Part 74

Once the fire around me was reduced to nothing, I looked around me and turned my attention to the deep dwarves. Only a few of them died in the first half of the fight, where I struggled to keep my eye on my surroundings. These few only had a few injuries on their bodies, though all of the other dwarves had been burned to ash.

There had been fourteen deep dwarves in the group, which gave me 7,000 XP. While this was a lot, it was nowhere near enough for me to level up.

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Level: 9

XP: 15,460.65/25,600

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"Another ten thousand XP," I groaned as I looked at my XP bar. Then, once I closed my status, I turned back to the dwarves above me and waved my hand. Most of them were looking at me in disbelief, while a few others had giant smiles on their faces. I wasn't sure if they were impressed, greedy, or surprised. I turned my attention to Askalaad, who was one of the ones that looked baffled, and yelled, "Go on without me! Icarus should be back soon!"

Akaslaad stared at me for a moment before quickly nodding. He turned to the other soldiers, then said, "Let's go, men. We still have a bet to win. Let's not let Arthur beat us!"

"As if," I muttered silently as I turned my gaze back to the top of the mine. The dwarves, even though a few of them were still too surprised to talk, turned their attention away from me and continued to climb up. As I looked past the dwarves, I began to notice movement in the darkness of the mine. The moving object was small, barely the size of a dot in the distance, but it was fast.

I smiled as I saw the object drop to the ground. Not long after the dwarves noticed the high-speed object, a loud call erupted from the moving object. It was the call of a bird, just deeper and more fierce.

"Hello, Icarus," I muttered as the moving object quickly sped past the dwarves. A few of them gripped against the mine and brought their bodies closer to the wall. One of them even gasped in surprise as he felt a gust of wind slam against his back once Icarus zoomed past him.

Icarus let out another call as he turned toward me. Then, once he exited the mine, he used all four of his wings to push against the ground, slowing him down enough to safely land on the stone floor.

"Good job," I whispered to Icarus as he walked up to me. Icarus nudged his neck against my leg, his eyes closed as I turned my attention to the dwarves above me, "It looks like I win!"

I smiled as Icarus opened his eyes and flew into the air. He first circled around me, then easily picked up my body as he turned his attention to the mine above us. I felt my feet lift off of the ground, then my cape wave back and forth as we rose into the mine. The dwarves watched us fly with frustrated expressions on their faces, though Askalaad only looked at me with a calm expression.

I turned my attention away from Askalaad as Icarus flew through the darkness. Eventually, once we were far enough from the dwarves, I used『 Morph 』to transform into my dragon body. Icarus quickly let go of me as flames covered my body, then moved away from me to grant me enough space to make the transformation successful.

Once my body was the size I wanted it to be, I began to hover. I turned my attention to Icarus, then nodded. Icarus and I began to fly up to the top of the mine as we increased the distance between the dwarves and ourselves.

I wanted to create a way to spy on the dwarves as we left them, but I was, unfortunately, unable to do that. Had they been in my dungeon, then yes, it was possible. However, now that we had left the dungeon, that wasn't an option anymore.

It took us about seven minutes to reach the top of the mine. Hazel was there, waiting for us, as she lazily dangled her legs over the edge of the mine's entrance. Once we saw her, both Icarus and I slowed down, then flew to the cliff. I used『 Morph 』to change back into my human form before I landed, just so I didn't have to show the cliff the weight my dragon form was capable of.

I landed safely, though I stumbled for a moment as Icarus landed at my side. Icarus continued to hover in the air for a moment before landing between Hazel and me.

"Let's go back," I said to Hazel, "The dwarves won't be up here for another day or so."

Hazel nodded, then stood up and turned her body toward me. She brushed off her hands for a moment before walking toward Icarus and me as I created a portal back to the dungeon. We were going in a few days early, but I believed we were gone for long enough.

Hazel stopped at my side as the portal opened, revealing the familiar boss room of the dungeon behind it. Once the bottom edge of the portal began to flicker against the stone cave floor, Hazel and I walked through. Icarus followed behind us, but quickly zoomed through the boss room as soon as he recognized it. Aros sat on the throne, watching the portal with great interest.

"I see you're back," Aros said as the portal closed behind us. He stood up, then bowed. As soon as he moved, both Hazel and Icarus moved away from us and began to make their way down the staircase into the castle.

"Yes, we are," I replied as I looked back to Aros, "How have the twins been?"

"Neither of them has succeeded in learning how to condense their physical forms," Aros said. His voice sounded disappointed, "But they are getting close. Another week of practice should allow them to succeed. How has the trip been?"

"It's been exciting," I smiled as I began to walk down the stairs. Aros followed behind me as he kept close to my shoulder, "I will go back in a few days to regroup with some dwarves we found along the way. If everything works out between us and them, then I may be able to convince them to serve me. They can be my warriors."

"Warriors? Are your Kobolds and Salamanders not enough?" Aros asked, "They are able to respawn, after all."

"Yes, but the『 Respawn 』skill is only activated while inside of a dungeon," I replied, "I don't want to be worried about replacing fallen soldiers. It'll slow down the dungeon's construction. Instead, I can have my own forces defend, while I use others to attack. Have we had many intruders?"

"Another group has begun to camp just outside the entrance," Aros answered, "The other two groups have yet to leave, so the encampment outside of the entrance has gotten large. None of the groups have started working together, though one of the groups lost a member just the other day."

"Lost a member? How?" I asked, "Did they die?"

"No. I'm sorry, but we are unable to find them," Aros said, confusing me, "Silfang has been using scouts to keep me updated with the surface, but the adventurer that managed to disappear hasn't left the dungeon, yet."

I nodded, then opened my status window. I turned my head to the dungeon panel, then quickly began to surf through the map. Thousands of Kobolds, each giving off a blue glow, poked out at me like stars. There were a few dots of red belonging to one of the adventurer groups that were camped outside.

I continued to search through the first floor for another few seconds until I found it. A red dot, almost like a lonely vessel on an empty ocean.

"Your missing adventurer is camped out in one of the corners of the floor," I told Aros, who nodded as he listened, "It looks like they were separated from their main group and ended up walking further into the dungeon."

"Further? They didn't turn around?" Aros muttered, confused.

"How were they separated from their group?" I asked Aros.

"They were surrounded. When they were fighting one of the Kobold groups, they were overrun and decided to retreat. On their way back, they ran into a second group," Aros explained, "One of the Kobolds managed to injure the group's healer, which caused most of the adventurers to run away. The one that got separated from their group stayed behind and got blocked off."

"So they ran down the wrong tunnel when they retreated?" I muttered.

Aros nodded. As I thought about the separated adventurer, I first thought about killing them. They were too far away from the entrance to escape, so why even bother keeping them alive if they didn't give me DP. However, as I thought about it, I had another idea.

"I want to see if there are other ways to gain DP. Capture the adventurer," I said, "Keep them alive."

"Where should we keep them?" Aros asked.

"Silfang's boss room," I replied, "Have her watch the adventurer. If we can get DP by keeping people contained, then I may make a prison."

Aros nodded. We reached the bottom of the stairs a few seconds later and walked into the entryway to the castle. Even though the castle was large and grand, specifically because I created it down to the specific details, it felt empty. The halls didn't have any workers to clean them, the rooms didn't have anybody to live in them, and the lounges didn't have anybody to relax in them.

"Where are the twins?" I asked as I turned to Aros.

"They're in the training room," Aros answered, "That's where they've been over the last few days. They don't appear to need food or rest thanks to the dungeon."

"In the training room, got it," I said as I turned back to the entryway, "You can return to your duties."

"As you wish," Aros said as he bowed once more. He turned around and walked back up the stairs, leaving me alone. I quickly opened my map, then looked through the castle's long corridors. Hazel and Icarus were walking through one of the hallways as they walked around some of the rooms. Hazel hadn't yet explored the castle yet, so both of them were exploring. The twins were in the training room, as Aros said, and were sitting in the center with their backs facing each other.

Two minutes later, after walking through the halls for a moment, I found myself standing in front of one of the doors. The door was massive, almost double my height, and was made out of ashen-colored wood.

The door wasn't nearly as grand as the ones that led into the castle itself or the second throne room of the dungeon, but it was still large enough to impress me. As I put my hand against the door, I felt the cold surface of the wood chill against my skin.

It didn't take much effort to push the door open, but it was loud. As the double door came apart, I heard the hinges of the door groan as it swung open. The door's weight was comparable to a salamander, causing the edges of the door to slam into the wall with a bang.

The training room was large and was made in a way that allowed me to manipulate the floor. If I wanted, I could make it grassy or snowy, or maybe I could change the elevation of some parts of the floor.

At the moment, though, the floor was a simple white tile. It was textureless and smooth, with the reflections of the torches above shining off of the floor as fire would reflect off of a blade. As I looked into the room, the figures of two people, each nearly seven feet tall, sat in the center.