DD 204 Ch 10

The coffin-wielding zombie swung at Penny, but our tank rolled away just in time.

Ice spikes rippled through the group of monsters, hitting most, but not all, of the smaller zombies that had emerged from the crypt.

The coffin landed with an explosive swirl of mist that condensed and then expanded in a ring, knocking Penny and I backwards.

I slid on the balls of my feet, using my swords to drag along the ground, then kicked forward like an Olympic sprinter coming out of the start. It was then that I realized this coffin-wielding zombie was a significant threat.

With its area attack, Penny couldn’t bring it close to the rest of the party and if she was knocked to the ground she’d be overrun by the smaller zombies.

"Penny, you deal with the smaller ones!" I shouted, already at the large zombie, my blades hacking into its legs as I dumped my abilities one after the other to try and get agro.

The coffin slammed down again, another explosive swirl of mist forming.

Jumping back and riding the shockwave, I let it push me away before I used [Shadow Ambush] to appear right behind it. My [Darkstrike] landed on the zombie, but the monster seemed to barely notice the hit. I noticed my own damage was lower than I expected, so I swapped out [Dark Blades] on my weapon for [Static Swords].

A small pulse of electricity, like a sparking socket, rippled down the edge of my blade as I resumed my assault. This time, my hits were far more effective. Little jumps of lightning splashed off my blade each time I connected a blow.

"Ken, do you have it?" Penny asked, kiting away a dozen zombies.

"I'm busy but good!" I shouted over another explosive slam of the coffin as I used my speed to dodge out and back in around the explosion. "You guys all work on those. I can deal with the big one."

It was a far stronger monster, several levels higher than me, but with my [Liminal Speed] stacks built up, its slow movement was a stark contrast to mine.

The tall zombie tried to chase after me, but I re-engaged, swiping at its legs as it swung its coffin in a full 360 degree spin.

The new move caught me off guard, and I had to use [Dodge] to slide out of the way.

The edge of the coffin brushed a hair's breadth from my nose before I stepped back in and resumed my attack without missing a beat.

It was starting to show just how damaged it was before the zombie roared in its death, throwing its coffin high into the air as it exploded into black smoke.

I paused, the finality of that moment making me consider the fight over.

But then the coffin landed, and one last explosion of mist caught me by surprise. It sent me flying back, and I landed on the cold, hard ground, groaning from the impact of the blast.

Green lights danced around me as Charlotte healed me. "Are you okay, Ken?" she asked, reaching down to pull me back to my feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, shaking off the hit. "I just didn't expect its coffin to survive its death and do one final attack."

I stood up, realizing that the coffin was apparently an environmental item to the dungeon, rather than part of the monster. It still stood there, sticking out of the mist.

"At least we know where it died," Des said, walking up and fishing through the mist around the coffin. She grabbed several pieces of loot, including the ever-present mana crystals, bones, and something else.

"It's a ring," Des announced, holding one up and checking it with her CID. "Stamina. Penny, do you want this?"

The blue-haired tank poked her head out of the mist where she had been fishing around for other pieces of loot. "No, I'm maxed out. Maybe in a level or two, I'll have enough capacity to put on a ring without suffering mana burn."

Des tossed it underhand to her. "Just take it, and put it on when you need it."

Penny snatched it out of the air and it disappeared into her CID. "Thanks," Penny said. "I'll make sure to make good use of it, or I'll return it to the group. Now, if only we could find all of this damn loot." She continued to fish around on the ground. 

I must have seemed curious because Des answered my unasked question. "The zombies died as we were kiting them around, so the loot is spread out all over here," she gestured with a sweep of her hand.

"And... Oh," I said, suddenly understanding, "that actually sucks." 

"Yes, it does," Penny agreed, finding a few more pieces of loot by dragging an old sword along the ground until it hit something. "Perhaps we need to keep them in a small area, just so we can find the loot easier." 

However, to our surprise, an unlikely hero appeared. Bun-Bun jumped out of the mist, holding five of the zombie bones, as well as a good chunk of mana crystals. 

"How'd you do that?" Charlotte asked, only for the rabbit to huff and turn away from her.

He held out the mana crystals and the bones, barely opening one of his eyes to see Charlotte's reaction. 

The green-haired druid was often soft, especially on Bun-Bun, but at the moment she was standing firm. "You wouldn't have to apologize if you didn't push me off," Charlotte's tone was that of a stern and disappointed mother as she took the bones and the mana crystals away. "However, if you help us loot through all of these floors, perhaps I will forgive you." 

Bun-Bun's ears fell down and he let out a pitiful squeak of a question.

"No. If you want any more carrots, you'll first have to get forgiven, and then work for them." Charlotte instructed.

Bun-Bun disappeared with a grumble as he melted down into the mist, sulking away like he'd been properly chastised. 

"Maybe you could be a little easier on him," Penny suggested.

The rest of us turned to her and immediately said, "No."

Penny's eyes went wide. 

"Oh, sorry. He's kind of a nuisance, but he's cute enough to get away with it," Charlotte explained. "And he's actually decently useful."

"Don't forget that Fayeth was often the one keeping him in line," I said, causing the rest of the group to nod in agreement. I felt a small pang of loss, missing Fayeth before  pushing that feeling away, not wanting to make Penny uncomfortable. 

"Anyway, let's continue through. Perhaps the next floor is a little more hospitable," I suggested hopefully. I’d learned enough with diving to know that was unlikely. Usually all five floors had the same theme. Regardless of our other troubles, Penny picked up her sword again, and we began marching forward through the mist.

****

"I feel like we should tell some ghost stories," Penny said.

Sitting by the fire, we had our tents up, and Des had been incredibly diligent in putting out traps in case monsters or other adventurers encountered us.

Part of me wondered if she was setting up the traps to keep her mind off the eerie graveyard we were about to spend the night within.

We had pushed down to the 48th floor, and monsters were getting fairly difficult. Thankfully, these were kitable, and the difficulty was just us spending longer clearing them.

During our adventures, we passed two groups of Orkai. They were amicable enough if somewhat territorial of their farming space. It seemed we are not alone in finding these to be farmable floors.

"Ghost stories?" Felin perked up, a somewhat mischievous grin spreading across her face.

"No ghost stories." Des smashed her on top of the head. "Penny, why don't you give us some extra chapters from 74 Wives?”

The Frost Knight's face turned bright red, and she looked down, hiding her face in her hair. "Can you not keep reminding Ken that I wrote that?" She eeked out.

I waved a hand. "I'm doing my best just to find it flattering, Penny. What you do with your time is your business."

Penny nodded, cheeks still flushed as she looked away. "Sorry, Des, I don't think I'm going to share that with you."

Des pouted and sat down. "Alright, then who's cooking?" Des glanced around.

We had made the fire, set up the grill, but no one had actually gotten into the main event.

Des glanced at Charlotte.

"Why me?" Charlotte pointed at herself.

"You don’t want Felin to cook, do you?" Des hooked a thumb at the Nekorian, who was currently sitting happily with a carton of cream. When we'd gone back to Earth, she had stocked up. How much? No one really knew. Probably enough to cause a national shortage.

"Besides, does she even eat anything besides cream?" Des continued.

"Hey," Felin scowled, "I like to barbecue, too."

Charlotte sighed and pulled a white apron out of her CID before flapping it and putting the strings around her neck. "Ken, if you would tie the back for me."

Happily, I jumped to my feet, tying it for her before returning to the little camping chair and pulling my weapons out, one by one, to perform the required maintenance on them.

"Good idea," Penny said, taking out her sword and making a station similar to mine.

"Melee," Des said, disappointedly, and then turned to Felin, Charlotte, and then Bun-Bun looking for a conversation partner and finding none. She slipped around behind me and whispered in my ear, "There are other fun things we could do tonight."

I shooed her off me. "Not now, temptress. I'm actually pretty hungry. And warm food sounds great." Of course, like any good adventurer, I had plenty of trail bars and other ready-made food in my CID, but there was something about sharing a hot meal that warmed one's soul along with the food.

Penny worked on her weapon and started up a conversation. "So what are all of your families doing now? Rumor is, the Renards and DuVells are pushing even further," Penny asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Des waved a hand and found her own seat, making a ring with Charlotte and Felin.

The Nekorian was sitting on the ground, her blue and white tail playfully wriggling behind her. She had white hair and fur on her ears and tail, with blue stripes that even continued on her skin, past the hair.

"My mom is pushing hard. Apparently my own levels have made some great leverage to get my father more interested in diving." Des played with her hair.

Charlotte grunted in agreement. "Same, but more my sisters. The middle two are getting folded into my parents' guild. The push on them going deep is getting stronger every day. Apparently, my mother is actually quite proud that I’m in the lead."

I remembered the incredibly stern woman briefly. I couldn't even imagine her with a proud smile on her face, but I would take Charlotte's word for it. 

"Oh, that's nice." Penny replied.

"Yeah, it's nice not to be considered the soft one in the family for once. I’ve been the baby my whole life." There was a light grin on Charlotte's face. "After all, we toughed it out through being isolated during the dungeon shuffle. At least amongst The Verdant, my parents guild, my status has risen considerably."

"Makes sense." Both of them turned to me. "What about you, Ken?"

"Uh," I hesitated. "The Silver Fangs just got a boatload of money. So that's nice. They're already putting it to work. My grandparents are focusing on expanding the Silver Fangs beyond our group. Last I heard, Grandpa was going to try and do a heavy recruitment push this year at Haylon for the freshman." As soon as I said the words, my face fell. "Ah, shit."

Penny giggled. "He's not that bad.”

“You don't know him. Now that you're part of the party, I'm sure he'll appear when we least expect it and stick to us like a fly." I grumbled, continuing to clean my weapons.

"He's sweet in his own way," Charlotte said. "Even if he is a little much. Mostly his old man charm gets him a pass."

Des shrugged. "Not the last time an old man looks at me with a perverted face. Though mostly it just feels like a performance. He loves to rile you up. I don’t actually get uncomfortable.”

I nodded at that. Grandpa was all jokes all the time. He didn't have a serious bone in his body. But they were right. There was something very different about how grandpa teased the women in my party, including Crimson. It was different from the times when he made us do stealth training. My mind drifted off before snapping back. 

I turned to Penny. "And what about you?"

"Oh, well. My parents had put quite a bit in setting up that safe zone. Well, the last of what they had and a loan." She hesitated. 

"Oh," my head turned, knowing that Penny's parents were in a tight situation. "Where did that end up in the dungeon shuffle?"

"Actually, its location improved significantly during the dungeon shuffle. Since they hold the safe zone and it's on a relatively main branch, the UG is coming in and renting land and developing a lot of it. Technically, my parents are still claiming ownership of it and it's a significantly lower level floor which cuts into what they were hoping to get from farming, but they think they'll make it up and then some with the UG's investments."

"Well, that's good," I said encouragingly.

"My father feels a little stuck managing it. I think he wants to quickly expand their guild and get some people on board that are more the managerial type so he can dive the dungeon. Ken..." Penny hesitated. "I think he was a little almost embarrassed that you're almost at his level."

"What's he at?" I asked.

"45." She answered.

I couldn't help but grin as I rubbed my chin. "If we work hard, maybe we could pass him, especially if he's going to remain stagnant on that floor."

Penny's expression dropped. "Ken, please don't rub it in if you see him again."

"Oh, I would never," I quickly answered.

But maybe I spoke too quickly because Penny gave me a warning look and Des burst into laughter, nearly falling out of her camping chair.

"And what's up with you?" I said, turning to the warlock in question.

"Nothing. I just think Penny's gonna fit right in." She smiled. I saw Penny smile to herself at those words.

"And Felin, what about your parents? I don't think I've ever heard you talk about them," Des said.

Felin had been momentarily distracted, sniffing at Charlotte's cooking as the green-haired druid worked to beat away both the rabbit and the cat girl from getting early samples of the dishes.

"I don't have a mom, or dad," Felin said around a mouthful of food that she had just swiped.

"Wait, you don't have parents?" I turned to her. Felin shook her head. "It took me a little bit to understand what that word even meant in your language. Nekorians are communally raised. At least to our people, we believe then everyone tries to serve the tribe's interests rather than a smaller familial unit. Did I use that word right?"

"You did great." I gave her a thumbs up. "Strange custom, but I guess if you guys are separated from your home world and just living in safe zones, it makes its own fairly tight-knit communities."

Felin's head bobbed hard enough to make the cat ears on top of her head wiggle back and forth. "It's just the way it is for me. So rather than a mother and father, I have the elder shaman who often spends a decent amount of time teaching the kids, as well as my…” Felin then growled something with a slight meow at the end that I couldn’t quite mimic. 

“Your meowther?” Des couldn’t help herself starting to giggle.

Felin laughed along with her. "Sure, you could call her that. There are actually two of them that raised my group. There were about 16 others in, I guess, what you would call my litter. All born from different women, but we were about six months apart in age. Two meowthers," Felin said, picking up the word, "raised us through our life. They were quite proud when I became a shaman. And after that, most of my education was taken care of by the other shamans."

"And what are they up to now?" Des prodded.

Felin shrugged. "Getting older, and taking care of the youngest Nekorians.”

“I'd assume they were both fairly gentle, patient types.” I prodded.

“At least until you got your first level. Then you usually ran with a couple experienced hunters to get your bearings. After that, most Nekorians then farmed some levels in zones that were significantly lower level than them." Felin tried to make another pass at stealing food, but Charlotte managed to stop her.

It was fascinating to hear more about the Nekorian structure. "You were in your twenties though when you joined us. How does that happen?”

“Do you remember how I was traveling with a group decently higher level than me?" I nodded along with her. "A lot of times groups five or six levels higher will take at least one or two lower level members with them when they farm, raising their level as well. Hunting is a really good way to build stats as well. So it's not considered a waste to spend your time in a lower level zone. If you're running, you're still swinging your weapon, and it's considered training by most." Felin answered.

"But your group was significantly higher level," Des interjected.

"Because I'm a shaman," Felin said proudly, sticking her nose slightly aloft. "And as a shaman, I was fairly prized. More than a few high level groups would take me lower in the dungeon for their own hunts."

I thought it was certainly interesting how Nekorians seemed to trade off leveling versus grinding lower level areas as ways to progress. I could certainly see the point.

If an adventurer were truly hunting, rushing through, and exerting themselves to farm a lower leveled area, they would naturally build up stats while also being a productive member of the community. Instead, humans and elves often did specialized training, working directly on stats and not on providing resources.

"Are you worried about your people?," I asked.

Felin scowled and glanced off into the distance. "I'd love to find some, especially the elder shaman. Perhaps a few of the others that were raised with me. But if the clan is scattered, they should still be okay. After all, Nekorians have fierce warriors amongst them, multiple of which have gone through trials like Crimson. And as long as they have their safe zones, generations will continue to flourish," she said, sounding proud of their ways. I didn't want to poke holes in it, so I just smiled along, nodding.

"Dinner's done," Charlotte announced, beginning to plate up the food into our portions. "And since you already had some, Felin," she chided the Nekorian while giving her a smaller portion.

"But I eat a lot," the Nekorian puffed out her cheeks.

"Good thing you stuffed yourself with cream then," Charlotte gave her a smile that was firmer than I would have ever expected from the druid. It seemed through all of our trials, she was remaking herself of sterner stuff.

"Well, now that I managed cooking tonight," Charlotte shook her head, "we're going to take turns going forward.”

“Later,” Des waved her hand. “Now, we have to figure out sleeping arrangements." Des grinned, and the hair that was over her one eye parted slightly so I could see her glowing pink heart-shaped pupil staring dead at me.