Loki's Renard

Arc 2 Chapter 1 - Meddling

Hey guys, I'm back. Still not feeling all that good, but my days are getting easier. I miss Axel a lot, it's difficult adjusting. I still pick up his bowl to pour his breakfast into or grab two treats for my dogs out of the pantry instead of one, but it's just the way life is and it keeps moving, and so do I. I just have to keep going.

Anyway, I noticed in my previous chapters that I followed on with the anime and had the monsters evaporate into dust and Excilia after they were killed, but I'm going to fix that and just have them die and only turn to dust after their magic stones are destroyed or extracted from the corpse. Just a quick fix.

But for now, onto the story.

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Its life was short. It repeated non-stop. It simply existed for merely a moment before dying once more, over and over again. Every once in a while, it would kill an invader, but sooner or later it would die to someone much more powerful than it, it's memories would be erased and it's be born once more from a wall in it's home.

Scurrying around on 6 legs, the Killer Ant wandered its way around Floor 9, looking for something to kill. Its base impulses demanded it, told it to kill anything that didn't belong in its home. All were invaders and all would die for daring to trespass in its domain.

There! Its time had come as it rounded a corner, looking at the thing that dared to intrude in its home. Letting out a killer screech, the Killer Ant charged at its opponent, its powerful mandibles snapping at the creature it intended to kill. The creature turned to the ant, taking out a shiny bit of metal that was sharp, before disappearing without a trace. The Killer Ant looked around, trying to figure out where the invader went.

It would never get the chance, as the sharp object became lodged in the brain of the Killer Ant, dissolving it to dust and a magic stone, to be born once more from the walls of the Dungeon.

Akihide picked up the magic stone, seemingly no different than the ones of the other 8 levels of the Dungeon above this one, before pocketing it. He sighed as he looked down the corridor to the place that had been forbidden from him. "Floor 10..." he muttered, remembering Riveria's stern warning that even if he was accompanied by the entirety of his party, he was not to approach Floor 10 before they had gone over the theory of it and got him adequately prepared for it. Akihide didn't really understand, since he felt that he was more than ready to take on Floor 10, since Kiddy Party did have someone who ventured down beyond Floor 10 before, and even down to Floor 18 at one point.

Kiddy Party as they were now 'officially' called, had been proactive ever since Riveria and Gareth had taken over their training. Sure, they were still slightly inexperienced, but compared to the two months ago when they first formed, they were more than ready for whatever Floor 9 and above had to throw at them. They had even managed to grab a new member for their party after the 'Floor 4 Incident' as it had been dubbed. Riveria, Shakti and Dian Cecht were concerned about how they would probably venture into the Dungeon all alone again should the occasion arise that no one was able to accompany them into the Dungeon, so they instead made a compromise with the three of them to allow another member to join their little party whenever they went into the Dungeon, someone with much more experience than them, who had been adventuring for half a year now and had done well as a result.

"Not bad, Akihide." called out said new member. Akihide turned to see the others approaching him. He had kind of left them at the corner after all when he used his skill to kill the Killer Ant. He smirked as the three girls joined him in the hallway. One was Airmid, still wearing her same clothes from their first adventurer, but having had her staff upgraded by Dian Cecht when he realised she was going into the Dungeon one way or another. The new staff even had a small magic stone made of a sea monster drop from Floor 27, which enhanced it's power and made Airmid a much more powerful mage.