Loki's Renard

Arc 2 Chapter 9 - The Adventure

Hey guys, Striker777 and the finale are here! Arc 2 is about to come to an end, and I am super excited for this. This is one of the major turning points in Akihide's journey, and will impact the story going forward. But anyway, I'm excited to write this and for you all to read it, so on with the story!

><><><><><

Akihide looked upon the desolate area of Floor 12. This was the furthest he'd ever come down alone. There were times over the last few months that the others had allowed him to take small quests from the guild by himself to Floor 5 at an absolute minute, and Riveria had prepared him for every situation, even loaning him a small magic sword every time he went down alone in case of emergencies. Akihide found it slightly annoying, but still went with it since he knew about the horrors the Dungeon could throw at him. His first experience with Airmid and Ardee was proof enough of that.

But now, he stood at his absolute maximum, alone. He always had the safety of Ryuu, Ardee and Airmid watching his back in these places, but he didn't have that anymore. No more of Airmid's or Ryuu's cover magic to distract the enemy, and neither Ryuu nor Ardee were going to charge with him into battle. Here, with just his weapons and a pair of healing potions, he was all alone. He would have to do the entire job of Kiddy Party all on his own.

There was a certain rush that came with that. An excitement that he hadn't felt before. The felt like he was truly on an adventure of his own. He knew where he was and what he was doing, but this feeling of finally striking out on his own and going on an adventure was sending a feeling through his body that he never experienced before. It was like a state of pure excitement and adrenaline was coursing through his veins. He was on top of the world and the Dungeon was his playground, ready to spew out the monster he needed it to to achieve his goal of a Rank Up.

He looked around, at the collection of monster corpses he had left behind. He was in a hurry to find an Infant Dragon, so much so that he left the majority of the monsters he killed alone. He knew that even in the late afternoon that bridged into the evening, there would be adventurers on all Floors of the Dungeon looking for monsters to kill and money to make. He wasn't concerned with the money at the moment, only with the Excilia, so he left the corpses behind for other adventurers to harvest, since most monsters in the Dungeon's Upper Floors didn't have a way to get the magic stones they needed to become stronger. It would take too much time for them to get to them, more than enough for an adventurer to come along and kill them before they did anything.

Of course, in his narrow minded vision, Akihide didn't consider the possible danger of leaving monster corpses everywhere. He was solely focused on getting the Excilia he needed to Rank Up that he hadn't thought about the dangers of leaving the monster corpses around for other adventurers. Due to his action, another incident like when he and Kiddy Party first entered the Dungeon could happen again, but Akihide didn't have the maturity or the focus to understand that. All that was going through his mind was that the others were leaving him behind, and Akihide couldn't have that. He needed to catch up, and the only way to do that was to Rank Up.

He was too weak once before, but he swore to himself he never would be again.

So, the young, reckless and woefully underexperienced boy made his way around Floor 12, searching for his prey, another Infant Dragon. If he could take one or two of them down by himself, that might give him enough Excilia to Rank Up. He could only hope, as he began making his way randomly across the Dungeon Floor, hoping to find the tracks or any other form of evidence that Infant Dragons had spawned since he had come down. It was rare, but the Dungeon was known for spitting out up to five Infant Dragons at a time, and the current known record was producing 14 Infant Dragons in one day. A lot of adventurers died during those circumstances, but many of them Ranked Up as well. Akihide simply had to hold out hope that the Dungeon would throw him a bone and try to kill him.