“I… apologize for having you share your food with me,” Belinda was feeling really uncomfortable about taking the food.
“Hey, don’t sweat it, Miss Salrzore. We’re a team,” Flavia told her, showing off her charming grin.
“In all honesty, it’s our fault as well. We haven’t actually told our plan to you before entering the Magic Dungeon, Miss Salroze,” Narias thought part of the blame fell on them as well.
“But we had no idea who our guide would be until we were ready to leave,” his bunny girlfriend pointed out.
“Oh, aaah… That’s true, but still…” Narias couldn’t argue about the fact they didn’t know who their guide will be.
“Sigh… Those are some valid points. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you in advance,” Belinda admitted it would’ve been the right thing to do.
“Does that mean you knew you will be our group’s guide, Miss Salroze?” Emilia wanted to know.
“Not until the student groups had been registered. But that just shows that us teachers weren’t taking the Magic Dungeon exploration serious enough. Of course, this was the first time the academy decided to let the first-year students form groups in advance. Still, I can’t believe how well your group has been prepared,” the somewhat embarrassed teacher told the students.
“It is all thanks to Narias, actually. Oh, sorry,” Emilia said half-excitedly, but then realized she might’ve shown too much emotions, so she took out some more food to distract herself.
“Yeah, Narias is the mastermind here. He’s the one who suggested for us to bring extra food,” Flavia said.
“Narias, good leader,” added Growly, before putting the last bite of his honey cake into his mouth.
“Well, aaa… it was a group’s effort,” Narias became embarrassed this time.
“Hmph,” Belinda somewhat smirked at him, but then averted her eyes away. “Here’s the thing. As a guide, I am not to interfere with what your group decides to do. Unless some extreme situation was to happen. However, as your teacher, I am honestly worried about your plans. To tell you the truth, I thought it was a bad joke when you told me you plan to go after the second floor’s boss monster. Seeing how well you have performed up to this point, you should be able to defeat the Fanged Whitemane Wolf. Even so, the second floor of the Magic Dungeon is much more dangerous than you might think.”
“Actually, I don’t think we’ll be going to the Magic Dungeon’s second floor, Miss Salroze,” Narias rubbed his cheek with one finger, adding an awkward smile on his face.
“Yeah, that’s a real bummer. I was so looking forward to it,” Flavia exclaimed in disappointment, slamming her fist into her other hand’s palm.
“You won’t?” it came as a surprise to Belinda. “What made you change your mind I wonder?”
“I don’t think we’re ready for it, Miss Salroze,” said Narias.
“Not ready? But…” the violet-haired female teacher had a curious expression on her face.
“Yeah. We had a chat earlier and we have agreed that we won’t be going to the second floor, even if we were to defeat this floor’s boss monster,” the group’s leader explained. “The reality is, Magic Dungeon exploration is much more demanding than I thought. I mean, than everyone thought. We’ve been inside the Magic Dungeon for almost… for about… a whole day? Well, for much longer than we expected we would be. And we still haven’t found the lair of the Fanged Whitemane Wolf. We still have enough food for three… sorry, two more breaks probably. We’re good with water thanks to finding the stream at the last Supply Point that we visited. But we will need to have enough food in order to leave the dungeon. In addition, none of us are quite used to exploring the Magic Dungeon for a long time.”
Is he for real? How far had he planned for this? Belinda stared at Narias for a brief moment.
“Ahem, yes. We still… have to walk back…” Miss Salroze averted her eyes away, catching a mild blush after Narias noticed she was staring at him. “Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, as a guide I am not allowed to interfere, but… since we’re a team… I can share with you a little hint.”
“A hint?” Narias wondered.
“What kind of hint, Miss Salroze?” Flavia became super curious.
“First things first, which path are you planning to take to leave this cave room?” Belinda asked, but she probably knew the answer already.
“The… right one,” Narias answered after an awkward moment of silence, with everyone staring at him.
“Of course,” the female teacher was expecting to hear it. “If my memory serves right, that path leads directly to the Fanged Whitemane Wolf’s lair. There will be one or two more cave rooms on the way I believe. Of course, yo-”
“Really? Alright!” the excited half beast bunny girl jumped up, interrupted whatever else Belinda wanted to say.
“Boss monster. Time to go,” Growly showed an unusual eagerness to move out.
“I am ready to go too,” Emilia packed the leftover food she still had.
“I… I am part of the team as well,” Lilna, who was hesitant about it earlier, was willing to do her part too.
“Ok. Shall we?” Narias was ready to go as well.
Hmph, Jean’s gonna chew me inside out for this one… Belinda chuckled to herself.
{after a short while}
“Wow, it’s so big,” Flavia whispered, laying low and looking at the Fanged Whitemane Wolf.
“I didn’t expect it to be… that big,” Emilia added in a quiet whisper after seeing that the boss monster was more than twice the size of a normal Fanged Wolf.
The students had just entered the last room, where the first floor’s boss monster was dwelling. The cave room was much bigger than any other cave they had passed. It almost looked like an arena of sort. The one that the students would have their practice during their classes.
The first floor’s boss monster looked the part. Apart from being much bigger than a regular Fanged Wolf, it had a long, white fur on its back, which reached halfway up to its tail. Even from afar the students could see how big its claws and fangs were. One bite, or swipe of the monster’s paw could probably slash someone in half.
The cave had tall ceiling and, apart from the area the group was hiding behind, very few rocks and boulders. A perfect place for the four-legged monsters to run around. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Fanged Whitemane Wolf had five other level two Fanged Wolves with it. The worst possible encounter for a group of the first-year students.
“It definitely looks scary,” Lilna whispered timidly.
“Five small Fanged Wolves. Not a problem. Big one, looks strong,” Growly commented, not exactly being afraid of the huge wolf.
Man, why did it have to be five adds? This can be problematic. Narias was trying to think about the fight in his head.
“So, what will you do?” Belinda Salroze asked the group quietly. “As you already know, you don’t have to engage the boss monster. You have already passed the Magic Dungeon exploration test.”
It wasn’t like Belinda was trying to talk the students out of the fight. Well, maybe a little bit. As a teacher, she was genuinely worried about her students.
“Come on, let’s just go in and beat them up. We’ll get rid of those five level two Fanged Wolves easy and then beat down the boss monster after that,” Flavia was eager to go.
“Hold on, Flavia. We can’t just run in recklessly,” Narias stopped her.
“Oh, I… sorry,” the excited bunny girl stayed put.
Sigh… Narias knew that by now ‘Reckless’ could be her middle name. Anyway…
One way or the other, Narias knew that five extra monsters together with the boss monster was bad news. The reason was, the number of adds was also an indication of how strong the boss monster was. More often than not, the Fanged Whitemane Wolf would have two or three adds together with it. Sometimes it would have four, but it was very rare to see five Fanged Wolves together with the boss monster. However, that didn’t mean that Narias was about to back down from the fight after coming this far.
“Ok, so let’s go over how we will do this,” Narias called everyone to gather around.
The students knew the tactics. They’ve read, shared and discussed how they would fight the Fanged Whitemane Wolf during the training sessions at the Magic Research student club. The idea was to take down the adds as fast as possible before engaging the boss monster. The only problem here was, they were five in total, but there were six enemies. Even if they engage one enemy each, one monster will be left free.
“Here’s how I think we should go about it,” Narias took the time to explain his plan. He took his time to make sure everyone understood what he had to say.
“Hey, that sounds super easy,” Flavia was all for doing it the way Narias suggested.
“Good,” Growly agreed with the usual, one-word comment.
“Ok, I’ll do as you say, Narias,” Emilia sounded confident.
“I… I’ll do my best as well,” Lilna on the other hand, didn’t sound as confident as Emilia was.
“Right. Just remember, I am not one hundred percent positive that it will go that way. We need to be ready for the unexpected,” Narias gave the final warning.
“Are you ready?” Belinda Salroze asked, seeing the students getting ready to engage the boss monster. “If I see I need to interfere, I will. I will not take any chances.”
“Yes, we understand, Miss Salroze,” Narias confirmed he heard her. “Ok, let’s go.”
“Alright. Here… we… go!” Flavia jumped from behind the rocks and out in the open.
“Huff!” Growly followed her lead.
The noise from the two students instantly alerted the pack of monsters inside the huge cave room. The boss monster, with the company of the Fanged Wolves, sprung to their feet.
- ‘Grooowl!’ – a growl echoed inside the room.
“Tch… so loud,” Flavia was affected the most due to her extremely good hearing. Fortunately, it didn’t do any harm to her ears. “Come on! Over here!”
“Grrr… Hrrrmph!” Growly was taunting the monsters in his own beast-like manner.
The plan was, Growly and Flavia would get the pack’s attention and draw them away from the boss monster. As soon as the monsters were in range, Narias, Emilia and Lilna would use their spells to try and kill them from the distance. It’d be perfect if they could get rid of all five adds. But killing one or two before the whole pack reaches Growly and Flavia would make things much easier to fight the rest.
As it was to be expected, all monsters, including the Fanged Whitemane Wolf, dashed directly at the two students in sight. The diversion was a success, so it was time for the three other students to show what they’ve got.
“Wind Bullet!” Narias cast his spell.
“Icicle Shot!” Emilia cast hers.
“Water… Huh? Wait… Splash!” Lilna hesitated after her target suddenly changed direction, but then followed up to finish chanting her spell.
Narias and Emilia hit a Fanged Wolf each. Narias’s Wind Bullet pierced the monster right through while Emilia’s Icicle Shot froze the four-legged beast on a spot. Unfortunately, Lilna missed her target.
“I’m sorry, I…” the girl was about to apologize.
“Doesn’t matter. Aim at another one!” Narias quickly instructed.
“Right… Water…” Lilna tried to target another monster.
However, the Fanged Wolves were much faster than the regular level two Fanged Wolves they have fought up to this point. The monsters have closed the distance between themselves and the first two students who ran out ahead of everyone else.
“What?! How are they…” Flavia was taken aback by how fast the monsters appeared in front of her. “Why you!”
- ‘Smack!’ – as fast as the Fanged Wolves were, the bunny girl was faster.
Instead of running away, she punched the closest Fanged Wolf that was about to jump at her. Her strong punch was more than enough to blow the monster away. Its body hit the wall nearby, fell to the ground and stayed there motionless.
“Woah!” Flavia had to jump up quickly.
- ‘Grrrooah!’ – because the next Fanged Wolf was about to bite at her.
“No… - ‘Slap!’ - … biting!” Growly followed up with a slap on the monster’s face.
The Fanged Wolf that Growly hit rolled down on the ground some distance away and didn’t get up.
“Nice one, Grow-“ Flavia was about to compliment the chubby bear boy.
“Flavia! Behind you!” she heard Narias’s voice.
“Hu-“ Flavia turned her head only to see huge fangs closing in on her.
“Fire Wall!” Narias cast his spell so fast, it almost looked like an instant cast.
“Eeek!” Flavia was spooked by the huge wall of fire bursting right next to her feet.
The energetic bunny girl was almost burned herself, but Narias had no choice if he wanted to protect his girlfriend. The Fanged Whitemane Wolf was about to get a jump on her. Fortunately, the Fire Wall had successfully stopped the huge monster’s advance. The huge wolf reacted in time and jumped back however, making some distance between itself and the still burning fire.
“Flavia, are you ok?” Narias ran to check on her.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She grinned at him.
“Be careful. Even if we can deal with the normal Fanged Wolves, the boss monster is much stronger,” he half reminded, half scolded her.
“Aaah… sorry about that,” Flavia apologized.
- ‘Bam!’- a hit followed.
“Last one,” Growly commented, which meant he took care of the last level two Fanged Wolf.
It seemed like their plan worked. The students have successfully dispatched the pack of extra monsters that the Fanged Whitemane Wolf had. Only the boss monster remained. The odds were five versus one. However, there was one detail that the students have missed. If no one was to notice, it could cost them dearly.
Why do I feel that I have forgotten about something? Narias had a bad feeling in his gut.
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for their support and help.
“I… apologize for having you share your food with me,” Belinda was feeling really uncomfortable about taking the food.
“Hey, don’t sweat it, Miss Salrzore. We’re a team,” Flavia told her, showing off her charming grin.
“In all honesty, it’s our fault as well. We haven’t actually told our plan to you before entering the Magic Dungeon, Miss Salroze,” Narias thought part of the blame fell on them as well.
“But we had no idea who our guide would be until we were ready to leave,” his bunny girlfriend pointed out.
“Oh, aaah… That’s true, but still…” Narias couldn’t argue about the fact they didn’t know who their guide will be.
“Sigh… Those are some valid points. I’m sorry, I should’ve told you in advance,” Belinda admitted it would’ve been the right thing to do.
“Does that mean you knew you will be our group’s guide, Miss Salroze?” Emilia wanted to know.
“Not until the student groups had been registered. But that just shows that us teachers weren’t taking the Magic Dungeon exploration serious enough. Of course, this was the first time the academy decided to let the first-year students form groups in advance. Still, I can’t believe how well your group has been prepared,” the somewhat embarrassed teacher told the students.
“It is all thanks to Narias, actually. Oh, sorry,” Emilia said half-excitedly, but then realized she might’ve shown too much emotions, so she took out some more food to distract herself.
“Yeah, Narias is the mastermind here. He’s the one who suggested for us to bring extra food,” Flavia said.
“Narias, good leader,” added Growly, before putting the last bite of his honey cake into his mouth.
“Well, aaa… it was a group’s effort,” Narias became embarrassed this time.
“Hmph,” Belinda somewhat smirked at him, but then averted her eyes away. “Here’s the thing. As a guide, I am not to interfere with what your group decides to do. Unless some extreme situation was to happen. However, as your teacher, I am honestly worried about your plans. To tell you the truth, I thought it was a bad joke when you told me you plan to go after the second floor’s boss monster. Seeing how well you have performed up to this point, you should be able to defeat the Fanged Whitemane Wolf. Even so, the second floor of the Magic Dungeon is much more dangerous than you might think.”
“Actually, I don’t think we’ll be going to the Magic Dungeon’s second floor, Miss Salroze,” Narias rubbed his cheek with one finger, adding an awkward smile on his face.
“Yeah, that’s a real bummer. I was so looking forward to it,” Flavia exclaimed in disappointment, slamming her fist into her other hand’s palm.
“You won’t?” it came as a surprise to Belinda. “What made you change your mind I wonder?”
“I don’t think we’re ready for it, Miss Salroze,” said Narias.
“Not ready? But…” the violet-haired female teacher had a curious expression on her face.
“Yeah. We had a chat earlier and we have agreed that we won’t be going to the second floor, even if we were to defeat this floor’s boss monster,” the group’s leader explained. “The reality is, Magic Dungeon exploration is much more demanding than I thought. I mean, than everyone thought. We’ve been inside the Magic Dungeon for almost… for about… a whole day? Well, for much longer than we expected we would be. And we still haven’t found the lair of the Fanged Whitemane Wolf. We still have enough food for three… sorry, two more breaks probably. We’re good with water thanks to finding the stream at the last Supply Point that we visited. But we will need to have enough food in order to leave the dungeon. In addition, none of us are quite used to exploring the Magic Dungeon for a long time.”
Is he for real? How far had he planned for this? Belinda stared at Narias for a brief moment.
“Ahem, yes. We still… have to walk back…” Miss Salroze averted her eyes away, catching a mild blush after Narias noticed she was staring at him. “Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, as a guide I am not allowed to interfere, but… since we’re a team… I can share with you a little hint.”
“A hint?” Narias wondered.
“What kind of hint, Miss Salroze?” Flavia became super curious.
“First things first, which path are you planning to take to leave this cave room?” Belinda asked, but she probably knew the answer already.
“The… right one,” Narias answered after an awkward moment of silence, with everyone staring at him.
“Of course,” the female teacher was expecting to hear it. “If my memory serves right, that path leads directly to the Fanged Whitemane Wolf’s lair. There will be one or two more cave rooms on the way I believe. Of course, yo-”
“Really? Alright!” the excited half beast bunny girl jumped up, interrupted whatever else Belinda wanted to say.
“Boss monster. Time to go,” Growly showed an unusual eagerness to move out.
“I am ready to go too,” Emilia packed the leftover food she still had.
“I… I am part of the team as well,” Lilna, who was hesitant about it earlier, was willing to do her part too.
“Ok. Shall we?” Narias was ready to go as well.
Hmph, Jean’s gonna chew me inside out for this one… Belinda chuckled to herself.
{after a short while}
“Wow, it’s so big,” Flavia whispered, laying low and looking at the Fanged Whitemane Wolf.
“I didn’t expect it to be… that big,” Emilia added in a quiet whisper after seeing that the boss monster was more than twice the size of a normal Fanged Wolf.
The students had just entered the last room, where the first floor’s boss monster was dwelling. The cave room was much bigger than any other cave they had passed. It almost looked like an arena of sort. The one that the students would have their practice during their classes.
The first floor’s boss monster looked the part. Apart from being much bigger than a regular Fanged Wolf, it had a long, white fur on its back, which reached halfway up to its tail. Even from afar the students could see how big its claws and fangs were. One bite, or swipe of the monster’s paw could probably slash someone in half.
The cave had tall ceiling and, apart from the area the group was hiding behind, very few rocks and boulders. A perfect place for the four-legged monsters to run around. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Fanged Whitemane Wolf had five other level two Fanged Wolves with it. The worst possible encounter for a group of the first-year students.
“It definitely looks scary,” Lilna whispered timidly.
“Five small Fanged Wolves. Not a problem. Big one, looks strong,” Growly commented, not exactly being afraid of the huge wolf.
Man, why did it have to be five adds? This can be problematic. Narias was trying to think about the fight in his head.
“So, what will you do?” Belinda Salroze asked the group quietly. “As you already know, you don’t have to engage the boss monster. You have already passed the Magic Dungeon exploration test.”
It wasn’t like Belinda was trying to talk the students out of the fight. Well, maybe a little bit. As a teacher, she was genuinely worried about her students.
“Come on, let’s just go in and beat them up. We’ll get rid of those five level two Fanged Wolves easy and then beat down the boss monster after that,” Flavia was eager to go.
“Hold on, Flavia. We can’t just run in recklessly,” Narias stopped her.
“Oh, I… sorry,” the excited bunny girl stayed put.
Sigh… Narias knew that by now ‘Reckless’ could be her middle name. Anyway…
One way or the other, Narias knew that five extra monsters together with the boss monster was bad news. The reason was, the number of adds was also an indication of how strong the boss monster was. More often than not, the Fanged Whitemane Wolf would have two or three adds together with it. Sometimes it would have four, but it was very rare to see five Fanged Wolves together with the boss monster. However, that didn’t mean that Narias was about to back down from the fight after coming this far.
“Ok, so let’s go over how we will do this,” Narias called everyone to gather around.
The students knew the tactics. They’ve read, shared and discussed how they would fight the Fanged Whitemane Wolf during the training sessions at the Magic Research student club. The idea was to take down the adds as fast as possible before engaging the boss monster. The only problem here was, they were five in total, but there were six enemies. Even if they engage one enemy each, one monster will be left free.
“Here’s how I think we should go about it,” Narias took the time to explain his plan. He took his time to make sure everyone understood what he had to say.
“Hey, that sounds super easy,” Flavia was all for doing it the way Narias suggested.
“Good,” Growly agreed with the usual, one-word comment.
“Ok, I’ll do as you say, Narias,” Emilia sounded confident.
“I… I’ll do my best as well,” Lilna on the other hand, didn’t sound as confident as Emilia was.
“Right. Just remember, I am not one hundred percent positive that it will go that way. We need to be ready for the unexpected,” Narias gave the final warning.
“Are you ready?” Belinda Salroze asked, seeing the students getting ready to engage the boss monster. “If I see I need to interfere, I will. I will not take any chances.”
“Yes, we understand, Miss Salroze,” Narias confirmed he heard her. “Ok, let’s go.”
“Alright. Here… we… go!” Flavia jumped from behind the rocks and out in the open.
“Huff!” Growly followed her lead.
The noise from the two students instantly alerted the pack of monsters inside the huge cave room. The boss monster, with the company of the Fanged Wolves, sprung to their feet.
- ‘Grooowl!’ – a growl echoed inside the room.
“Tch… so loud,” Flavia was affected the most due to her extremely good hearing. Fortunately, it didn’t do any harm to her ears. “Come on! Over here!”
“Grrr… Hrrrmph!” Growly was taunting the monsters in his own beast-like manner.
The plan was, Growly and Flavia would get the pack’s attention and draw them away from the boss monster. As soon as the monsters were in range, Narias, Emilia and Lilna would use their spells to try and kill them from the distance. It’d be perfect if they could get rid of all five adds. But killing one or two before the whole pack reaches Growly and Flavia would make things much easier to fight the rest.
As it was to be expected, all monsters, including the Fanged Whitemane Wolf, dashed directly at the two students in sight. The diversion was a success, so it was time for the three other students to show what they’ve got.
“Wind Bullet!” Narias cast his spell.
“Icicle Shot!” Emilia cast hers.
“Water… Huh? Wait… Splash!” Lilna hesitated after her target suddenly changed direction, but then followed up to finish chanting her spell.
Narias and Emilia hit a Fanged Wolf each. Narias’s Wind Bullet pierced the monster right through while Emilia’s Icicle Shot froze the four-legged beast on a spot. Unfortunately, Lilna missed her target.
“I’m sorry, I…” the girl was about to apologize.
“Doesn’t matter. Aim at another one!” Narias quickly instructed.
“Right… Water…” Lilna tried to target another monster.
However, the Fanged Wolves were much faster than the regular level two Fanged Wolves they have fought up to this point. The monsters have closed the distance between themselves and the first two students who ran out ahead of everyone else.
“What?! How are they…” Flavia was taken aback by how fast the monsters appeared in front of her. “Why you!”
- ‘Smack!’ – as fast as the Fanged Wolves were, the bunny girl was faster.
Instead of running away, she punched the closest Fanged Wolf that was about to jump at her. Her strong punch was more than enough to blow the monster away. Its body hit the wall nearby, fell to the ground and stayed there motionless.
“Woah!” Flavia had to jump up quickly.
- ‘Grrrooah!’ – because the next Fanged Wolf was about to bite at her.
“No… - ‘Slap!’ - … biting!” Growly followed up with a slap on the monster’s face.
The Fanged Wolf that Growly hit rolled down on the ground some distance away and didn’t get up.
“Nice one, Grow-“ Flavia was about to compliment the chubby bear boy.
“Flavia! Behind you!” she heard Narias’s voice.
“Hu-“ Flavia turned her head only to see huge fangs closing in on her.
“Fire Wall!” Narias cast his spell so fast, it almost looked like an instant cast.
“Eeek!” Flavia was spooked by the huge wall of fire bursting right next to her feet.
The energetic bunny girl was almost burned herself, but Narias had no choice if he wanted to protect his girlfriend. The Fanged Whitemane Wolf was about to get a jump on her. Fortunately, the Fire Wall had successfully stopped the huge monster’s advance. The huge wolf reacted in time and jumped back however, making some distance between itself and the still burning fire.
“Flavia, are you ok?” Narias ran to check on her.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She grinned at him.
“Be careful. Even if we can deal with the normal Fanged Wolves, the boss monster is much stronger,” he half reminded, half scolded her.
“Aaah… sorry about that,” Flavia apologized.
- ‘Bam!’- a hit followed.
“Last one,” Growly commented, which meant he took care of the last level two Fanged Wolf.
It seemed like their plan worked. The students have successfully dispatched the pack of extra monsters that the Fanged Whitemane Wolf had. Only the boss monster remained. The odds were five versus one. However, there was one detail that the students have missed. If no one was to notice, it could cost them dearly.
Why do I feel that I have forgotten about something? Narias had a bad feeling in his gut.
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for their support and help.
