“Impressive. I started to worry I would need to step in, but it seems I was worried for nothing,” Belinda Salroze commented after the fighting has ended, looking relieved and impressed at the same time.
“Oh, thank you, Miss Salroze,” Narias thanked her for the compliment.
“There were so many this time. I became rather scared at one point,” Lilna admitted.
“Hah, that was nothing. Those puny monsters were no match for me,” Flavia flexed victoriously.
“Don’t say that, Flavia. We have defeated all the monsters, that is true. However, we can’t lose our focus, or become overconfident, else it might cost us dearly,” Narias reprimanded her in a serious tone. It almost sounded like he was scolding her.
“Ah, well… Sorry. I just…” the bunny girl became flustered.
“Don’t get me wrong, Flavia. I think you were outstanding. Everyone did great. I just don’t want the same thing, which happened when I was here with Stefan and Brian, to happen to us,” Narias explained to her in the kindest manner.
“Right, I understand. I’ll make sure to remember that, partner,” Flavia took his comment to heart.
“We need to be careful,” Growly added.
“Now then, let’s investigate this room and see what we can find,” Narias said with a smile.
The students quickly rushed to check if the monsters dropped anything. As everyone expected, more than a few Magic Crystals were found.
“Hey look, this one seems different compared to the previous ones we had found,” Flavia held a small, glowing crystal up in the air.
“You’re right, Flavia,” Emilia came closer to see. “It is bigger than the one I have found just now.”
“This one must’ve dropped from the level two Fanged Wolf. That’s why it is bigger than the other one,” Narias explained his point of view.
“Cool,” the excited bunny girl grinned happily.
“I found two more. One is slightly bigger too,” Growly found two more Magic Crystals.
The group found six Magic Crystals in total. Three of those were slightly bigger than the rest. It wasn’t a big difference in size, but it was enough to get the students excited about it. They could see how the crystals differ depending on the level of the monster that dropped them.
“I found something,” Growly announced suddenly.
“What is it, Growly? Woah!” Flavia was the first one to come check.
“What are you looking at? Oh, wow,” Emilia gasped at the sight as well.
“Aah… Are you sure there are no monsters inside?” Lilna was worried after she saw it too.
“Oh, I see. So, that’s where all those Fanged Wolves were coming from. Miss Salroze, there’s a burrow here in between these rocks,” Narias informed the teacher, who was standing near the entrance that they came from.
“I’ll be dam- Ahem, apologies,” the athletic female teacher exclaimed after seeing it. “Now that’s a first.”
“What?” Flavia raised her head up to look at the teacher.
“What do you mean, Miss Salroze?” Emilia asked politely.
“Please forgive me for my language. I hadn’t expected to find something like that in here,” Belinda Salroze explained.
“Are you saying this is the first time you see a monster burrow in the dungeon, Miss Salroze?” Narias asked.
“Exactly,” was the teacher’s short answer. “No one has ever reported of finding a lair like that inside a Magic Dungeon. Must be the monsters doing.”
“Really?” Narias was curious.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Belinda sighed. “Honestly, I was becoming worried after I saw more and more monsters appear out in the open out of nowhere. I thought the dungeon started spawning them one after another out of the blue. Luckily, I was wrong.”
“But then… how did this lair appear here, Miss Salroze? You mentioned that this is the first time you’ve seen it in the dungeon. Was it created by the Magic Dungeon?” Lilna asked slightly timidly.
“I somewhat doubt it. From the looks of it, this burrow was dug by the monsters themselves,” the teacher answered the question after giving the hole in between the rocks a quick glance.
“Ok, let’s check it out,” Flavia was about to crawl inside of it.
“Wait, Flavia. You don’t intend to go down there,” Lilna covered her mouth with one hand.
“Of course, I do. I want to see if there’s anything inside of it,” the curious bunny girl told her.
“But… it’s so small,” the same girl student had doubts if it was a good idea.
“Don’t worry. It’s wide enough to get through. We can squeeze through one at a time,” Flavia had made up her mind already.
“Hold on, Flavia. I’ll go get some Light Crystals, so we can see better,” Narias asked her to hold off.
“Oh, right. Good thinking, partner,” she agreed.
“I’ll go too,” Growly wanted to go too.
Narias fetched some Light Crystals from his backpack and quickly returned to where the monster burrow was. They’ve decided that Flavia, Growly and Narias would go inside the lair to see if there was something down there. Miss Salroze, Emilia and Lilna would stay outside in the cave to wait for them.
The burrow wasn’t that deep, but the students had to crawl on all fours to get through. The end of the tight tunnel opened into a small lair. It was big enough for the students to stand up.
“So, this is where all those Fanged Wolves were hiding. This lair is quite spacious,” Narias used the Light Crystal he held in his hand to help him look around the small cave.
“It looks like this lair is totally empty. I- ouch!” Flavia walked a few steps forward and suddenly bumped into something. “Tsk… I bumped into somethi- Hey, treasure!”
The charming bunny girl lowered her Light Crystal to check what she had bumped into and saw a small chest under her feet. It was made of wood with the rusty metal hinges keeping it together. The treasure chest looked very much the same as the one they’ve found earlier, but it wasn’t hidden like the previous one.
“Let’s see what’s inside,” Flavia was quick to open it. “Wow, so cool. What’s it for?”
“What’s inside it, Flavia?” Narias came closer to see with Growly joining him.
“Two-Sided Bone Needle,” Growly read the floating words above the item.
The item looked almost like a regular needle. Only it was about five inches in length, had a slightly bent shape and a really tiny hole at one end of it. The strangest thing about it was that both of the needle’s ends were thin and sharp.
That’s a really strange looking needle. Narias thought to himself.
“What do you use it for?” the girl with the bunny ears and tail wanted to know.
“You use it for sewing,” Growly answered.
“Sewing? Ghm…” Flavia thought for a second. “Could your dad use it to craft something?”
“No. My dad wouldn’t be able to use it. But a tailor could. We could sell it. They might pay good money for it,” the chubby bear boy explained.
“Really? Let’s take it and sell it then,” that was good enough of a reason for Flavia to take it with her.
Wow. Growly really knows a lot about crafting. Maybe I could ask him to teach me about it when we get back. An idea flashed through Narias’ head.
“Careful not to hurt yourself with it, Flavia,” Narias warned her.
“Of course. Thank you, partner,” the charming bunny girl picked up the item from the chest. “Alright, any more Treasure Chests laying around?”
The students started looking around again.
“Good find,” suddenly, Growly exclaimed excitedly.
“What did you find, Growly?” Flavia was right next to him in mere seconds.
“Crystalized Mold,” was his short answer.
“Oh, the rock that glows green, right?” the girl asked.
“No, this one is different,” Growly rubbed the rock in his hand and it glowed a dim red color.
“It glows red. Cool,” Flavia didn’t mind the difference in color.
“But why is it glowing red and not green this time?” Narias wanted to know.
“It depends where it grows. The previous Crystalized Mold grew in an open, well lit room, so it absorbed the light and gained greenish color. This room is very dark, with almost no light in it. That’s why it has such dark-red color. It’s much rarer too. The darker the room, the longer it takes for the Crystalized Mold to grow. This is a very lucky find,” Growly explained in detail with a very happy smile at the end.
“So, there can be different colors of the Crystalized Mold?” Narias wondered.
“Yes. Anywhere from white to black color, where white is the most common and black is extremely rare,” the happy bear boy added.
Hold on. Isn’t it the same with the Rare Monster colors too? The darker the color the rarer the monster. Does that mean the same thing applies to items found in the dungeon too? Narias suddenly had a flashback.
“Right. Is there anything else here?” he turned to check the rest of the monster lair.
Narias, Growly and Flavia spent a few more minutes looking around the small lair, but couldn’t find anything else. They went back to the others to share what they had found.
“You found another treasure? Wow, so exciting,” Lilna exclaimed after she found out.
“Two-Sided Bone Needle? I’ve never heard of an item like that,” Emilia admitted.
“Me neither. But Growly said a tailor would be willing to buy it from us, so I took it.” Flavia was happy to tell her about it. “Growly also found some more Crystalized Mold. But guess what, it glows red when you rub it. He also said, that the red color Crystalized Mold is much rarer than the green one.”
“Wow,” the two other girls gasped in awe when Growly showed them his find.
“Well done. Glad to see someone who can identify materials inside the Magic Dungeon,” the teacher complimented the chubby bear boy then turned to the rest of the group. “So, what do you want to do now?”
“We keep going, of course,” Flavia answered almost instantly.
“Hah,” Belinda Salroze procured a mild smile. “Let me know when you want to move out then.”
After a short rest, the group continued with the exploration. There was only one other path leading out of the current cave room, which saved them the trouble of choosing which path to take. Flavia couldn’t miss a chance to have some fun and made a joke about choosing the right path again which produced quite a laugh as a result.
The next cave room they ended up in had Fanged Wolves and Dungeon Crawlers in it. Both of which had some level two monsters mixed in together with the level one monsters. Still, the group didn’t have much trouble dealing with them. There were less monsters in total and Dungeon Crawlers were easy to take down, even if some of them were level two monsters.
“Great job. How about we take a longer rest and have something to eat?” Narias suggested after they cleared the cave room of the monsters.
“Yeah, let’s eat,” the bunny girl agreed excitedly. “Oh, wait. Let’s see if the monsters dropped anything.”
The group looked around and found three Magic Crystals again. No Crystalized Mold or any other treasure was found, unfortunately.
“Those level two monsters are tougher than level one monsters. But they’re still no match for us,” Flavia commented after having something to drink.
“Agreed,” Growly agreed with her.
“I think the Fanged Wolves are tougher than the Dungeon Crawlers in general. Even if they were level two, the Dungeon Crawlers still died after only one hit,” Emilia pointed out, remembering the fight.
“That’s because your spells are so much stronger, Emilia. I still had to use two spells to take down a level two Dungeon Crawler,” Lilna joined in the conversation.
“Your spellcasting is great too, Lilna. You simply need to have more confidence,” Emilia smiled at her.
“Why thank you, Emilia,” that helped Lilna to brighten up.
“I have to wonder, though,” Flavia held her chin with one hand for a brief second.
“What is it, Flavia?” the girl with the snow-white hair turned to her.
“Well, we only recently started encountering level two monsters. I was just wondering why haven’t we encountered them from the beginning?” Flavia was curious.
“I think because we are getting deeper into the dungeon,” Narias answered her question.
“That is correct,” Belinda Salroze confirmed it. “The deeper into the dungeon, the stronger the monsters. Don’t be surprised to see less and less level one monsters going forward.”
“Cool,” that made the girl with the bunny ears and tail happy.
“You’re really happy about it, Flavia,” Lilna wasn’t as excited as she was.
“Of course. The stronger the monsters, the better the loot,” Flavia responded with a grin.
That’s right. Flavia said she wants to find a treasure for her family. Narias remembered the talk with his girlfriend. Still, we better be careful going forward. It might be rough if we find a room where monsters dug another burrow for themselves. If all of them were level two monsters, we could be for a harsh fight.
The students had a longer rest this time before moving on. All of them were in high spirits to keep exploring the dungeon.
━━━━━━━━━
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.
“Impressive. I started to worry I would need to step in, but it seems I was worried for nothing,” Belinda Salroze commented after the fighting has ended, looking relieved and impressed at the same time.
“Oh, thank you, Miss Salroze,” Narias thanked her for the compliment.
“There were so many this time. I became rather scared at one point,” Lilna admitted.
“Hah, that was nothing. Those puny monsters were no match for me,” Flavia flexed victoriously.
“Don’t say that, Flavia. We have defeated all the monsters, that is true. However, we can’t lose our focus, or become overconfident, else it might cost us dearly,” Narias reprimanded her in a serious tone. It almost sounded like he was scolding her.
“Ah, well… Sorry. I just…” the bunny girl became flustered.
“Don’t get me wrong, Flavia. I think you were outstanding. Everyone did great. I just don’t want the same thing, which happened when I was here with Stefan and Brian, to happen to us,” Narias explained to her in the kindest manner.
“Right, I understand. I’ll make sure to remember that, partner,” Flavia took his comment to heart.
“We need to be careful,” Growly added.
“Now then, let’s investigate this room and see what we can find,” Narias said with a smile.
The students quickly rushed to check if the monsters dropped anything. As everyone expected, more than a few Magic Crystals were found.
“Hey look, this one seems different compared to the previous ones we had found,” Flavia held a small, glowing crystal up in the air.
“You’re right, Flavia,” Emilia came closer to see. “It is bigger than the one I have found just now.”
“This one must’ve dropped from the level two Fanged Wolf. That’s why it is bigger than the other one,” Narias explained his point of view.
“Cool,” the excited bunny girl grinned happily.
“I found two more. One is slightly bigger too,” Growly found two more Magic Crystals.
The group found six Magic Crystals in total. Three of those were slightly bigger than the rest. It wasn’t a big difference in size, but it was enough to get the students excited about it. They could see how the crystals differ depending on the level of the monster that dropped them.
“I found something,” Growly announced suddenly.
“What is it, Growly? Woah!” Flavia was the first one to come check.
“What are you looking at? Oh, wow,” Emilia gasped at the sight as well.
“Aah… Are you sure there are no monsters inside?” Lilna was worried after she saw it too.
“Oh, I see. So, that’s where all those Fanged Wolves were coming from. Miss Salroze, there’s a burrow here in between these rocks,” Narias informed the teacher, who was standing near the entrance that they came from.
“I’ll be dam- Ahem, apologies,” the athletic female teacher exclaimed after seeing it. “Now that’s a first.”
“What?” Flavia raised her head up to look at the teacher.
“What do you mean, Miss Salroze?” Emilia asked politely.
“Please forgive me for my language. I hadn’t expected to find something like that in here,” Belinda Salroze explained.
“Are you saying this is the first time you see a monster burrow in the dungeon, Miss Salroze?” Narias asked.
“Exactly,” was the teacher’s short answer. “No one has ever reported of finding a lair like that inside a Magic Dungeon. Must be the monsters doing.”
“Really?” Narias was curious.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Belinda sighed. “Honestly, I was becoming worried after I saw more and more monsters appear out in the open out of nowhere. I thought the dungeon started spawning them one after another out of the blue. Luckily, I was wrong.”
“But then… how did this lair appear here, Miss Salroze? You mentioned that this is the first time you’ve seen it in the dungeon. Was it created by the Magic Dungeon?” Lilna asked slightly timidly.
“I somewhat doubt it. From the looks of it, this burrow was dug by the monsters themselves,” the teacher answered the question after giving the hole in between the rocks a quick glance.
“Ok, let’s check it out,” Flavia was about to crawl inside of it.
“Wait, Flavia. You don’t intend to go down there,” Lilna covered her mouth with one hand.
“Of course, I do. I want to see if there’s anything inside of it,” the curious bunny girl told her.
“But… it’s so small,” the same girl student had doubts if it was a good idea.
“Don’t worry. It’s wide enough to get through. We can squeeze through one at a time,” Flavia had made up her mind already.
“Hold on, Flavia. I’ll go get some Light Crystals, so we can see better,” Narias asked her to hold off.
“Oh, right. Good thinking, partner,” she agreed.
“I’ll go too,” Growly wanted to go too.
Narias fetched some Light Crystals from his backpack and quickly returned to where the monster burrow was. They’ve decided that Flavia, Growly and Narias would go inside the lair to see if there was something down there. Miss Salroze, Emilia and Lilna would stay outside in the cave to wait for them.
The burrow wasn’t that deep, but the students had to crawl on all fours to get through. The end of the tight tunnel opened into a small lair. It was big enough for the students to stand up.
“So, this is where all those Fanged Wolves were hiding. This lair is quite spacious,” Narias used the Light Crystal he held in his hand to help him look around the small cave.
“It looks like this lair is totally empty. I- ouch!” Flavia walked a few steps forward and suddenly bumped into something. “Tsk… I bumped into somethi- Hey, treasure!”
The charming bunny girl lowered her Light Crystal to check what she had bumped into and saw a small chest under her feet. It was made of wood with the rusty metal hinges keeping it together. The treasure chest looked very much the same as the one they’ve found earlier, but it wasn’t hidden like the previous one.
“Let’s see what’s inside,” Flavia was quick to open it. “Wow, so cool. What’s it for?”
“What’s inside it, Flavia?” Narias came closer to see with Growly joining him.
“Two-Sided Bone Needle,” Growly read the floating words above the item.
The item looked almost like a regular needle. Only it was about five inches in length, had a slightly bent shape and a really tiny hole at one end of it. The strangest thing about it was that both of the needle’s ends were thin and sharp.
That’s a really strange looking needle. Narias thought to himself.
“What do you use it for?” the girl with the bunny ears and tail wanted to know.
“You use it for sewing,” Growly answered.
“Sewing? Ghm…” Flavia thought for a second. “Could your dad use it to craft something?”
“No. My dad wouldn’t be able to use it. But a tailor could. We could sell it. They might pay good money for it,” the chubby bear boy explained.
“Really? Let’s take it and sell it then,” that was good enough of a reason for Flavia to take it with her.
Wow. Growly really knows a lot about crafting. Maybe I could ask him to teach me about it when we get back. An idea flashed through Narias’ head.
“Careful not to hurt yourself with it, Flavia,” Narias warned her.
“Of course. Thank you, partner,” the charming bunny girl picked up the item from the chest. “Alright, any more Treasure Chests laying around?”
The students started looking around again.
“Good find,” suddenly, Growly exclaimed excitedly.
“What did you find, Growly?” Flavia was right next to him in mere seconds.
“Crystalized Mold,” was his short answer.
“Oh, the rock that glows green, right?” the girl asked.
“No, this one is different,” Growly rubbed the rock in his hand and it glowed a dim red color.
“It glows red. Cool,” Flavia didn’t mind the difference in color.
“But why is it glowing red and not green this time?” Narias wanted to know.
“It depends where it grows. The previous Crystalized Mold grew in an open, well lit room, so it absorbed the light and gained greenish color. This room is very dark, with almost no light in it. That’s why it has such dark-red color. It’s much rarer too. The darker the room, the longer it takes for the Crystalized Mold to grow. This is a very lucky find,” Growly explained in detail with a very happy smile at the end.
“So, there can be different colors of the Crystalized Mold?” Narias wondered.
“Yes. Anywhere from white to black color, where white is the most common and black is extremely rare,” the happy bear boy added.
Hold on. Isn’t it the same with the Rare Monster colors too? The darker the color the rarer the monster. Does that mean the same thing applies to items found in the dungeon too? Narias suddenly had a flashback.
“Right. Is there anything else here?” he turned to check the rest of the monster lair.
Narias, Growly and Flavia spent a few more minutes looking around the small lair, but couldn’t find anything else. They went back to the others to share what they had found.
“You found another treasure? Wow, so exciting,” Lilna exclaimed after she found out.
“Two-Sided Bone Needle? I’ve never heard of an item like that,” Emilia admitted.
“Me neither. But Growly said a tailor would be willing to buy it from us, so I took it.” Flavia was happy to tell her about it. “Growly also found some more Crystalized Mold. But guess what, it glows red when you rub it. He also said, that the red color Crystalized Mold is much rarer than the green one.”
“Wow,” the two other girls gasped in awe when Growly showed them his find.
“Well done. Glad to see someone who can identify materials inside the Magic Dungeon,” the teacher complimented the chubby bear boy then turned to the rest of the group. “So, what do you want to do now?”
“We keep going, of course,” Flavia answered almost instantly.
“Hah,” Belinda Salroze procured a mild smile. “Let me know when you want to move out then.”
After a short rest, the group continued with the exploration. There was only one other path leading out of the current cave room, which saved them the trouble of choosing which path to take. Flavia couldn’t miss a chance to have some fun and made a joke about choosing the right path again which produced quite a laugh as a result.
The next cave room they ended up in had Fanged Wolves and Dungeon Crawlers in it. Both of which had some level two monsters mixed in together with the level one monsters. Still, the group didn’t have much trouble dealing with them. There were less monsters in total and Dungeon Crawlers were easy to take down, even if some of them were level two monsters.
“Great job. How about we take a longer rest and have something to eat?” Narias suggested after they cleared the cave room of the monsters.
“Yeah, let’s eat,” the bunny girl agreed excitedly. “Oh, wait. Let’s see if the monsters dropped anything.”
The group looked around and found three Magic Crystals again. No Crystalized Mold or any other treasure was found, unfortunately.
“Those level two monsters are tougher than level one monsters. But they’re still no match for us,” Flavia commented after having something to drink.
“Agreed,” Growly agreed with her.
“I think the Fanged Wolves are tougher than the Dungeon Crawlers in general. Even if they were level two, the Dungeon Crawlers still died after only one hit,” Emilia pointed out, remembering the fight.
“That’s because your spells are so much stronger, Emilia. I still had to use two spells to take down a level two Dungeon Crawler,” Lilna joined in the conversation.
“Your spellcasting is great too, Lilna. You simply need to have more confidence,” Emilia smiled at her.
“Why thank you, Emilia,” that helped Lilna to brighten up.
“I have to wonder, though,” Flavia held her chin with one hand for a brief second.
“What is it, Flavia?” the girl with the snow-white hair turned to her.
“Well, we only recently started encountering level two monsters. I was just wondering why haven’t we encountered them from the beginning?” Flavia was curious.
“I think because we are getting deeper into the dungeon,” Narias answered her question.
“That is correct,” Belinda Salroze confirmed it. “The deeper into the dungeon, the stronger the monsters. Don’t be surprised to see less and less level one monsters going forward.”
“Cool,” that made the girl with the bunny ears and tail happy.
“You’re really happy about it, Flavia,” Lilna wasn’t as excited as she was.
“Of course. The stronger the monsters, the better the loot,” Flavia responded with a grin.
That’s right. Flavia said she wants to find a treasure for her family. Narias remembered the talk with his girlfriend. Still, we better be careful going forward. It might be rough if we find a room where monsters dug another burrow for themselves. If all of them were level two monsters, we could be for a harsh fight.
The students had a longer rest this time before moving on. All of them were in high spirits to keep exploring the dungeon.
━━━━━━━━━
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.
