Chapter 37: Raiding Tomb of the Dragon King Part 1

In the evening, Raynare and Kalawarna returned from a mission. Ray welcomed them in and told them to take a quick bath. The two of them looked at Ray weirdly but shrugged and went to take bath while Ray was making dinner.

When they are done, everyone sits down and eats dinner. Mittelt, Raynare and Kalawarna looked at Ray weirdly because he was in such a hurry but didn't tell them what he planned for them. He just said it's a surprise then told them to eat their food quickly.

At 8 pm, everyone gathered in front of the TV while Ray was zoning out while staring at the TV screen. He is looking at the screen but his mind is in another place.

"Ray, we are ready now." Raynare said when everyone is done with their activities. Then the dull pupil in his eyes regained clarity which indicates his mind is focusing on reality again.

"Let's go then, I'm gonna work you three till none of you can lift a finger." Ray said and opened the system to bring everyone into the Mission lobby. "Eh-" Reaction of the three cutted off and everyone including Cheshire and her Kitty vanished from his dorm.

…

Within the lobby, it is a simple room with basic furniture like table, few chairs, sofa, a bed and a transparent wall which is surrounded by a pure black void but everything is visible like a well lit room.

"Where is this place?" One of the trio asked but Raynare instantly deduced this is the place Ray went every night when he vanished. "This is the place you always went to when you vanished right, Ray?" Raynare asked.

"Yeah, and I am finally able to bring you all with me here and Cheshire too. Now I don't need to worry about her safety anymore and focus on getting my levels up." Ray explained while equipping his Exoskeleton Suit and his equipment. "You three will join me tonight." Ray said while looking at the trio's surprised face.

"Eh?! What kind of thing do you do over here anyway." Raynare said and sort of accepted Ray's request without question and so did Mittelt and Kalawarna.

"Fighting monsters." Ray replied with an obvious answer.

"Monster?"

"Yeah, we will fight monsters and you three can gain strength. Well, it's simpler if I just show you this." Ray opened their status screen and showed them their status.

Raynare, Mittelt and Kalawarna look at the screen while Ray also checks on their stats.

———

Name: Raynare

Level: 27

Rank: One Pair Wings

Skill:

Light Spear

Light Manipulation

Magic

————

Name: Mittelt

Level: 16

Rank: One Pair Wings

Skill:

Light Spear

Light Manipulation

Magic

———

Name: Kalawarna

Level: 21

Rank: One Pair Wings

Skill:

Light Spear

Light Manipulation

Spearmanship

————

"Well let's get started then." Ray said to the speechless Fallen trio before giving Cheshire plenty of snacks and water if she became hungry. He tells her she can watch him and the other three fight through a magic screen that will appear after they start the Mission stage.

Ray opens the menu and selects the new stages that have been added.

[Tomb of Dragon King]

Ray selects the option and selects Raynare, Mittelt and Kalawarna as his squad members before all four of them vanish from the room and appear in a big underground cavity that looks like the results of a cave in. There are three floors that form like a spiral from the bottom to the top. The pillar that support the underground space and wall are covered with ancient symbols and motifs that are primarily an Eastern dragon.

(Note: Google up MAT 2 Tomb of Dragon King. I'm sucks at describing with my limited vocabulary.)

[Stage 1/30]

A screen appears for everyone that shows the first stage had started. The whole ruin looks like an ancient mortuary for emperors and on the ground floor where they are standing, there are six openings where enemies consisting of undead walk out in groups and attack all four of them.

[Dragon King Undead Soldiers]

[Dragon King Undead Priest]

The soldiers one look typically like mummies covered from head to toe with a thick layer of dirty and slightly bloody bandages while the priests look like dried up corpses and dressed like Egyptian Priests.

"You girls keep distance and attack. Leave the aggro to me." Ray said and brought out the Trailblazer pistol to attack the enemies but not enough to kill them while the trio used their Light Spear or magic to deliver the finishing blow. Since these enemies are undead, they receive more damage from the Light attribute attacks.

The Raynare create multiple small Light spears to shoot like bullets while the other two create normal sized spears and use them like a javelin that turn the undead into a big kebab before disintegrating into ashes by the power of Light.

"This is a piece of cake!" Raynare declared after seeing all of the enemies died from disintegration on hit by her Light Spear bullets. "Yeah! This is very easy." Mittelt also said while giving Ray a 'V' sign using her fingers.

"Hmn.. I doubt it will stay easy like this. This is just stage one after all and we expanded quite a lot of energy already. I doubt we will last that long even if the difficulty remains the same." Kalawarna shares her logical conclusion unlike the other two. It seems like Kalawarna is the smart and mature one which fits her appearance as Big Sister of their group.

"Kalawarna is correct indeed. Energy consumption is a problem in our current situation where enemies attack us in waves and definitely increasing difficulty as we progress." Ray explained his view while choking on the last enemy using his hand to prevent the stage from ending yet. The undead attacked Ray multiple times but its attack barely deduct 10 points of his barrier durability.

"See that green ammunition crates there, that apparently will refill your ammunition and I guess mana count too since you three use mana to create projectiles… Technically…" Ray said while also pondering if his theory is correct. "Anyway, just try holding the crates and see what it does." Ray said and the trio stretched their hand and touched the green crate.

Their bodies are suddenly covered by golden aura and the trio feel mana surging into their body, filling their mana pool to the brim.

"Oh! My mana replenished!" Raynare exclaimed.

"Mine too!" Mittelt followed.

"Me too." Kalawarna also followed to declare it.

"So, ready for stage two?" Ray asked and tightened his grip on the undead in his grasp. "Yeah, let's proceed!" Mittelt said and the other two nodded as they recreated their Light weapons.

"Good. Let's continue." Ray said before smashing his Hardplate series glove infused with Adamantine into the skull of the undead which turned into wisp of dark particles as its body disintegrated.

[Stage 2/30]

…

…

[Stage 5/30]

Raynare and Kalawarna still hold on with little tiredness on their faces but Mittelt, the weakest among the three, is already sweating hard and huffing while trying to catch her breath.

The enemies remain the same in strength however their number doubles every stage and it wears down Mittelt very fast as she lacks in terms of stamina unlike Kalawarna and lacks in terms of mana unlike Raynare. She soon became desperate as she didn't want to be the burden and accidentally slipped up and got ganged by waves of undead. Thankfully Ray activated Sacrificial Bulwark to transfer all damages and pain to him which left Mittelt unharmed.

"Raynare! Kalawarna!, bring Mittelt to higher ground. You all are drained and we are not even halfway through this stage. Just stay back and rest for now. I will take care of this." Ray ordered before summoning the Proposition.

When the gatling gun reaches his grasp, he can feel a cold and soothing aura enveloping him like he was dipped in a lake. His stats also increased greatly from the Arondight's buff that just applied on him. When looking from a third person perspective, one can see a phantom of small fairies and a layer of water surrounding Ray like his barrier.

Ray activates Hold The Line skill before he holds the firing trigger which causes the barrels to spin very fast and shoots out bullets coated with holy attributes from Arondight sealed in the gatling gun. The undead army of the Dragon King all mowed like grass by an extremely sharp scythe. Hundreds of enemies fell easily under the attack from Ray that it looked like they were going to clear the stage soon but suddenly a giant abomination of flesh and rock walked out from one of the openings.

[Balrock]

(Elite Guard)

The giant creature looks like a golem, covered with inscriptions and talismans on its head and very sharp claws that look like it can tear open a flesh like hot knife on butter.

Raynare and Kalawarna that isn't as tired as Mittelt quickly summon their Light spear to assist Ray although he can fight the Balrock just fine without any help from them. Ray eventually reduce the Balrock's HP to last 5% when the Balrock suddenly glowed red and exploded which Ray didn't manage to escape and caught within the explosion. He was thrown a few feet away by the shockwave and received 20% damage which was deducted on his Barrier durability.

"Rarghhh!!! *BOOM*"

"Agh" Ray grunted when his back impacted the stone wall.

"Ray, you alright?" Raynare asked. "No need to worry about me, go replenish your mana before the next stage starts!" Ray urges which Raynare agrees and goes to the green crate along with Mittelt and Kalawarna.

"This time you three take the higher ground and let me stay at the bottom. The next round will be even more waves of enemies and the last thing I want is either of you dying before we fight the last boss." Ray then explained his strategy in which the trio will stay outside of the danger and let him do the heavy lifting for now. His reason for bringing them in the first place is because of the shared EXP between squad members. He is basically carrying the trio until they are strong enough to actually fight equally like him.

"But-" Raynare wanted to object but feeling the stare from Ray, she nodded and went to the higher ground with the other two by flying with their wings instead of walking up.

"Good… now is the time for you to shine." Ray muttered and Proposition suddenly turned into light and manifested the Arondight.

This is part of the sealing effect where he can quickly change form with what he sealed in his equipment. In this case, Arondight is sealed in Proposition.

The illusionary effect of the fairies and water barrier became more apparent as the sword glowed in his hand and steadily drained 5 energy points every second but still within the regeneration limit to have no drain on his energy gauge.

[Stage 6/30]

Enemies pour out of all six openings of the lower ground and crowding Ray that is guarding the road to the upper floor. He grasped the sword with both hands before making a cleaving slash and blue light coated the tip of Arondight and created a crescent slash that bisected enemies that crossed its path.

Just one slash killed more than a hundred in one go but the energy it drains is also astronomical. The slash required 100 energy to activate and he was able to use ten more before his energy was totally drained if not factoring his regeneration. However, this is enough. Thinning down the horde is his aim and the remaining one can be dealt with with his Proposition. The trio also helped with attacks consisting of Light spears, impaling the undead army like a skewer.

…

…

[Stage 8/30]

…

[Stage 10/30]

*War Horn Noise*

"Holy moly, Run to even higher ground!" Ray shouted at a horde of radioactive green insects-like creatures released from the opening and swarming Ray with their high speed and large numbers. Their attack is weak but their poisonous claw and fang is a problem.

Ray quickly opens his inventory and retrieves the Holy Moonlight Sword to do his ultimate move by pairing Holy Moonlight Sword slash with Arondight.

"Lend me your power! Harem God Kirito! StarBurst Stream!"

Ray used the ultimate technique that he copied from the Fairy King Kirito. The ethereal green greatsword and luminous blue sword danced along with their wielder to create deadly slashes that decimated half of the green insects' swarm.

—————

(Note: The last part is a joke 😂. Idk what cool move to give Ray when I suddenly remembered Kirito using his Starburst Stream on the goat monster in season 1. Expect big power up on the trio after this Raid finishes.)