Chapter 129: Road To Floor 15

"Tch, for the record, Lucy, people aren't just objects you can get rid of and replace whenever you see fit." Remarked Alexander with a frown as he eyed Lucy, who seemed slightly annoyed by his words.

"Hmph, their lives are only meant to service mine; they have no other use than that." Said Lucy with a scoff as she stared at Alexander while her party members grasped their weapons and eyed him.

Hearing her words, I gritted my teeth and looked away; I had a feeling if I kept speaking with her, we'd end up fighting, which wasn't something I wanted to do. Not only was I heavily outnumbered, but we were still inside the Adventurer's guild, and I wasn't trying to be temporarily banned for six months. So, I just closed my eyes and ignored her while waiting for Yukit to return, which seemed to anger her.

"I would've ignored your previous transgressions if you had prostrated yourself before me, but it seems like you and that stupid bastard Yuki are just a pair of fools." Remarked Lucy with a livid expression as she tightly held her staff while eyeing Alexander before looking away.

Watching Lucy and her party members leave, I sighed in relief; listening to her speak badly about Yuki greatly angered me, though thankfully, she left because if she had continued, I might've attacked her.

'Haa, keep a calm mind, Alexander.' Thought Alexander as he took several deep breaths, only to open his eyes when he heard that familiar thumping noise.

"They're gone?" Asked Yuki as she approached Alexander, who glanced at her while nodding.

"Yes; now, c'mon, let's go, Yuki. Though, just know, if you need to use the bathroom while we're in the dungeon, you're doing it in a corner; we're not leaving." Remarked Alexander seriously as he looked at Yuki before turning around and exiting the building while she closely followed behind.

"Eh? In the corner? Can you at least protect me?" Asked Yuki as she tilted her head before glancing at Alexander, who rubbed his head while nodding.

"Haa, yes." Muttered Alexander as he glanced at Yuki before shaking his head.

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Dodging the creature's tongue, I dashed behind Yuki while she blocked the floor Guardian's attacks before leaping over her body and swinging Zartha while spinning in the air, launching a decently powerful wind blade, right for its leg, and as it wasn't a life-threatening attack, it didn't bother to dodge, causing a deep gash to cover its thigh.

"Tsk, I thought that would've sliced it's leg off." Muttered Alexander with a slight frown as he used [Air Jump] to do a backflip back over the guardian, attacking it once more.

With another wind blade, the injureGuardiannally fell off, prompting Yuki to suddenly rush forward, slamming her two shields into the monster; with its agility now significantly reduced, it wasn't able to move out of the way before it was crushed against the wall by Yuki, causing the entire cavern to tremble slightly.

"It's dead, right?" Asked Alexander curiously as he landed on the ground, resting Trina on his shoulder while Zartha scraped the rocky floor.

At my words, Yuki raised her dual shields and smashed them onto the motionless creature before turning around and nodding, causing me to roll my eyes as I holstered my great swords onto my back.

"Well, then, we should take a rest break; that battle went on for much longer than usual, so I used a decent amount of mana, and I'm sure you could use a break to regain your stamina, Yuki." Stated Alexander lightly as he approached Yuki, who sat down right beside the monster's corpse, causing his expression to constantly twitch.

Shaking my head, I grabbed the monster's other leg and pulled it a distance away, leaving behind a trail of brown blood before I grabbed Zartha off my back and started butchering the floor guardian.

'I'm beginning to have second thoughts about you being my Master.' Said Zartha very coldly as she eyed the sky while Trina sat in the distance, covering her mouth and suppressing her laughter.

'Eh, well, you've only got yourself to blame, Zartha.' Said Alexander with a faint smirk as he glanced at his pulsating greatsword while continuing to butcher the monster.

Once I cut the monster's limbs off, I stored them in my designated space pouch before grabbing and storing the other leg I chopped off inside, burning the disgusting brown blood off my greatsword. I holstered it and approached Yuki before sitting down beside her in a meditative position as I began to recover man significantly faster than usual. Now, a dungeon wasn't exactly the safest place to meditate, but the guardian room will only ever be occupied by the guardian itself, and so long as another one isn't birthed very quickly, we should be fine; besides, I've got Yuki.

'Though speaking of the dungeon, this hasn't exactly been the luckiest expedition so far; thankfully, we haven't encountered a monster horde, but the fifth-floor boss, the gargoyle, and the tenth-floor boss, which we've just beaten, the Licker, have both been stronger than usual, so I don't really have a good feeling for the skeleton on the fifteenth-floor.' Pondered Alexander with a slight frown while he silently meditated.

I wasn't just nervous or scared; my heart was lightly warning me of danger; however, I couldn't discern what it was precisely warning me of. Was it the third Guardian? Or was it something else? I didn't know, but I intended to keep my guard up the instant we leave this room.

Several quiet minutes passed, and eventually, I refilled all of my mana, prompting me to open my eyes, only to hear the sound of crunching and I looked over at Yuki, I saw her eating cookies I had made.

"Really, Yuki?" Asked Alexander as he blankly stared at Yuki, causing her to look at him before glancing back at the cookie in her hand.

"Um, here you go." Replied Yuki as she broke off a small piece of the cookie and handed it to Alexander while putting the rest in her mouth, causing his face to twitch.

Sighing to myself, I ate the tiny, bite-sized piece Yuki handed me before standing up and grabbing her hand as I helped her onto her two feet.

"Alright, you glutton, you're taking the lead; you're going to need to burn off those extra calories." Remarked Alexander with a faint smirk as he slapped Yuki's lower back, causing her to put on her helmet and hold her two shields in front of her.

"What are calories?" Asked Yuki in a deep voice as she turned and glanced at Alexander, who shook his head.

"I'll tell you about them later." Replied Alexander, causing Yuki to nod while her gaze hardened as the two exited the tenth floor and headed toward the eleventh floor.

Similar to the previous floors, all the monsters were the same, only this time, elite class monsters were much more common, and all the monsters in general were in a much larger population. Speaking of population, after Yuki and I turned the corner, we saw a massive zombie hoard blocking our path forward while numerous massive zombies were in the hoard.

'That's at least a few thousand, no? Haa, fuck us.' Thought Alexander with a sigh as he tightly gripped his greatswords before enveloping them in raging reddish flames.

"AHHHH!" Yelled Yuki loudly as she clanged her shields together before charging right into the hoard of zombies, trampling everything in her way; even the massive, elite zombies only momentarily slowed her down.

Jumping into the fray right after Yuki, I stayed on the outskirts of the hoard and immobilized every zombie I came across by slicing off their legs or their waists while I allowed the flames coating my two swords to do the rest; I wasn't killing as quickly as Yuki, though half the zombies she trampled over weren't even dead, just immobile, and the elite zombies were only injured. However, that was good enough since she would constantly trample the zombies while I'd finish everything with my flames, a pretty good and effective combo; the only problem was the elites, which either Yuki or I had to kill personally as the flames weren't that effective against them.

For several minutes, I'd constantly slice, cut, stab, and decapitate zombies while Yuki would come running back and forth through the hoard, though eventually, we managed to kill them as I stabbed my sword into the last elite zombie.

"Haa, so tedious. You okay, Yuki?" Muttered Alexander in annoyance as he retracted Trina from the zombie's corpse before glancing at Yuki.

"Yeah, though running through a massive hoard is always a little exhausting." Replied Yuki with uneven breathing as she approached Alexander while her shields dripped blood onto the ground.

"Well, then, I'll take the lead for the rest of this floor; I need you to be in tip-top shape when we fight the third guardian." Remarked Alexander with a nod as he walked forward, taking the lead, while Yuki nodded and followed him.

We didn't encounter any more zombies for the rest of the floor, thankfully, but we did get ambushed by several gargoyles, numerous lickers, and their elite versions along the way, though it wasn't anything we hadn't dealt with before, so everything was fine. Though, despite killing so many different monsters, I only leveled up twice this whole day, as unbelievable as that sounded.

'Haa, now I know why Master was only level 4,876 despite having lived for over 2,000 years. Leveling up isn't easy.' Mused Alexander with a slight sigh as he stopped walking, allowing Yuki to the lead now that they arrived at the twelfth floor.