed from the bottom of my heart that all three of them were bound to become someone in the future.

There was no hidden room on the third floor. I wasn't going to clean up the monsters either; obviously, I was lying.

But, there is a hidden room on the fifth floor and as I was making my way over to it, I dealt with the hobgoblins that each had the combined strength of ten goblins.

Rather than slimes, the hobgoblins were working together with dire wolves and some were riding them like cavalry.

It wasn't particularly a walk in the park but the fact that I was able to deal with them without needing to resort to using any of my codes or my artifacts shows just how vast the talent gap between the Third Class and the First Class was.

Yes, Bell Agnus is a Second Class for the moment but the reality is still that he belonged in the next tier above.

Rather than a stone block that I could remove from the wall, the way to access the hidden room on the fifth floor was by falling down a trap.

Looking carefully, inspecting for traps like a professional thief, I found the odd block on the ground. "There it is."

Putting on my expensive pair of glasses, I took a deep breath and purposely activated the trap by stepping on the block.

As the floor opened up and I began plummeting toward a bunch of poisonous spikes capable of killing any amateur adventurer too stupid to inspect their surroundings, I stopped my descent by stabbing Gon into the wall.

After the hole above me closed up, I was left in this pit that was intended to be completely dark.

Hanging on my sword with one arm, the other arm reached for the vial in my pocket and after taking off the cap, I poured the pill into my mouth, swallowing it.

After a while, I began to hear these voices.

They started off as distant whispers that could be mistaken for gusts of wind but after a while, the voices sounded like they were next to me.

"I should've hired a rogue to help me with traps."

"Has my wife moved on? Please don't. I'll be back. I promise."

"How could I fall for such a trap? It was so obvious."

"Did I leave my stove on?"

"Why me? On average, only one person dies in this dungeon every month. Why me?"

"Why didn't I listen to her? I should've just stayed home with the kids instead of trying to become a famous adventurer."

"I can't believe I died to spikes. I should've died an honorable way."

"I think I left my stove on."

These were the voices of the adventurers that had fallen victim to this trap.

Ignoring these ghosts, I was trying to listen for a specific voice.

It was hard to differentiate anything as so many people were speaking at the same time but eventually, I did find what I was looking for.

It sounded like a little child and it repeated a question over and over, "What has one voice but goes on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?"

This was a riddle that the shitty god blatantly ripped off from the Sphinx.

I answered, "It's a human being. They crawl on all four as a baby, walk on two legs as an adult, and when they're old, they walk with a cane."

The voice of the child went silent for a little bit before responding, "Thank you. I've been trying to find the answer for so long. Thank you."

I watched as the spikes slowly retracted until the pit had a flat floor for me to land on.

"Don't mind if I do," I said, pulling Gon out of the wall.