Going Below

Neil awoke to Amelia overtop of him.

"MehhUhhhOoo" He let out multiple groans.

"Come on, it's time to get up already, 4 hours have passed," She said pointing to a wristwatch Neil had somehow never noticed he wearing.

"Give me a minute," Neil asked, still waking up.

"Fine" She responded in a strict tone.

After properly waking himself up Neil remembered the situation and shot up, it was finally time to go into the first dungeon and he was excited. As dangerous as he knew it'd be he was also excited for the combat and danger. Something about it amped him up, what t was even he did not know.

Neil exited the tent to see Amelia wearing all of her gear and looking prepared to soon fight. Neil quickly slipped on his armor and looked back at Amelia excitedly, she was wearing a more concerned face.

"What is the artifact within this dungeon," She asked Neil bluntly. He swiftly realized he had never told her and was shocked by himself.

"Ah, my bad, the artifact is a quiver that's been blessed by the goddess Klexo. It should prove very helpful to you."

Amelia seemed pleased with this answer as she nodded and looked forward.

"So, into the dungeon then, as we have no reason to wait." Neil agreed and began heading toward the cave.

"I'll take the lead as while you are stronger I think it would be better for our classes," Neil said to Amelia, hoping she'd take no offense.

"That's reasonable enough, let's go then" Upon hearing that Neil set off into the dungeon.

It began with a grand staircase that went down nearly 50 feet and was wide enough to fit ten people across. He had now entered his first true dungeon of the world, it would be much more difficult than any of the other battles he had been involved in. But he had the help of a masterful archer to back him up.

After the 50-foot descent the floor flattened out and in front of Neil was a large circular maze made of solid stone. It was dimly lit and impossible to see how long the maze stretched on but from memory, Neil believed the top floors maze would be roughly half a mile in diameter, a monstrous first floor of the dungeon, from there on it began halving in size but increasing in the difficulty and density of monsters that they'd come across.

The plan that Neil had concocted for the first floor was to simply walk the maze and kill whatever creatures they came across. This method would be less tiresome than other more intensive ones leaving them energy for the later floors.

"I'll take the lead and when we come to a split path we can decide which way to go," Neil said to Amelia before he took the lead entering the large maze. Amelia nodded and followed him.

In secret Neil had already memorized this maze by having multiple run-throughs, so his idea was to best lead her in the right path while seeming unknowing about doing so. If this went how he planned they could clear the first floor in less than a few hours, but there was much room for a slip-up.

Upon entering the maze they could see what it'd be like as they walked through large curved and straight pathways which went up over 20 feet and were about 4 people wide. They walked slowly and cautiously looking out for any creatures when suddenly Neil spotted a group.

"Rock lizards" Neil yelled back to Amelia. There was a pack of 4 rock lizards which took the form of a large iguana roughly 2.5 feet tall and 5 feet long. They were the easiest creatures in the dungeon and were something even Neil could take care of.

Upon seeing them Neil immediately ran forward to strike, as though he had lost all thought. His urge to fight was stronger than ever before and he felt it had to be a result of the class he had chosen.

They were rather slow creatures whose main difficulty was their thick skin which many weapons would bounce off of, Neil pick up his axe in his right hand and immediately felt the effects of his increased strength as his axe now felt almost as light as a feather.

With this new strength, he was able to do a simple one-armed slash with his axe against the lizards.

"Kehhh!!" The first that he had attacked was immediately slashed directly through and killed.

"I'm too damn strong!" Neil yelled out in happiness, forgetting he wasn't alone.

Neil swiftly looked back at Amelia to see her response to see she was staring at him now smirking.

"If you're so damn strong, then I'm guessing you can take care of the rest" She yelled out to him as she put her bow back on her back

'Well, shit. I guess this is deserved' Neil thought to himself making sure to keep it to himself this time.

Truly he didn't mind being allowed to fight the three other rock lizards, they were easy creatures compared to what he had already fought and he hoped that he might be able t gain a level if he killed all four of them.

He refocused his attention to the rock lizard which had now gotten dangerously close to him. He didn't care now, he could deal with them with ease.

Using only his right arm h began slicing up the remaining lizards with a mix of sideways, downwards, and upwards slashes which swiftly killed the three remaining lizards. He smiled in happiness at his easy victory and looked back at Amelia feeling accomplished.

"I'll give it to you that was well done, though you lacked much skill in your process, you were able to easily defeat the four," She said in a flat voice.

"Also you get to kill any rock lizards we come across, I'll save my bow for more dangerous creatures and allow you to have the experience from them" She added looking at Nel waiting for him to accept.

"Well thanks for that then, but please do help me if I look to need it. I do still lack much in combat experience." He said, with a nod from Amelia he felt fine to go on.

For the next half an hour they continued forward doing the same as before they came across 4 more groups of rock lizards each with 3-5 lizards in them. Neil was able to swiftly take the creatures down as Amelia gave him pointers on certain things to improve and especially focused on him keeping his mind in the battle and not wandering elsewhere, an issue he struggled with.

They had come across multiple crossroads but it seemed for this first floor Amelia would allow Neil to pick the turns as he was the only one fighting. He was thankful for the respect she was showing him through this and was impressed by her ability to be so hands-off in the situation.

In contrast from Amelia's perspective, Neil was just clearing this entire floor for her as the only monsters that had been coming up were rock lizards meaning she could watch as Neil fought. She didn't necessarily enjoy lazing around as others fought but knowing she'd have to do much fighting in the future she deemed not fighting on the first floor acceptable enough. And it's not as though she was doing nothing, she was giving the rookie in front of her useful tips which he seemed to soak up.

"There's another group down," Neil said, as he had just finished killing his fifth group of rock lizards. He had guessed he had gained three levels through this as they were becoming harder to attain from such easy creatures. Even with their ease Neil was beginning to build a slight bit of exhaustion from the fighting and could feel the beginning of his body tiring.

'Not the time body' He thought to himself as he knew he still had much more to go.

"You looked much better taking that group down in contrast to the first, your growth is quite impressive," Amelia said to Neil

"You betcha," Neil said taking the compliment in full, he was now beginning to build a small ego which would likely soon be destroyed as he fought tougher creatures.

"We've gone pretty far at this point," Neil said after picking at another crossroads, "I think we'll be seeing some changes now he added"

"And why is that," Amelia asked him.

"Just a hunch" He responded doing his best to hide his knowledge.

Neil guessed that the monster groups would begin gaining new tougher monsters, which likely slow their progress as they were nearing the next staircase down.

"Another group, but this time I see a rock golem with them" Neil yelled back Amelia

"I'll deal with the big one, you can have everyone else" She yelled back.

'Deal' Neil thought looking at the larger group of 8 rock lizards with a large rock golem that stood about 7 feet tall in the center of the pack.

Neil yet again rushed up to the group and before he could even kill the first lizard the rock golem had already fallen with an arrow piercing its skull. It seemed fighting on his own with the elf watching Neil had forgotten just how strong she was.

"Hey, get your head back in the fight!" Amelia yelled to him.

Neil forcefully refocused himself and continued fighting the lizards in front of him, removing each similar to how he had done before, making sure not to expend too much energy on them.

After he killed the group he turned back to Amelia happily and smiled, it seemed the addition of these harder creatures wouldn't be slowing them much. She simply picked up the arrow she had used and pointed forward, Neil turned to find another crossroad.

He was pretty certain they were now nearing the staircase and it would now be only two or three more crossroads. They continued coming across more groups of monsters which they removed with ease, Neil only continuing to rack up as much experience as he could. The benefit of him being at such a low level was that even though killing these creatures that he felt were easy he still gained a somewhat substantial amount of experience from them.

After their third encounter with the larger groups, they walked forward to find a long straight corridor instead of a crossroads.

"We've reached the first staircase" Neil yelled back to Amelia.

"Good, that only took about 2 hours" She responded.

She seemed genuinely content which made Neil happy as he continued forward down the second staircase. This one was slightly smaller than the first but still much larger than the corridors they had been walking in. Once Neil reached the bottom he turned to Amelia to speak.

"I think we should temporarily break to eat a little before we enter the next level," Neil said back to her.

"Yeah, I agree" She that trying to seem nonchalant, but Neil knew she wanted the food greatly, he had now found Amelia's largest weakness. She was a total sucker for good food.

Neil sat down and began setting up camp to cook a small meal for the two of them.