“Uh… it was better when we had Wayland along.”
A rather sweaty half-elven girl in full leather gear was seen treading through a wide-open area filled with pools of lava.
“You need to come here more often and build up your heat resistance skill and stop relying on magical contraptions!”
A man with a large frame and tanned skin was walking in front of her. He was quite handsome, his upper arms weren’t covered by any armor but from his forearms and below, thick dark gauntlets could be seen.
“Shut up Armand, it would have been better if you fell into that hole instead of Wayland!”
“You think I wouldn’t want that blue-haired noble girl around with me instead? Damn, it would be a waste if anything happened to her… and that bastard is lucky enough to be with her for so long...”
Lobelia furrowed her eyebrows before giving a kick to Arman’s shin guard. The large man didn’t even flinch as he was used to getting poked and prodded by his younger sister.
The two had been tasked to go back to Albrook city. They had to run while mostly evading the monsters while the two knights they were given were more of a burden than help. After a full day of going through the dungeon and not sleeping they were able to arrive at the adventurer’s guild to give the report.
Armand remembered it well as the old guild master looked like he had laid an egg. He was really pale after hearing that his precious Runesmith and the nobles were trapped in some unknown underground cave with no way of climbing back up.
He could recall him blowing a fuse and shouting at everyone before scrambling back into his office. Armand looked back this fondly as this was the first time he saw the old fart in so much distress. It made the whole fiasco of him losing his old post actually somewhat worthwhile.
After losing his position he was scolded by his family members, he also had to quit going to the red light district for the time being. The money had to go to his equipment and the orphanage as the prices had increased. Luckily for him, the monster parts that they brought in were enough to cover the costs and the other family members also pitched in.
Even though he wasn’t totally broke, it didn’t change the fact that he still didn’t like the person that caused this. Wayland the Runesmith, he didn’t think that he could get along with a stiff like that. Whenever he thought about his face that he rarely showed, he wanted to put his fist through it.
His two step sisters weren’t helping either, always taking that guy's side over his for some reason. It was clear to him that he might have been able to handle things differently that time. He was still a work in progress but it would be hard to change his bostrious ways. This is how he was, cocky and full of vigor.
“Is that the only thing that you can think about…”
Lobelia frowned even more after hearing Armand disclose his desires of being trapped in a room with the blue haired noble. The noble lady was quite beautiful and had porcelain like skin to match it. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was defeated in a couple of places but still thought that her face was much better than what the ice mage had.
Continuing their report a climbing specialist had to be rushed over to Albrook from another dungeon town. It took a couple of days to assemble the rescue team and they headed back at the moment they arrived.
Guild master Aurdhan and the mayor were rushing them all the way to the dungeon entrance. At one point they even thought that the old man would join them on the expedition.
They rushed back down past the 10th level that luckily had its boss killed beforehand. Now they were on the way towards the large lava lake that they passed by previously. The side passage had collapsed after the volcanic worms burst through the mountain.
This was a dungeon though and they worked in mysterious ways. It wouldn’t be odd for the cliff passage to have mended itself back to health. The holes that adventurers produced with their high-powered attacks tended to vanish after a week of time. It was as if the dungeon was some kind of huge organism that had a slow healing factor.
They were traveling with three new adventurers. They were of a particular beastman race, they had short white beards, short tails, and long black horns. The most characteristic part about them were their rectangular eyes.
These adventurers were part of a mountain goat beastman tribe that was famous for their climbing skills. Even without any ropes, they had certain skills that allowed them to cling to the walls for exorbitant amounts of time.
The plan was for these three to climb down into the hole where the three people fell down. Each one would then attach a person to a harness that would allow them to carry them up without the need of holding on to them. They would become human-sized backpacks for these people while they climbed back up.
Even with these specialists, it was dangerous. No one knew if those volcanic worms would not appear suddenly once more. They also didn’t know how far down that hole was, nor how well they could use their climbing skills on the dungeon walls.
“Okay we are at the lake, It’s not that far now.”
Lobelia said while waiting at the two knights that were as always lumbering behind the group of adventurers. The plan was for them to wait till the lava lake subsided, on the other side the noble encampment was still in place. They would meet up with Lord Percival and the others and then head over to the cliff with a smaller team of knights.
Everything was being kept on the down-low for now. It was clear that neither the adventurer’s guild nor the nobles wished to disclose the fact that they let a magically gifted viscount’s daughter be trapped in a new dungeon.
It wasn’t the first time that an accident like this happened but this didn’t mean that there would not be repercussions later. Depending on how much pull the viscount had, he could make it uncomfortable for the guild and the nobles.
“Wait… what’s that…”
“Huh? Where?”
Armand squinted with his eyes while looking in the direction that Lobelia was pointing at. The lava had subsided a few minutes ago so they were waiting for it to cover up again. They would not risk attempting to cross it while it was uncovered as they would lose precious time.
Surprisingly something appeared right in the middle of this lake.
“Wait… that red armor…”
His jaw almost dropped as Armand saw someone that he was very familiar with. Lobelia as well, with her enhanced archer vision she could see a somewhat beat up-armored man emerge from the middle of this lake.
The shiny crimson armor that was his calling card was all banged up. The gauntlets were missing and it looked like the chest plate had been hit by a sledgehammer a couple of times. For some reason, the helmet looked in good shape.
“Is that Wayland… wait that blue… is that the noble girl?”
Wayland was the first one to appear, Lobelia could see him looking around before turning. It seemed that he was leaning down to help someone up and soon lady Lucille was right next to him. Then Agni appeared seemingly out of nowhere followed by a knight that she saw a couple of times before.
“What’s going on? How are they all the way there… didn’t they fall into that hole…”
Before the two could process the information they could see the group of three looking around. After realizing whey they were actually at Lobelia could see the knight picking up the noble lady. They all took off sprinting towards where the group of adventurers was.
“Oh right…”
Lobelia realized what the problem was, the lake had been drained of lava for a few minutes. The timing that it would close up again had a certain pattern to it but this only became clear after you watched it for an hour and got ready to cross.
With no way of telling how much time they had, the group of three humans and one Ruby Wolf started running to safety.
“Will they make it?”
Lobelia cried out in shock as they were quite a ways away from where the two were now. It didn’t seem that Wayland had the usual green light covering his armor which didn’t make him much faster than the knight that was carrying the lady in his arms.
Armand along with Lobelia moved over to where the lake started but didn’t enter. The three goat beastmen that were there for the climbing mission followed after them without being sure what was going on.
The group of adventurers had no way of helping as they could just wait and hope for the best. Running up to meet them halfway made no sense as none of them seemed injured.
“Oh no… look!”
About a quarter way through Lobelia spotted that the lava lake started expanding. Wayland was seen looking to the sides and shouting something to the knight next to him. The two started running slightly faster while the Ruby Wolf didn’t trail that far behind.
The two running men in their confusion lost their chance to take off the heavy armor they were wearing. If they stopped now they would be losing more time than they would be gaining. It was a spring against time, the lava started closing in from the side and soon the path behind them was closed.
The lava lake sometimes became filled from the other side first, which also produced a somewhat larger wave going towards the end where Armand and Lobelia were standing.
“I don’t think they are going to make it…”
This wave of burning death was approaching them. From what Armand and Lobelia were seeing, it didn’t seem like the running speed was enough. It also didn’t seem like Wayland’s fancy armor was functioning correctly as he was a lot slower than usual.
“Stand back…”
Armand shouted while jumping into the part of the lake that was not yet covered.
“Hey, what are you doing, do you want to die with them?”
“Just shut up and watch…”
Armand took up a wide fighting stance with his legs spread apart and knees bent. It somewhat looked like a traditional karate stance but what he was up to, Lobelia had no idea.
His tanned body started turning red in a similar fashion as when he activated his body enhancement skill. There was a small difference though, this crimson color started moving towards his right fist.
Soon his whole forearm was glowing in red while his muscles contracted. He kept his eyes closed while concentrating, the veins on his hand looked like they were about to burst. Before he completed this technique he opened up his eyes and shouted.
“If you don’t want to die then dodge it to the side!”
Armand’s booming voice traveled towards the two sprinting men that could not help but notice him in the distance. It was just in time to see him throwing his large fist forward. Following this, they saw something strange.
They could hear something similar to a thunderclap. Suddenly giant tiger head emerged before them and traveled their way. It caused the ground under it to crack and pushed everything to the side while increasing in speed.
....
Roland could see Armand’s strange Pugilist skill approaching. It carried a wave of strange non-magical energy that was on par with a high level tier 2 attack spell. He quickly moved to one side while Robert did the same.
Even when this attack passed by them, he could feel the wind pressure making his whole damaged armor rattle. He was almost pushed to the side by the residual wind pressure while Agni was luckily spared from it as he used his master as a shield.
Without looking back he continued to sprint as he realized what was the purpose of this attack. Robert on the other hand did a quick glance back, just in time to see the tiger head colliding with the mass of lava and pushing it back.
A giant explosion rocked the lava lake as the attack connected with the heavy mass of molten rock. This technique was strong enough to blast a large hole in the lake and also gave Robert and Roland precious time to escape.
While getting some of their clothes singed by the splashing molten lava. With one last long jump, they managed to get to the other side. Roland had to grab Agni by the collar and throw him towards the exit while almost getting his feet burned. Luckily he still had his fire-resistant boots on, so his feet didn’t melt on the spot.
He ended up rolling on the ground while trying to remove the boots that had lava stuck to them. With a little help from Lucille and a simple water spell, they were able to douse the fire.
“Wayland… how did you end up in the middle of that lava lake? Weren’t you stuck in that cavern?”
Lobelia popped her head out from behind Armand. Her older brother looked a bit gassed after using that strange skill but that didn’t keep his sister from shoving him to the side to get the scoop.
“Ahh… It’s a long story… we are tired… I need to rest…”
Roland was not really in the mood to talk about what transpired in the caverns below. The armor that he was wearing or at least what was left from it told part of the story.
After getting through the boss chamber they were rewarded by another array of dim-lit tunnels. There were many monsters there that started out from level 80 and down.
It was just as he had theorized before, he had opened up the back entrance to a hidden section of the dungeon. The sword-tailed boss was clearly a bonus section that would reward people with some good gear.
While they continued to travel they encountered weaker and weaker monsters. Traps and fake passages that made them go around in circles were something they got used to after a couple more days down there.
Then they finally arrived into a larger section. There were stairs going up and another runic lock that he was able to open. Considering it opened up a hole in the molten lake while it was empty from the lava, they could consider themselves lucky. Otherwise, they would have flooded the chamber below, then either died or got stuck.
This part of the dungeon was clearly designed to be entered after the lake cleared itself out. Without that knowledge, it would be very deadly to exit. Knowing this a party could easily get something to detect if the coast above was clear before going back out.
Now he knew, so if he ever decided to go to that pocket with the precious metals he would be sure to create a device that was able to detect the lava. It would probably take a while before he got back there. He was not capable of defeating that monster by himself.
The spot where he nabbed the Etherium ore might have actually been able to replenish itself with time. This meant that if he managed to create a transport route for himself, he would be rich. He could sell the metals and crystals or use them for fuel.
Even though he had his wind generators they lacked portability. He had not been able to develop a working battery, yet with that pocket of crystalized mana fluid, he would be able to power items outside his workshop.
After resting for a moment he finally got his sorry behind in gear. After standing up the first thing that he saw was a smirking Armand. He was puffing out his chest like he was some kind of hero. Roland already knew what the man wanted from him but the cocky attitude only made Roland incapable of thanking him.
“Why so quiet? Don’t you have something to say to your benefactor? Hm?”
He was actually willing to tell him that he did a good job but after the conceited tone, he changed his mind and a sigh escaped from his mouth.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get along, now move out of my way.”
“What’s with that attitude!? I saved your life!”
“Yeah.. yeah… wish you saved some brain cells while you were at it…”
After spending a week down in the dark, Roland was quite done with this dungeon. He just wanted to get out of here and take a cold bath. Giving a thank you to Armand was the least of his concern.
“Why you little…”
“Stop shouting you big idiot, can’t you see that they are injured!”
Lobelia finally spoke up. She could clearly see that Roland’s stance was shaky and that Robert had passed out after carrying Lucille in his hands for the whole run.
“We need to get Sister Kassia here!”
Armand begrudgingly stopped yelling after looking at the beat-up group before him. It seemed like they needed to either get them to the knight encampment or escort them out of the dungeon...