Not One Step Back - Part 1

Today is the 24th.

I wake up to an embarrassed Ciel and Yunia sharing my dick. I immediately recognize the smell of molten chocolate and smirk, then I see Alissa's expression mirroring mine.

--

No skill up today since we didn't really focus on training. Even my mini chocolate factory wasn't enough to level up Summoning since I'd already leveled it the same day.

--

Today, I spread some not-Nutella on my slice of white bread and have a tongue-gasm. Unfortunately, Aoi seems to be warming up a bit to chocolate, especially the kind with raisins, so our share of the Godly Nectar is decreasing.

We armor ourselves up and prepare to return to the dungeon. Lina and Yunia made sure that everything was cleaned and well-maintained, so it actually feels refreshing to wear it today. Even though it's enchanted with [Breeze], our armor gets smelly pretty quickly if we wear it every day and every night.

I wish we could've met up with Osaria and Klein again before returning to the dungeon, but they're in the middle of nowhere right now, which is just bad luck, unfortunately.

The girls start crossing through the [Gate], and I psych myself up for battle.

What challenge will we face today? What pretentious "test" will the Dungeon Master make us go through? I'm starting to get tired of this, and I'm beginning to wish that we'd chosen a "normal" dungeon, instead. Though it's likely that a normal one would have a lot more monsters, so whatever.

Alissa is the last one to cross through, and I'm temporarily left alone. Not only is the reduced "Sanity" depressing, but the sudden complete silence is deafening.

I still hate fighting and killing, but if I want to establish a women's sanctuary, then I need to fucking do this. The sanctuary may be a silly dream, but at least it's achievable. I'll never get the quiet life that I want until I fucking do this.

I slap my cheeks and stand up straight, then I cross through the [Gate] and my delicate, fair skin is immediately assaulted by the unforgiving fake sun of this level.

I dismiss the summons standing guard, and we start going through our warm-ups as I activate the ship's [Fly] gem. We all feed mana to the ship to top it off, then we drink one of Roxanne's MP potions.

There aren't any monsters in this red desert, with not even traces of Life that Yunia can detect, so we take-off and enter the sand tunnel in the middle of the Colosseum.

Without much to do, I put my points in [Sense Mana] to observe the gravity-defying sand. I manage to detect extremely faint traces of [Telekinesis] keeping the loose sand stuck to the ceiling and walls.

Hana decides to float towards the wall and scoop out some of the sand like a curious nature spirit.

"Gih," Gify complains.

I pat her head gently and reply, "You can't deny it. You yourself said that you became attached to me because you wanted to watch us."

Gify concedes while grumbling.

Once Hana touches the wall, the grains simply fall down, as if their floating power had suddenly disappeared.

The anxiety of the other girls, and especially Lina, suddenly skyrockets, so Hana stops after just a few seconds of playing with it. It seems that they learned to not play with sand that's floating above their heads from somewhere.

A chain reaction wasn't set off from Hana's touch, but we can easily imagine what would've happened if she overdid it.

--

Nothing happens as we continue going down, so the tension gradually fades away.

Ciel forces herself to stay serious, but the loli silently demanding headpats is hard to ignore, so she compromises and pats her casually while keeping a keen eye focused ahead.

We eventually reach the end of the tunnel and enter the wide room with the double gray doors where the Holly is waiting for us.

Small, floating, stray [Spirit Light]s provide a fluctuating source of light that changes color from white, to a washed-out yellow, to a deep blue, and repeats. They slowly circle around the room, giving it an eerie atmosphere.

"What are these lights?" I ask the girls.

"Not monsters or living beings," Alissa replies.

Yunia focuses on one of them that's passing close to us and adds, "They're just spells controlled by the dungeon. Not exactly [Spirit Lights], but something similar."

"I don't feel any sort of dangerous Light signature coming from them," Ciel continues.

"Just another weird detail that'll make itself relevant soon, I bet," I say with a tired tone.

When their color changes to a deep blue, it becomes hard to see, so we cast our own [Spirit Light]s.

We stop the ship in the middle of the room and disembark, leaving the golems to defend it.

We walk up to the double doors and stop in front of them. They don't seem to have any details on them, so we have no clue what to do.

"Should we just knock?" Hana asks.

I shrug, and the girls send back similar feelings to my own through [Bind].

Hana knocks, which makes a low and dull thumping sound. We wait for a few seconds, but nothing happens, so we start touching the doors a bit more.

Alissa puts her ear against the stone and hears absolutely nothing coming through it.

I walk over to the middle and push on them. The doors rumble and start to open, and I immediately jump back in surprise, then we all draw our weapons.

We see… more of the same red sand, smooth gray stone slabs, and the floating lights. The room is actually a corridor, and it even continues on beyond what Alissa can see.

Far ahead, Alissa spots an abnormal floating light. It's larger than the others, but not brighter, just different.

Her ears flick as she hears something, and she turns her head towards the source of the sound.

The tunnel we came from is collapsing.

"No way back, huh?" I question sarcastically, then I take a step forward and freeze.

My [Gate] has been blocked.

"Uh-oh…" I mutter.

The girls tense up, and I relay to Yunia what just happened.

The tunnel quickly closes off, completely blocking our exit, but the collapsing stops there. Nothing else happens, so the tension releases a bit.

"I was expecting this to happen at some point," I comment wryly.

"Things will become much more dangerous from now on," Ciel says solemnly.

"We haven't seen an exit door since the first few levels. We might not be able to leave if we continue," Alissa says.

"I'd like to write to my brothers and warn them about this," Yunia says.

"I'll write something for Klein and Osaria, too," I add.

"Aoi should go back to wearing her armor. We have ground under our feet again," Ciel suggests, and I agree.

We send Lina back, and she gives the letters to a servant. We also write one to Confiel to let him know that things are getting serious.

We also decide to leave a [Gate] coordinate here since it seems to be a safe spot. Sand is a terrible material to put a coordinate on since the coordinate could move over time or even get "torn apart" and become unusable, so I put a [Gate] coordinate on a set of planks and summon an earth elemental to protect them.

We look around and notice that all the floating lights have started to move down this corridor. Since there's nothing else to do but to continue forward, we get back on the ship again and cautiously move on.

We see the floating lights gradually increase as we go deeper. They grow until they're as big as a head, then they start to become oval until their height matches ours. Limbs start to appear, and they shift into a humanoid shape. Their heads morph, and the characteristic long ears of the elves quickly appear.

Naked, glowing male and female elves float around us, all drifting in the same direction: down the corridor. Their faces are neutral, and their eyes are unmoving. Yunia reminds us that they aren't spirits, they're either Light or [Illusion Magical] spells.

Thankfully, they start to gain some clothes, and we recognize all sorts of civilians. Artisans, farmers, servants, soldiers, mages, and even nobility.

--

After half an hour of continuing down this corridor, the scouting Holly finally sees an end to it. The same gray double doors are at the end of the corridor, and a line of glowing elves is waiting for us.

"Yunia, you're not to leave my side since I can't summon you through [Bind], understood?" I instruct her sternly.

She puts on her helmet, then nods vigorously.

The glowing elves are formed into lines on each side of the corridor, giving us an open path towards its end, and clear line of sight to the elves staring at us, which seem to be Lords since they're all wearing a complete set of ornate wooden armor. Branches, leaves, flowers, and roots are used as decoration, giving them an air of fantasy ents, though they're still glowing.

"The title of Lord isn't common outside of Domum or the empire. They're most likely Generals," Lina says, and Yunia agrees.

We stop a dozen meters from the Generals, but they don't even twitch. They're as still as statues.

Alissa clings to me, then I glide off the bridge and down towards the deck.

"Let me just say that Arreira really knows how to set an atmosphere," I say as I land.

She lets me go and asks, "'Atmosphere'? The air?" Then she tilts her head in confusion.

I roll my eyes because the skill translated it literally. "Mood. He's good at setting the mood," I respond.

The fake elves are currently glowing with a deep blue light, making for a rather dark and oppressive atmosphere.

"There's no theater like elven theater," Yunia comments.

"Oh, we should really go to the theater in Goloria or Escanso sometime," Roxanne adds.

"We'll have all the time in the world for that," I reply, and we make a circle to talk more easily. "Anyway… Hana, Yunia, I want both of you with me. Hana, you'll be in charge of bringing Yunia back in case shit hits the… uh, things go badly."

We land the ship, and Yunia clings to me while I jump down, then the three of us walk towards the glowing elven Generals.

We approach them carefully, paying close attention to their sheathed weapons.

Once we get within ten meters, the elven Generals snap their heads towards me. We freeze both in fear and from the creepiness, but nothing else happens, so we continue walking forward again, just slower.

"Saúdo, paretense," The elven General in the middle greets us with a neutral male voice.

Oh, fuck, they're talking in Ingua.

While I fumble with my points, Yunia returns their greeting.

Their eyes don't even twitch to glance at her, they just ignore her.

"They called us 'kin,'" Yunia whispers.

Our armor is elven and our helmets are obscuring our faces, so they might be mistaking us for elves.

I clear my throat and say, "Greetings, kin."

"Do you wish to pass?" The same General asks.

I glance at Yunia, and she nods. "Yes, we do," I answer.

"May we follow?" Another General asks. A woman's voice, this time. I can't tell their genders because of their armor.

"Why would you wish to follow us?" I ask, curious.

"One leads, others follow, and all judge," a third General replies.

"'Judge'?" I question.

"Worth," a fourth states.

So, they're all going to judge our worth?

"This is one of the principles of nobility that has existed since the dawn of civilization," Ciel says through [Bind].

"What's beyond that door?" I ask.

"Struggle," the first answers.

"War," the second continues.

"Death," the third adds.

"End," the fourth finishes.

Not ominous at all, but why is death different from "end"?

"If we look at Arreira's life, I guess that… death's not the end…?" Lina questions inside my soul space.

My mouth twitches because I don't know if I should smile or get angry at this annoyingly pretentious Dungeon Master.

I recompose myself and answer, "Then you may follow us."

The Generals all nod, and clear away from the door.

I walk up to it and push it open, revealing nothing but more red sand and darkness ahead.

"Wolfy, Living Armor approaching," Alissa reports.

A single gray suit of armor walks into our light, revealing itself. It carries a simple sword and a kite shield. Imperial style.

"Get Jarn here. I want to see how she does against this," I say through [Bind].

Jarn floats down and walks towards the Living Armor in a combat stance. The Armor draws its sword and mirrors her.

Jarn's limbs extend forward a few centimeters, and she starts her attack, immediately forcing the Armor to step back. Jarn flails her hammer with her loosely connected limbs, and the Armor can only try to defend against the assault.

Even if the Armor could fight evenly, its sword won't do anything against Jarn, whose body is made entirely out of hardened steel. Also, Living Armors have that weird condition where they believe that they're "alive," so any damage that would kill a person would cause them to "die," making them much easier to deal with than most monsters.

Jarn beats the Armor down without any difficulty until it "dies." The Armor's remains quickly age, leaving a pile of crumbling, rusted metal, and we continue forward.

--

The glowing elves follow our ship, either floating through the air or just walking along on the sand.

We use the three golems to deal with the Living Armors while we wait on the ship and absorb the trickle of Experience.

After a dozen Armors are turned into piles of rusted metal, pairs of Armors start to appear, then trios, and so on. When the group of Armors grows to six, the golems start to have difficulty dealing with them all at the same time, so I summon a few earth elementals to help them keep up.

The numbers keep increasing, and the Armors start cooperating together, building a wall of shields and spears pointed at us. Every other shield is upside down so that they can form a solid wall without leaving large gaps at their feet, which is caused by their shields' teardrop shape.

This forces us to fight, too, and we cast some spells to break the walls, or we simply flank them ourselves with our superior maneuverability.

The fighting continues on, and we stop to have a quick lunch, but the Armors keep walking towards us like zombies.

"I guess this is what they meant by 'struggle,'" I comment as I look ahead into the darkness. The scouting Holly watches the groups of Armors slowly making their way forward.

"What if we just fly over them with the ship?" Hana asks.

"Then we'll have waves of Armors coming from the front and the back," Ciel responds.

"There's no need to hurry," I add.

--

I practice my control of the tentacle weapons with the Armors; Alissa tries out reinforcing her [Mana Arrow]s to better penetrate their plate; Roxanne tests her explosives and how well they spread the Decay gas; Hana practices using flying charges to break their shield wall; Ciel learns how to cast invisible [Wind Hammer]s; Lina completely breaks their lines with [Earth Wall]; Aoi picks them off one-by-one with [Torrent] or her floating ball of water; Yunia pushes [Precognition] to the limit and faces the wall head-on. So far, so good.

A Hobgoblin appears among the Armors, and as soon as it dies, its equipment vanishes completely.

A wave of shorter than usual Armors appear, and there's a goblin among them.

In the next wave, an orc appears, and it takes a bit more effort for us to kill it than the usual Armor would.

Random numbers of human-like monsters start to appear among the Armors, like Ogres, Spriggans, Dragonoids, and Kappattos. They disrupt our strategies to deal with the Armors, so we start discussing how to kill them with the least amount of effort.

Even the golems and elementals need time to rest and recover their MP, so we all take turns fighting.

Now that we have to push our skills and tactics to the limit, our armor gradually becomes more and more damaged, and small wounds start to gradually appear on us, but only bruises so far.

--

The orc thrusts his spear at me, and I step back, just out of its reach. I counter with my spear held by a tentacle above me, but he hides behind his shield and defends against my attack.

Other spears quickly follow and try to stab at me, but I keep my distance.

I wind up the halberd, then I slam it against a shield and immediately rip it out, causing splinters to go flying.

The orc and Armors push forward, but they never manage to reach me or the earth elementals, who keep them from simply rushing and overwhelming me.

I continue striking with the halberd, and after I completely destroy the second shield, the orcs break out of their line and try to rush me, but they get skewered by the earth elementals, and Alissa finishes them off from up on the ship.

Now that there are only a few Armors left, we surround them and wipe them out.

--

We carefully observe our enemies and learn their combat tendencies. The Armors are too sluggish to react quickly to changes in the battlefield; goblins are terrible at reforming once their wall is broken; hobgoblins tire easily; orcs are quick to anger; ogres are slow. Their mismatched formation allows us to exploit their weaknesses, but their gradually increasing numbers steadily deplete our resources.

The scouting Holly continues on, and it sees that the mobs coming at us are gradually growing into an army.

"Things aren't looking good," I comment, and Alissa nods.

Even if we used the ship's massive [Wind Shield] to disrupt their lines and pick them off one-by-one, there's just too many for us to handle.

Ciel stares at the Generals intensely, thinking the same thing that I am. "Give me some points in Ingua," she asks though [Bind], and I obey. "Aren't you going to help?" She asks them.

One of them turns their head towards her and responds in its usual flat tone, "You lead, we follow."

She frowns angrily and asks, "Do you want to continue forward?"

"Yes."

Her tone becomes intense as she states, "We lead, you help."

The General nods. "You lead, we help. You fail, we leave."

"I couldn't ask for more!" She exclaims, flippant.

"Not one step back," the General responds.

"Not one step back," all of the elves repeat in sync, creating a painfully loud chorus.

So creepy.

All of the soldier-like elves fly past our ship and land in front of it, behind the line of earth elementals. They all walk forward in lockstep, and when the next wave approaches, they just carelessly throw themselves at the enemy line.

They may be constructs of light, but they're still solid, somehow, and they can be killed, just like a real person.

"This isn't an army, it's a mob," Hana comments.

"We need to get them organized," Ciel states, and we agree.

I look towards Yunia, but she seems distracted, just staring at the mob of elves fighting.

Alissa joins her at the railing and asks, "Arreira isn't very subtle, is he?"

Yunia remains quiet for a moment, then she mutters, "This is so… depressing…"

The elves finish off their enemies and spread out, revealing the glowing remains of their "dead" comrades. They don't bleed, and their glow isn't snuffed out, so they just look like broken statues.

When the civilian elves pass by the remains, they scoop them up and carry them along.

"Really depressing…" Yunia comments.

We need Yunia to organize the troops, but she's in her own little world inside her head now, so I go up to her and ask. "What are you thinking about?"

"Reading about history is very different from seeing it yourself," she answers in a low tone.

Lina frowns, and her mood quickly darkens, becoming even worse than Yunia's.

The little dwarf stomps towards the railing and stops beside us, then she stares intensely up at Yunia, catching her attention.

"Our lives are more important than theirs," Lina says with a gentle tone, which is actually the opposite of her real feelings.

Yunia has known this fact for her entire life, but she never saw how her decisions affected those she had vowed to protect… and neither did I.

Yunia looks stunned for a second, then she frowns and nods subtly. She looks down at the soldier elves again, and slowly builds her resolve.

Alissa sighs and lays her hand on my shoulder. "This isn't a test, it's training," she says.

I snort. "The Dungeon Master is still a pretentious snob," I mutter.

--

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