Mice Field

In the morning, Claire woke up at three thirty. 

She finished bathing and rushed out in only fifteen minutes. Zayne was ready. 

Together they teleported to the Slime dungeon. Claire did not fly out immediately. 

" Wait a moment here. " She asked Zayne. 

The slime dungeon had refreshed, and there were new slimes at the first gate. 

The moment she stepped her foot through the gate, an invisible energy attacked her ankle. She floated immediately. Ten metal needles formed in her hand, they rushed towards the nucleus of the slimes she could see. 

There were fifty slimes, and she killed about ten of them immediately. But the white lights of skills emerging from the slime are immediately absorbed by the other slimes rather than coming to her. 

She activated true eyes immediately. 

The shape of the slimes changed terribly. While the slimes are only sticking to the ground, there is a crescent shaped sickle in all bodies, counting from one to three. It was like a question mark hanging above the slime. When the slime rolled, some times, this question mark sickle rolled along with the slime, yet others could move the sickle freely. 

She retrieved all the needles, and let them go once more. 

This time, she could clearly see. The one bladed sickles got white lights from one bladed sickle and turned to two bladed slimes. Two bladed slimes were the same, and turned into three bladed slimes .. so on and so forth. 

As she kept killing, the final slime was formed with ten blades. Two of those sickles are used to stand, while eight of those sickles moved freely on the body fo the slime, and it could even throw a three bladed gigantic shuriken wind blade trying to slice her into two. If she had not had flight, she would be cut into minced meat. 

This time around, she threw all her needles, followed by an adamantine dagger. 

All the needles were deflected by the slime. Fortunately, instead of parrying the dagger, the slime tried to block the adamantine dagger. Only, the dagger cut clean through the sickle, going straight into the slime's neucleus, bisecting it into two. 

Two skills flew to her. 

One is the expected sickle. 

[ Sickle ] 

[ can form a sickle shaped blade with energy. ] 

[ Blade manipulation ] 

[ a blade's blunt edge could be used just as well as its sharp edge. Manipulate the blunt and sharp edges of a blade freely. ] 

Once again, these skills are basic skills. At the same time, these skills grow with her as her understanding of them grows. Sickle could be fused with shape manipulation, and changed into any blade. While she would never be as powerful as Zayne who could probably kill a C level creature right away with a single spell, she can confidently say there's no beast she can't survive against. 

She walked in. 

There is only a boss room. She held Zayne's hand, stepped out. While she can get into the dungeon from anywhere, she could only return to the place she had been at from the dungeon. As such, to get to Caspian, they need to fly. 

They flew straight to Caspian, who was waiting for her on the night beach, staring into nothing. 

He turned around, with a pleasant expression on his face, or what could be counted as a pleasant expression for Caspian. The moment he saw Zayne, his aura congealed. 

" Why is he here ? " he hissed, pointing at Zayne. 

" The more the merrier ! " Claire offered dryly. 

It felt like meeting an old boyfriend and new boyfriend. Given both sides' emotional intelligence did not cross minimum age even when added together, she decided to just drag them both as spares till they matured a little. 

No matter whose pursuit she accepts, they are all in the same boat. So, the earlier they fight and make up, the better it is for their team work. 

" I alone is more than enough to conquer the dungeon. " Zayne snapped back, looking like a demon king, then turned to Claire, and gave her a puppy dog look. 

The speed of changing expressions took the words ' double standards ' to a new height. 

" Please get along. We run the risk of being attacked by the Reapers, as well as N base adventurers. We can not afford to have internal strife, no matter how small. " she added, her words leaving no room for discussion. 

Both Caspian and Zayne calmed down. 

" Today's mission is just to see if we can clear the mouse field all by ourselves. If we can not clear the mousefield, I will return with Zayne, and Caspian, you will return by yourself. " she stated. No dissension this time. 

" Let's go. We will teleport in two minutes after four. " Claire said. 

They both nodded in answer. Claire teleported them to Slime dungeon, then they both held Caspian's hands. Next moment, they were opening their eyes in a wheat field which was going through an early morning. 

One second is not even over after they entered, the rats were already rushing to bite at their ankles. As soon as her feet touched the dungeon floor, Claire floated up a foot and a half, and along with herself, she floated Zayne. Caspian could fend for himself just fine. 

Once she's up in the air, she lets loose on her ability. While many think flash's most powerful move is how fast one can run, its true power lies in how fast it lets one switch between spells. 

She levitated the first rat that chose to attack them, Zayne let out a minuscule fireball the size of a rat's eye impaling it directly. Despite its quarter marble sized appearance, she knew the fireball is more than powerful. 

The rat fell limp in the air, she brought it to herself, tossed it in the bamboo basket she brought. However, that's only for the eyes of Caspian. In reality, she absorbed the rat straight into the slime ring. 

After that, the hunting has fallen into a rhythm. Claire floated up a rat, Zayne fired, then she tossed it into her bamboo basket. 

The speed is so fast, within ten seconds, they killed hundred rats. However, here lies the toughness of Mice Field. There are thousands and more mice on the field. When they form a rat tide, they can pile up to reach the sky. 

This is why it's a dungeon meant for a party. 

" Claire ! Let's up the ante. " Zayne said all of a sudden. 

" How ? … " Claire wondered. 

" float the maximum number of mice you can at the same time. " Zayne answered. 

Claire nodded in answer. 

" alright. " 

Despite saying that, she did not go all out. First, she raised ten rats at the same time. Despite being called mice, these rats are the size of cats, their body is foot long and almost as thick. If their tail is added on, they cross two feet in length. 

She entered a meditative state, taking a seat mid air, almost at six feet height, far above the wheat crop that's undulating gently in the fields. 

The rats rose above, a few were killed by Caspian, which she left to him, the rest, which were killed by Zayne, were summoned to her and placed in the slime ring, while she pretended to place them in the bamboo basket. Despite this pretense being very flimsy, she just kept it up. 

Once ten were killed, she doubled the number. When those are killed just as fast, she doubled it once more. As they progressed, they evened out at around a hundred. Claire put them all the slime ring. 

Onwards ! 

As they cleared half the dungeon's mobs, the rats started running from them. This is one of the well documented dungeons. 

The next part is the rat tide. 

" pull back ! " Caspian ordered. 

Claire wordlessly pulled back herself and Zayne. 

The rats piled atop one another, they started coming for Zayne and Claire like a tsunami. 

"Wave swirl, " Caspian called out. 

The rats were piled into a hill, from top of which they jumped straight for the throats of the people. Now, a plume of water went straight for this hill, destabilizing it from the base, then forming a gigantic whirlpool, which turned black with how many of these mice were in there. 

A black red sword appeared in Zayne's hands, which inserted halfway into this water tornado, and held steady. In a few seconds, the entire tornado turned blood red. The red started flowing half into Zayne's sword, the other half into Caspian. 

They only had a respite of a second before the rabid rats emerged from the depths of the mice field. A rabid rat swung its cursed claw straight at Zayne's back despite them retreating as soon as the rat tide was killed. She floated Zayne out of the field, but it was a real close brush. 

It's only after she retreated along with Zayne that Claire noticed that the blood that floated to Caspian had been divided into sixteen different water balls. These water balls are floating in the air. At the same time, sixteen blackish liquid balls started floating around him. The moment she saw that bottle, she knew Caspian was going to put cheese in the trap. The black orbs entered water balls. The rabid rats swallowed the blood balls whole.

Caspian started flitting around the field atop a water wave. This water wave worked like a moving slime, atop which Caspian moved like surfing. The skill looked mana intensive. 

Time passed… 

The rabid rats showed no signs of being poisoned !