Chapter 35- Our Vampire Problem Solved?

"Sorry my Viking friend, could you repeat that? I think my brain checked out there for a minute" I asked in a drawl as Ivar scoffed at my vain attempt to disregard the insanity he proposed.

"I think we should let the vampire damsel join us." Ivar said to my absolute shock, it had only been a few moments after the woman had left to apparently 'scout' the boss.

It led me to look over my partner, with the same gruff beard and piercing green eyes. 'Well at the surface level I don't think he has been mind raped, so I guess him being a thrall was out of the question'

Nope, I was talking to good old Ivar right now. God help me, or one of them I should say. There were thirteen in this world afterall.

"So aside from the cons we have already talked about, what is the plan when one of us wakes up to find the other with holes in their neck?"I asked with squinted eyes, I was surprised we even had to have this conversation.

"I have a counter question for you my shield brother, how would you describe the difficulty between the maze and this swamp?" Ivar asked me, insinuating at the difficulty curve between the two floors.

"Night and day?" I described based on how sure I was that I could run through that maze in less than a day, at least with my newfound strength.

"Exactly, and what of the next. Or five floors from now. The lady made a good point, we'd be spending months on each floor. Don't get me wrong, I believe we could do it. Go from floor to floor in an honor-bound struggle as we improved and grew stronger" Ivar said with a large smile, causing me to smirk as well at his theatrics.

"I understand." I agreed with a nod, his worry and argument definitely had a ground to stand on. "But what's the hurry? You do know that we'll recognize nothing out there. Nobody is waiting for us my friend" I said with a sigh, my point was just as valid and brought our debate to staggering halt.

"That may be... But are you really fine with wasting that many years in a struggle that could be significantly lessened with just one other pair of hands?" Ivar asked and it was my turn to be left silent. 

The fact remained that we weren't aging, it was something I was sure of at this point. The only thing that would discredit that fact was that our hair grew. But my fingernails hadn't, I never had to blow my nose nor did ear wax develop. My hair didn't fall out nor have I ever tired. 

Though I was capable of exhaustion, I even could pass out from trauma and pain.

It was almost like we were in a kind of suspended animation designed specifically for fighting and growing stronger.

"I have no problem with another set of hands, surely there were others in this tower. Given the fact that we don't age. There's no reason to put all our eggs in one basket, if you know that metaphor" I said as I retrieved the enchanted silver dagger. This 'soul' weapon was without a doubt dangerous and I'd be damned if I had to give it to the vampire. Which I was sure was going to be one of her demands, this blade alone could be worth as much as her in terms of party power.

"What in Odin's beard is a fucking metaphor" I tried to hold it in but I busted out laughing at his answer. 

"Nothing buddy, I just met that there was no reason to make a decision if it was possible to recruit others that may be stuck in here like us" I replied as we both sat in thought.

"There is also the chance that there are no other warriors in this place other than us. Like the woman said, the world is at peace out there. Why would the 'challengers' feel the need to risk their lives when the wolves were not at the door?" I hummed for an entire minute at Ivar's point. It had holes but it was definitely a possibility, so much so that I had to look at the Seline situation from another perspective. 'Wait….. did he just use a metaphor himself?'

"God dammit Ivar... Why couldn't you be barbaric like other Norsemen" I said with a sigh as I hid the dagger back into the crease of my leather armor. Having somebody as intelligent as Ivar was both a blessing and a curse.

"Few of us were ever so war-hungry that we didn't use our brains" Ivar replied, slightly miffed at the stereotype his people were plagued with. 

"Are you sure?" I asked the final time as after this it was on him. I was against it still but I trusted him to keep a watchful eye on the vampire.

He simply nodded as I shrugged. I voiced my concerns and left it at that. A vampire had joined our party, whether that was a good or horrible decision. Well, only the future could tell.

It was a few minutes after our debate ended that we both noticed a distortion in the air around the entrance. It whisked through the room at a fast pace and settled onto the coffin's edge. It seemed the scout had returned.

She materialized quickly and looked just the same as when she left, though I did catch that her armored leggings had a gash on them. Though no blood stain remained meaning she just had a close call.

"Well, you were right. That left path in the fork led directly toward the boss room." She replied as she sat down with a sigh, though I could tell it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

"There are two particularly strong monsters blocking the door, I tried to slip past them but one of them was particularly perceptive." She reported as Ivar and I gave her our full attention.

"Details, what did they look like, weapons, etc." I asked as I knew I needed to formulate a plan to take them out while receiving the least damage possible and hopefully with the least amount of mana used. I wanted out of this floor tonight, no more backtracking.

"One of them was a bipedal reptile monster that wielded dual short swords, he was the one that caught me and drew me away." She answered and I nodded in response. There were a few monsters I knew of that held those characteristics, lizardmen was the front runner though.

Lizardmen were usually speed-focused creatures with low defense and moderate strength. Capable of wielding one-handed and even two-handed weapons with the odd few being ranged adversaries. Though it was odd it possessed enough perception to see through Seline's stealth skill.

Though seeing as how it did I'd wager it had even less strength than average and was an assassin-based monster. Much similar to our scout oddly enough.

"As for the other, I didn't get a good look but I believe it was some kind of aquatic monster though it was particularly large. Around Ivars size." Seline continued as I hummed. That wasn't much to go on but my first guess would be it was a particularly large bullywug, a tank-based one given its size. 

A tank and an assassin did make for a particularly annoying matchup. But this was mostly speculation and I wouldn't know for sure until I had a look myself.

It was very possible that both of these monsters were mini-bosses.