First Floor, II

Sean Dayward POV:

Today is the second day of being here in the dune dungeon.

Helis called me through the night to help assisting with healing the injured ones, for example hold their bodies properly shaped, or clean the wounds first just in case sand got into them, etcetera.

Though I have got to say, Helis, a random dude who appeared out of nowhere in the Prestigious Academy of Rora, is quite a unique guy.

His acting is quite an annoying and failed thing about him, since I can feel it miles away that he isn't showing his true self to us.

He is just keeping up a charade, and he doesn't want us to see his true self.

Albeit, I do feel like his true self surfaced when we lost our dear comrade Selica. It was a shocking blow to all of us, but being sucked by space into this sort of dimension or place managed to distract us from our sadness and instead fight for our lives.

***

"Aghm..." A groan was heard from Qo Soo-bin who got out of her tent, all patched up from head to toe(not literally).

"Good morning," I said. "How are you feeling?" I asked her with a clear voice.

"Who are you again?" She voiced her concern with a raised brow instead of replying to me.

"Ahaha... It's Sean, Sean Dayward." I trailed off awkwardly and continued, "I hope you remember my name considering we are going to pass a lot of time together throughout this dungeon, or what you called it."

"Hmm, yes, yes, I'll do so…" She replied with a tired tone and picked back up again, "But surprisingly though, I don't feel too much pain, I think I had wounds way worse than this." She raised her brows, small wrinkles forming on her forehead.

"Ah, that's because I and Helis took care of all the injured ones." I said, "You're the last one to wake up, Soo-bin."

"Eh, really?" She asked, "How many survived that slaughter?"

"Well counting you, there are seven survivors, the only ones injured severely were you, Ren, and Helis," I replied.

"Well, I see. For that, you have my gratitude, Sean." She smiled as she thanked me.

Whoa, how mature, I want to be like her.

Since then, I began seeing Qo Soobin in a better light.

***

"Everyone, let's get started with this raid." Helis' declaration was heard throughout the whole group.

He already seemed to receive the role of the leader, regarding that he saved two lives from being lost and protected other people.

***

We started walking without a goal in mind.

After one hundred meters of walking in a straight line, we encountered a panel.

It was just a wooden plank saying, "Welcome To The Dune Dungeon!" Someone exhaled my thoughts, "And under it, it says... Floor 1?"

A questioning look overcame her face, Soo-bin's face whom I had come across in the morning.

"So there are floors, and we have to go through them all to clear the dungeon, that's what I think..." Spoke Haruka who hid her face when she realized everyone was paying attention to her.

"Good job for figuring that out, I think so too." Helis praised her, "I went yesterday night to survey the area, I left trails so I wouldn't lose my way, and that's how we came across this checkpoint again."

A look of bewilderment was splattered on Mai's face, "What? You did all that when you were injured too!?"

A smirk drew itself on Helis's fine face, "Yeah, I just have good skill in taking care of wounds and stuff, so I was in top form already!"

Mai's shoulders slumped as she said, "I just can't compete with you..."

"Let's continue walking, also, everyone's got extra water and food with themselves, right?" I remarked.

"Yeah... but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to take food from dead people..." Ren Uemura's voice was heard.

"I agree to be honest… But I, Helis and Luke didn't have any equipment at all, so this proves quite useful." I said.

"Wait, how about you guys check this out too?" Helis interrupted as he waved his hand into the plank with words written on it.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Fizzing noises were heard over and over again as his hand kept transitioning through the object.

Some surprising gasps were heard here and there, I was surprised too.

I went toward it and also tried moving my hand through it, I did, and didn't feel anything. the distorting object just turned back to its former shape, quite spooky and exciting if you ask me.

"It's intriguing to see such a thing." Helis gave his opinion.

"It is, from what I know and how it seems to be, this is a—"

"Hologram." Haruka finished in Soobin's stead.

"Hologram? Ah, those see-through and non-physical screens?" Helis gave his weird prescription of it, which proved useful to me who has never heard about such thing.

"Exactly!" Soobin nodded.

Hmmm, it seems weird, for things like this to exist in the middle of a desert.

Welp, this is a dungeon that appeared out of nowhere on their place so anything is expected.

***

After that, we kept going in a straight line again.

After two hundred meters, we were met with the same type of hologram.

This time, something more peculiar was written on it, "Congratulations on making it so far without slaughtering each other."

"Eh, isn't that disgusting, how did this thing know we would start killing each other and did someone already come here? No, it can't be, since this is a hologram and not made out of wood." Soo-Bin was muttering to herself.

"Ah," I noticed more stuff written down.

It seemed to be additional information, on how to pass through this floor or something like that.

"There will be an amount of water spawning next to you in between a Thirty-Hour-Interval, do your best to survive everything this dungeon has hidden for you."

I take back what I said, there's no useful information on how to clear the dungeon besides knowing that we won't die of dehydration.

"Huh?!" Sand began to move.

Next, a ruffling noise was heard, and soon we were met with a horde of monsters aiming for our life.