127 It is the one behind you

It had been few months since Fusion Souls left Doran village in further pursuit of more dungeons.

"Jue from the left!" said Ryu as he threw the dagger in the path of escaping creature which looked like a bull with the face of a horse canine in its mouth,

"Yes, big brother' Jue replied as he punched the side of escaping creature,

The creature rolled over and, in its rage and confusion, rushed towards Aiena, who stood near the exit of the room,

"Not this soon," Rafa said as she punched the face of the monster before it could reach Aiena.

The creature that got thrown back shook his head and started emitting a deadly aura,

'That must be [Beast Rage] skill it got,' Ryu thought, and Rafa asked Jue,

"Jue, can I kill this? You can have the next boss" she wasn't sure she could deflect it in this mode while saving Aiena,

"Yes… Rafa sister," Jue said, although he looked a bit disappointed. The creature opened its mouth wide and neighed as it rushed towards Rafa, who pulled the sword gracefully,

Rafa bent on her back as the creature neared her and, in a snap, rebounded with the sword in her hand, stabbing right in the middle of the creature's chest.

"Finally, done!!" Ryu moved toward the dungeon core, and Jue sat right on the ground, feeling exhausted.

"This dungeon boss seemed weaker than the last one," Jue commented as he felt it was getting easier killing the dungeon boss. So far, he has only killed four himself,

"Still be cautious, Jue… that Targan looked scary," said Aiena with a look of worry as she felt Jue was overdoing himself, and then turning to Rafa, she spoke,

"Thank you, Rafa sister, you saved me," although Aiena used to call Rafa as it is. Recently Rafa's personality was changing and made Aiena feel as if Rafa was a reliable big sister,

"Aiena is my sister," Rafa replied and just patted Aiena's head, who blushed, embarrassed, feeling like a kid.

"With this, it is already 13 dungeons," Ryu said as he showed everyone the dungeon core and sat near Aiena, and Rafa, who was sitting on the other side, put her head on Ryu's lap and spoke in a childish tone,

"My payment," and Ryu began patting her head as he thought,

'I shouldn't have made that payment reference…' and sighed, reminiscing how he explained to Rafa the analogy of service by telling her that her getting a pat for doing a good job is also like a payment for a service,

'Sometimes she acts mature, and the next moment she wants pat.'

"Big brother, which dungeon will we go to next!!" Jue asked with enthusiasm-filled eyes,

"we will go to the dungeon on the opposite side from this one now. It has a village nearby." Ryu replied as he scanned Jue once for status.

(Level-24

Title- [One hit 10 KO]

Blessing- [Blessing of Valore God-B]

Skills- [Silent stepping I], [Inhibition], [Mud Wall], [Ground loosing], [Gravel claw], [Smash II], [Arm strengthening V], [Slash], [Gravel shot], [Ground solidification], [Swing boost], [Poison resist II], [Quick Slash], [Piston Smash], [Short Blade spin], [Stone Wall], [Leg strengthening VI], [Lance swipe], [Flicker], [Vital sense]

Salvaged Skill- [Ground bound], [scaly shield])

'Why did he never get a useless skill!?' Ryu thought as he further examined the new title. He noticed in Jue's stats and was shocked at the Title's effect,

[Title- One hit 10 KO: the title rewarded to someone who kills ten enemies in one attack consecutively by the effect of the title user gets a slight boost in speed for a small duration of time after a one-hit kill stacks up to 4 times]

'Nice, now I know what I need to do!!' thought Ryu as he read the title's information. It was easy to attain and had a great effect.

"Ryu, are we going to stop at any village on the way?" Aiena asked, and Ryu replied,

"There is a village in the way, but…." Ryu said till here, and saw Aiena's lips curl down a bit even though she was trying to hide it. Ryu slightly nudged Jue with his elbow, who spoke,

"Big brother, I want to stop at Village. My knuckles are damaged…." Jue said as he showed his knuckles, and Ryu thought,

'Nice, he is doing well at picking up signs,'

"I guess then it is a necessity to stop," Ryu grinned,

'Ryu is always like this' Aiena smiled because even though Ryu and Jue thought no one saw the nudge, Aiena did, and she knew why exactly Ryu did that,

'He did not want to make it obvious we are taking a detour because of me' she felt happy with her little brother's concern and care for her as she smiled brightly as she would finally be able to take a proper bath at the village,

"I want more payment," Rafa said, and Ryu patted her more,

"Big brother, I have heard Targan's canines are good for making daggers from an old man in more village," Jue said as he pointed towards the dead body of Targan

"Jue, you talk with people a lot," Ryu replied as he felt awed at Jue's social capabilities, who made many friends in the villages. They stopped,

Aiena moved toward Targan's dead body with a small dagger in her hand,

Even though Ryu and Jue insisted on learning to dismantle so Aiena wouldn't have. However, she still insisted on being the party's dismantler too.

'I can do at least this much… when Ryu and Jue put themselves in front of monsters, ' Aiena thought. It would be nonsensical for a typical party to have a Healer, one of the rare types of adventurers, do dismantling, as healers themselves were too proud of doing petty works such as dismantling.

After half an hour, the dismantling was appropriately done, Aiena put all the tooths in a pouch, and Fusion souls prepared to exit the dungeon,

"Rafa sister, wake up…. Rafa sister!!" Ryu shouted as he felt his leg going numb due to the weight of Rafa's head on the thigh,

'You asked for it,' Ryu thought as he used [Cold hand] skill on his finger and put it on Rafa's neck as he shouted again,

"Wake up, Rafa sister!!"

"It is Rafa, big sister!!" Rafa, who just woke up due to feeling cold over her neck, spoke as she pouted, and Ryu, Jue, and Aiena began to laugh seeing her expression. Rafa didn't get what they were laughing at, but soon she too started laughing,

"You really are confusing big sister Rafa," Ryu said as they began exiting the dungeon,

"Jue, you sure you can carry all the meat along?" Ryu asked as he looked at Jue, who was holding all the meat from Targan tied with a string by Aiena while dismantling,

"Yes, big brother, this much is nothing!!" Jue replied, holding the meat high, flexing his strength, trying to look cool, but Ryu just thought,

'Hehe, how lucky I am to have a younger brother who will willingly do annoying work,' seeing his smile, Jue thought Ryu was happy with him.

As they neared the end of the dungeon, Ryu detected something with his [Instantaneous Detection],

"Everyone hide," he said in a low voice, and the Fusion souls tried their best to blend into the dungeon,

*

"No one believed me, but I am sure this is the dungeon those paladins are visiting this time!!" a macho-looking knight talked to himself as he moved forward inside the dungeon,

"Ohh great Garlock, please let us be your aid!! This is how those losers at barracks will act when I am done with this paladin," he talked in the air, particularly to no one basking in his self-praise.

"After all, no matter what kind of Paladins they are… they are nothing before a level 40 knight!!" he spoke, grinning; he was not a high-ranking knight. Much less, he was serving more than a door watcher at Lord Hati's house until he heard a strange conversation.

"The lord is wasting money on those stupid assassins. I will give him what he needs and get a promotion!!" he spoke laughing, not knowing he was giving out important information to someone who lay ahead in his path,

Suddenly the Knight felt a shadow pass by his eyes and turned back,

"Are you the one bugging my Lord!!" he roared at a young adventurer wearing a blue jacket, who smiled charmingly as he spoke,

"It is not me, great knight" the Knight felt stupefied for a second, hearing the sarcastic tone, and felt rage surging inside, but before he could speak further, the guy threw a dagger fast towards him.

"It is the one behind you!!" the adventurer shouted in a voice filled with an emergency. Knight was compelled to turn his back, and as soon as he did it, a punch came rushing into his face.

"Got him!!" the voice entered his ear as he fell to the floor unconscious,

-To be continued,