“Wind Slice, Icicle Shot, Fire Blast, - ‘Slap! Slam!’ – Aqua Surge,” multiple attacks were unleashed on the monsters inside the cave.
The Fanged Wolves, as many as there were, had no chance to even scratch any of the students. All monsters were dropping dead one after another until none were left. Even after all of the Fanged Wolves were defeated, the party members didn’t drop their guard just yet, or rushed to check if the monsters dropped any Magic Crystals. Only after everyone made sure it was safe to do so, the students relaxed and went around to check the possible drops.
“Hah, another Magic Crystal,” Flavia was happy to find one.
“One more here,” Growly picked up another one too.
“I found two more,” Nicky felt being the luckiest one to find two.
The students engaged the monsters inside the cave a few minutes earlier and, given how skilled and strong they were, it wasn’t difficult for them to defeat all of the monsters in a shortest amount of time possible. All of the monsters were level-two Fanged Wolves, and there were more of them than in any other pack they’ve encountered before, but at this point, the party knew how to dispatch the beasts with the least effort needed. And once the monster drops were taken care of, everyone gathered around to discuss what they’ll do next.
“Yes, this is definitely the same cave room we’ve passed when we were here with Miss Salroze,” Emilia said after the fight was over.
“Alright, now we just need to go that way and we’ll reach the boss monster’s lair,” Flavia pointed with her finger.
“I must say, I’m impressed,” Instructor Dreknor told the students.
“Ah? Oh, thanks, coach. We kicked butts, didn’t we?” Flavia grinned happily.
“Hah, I could see you’ve grown strong as soon as we stepped inside the dungeon, but strength alone can get you only so far. Your teamwork is excellent, not to mention your ability to adapt and follow your leader’s instructions. Of which a few of them honestly threw me off at times, but to my unwarranted worry, those few just made your group’s work easier. I have to admit, I’ve learnt a trick or two by watching you guys fight all these monsters,” Ranga was rubbing his chin, being open on how impressed he was.
“For sure, Narias is so smart,” Flavia was even happier to hear him compliment her boyfriend.
“Ah, I was just… trying to help everyone,” Narias felt embarrassed about such high praise from the teacher.
“No need to be so humble about it, Narias,” Ileena added, cheeks sparkling red. “If not for you, we would’ve wondered around the dungeon aimlessly and probably would’ve never reached the boss monster’s lair before needing to turn back.”
“Yes, you are really amazing, Narias. Thank you for leading us directly to the boss monster’s lair,” Emilia thanked him with a smile.
“For real, partner. I knew you could do it,” Flavia was probably faking the part she knew Narias could do it, but it didn’t matter at this point.
“Good leader,” Growly was happy as well.
“But how did you figure out which paths to take to reach the boss monster’s lair faster, Narias?” Nicky was curious, and she wasn’t the only one.
“That’s right, I’d be willing to learn myself,” Ranga came closer so he could hear better.
But I wasn’t… Sigh… How do I explain this now? Narias was smiling awkwardly in silence.
“Come on, partner, tell us,” Flavia couldn’t stand still.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t trying to find the boss monster’s lair,” he finally said.
“WHAT?!” Almost everyone exclaimed in surprise.
“You must be joking?! Are you seriously trying to say that finding the shortest route to the boss monster’s lair was all an accident?!” Instructor Dreknor almost raised his voice. “Grrr… Sorry… What I wanted to say was… I know my way around the first floor of the Magic Dungeon, but I still can’t remember the full layout of caves and tunnels. I simply can’t believe you said it was… Unless… I see… Well, if you don’t want to tell us, that’s fine too.”
“It’s ok, Narias. You… you can to keep it to yourself if you want,” Ileena said.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it, partner,” Flavia didn’t mind as well.
“I was just curious, that’s all,” Nicky said with a smile.
Hey, hey. That’s not it. I’m honestly not hiding anything from you. Oh, man… Narias started to feel bad about it.
“Listen, that’s not it. I was just… trying out a Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System, so we wouldn’t get lost. Honestly, I wasn’t lying,” Narias waved his hands while sweating inside.
“Zig…zag?” Nicky tilted her head to the side.
“Tracing and… navigation?” Emilia was curious about his choice of words.
“What an interesting name,” Vivia commented, but was probably confused about it too.
“Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System?” Ileena repeated the whole term as a question.
“Zig- what?” Flavia couldn’t even get what the first two words meant.
“That’s a term I’ve never heard before. Now I’m really curious to know more. Of course, I’m not gonna force you to tell us about it,” Ranga was very curious, but was respectful as well.
“Zig… zag… Sounds neat,” Growly was impressed with how it sounded.
Aah, crap. I’ve done it again. And why did I have to think of such complicated name for it? Narias knew he was in trouble again.
“Well, aah… how should I put it?” Narias was looking for the right words in his mind on how to explain it. “I mean, our goal for coming here was to find extra loot, right? I wanted to explore different parts of the dungeon and that’s why I chose a different path at the beginning, but I still had to think of a way for us to not get lost.”
“That’s right. That is what we agreed on before coming here,” Ileena said.
“Ok, but what is this zig… navigation, or whatever you called it?” Flavia wanted to know.
“Ah… hah… It is a strange name, isn’t it?” Narias tried to laugh about it.
“Another one of your self-made names, right?” Ileena wasn’t actually surprised by it.
“Zig… zag,” Growly was humming the words to himself, tilting his head one way or the other. Nicky chuckled seeing him do that.
“Aah… So, I used the zig-zag tra… I mean, well… left and right turn tactic to keep track of where we were going, so we could find our way back,” Narias was trying to put it in simple words.
“Can you explain it in more detail, Narias?” Ileena asked, clearly wanting to learn more.
“Ok. So, basically…” he put a finger to his lips in order to think about it. “I would alternate between left and right paths every time we had to choose which way to go. For example, when I chose left path at the beginning of our exploration, the next time I chose the right path and then left path, and then right path after that again.”
Narias was really hoping his friend will get it.
“That sounds…” Emilia wasn’t sure if she understood it or not.
“I’m sorry, I’m still a little confused,” Nicky didn’t get either.
“Hey, that’s easy. It means…” Flavia wanted to say she understood it, but she clearly didn’t.
“I think… I understand,” Ileena said, making a pause. “So, basically your aim was never to choose the same path? You would choose left path from one cave, but when we reached another cave, you had us go to the right to leave it. And when we reached yet another cave room, we went left again. Is that correct?”
“Yes, pretty much,” Narias was happy Ileena understood it.
“Hmm…” Instructor Dreknor was still silent for some reason.
“Left then right, then left and then… Aargh…” unfortunately, Flavia still couldn’t get it.
“Well, as long as it makes sense to you,” Nicky smiled, trying to hide her confusion.
“I think… I understand,” from how Emilia said it, it was unclear if she actually did.
“Right, maybe… maybe this would help,” and idea popped inside Narias’s head.
Narias went to find a bigger rock with which he could use to draw something on the ground. He then drew four circles on the cave’s floor which were lined up one after another. Everyone gathered to the sides to see what he was about to show.
“Imagine this is the first cave room we would visit. So, when we leave this first cave, we’d choose the left path leading out of it,” he drew a line from the first circle to the next going from right to left to make it easier to understand. “When we reach the second cave, we’d choose the right path leading out of it.”
Again, he drew a line indicating it was going to the right. Narias then proceeded to draw two more lines to connect the last two circles, also one going left and the last one going right.
“Wow, cool,” Flavia gasped.
“As you can see, each time we’d leave the cave room, we’d choose a different path leading out of it,” with the drawing on the ground, his explanation became much clearer. “And when we have to go back, we’d just choose the same cave exits, but from the opposite side. This way, we wouldn’t get lost.”
“Amazing,” Nicky gasped.
“Now that you showed it how it works, it actually looks really simple,” Emilia was impressed.
“But… what about when the cave has three other exits leading out of it? Or when it has only one?” Ileena remembered, and it was an important detail do address too.
“When the cave had three other exits, I always chose the middle one, so I would know we need to choose the middle one when we go back. And when it was only a single path leading out of the cave, well, there was… only one path to choose, so…” Narias tried to be gentle with his explanation about the last part.
“Oh, yes, I see,” Ileena realized there was no point asking about a single exit leading out of the cave.
“Hey, this looks fun. Left, right, left, right. Hah,” Flavia hopped from one circle to another, alternating each of her legs, and ending her last jump with a laugh.
“That is really clever, Narias,” Vivia complimented him.
“Cool,” Growly went to do some jumping as well.
“Way to go, partner,” Flavia came over and slapped him on the shoulder with her hand. “But you know, you could’ve called it somewhat simpler. Left, right, left, right… or something like that?”
“That’d sound even more confusing, actually,” Nicky giggled at Flavia’s suggestion. “Besides, it’s Narias we’re talking about here.”
“Ah… haha,” Narias tried to laugh about Nicky’s comment.
“The name… certainly stands out, but I think it sounds good too,” Ileena commented with a blush.
“I’m curious, how did you come up with such a name, Narias?” Emilia wanted to know.
“Oh, I… I wanted to make sure it is simple and easy to remember, so… huh?” The stares from the other students indicated anything, but agreement when he said that. “I mean, I thought using ‘zig’ and ‘zag’ to indicate the opposite choices, which would be easier to say than repeatedly use the words ‘left’ and ‘right’. The word ‘tracing’ simply means I would trace my way back. And since I use this tactic to navigate around the dungeon, that’s why I called it… the ‘navigation system’…”
Maaan… I always think of all kinds of complicated names. And I can’t even explain it properly. Narias was fuming inside. It’s not that the name was complicated. It’s just that he was the only one who knew certain terms and what they meant.
“That makes total sense,” Ileena admitted, looking very impressed.
“Huh?” Narias was surprised, but was also relieved at the same time.
“Yeah, and it has a nice ring to it too. Zig… zag. Hah, sounds fun to say it,” Nicky laughed after repeating it a few more times.
“Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System,” Flavia surprised everyone by saying the full name correctly.
“It sounds very smart too,” Emilia added with a smile.
“For sure,” Flavia grinned, agreeing with her.
“Hah. Quite clever. Thanks for sharing,” Instructor Dreknor finally said, but was still wondering about something. “Ok, I won’t bother you anymore. You might wanna have something to eat, or at least have a short rest before moving out. I don’t even need to guess which way you’ll want to go from here. I’ll go have a drink in the meantime myself.”
“Oh, yeah. Thank you, Instructor Dreknor,” Narias said, feeling finally at ease he managed to explain it. “How about we look around to see if we can find any more Magic Crystals laying around? We might find some Crystalized Mold too, maybe…”
“That’s right. Let’s look for some treasure,” Flavia was in favor of it.
The students went to look around the cave again, remembering to be careful about possible monsters popping out of one of the cave tunnels.
Hah, that little hatchling is certainly growing wings. Quite the navigation skills. Ranga was thinking to himself, sitting on the rock and observing the students from afar. He explained it well, and it sounded simple enough, but it definitely isn’t. Hah, I’ve been here so many times and I hadn’t met anyone who could think of a dungeon navigation system such as the one he thought of. Heck, even if I understand it, I wouldn’t be able to use it myself. We’ve been here for what, six, seven, maybe eight hours now. I even lost count of how many cave rooms we’ve passed. Not to mention, we weren’t taking a peaceful walk in the park here either. They were fighting monsters all this time. Grr… Being smart wouldn’t cut it to remember everything. This kid, he’s really something else.
Ranga grinned wide, his body becoming excited for some reason. The big, black tiger-looking beast-man was looking forward to how the rest of their Magic Dungeon exploration will pan out.
Niuniax
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it. Apologies in advance if you find a weird sounding phrase or a grammar error. These are draft chapters after all.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon (including the artwork not available anywhere else) – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for extra support and help.
━━━━━━━━━
I have another series going. It’s an isekai dungeon exploration adventure with an added haremlit lewdness (just a tiny bit, though /evulgrin).
Check it out
“Wind Slice, Icicle Shot, Fire Blast, - ‘Slap! Slam!’ – Aqua Surge,” multiple attacks were unleashed on the monsters inside the cave.
The Fanged Wolves, as many as there were, had no chance to even scratch any of the students. All monsters were dropping dead one after another until none were left. Even after all of the Fanged Wolves were defeated, the party members didn’t drop their guard just yet, or rushed to check if the monsters dropped any Magic Crystals. Only after everyone made sure it was safe to do so, the students relaxed and went around to check the possible drops.
“Hah, another Magic Crystal,” Flavia was happy to find one.
“One more here,” Growly picked up another one too.
“I found two more,” Nicky felt being the luckiest one to find two.
The students engaged the monsters inside the cave a few minutes earlier and, given how skilled and strong they were, it wasn’t difficult for them to defeat all of the monsters in a shortest amount of time possible. All of the monsters were level-two Fanged Wolves, and there were more of them than in any other pack they’ve encountered before, but at this point, the party knew how to dispatch the beasts with the least effort needed. And once the monster drops were taken care of, everyone gathered around to discuss what they’ll do next.
“Yes, this is definitely the same cave room we’ve passed when we were here with Miss Salroze,” Emilia said after the fight was over.
“Alright, now we just need to go that way and we’ll reach the boss monster’s lair,” Flavia pointed with her finger.
“I must say, I’m impressed,” Instructor Dreknor told the students.
“Ah? Oh, thanks, coach. We kicked butts, didn’t we?” Flavia grinned happily.
“Hah, I could see you’ve grown strong as soon as we stepped inside the dungeon, but strength alone can get you only so far. Your teamwork is excellent, not to mention your ability to adapt and follow your leader’s instructions. Of which a few of them honestly threw me off at times, but to my unwarranted worry, those few just made your group’s work easier. I have to admit, I’ve learnt a trick or two by watching you guys fight all these monsters,” Ranga was rubbing his chin, being open on how impressed he was.
“For sure, Narias is so smart,” Flavia was even happier to hear him compliment her boyfriend.
“Ah, I was just… trying to help everyone,” Narias felt embarrassed about such high praise from the teacher.
“No need to be so humble about it, Narias,” Ileena added, cheeks sparkling red. “If not for you, we would’ve wondered around the dungeon aimlessly and probably would’ve never reached the boss monster’s lair before needing to turn back.”
“Yes, you are really amazing, Narias. Thank you for leading us directly to the boss monster’s lair,” Emilia thanked him with a smile.
“For real, partner. I knew you could do it,” Flavia was probably faking the part she knew Narias could do it, but it didn’t matter at this point.
“Good leader,” Growly was happy as well.
“But how did you figure out which paths to take to reach the boss monster’s lair faster, Narias?” Nicky was curious, and she wasn’t the only one.
“That’s right, I’d be willing to learn myself,” Ranga came closer so he could hear better.
But I wasn’t… Sigh… How do I explain this now? Narias was smiling awkwardly in silence.
“Come on, partner, tell us,” Flavia couldn’t stand still.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t trying to find the boss monster’s lair,” he finally said.
“WHAT?!” Almost everyone exclaimed in surprise.
“You must be joking?! Are you seriously trying to say that finding the shortest route to the boss monster’s lair was all an accident?!” Instructor Dreknor almost raised his voice. “Grrr… Sorry… What I wanted to say was… I know my way around the first floor of the Magic Dungeon, but I still can’t remember the full layout of caves and tunnels. I simply can’t believe you said it was… Unless… I see… Well, if you don’t want to tell us, that’s fine too.”
“It’s ok, Narias. You… you can to keep it to yourself if you want,” Ileena said.
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it, partner,” Flavia didn’t mind as well.
“I was just curious, that’s all,” Nicky said with a smile.
Hey, hey. That’s not it. I’m honestly not hiding anything from you. Oh, man… Narias started to feel bad about it.
“Listen, that’s not it. I was just… trying out a Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System, so we wouldn’t get lost. Honestly, I wasn’t lying,” Narias waved his hands while sweating inside.
“Zig…zag?” Nicky tilted her head to the side.
“Tracing and… navigation?” Emilia was curious about his choice of words.
“What an interesting name,” Vivia commented, but was probably confused about it too.
“Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System?” Ileena repeated the whole term as a question.
“Zig- what?” Flavia couldn’t even get what the first two words meant.
“That’s a term I’ve never heard before. Now I’m really curious to know more. Of course, I’m not gonna force you to tell us about it,” Ranga was very curious, but was respectful as well.
“Zig… zag… Sounds neat,” Growly was impressed with how it sounded.
Aah, crap. I’ve done it again. And why did I have to think of such complicated name for it? Narias knew he was in trouble again.
“Well, aah… how should I put it?” Narias was looking for the right words in his mind on how to explain it. “I mean, our goal for coming here was to find extra loot, right? I wanted to explore different parts of the dungeon and that’s why I chose a different path at the beginning, but I still had to think of a way for us to not get lost.”
“That’s right. That is what we agreed on before coming here,” Ileena said.
“Ok, but what is this zig… navigation, or whatever you called it?” Flavia wanted to know.
“Ah… hah… It is a strange name, isn’t it?” Narias tried to laugh about it.
“Another one of your self-made names, right?” Ileena wasn’t actually surprised by it.
“Zig… zag,” Growly was humming the words to himself, tilting his head one way or the other. Nicky chuckled seeing him do that.
“Aah… So, I used the zig-zag tra… I mean, well… left and right turn tactic to keep track of where we were going, so we could find our way back,” Narias was trying to put it in simple words.
“Can you explain it in more detail, Narias?” Ileena asked, clearly wanting to learn more.
“Ok. So, basically…” he put a finger to his lips in order to think about it. “I would alternate between left and right paths every time we had to choose which way to go. For example, when I chose left path at the beginning of our exploration, the next time I chose the right path and then left path, and then right path after that again.”
Narias was really hoping his friend will get it.
“That sounds…” Emilia wasn’t sure if she understood it or not.
“I’m sorry, I’m still a little confused,” Nicky didn’t get either.
“Hey, that’s easy. It means…” Flavia wanted to say she understood it, but she clearly didn’t.
“I think… I understand,” Ileena said, making a pause. “So, basically your aim was never to choose the same path? You would choose left path from one cave, but when we reached another cave, you had us go to the right to leave it. And when we reached yet another cave room, we went left again. Is that correct?”
“Yes, pretty much,” Narias was happy Ileena understood it.
“Hmm…” Instructor Dreknor was still silent for some reason.
“Left then right, then left and then… Aargh…” unfortunately, Flavia still couldn’t get it.
“Well, as long as it makes sense to you,” Nicky smiled, trying to hide her confusion.
“I think… I understand,” from how Emilia said it, it was unclear if she actually did.
“Right, maybe… maybe this would help,” and idea popped inside Narias’s head.
Narias went to find a bigger rock with which he could use to draw something on the ground. He then drew four circles on the cave’s floor which were lined up one after another. Everyone gathered to the sides to see what he was about to show.
“Imagine this is the first cave room we would visit. So, when we leave this first cave, we’d choose the left path leading out of it,” he drew a line from the first circle to the next going from right to left to make it easier to understand. “When we reach the second cave, we’d choose the right path leading out of it.”
Again, he drew a line indicating it was going to the right. Narias then proceeded to draw two more lines to connect the last two circles, also one going left and the last one going right.
“Wow, cool,” Flavia gasped.
“As you can see, each time we’d leave the cave room, we’d choose a different path leading out of it,” with the drawing on the ground, his explanation became much clearer. “And when we have to go back, we’d just choose the same cave exits, but from the opposite side. This way, we wouldn’t get lost.”
“Amazing,” Nicky gasped.
“Now that you showed it how it works, it actually looks really simple,” Emilia was impressed.
“But… what about when the cave has three other exits leading out of it? Or when it has only one?” Ileena remembered, and it was an important detail do address too.
“When the cave had three other exits, I always chose the middle one, so I would know we need to choose the middle one when we go back. And when it was only a single path leading out of the cave, well, there was… only one path to choose, so…” Narias tried to be gentle with his explanation about the last part.
“Oh, yes, I see,” Ileena realized there was no point asking about a single exit leading out of the cave.
“Hey, this looks fun. Left, right, left, right. Hah,” Flavia hopped from one circle to another, alternating each of her legs, and ending her last jump with a laugh.
“That is really clever, Narias,” Vivia complimented him.
“Cool,” Growly went to do some jumping as well.
“Way to go, partner,” Flavia came over and slapped him on the shoulder with her hand. “But you know, you could’ve called it somewhat simpler. Left, right, left, right… or something like that?”
“That’d sound even more confusing, actually,” Nicky giggled at Flavia’s suggestion. “Besides, it’s Narias we’re talking about here.”
“Ah… haha,” Narias tried to laugh about Nicky’s comment.
“The name… certainly stands out, but I think it sounds good too,” Ileena commented with a blush.
“I’m curious, how did you come up with such a name, Narias?” Emilia wanted to know.
“Oh, I… I wanted to make sure it is simple and easy to remember, so… huh?” The stares from the other students indicated anything, but agreement when he said that. “I mean, I thought using ‘zig’ and ‘zag’ to indicate the opposite choices, which would be easier to say than repeatedly use the words ‘left’ and ‘right’. The word ‘tracing’ simply means I would trace my way back. And since I use this tactic to navigate around the dungeon, that’s why I called it… the ‘navigation system’…”
Maaan… I always think of all kinds of complicated names. And I can’t even explain it properly. Narias was fuming inside. It’s not that the name was complicated. It’s just that he was the only one who knew certain terms and what they meant.
“That makes total sense,” Ileena admitted, looking very impressed.
“Huh?” Narias was surprised, but was also relieved at the same time.
“Yeah, and it has a nice ring to it too. Zig… zag. Hah, sounds fun to say it,” Nicky laughed after repeating it a few more times.
“Zig-Zag Tracing Navigation System,” Flavia surprised everyone by saying the full name correctly.
“It sounds very smart too,” Emilia added with a smile.
“For sure,” Flavia grinned, agreeing with her.
“Hah. Quite clever. Thanks for sharing,” Instructor Dreknor finally said, but was still wondering about something. “Ok, I won’t bother you anymore. You might wanna have something to eat, or at least have a short rest before moving out. I don’t even need to guess which way you’ll want to go from here. I’ll go have a drink in the meantime myself.”
“Oh, yeah. Thank you, Instructor Dreknor,” Narias said, feeling finally at ease he managed to explain it. “How about we look around to see if we can find any more Magic Crystals laying around? We might find some Crystalized Mold too, maybe…”
“That’s right. Let’s look for some treasure,” Flavia was in favor of it.
The students went to look around the cave again, remembering to be careful about possible monsters popping out of one of the cave tunnels.
Hah, that little hatchling is certainly growing wings. Quite the navigation skills. Ranga was thinking to himself, sitting on the rock and observing the students from afar. He explained it well, and it sounded simple enough, but it definitely isn’t. Hah, I’ve been here so many times and I hadn’t met anyone who could think of a dungeon navigation system such as the one he thought of. Heck, even if I understand it, I wouldn’t be able to use it myself. We’ve been here for what, six, seven, maybe eight hours now. I even lost count of how many cave rooms we’ve passed. Not to mention, we weren’t taking a peaceful walk in the park here either. They were fighting monsters all this time. Grr… Being smart wouldn’t cut it to remember everything. This kid, he’s really something else.
Ranga grinned wide, his body becoming excited for some reason. The big, black tiger-looking beast-man was looking forward to how the rest of their Magic Dungeon exploration will pan out.
Niuniax
━━━━━━━━━
Thank you for reading. Leave a comment and favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it. Apologies in advance if you find a weird sounding phrase or a grammar error. These are draft chapters after all.
Read 10+ extra chapters on my Patreon (including the artwork not available anywhere else) – Extra Chapters on Patreon
━━━━━━━━━
Extra thanks to nonomo4 and Lynderyn for extra support and help.
━━━━━━━━━
I have another series going. It’s an isekai dungeon exploration adventure with an added haremlit lewdness (just a tiny bit, though /evulgrin).
Check it out
