A Volcanic Dungeon

"Hey, have you ever cleared this dungeon before?" Lancell suddenly asked Arthur who was walking beside him as they walked along the naturally formed tunnels of the dungeon.

"Hm? To be honest, I haven't. I wasn't interested in this as it only had Level 90 Second Step monsters at best."

Arthur responded casually, but her words were borderline flexing. Only Level 90 of the Second Step...if any warrior at Selvenia heard her statement, they would have spat blood as the current strongest in the kingdom was only Level 50 in the Second Step.

It had been an hour since they entered the dungeon, and the initial heart-pounding expectations Lancell had with the dungeon had gone with the winds now.

It was nothing but peaceful for the past hours, and Lancell was starting to get bored. Arthur saw through Lancell's thoughts as she then smiled at his impatience.

"You know, it's really been a while, but you sure get all giddy when it comes to getting stronger."

"I do?"

"Yeah. You look like a child about to get his hands on a new toy."

"That's a rather...tasteless comparison."

"Call it tasteless if you want, I don't really care...Anyway, you should probably start preparing now."

Lancell's attention was caught by her words, but before he could ask, he suddenly saw the tunnel ending just ahead.

He could feel the ambient temperature rise as occasional heatwaves would faintly brush his cheeks.

"Is this a volcanic dungeon? I can smell a faint smell of sulphur."

"Yeah. And also, you better hold that girl tight as you're gonna be in for a wild ride."

Before Lancell could ask what she meant, Arthur suddenly ran ahead as she then jumped from the end of the tunnel, as if she knew the tunnel was a higher ground.

Lancell ran after her as he held Aria tightly, making her groan in her sleep due to sheer tightness.

And right when he reached the edge of the tunnel, he suddenly felt vibrations coming from behind. Lancell checked what was happening, and saw a rolling boulder coming his way.

"Shit!"

Lancell cursed as he followed who was already sprinting downhill as she desperately tried to gain momentum.

Lancell activated Void Wind Guidance as he zoomed ahead and even carried Arthur while he was at it.

"Whoah! A ride! How convenient!"

"Damn it! Couldn't you just warn me properly?!"

"But that's boring."

"Boring my ass!"

Despite their situation, they were exchanging casual words as they ran, proving that they still had leeway in their escape.

After a while of running, Arthur pointed at a crossroad ahead and informed.

"Over there, a crossroad. No matter what, keep going straight!"

"But that's a dead end! Are you trying to get us crushed between the wall and the boulder?!"

"Just trust me!"

Lancell grit his teeth and answered. "Fine!"

He then dashed into the dead end that Arthur mentioned. And the moment he reached it, he felt a pat on his shoulder. He looked at Arthur and she spoke. "Put me down."

Lancell put her down without another word as he then asked. "We have 20 seconds to decide what to do. What now?"

"We wait."

Although Lancell still had questions, he chose to trust Arthur as he knew her better than most people.

Doubting her during critical moments were one of the worst time for doubts, as her survival instincts were definitely one of the best he'd known.

'Honestly, if it wasn't her strange personality, she would have gotten married already.' Lancell thought as he heaved a small sigh.

And so, after about 15 seconds, the boulder was already rolling in front of them, but before it managed to do so, it suddenly stopped, and split in two smaller boulders that went into the left and right crossroad.

Lancell shivered the sight. Although the two splits were smaller than the first, it still held the size of about 8 meters in diameter, so it would be able to easily kill any Second Step Masters.

Lancell glanced at Arthur, and saw that she was grinning at him with a triumphant grin as she then spoke.

"So? How was it? A wild ride, right?"

"Honestly, I'm not fond of those. I prefer the old school hack n' slash and get stronger kind of thing."

"Boo... how boring."

"Oh shut up."

They were once again exchanging casual words as they began to move, but Lancell suddenly felt movements from Aria.

"...Hmm...ughh...Huh?...am I in hell?"

"Now that's quite a fresh way of thinking. But sorry to say, even hell would find it hard to accept you."

Aria asked as she woke up, but Lancell retorted at her unconscious mutter.

Aria suddenly realized that she was being carried, and by a man no less. But she wasn't your average lad, proved as she spoke.

"I'm tired. Keep carrying me."

Lancell "..."

Arthur "..."

Lancell and Arthur went silent at her shamelessness as she even went to sleep in Lancell's arms. A vein bulged in Lancell's forehead as he snapped.

"Wake the hell up you damn idiot!!"

Lancell was prepared to toss her away, but Aria got down on her own. At least she was aware of her own plight. She stood and pouted as she puffed her cheeks at Lancell.

"Geez! Can't you be a bit more tact? I'm a lady you know! Besides, I spent hour trying to catch up to the two of you so I'm really tired!"

"Actually. No one told you to follow us."

"But I had to! Your suspicious faces practically screams 'I have a big secret!' and there's no way I could miss something interesting right?" Aria insisted.

Lancell fell silent at her answer while Arthur snickered as she tried to suppress her laughter. Lancell was a bit frustrated at the situation, so he asked in a cold tone.

"What do you want?"

Aria shuddered at the sudden hostile tone. However, she still answered.

"F-For now, I just want to go with the two of you."

"For what?"

Aria ruffled through her mind as she desperately tried to think of a reason that might appease Lancell, so she decided to shoot the stars...

"Actually...I want to get stronger..."

...and nailed it.

Arthur's eyes widened at the reasoning she gave, while Lancell raised his brows. He was familiar with her, so he knew what her habits were when she lied. And at the very least, Aria hadn't lied with that statement.

Lancell went silent for a while, and then acquiesced. "Alright."

"But we don't have time to babysit you, take care of yourself."

Arthur was practically grinning mischievously at this point. Lancell had lost. In the short battle of reasoning, Arthur had realized that, he was defeated with a wild swing.

Lancell looked at Arthur and demanded.

"Lead the way already."

"Okay, Okay, I got it. Geez, what a slave driver."

◇◇◇

"Umm... it may be late now, but I'm Aria. Aria Selvenia, third princess of the country. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Arthur, the second coming of the greatest king ever alive. Nice too meet you. And the guy behind me is Lancelot."

Aria's eyes lit up when she heard of Lancell's name. It couldn't be help. She was at that age, after all. She was prone to believing bullshit about 'Fate', or 'Destiny', or whatsoever.

However, before she could ask anything, Lancell spoke.

"Arthur. I'm telling you, if you call me Lancelot again, I'll slug you."

"Ohh~ how scary." Arthur joked.

And so, the journey continued as the noisy group never settled down even for a bit.