Chapter 71 Miner's Cavern
Arriving at the café, Shiro saw Lyrica and Madison sitting face to face at one of the tables.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out when she saw Shiro.
Sitting down next to her, Shiro brought out her phone.
[So please explain to me how and why you both are in a café and had finished the round so quickly?] Shiro typed out with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah about that…" Lyrica smiled awkwardly.
"Well imagine both me and Lyrica doing pretty good in the round. Then some crazy f*cker appears out of nowhere and blows himself up. Guess what happened next?" Madison said with annoyance.
She was progressing pretty nicely through the round with her Demon Knight class and then the suicide bomber appeared behind her. Next thing she knew, she was eliminated and sent out of the simulation.
"Yeah… Both me and Madi were eliminated by bombers." Lyrica sighed.
[Hm. That's quite bad luck.] Shiro agreed.
Thankfully, she had only seen the bombers from afar and not up close. If she did, she would have been eliminated quite early on as well.
"So how did you do in your arena?" Madison asked as she turned to Shiro.
[Finished in top 10 before getting my ass handed to me by a behemoth boss.] She replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Oh my. Top 10 in a top 100 battle royal." Lyrica muttered in surprise.
"That's very nice and everything. But Shiro, you should stop being vulgar. And your habit of going for the… ahem. You might want to stop that or else you won't ever find a hubby." Madison said with a small smile.
'Hopefully, this should make Lyrica more aggressive. Fufufufu…'
Lyrica paused in shock when she heard Madison.
[Find a hubby? Who said I needed to find one?] Shiro replied without much care.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Madison asked as this was outside of her expectations.
[Well it's like this. Do I need a husband to walk? Do I need a husband to fight? Do I need a husband to feed myself? And while this may be vulgar, it is the truth. Do I, this missy, look like I need a husband? And if anything, the only use for them is for pleasure. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure I saw items that can substitute for a husband anyways.] Shiro typed out without much care.
"Erm you get a husband for the emotional company?" Madison replied as she was surprised by her response.
If she ignored the fact that Shiro was only 13, then it would make sense from a personality standpoint. However, the strangeness of hearing this from a 13 year old was quite an odd feeling.
[I'm pretty sure having a split personality will give me emotional company.] Shiro chuckled.
"Erm speaking of finding husbands and everything. Shiro, what do you think about same s.e.x relationsh.i.p.s?" Lyrica asked, curious as to what Shiro would say.
However, the moment she asked it, she started to regret.
'Urg what if she said she's completely against it?!'
[Same s.e.x relationsh.i.p.s. I don't really know.] Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
[Never really encountered them so I can't say for sure. But I suppose I'm leaning towards the ok side? Like I don't mind them.]
"Is that so…" Lyrica muttered. While she seemed calm, her mind was not.
'YES!!! SHE SAID SHE DIDN'T MIND THEM!!! YES!!!' Lyrica cheered mentally.
"Fufufu… So you don't mind them huh?" Madison said with a grin. She could easily tell what Lyrica truly thought through her calm façade.
'You're smiling too much Lyrica~' Madison thought, seeing Lyrica grin like a child being rewarded with candy.
[Alright enough about romance talk. This kind of talk really doesn't suit me.] Shiro typed out. She'd much rather talk about levelling up, fighting and training for combat.
[I'm thinking of doing another dungeon run to level up. And this time you two are coming with me.] Shiro smiled.
"What level dungeon?" Madison asked.
[Level 30.] Shiro smiled with a slightly sadistic aura.
"Wait what?"
###
*DANG!
Madison quickly parried a strike from the monster with her sword.
Flicking her arm up, she made the humanoid monster stumble backwards, giving Lyrica the chance she needed.
Burning Lotus!
Her dual-ended sword slashed against the monster bare chest, leaving hideous scorch marks. The skin was ripped and burnt while the flesh was boiling under the heat.
During this, Madison pivoted on her foot and stabbed the sword into the open wound. Twisting the sword, a shockwave exploded inside the monster, forcing his bones to stab out of its body.
*CLAP!
Lyrica and Madison high fived when they saw the defeated monster.
"Shiro we killed the level 30-!!" Lyrica called out to Shiro but paused for a moment.
*CRACK!
What they saw was Shiro almost effortlessly hitting the monster's jaw, causing the head to spin all the way around and killing the monster in the process.
Looking at the small mountain of corpses around Shiro, their single kill seemed less and less impressive.
[Next time you should aim for the weak points. The torso is one of the hardest parts of the monster, you should aim for the ass, the mouth, the neck and the temple. These are the weakest parts.]
'Why is ass the first weakness you say?!' Madison thought.
Currently, they were in the level 30 dungeon – Miner's Cavern. The monsters were large muscular humanoids that attack in large groups. With 4 floors in total, this was one of the bigger dungeons.
[We've discovered around 70% of the first floor. Let's get the other 30% first before going to the next floor.] Shiro suggested.
"Alright." Lyrica nodded.
Looking at their levels, Shiro was quite satisfied with their growth.
In the time they had explored the first floor, Lyrica had risen her level from 22 to 24. Madison, on the other hand, had risen her level from 21 to 23.
The benefits of fighting higher levels are proportionate to the danger they held. And naturally, they would have died to the horde if Shiro wasn't here.
With how much they struggled on a single mob, taking on more than one at a time will be suicidal.
[Once we get a general feel for this dungeon, we should be able to spend a few days inside here and grind up our levels.] Shiro typed out.
Her main goal was to try to get the duo's levels near the 30 mark. This was so that they would be able to challenge harder dungeons.
Feeling a send of danger, Shiro flicked her fingers as a pillar of ice shot up from behind her.
*GAH!
The ice pieced through the lower jaw of a monster and through the skull, suspending him in the air.
"Every time I see you do this; I still don't understand how you do it. How do you attack so accurately without looking at them?" Madison asked.
[It's all about the senses. You sense the danger, the bloodl.u.s.t and the aura they radiate. After sensing this, you attack. Simple.]
"What? That sounds like a 6th sense of sorts." Lyrica said.
[That's because it is. When you see a giant beast, their aura is being flared to intimidate you. You can't see it, touch it, smell it or taste it. But you instinctively know it's there. However, that's only when it is blasting it fully in your face. It's like when you feel someone stare at you.
[Lyrica is somewhat special in this regard. While she doesn't have the ability to completely focus in on these senses, her hidden proficiency is reacting for her. In my case, what I do is manually enhance my perception of this aura to its max. This way, it acts as a radar. I'll know if danger is behind me and be able to react accordingly.]
"And you keep this radar on all the time? Wouldn't it be difficult?" Madison asked. She was slightly concerned since it sounds like it would put a lot of stress on Shiro's mind to be on guard constantly.
[I do keep it on at all times. At the start, it was difficult. The 'radar' would turn on and off at odd intervals since I couldn't keep a constant focus on the radar. However, as time went on, it just became second nature to me.]
"What kind of situation requires you to be on guard at all times?" Lyrica asked with a slight frown.
She had understood that Shiro had more secrets than other people after knowing her for a short amount of time. No 13 year old fights with her experience or have the capability to solo dungeons with ease.
Yet, she now found out that she needed to be on guard for the majority of her 'childhood'.
[Dangerous ones. Out in the world, you don't know what might happen so you must be on guard at all times.] Shiro shrugged.
[Alright, let's continue with this dungeon. We don't want to waste too much time after all.]
Madison and Lyrica nodded since Shiro was right. They wanted to make the most out of their time in the dungeon so they could level up quicker.
Dashing through the tunnels, they reached the last third of the first floor.
"Let's crush through them." Madison said as Lyrica nodded.
Thousand Blade Aura + Willow Blade Aura.
Lyrica used both of her berserk skills and crouched down.
*BAM!
Kicking up a cloud of dust, she charged towards the monsters.
Heated Edge + Instant Strike.
Her sword lit up with a crimson glow while her body flickered forwards.
Slashing her sword, she left two deep lacerations in the necks of two monsters.
"Madi! Finish them!" Lyrica shouted out.
"I know!"
Attack Demon Manifestation.
Stomping down hard, a dark red magic circle expanded instantly.
Dark mist wrapped around her body as layers of armour appeared on her body. Her sword morphed itself into a greatsword the size of her entire body.
With the manifestation, her aura also changed, catching Shiro's attention.
The chaotic, battle-hungry aura was surprisingly dense from what she could feel.
'The demon knight class must be a pretty high-grade class…' Shiro thought.
Twisting her body, Madison swung her greatsword at the monsters.
*BOOM!!!!
Due to the fact that her attack still wasn't enough to cut through the monsters, it acted as a club instead. Crushing their bones and organs before sending their body crashing into the walls.
Stabbing the greatsword into the ground, Madison twisted her greatsword as a pair of magma pillars stabbed towards the demons.
'Ohya? This attack demon gives her magma attunement this time.' Shiro thought with surprise.
Her previous demon manifestations gave her Earth attunement, lightning attunement and the such. And yet, this time it gave her magma attunement, the evolved version of the fire attunement.
'Hmm, this is pretty useful. While it might be random regarding which attunement she gets, it's still handy to get decent attunements on the go.' Shiro thought.
'However, she's putting too much effort in ending the two monsters. She would be much more efficient if she practised utilising her skills more.'
Dashing in front of Madison, Shiro wanted to back Lyrica up.
Jumping up, she made 8 daggers in her hands before twisting her body and throwing them across the combat zone.
Clenching her fists, the daggers broke apart into several other daggers.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The moment each dagger hit their target, they exploded into ice mist that froze the monsters.
Taking advantage of the situation, Lyrica dashed through the frozen crowd whilst slashing at each of the monsters.
The sudden difference in temperature caused the ice to shatter, killing the monsters in the process.
Keeping up their pace, they chewed through the remaining 30% of monsters on the first floor with ease.
Walking up to the obelisk, they saw the guardian walking aimlessly.
It looked similar to a very fat mole rat that had quite some girth in his arms. 2 Sharp teeth protruded from his mouth followed by patches of hair littered throughout his body.
"He is one UGLY thing." Madison commentated on what they thought about the boss.
[True. But, do not underestimate it just because it is ugly.]
Making an ice spear, Shiro gestured for them to make the first move.
Nodding at the gesture, Madison used Defensive Demon Manifestation this time.
Heavy armour appeared on her body while her weapon was replaced by a sword and shield.
With a refreshed skill tree befitting of tanks, Madison dashed forward.
"HAAA!!!" Using the skill 'Taunting Shout' to drag aggro, she then bolstered her resistances with 'Iron Skin'.
*BANG!!
The tail of the mole rat smashed against her shield. Sliding back only slightly, Madison readjusted her footing before smashing into the mole rat with her shield.
Repelling Force.
The force gathered from the mole rat's strike was rebounded back to the mole rat, causing it to stumble backwards.
"I've grabbed aggro!" Madison called out.
"Alright!"
Jumping towards the boss, Lyrica brandished her sword and slashed towards the neck of the mole-rat.
'Bad timing.' Shiro thought as she quickly flicked her wrist.
*BANG!
The mole rat had suddenly twisted his head towards Lyrica and chomped down.
However, before it could hit Lyrica, ice chains shot out the ground and pinned it to the ground.
Continuing her slash, Lyrica's sword only made a shallow wound.
Frowning slightly, she kicked off the mole rat and flipped away from it.
Landing next to Shiro, Lyrica breathed out in relief.
[Try to time your attacks while observing the boss's muscle movements. Depending on what it wants to do, you can see it through the muscle movements it exhibits.]
"Wait you can see its muscle movements?!" Lyrica asked in surprise. During a fight, the flesh would move everywhere. Yet, Shiro was still able to pick out which ones were the ones to determine what it wanted to do.
[Yes I can. And you'll be able to as well once you gain enough experience.]
"STOP TALKING PLEASE!! ATTACK IT!!" Madison's shout was heard while she parried another one of the mole rats attacks.
Hearing the shout, Lyrica dashed forward to assist.
With Shiro playing as support, the fight took a bit longer to finish.
Unfortunately, Shiro still wasn't able to level up with this fight.
Shaking her head, she could only hope the next few floors gave her enough exp to level up.