Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 111: A New Club

"Just how far do these hallways go?" Richard asked in a weary tone, though no one could blame him seeing as they'd been walking for hours now and still hadn't reached the end of the dungeon's path.

"We must have circled the castle, like, ten times now. Right?" Koko asked. "Are we stuck in one of those illusion traps where we just keep walking around for eternity?"

"If that were the case then we'd eventually come across traps that we've seen before and the monsters would eventually stop attacking us." Richard replied before several golden swords flew in front of them and killed a few spider monsters that had been waiting for them. And after Richard burned their webbing, the group continued down the hallway with Austin leading the way seeing as he was able to detect most of the traps before the activated. However, some of them were so well concealed that they still ended up having to dodge the odd spike trap or hail of poison darts.

"I wonder what happened to that cockroach boss guy..." Koko eventually wondered out loud. "I know that he blew up, but we don't know if he died, right?"

"I bet that he's just as stubborn as a real cockroach." Richard thankfully took the bait and prolonged their conversation seeing as she was starting to get bored with the repetitiveness of the same old traps and monsters.

"Would using insecticide work on him? Does it even work on monsters?" She pondered out loud.

"It works on monsters of lower level, though it only angers anything that survives to the point that they go berserk. Therefore it's considered not wise to use it unless there is an infestation and you're confident enough in your abilities to handle anything that survives." Austin explained from in front of them.

"Has anyone ever flooded a dungeon full of poison or something before to see if it would clear it out of monsters?" Koko asked seeing as they were on the subject. After all, it seemed like an effective and safe way to clear out a dungeon.

"They have, though they paid dearly for it." Austin replied. "Not only were they charged by the kingdom for disrupting the dungeon seeing as they made the place uninhabitable, but the poison also killed the surrounding forest and the bosses that survived escaped and started terrorizing the countryside. Though that was after they'd already spent a fortune on the amount of poison that they needed."

"Yikes." Koko replied. "Note to self: Don't flood dungeons with poison."

"Not that you'd need it. I've come to realize that you don't need anything to help you when destroying things." Austin stated while still looking forward.

"You're dang right that I dont!" Koko replied in a proudly while looking smug. "One could even say that it's my specialty."

"And nobody else would deny it." Austin agreed.

"That isn't necessarily a good thing, Koko." Christina commented.

"It depends on if you need stuff destroyed or not." She shrugged in response.

"If you only broke things when we needed you to, then there wouldn't be a problem." Austin persisted.

"And is there a problem? I got us into the castle, didn't I?" She asked.

"You did, but there could have been other ways of doing it." He replied before he leaned to the side to avoid some kind of black spike that came out of the nearby wall. And while his reaction had been incredibly fast, all of them were surprised when he suddenly drew one of his daggers and stabbed the bricks where the spike had originated from. Though they were just as surprised when the area turned into black smoke and an entire section of the wall disappeared to reveal doorway.

"What the heck was that?!" Koko asked as she hadn't been able to tell the difference between it and the normal walls.

"That... was something called a mimic." Austin answered. "And it's also the reason that you would normally have either a rogue or a ranger in your party in order spot them before it's too late."

"But mimics look like treasure chests, don't they?" Richard asked.

"They can, but there's also those who copy the walls, the ceiling and even the floor sometimes in order to hide a pit until they feel something walking on them and let the intruders drop." Austin explained.

"That's a whole lot scarier than what I thought they'd be like!" Richard sounded shocked.

"We should count ourselves lucky that we didn't see any of them in the Leaky Caverns." Christina said almost to herself.

"No, not really." Austin spoke again. "Mimics only appear in high-level dungeons, and it's strange to say the least to find one here when everything else had been about fifty or sixty."

"And what is your definition of 'high level', exactly?" Koko asked.

"One to two hundred." He replied.

"Ah." She started afterwords before thinking that she still had a long way to go before she became truly strong. Because even if she was considered strong now, both of her parents, especially her mother, were still stronger than her. And as she thought about them, she began to wonder just what they'd trained for and how they'd done it in order to get so high in level that she still wasn't able to see their name plates. Well, she was more concerned with surviving her mother's shows of affection more than the name plates, though speaking of not being able to see them...

"Hey Austin, what level are you?" Koko asked.

"If you can't see it yourself, then it's none of your business." He replied with a stern tone.

"He's a hundred and twelve." Richard answered for him.

"Hey." Austin nearly hissed as the man turned towards the young swordmage who immediately held his arms up in surrender.

"You know, I bet that you'd have more friends if you weren't so grouchy all of the time..." Koko hummed towards her instructor while holding her hands behind her back and trying to look as  innocent as she could be as she spoke. "Though that would go against the antisocial, bossy, angry, big-headed, cynical and overall wet blanket theme that you've been striving- (smack) Ow!"

"Shut up before I hurt you for real." Austin growled, actually looking angry now as he still had his fist curled from smacking the top of her head.

"This is exactly what I was talking about!" Koko yelled while holding the top of her head so that he couldn't hit her again.

"Koko, you kind of deserved that one." Richard said from the side.

"Indeed." Christina agreed.

"Ah! Traitors! How dare you side with him!" Koko jokingly pointed an accusing finger towards her 'friends'.

"Would you shut up already? We've been here for long enough!" Austin snapped before he tried to open the wooden door that had been revealed after the mimic had disappeared. However, after angrily shoving it open, the rusted hinges holding the door to the frame snapped and the door fell down while making them all flinch as the crashing sound that it caused echoed throughout the hallway.

<System>

Your party member 'Austin' has gained the title: Dungeon Wrecker

"Don't. You. Say. A. Single. Word." Austin seethed while slowly turning towards Koko, though she most likely couldn't say anything anyway seeing as she was grinning so widely at him that her mouth seemed frozen. But unfortunately, that wasn't a problem for very long.

"Hey Austin, what size of clothes do you wear?" She asked.

"Why?" Austin's angry face turned into one of slight confusion as he must not have been expecting the question.

"Because I'm getting all of us T-shirts! We're officially the Dungeon Wrecker Club now- (smack) Ow!"