Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 77: The Leaky Caverns (Part 2)

"How the heck does the path just disappear?" Koko asked as she looked across the lake to see that there was now no way to leave the dungeon.

"Regardless of how it disappeared, we can't change the fact that it did." Christina replied beside her. "What we should be asking ourselves is what we're going to do now."

"We can try to use your flying swords to cross it one at a time, can't we?" Richard suggested.

"Dude, did you not see the size of that fish earlier?" Koko asked. "You can go and get eaten if you want to, but I for one have better things to do than just be dinner."

"She's right. Even if we used my swords to travel near the ceiling, there's still a chance that they can jump high enough to reach us." Christina confirmed sadly.

"Then what do you think we should do then?" Richard asked towards the hero.

"Isn't it obvious?" Koko asked after some time as Christina hadn't responded. "We move forward."

"Koko-" Christina started.

"At the end of dungeons, there's normally a way out, right?" Koko interrupted.

"In games, yes." Richard replied. "But there's no way of telling if it's going to be the same in this situation or not."

"There is a way of telling, actually." Koko said before pointing towards the map in his hand. "Is there anything on there about another exit?"

"Well..." Richard replied thoughtfully as he looked at the paper again. "It says that there is an exit at the end, but I have no idea if it's still even there or not, seeing as he dungeon's evolved."

"Completing the dungeon is better than sitting here and doing nothing, isn't it?" Koko asked before climbing to her feet as he three of them had been sitting down near the entrance of the cavern. "The least we can do is to go and scout out the monsters and see if we're capable of fighting them or not. Right leader?"

"We can check, but if they're too strong then we should just wait here for the next investigation group that Headmaster Conner is bound to send." Christina agreed.

"Just for the record, what's 'too strong' classified as?" Koko asked.

"Anything above level forty." Christina replied.

"What?!" Koko asked in surprise. "But the ent that we fought was over three times that!"

"We also had no choice but to fight it and nearly died in the battle." Christina answered. "Not to mention that we had the instructors with us and we currently have no escape route should we need to retreat."

"Nnnn... Fine." Koko relented with a frustrated harrumph.

"Following the party leader's orders is part of becoming an adventurer, after all." Richard smirked knowingly at her from the side.

"I know that!" Koko snapped at him. "I just don't like it is all..."

"I figured that you wouldn't, but I'm glad that you're willing to listen." Christina chuckled to herself before she rose to her feet as well. "But we wont know what we're going to do until we see what's ahead of us for ourselves, so let's go."

"Yep." Richard agreed before he allowed Koko to help him up and the group started walking down the cave. And thankfully, while the previous cave had been full of water and everyone had been at risk of slipping, the surface they were walking on now was completely dry before they finally entered one of the dungeon's first rooms. Though while they'd been moving as silently as they could in hopes of not attracting the attention of any monsters they encountered, the first room was empty save for a large light-blue crystal against the far wall that glowed with enough light to allow Richard to end his spell around them. And seeing as there seemed to be many of the crystals both inside of the room and farther down the cave, Koko didn't think that they would be needing another source of light anytime soon.

Wow... it's so pretty!" Koko enthused as she approached the crystal, finding that it stood half her height. "Do you think it's valuable?"

"It might be, but we didn't bring a pickax to- *Shatter* -nevermind..." Richard sighed as Koko had kicked the side of the crystal and shattered it when he was in the middle of speaking. "I keep forgetting that you're destruction incarnate."

"Says the guy that can summon meteors." Koko mocked in reply before bending down to pick up one of the shards. However, right as she had been about to touch one of the shards, the shattered crystal turned into small puffs of black smoke. And after watching them disappear, Koko was about to ask if she was seeing things before the ground cracked slightly underneath her feet and she saw the first nameplate that she'd seen in a while.

<Crystal Crab (Level 29)>

"Look out! We're surrounded!" Christina let out a warning, and Koko looked across the room to see that the ground, walls and ceiling were crumbling away as several more crystals started digging themselves out of their hiding places.

"Level twenty-nine! Fair game!" Koko yelled excitedly before positioning herself above the crystal she'd just smashed and waiting until the rest of the creature rose out of the floor. And once it finally revealed it's spider-like head and quivering fangs, Koko punched downwards, hitting the creature directly between its large black eyes and making the entire thing now disappear into the same black smoke before she kicked to the side at her next target.

Taking care of the three crystal crabs that had risen out of the ground next to her, Koko turned around to see that her friends were nearly finished with everything that had appeared beside them. And while she'd been expecting them to use swords in such a confined space, both of them had apparently thought farther ahead than Koko had as she only now realized that swords would do nothing but chip and become dull against the crystal covered monsters. And as she thought about it, she watched as they impaled the last of the monsters with both icicles and golden swords, finishing the small battle quickly before she noticed something at her feet and reached down to grab the small crystal.

"Well, it's nothing much, but it's something." Koko stated while showing the crystal to her friends. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine." Christina confirmed after a quick inspection of Richard. "Though I'm glad they they were a manageable level. If they had been difficult to defeat, then we would have been in a lot of trouble there."

"Yeah... sorry." Koko apologized, knowing that it was her fault that they had been surrounded. "I didn't see anything immediately so I just ran in..."

"I was about to do the same thing, so don't worry about it." Richard waved her apology away while Christina merely smiled at her. "But nevermind that, what did you find?"

"I honestly have no idea." Koko replied as she looked at the crystal in her hand. And while it was a large cylinder shape that filled her hand completely, it still paled in comparison to the size of the crystals on the backs of the monsters that they had defeated even though it appeared to be made of the same material.

"I suppose we won't know until we get out of here and have it appraised by the shopkeepers in Goldgate." Christina stated before turning towards the next opening in the room. "Keep it for now and let's continue."

"Yeah! Let's do this and get back before nightfall!" Koko agreed enthusiastically before putting the crystal in her satchel and falling into place behind Christina as the group proceed on to the next room.