Chapter 28: Dungeon (VII).

Chapter 28: Dungeon (VII).

"Yawn…"

I have to say that was one of my most comfortable times that I have slept. 

"Goodmorning." I wiped the stars in my eyes and saw Elre cleaning the area, packing everything that he needed.

"You're finally awake." He tells me with a smile. "If you don't mind I'll be needing that blanket back now."

"Oh right-" 

I stand up quickly as he puts it in his storage ring.

"Did you even sleep, Elre?" I ask him and he nods.

"Yes, a bit too comfortably because you were right. There weren't many monsters where we decided to camp." He helped me regain my focus with some leftover water from his gourd as we continued on with our journey. 

"Let's go, we should continue our journey, we're almost there." The third section wasn't difficult to get into, the entrance was clear and for now Elre's map was working just fine. 

"Alright, my brother told me that this part of the dungeon will have monsters with poison in their attacks. We need to be careful and alert." (Elre) 

If he's right then they'll be a huge problem, we need to keep our strength and stamina for the boss fight. If we get a massive debuff poison, that'll slow us down and make the chances of our winning lower.

"Not unless you have a mastery of a healing spell for that?" He asked me.

"I think we'll be fine, poison is not a problem. I have a healing spell that could come in handy." I tell Elre, seeing that I can do light magic and its healing abilities is good. 

"If that's the case we can continue moving forward, come, human. The boss room is near!" He says rather excitedly even though this whole thing is making me see my doom. 

If I never get back to the temple, I hope they at least have the effort to come looking for me after… How many days have we been here?

"Huh?!" I could hear Elre's shocked voice a little loud that it broke the conversation with my mind.

It seems Elre encountered the problem.

"What…?" He rechecked the map again, Elre stopped walking and began looking at the routes that were in front of us. "This doesn't make any sense!"

"What's wrong?" I ask him and he shows me the problem, he gives me the map pointing at three paths. 

"Huh…" 

But there were five paths right in front of us. 

"The map of the third section doesn't correlate with what we're facing right now! There's supposed to be only three paths! How are we supposed to know which one to go through?"

Well… about that-

[Map].

The labyrinth must've moved itself, who knew it would right after we finished taking a rest. 

"Ungh! I don't know where we should go and we were so close to getting to the minotaur! Almost there… just two sections of the dungeon- the minotaur rests at the very end." He looks visibly annoyed, I could tell that he wants to rip the map into pieces with that look on his face. 

"It's okay, Elre." I went to his side and contemplated telling him that I have a much more accurate map, a good idea to do… but to show this to an elf could-

I thought of the list of consequences I might have if I showed my phone to other people of this world. Not even my parents know about this.

"Ah… what the heck might as well." Feeling a bit tired and wanting the labyrinth exploration to be over, I finally showed him my phone. 

I opened my map, giving him the full picture as the bright lit screen hit his face. "Here- my apologies if I have only shown this to you now but… I have a much more accurate version of your map in my uh… magical device."

"What do you mean by magical device-"

With the map app open, I showed him the layout of the labyrinth. "This is the map of the dungeon, we'll be able to know where we're going including the safe routes that's not available in your map."

His eyes widened with fascination, scanning the contents and reaching to hold my 'magical device'. "You-! What sort of magical device is this?!" 

I feel a little guilty lying but in this world science and technology aren't really influential or well known. If anything they only see magic as a way for progress and that's really all. 

Wait- but then again with the gods upgrading my phone… it is indeed a magical device~!

"The first two sections of the labyrinth are the same-" He double checks, taking his map out of his pockets and starts comparing them. "It is the same… However, I don't know what to make of the red dots. What are they supposed to be?"

The red dots blinks its lights, there were a few red dots in both the first, second and fifth pathways up ahead. 

"Those indicate the monsters that are around, so… in our case there's a lot there and about here." I pointed at the paths ahead. The only problem I have with the red dots is when we click on them it doesn't show what monsters we're facing- hopefully I unlock enough things to upgrade my map.

An expression of realization came onto his face and looked at me as if some puzzle had been solved. "That's why, you've been warning me. Those packs of night prowlers from before- you knew they were coming."

"I… yes." I guess he's perceptive. I can't believe he noticed and remembered.

"What about the blue dot?" He points at the dot that has a small white transparent view point in the front. 

Wherever we move, it follows.

"That dot represents where we're standing. In this case if you look a bit closer here you are able to see where we are." I zoomed in on the blue dot and there we could see the five paths facing us. "We should take the middle path because it leads to a shortcut for the fourth section of the labyrinth."

"Truly this is something remarkable. Is this magical device available for every human in the overworld?" He asks me, and I shake my head. Maybe if we were in my old world everyone has access to a phone but not the fantasy upgraded one. 

"No, it was given to me when I was just a baby, my mother kept it as a keepsake and I was able to own it when I was right of age. This is only one of a kind, there is nothing else like it in this world."

"...best if you don't show anyone your magical device. I have never seen anything like it, the front glows and everything about it just- feels… unnatural."

"It's something that this world is not able to produce just yet. In any case, your magical device can get us faster at the minotaur."

"Yes, um… I hope you don't mind but can I lead the way?"

"Go ahead, I'll be right behind you. Warn me if you need some support I think I understand what father said you're far stronger than I am. I didn't believe it but I respect you as an equal."

…

With the knowledge of the [Map]. We were able to work together more efficiently, Elre began to even trust me more. "There's a red dot there on the side of the wall- we don't know what the monsters is so best to be careful. Then there's a trap here and we have to be careful not to step on an invisible line because it'll activate a wall that'll crush us like a peanut shell."

"Thank the heavens that I have you here with me then, it seems that your little magical device can even detect the traps."

"Oh and there's a poisonous fog surrounding this part. What can we do to clear it? I don't have any spell that clears it." I warned him and the elf boy smirks confidently. 

"Is that all? I see, I'll handle everything then." He cracks his knuckles with a smile. "Ready?"

The whole dungeon trip was beginning to feel like a whole new adventure and danger. "Ready!"

"You said you can copy any spell, so go ahead and copy this!" (Elre) places his hands on the ground and then a magic circle appears. "[Wind Magic: Gust of Wind]!"

The poisonous fog was cleared with a huge gust of wind coming from all sides. He peaked first, throwing in a powerful wind cut, "[Wind Magic: Air Cut]!"

"...!"

"Screee!"

The monster that was waiting for us is a poisonous boar, with grey tusks on the front and the mushroom on its back oozing purple smoke. "Shk!"

The poisonous boar has a dark, oily hide with streaks of sickly green or purple, hinting at the dangerous toxin it secretes. Its tusks are jagged and discolored, with flecks of venom constantly dripping from them. The creature's eyes are bloodshot, and it moves with a furious, erratic energy, as if in constant pain.

"Hfff!" It looked around the area and it must've realized that the poisonous fog has been cleared. 

He did say that the sections ahead of the dungeon contain poisonous monsters, ones that he doesn't have an antidote of.

"[Scan]!"

{Properties} 

-|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|-

Name: Venenoris Boar

Monster Class/Element: Poison

Monster Rank: Dangerous (Level: IV)

Note: These boars are highly territorial and aggressive. They charge at anything that approaches their domain, with little regard for their own safety. While they lack intelligence, they use their poison as a natural defense mechanism. They tend to dwell in dark forests, swamps, or areas with toxic flora and fauna.

Poisonous boars are often the result of magical or environmental contamination. Some believe they are mutated versions of normal boars, while others think they are the result of foul rituals. They are solitary creatures and tend to drive other animals away from their territory.

-|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|-

"Well that's not good." I looked at the poisonous boar and wondered how in the hell can I counter this one.

"Cover your mouth, Francisca!" He orders and I follow.

"[Wing Magic: Enchant: Arrow]!" (Elre) takes his bow, loading an arrow and then suddenly after chanting the spell it magically glows and I could feel him focusing magic into the sharp metal tip. "The smoke is poisonous-!"

He releases the arrow and shoots it right in the boar's eye.

"Reee…!" It squeals, puffing out its chest and then before poison could ooz out of its mushroom-

"[Wind Magic: Air Cut]!" Another air cut was thrown in the wind. This time hitting another boat that was on the back, the other board realizing that they were being picked off one by one decided to ragely charge in our direction.

"Screee!!!"

They were charging towards us and oozing poisonous smoke!

"What do we do?!" I turned to Elre in a panic, he places hand on my shoulder and assured me. 

"Calm down, you handle the poisonous smoke. I'll take out the mushrooms on their back, the only way we'll be able to safely kill them is by cutting off the poisonous mushroom on their back, it's their only way of letting out the poison."

"So that's its weakness! Got it!" I have to help him with the boars! 

I copied his stance from before, placing my hands on the ground and imagining the spell. A gust of wind… I have to remember and feel it-!

"Now!"

"[Wind Magic: Gust of Wind]!"

The magic circle glows, but this time- I noticed that mine was bigger and even stronger than Elre's spell. The poisonous smoke that was covering the area all left and disappeared.

I glanced up at Elre and he looked proud of me. "Well done!"

"Screee?!"

"[Wind Magic: Air Cut]!"

The boars were still being relentless, they almost got Elre but I helped him with another gust of wind spell.

"[Wind Magic: Gust of Wind]!" The blast of this spell was able to repel them into the wall, making a huge hole and leaving every single poisonous boar unconscious.

"S-Screea… hk…"

"We got every single one! Destroy their cores quickly!" I got into work and took the dagger from my inventory, butchering their stomachs as the blood got to my clothes.

I found some of the few monster cores and took them.

"What a haul! I think these could sell well in the market." I was happy with the loot that we got but Elre clicks his tongue.

"A shame that we can't eat them- even their meat is poisonous. We have to take all that we can get because even stronger monsters will smell the blood and ravage the remaining corpse." I got up and saluted Elre playfully. 

"Yes sir!"

We high fived and he cleaned me up with his spell. "Well done on the spell- gust of wind is not easy to master, you've copied it perfectly just like you've said."

"Thank you." I replied shyly and felt pride overflowing though me. It's not everyday that I've been praised. I have- but hearing it from a stranger feels a lot better. 

I'm excited for the next section of the dungeon!

"Next stop it's the minotaur's lair!"