11 A sea of...

On the first floor of the volcanic land, two boys were walking while making small talk. Though only one seemed to be talking and the other was simply replying.

"So Helkep, how many cores do you want to submit for the assignment?" Noil asked, his eyes surveying the surroundings.

"...I only need to kill five to complete the assignment." Helkep replied he wasn't very attentive, knowing his fate rested on Noil, he couldn't do anything against level 8 humans more like level 15 monsters who were naturally more stronger then humans.

"But shouldn't you aim for more cores to get a better score?" Noil asked, he wondering why no monster had appeared since they entered.

"...No, I am already grateful you are helping me. You need not go out of your way to help me get a higher score. I am satisfied with just passing." Helkep replied, still walking casually.

"...You sure?" Noil asked, honestly he didn't care even if he had to kill 100 monsters for Helkep, the rewards for his quest could repay double the effort.

'He just seems desperate right now.' Helkep thought.

"No I am fine with just 5." Helkep said, wondering when a monster would show up.

"If you say so. ...Where are all the monsters?" Noil questioned, a deep frown on his face.

"Yes! It's quite weird, no monster has appeared since we arrived. I think it has already been over an hour." Helkep replied scanning the area for any suspicious activity.

"Hmm! Lets search in that area. If nothing appears, we will find the teleportation circle and head to the next floor." Noil said and started sprinting towards a place where a pool of magma was creating bubbles.

After Noil ran quite far away from Helkep, Helkep felt as if the heat just increased.

'Hmm! The heat...just increased. Wait! Was he using an artifact to stabilise the atmosphere? Oh! That makes sense, I was wondering why the temperature was feeling the same as outside.' While Helkep was lost in thought, Noil had ran quite ahead of him.

Helkep started running as well. But his stats were far lower then Noil's. Noil only got further and further.

By the time, Helkep had crossed quarter of the distance, Noil was already surveying the pool's surroundings.

Suddenly Noil shouted, "Hey! Found one!" Noil shouted with so much excitement as if he had won the lottery.

Noil rushed towards a tiny cave formed by the messy, destroyed ground.

As Noil was running, he placed his hand inside his shirt and when he drew his hand out there was a dagger in his hand.

He dashed towards the cave in which the monster was hiding in.

In one swift motion he punched the cave which was no more then the height of half a leg.

Inside the cave, a very small monster was hiding...shaking to be exact.

Noil who was in the flow, was already leading the dagger to claim the monster's life.

Yet he stopped abruptly and exclaimed out aloud, "IS THIS A MUTANT FIRE GOBLIN?"

'A mutant fire goblin? That's rare.' Helkep thought as he was running towards Noil.

Well a fire goblin on the first floor was rare. As the final boss monster was actually a fire goblin.

"Hey pretty good find right? See all the bad luck was for nothing, this find is worth it all." Noil said.

"IS IT ACTUALLY A MUTANT?" Helkep had to shout because he was quite far away from Noil.

"Yea! Its a new-born with a passive fire skill as well." Noil said, excitement pouring from his every pore.

"...That's truly rare then." Helkep said, knowing that the passive fire skill added a minor burn effect to every thing that the monster wanted. It was a rare skill only found in mutant fire goblins.

"Ha-Ha!" Noil's laughter echoed in the area.

When Helkep was in close proximity, the shivering monster got up and started running away.

"Hey you!" Noil immediately dashed after the tiny monster.

The monster ran as if it's life depended on it. But alas the monster couldn't match Noil's speed.

'He is using artifacts to boost himself.' Helkep realised seeing the sudden increases in Noil's speed.

Helkep stood on the area where the monster ran from and watched as Noil dragged the tiny monster, who was struggling like crazy.

The monster in its struggle almost looked pitifully cute.

When the monster was in close proximity to Helkep. It stopped struggling and started shivering...terribly, as if he had seen the most horrifying...Devil.

Of course Helkep noticed the change and so did Noil.

Noil stood at the exact location for a while before he stated walking backwards.

He passed the point when he monster started shivering and after some more distance passed, the monster started struggling again to escape.

It was struggling as if it had seen its death right up ahead.

Noil stood there for a while before looking at Helkep.

Helkep getting the signal, started walking forward very slowly.

Soon the distance was once again the same and the monster stopped the struggle, again.

'Is it...fearing me?' An extremely weird thought sprung up in Helkep's mind.

Seeing Noil's weird expressions, it seemed he had thought the same thing.

Soon the monster had calmed down. The two thought that the thing it was fearing must've stopped giving it danger signs.

"What...do you think?" His eyes wavered, licking his lips nervously, Noil asked Helkep.

"...Truly...I have no clue." Helkep was calm as usual, only a new mystery added in his long list, he had himself busy with the past few days.

"Sigh! Okay. Lets move on. Wait! You stay at some distance from me. Because...you know." Noil suddenly said, his eyebrows moved inward, expressing his weird feeling.

"...Okay." Helkep said and started moving backwards.

Soon Noil encountered a monster. It wasn't the monster they needed to hunt, neither was it something special either, so he didn't engage it.

The fire goblin was currently inside a tiny cage, made of rock. Noil happened to know a handy skill for the occasion.

Soon monster frequency was the same as it should be. While...no monster had appeared anywhere near Helkep.

This just proved to intrigue the two boys.

Soon they decided to head to the upper floor, as they didn't see the assignment monster on the first floor.

The fire goblin was quite hesitant to go on the upper floor. It constantly made weird noises, as if telling something to Noil. But unfortunately Noil didn't know the goblin tongue.

In the end he could only shake his head and move on to the next floor.

The two boys and a fire goblin were moving on the second floor of the volcanic land. Which wasn't much different then the first floor only that there were valleys and the atmosphere was more hotter then before.

Helkep was sweating buckets, due to him being outside the radius of Noil's artifact.

But it couldn't be helped since no monster would appear if Helkep was walking with Noil.

They encounter various monsters but didn't engage any since the only fighter was Noil and if he lost his strength fighting unnecessary monsters, then they would have to return.

Soon they found themselves in a place similar to a gorge. But instead of a stream the ground was burning hot with lava in some places.

Noil and Helkep treaded the land carefully, the fire goblin was surveying the surrounding cautiously, as if it feared something that was near them.

Heading deeper inside the gorge of lava, a monster walked up in front of Noil.

As there was no area from where they could by-pass the monster, Noil prepared to face the monster.

The fire goblin had a grave look when it saw the monster.

Noil waited for the monster to make the charge but...the monster was glued to its location.

Noil felt weird looking at the monster. Just as he was thinking if he should charge first, another monster appeared.

This monster, same as the first one stayed glued to its location.

Soon a third, then a fourth, fifth, sixth and soon they were surrounded by monsters

The monster covered the above of the gorge as well as the below.

They were in thousands.

Noil gulped, his eyes shaking, his mouth a bit dry, all due to fear.

He moved back towards Helkep, thinking the monsters wouldn't come near Helkep.

But fate decided to ignore them at the most critical moment. The monster walked towards them, not fearing what the fire goblin feared.

Noil gulped nervously, "What the heck are we going to do?" He asked Helkep as he was the only one around.

"...Wait for them to kill us." Helkep replied with a calm face. He was still unfazed.

"You... Well I sure wanna survive." Noil sighed and activated his innate skill.

Prepared to buy time, to come up with a plan.

«Ding! Innate Skill 'Glorious Fight' has been activated. For every one minute you fight, giving it your all, you will gain a 10% boost in stats, temporarily. Will last for 5 minutes.»

Sighing heavily, Noil walked towards the front, soon his walking became running. He activated all the artifacts he currently had, getting a boost.

It felt as if he had vanished and appeared right next to a monster, without a moment of hesitation, he killed it.

The battle continued-on and his mind started thinking of ways to escape.

'Can I forge a path through the monsters?...no, there numbers would make it impossible. Climbing the gorge's wall and going through the centre?...no the monsters might follow us, or more dangerous would be if the monsters threw rocks from the top.'

He though of a plan while fighting. As his mind wasn't fully on the fight, a monster sneaked up on his back, and sent it's heavy arm towards Noil intending to destroy him in one sweep.

When the punch was inch away from making contact, he finally noticed it.

He immediately activated a skill and an artifact, still the punch grazed past him, sending him flying.

Stabilising his fall he though that he needed to think of something to escape these monsters, for there was no way he could kill all of them.

Seeing the opportunity, four monsters rushed towards him at the same time.

"Tch!" Noil slashed towards one of the monsters, his boosted stats due to his innate skill created an invisible slash which finished it there. He rushed toward the one on his left, he waited for the right time and slashed its throat.

The other two were already close to him, he started pouring mana into his dagger and sent a slash towards the right one. The last one was standing right behind of Noil, with a wicked grin, he punched on his back.

Noil was sent rolling on the ground. After he stopped himself he saw the monster jumping towards him, he looked around to find an escape route but instead of an escape route, he saw a sea...a sea of monsters rushing toward him.

He felt...powerless. Now he realised that it was futile, his efforts were...futile. He could never escape... the sea monsters.

He looked as the monster came near him and he closed his eyes, prepared to give up his life.

But after waiting for the time that the monster should have taken to finish him and still finding himself breathing, he opened his eyes, only to see Helkep kicking the monster on its face but the kick was very weak, the monster didn't even budge.

But the kick was enough to distract the monster and as he desired, the monster's attention shifted from Noil to Helkep.

Helkep stood still, awaiting his demise, from the corner of his eye he looked at the fallen Noil.

Noil saw calmness in that eye, something that shouldn't exists in a person who was about to die. More weirdly he saw curiosity in that eye, curiosity that was directed towards...him.

He looked on with fear, as a punch went towards Helkep's head.

But suddenly the punch stopped, the sea of monsters stopped and Noil's breath stopped.

The cause of this abrupt happenings was...a blood-thirsty pressure.

The pressure started from no-where but Noil saw Helkep's shadow transforming.

The shadow started to bubble out, like it was alive, it started wiggling along with getting larger.

It seemed as if a creature from Hell was emerging.

The pressure it brought was suffocating, Noil who was already fatigued from the fight, felt himself losing consciousness.

The last thing he could make out was the appearance of two large horns and white hair, along with two blood-red eyes.

This was all he saw before he entered a sleep he never expected to wake up from.

Though these characteristics seemed oddly similar to the...hidden boss, Helkep had encountered in the wild cage.

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