An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 6 - Chapter 2 - Dirty Dealings

Thirty minutes later...

The small group reformed, and began their final preparations for their dungeon crawl. Mostly just going over the guide, and taking a quick look at the enemies they should be expecting inside the dungeon, and forming a party, to ensure they could all keep an eye on each other, especially during the heat of battle. The more surprising thing was that Mater, the girl who'd been staunchly against help last time, seemed to be quite willing to accept help.

Mostly without thinking about it, Jet spoke - ''You're awfully agreeable today...''

''Our goals and methods coincide. I agreed after thinking about it.''

Lisbeth, evidently more perceptive than Jet, picked up on the girl's subtext - ''So, you do feel lonely then?''

''Yes, that explanation is acceptable.''

''You're well behaved, but you really aren't honest with yourself, are you?''

''Umm, Mater might be a little weird, and well, kind of unique, but she's not a bad person...'' - Jet reckoned that was one of the bigger understatements he'd ever heard, but said nothing.

''Come on! Solo players familiar with MMORPGs tend to be like this!'' - Yuuki evidently knew more about games than Jet did, before answering with his opinions - ''Not great at expressing themselves? Don't mean that in a bad way, by the way.'' - Jet threw a hand up, as if to hope he hadn't offended anyone.

''I'm not mad either, just threw me for a loop. Our party'll be fine, anyway. No issues, and we're done with prep?''

''Yup, onwards to the wetlands...'' - Jet visibly shuddered at the thought, but laughed at it anyway. He'd been to Wales before... ''it's not like it'll be that bad, right?''

The wetlands really had lived up to their name. It was a good job this didn't involve being stealthy, else they'd have all been screwed over! Squelching of boots, and the constant mud and sodden grass, made for an unpleasant surface underfoot, and the rain dripping off the trees above made it even worse. Needless to say, none of them were particularly enjoying themselves, least of all Koharu, who's boots didn't go that far up her legs, meaning mud was being kicked onto them. Jet thought about asking if she wanted a pair of trousers for her birthday, but thought better of it... mainly as he nearly went in the mud himself.

''Eurgh, if we spend any longer in this, I'll start to grow mold...''

Lisbeth seemed to dismiss the concerns of most of the party, and had decided that the materials were more important than their comfort - ''To a blacksmith, this is a mountain of treasure. Your storage will fill up grabbing everything.'' - Lisbeth punctuated that comment by smashing her mace down on some unsuspecting mob, sending it to whatever the equivalent of the afterlife was. Momentarily, Jet actually felt bad for the mob, before deciding that it would've taken them down if it had the chance, so killing it was probably fair.

''You're a lot more combat orientated than I expected, Lisbeth...'' - Jet spoke without thinking, as the brunette glanced at him. She thought about a practical demonstration of her mace, but thought slightly better of it.

''RrraGGHH!'' - Another mob met it's demise at Lisbeth's mace, and Jet quite quickly shut up, valuing his life a little more than before - ''I'll let my mace show you! I'm not a fighter though, so I'll do my best not to hold you all up.''

''I'll pick up the slack... come on, let's get exploring!'' - How Yuuki was still cheerful, despite the conditions, Jet would never know...

Almost two hours of fighting - and squelching - later, and the group still hadn't found the dungeon... just a load more angry mobs, and a rather unhappy looking Koharu, who looked as if she'd decided on an impromptu mud bath. Unsurprisingly, Jet kept his mouth shut on that one, other than promising her a nice long bath, once they'd found... umm, anything, actually. By this time, Yuuki had returned from her third attempt to find the entrance to the treasure room, and for the third time, she'd been unsuccessful.