Chapter 39

T

The train left the platform and we were off.

"Hey uhh. What's your name? I'm Jay by the way."

The light skinned girl looked at me and smiled.

"Nice to meet ya Jay. I thought you'd never ask. My name is Talia, this is Cori."

She pointed to the man. He nodded at me with a small grin.

I nodded back.

"Well, nice to meet both of you. Do you live in the city?"

Talia rolled her eyes.

"For the moment, yeah. We've been traveling through a few regions these last few months. The goal is to see the whole country and making good money while we're at it."

Cori looked at the ground. He was an odd guy.

"Ahh okay. So you two have been to many other places... If you don't mind sharing some knowledge with me, what are the guilds like in the big cities?"

Talia's eyes perked up.

"So you want to join a guild? You're a D Class Hunter. Pretty much any small guild will pick you up and give you a decent contract, there's hundreds of them in the city."

"Yeah, I assumed so. What about the bigger guilds? Do you know anything about them?"

"Well, there's a couple pretty big guilds in Vice city. The 3 main ones are invite only, you probably wouldn't ever even be able to walk through their doors without being at least a C Class hunter with some kind of crazy skill."

I looked at her with curiosity now. It's not just small talk anymore, this is interesting.

"What are their names?"

"Uhhh let me think. There's the Viridian Guild, that's the biggest one in Vice City right now. The Luna Guild and Fury Guild are definitely tied for a close 2nd."

I grinned and nodded. I turned to look at the cement walls flying by out the window.

"Interesting. I bet they have access to some really neat dungeons"

I could see Talia's reflection in the window like a mirror, she made eye contact with me and continued talking.

"Yeah but we're just a couple of D Class Hunters. Even if they have scouts everywhere in this city there's no way they'd reach out to us."

"Yeah, yeah. I can dream."

She grinned.

"Screeeeeech."

We made it to the troll dungeon.

The escalator up was exactly the same as the dungeon I visited yesterday. At the top there was a very similar room with a floating blue portal at the back.

Talia and I drew our swords, Cori stretched his arms and got into a readied state as well.

We all jumped through.

This is definitely a new dungeon environment for me.

The ground is moist and the air is very humid. There are small swamp patches everywhere I look.

The moss smells weird and pond grass rose up to my knees everywhere I stepped. Thankfully there are no bugs in sight, that's a relief. I hate bugs.

When I look out far into the dungeon I can see thousands of trees. Most of them are pretty short and have long green vines hanging off their sagging branches.

This is honestly a pretty gross dungeon, I should have done a bit of research before I agreed to come. I'm definitely going to have to do a deep wash my boots, or just buy a whole new set of clothes after this raid...

When I squint my eyes I can make out the shadowy outline of what looks like a large tree in the back of the dungeon.

"Hey, have you guys been here before? What are these troll monster like, and is that a tree back there?"

Talia spoke up.

"Yeah we've been here a few times this week with teams of 3 to 5. Trolls drop good mana. They're pretty tricky to kill, but with the 3 of us it shouldn't be a problem. We have two sword users."

"What about that tree?"

"Oh yeah, that's where the boss room is. I've never gone that far in, just heard the stories. Apparently it's a pretty tough boss, powerful magic."

I nodded.

"Okay. So we'll just stick around these parts for now and farm trolls. Got it."

She nodded.

Cori spoke up. This was the first time I heard his voice. It was light and quiet.

"One enemy. 100m ahead."

He must have some kind of enemy detection skill. I activated mine as well to see what he was sensing.

A large creature was moving towards us at a consistent speed right in front of us like he said.

I readied my sword and started walking cautiously in the direction of the incoming opponent.

Cori backed up and Talia took the lead in front of him.

"It's just us fighting. Cori is our support type. He'll find enemies, then help with finishing them off. The actual combat will be handled by us. Okay?"

I nodded while keeping my eyes locked straight ahead. The creature was moving much faster now. It was less than 50m away.

The soft swampland makes it much harder to move around with ease. I'm going to have to focus on my footing a lot more during this battle.

Moments later I heard heavy footsteps splashing around in the muddy water less than 10m away.

Talia yelled.

"Its here! Immobilize the enemy and don't let your guard down for one second. Even if it looks dead keep your weapon ready for battle."

"Got it!

Talia was in a very serious battle mode right now. These trolls must really be no joke...

Moments later it finally came into my view.

*GRUNT* *GRUNT* *GRUNT*

A nasty looking green creature came out from behind a wet sagging tree. Its arms were very long, they were almost touching the ground. The smell coming off this beast was similar to rotting flesh.

It had a wide nose and its bottom teeth grew out like small tusks.

The monster stood around 3m tall, each of its fingers had long claws that looked as sharp as knives. It was a menacing creature, but I've faced much scarier looking opponents before.

I used inspect to see what I was really dealing with here.

[Lv. 148]

This monster is a few levels higher than me, but I'm sure with Talia's help it won't be too difficult to defeat.

"Alright it's game time Jay. Let's do this!"

We both stood in front of the disgusting creature as it charged forward.

"CRRRUUAAARR!"

The troll made a shrieking sound as it started to swing its arms and charged towards us.

It had a very irregular and awkward movement style. This worked in its favor I guess. It was harder to tell which way it'd swing its arms at any given moment.

The troll was quick, but I was definitely quicker.

It looked strong... but just by the way it moved I could tell I was much stronger as well.

How could this thing be a higher level than me? This seems way too easy.

I out ran the monster and made a quick doge to its right. Its clawed hand flew passed me as I maneuvered myself behind it.

This creature isn't the smartest tool in the shed either...

Talia dodged to the left and the beast started eyeing her.

It made an odd jerking motion and started sprinting towards her and away from me.

Talia could definitely handle this mindless beast herself, but I wanted to show her that I can pull my own weight.

First impressions are everything.

I readied my sword and followed the monster as it hobbled away.

I planted my right leg on a hard bit of ground making sure not to get stuck in the mud and jumped forward straight at the toll's backside.

"Shinnnggg"

"THUDDDD."

I landed a picture perfect slash directly to the back of the monster's neck. Its head came clean off and landed in a patch of moss.

I stared down at its disgusting head and its body fell into a shallow swamp behind me.

I looked over to Talia with a satisfied smile on my face.

"Well, that was easy. Clean hit right?"

For some reason she didn't look happy for me... I spoke up and tried to lighten the mood.

"Come on!! You're upset I took the first kill or something?"

She still didn't even crack a smile. Talia just stood there holding her sword straight ahead looking off in the distance behind me.

"Stay alert Jay! I told you. Don't underestimate these things."

I stared back at her with a confused look.

Then I heard movements of another troll.

They must travel in pairs... or even groups..? Is this what Talia meant?

I turned around and my eyes went wide.

This is not what I was expecting at all.

The body of a troll was climbing out of the shallow swamp... yes, just the body.

I gripped my sword tightly and stared at the abomination before my eyes.

The troll I had just killed... seemingly came back to life and its ready to fight me again!