The Trio Back In The Dungeon - II
A period of absolute silence...
That was what followed after that certain short episode in the middle of the trio's supposedly merry-ish break from within the dungeon.
But despite knowing the reason for the sudden awkwardness in the atmosphere, Ash chose not to mind, looked the other way, and helped himself with the food as well.
Ignoring the still entranced Lefiya and the dodging eyes of the 'almost turned homo' Raul, he spoke while eyeing the both of them...
"Well? Let's continue eating, shall we? So we can go on with our little adventure..."
"..."
"..."
However, despite his words, no one seemed to hear him. Raising his head and looking back at them again still dazing,-
he faked a cough, loud enough that echoed through the gloomy walls of the dungeon, and was fortunate to nudge them back to reality...
"Ah... Aha... Ahahaha"
"..."
Successfully getting both of their attention, Raul was the first to react, scratching his head with his hand while forcing a laugh.
Lefiya on the other hand was still experiencing the aftereffect of Ash's bewitching face. The heat that resulted in her still blushing face hasn't subsided yet.
Although she was no longer gawking at him, she would often steal a glance at him while his attention was on the food.
When she thought that he didn't notice her peering eyes looking at her from time to time...
"Hmm? Do you have something to ask me Lefiya-san?"
Ash suddenly turned to her and met her eyes. He flashed a mesmerizing smile on his lips and asked.
"Ah- ah, no, nothing..."
---
Inner Area of the Upper Floor 1...
After having their fill and enough rest, the trio went on their way towards the inner area of the dungeon floor.
They slaughtered their way from the evolved goblins that they met on their path, although most of the work was done by Raul and Lefiya as a form of training.
One thing he noticed though was that the surrounding area was quite populated with monsters compared to the outer part.
And due to that, he decided not to keep his hands still anymore and kept the majority of the monsters at bay while letting the duo deal with a couple of them.
The monsters were mostly made up of evolved goblins but a couple of freaking rabid furry dog-faced monsters which were previously known as kobolds would seldom appear...
[*Appraising...
Species: War Kobolds
Level: 1
Dungeon Habitat: Upper Floor 1
Threat Level:
Extremely Dangerous for Level 1 and Level 2 adventurers.*]
[*Appraising...
Species: War Kobolds
Level: 1
Dungeon Habitat: Upper Floor 1
Threat Level:
Extremely Dangerous for Level 1 and Level 2 adventurers.*]
[*Appraising...*]
And as expected, similar to the goblins' changes that spawned from within the dungeon, the kobolds as well had evolved.
Compared to the previous kobolds he encountered outside of Orario, they had gone a bit more rabid looking while their physiques had gone quite bulkier and sturdier, and other than that...
*GRAAAWR!*
*Swoosh!~*
*ROAAAAR!*
'Hmm... their speed has increased compared to the ones I encountered in the past. Although, not that much.'
After containing and slaughtering the majority of the evolved goblins that had emerged along with the two that Lefiya and Raul are currently dealing with,-
Ash had come face to face with several kobolds that were currently dashing towards him from a distance...
*ROAAAAR!*
'Yeah~... the Evolved Goblins aside, there's no chance in hell for low-level adventurers to survive in this place even with a party-'
'...Unless of course if they have a level 3+ member that specializes in close quarters.'
While seeing the Kobolds getting closer and closer, Ash glanced towards Lefiya and Raul duo who were currently engaged in a fight against Goblins.
And seeing that they were about to finish the last enemies in front of them, Ash turned back towards the fast approaching Kobolds.
He was already preparing to draw his sword and was planning to finish the kobolds in short order when...
[*New Quest:
Duration: --
Description:
Monsters in the upper floor 1...
With the sudden changes and the rapid development in the Dungeon. The Guild's information about the monsters and the dungeon itself is getting outdated.
Help them out by gathering the following information:
1. Evolved Goblins:
-Detailed information
-Threat Level
-Weakness
2. War Kobolds
-Detailed information
-Threat Level
-Weakness
Rewards:
*System Exp - 100
*System Points - 500*]
[*... Notice... You've received a new quest...*]
A window suddenly popped out of the corner of his eyes followed by the usual mechanical voice of Wise notifying him of a new quest.
After reading the texts, Ash just shrugged his shoulders and thought...
'Well... might as well do it. This information should be useful to newbies and low-level adventurers as well.'
He already gathered enough information from the Goblins since their first encounter and imparted what he gathered to the duo.
This in fact allowed them to handle a certain number of Goblins efficiently and swiftly despite their faults.
In other words, the quest is already half done. The only thing left is to do an analysis on the kobolds that are already in front of him and gauge their strengths...
*Swoosh!~*
*GRAAAWR!*
While he was in the middle of his own thoughts, a kobold was already mid-air. Pouncing on him with its mouth open showing its sharp fangs while outstretching its claws on him...
*Bang!*
*Gurghk...*
Since a quest about gathering information about monsters suddenly popped up all of a sudden, he didn't want to slay the kobolds right away.
That's why instead of using his sword, he relied on using his good ol' fist to toy with them around for a bit...
*ROAAAAR!*
*Swoosh!~*
After giving the first kobold who pounced on him a taste of his fist and was sent back, crashing on the cold and dull ground with a whimpering sound,-
another came to his side and attempted to take a bite at him but Ash was able to dodge by taking a slight step back and...
*Bang!*
*Grawghk!*
*Crack!*
An axe kick suddenly came, hitting its back cleanly with his heel. Poor ugly kobold was smashed and got embedded to the ground, cracking it.
*GRRRR!*
*GROOOOAR!*
While both the kobolds are down for the count, Ash then turned to the last one who was still dashing towards him using its four limbs.
He didn't wait for it to get close to him but swiftly dashed towards it instead. He was so fast that it almost looked like he flickered to the kobold's face and...
*GRAAW-!*
*Bang!*
Gave it a knee right at its face. It could only whimper as if feeling pain when it was launched tumbling back, crashing against the dungeon wall until it limply fell down...
*Thud*
'Hmm... Their strength isn't that much stronger than that of the evolved Goblins. It's just that they're much more agile...'
'Still, I can't say much since I don't really belong in the ordinary adventurer's category even if it's just my stats.'
He's still finding it hard to hard to gauge their strengths and how much they had improved since even the fact that he held the majority of his overall raw physical strength,-
it was still a one-sided beatdown seeing the kobolds who were still currently on the ground grunting and growling in pain.
'But still, though, it would be a different matter if we consider their quantity... I guess I'll try another round with them and held back a bit mo-'
"Ash-san, do you need any help!?"
He was once again occupied in his own thought after the short exchange with the kobolds but was interrupted by a sudden feminine yell which he recognized as Lefiya.
Seeing that they had successfully slain their fair share of the monsters, specifically the evolved goblins, and were currently just collecting the drops and magic crystals from the monsters...
"Nope, I got it here. Just continue collecting the drops..." he answered.
And upon hearing that, Raul and Lefiya just turned towards each other and shrugged.
"Seeing him as carefree and calm just that, we don't need to worry about him Lefiya... as for me, I need to take a breather..." Raul stated.
Back to Ash's side, on the other hand, he continued to play around with the Kobolds but this time, held back his strength compared to earlier...
*GROOOOAR!*
*Bang!*
*GRAAW-!*
*Bang!*
*Bang!*
*Grawghk!*
*Crack!*
With the pitiful wailings of the kobolds and the dull sound of hits from Ash's fist, the duo couldn't help but feel a slight pity for the monsters that were currently being tortured.
It went on for quite some time until they couldn't hear the violent sounds of wailing and hitting anymore.
When both of their heads jerked towards where Ash was, they both saw him strangely stretching out his palms towards the ground...
"What's he doing right now?" Raul asked seeing Ash's strange behavior.
Lefiya on the other hand didn't answer right away until...
"Wait, what's that?"
She suddenly muttered a question in a soft and low tone at that same time she saw a faint white light darting out from his palms.
And not a second later, she saw something that resembles a pebble exuding a faint purple brilliance hovering and suddenly darting swiftly towards his palm and suddenly disappearing to thin air.
'Could it be that he can use magic with a spatial attribute?'
She couldn't help but widen her eyes and suddenly thought of those books she usually reads with her mentor.
Although, what she didn't know was it was Ash doesn't have that kind of magic and it was just the work of his storage ring...
'Perhaps I could ask him about it...'
"What's what Lefiya?"
Lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard Raul's question and couldn't help but to turn towards him...
'It would be impolite for me to talk about this to someone when Ash-san himself didn't talk about it to us...'
She was about to tell Raul about what she saw but decided against it. She knew how rare that type of magic is.
And with that type of magic, once out in the open would incur the greed, envy, and any other vile desires of the people of Orario, much more so the Gods...
"Nothing..." Lefiya answered him while shaking her head.
Ash on the other hand didn't know that one of his secrets has been discovered due to his slight carelessness.
He was also occupied in his thoughts while collecting the magic crystals from the kobolds he had just slain.
And when he collected all of them, he finally turned towards the duo who were currently engaged in a conversation before speaking...
"Anyway, are you both okay? Do you need to take a break again?"
Hearing his voice, the duo turned back towards him and said...
"I guess I'm good to go... that small break was enough"
"I'm the same..."
Ash nodded to the both of them and said, "Well, let's go then..."
The trio once more resumed their adventure, although they agreed to only explore the upper floor one for now.
With Lefiya and Raul continuing to fight the monsters to get stronger,-
Ash on the other hand was enjoying the time pummeling the poor monsters to the ground while also collecting further information about the monsters.
Their adventure went for another couple of hours until they decided that it was enough for the day and returned back to the surface.